Game Maker: Starting by Healing the Players Chapter 80: If You’re Gonna Play, Make It Different

As ti went on, both projects made fast progress.

The new employees who joined later finally understood why people like Hector, Anna, and Rachel spoke so highly of Lucas.

Everything in the daily workflow ran smooth as silk — everything was done right the first ti, with no hiccups or roadblocks at all.

It felt like the path ahead had been covered in oil — as long as you ran forward and slid, you'd reach the finish line of happiness.

The whole team had creative discussions, but there were no argunts.

That's because the core idea of the ga was already decided.

Everyone just had to work toward that goal and try things out.

In that kind of atmosphere, even working overti felt rewarding.

Lucas was also known for giving very generous overti pay at Nebula Gas — and the overall benefits were top-tier too.

The improvents made to Legends of the Three Kingdoms were mostly focused on gaplay experience, not rules.

That said, outside of the rules, the ga already had sothing great going for it —

its lines and voice acting.

Those elents really made the ga stand out.

They were among the best of the best.

A lot of the classic voice lines were still fresh in players' minds.

So players who haven't played Legends of the Three Kingdoms might not know where those lines ca from,

but they've probably heard them before.

For example, Zhao Yun's "Able to advance and retreat — a true weapon,"

Zhuge Liang's "It's easy to know fate, but hard to go against it,"

or Guan Yu's "You're just showing off before your head gets chopped off."

As for ga mode, they were planning to start with the standard 5-player setup — one leader, two traitors, one loyalist, and one hidden role.

Other modes, like the Nation War mode and so on, were planned for later updates.

Because when it cos to gas, it's not always a good idea to stuff in too much content right from the start.

Players need ti to get used to the ga and learn how to play.

Even the Zelda series — known as the best in the world — went step by step.

From the first 3D ga Ocarina of Ti, to Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, and finally the famous Breath of the Wild, each one had tons of content,

but they still introduced everything gradually so players could learn the systems and settings little by little.

So when a ga tries to do everything at once or throws a bunch of stuff at players all at once,

it doesn't really make the ga feel rich — it just overwhelms people.

They'll be turned off and say, "What the hell? Why does playing this feel like I'm prepping for grad school, trying to figure out all these systems?!"

As for the other ga, Fall Guys, it followed the sa pattern as Overcooked.

Besides improving player experience, the biggest focus was on regular content updates.

It would also support the Steam Workshop, allowing players to create their own maps.

In the previous life, Fall Guys went from super popular to pretty much dead.

A lot of players blad it on cheaters.

While cheating was definitely part of the problem, it wasn't the main reason.

If cheating were the main reason, the player base would've shown a clear stair-step drop-off.

A normal player plays the ga → runs into cheaters → gets frustrated → quits the ga.

That's the usual path of soone who quits because of cheaters.

But that alone isn't enough to instantly kill a ga.

The real reason Fall Guys died off so quickly—

Was the lack of content.

As a light party ga full of obstacle courses, the main thing that keeps it fun is how enjoyable the levels are.

But once players figure out all the levels and get bored,

There's not much left to enjoy.

And what did the original Fall Guys devs do after their ga beca a huge hit?

They did make new levels, no doubt about that.

But what they mostly focused on was skins and collabs.

By the ti they realized the ga was fading and rushed to add new maps, it was already too late.

So for Lucas, his goal was to keep players excited for as long as possible.

And to give Fall Guys a long life by using the Workshop system to keep fresh content coming.

Trying to turn it into a long-term multiplayer hit? That's not realistic.

Fall Guys is more like an internet trend.

It can go viral for a while, but staying popular forever? Impossible.

Not because of its quality, but because it doesn't have enough depth.

.........

As the Expo date got closer, things were still pretty relaxed inside Nebula Gas.

Both gas were coming along really well. Legends of the Three Kingdoms was already testing its online multiplayer features.

The only thing left was recording voice lines for so of the generals.

Fall Guys was also pretty much done in terms of level design.

The only major part left was sound effects.

Inside the company, each departnt had beco the first round of testers.

But right now, people seed to prefer Legends of the Three Kingdoms more.

Mostly because Fall Guys needed more players to bring out the chaotic, silly energy Lucas talked about.

anwhile, Legends of the Three Kingdoms was a blast to play once you got used to it.

"You and I are ruler and subject… must we really fight like this?" Anna sighed dramatically.

"The emperor has lost his way—Zhuge Liang follows the will of heaven!" Rachel grinned as she played two "Barbarian Invasion" cards, finishing off the last of Liu Bei's health.

"No, we're playing again! I'm not okay with this! Why is it every ti you draw so many tactic cards, and whenever I play Zhuge Liang I always end up holding just one 'Strike' card?" Anna complained.

"Just admit it, Anna. You've got that unlucky aura," Rachel said with a big smile.

"But seriously, I wonder what that big project Boss Lucas ntioned really is," said Hector, who'd been quiet until now.

Besides Legends of the Three Kingdoms and Fall Guys, they were all working on that mysterious project Lucas had talked about.

But everyone had different roles, so none of them knew much about it.

"It's a dark Western mythology story. Kind of like Ragnarok," said Anna, who was in charge of the storyline.

"Yeah, that's about right," Rachel nodded.

"My side's combat system feels more like dieval knight duels," Hector added, scratching his head.

"Why are you thinking so hard, Qin? Once the project officially starts, Boss Lucas will tell us everything," said one of the other employees.

"Exactly! What I'm more curious about is what kind of cosplayers we'll have this ti at the expo. Goat Mama? Fish Lady?" another one said excitedly.

"Too bad Mirror isn't allowed to be shown… otherwise—" Hector let out a sigh.

"Ugh, n," Anna said with a fake disgusted look.

"Exactly! So tasteless!" Rachel chid in, agreeing with the comnt above.

"That's right. You guys really need to raise your standards. And female cosplayers? Everyone's doing the sa thing. How are we supposed to stand out from the other companies? If we're gonna do it, we should do sothing different. Take a look at this!"

Just then, Lucas and his assistant Lisa walked in carrying a big box.

(End of The Chapter)

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