Chapter 195: Sandbox Games and Key Points
The development of content for Don't Starve was not particularly difficult. After all, it is a very small game. The art and music were produced methodically. The most complex content was mainly conceived to provide players with better mod development tools.
For a game to attract a large number of mods depends not only on its inherent fun, but also on its compatibility with them.
During the development of Don't Starve, the popularity of Dark Souls: First Flame continued to grow. After reaching almost 5.5 million copies worldwide in its first month, Dark Souls maintained a solid performance in the second. Sales in the local market decreased to 1.1 million copies and abroad to 1.3 million, but they still reached 2.4 million.
During this period, players finally defeated their first boss in "Death Mode." It was not a boss from Dark Souls: First Flame, but Yhorm the Giant from the previous game.
The ability of the stormbreaker to inflict significant damage on the boss was maintained. Most high-level Dark Souls players teamed up to defeat the boss. Finally, 19 days after the launch of the new mode, three renowned international Dark Souls experts teamed up to achieve the first death. Curiously, in less than 10 minutes, a local team broke the record for the fastest death of Yhorm the Giant, improving it by almost 15 seconds.
This generated a lot of discussion among Dark Souls players, and inevitably unleashed a debate on whether the team that achieved the first death was superior or the slower team that set the record for the fastest death.
However, it was clear that both teams were not very convinced, believing themselves to be the best.
The next day, the international team that achieved the first death again beat their original time. The local team, after two days of attempts, surpassed them again.
None of the other bosses died; only Yhorm the Giant was injured.
As for games like Dark Souls, although the numerical values and the content of the game no longer need to be modified, it only remains for Lynn's team, in charge of an independent project, to gradually produce the downloadable content. However, this involves online content, and players can leave comments within the game.
So, just like in games like Fall Guys, Overcooked, and Three Kingdoms Tactics, there is a dedicated operations team to carry out continuous operations. Of course, as the number of players decreases, it will merge with other games and be operated and maintained by a single team.
However, Alex's energy has clearly moved away from Dark Souls.
In the project room, Alex was talking about the content of Don't Starve with Jane, Eric, and others.
"The whole game revolves around survival; that is the core, but within that core, it can be divided into different smaller objectives."
"For example, the protagonist has levels of hunger, health, and sanity. Depending on the environment and encounters, these values will decrease. If any of these values reach zero, the player will die, which means that their survival will fail."
"Thus, within the broader survival challenge, players will begin to diversify and develop more diverse objectives," Alex explained about the main design of Don't Starve.
These settings were the reason why Alex chose Don't Starve as his first foray into sandbox games.
Let's not talk about the plot of Don't Starve for now. Each scenario has a very clear purpose. Even players who are completely new to sandbox games will not feel overwhelmed upon entering the game. At a minimum, they will understand that the only thing they have to do is keep their characters alive. They need to be well-fed and dressed, and participate in recreational activities to cheer themselves up.
Based on this, players can actively explore and understand the true nature of the sandbox game.
"It seems very interesting!", Lisa nodded as Alex analyzed the key points of the game.
"Although it is a small game, it gives the feeling of having a lot of freedom!", commented Eric, who works in both numerical and level design, who had the most direct experience.
"The truth is that playing online with friends is a lot of fun," Jane repeated.
But the games are based on the daily survival of the players. What if one day, the home they built with so much effort was consumed by a devastating fire or they died? Those hours, dozens, even hundreds of hours of effort... At that moment, Lisa thought of a possibility.
Hearing her words, everyone instinctively looked at Alex, who was sitting there.
'Don't even talk about experiencing it firsthand, just thinking about it was chilling!'.
It was like playing Dark Souls for countless hours, without mods, and getting a high-end 802. You had gathered all your items, but one day, a disaster happens: your saved game has disappeared!.
'How desperate, devastated, and heartbroken would that player be?'.
"Ahem... don't look at me like that. I told you this is not a suffering game. It's not like Hammer Ascension, where there is no save option. Players can save their games at any time and make a backup of their saved games," Alex said, coughing softly as he observed the expressions on everyone's faces.
"Besides, I have to criticize you. It's okay if the players don't understand my original intention, but how can you think that I make games just to see them suffer?", Alex said, speechless.
"Well, according to my plan, after finishing Don't Starve, we will develop and release another game before the end of the year. Don't Starve is more of a market test, and once it is finished, we will also update it with new content and open and guide players to create creative workshops."
"So, in mid-September, we will try to finish Don't Starve and release it on the platform."
"Understood," Eric nodded.
"Little more than a month should be enough to develop Don't Starve, but quality is still our priority," Alex said, looking at Eric.
After talking with Eric and the others about the development approach of Don't Starve, Alex called John to his office.
Unlike previous games like Dark Souls: First Flame and It Takes Two, the release and operation of Don't Starve will be different.
Although it was a small game, Alex was willing to invest some resources in promotion. He needed John to draw up a plan based on his needs.
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