C79: Positioning

[Chen Xu POV]

I felt supreme happiness wash over me. 

Harmony and love...

From a normal vocabulary point of view, there is nothing wrong with these depictions. However, when they came out of my mouth, they became rhetoric. It always made people feel a little... off. After all, Escape and Overcooked are both harmonious and lovely in my words.

It has been said before that Overcooked is a harmonious and cooperative game, leading countless people to jump in and play. Yet, officially, the opposite happened.

Countless breakups... Brotherhood, sisterhood, couple hood—whatnot—were all cleaved apart by this little Robin Hood.

Now, on the internet, players have already labeled me a big fool. And here I was again, using that familiar wording. It was hard to believe my own words!

"Don't mind the recent turmoil on the internet. Everyone is an adult and should have their views," I said.

I gazed around at everyone's expressions with a smile. 

They nodded outwardly, but I could feel their underlying resentment. The idea of trusting one's own judgment only seemed to validate that the players were absolutely right!

But soon, everyone became captivated by the design draft displayed on the screen. For game developers, every new game design draft is like a first love.

"Variety shows? Boys and Girls Rush, social aspect, streaming... like the programs various local TV stations launch every summer?" Ruan Ningxue, who often watches these variety shows, was the first to speak.

"But there's one difference. These variety shows involve only one person, and the time to clear determines the winner. This gameplay allows everyone to participate together. But each one is independent, setting their records."

"Reality is different from games. In reality, stampedes might occur, especially if there are too many people, but the game is different. Everything is virtual."

"But wouldn't 60 people feel too chaotic?" someone asked.

As I looked at the design concept draft for the game, everyone whispered and discussed, clearly surprised by the concept of JellyMan.

"Okay, everyone, be quiet first. Let's go over the core points of this game." I pressed my hands on the table to get their attention.

"The first is the positioning of the game. This is a collection of relaxed and casual variety show-style games. The art should feature exaggerated characters, funny actions, and bright colors. The background music should be cheerful, allowing players to immerse themselves in the game with an extremely relaxed state of mind. It must evoke pure love and harmony."

"The effects in the game should be exaggerated, even unrealistic, to enhance viewing pleasure and promote the sharing of game content. We will focus on streamers and the social aspect of the game."

Everyone was visibly excited while listening to my analysis of the core elements of JellyMan, especially long-time employees like Qin Yi, who seemed very relaxed.

Whether it's Three Kingdoms or JellyMan, both concept drafts retain characteristics of our previous games, like Escape and Overcooked. These projects are highly developed—from the art and level design to the core gameplay elements. Everything is clear and well-presented.

Just by watching and listening, everyone could already visualize the concepts.

"Now, in terms of operations," I said, turning to Zhang Yi and Zhao Mo, who manage the market and operations, "You'll need to come up with the subsequent plans. Three Kingdoms will be a long-term operation aimed at user retention, using a free model with in-app purchases."

"For JellyMan, it's designed to be a short-term viral game. I expect you to prepare a promotional and marketing plan for that as well."

Zhang Yi and Zhao Mo nodded, clearly understanding the basic positioning of the two games from my description.

JellyMan follows a buyout model, but in my view, it's more of a fast-food game designed to gain rapid popularity and draw in users for quick profits, similar to short-term investments in finance.

On the other hand, Three Kingdoms is more of a long-term project for Neon Games, designed to build strong user engagement. The in-app purchases and free access make it worth investing time in, thus raising the player's cost of abandoning it.

With these different objectives, the marketing and promotional strategies will vary.

"As for the third project, it's not urgent at the moment," I added casually since it was more of a long-term idea. "We won't be launching it anytime soon."

I didn't bother showing the third folder because, frankly, it was just a placeholder for now.

"Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin, and Qin Yi, I'd like the three of you to stay behind. Let's go over the two design concept drafts first, and if anyone has questions, we'll address them in a meeting."

As I finished, the rest of the team left the conference room to return to their workstations.

Turning to Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin, and Qin Yi, I continued, "In addition to these, there's also a larger project in the works. I'll publish the corresponding script and storyboard for the CG animation, and Ruan Ningxue, you'll be responsible for follow-up."

"As for Yang Xin, I'll write out the backstory and world-building details soon. And Qin Yi, once you're done with the action system for JellyMan, you can start testing the action demo. Familiarize yourself with it so we can build on that experience."

I assigned tasks to the team members.

After hearing my instructions, everyone nodded in agreement.

For the three of them, there was virtually no workload pressure due to the development of the two games, Three Kingdoms and JellyMan.

With the establishment of the project teams for JellyMan and Three Kingdoms, Neon Games was once again bursting with new life.

While we were developing these two games, there were also several noteworthy trends in the gaming community.

The first was within the indie game circle. Following the success of Overcooked, many designers and smaller developers began releasing similar cooperative games. However, none of them made much of an impact.

This is because, without a clear core concept, it's difficult for these games to catch the attention of players.

For instance, the core of Overcooked lies in its cooperative conflict. Through videos and live streams, the humorous theme of "breakups" during gameplay went viral, leading to a second wave of popularity for the game.

However, having this feature doesn't automatically guarantee success for any cooperative game. The level of design and mechanics need to be precise. If they aren't balanced well, the game might be too simple, making the breakup aspect irrelevant.

On the other hand, if the game is too difficult, players won't break up—they might unite to criticize the game, calling it ridiculous.

Clearly, these new games failed to capture that key element.

As a result, they made little impact on the market.