I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 208 - 92: The employees are going wild! Why is this farm game so awesome? _2

Chapter 208: Chapter 92: The employees are going wild! Why is this farm game so awesome? _2

Then the message cascaded down, much faster than a plane could fly.

Murmurs were already spreading throughout the office.

"Damn, Mr. Ke really dares to take this on? That’s pretty ruthless."

"To be honest, this time I really can’t imagine how this theme could be expanded... Did Mr. Ke go a bit too far this time...?"

"Sigh, it’s not like I can’t understand, after all, being the company’s boss, the moment he opens his eyes, so many people under him need to eat, he’s got to push hard."

"Wuwuwu, moved to tears, this round’s on me."

"If it really doesn’t work out and the game gets made but no one plays it, maybe we should see if we can help Mr. Ke out by buying some aid farming products through crowdfunding. What were the requirements from the regulatory agency again? If it’s just a few hundred boxes, with so many of us here, we could scrape that together."

"I think it’s fifty thousand boxes?"

"... Pretend I didn’t say anything."

As the employees were discussing in low voices.

A series of hurried footsteps from leather shoes echoed.

"Mr. Ke is back!" The receptionist whispered.

Soon, all the employees in the office were buried in their work.

The first thing Ke Jin did when he returned to the company was to call a meeting without a second word.

With only seven days’ time, even though the company had more than 200 people and could outsource some of the graphic design and programming teams, it was still a tight schedule.

Gathering everyone in the meeting room, Ke Jin gently placed the moderately thick planning book in his hands down.

"You might have already heard some news, so I won’t elaborate here."

"To cut to the chase, this aid farming themed game is called ’Stardew Valley.’

"To sum it up, this game focuses on a leisurely and relaxing experience, where players can farm, fish, mine, chop wood, and even engage in RPG elements like combat."

"Besides that, there’s NPC interaction, making every character as vivid as possible according to the plan, allowing players to feel like they are living in the town called ’Stardew Valley,’ rather than being players outside the computer screen."

Just as he finished speaking, an employee boldly raised their concerns.

This also followed the tradition of top gamers.

Ke Jin always encouraged employees to speak freely during meetings, to say whatever they wanted, and to ask questions if they didn’t understand something.

After all, if even the staff couldn’t understand the fun of a game, just following the plan mechanically wouldn’t result in a game of very compelling quality.

It’s like expanding the text according to an outline, or adding details to a draft composition—it just wouldn’t resonate.

"Please, speak." Ke Jin said with a look of encouragement.

"Although it might seem presumptuous to say this... what’s the appeal of this kind of game to players?" the employee asked with courage.

"Farming, fishing, logging, mining, these are all points of attraction."

"Uh... Do these really attract players...?" the employee felt they couldn’t quite grasp the exciting part.

Other employees didn’t speak out, but their looks showed they shared the confusion.

Ke Jin noticed the doubtful glances of his staff but was not angry.

After all, the farming genre plays quite differently from other types of games.

The essence of battle royale games is FPS, with the inherent thrill coming from the feedback of confidence that ’I’m stronger than you’ after defeating an opponent.

Add to that the fresh gameplay and settings of a battle royale, and the employees understood instantly.

’Skyline’ as a business simulator had a mature system on Blue Star, so that goes without saying.

’Wind Traveler’ became popular for its graphics quality and fragmented storytelling; the game mechanics were quite conventional.

Then there were the other games under the banner of top gamers.

All of them had a clear appeal and reasons why they were fun.

But for farming, if they didn’t expand the gameplay, they might rack their brains and still not comprehend it.

The origins of farming games came from the branching out of the SLG genre, and it was hard to trace back to their exact first appearance.

In SLG-type strategy games, players typically need to plan several stages such as pioneering land, developing, training troops, investing in combat, and conquering territories to keep the game operating smoothly.

Among these, players found the pioneer and development stages to have their own charm.

Especially when reserves of food or minerals were abundant, players felt a secure sense of being well-equipped.

Then came the famous ’Harvest Moon,’ which isolated FSG (farming game acronym) as a unique selling point.

In the 90s, when various game genres were just beginning to emerge, its unique and relaxing gameplay took the world by storm, becoming instantly addictive.

"To put it simply, the reason players play farming games is the same as the character growth in popular turn-based games currently on the market—they both enjoy the pleasure of development."

"The only difference is that character development has been replaced by land development."

Some employees in the meeting room were already taking notes, jotting down what Ke Jin was saying.

He looked around the room and continued.

"Adding gameplay mechanics is also simple."

"Imagine you have a piece of land where you plant seeds. You get one fruit and it takes ten days to grow, assuming that’s the given situation. Now, I give you a bag of fertilizer, which shortens the maturation to eight days. You can harvest the fruit faster. Don’t you feel a slight thrill of improvement?"