To ascend, I had no choice but to create games - Chapter 364

Chapter 364: Chapter 225 Why is This Game So Popular? (2 Updates)_2

“Kekekeke…”

Watching himself return to the original position on the screen, Monkey laughed foolishly again.

Seeing Monkey’s behavior, Huang Ping felt bewildered.

He watched Monkey run so determinedly that he thought the proposition “y=1/X is an increasing function” was correct, only to realise the other party had no idea and was just charging blindly.

However, seeing Monkey laugh so happily, Huang Ping also felt a bit like laughing.

The teddy bears on the screen always looked adorably dumb, rubbing their heads when standing still, stretching when sitting, or wrestling with the little bears nearby. Everything seemed so cute.

The relaxing visuals combined with the slightly challenging puzzles had a soothing effect on the heart, making one want to laugh after watching for a while.

Returning to his seat, he found his character had somehow also arrived in that room, waiting for the countdown technology, and restarted the game.

Thinking it over, Huang Ping closed the game and started anew, then found himself back in the dimly lit corridor.

In the darkness, something seemed to be moving back and forth; the Larva that Gnaws on Bones-like glare lingered around him, but instead of acting rashly, Huang Ping quietly waited for a while, feeling as if he had been pulled up by something.

A few seconds later, he felt himself being sent through a pitch-black pipeline, rushing through it at high speed.

The journey wasn’t long, but complete darkness made it possible to only judge his surroundings by the sounds of falling.

However, when he emerged from the pipeline, he found himself in a room filled with teddy bears of various colors, where they loitered and frolicked around him like something out of a fairy tale.

Even though he was already in his thirties, Huang Ping still felt his heart melt at the sight of these little bears.

Who doesn’t have a twelve-year-old pink princess in their heart?

These teddy bears maintained the signature Fang Cheng style with infuriatingly detailed nuances, boasting over a hundred different idle animations, and multiple little bears interacting could result in even more entertaining effects.

Quietly admiring for a while, Huang Ping also started to laugh foolishly.

The purpose of these mechanical bears was unclear, but each one contained a relaxation chip.

This chip could induce a state of relaxation. Though the effect was greatly reduced through the screen, it still made one unconsciously relax.

After appreciating them motionlessly for a while, Huang Ping finally started moving.

The first and second levels were relatively simple Q&A challenges, but the third level’s balance beam looked a bit more difficult.

Below the balance beam was an abyss, and even though he knew falling would just send him back to the starting room, Huang Ping still felt his palms sweat. It would be even more nerve-wracking with VR.

But just as he was about to cross the balance beam and reach the finish line, a little bear pounced from behind him. With a leap, it knocked him to the ground, then staggered towards the finish line, crossing before him.

Since the number of players needed had been reached, everything in the room began to fall, then returned to the original position.

Even though he was sabotaged by the bear, Huang Ping didn’t feel angry but rather pleasantly surprised.

Moreover, the room he fell into was different from the other starting rooms, allowing for a quick game restart with AI help to fill in if there weren’t enough players.

These AIs might not be very smart, but with their underhandedness paired with a hint of honesty, the incident on the balance beam where Huang Ping was pounced on was a rare occurrence. Normally, it would be common for them to accidentally plunge into the abyss.

After playing a few more rounds, Huang Ping realized the game was full of surprises.

There were more types of puzzles than just Q&A and the balance beam; sometimes there were even parkour segments where teddy bears had to proceed on springboards in the air, rushing forwards.

Sometimes they needed to scramble for volleyballs in the water; once you got the volleyball, leaping turned into charging, making the gameplay even more enjoyable.

Players could work together or betray each other, but in the end, only one player could triumph.

The mini-games weren’t very difficult and were the type you could grasp at a glance.

The controls involved running, jumping, and leaping—simple actions that were easy to pick up, with the key being in-game sabotage.

After finishing a round, although Huang Ping didn’t win, he still felt cheerful.

Exiting the game momentarily, he began to ponder why he felt that way.

That initial stretch of darkness, he felt, was a stroke of genius.

The darker the dark, the more relaxed one feels the moment they see the light after it’s shifted, and it’s best to add an opening animation at this time, so these suppressed emotions can better transform into relaxation and surprise.

Although there was a suspicion of reasoning from results, Huang Ping really felt this setting wasn’t bad.

However, this meant the game’s promotion needed to be a bit unusual.

The promotional video needed to be as cheerful as possible, so the first fifteen seconds after attracting players would be very confusing, but it would also give the players an anchor, encouraging them to continue the experience.

Afterwards, he also found the game quite comfortable in all aspects, but there were still many areas that could be adjusted.

A game like this, non-human and played in a light and cheerful manner, can’t feel realistic.

It has to be abstract; it has to be exaggerated.

Being knocked flying could feel more exaggerated, Little Bear’s movements could be broader, but the operation’s touch still needed to be as comfortable as possible so that players could play enraptured.

Although this was Fang Cheng Studio’s first time creating a family-friendly type of game, Huang Ping felt that genius was just genius, and anything they touched turned into a masterpiece.

But that name and tag…

Boss, change it, please.

If you could get just one to hit the mark, it wouldn’t be the case that you couldn’t get any right.

Once everyone had finished the experience, they quickly gave their feedback.

Looking at this feedback, Fang Cheng glanced at the time and couldn’t help saying, “Two hours and thirteen minutes.”

“What do you mean?” Mysterious Mirror asked, puzzled.

“My time of failure, today was the fastest one.”

Mysterious Mirror looked at the feedback from other colleagues, puzzled, and felt somewhat at a loss.

[It’s the first time I’ve seen the studio make such an interesting game, feels like the atmosphere has become joyful. ]

[Could use more mini-games. ]

[Long live the boss! ]

[Fun, I can’t wait to promote it. ]

[I just can’t stop. ]

Looking at these feedback comments, Mysterious Mirror felt that his colleagues’ tastes were slightly questionable.

They were clearly caught in the game, their characters trapped in an inescapable cycle, each person only fighting for that elusive first place, and even upon achieving it, there were no substantial rewards.

This cycle was so empty and lonely, even the first place was just an elusive title; they’d be caught in this endless environment cycling until they quit the game.

So where the heck is the fun in such a futile effort!

Sitting with Fang Cheng, Mysterious Mirror read through the descriptions several times, then, furrowing his brow, said to Fang Cheng, “How about we look at other players’ feedback? Maybe it’s just that our studio’s staff have exceptional talent, with feelings different from the average person?”

“Hmm… that’s all we can do.”

And half a month later, Fang Cheng knew he was right.

The game’s name had become “Happy Adventure,” and within just a week of its release, it had reached tens of millions of downloads worldwide.

The game adopted a free base game with in-game Gold Coin purchases, although Gold Coins could also be earned within the game, so the degree of pushing for in-game purchases wasn’t high.

However, Wang Xiaoying cunningly added a feature for limited-time skins, and many of Fang Cheng Studio’s games could be linked with “Happy Adventure,” allowing players to buy skins from other games for a limited time, giving the other games some sense of participation.

The skins didn’t come with attributes, but you can’t beat good looks, and many people began to spend money to acquire limited-time skins, making Wang Xiaoying feel like a genius operator.

The joyful gameplay ignited the summer, and the light gaming mode also made many non-gamers realize that games can actually be quite interesting.

Only Fang Cheng and Mysterious Mirror, seeing the popularity of “Happy Adventure,” sank into thought.