C65: Dialogue

On the next day, my exclusive interview article was released on Game Times. It got some attention from netizens and internet dwellers.

"The Warrior of love, his every game is filled with passion and love for players."

That was the title of the article on Game Time.

Clicking into the article. It was a complete conversation, I had with Wu Tian before.

Of course, some content and topics were deleted or polished. Now the role of Wu looks more prominent, like he was inquiring and putting up a lot of questions. He also seems to scrutinize every comment, with a silent comment and a monologue.

The focus was mainly on the positive aspects. For instance, he mentioned some of the challenges I and my team faced during game development. How, at times, I even considered giving up... What Hogwash...

Eventually, our team overcame those obstacles, delivering a perfect and passionate game to the players.

[Cough During that time-We were naturally sipping Wa-Wa milk packets during development. We were so cool, we even saved AC bills.]

Honestly, if I didn't know the nonsense behind the scenes, even I would've been moved by the artistic flair of it all.

Being one of the top gaming media outlets in the Country, Game Time and Space holds significant sway over the player community through its outlets and moderated forums. At least, that's true in terms of traffic.

For the reality of it. Right after the exclusive interview article dropped, the player comments started flooding in.

___________________

"So this is where Chen Xu's self-proclaimed Warrior of Love comes from!"

"Why do I still feel like this is a bit foolish, though?" P1 posted

"+1. It's like the interviewer got completely swept up by Chen Xu's charm. Did the reporter feed on some chicken soup?" Cat empire noted

"If I'd only played Undertale and To the Moon, I'd say 'Warrior of Love' fits him, but Escape... *****!" Song Ren mocked

"I still think Chen Xu's explanation of Escape is just trickery and plain sophistry!" Jianghu Ping stated in a comment

Supernova posted "The worst part is, the sophistry made sense!"

"Why are we just debating whether Chen Xu is a con artist? Aren't you all curious about the new game he mentioned at the end? Oh I see, you guys haven't read the article completely." Xue Chen Xie posted

"Yeah, his new game is called Overcooked. Is it a cooking game? I think it is."

"Who knows? Can you really guess a game by its name? Like Magic Mirror—who would have guessed how wild it'd be just from the name?"

"Well, I'm just going to say it, Magic Mirror is still the best gentleman's game for me. There's no other game that competes with it, even now. It's disappointing to see no game reaching such a level." Horn Baba added

"Let's not even go there. I'd say Magic Mirror is the ultimate gentleman's game. There's nothing like it. My poor computer can barely handle it anymore." Mythical Pig From XuanLand added

"Well, what can you do? Chen Xu's games are only getting more popular. He is also targeting different genres every time."

___________________

Even though the article mentioned Overcooked, it didn't cause much of a stir, aside from letting more parties know about it. After all, apart from the game's name, not much news was shared.

Plus, Chen Xu is not a huge name. It won't cause players to eagerly await my every move. With the New Year around the corner, every game company—big and small—was pushing their own promotions. So, except for some hardcore fans, most players didn't pay too much attention to Overcooked.

I wasn't too concerned, though. Overcooked hadn't even been officially promoted yet.

In production costs, Overcooked was only about a third of what we spent on Escape, not counting the server costs. And the servers weren't just for Overcooked but for the whole Neon game platform.

A month had gone by, and by then, I had a clear understanding of Overcooked's key features and its limitations. Overall progress in development was smooth, and compared to its earlier versions, the game now had a couple of cohesive themes. It was more polished than the free materials version, We had been working with earlier.

At this point, Overcooked was complete. And unlike Escape, I filmed a proper promotional video for Overcooked, rather than just relying on a few blog posts.

After all, Overcooked marked the Neon game platform's first real entry into the player market, making it more significant than anything We'd done before.

As time moved toward New Year's Eve, the annual Spring Festival frenzy was beginning across the country. At Neon Game Company, the team was getting ready for the holiday break.

However, some employees chose to stay on, as Overcooked was set to launch right after the New Year. We needed people to handle any potential issues, especially with the Neon game platform's community features going live.

Of course, I was paying for overtime with some bonus added.

In major game forums and communities, players were buzzing about new releases for the New Year.

___________________

"It doesn't feel like anything is exciting this year."

"Yeah, nothing particularly stands out."

"Tenghua Games' new work Age of Gods looks pretty promising." Cat Empire added

"True, and NetDragon's Devil Shed tears look insane!" Vergil added

"I'm hyped, but these both are VR games, and the VR experience stores won't be open during Chinese New Year in smaller towns."

"Don't most entertainment places stay open during the holidays?"

"Not around here. What am I supposed to do?"

"Plus, those VR games take a lot of money to play. I don't think I'll have enough of it during the holidays."

"There are plenty of PC games being released though."

"Check out Chen Xu's official blog. He's got a new game coming too—it looks like a couple's game." Xue Chen Xie added

"I saw that! It looks so cute! Perfect to play with my girlfriend. Has Chen Xu officially become the Warrior of love this time?" Song Ren added

Ruan mocked "The previous game was Escape? And it really is a cooking game? Cooking with your girlfriend? Sounds fun, Let's give him the certificate of Warrior of Love"

"Couple's game? Seriously? I'm single—why are you torturing this dog?" Xue Chen Xie added

Ruan added "Come on, man! Even salted fish have dreams! And you don't have to play with a girlfriend—you can play with brothers!"

"Yeah, and the Neon game platform has a New Year's Eve special—buy one, get one free!"

___________________

During the Spring Festival, every game company was showcasing their best offerings. The most grabbing were definitely from the two big titles from Tenghua and NetDragon.

Both companies are giants in the Country and are fierce rivals, competing in every way—from game channels to platform dominance to underwares.

This year, both were launching VR masterpieces, so the PC market wasn't their focus.

On the PC side, though, with the release of Overcooked's promotional video on major game sites and my official blog, a lot of players started taking notice.

>>><<<

Overcooked likely cost around 2.5–3 million.

It has been developed in a month's time, and it will be launching on 20th March.

>>>><<<<