Chapter 25: One Million Sales
"Thanks to all the players for your support—Undertale has now sold over 500,000 copies."
Right after Lucas posted that on his blog—
A bunch of indie game devs and media folks who followed him were stunned.
Why?
Because they'd seen a similar post not long ago.
The game passed 100,000 sales just three days after release. Now, barely a week later, it was already at 500,000?
That growth was insane.
And just like that, the internet was filled with a new wave of articles about Undertale.
"500,000 Copies Sold in 10 Days! Rating Hits 9.7!"
"A Must-Play! A Masterpiece of Indie Gaming!"
"Breaks the Rules of RPGs! A Whole New Kind of Game!"
"A Game That Hits You Hard!"
For many indie game developers in the industry, some of whom hadn't paid much attention before, this was when they started seriously looking into Undertale.
Good reviews alone might not mean much, but now the game had real sales numbers to back it up. Clearly, this kind of game had a market.
And for the media? Most of them had already written about Undertale, so they just reused the same articles with a new headline. Done.
All the gaming media were full of praise—after all, Undertale was just that explosive.
It had both great reviews and strong sales, and the overall quality was basically flawless.
With its unique meta-game design, it amazed countless players and game designers.
A game like this—people couldn't even find a way to criticize it if they tried.
Thanks to the media buzz, Undertale's popularity started skyrocketing.
Even though it had already sold over 500,000 copies.
Still, with that kind of reputation and buzz, 500,000 sales clearly wasn't the end for this game.
And with the growing hype, even the bystanders who were just watching started flooding Bell's official blog.
But unfortunately, all of Bell's past posts had already been deleted.
He even turned off comments on his page.
Basically, he wasn't exactly well-liked by the general public.
Now that Undertale had gone viral, whether people liked him or just wanted to stir things up, they weren't going to let him off the hook.
Especially those who had played Mirror before—they were ready for war.
Even if Bell had deleted his posts and closed comments, Lucas' old posts were still up.
So, a bunch of players started spamming replies under Lucas' posts, tagging Bell.
"@Bell, Mr. Bell, hurry and criticize Undertale! Games are art, right? How can a game like this be allowed to show off like that!?"
"@Bell, Mr. Bell, come out and say something! Blossom should be able to crush Undertale, right? What, it's only sold 50,000? No way! Your games are true art. The problem must be that these players don't understand them—not that your games suck!"
"@Bell, Mr. Bell, keep going! You talked so big before!"
Under Lucas' few blog posts, it was all @Bell comments. Some of the more sarcastic ones had even racked up thousands of likes.
And Bell right now?
Two words: playing dead.
Honestly, he didn't want to.
But he had no choice!
His whole strategy had always been "hit where they're weak."
If your sales are better than mine, I'll talk about reviews.
If your reviews are better, I'll talk about art.
If you're more artistic, I'll talk about sales.
And if that fails, I'll shamelessly compare game length.
Basically, I just compare whatever I'm better at.
But now? That doesn't work anymore.
He'd lost in every single category.
What's he gonna say—his Blossom costs 15 dollar, 5 dollar more than Undertale?
So, Bell decided to play dead.
He didn't believe Lucas could make another hit like this anyway.
......
With the whole gaming scene watching, Undertale's numbers just kept going up.
Thanks to Undertale's great reputation, sales growth remained steady.
Even when Lucas announced that Undertale had sold over 500,000 copies, sales kept climbing.
By August 15th, exactly one month since launch—
Total sales had passed 1 million, something Mirror had never achieved.
One million in the first month—this news shocked indie game devs everywhere.
At 10 dollar per copy, even if most sales came from third-party platforms, Lucas still easily made over 10 million in revenue that month.
Not to mention, during this time, the DLC for Mirror also came out and sold pretty well.
But putting Mirror aside, the sales of Undertale clearly came from its strong story and clever design.
That got tons of game designers trying to break down what made Undertale work so well.
For a new studio like Nebula Games, the success of Undertale brought both fame and profit.
Compared to the previous world, the version of Undertale in this parallel world managed to hit a million sales in its first month just from the local market alone. Lucas made a few notes about that.
First is the environment. Just like in his past life, where console games were niche in the country and mobile and PC dominated, the same thing applies here.
But the game market in this parallel world is way bigger than in his last life.
Even though the old world claimed to have 700 million gamers, that number was full of fluff.
In this world, even ignoring overseas markets, the local numbers are already crazy.
After all, this country still has the biggest population in the world.
Second, compared to the old version, the graphics in Lucas's Undertale got a big upgrade.
In the past, Undertale was just a solo indie project funded by crowdfunding.
He had little money and few people to help.
But for a game, good visuals are always a plus, never a minus.
There are definitely players who'll skip a game because it looks too bad—
but there's no one who avoids a game because it looks too good.
So far, the sales of Undertale have already made Lucas more than happy.
As for the international market, since the rules here are different from his past world, he hasn't really thought about that in the short term.
Mirror didn't even pass the local review process, so it could only be released on overseas platforms. Even though it was official, it was a very different case from Undertale.
Undertale had already been released on local platforms.
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26: What's Next
With Undertale earning both great reviews and great sales, the term "META" suddenly caught the attention of tons of designers in the industry.
If we're only talking about story, Undertale is definitely solid, but that alone wouldn't have earned this level of praise and success.
Once the META element was added though, everyone who played it had only one thing to say—
it blew them away.
It wasn't just indie game developers paying attention. Even mid- to high-level designers and people in the VR scene were taking a good look at Undertale.
Because in a way, it taught the entire industry a lesson.
It showed everyone what META design really means, and how it can be built into a game in a natural way.
But while a lot of designers were focused on this...
Lucas, on the other hand, was just relaxing.
Undertale's success really brought him both name and money.
He got it all.
In the office, Lucas held a bottle of Want-Want milk in one hand, and stared at the system UI screen that only he could see.
"Still not that great... Even though this gave more points than Mirror, I only got enough for two ten-pulls."
After removing the leftover, he had about 2.1 million points—just enough for 21 draws.
Compared to Mirror, Undertale really did give more, but still not a huge amount.
He thought through the reason behind it.
Points only counted if players paid for the game and personally felt strong emotions while playing.
Simply put, they had to spend money and feel something deeply—that's what generated points.
Just watching didn't count, no matter how shocked they were.
The most powerful emotional moment in Undertale, other than the first META twist, came from the Genocide route.
But very few people were actually willing to play that route—
especially after videos and walkthroughs came out. A lot of players just couldn't bring themselves to do it, and chose to watch instead.
So most of the points came from the first-time META shock players felt during their own runs.
While thinking it over, Lucas started drawing from the prize pool.
He had a total of 2.1 million points, so he didn't bother with ten-pulls.
There weren't any guarantees for an SSR or any bonus for doing ten at once anyway.
He just did single pulls. They say single pulls bring miracles, plus they kind of feel more meaningful.
Still, could they change the golden flash animation?
Watching the golden light flash again, Lucas felt nothing inside.
As the light faded, it revealed a basic "Story +1" skill book.
The brightest golden glow... for the most boring item. Way to go.
He sighed, then tapped through all the rest in one go.
After 21 pulls, Lucas figured maybe he should've washed his hands before doing it.
Aside from two memory capsules, everything else was just regular skill books—not a single rare one.
And as for the types, there was art, music, story, level design, game balance—he got all the basic ones.
He took a sip of milk, sighed at his bad luck, and used up all the skill books before closing the system.
He opened the official engine platform on his PC, logged into the Magic City Game Division's backend, and checked his account access.
Compared to the 1024 access level he had before, Lucas now had access to 2048 resources—basically double.
Clearly, even though he hadn't gotten any formal promotion, the game division had noticed the success of Undertale and bumped up his developer tier.
"Next, I need to start thinking about the next game," Lucas murmured, leaning back in his chair, looking a bit torn.
A AAA game?
Lucas ruled that out right away.
It just wasn't realistic.
He didn't have the resources, people, funding, or even the current skill level to take on a full-blown AAA project.
After all, small-budget games rely on creativity and story, while AAA games demand an all-around performance.
So for now, Lucas decided to stick with small-scale, low-budget titles.
At the same time, he'd work on building a solid team and getting Nebula Games fully up and running.
After all, the whole company right now only had three people making games: Anna, Rachel, and Lucas himself.
Now that there was some money, hiring new team members was a must.
He also wanted to keep racking up points and improving his skills.
As for making pay-to-win games, Lucas wasn't considering that at the moment.
That could seriously damage both his and Nebula Games' reputation.
And the huge success of Undertale proved one thing: this parallel world's gaming market was totally different from the one in his past life.
Even with buy-once games, you could still turn a solid profit. So Lucas was all-in on quality-first games.
......
In the meeting room, Lucas briefly shared the success of Undertale and the Mirror DLC with the team.
He also confirmed the next direction for the company, including expanding departments and hiring more staff.
They discussed some internal policies too, and as the boss, Lucas couldn't help but throw in a couple of pep talks.
He had to admit—giving people hope and motivation felt way better than being the one getting fed empty promises.
At that moment, Lucas finally understood why so many bosses in his past life loved giving long speeches and false hope.
It actually felt kind of good.
Once all the admin and HR matters were handled, only Anna and Rachel stayed behind in the meeting room to talk about the games.
"So, are we going to work on a sequel to Undertale next?" Anna asked, her face full of excitement for the future.
This—this was the kind of game industry she had dreamed of!
Rachel, sitting nearby, looked just as thrilled.
At first, she joined partly because of the connection between Lucas and Anna, and partly because working on a game felt interesting—like something with potential.
But now?
It wasn't just potential—it was full of promise!
Especially when she saw fan-made stories online that mixed Undertale with Mirror. It gave her a strange feeling.
After all, she had worked on both projects. She used to be the one drawing the content, and now she was seeing other people draw from her work.
Hearing Anna's question, Lucas smiled and nodded. "There's definitely a new project, but it's not a sequel to Undertale, and it's not going to be a META-style game either."
Not a sequel to Undertale, and not even a META game?
Anna and Rachel were both stunned.
(End of this chapter)