C107: A Cool Tour

Hearing me, Chen Xu showed an expressionless face. He didn't speak, and silently stuffed a black knight with an extra-large sword into the map of the Road of Living Sacrifice. 

Is the game too hard? I had considered this issue carefully and conducted market research before development. Why didn't I start with Dark Souls 1 in the order of the game's plot but chose Dark Souls 3 instead? It's because, in terms of difficulty, Dark Souls 3 is much friendlier for novice players. 

Moreover, Dark Souls 3 does not punish players deliberately. When I first started with Dark Souls and played it once or twice, I was able to beat the enemies through my own efforts. Only then did I realize how cool this game is — it's incredibly satisfying, almost explosively so. It can be said to be an uncompromisingly cool game. Of course, the price is a little steep.

But these things, obviously, Qin Yi didn't understand. 

Looking at my expression and actions, Qin Yi knew he couldn't influence anything. In this regard, he could only silently mourn for the future players in his heart. 

Players, I tried my best!

When designing, I told the art team to make the word death look better. I never suggested that when various monsters, bosses, and traps kill characters, they should do close-ups of the death scenes. Although the goal was novel. To allow players to experience death in a way that felt unique, twisted, abrupt, and scary to them, with a fresh and characteristic twist.

Dark Souls has been in development for a long time. Most of the OG content is basically finished.

The rest of the work mainly involves the beginning, end, and testing phases. The key aspects are the various levels in the game, and the characters controlled by the player using different weapons to fight against the BOSS. 

These elements need to be tested after the game is developed. Based on the test results, it will be decided whether to adjust the details or go with them. 

Alongside the development of Dark Souls, I also took part in the expedition activities for Braveheart: World War. The updates for Three Kingdoms and JellyMan are also continuously being worked on.

As for JellyMan, the follow-up mainly involves the operations team, which is carrying out various linkages such as accessories and skins. Regarding the map, besides the official theme map, the modification feature has played a significant role in maintaining the popularity of JellyMan. 

Additionally, compared to the previous version, JellyMan has launched several new modes: team mode, individual racing, a simple level entertainment mode, and a room where players can customize the rules. However, the popularity of JellyMan has fallen compared to its peak, with the peak number of online players at a time reaching only 150k.

On the other hand, player retention for Three Kingdoms remains high, with a steady increase in the player base since the launch period. Alongside new features, new fields such as the 5-player field, the heads-up field, and the 2V2 Dragon vs Tiger four-player field were also introduced, along with new skin events. 

Neon Games did not conduct any in-game purchases for revenue flow. Naturally, the expansion in the player base has led to an increase in revenue. Monthly turnover has stabilized at 1 million. Three Kingdoms will be a reliable source of income for a long time.

As for JellyMan, while it won't reach the heights of its initial launch, with good operation, it can maintain a long life cycle. Three Kingdoms will also follow this trend. As a card-based game, its lifespan can certainly be extended for years. 

Meanwhile, in the Neon Games experience store, I, along with the team, are preparing to kick off the next phase of publicity for Dark Souls. 

In the project room, all the employees who participated in the development of Dark Souls have gathered.

Qin Yi reported on the game's completeness, highlighting some advantages and disadvantages of the current test, and suggested areas for improvement. 

During the meeting, Qin Yi brought up the difficulty issue again that had been discussed earlier. With a complex expression, Qin Yi hesitated for a long time, before turning to Chen Xu and asking, "Mr. Chen, are the boss values really not adjusted to match Dark Souls?"

It wasn't just Qin Yi who had these concerns. The employees from the battle system and numerical level teams all nodded in agreement. They were truly affected. After completing the numerical parameters for each boss in the game, they inserted each monster and boss into the game as per Chen Xu's request. 

They also acted as the first testers, experiencing the delight from the start. Everyone had prepared themselves for the game's difficulty. After all, the values, monster placements, and various traps on the map were all set according to plan. 

But when they actually played the game, they realized how naive and unprepared they had been. The difficulty they had imagined was completely different from the real experience.

The result was that the first boss, Ash Judge Gouda, held most of them back for a long time. Only a few of the most talented team members were able to defeat Ash Judge Gouda after a few attempts. And this was just the beginning. 

It wasn't the boss battles, even the regular mobs, like the Crystal Lizard and the Swordsman, killed most of the team members on sight. Even the seemingly minor enemies in the Sacrificial Field, after triggering hostility with three consecutive attacks, proved to be overwhelming. 

This led many of them to doubt their own abilities. As for the Lothric knights behind the Lothric High Wall—whether sword-wielding or even the treasure chest monster and the Fat-Winged Knight—every single one of them felt like a boss! 

Even the skeleton soldiers, unless encountered in a 1V1 fight, often proved deadly in groups of two or three, especially when paired with living corpse dogs. The team members were dying left and right.

When Qin Yi spoke, Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin, and other staff members in charge of music, scene construction, and so on, all showed surprised expressions. 

Was this game really too difficult? Were they questioning Mr. Chen's numerical designs? After all, in everyone's mind, Mr. Chen was an esteemed figure. It wasn't the details being questioned, but the core of the game, the data.

"I'll test it later," Chen Xu replied with a smile, addressing Qin Yi.

After hearing Chen Xu's response, Qin Yi scratched his head and continued to report the rest of the details. Zhang Yi from the marketing department diligently recorded everything in his notebook. 

About twenty minutes later, Chen Xu, along with Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, and Zhang Yi, who wanted to determine the publicity plan based on the actual game content, joined Qin Yi's project team. 

As soon as I arrived, I saw three large characters on the screen hanging on the wall: "You're dead." It was apparently a demonstration, and the person had died while testing but hadn't quit the game yet. 

Looking at the familiar words and the gray-and-white UI interface mixed with dark red, I couldn't help but feel electric. 

"I'll take a look," I said.

I pulled out a chair, sat down in front of the computer, exited the game, and then entered it again. Qin Yi and the others, standing nearby, looked at me with expectant eyes, eager to see the scene they had been waiting for.