Game Maker: Starting by Healing the Players Chapter 47: Players and Industry Buzz (Bonus |700PS)

At midnight on October 31st, Lucas uploaded the pre-recorded video to his official account right on ti.

He also posted a ssage: "Guess what the new ga is?"

Even though it was late at night, quite a few night owl fans were still keeping an eye on Lucas's account.

The post quickly caught the attention of so players.

"What's going on here? Look what I just found—Lucas has a new ga?"

"Whoa, he posted this in the middle of the night? That's kind of wild."

"Damn, what is this video? I thought it was gonna be sothing exciting, and then I got this in the dark!"

"Wait a sec—what is this video even about? A horror ga?"

"Holy crap, that DV looks so cursed!"

"So Lucas's next ga is a horror ga?"

"I don't really care about horror gas, but the timing of this post… it's creepy as hell!"

"So the next ga has sothing to do with a DV?"

A lot of players were confused.

Lucas's ssage was actually super clear—this eerie video was basically a big sign that the next ga would be a horror title.

But what really got players talking was the ti he posted it.

The next day, Lucas's post got picked up by a bunch of dia outlets.

After all, Lucas still had so heat from winning the top prize with To the Moon.

Plus, with November just around the corner, there weren't any major titles coming out at the mont.

Players started jumping into discussions, trying to figure out what kind of horror ga Lucas might be working on.

Even within horror gas, there are different subgenres.

"There's a DV and what looks like an office. It's probably set in modern tis."

"Soone's holding a DV cara filming sothing, but the whole video is completely silent. And judging by how ssy the room in the video looks, we can take a wild guess—maybe you can only see the ghost through the DV cara?"

"Walking with a DV cara through dark hallways and rooms, and suddenly a ghost face shows up on the screen, then drags the caraman into the dark abyss!"

"Damn it, a bunch of over-actors. There's nothing there at all. Are we really supposed to analyze this? Watching it in broad daylight still gave chills."

"Man, you're such a coward. You can't even handle this? I suggest you wear a diaper when you play or watch it later."

"This is so creepy. I saw it around midnight last night. It didn't even show anything scary, but I still freaked myself out and felt like soone was under my bed. Couldn't sleep half the night."

People online were all talking about it, but most of the comnts were just wild guesses. After all, Lucas's video was just a hint—his next ga would be a horror ga.

But what kind of horror ga it is hasn't been revealed yet.

Not just players, even designers and dia people in the industry were buzzing about it.

"Did you hear? Lucas's new ga is actually a horror ga!"

"That's a bit unexpected. I really didn't think Lucas would go for horror."

"But it's not that surprising. For small teams or indie ga devs, horror is actually a good genre to start with."

"Small team? Lucas doesn't count as a small team anymore. Haven't you seen the intro for Nebula Gas? Lucas's team isn't that small now."

"That makes sense. After all, Undertale and To the Moon both sold really well."

"But horror gas are still kind of niche. There aren't many great horror gas."

"Yeah. VR might fit horror pretty well, but the market and costs are big problems."

"I feel like Lucas's horror ga might just be a fake-out."

"What do you an?"

"Look at To the Moon and Undertale—it's obvious Lucas is a great storyteller. So maybe this so-called horror ga is just horror on the surface, but it's actually telling a touching story underneath?"

"When you put it that way, it doesn't sound impossible. Didn't Lucas once say he's a 'warrior of love'?"

"Good point!"

Ga designers in the industry were all talking about Lucas and his new ga.

But for ga content creators chasing clicks and views, it was a total circus.

"Strange Video Drops at Midnight—What Is Lucas Planning?"

"From Warm and Fuzzy to Full-on Horror? Designer Lucas Shifts to Scary Gas!"

"Leaving His Comfort Zone to Try a Niche Genre—Confidence or Overconfidence?"

...

One article after another flooded websites and forums.

So bigger dia outlets stayed fairly neutral.

But a bunch of marketing accounts and second-rate ga dia were stirring things up like crazy.

And the main reason was the genre Lucas picked.

After all, it's been years since the industry has seen a truly great horror ga.

You can't say the whole horror genre is dead, but it's definitely lacking energy.

The ones that sell okay are mostly part of long-running IPs, and their yearly sales keep dropping.

And horror gas co in all kinds of forms.

Zombies and ghost girls in Asian gas.

Serial killers and demons in Western ones.

Realistic ones. Supernatural ones.

You na it, it exists.

But none of them are really breakout hits.

Mainly because they're all stuck in the sa loop.

Still using the sa formula: jump scares, shooting, and tight story pacing.

It's not a bad formula, but making it truly stand out is really hard.

Out of all the shooter-horror gas from the past, how many can people actually na?

Basically, just Resident Evil and Dead Space. And even then, only the forr still counts as a top-tier IP. Dead Space completely disappeared until years later when EA ran out of old gas to remake and finally decided to dust it off.

But for Lucas and the whole team at Nebula Gas, none of those online discussions really mattered.

Because the ga's developnt progress was growing at a pace you could literally see with your own eyes.

It wasn't fully finished yet, but the early parts were already playable.

And after trying it out, Anna, Rachel, and the rest of the team all had the sa reaction.

And that was… no freaking way are we playing this at night!

Seriously, it was just too damn scary.

Even though everyone in the team had worked on the ga together, building every detail from scratch—

That didn't stop them from getting scared out of their minds!

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