Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players
Chapter 28: To the Moon
"But there are only a little more than half a month until the event! Will we have enough time?" Yang Xin expressed her doubts.
Although registration wouldn't open until the beginning of September, the announcement had actually been released as early as June.
In other words, the game companies and developers who were targeting this competition had basically already started developing their games two or three months ago.
"Exactly. And for a sci-fi game, don't we have far too few people right now?" Ruan Ningxue also chimed in.
After working on Mirror and Undertale, Ruan Ningxue was no longer the inexperienced person she had been when she first joined.
A sci-fi game certainly wouldn't necessarily have to be a large-scale production, but the company currently had only three developers: the three of them. With the deadline so close, surely they wouldn't have enough time?
"More than half a month is enough. This is a game with an even smaller scope than Undertale," Chen Xu said with a smile.
"A game with an even smaller scope than Undertale!?"
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at Chen Xu, completely dumbfounded.
Was Undertale good?
Naturally, it was excellent.
Was Undertale a large game?
Not at all.
But now, according to Chen Xu, this new game would have an even smaller scope than Undertale?
Then what kind of game was it?
"Something smaller than Undertale? Can we really place in the competition with something like that?" Yang Xin remained skeptical.
Ruan Ningxue didn't say anything. Instead, she looked at Chen Xu, waiting for his explanation.
"It's about participating, isn't it? And whether we win an award has nothing to do with the game's scope. What really matters is whether it can move the players and the judges," Chen Xu said with a smile.
Hearing this, Yang Xin was speechless.
"So the new game is similar to Undertale, but without the META elements?" Yang Xin guessed.
They only had half a month, and the development team consisted of just the three of them.
Considering the genre, it wasn't difficult to make a rough guess.
With such a short development period, even by indie-game standards, a game they could realistically complete would probably be something along the lines of Undertale.
"More or less." Chen Xu smiled and nodded.
In reality, there were still many possible directions for the new game.
However, considering the company's current development situation and the points he had accumulated, the moment Chen Xu saw the competition announcement, an idea had already appeared in his mind.
Looking at the curious expressions of Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, Chen Xu remained seated and began describing the concept with a smile.
"In the world of the future, there is a company capable of using a special machine to enter people's memories and alter them."
"But these artificial memories aren't temporary. They're permanent. This means that after the person whose memories have been altered wakes up, those new memories will conflict with their genuine memories, causing their memories to become confused."
"Therefore, this technology can only be used on people who are dying. It allows people who have regrets in their lives and wish to fulfill their final desires by altering their memories to experience a new life and create new memories, allowing them to die without any regrets."
"And the story of the game begins with two employees of the company providing this service, Dr. Eva and Dr. Neil, fulfilling the lifelong dream of a dying man named Johnny: to go to the moon."
The game Chen Xu had decided to make was called To the Moon.
Of course, judging from the premise, it certainly sounded like a sci-fi game.
But in reality, this was a game about storytelling—a game about the story of a pair of lovers.
It was an extremely small-scale game. In his previous life, it had actually been created using a game-development tool called RPG Maker.
The game also contained no combat whatsoever. Its gameplay consisted of story dialogue and puzzle-solving.
Yet this seemingly simple game moved countless players to tears. It was practically the quintessential "tough guys cry" game.
To the Moon also received numerous accolades.
At GameSpot's 2011 Game of the Year Awards, it beat major titles such as Catherine and Portal 2 to win the Best Story award.
It also won multiple awards that same year, including Metacritic's Best Game and WIRED's Best Game.
Meanwhile, it ranked near the top of Steam's Most Moving Games of 2016.
Its creator, Kan Gao, even appeared on CCTV's program The World Speaks to Me.
For Chen Xu, choosing this game served two purposes.
First, it contained some sci-fi elements, which made it suitable for entering this particular competition.
Second, Chen Xu wanted to use the game to harvest a wave of emotional points from players.
After all, relying solely on Undertale and Mirror was starting to feel a little insufficient.
As for winning an award, Chen Xu could only leave it to fate. After all, it would be a bit of a stretch to classify To the Moon as a science-fiction game in the first place.
Its small scope, combined with its unique ability to heal and move countless players, were both reasons Chen Xu decided to choose this game.
Of course, before this, Chen Xu had also considered games like Getting Over It and Jump King—the kind of games specifically designed to torment players.
But after thinking it over, he ultimately decided to give up on them.
In terms of their ability to milk emotional points from players, these games were certainly very effective.
The key issue, however, was the system's criteria: the player had to have actually spent money for their emotions to count.
If he didn't have money, choosing this type of game would basically amount to gambling.
Win, and he'd be living the high life. Lose, and he'd be hauling sacks at the docks.
Of course, that was only the case when he didn't have money. With sufficient funds, games of this type could become wildly popular, even phenomenon-level titles, as long as they were marketed and promoted properly.
After all, the livestreaming industry in this parallel world was also highly developed.
And these games could practically be described as the quintessential livestream games.
They might become hugely popular, but if players weren't actually buying and playing them in large numbers, Chen Xu wouldn't be able to harvest many emotional points from them.
Moreover, these games were genuinely somewhat masochistic. For Chen Xu at this stage, maintaining a good reputation was still extremely important.
So after giving it some thought, he eliminated those games from consideration and chose To the Moon instead.
A good reputation while harvesting players' emotional points—he could accomplish multiple goals with one move.
.........
After briefly introducing the game to Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, Chen Xu returned to his office and began writing the design concept document for To the Moon.
Of course, calling it a "design concept document" was somewhat misleading. In reality, it mainly consisted of writing out the core storyline.
For this, Chen Xu also used one Memory Capsule to explore the depths of his memories.
As for the several classic piano pieces from To the Moon, Chen Xu wrote down their sheet music as well. With the original compositions serving as references, his current level of musical ability was more than sufficient to reproduce them.
The rest consisted mainly of improvements, making the game's controls feel smoother and further enhancing its visual presentation.
After all, the original To the Moon, as a pixel-art game made with RPG Maker, had some of its biggest shortcomings in its visual presentation and somewhat awkward controls.
With the technology available in this parallel world, half a month was more than enough time to develop To the Moon.
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Author's Note: About To the Moon
For readers who have never heard of To the Moon, it is a story-focused indie game created by Canadian developer Kan Gao and released in 2011.
The game takes place in a future where a company called Sigmund Corp. has developed technology that allows its employees to enter a dying person's memories and change them.
The purpose of this technology is to fulfill the wishes of people who are about to die. By changing their memories, the company can give them the experience of having lived the life they wanted.
However, there is an important limitation. The procedure can only be performed on people who are already dying. If it were performed on a healthy person, the artificial memories would conflict with their real memories and cause serious problems.
The game follows two Sigmund Corp. employees, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts.
Their patient is an old man named Johnny. Before he dies, Johnny has one final request:
He wants to go to the moon.
The problem is that Johnny does not know why he wants to go there.
Eva and Neil therefore enter his memories and travel backward through his life. As they investigate his past, they gradually discover the events, relationships, and memories that led to his final wish.
Unlike most games, To the Moon does not have combat. Its gameplay mainly consists of exploring memories, talking to characters, solving simple puzzles, and progressing through the story.
The game was made using RPG Maker and uses simple pixel-art graphics. Its main focus is the story rather than gameplay or visual effects.
Despite its small scale, To the Moon became well known for its writing, characters, and music. It also received several awards and became one of the better-known story-driven indie games of its time.