Game Maker: Starting by Healing the Players Chapter 141: Can I Touch the Trophy? They’re All Mine!

When the host ca on stage, unlike before, there weren't a bunch of long and tedious speeches.

Just a few quick introductions, then David, the head of the Magic City Ga Division, stepped up to announce this year's list of senior title ga designers.

Just like how newcors need certification to beco a ga designer, getting a senior title works the sa way.

Usually, you need at least five years in the industry and so notable achievents to qualify.

For Lucas, even though he didn't et the years-of-experience requirent, as the saying goes: if you lack ti, make up for it with results.

In just two years, he had taken first place in the Ga Division's competitive selection, and his works—such as Fall Guys, Dark Souls, and Outlast—had all been big successes.

So this year, he also made it onto the list.

Along with Lucas, there were fourteen other designers who qualified.

But it was clear Lucas was the one who drew the most attention.

When Lucas went on stage to give thanks and took the certificate from David, the audience erupted into applause.

Countless designers in the crowd were filled with envy.

'As expected.'

'Honestly, even though Lucas doesn't have the years, with the achievents he's had in the last two years, not picking him would make no sense.'

'I'm jealous! I've been in the industry for seven years, and I'm still not sure if my application will pass next year.'

'Forget it, it definitely won't.'

'Damn!'

As Lucas stepped down, so familiar designers quietly chatted among themselves.

After sitting back down, Marcus smiled and congratulated him.

Lucas smiled back.

But soon, both Lucas and Marcus stopped talking.

Because next ca the highlight of the night.

The nominated designers seated in the front row straightened up, fully focused on the host announcing the results.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the first award was revealed.

First, the nominated gas were announced, and then the host on stage took the mic and declared loudly, "I announce that the winner of Best Story of the Year is—Loulan, developed by designer Michael !"

As the winner's na was read out, the room filled with enthusiastic applause from all the designers present.

Lucas was smiling and clapping along.

As the first winner of a ga award tonight, all the other ga designers were also generous with their applause.

Excited, Ling Hai walked onto the stage as the award winner, taking the trophy from the presenter's hands.

He then gave his acceptance speech.

When he finished, the crowd continued to applaud.

Next ca the second ga award of the night—the Best Art Direction Award—which also went to an indie ga.

Just like before, the winner was thrilled and gave all kinds of thanks.

The earlier awards were mostly the smaller ones.

Things like Best Art, Best Performance, Best Indie Ga, and so on.

These weren't exactly the big, high-profile ga awards.

Soon, once these warm-up awards were done, it moved on to the truly major ones.

The next category was for a genre-specific award: Best Adventure/Puzzle Ga of the Year.

As expected, Lucas won his first award of the night here.

"I announce that the Best Adventure/Puzzle Ga of the Year goes to—designed by Lucas—Valiant Hearts: The Great War!"

Amid thunderous applause, Lucas went on stage to receive his trophy, then gave a fairly standard thanks to Ga Division and to all the players for their support.

For Lucas, this award ca as a pleasant surprise.

The ceremony went on, and the next was for sports/racing gas. In the country, only a few studios really make these, so the results were no surprise.

Then ca Best Action Ga. Dark Souls got a nomination, but in the end the award went to Platinum Interactive's Goddess Adventure 3.

This was a long-running dostic action IP, so Lucas wasn't too disappointed.

He knew that Dark Souls getting nominated here was mostly just to fill the list.

After all, Dark Souls wasn't really an action ga—if it had won, it would've been purely because the competition was weaker.

Next was a special award that everyone knew the winner of in advance.

Unlike before, when the host would speak slowly to build suspense, this ti they announced it straight out.

"Congratulations, the Best Casual Ga of the Year goes to—designed by Lucas—Fall Guys!"

The announcent was t with loud applause.

No one looked surprised.

This was the most predictable award of the night.

Back then, Fall Guys was insanely popular—easily a phenonon.

Many ga designers in the audience couldn't help but remark.

"This was the most predictable award."

"Yeah, you could say it's the biggest phenonon of the year. Even Lucas's later Dark Souls couldn't compare in popularity."

"Lucas is a total monster!"

"We're not even close to done here. Just watch—there's more coming. Don't forget, Dark Souls hasn't actually won a single award yet."

"He's crazy… and every one of these awards is well-earned."

Then ca a few more major ga awards.

By this point, unlike earlier categories like Best Soundtrack or Best Performance, the awards being given now were the heavy hitters.

They showed that these gas, at least in their genre for the year, had earned real recognition.

Best Shooter, Best Adventure, Best Strategy…

During this stretch, Lucas picked up a few more wins: Dark Souls took Best Level Design, and Overcooked won Best Co-op Ga.

Compared to past years, this event also added a new award—Most Popular Ga Among Players—decided entirely by online voting.

This was the biggest change from previous years.

Dark Souls beat NetDragon's Star God to win the award.

Watching Lucas walk down from the stage, Marcus—seated nearby—felt like he was having a heart attack.

It was like he'd been dragged back to the award ceremony a year ago.

And this was only the beginning.

Once again—and again—Lucas went up to accept another award.

This ti, Lucas won the Best Mobile Ga award for the mobile version of Legends of the Three Kingdoms.

The applause from the audience was starting to feel a bit tired, and even the host announcing the winners seed a little speechless.

Holding the trophy, Lucas went through the usual routine of thanking everyone.

anwhile, in the livestream chat for the event, countless viewers were flooding the screen with comnts.

"Wow, can soone count how many awards Lucas has gotten so far?"

"Damn, is he here to buy trophies in bulk?"

"Haha, did anyone notice sothing? Lucas just repeated the sa thank-you speech he used earlier!"

"Lucas must be out of ideas by now. How many different speeches can you give after going up there so many tis?"

"Haha, soone give the cara to Lucas, I want to see where he's going to put all those trophies!"

The chat kept rolling with ssages.

There were also plenty of people who were just now realizing how impressive this Lucas guy was as a ga designer.

Which wasn't surprising.

After all, most players focus on playing gas—they don't really pay much attention to the designers or even the studios behind them.

So didn't even know that Dark Souls and Fall Guys were made by the sa person.

But compared to the online chatter and curiosity, Lucas himself was feeling a little awkward.

"Uh, Marcus, can you help hold a trophy or two? I don't have enough space for all of them." Lucas said as he returned to his seat, sounding a little embarrassed.

The trophies weren't big, but there were just too many of them.

A total of six.

The awards varied in importance, but in Ga Division, all the trophies had the sa design and size—only the engraving on the base was different.

And since there wasn't any staff around to store them, Lucas didn't feel right putting them on the floor.

So he turned to Marcus for help.

He had no choice—Marcus was the only designer here that Lucas actually knew.

And from their past etings, Lucas thought this Marcus was a pretty friendly guy.

When they heard Lucas's request, a few nearby designers quietly turned their heads.

"Too many trophies to hold?"

Did you hear that?

As for Marcus, he suddenly understood why he had been feeling uneasy earlier.

I should have stayed outside, not co in here. For so reason, that thought just popped into his head.

But what he actually said was, "No problem. I can just take this chance to touch Lucas's trophies and see what it feels like."

Lucas: …

Nothing wrong with the words, but why did it sound so strange?

Before Lucas could think about it too much, the host on stage called out another familiar na.

"Congratulations! The award for Best Role-Playing Ga of the Year goes to… Dark Souls, developed by Lucas!"

As soon as the words left the host's mouth, every ga designer in the room turned to look at Lucas.

At the sa ti, a cara zood in on him.

Viewers watching the stream burst into laughter.

"Oh my god, it's him again!"

"Haha, Lucas hasn't even ward his seat and now he has to get up again!"

The regular players and designers found it amusing.

But among the designers, there was so discussion.

"Best RPG went to Dark Souls?"

"Well deserved, but still a bit of a sha."

"Yeah, I bet the final fight will be between Star God and Sin City."

In the nominees' area, the designers chatted quietly.

One of them, a man in his thirties wearing glasses, had his eyes closed and hands clasped together as if in prayer.

He was the designer of Sin City.

Marcus, still holding a bunch of Lucas's trophies, perked up with excitent.

Lucas himself didn't feel much about it.

He simply took the trophy from the host, stepped up to the mic, and gave his thank-you speech.

"Thank you to all the players who have supported . I'm truly touched."

"In Dark Souls, there are a lot of things that are different from many other ARPGs, but thanks to the feedback from players, we're very happy."

"I also want to share the joy of winning this award with all the staff at Nebula Gas. This is sothing we all achieved together, and I also thank the leaders and judges from the Ga Division for their recognition."

"Finally, I want to once again sincerely thank all the players. You made this possible, and we are deeply honored."

"In the days to co, I'll keep making better gas."

"Thank you, everyone!"

As Lucas finished speaking, the room erupted in thunderous applause again.

On all the major streaming platforms, countless players were also buzzing about Lucas winning the award.

"Haha, for such a big award, Lucas finally said sothing new."

"Didn't you notice sothing? That producer who once called himself the Warrior of Love said sothing very important — he's happy with the players' feedback!"

"Yeah! Dark Souls is a high-difficulty, punishing ga. Does this an that seeing us suffer makes Lucas happy?"

"Busted, busted! So that's the kind of person Lucas is!"

"Still, it's a bit of a pity. I feel like winning this might an missing out on the Ga of the Year award."

Online, the discussions were intense.

By then, Lucas had stepped down from the stage.

Next was the final award of the night — Ga of the Year.

The designer from SkyNova sat rigidly, eyes locked on the big screen on stage, clutching their knees tightly, clearly excited.

Marcus, standing beside Lucas, seed calm as he chatted with people, but his small eyes kept darting toward the stage.

Suddenly, the lights in the hall went dark.

The big screen on stage began showing clips from the nominated gas.

Each clip played with its own background music and cues.

A grand palace of the gods, from prosperity to ruin. Legendary monsters appeared across the land. Majestic scenery unfolded before the players' eyes. In the mountains, a boy with mysterious bloodline began his journey to find the lost gods — Star God.

A bloody gang life, neon-lit nights in the city. As an undercover agent inside the gang, the main character struggled in this living hell. Family, duty, friendship — one iconic scene after another flashed by — Cri City.

Iudex Gundyr, the Abyss Watchers, the Naless King, the Fire Keeper… Lothric Castle, Farron Keep, Firelink Shrine… scenes that players knew well and rembered "fondly" passed by. Finally, the toll of a bell, and the Ashen One climbed out of a coffin — Dark Souls.

When all the clips were done, the lights ca back on.

The host announced loudly, the SkyNova designer shouted in excitent, while Marcus, beside Lucas, covered his face with both hands.

The Ga of the Year award went to Cri City.

From Lucas's perspective, it wasn't really a surprise.

If you compared story depth, Cri City was indeed stronger than Star God.

And in terms of technical achievent, Cri City was no worse than Star God either.

The only thing that surprised Lucas was that Star God walked away empty-handed from the whole event.

"Marcus… try not to take it too hard. Star God's market performance was still great, and players did recognize it." Lucas tried to comfort Marcus, who was holding Lucas's trophy with a downcast look.

Marcus was a good guy, after all.

Hearing this, Marcus glanced at the trophy in Lucas's hand, then at the one he was holding for him. Suddenly, he had the urge to cry.

...

With that, all the awards had been given out, and the reford Ga of the Year event ca to an end.

The dia rushed to publish articles.

But online, the biggest topic wasn't Cri City winning Ga of the Year.

It was Lucas and Nebula Gas, a studio that had only been around for two years.

After all, they had practically scooped up award after award, which was attention-grabbing on its own. Even if only three of them were major ga awards, it was still quite incredible.

Another hot topic among players was that Star God got nothing.

Considering its popularity and player feedback, no one had expected it to be the real runner-up.

Especially in the live broadcast's final monts, when the director cut to a shot of Lucas and Marcus together, the contrast was even sharper.

Many players clipped that shot and turned it into s.

In the picture, Marcus and Lucas were each holding a few trophies, and players added captions:

[Marcus: Holding a trophy feels great!]

[Lucas: Nice to hold, right? Rember to give them back later — they're all mine!]

(End of The Chapter)

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