I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 165 - 79: First Experience with Hollow Knight! Is This Game This Easy?_2

Chapter 165: Chapter 79: First Experience with Hollow Knight! Is This Game This Easy?_2

"War Annihilation" was never a hot favorite by Netcom anyway. What’sthere to brag about.

If you don’t believe me, try asking him to pull down Netcom’s "Tintin Tornado" and see how he fares?

Can he do it? He can’t! He doesn’t have the ability, you know that!

Despite already feeling disgusted to the core.

But with the decision passed down from the board meeting above, he, a mere game director, didn’t yet have the guts to say ’I won’t!’

So he reluctantly took a glance.

He called together the members of the special project team and played the CG of "Hollow Knight" in the meeting room.

As soon as Bao Jingbi saw the footage, he burst into laughter.

What is this...

Are you putting on a cartoon show for me here?

Has the well of ideas run dry?

And it’s even that type of cartoon aimed at younger children with a childish art style.

The characters inside can’t even be called exquisite—they’re minimalist, outlined with just a few strokes.

The scenes of battle that flashed rapidly within the CG only highlighted the crudeness on the screen.

There were no dazzling special effects or a variety of weapons to choose from.

That character who looks like a Skeleton knight had only one weapon from start to finish—a nail emitting a cold gleam.

Where’s the variety?

Without any variety in your game, how do you attract players, how do you stand out from the many competitive games?

And it’s not hard to tell from the short CG.

This is an action-platformer game.

This couldn’t help but make Bao Jingbi burst into laughter again and again.

"Director Bao, what are you laughing at..." the employees were clueless.

Their own director seemed to be in a bad mood earlier today, but ever since he saw that CG, he seemed to have become overjoyed.

Bao Jingbi then turned off the projector casually, smiling.

"I’m laughing at Designer Ke. He has grand ideas but is too self-righteous, always wanting to create the game type he envisions following his own quirky ideas. This time, he’s likely to fail."

"From watching this CG, there are myriad flaws. I can boldly declare the lifespan of this game has come to an end."

The employees looked at each other in dismay.

What?

The game had only just been released...

And it’s over already?

Bao Jingbi continued.

"If it were up to me to make this game, setting aside other aspects, just in terms of action representation, I would definitely max out the details. There are so many action design directors in the department who aren’t here to mess around."

"But take another look at the performance in his CG just now."

"Monotonous, boring, unified moves. In the multiple boss battle scenes that flashed by, the character controlled by the player had a single action from start to finish, slashing forward. And then, at most, you add a few minor skills, and that’s it."

"If it were you, would you play an action game like this?"

After this speech, the employees fell into contemplation.

Although Director Bao’s words hinted at arrogance, his analysis didn’t seem unreasonable.

Action games on Blue Star are considered a niche category.

Mainly because they have been eclipsed by the fighting genres that have evolved from them.

To differentiate from fighting games, action games have started to take a different path over these 20 years.

Gradually, they are moving toward a hardcore genre centered on ’intricate settings, flashy attack methods, and characters with multiple body parts that can act and attack’.

While losing some threshold players, they also gained support from a niche group of hardcore fans.

Thus, they took root deeply in the gaming market on Blue Star.

If you say it’s a niche, that’s certainly true.

But if you say nobody plays it, that’s not quite right either.

Moreover, the variety in consumption mechanisms in action games is among the top on Blue Star.

Hands, elbows, legs, fingers, palms, heads, and other attacking parts can all draw high-level armor or badges with money, to let players enjoy the thrill of big numbers.

Over time, players have become accustomed to the positioning of action games.

That is—’A hardcore style with multi-limb attack methods + thrilling big numbers and dazzling skills + a varied consumption system equals the action genre.’

And now, this promotional CG of "Hollow Knight" screams poverty and meagerness everywhere, with simplistic moves and a naive art style.

Forget about fitting into the action category; even if you threw it into the neighboring fighting games, the players of fighting games would pinch their noses and walk away.

"It does seem to be the case..."

"Just watching this CG doesn’t really evoke my desire to play."

"Are we still going to experience the actual content of this game?"

The employees whispered to each other.

Bao Jingbi cut in with a categorical statement: "Have you all finished your own work? If you have this time, better get your own tasks done. I’ve got you covered here. Later, I’ll write an analysis report for the higher-ups."

Upon hearing this, the employees were thrilled.

They had been temporarily pulled from various departments of the company.

But the work they had to do wasn’t reduced at all.

If they took the time to play through this game from start to finish, they would be busy well after work hours.

Now that someone was backing them up, one by one, they began to stand up.

"Thank you, Director Bao, we’ll head back first."

"Thank you, Director Bao."

After all the employees left, Bao Jingbi also switched off the demo machine at his side.

He casually pulled over a report form and wrote something down briefly.

The gist was that after an in-depth experience and discussion by the team members, "Hollow Knight" was found to be unremarkable, with no distinctive advantages. Indeed, it was a sincere effort from Number One Player Company, but blah, blah, blah, the rest was so forgettable that even Bao Jingbi himself forgot what he wrote.