Game Maker: Starting by Healing the Players Chapter 123: As Expected

Players online all had different opinions, and the argunt quickly went from text debates to video debates.

So gaplay videos of Dark Souls began to spread, including live streams from players who played Dark Souls as soon as it was released.

One player uploaded a fight against the first boss, Iudex Gundyr, and it looked very different from the live demo shown at the original online launch event.

In this video, Iudex Gundyr looked absolutely intimidating.

His halberd spun and twisted in his hands, and with a scream from the player, the health bar was instantly wiped out.

It was a perfect display of what "too brutal to watch" really ans.

There were also videos of players being flattened by the Crystal Lizard or instantly killed by Uchigatana Guy's iai slash.

But before these kinds of videos could gain traction, more players began uploading new ones.

Once again, they were fighting Iudex Gundyr.

But this ti, the outco was completely different.

In the ga, the player wore a knight's suit of armor, shield in one hand and sword in the other.

When Gundyr swung down his weapon, the player raised their shield slightly with their left hand.

The blow was deflected, and they imdiately followed up with a riposte.

Throughout the whole fight, even during Gundyr's second phase, he didn't land a single hit.

It was as if the player was toying with him.

Sa boss, completely different results.

This left players completely puzzled.

So, what's going on? Is this ga hard or not?

It was the sa on streaming platforms—so strears died miserably, screaming in frustration.

But there were also strears who, right from the Cetery of Ash, easily toyed with Gundyr, Uchigatana Guy, and even the Lothric Knight.

Of course, new players didn't realize that, while so of these videos did feature naturally gifted players, a lot of them were actually from people who had practiced for a long ti or had died countless tis to gain experience.

With so many different examples and the ga being newly released, there was a big gap in player knowledge, and no clear consensus was ford.

This only made even more players curious.

Just what kind of ga is this?

So even thought of Outlast.

They felt like maybe soone was trying to pull off sothing big.

But that only made them more curious.

After all, people are naturally curious about the unknown—especially when it's just a ga.

And Dark Souls didn't seem like a horror ga like Outlast.

In Outlast, you might not dare to step into the asylum's front door, but in Dark Souls, are you telling you don't dare to link the fire?

With that thought in mind, countless players jumped headfirst into the Dark Souls pit.

But when this second wave of players got into the ga, they were stunned.

Just like the very first batch of players.

The mont these new players started, they imdiately felt the ga's deep malice.

Even with the advice and death clips left behind by veteran players, countless people still experienced firsthand just how satisfying—and punishing—dying in this ga could be.

They looked at the tall, imposing Uncle Gundyr, rembering the videos where soone took him down in just a few moves.

Then, when it was their turn, they realized they were the ones being cut down like vegetables.

That Fire Keeper girl they'd seen online before, the one that made their hearts itch with curiosity—needless to say, they wanted to et her.

But to do that, they had to take down Iudex Gundyr!

Otherwise, they wouldn't even get to touch the massive bronze gates of Firelink Shrine.

High difficulty, no mini-map, and a level design full of traps and malice.

Many players who were drawn in earlier quickly joined the chorus of complaints.

"I'm done! This ga is way too hard!"

"Why is there no difficulty option? Why no mini-map?"

"Those of you saying this ga is easy—don't you feel even a little guilty?"

"I died ten tis in one hour. How is that even possible?!"

"I thought this was gonna be a hack-and-slash ga, but now you're telling … I'm the veggie?"

...

Inside Nebula Gas' office.

Even though it was the National Day holiday, most of the core mbers of the project team had stayed at the company to work overti on their own initiative.

After all, Dark Souls was Nebula Gas' first big project, and everyone cared a lot about how it would do.

Of course, the generous overti pay and perks were also part of the reason, so people were happy to work extra hours.

"Mr. Lucas, a lot of players in the ga community, on the company's official account, and on your own account are talking about how hard Dark Souls is!" Hector from the project team said with so concern.

"Yeah, are we going to add a difficulty selection system later?"

"And a mini-map," Rachel and Anna added.

"There's no need to change the systems or difficulty for now, and it's too early to make that call," Lucas said with a smile. Then he turned to the custor service departnt. "How's the data looking?"

"We can't get third-party platform stats yet, but on Nebula Gas' own platform, in the first 24 hours after launch, the ga sold 495,721 copies. Only 24,916 have been refunded so far—40% of those were because the ga's too hard, and the other 60% for various other reasons."

Since it was Nebula Gas' first big title, and they'd been promoting and building hype for quite a while,

combined with the company's good reputation, first-day sales of nearly half a million copies weren't all that surprising.

And thanks to discount coupons, most players chose to buy it on the Nebula Gas platform.

As for refunds, compared to most gas, Dark Souls' numbers were indeed higher.

But this was within Lucas' expectations—in fact, the refund rate for Dark Souls was even lower than for their previous ga, Outlast.

Was Dark Souls a ga for everyone?

Obviously not.

In fact, no ga is really "for everyone."

Gas are a deeply personal experience.

So people love big AAA titles, others prefer mobile gas, and so enjoy browser gas.

So what kind of ga you like really cos down to your own taste.

Dark Souls, however, is absolutely the kind of ga where, if you slow down and let yourself sink into it, you can feel its charm.

Its high difficulty is deeply tied to that charm.

From the boss fights, to the level design, to the combat system, and even the ga's art style—everything is built around that.

These things are all closely tied together.

If you lower the ga's difficulty, it's like cutting a link in the middle of a chain — the whole chain breaks.

That would be a loss that outweighs the gain.

Besides, compared to what online players are saying, Lucas, as the developer, can see the real situation of Dark Souls more clearly through the backend server data.

And right now, things are looking much better than Lucas had imagined.

Also, besides the critics, there are plenty of players speaking up for the ga.

At the mont, it's basically a 4-to-6 ratio, and more importantly, players' online ti hasn't been dropping.

In fact, among the first batch of players, 70% have already played past the two-hour refund window.

That really surprised Lucas.

Clearly, players in this parallel world have a higher "M" factor than he had predicted when researching the market.

These numbers made Lucas feel no pressure at all.

Now it was just a matter of ti — letting the fine wine of Dark Souls slowly spread its aroma so that more players could catch its scent.

Of course, so proper guidance was still needed during this period.

Otherwise, it could still affect Dark Souls' performance.

(End of The Chapter)

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