I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 554 - 178: The Internet is buzzing! The company that teaches the whole world how to make games!_3

Chapter 554: Chapter 178: The Internet is buzzing! The company that teaches the whole world how to make games!_3

Employees had no right to pry into specifics anyway.

As long as the boss paid the wages and bonuses, that was what mattered.

Two weeks later.

A new concept racing game that stitched together the company’s previous racing scenarios—"Escaping Highway"—was finally completed.

Although time was short and Design Team Three had only managed to create gameplay experiences for the first two levels, the entire test process took less than half an hour.

However, once the employees had each taken their turn testing it,

they felt confident it could sweep the awards at some small competition in East Asia without any difficulty.

Just after Kate had sent the game’s ZIP file to the number one player’s designated submission email,

the office staff began to buzz with discussion.

"If we throw our masterpiece into the competition, we’ll probably scare the crap out of those country bumpkin designers in East Asia."

"Haha! Let’s give Huaxia’s gamers a little European and American gaming shock!"

"With our big factory’s fame, attending such a small-scale event is really an honor for them. They should feel privileged!"

"Director Kate’s game design inspiration is too strong, I’d never imagined integrating racing with those three types of gameplay. Creatively, it’s absolutely killer."

"I believe no one would reject a racing game where players can define their own modifications, an absolute gem in terms of gameplay!"

"I really want to see the look of surprise on the face of their head designer after playing our superb game, tsk tsk, too bad I can’t witness it."

"They must be amazed and can’t wait to shorten the awards ceremony just to give us the prize, right?"

"Hahahaha!"

————

"No, what the hell is this..." Ke Jin’s brows were tightly furrowed, his face filled with confusion as he stared incredulously at the screen displaying "Escaping Highway."

He could hardly believe that a big factory could produce such a game.

Although Hope Flute was a shitty company in his past life—and an even more direct competitor in this one—

Ke Jin always judged games on their own merits.

If a small factory made a good game, then no matter how small that factory was, it was still the coolest kid.

And if a big factory made garbage, then he’d damn well tear into them for producing such asinine stuff.

When "Escaping Highway" had first arrived in his mailbox, Ke Jin had actually been pleased.

Who cared if it was a competitor’s product? If it was good, he’d generously award it.

Ke Jin even hoped the game would scoop up all the awards so he could get it all over with in one go and then switch to slaughter mode with the ultimate prize package in hand.

But after playing it for more than half an hour,

Ke Jin had an indescribable feeling.

It was hard to tell if it was eating shit-flavored chocolate or chocolate-flavored shit.

In any case, there was an unspeakable prominence.

"Escaping Highway"... felt more like a superficial Franken-game.

Good news, it was all stitched together.

Bad news, it wasn’t stitched together well.

Yes, there were roguelike elements, and it didn’t make the same low-level mistake of previous indie developers in turning roguelike purely into a game of chance—

On the contrary, some of the roguelike designs in "Escaping Highway" had impressed Ke Jin.

For example, if players picked up a "Rally Tire" modification, the subsequent mods they obtained were likely to revolve around the "Rally" keyword, resulting in the formation of a pretty powerful "Rally Flow."

Beyond that, there were "Burst Charge Stream," "Straight Hit Stream," "Firepower Modification Stream"...

There were around five or six styles—not many, but considering the limited time given for this competition, the game might become outstanding if gradually optimized and improved.

But Ke Jin had labeled it a "superficial" Franken-game for deeper reasons.

Because "Escaping Highway" added a random extra attribute upon acquiring modifications.

Take "Nitrogen Sprint," for example.

In a typical roguelike way, acquiring it should give you a sprint effect.

Then, around this framework of sprinting, more supportive mods would be added to make it sprint farther, faster, or whatever else.

So what did this stupid game designer do?

He made the sprint... random.

This meant that after players initiated the "Nitrogen Sprint" modification, the distance of each sprint was random...

If 100 meters was the peak, players might experience instances of "sprinted for 20 meters" or "sprinted for 30 meters" several times in a row.

Always leaving one feeling unfulfilled.

So, I get a power-up, and whether I actually get stronger is down to luck, right?

After overcoming myriad obstacles and finally obtaining a magic weapon capable of annihilating everything, players set off to challenge the ultimate boss, only to be told there’s a 50% chance of a miss.

That’s rather intriguing.

It’s safe to say, it’s a pretty fatal flaw.

Then there’s the "straight-on collision" aspect.

Perhaps they thought that the racing theme didn’t suit traditional 2D games with boss battles.

So, they added the "straight-on collision" motivation to a popular high-speed racing mechanic.

That is, at the start of each race, cars on several tracks would instantly overtake the player’s car.