Almighty Video Game Designer

Many members of staff were playing Diablo too.

A few assistants were discussing as they played.

“That’s weird, I thought the game wouldn’t be fun when I looked at the draft. Why am I completely addicted to it now? It just has to be part of my daily routine!”

“You got that right, the ominous art style didn’t stop me from playing at all, it’s actually more enjoyable because of that.”

“Yeah. And there aren’t that many different game modes in the game, nor are there daily activities. Yet I still grind the game every single day. I’ll play one level after another, multiplayer after singleplayer, I just can’t stop at all!”

Zhou Hanyu was shocked too.

When he first tried the game, it did feel quite stressful, but the stress mysteriously disappeared when playing through the story.

He found that the disappearance of stress was because of the constant change in emotions of the player as a result of the changes in scenes, colour, field of view and music.

Moreover, the art style made it more satisfying to kill monsters, especially when beating bosses in scary environments followed by a large amount of drops, all the pent up stress was instantly relieved.

The more he looked into it, the more Zhou Hanyu was surprised. He didn’t think a niche art style like this could be executed so well, controlling the emotions perfectly at that.

Zhou Hanyu was thoroughly impressed, all of Chen Mo’s work wasn’t just luck, but all skill!

Fu Guangnan said to Zhou Hanyu, “It should be released today. The success of the game will completely depend on how well the players will take it.”

Zhou Hanyu nodded, “Yeah, but I’m quite confident in this.”

Fu Guangnan asked, “How many copies do you think we’ll sell?”

Zhou Hanyu shook his head, “No clue. But judging from investment, this game and the cinematics cost about one hundred and forty million RMB. The manager is charging one hundred and twenty-eight per copy, he’d need to sell at least 1.8 million to bread even.

Fu Guangnan was a bit worried, “He’s charging quite a bit for it, and the sales target is extremely high too!”

Zou Hanyu nodded, “Yeah, all I can say is that the cost is too high! The manager sure is willing to spend his money. Who else in the country would spend one hundred million on a third person single player game? They wouldn’t spend this money even if they did have it!”

Fu Guangnan said, “All I could say that he sure is courageous, all we could do is hope that it sells well. It’ll greatly affect the morale of the team if our first game is dead of arrival.”

Zhou Hanyu nodded, “Yeah, hopefully.”

—

Diablo finally went live on the third of July!

There was a steady stream of information about the game since the start of the year. It started with some original artworks, settings, then cinematics, then playtesting footage…

There were also many who had their eyes on the game, in particular Warcraft players and Chen Mo’s fans. No matter how much the others underestimated the game, they still hoped that Chen Mo could surprise them.

These players didn’t even hesitate before buying the game on the day of its release.

Diablo used a pay per copy model at one hundred and twenty eight RMB per copy. This was quite a lot for a single player game, especially in China. Warcraft only sold for eighty-eight, whereas Wulin Legend sold for just fifty.

Of course, the players knew that Diablo was extremely high quality and a lot of money went into cinematics, so the players didn’t mind spending so much money.

But other than the diehard fans, the other players were watching from the side. Some of them were even mocking them as they waited for the news of Diablo’s terrible sales.

Soon, the review from the first batch of players were on the forums.

“Friends who tried out Diablo, how did it go? Is the game good?”

“There was a post on how Thunderbolt Movies’ quality had only gone up…”

“…What about the others?”

“The quality of the game is surprisingly good, completely different from those ancient third person games. I can’t really comment of the others, but I feel that there’s a lot of details that weren’t accounted for.”

“That’s weird, I thought this art style would’ve kept me away from the game, but I didn’t feel that at all when I was playing. But this atmosphere… It’s hard to describe.”

“It fits well. The art style and story fits well with the gameplay.”

“How so?”

“It’s not something that can be explained in a few sentences, you should just try it out… To be honest, it’s a big game, and I felt that my one hundred and twenty eight RMB was well spent.”

“How does it compare to Warcraft?”

“It’s a different game. If you want to compare, it does feel similar to that Warcraft RPG map: ‘Holy Land’. Other than the stronger adult themes of course.”

“That maps quite good. If Diablo was really able to recreate that feeling, I’m a hundred percent buying the game.”

“You are underestimating Chen Mo too much! Let’s put it this way, there’s no comparison. Comparing Holy Land and Diablo is like comparing kindergarteners to NBA players in basketball.”

“Is the difference that big? Alright, I’ll try it out too!”

“I heard there’s a co-op mode, I’ll carry you!”

—

The reviews maintained well above nine as the number of sales increased.

The video game media also started publishing their articles.

“Chen Mo with another Western Fantasy Game!”

“Unique art style, hopeless world, review of Chen Mo’s first RPG game”

“Fierce fighting and unexpected surprises”

“Third Person RPG exceeds industry expectations”

“Chen Mo spending big money for cinematics again! Thunderbolt Movies proud production!”

“Expert analysis: Niche theme, high quality game but potentially small player base”

“Experts say that this game will struggle to break five hundred thousand sales, is Chen Mo losing money?”

There were praises and doubts as all eyes were on Diablo’s sales. As it was a singleplayer game, only the number of sales could reveal the answer to the question.

Soon, Diablo’s sales in the first week were released.

Two hundred and eighty thousand sales!

This was shocking news to all the industry professionals who doubted Diablo as this was pretty close to their estimate for the first month!

But more shocking news had yet to come.

Not only did Diablo’s growth not drop in the second week, it kept its momentum, selling a total of four hundred and thirty thousand sales in the second week!

Obviously many players who thought the game was hopeless finally decided to buy the game in the second week, as player opinion of the game further improved the sales.

In the end, Diablo sold 1.87 million copies in the first month!

This meant that Diablo made two hundred and forty million RMB, or one hundred and sixty-seven million RMB net for Chen Mo!

He made back his huge investment within a month.

This shocked the industry professionals yet again. They didn’t think that a third-person RPG that they have always despised and dubbed ‘ancient’ could become an extremely popular game!