Game Making: Start By Healing the Player
Chapter 63

The meeting went over the game’s art and character design direction.

The core mechanics and the types of feedback used to invoke reactions from players.

The designs for various maps and scenarios, and the extensive modding the game would allow.

Even touching on the experimental nature of the creative workshop that was soon to be added to the Nebula Games platform.

Chen Xu didn’t bother going into extreme detail, giving just enough for an overview of the situation.

After all, he wouldn’t want to stifle the creative process and stop his team from flexing their talents.

This meeting held the team leads from every department of Nebula Games. Music, level design, balance, art, marketing and so on. Better to let them grow from each experience and give them a strong sense of direction.

“Any questions?” Chen Xu asked, his gaze sweeping over the people in the room.

Ruan Ningxue was the head of the art department, while Yang Xin was in charge of narrative design.

To the art department, the style and concept sketches were clearly laid out with prominent samples already drawn.

And to the narrative department, this game’s storyline was simple. Not requiring much effort and being more of an add-on.

All they had to do was expand and polish what Chen Xu had laid out for them.

The rest of the team didn’t have many questions either. In truth, everyone was rather impressed at the presentation.

Even though it was just a concept draft, the entire framework of the game was ready.

There were no obvious holes or problems they could pick out, so all they had to do was build the game around the framework.

As for how it would perform, or how playing the game felt like, those were things to think about after a prototype was created. No matter how good something looks on paper, it has to be tested in practice.

Seeing the development side taking notes, Zhang Yida raised a concern.

“Mr Chen, are we planning to launch this game on Chinese New Year?”

Chen Xu replied, “To be specific, I want this to launch on Valentines Day.”

Zhang Yida continued, “In that case, we can run a discount on the Nebula platform for the day of release.”

“We will also focus on Valentines, maybe market the game as something for couples to enjoy. I don’t recall ever seeing this concept during my research, we might be the first gaming company to do so. It fits because this is a co-op game.”

“Cook up the sweet spice of love, with ‘Overcooked-Chaos’, we can run a slogan like that, I’ll have to speak with my team.”

Being head of marketing at Nebula Games, Zhang Yida had very little say in the development and creation of the games, but he had come to understand Chen Xu over time.

He knew that Chen Xu could be incredibly headstrong when it came to development matters, but on the marketing side, he was hands-off.

With only about 2 months of development time remaining, ‘Overcooked-Chaos’ needed to finalize their marketing strategy as soon as possible, the importance of the matter was amplified due to it serving as a test case for promoting interest in the Nebula Games Platform.

It wasn’t something that should be shadow dropped.

Especially so close to Chinese New Year, where all marketing kicks into overdrive.

In the Nebula office, plans were beginning to take shape.

“Ok, so we’re giving discounts. We might as well be super direct about it. [Buy 1, Get 1 Free] This is a multiplayer game, so let’s focus on quickly expanding the playerbase.”

“Scrap the romance related slogans, we don’t want to limit ourselves to just couples. Let’s go with [Love] in general, romance, love between family members and strong friendships.”

Chen Xu nodded, giving the sales pitch a greenlight.

———————

After the concept draft was solidified, and the direction of marketing was given, the team at Nebula Games started to make progress in earnest. The whole company was buzzing with activity.

Chen Xu kept himself busy as well.

In his office, he spent time on [Memory Capsules] to review and organize the standout levels from his original world.

The true challenge of ‘Overcooked-Chaos’ would lie in the level design and game balancing.

Make things too easy, and the game loses its charm. Too hard, and you might be left with just a small, niche community after the initial hype.

Just like for souls-likes, difficulty isn’t really the main focus, but it’s still a core feature that would destroy the experience if removed.

Just imagine dark souls 4 being a hack-and-slash, Devil May Cry style game. Much of the original design elements would lose their brilliance and meaning. Chen Xu would also get a heart attack out of sheer despair.

As a casual game with a much smaller scale, the principle still applies to ‘Overcooked-Chaos’. If the difficulty curve wasn’t managed well enough, the experience would fall flat.

Which is why Chen Xu is spending so much time on the hidden number values of the game.

There are time limits, scoring thresholds, and values for every action a player can take, whether it be chopping up vegetables or washing dishes.

He wanted to make the best first impression possible with the game, so he couldn’t afford to let the game be too frustrating or too lenient.

The balancing process was chugging along…

As a casual game, he wanted players to beat the levels smoothly.

But to achieve a 3-star completion of a level, players would need to hit certain thresholds and have smooth cooperation.

Speaking of which, ‘Overcooked-Chaos’ would be the very first online multiplayer game developed by Chen Xu and Nebula Games.

So making a good first impression on the market was top priority. The servers had to be top of the line.

Online co-op would be the lifeblood of the game, Chen Xu wanted his players to enjoy the game without experiencing lags, stutters, or connection issues.

——————————

With a solid plan and under the scrutiny of Chen Xu, the dev team began operations with frightening efficiency.

His first stop was the art team, where he visited to give further details on the results he wanted from Ruan Ningxue and some of the newer artists.

“We need it to feel warm, with vibrant colors. Even the zombies in the underworld setting should be cute and cartoony above all. This is a game rated for all ages—a casual simulation game. We’re not aiming for realism or deep lore, we simply want something that can be picked up by anyone.”

“Got it!” Ruan Ningxue nodded sagely.

As an artist, she has been working closely with Chen Xu on 4 different titles. So she could understand his intentions perfectly. But for some reason, the newbie standing beside her was rather puzzled.

Are we working in an assembly line? Because that’s sort of how it felt.

The materials given by Chen Xu were meticulous, complete with character sketches and design briefs.

In fact, the quality of what he handed them was at a level where it was good enough to be sent to external contractors for production.

The entire process was… strange, to say the least.

She applied to the company as a concept artist—but it felt like her only job right now was to ensure outsourced resources met the standards set by Chen Xu’s vision.

There was no need for her to create original designs, at least for now.

Eventually, the same thing happened with Qin Yi’s team and the rest of the dev teams.

But thanks to their prior experience working on ‘Outlast’, no one questioned the process.

There was a single prevailing sentiment.

This is so easy.

Sure, a bit of overtime here and there was inevitable. But they were rarely asked to redo anything from scratch, which was really messing up some of the more experienced veterans who joined the company.

Whenever Chen Xu demanded revisions, they were for minor details. He never once called for sweeping overhauls of the core mechanics.

The entire development cycle went by with shocking smoothness.

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