Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

Meanwhile…

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that everyone at Nebula has been closely following the news and progress of Outlast.

After all, this was their first major release as a studio, their first group project.

The budget wasn’t a trivial amount either—with development and advertising fees rounded out to a hefty 7 million yuan.

Sure, this was peanuts to the larger gaming companies dominating the market right now, but it was an amount that surpassed the typical spending of most indie games.

With great spending comes great need for returns. So it was natural that the team was highly focused on the performance of the game.

“Bossman, how is it so far?”

“Yeah, it’s been a few days since launch. I’m dying to know.”

Within the first week of launch, Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, Qin Yi and a few others were gathered around Chen Xu, who was sinking deeply into a fancy massage chair (company benefits), asking him about the status of the game.

While the reviews and buzz around the game were all well and good, what truly determined their future as a game studio were the sales.

What did word-of-mouth or cult classic status matter to a game that didn’t sell well? If the sales were bad, the project had no future.

The first game that came to Chen Xu’s mind along this line of thinking was ‘Bayonetta’ in his previous life. A game that was near and dear to his heart.

It was one of the three best action games of its time, standing alongside other hits like ‘Ninja Gaiden’ and ‘Devil May Cry’. ‘Bayonetta’ was celebrated for its gameplay and character design, with loyal fans that begged for more.

Yet it suffered a lukewarm fate, having the IP traded off repeatedly. The fans had to wait 8 years between the 2nd and 3rd installments.

Despite its critical acclaim and cult classic status, it did not sell well. In fact, if you added up the first and second games, both the original releases and HD remasters, the total sales would still be mogged by ‘Devil May Cry V’ alone.

It was that bad. The industry could be brutal like that.

“Not bad at all. We’ve hit 130k copies sold in just under 2 days, and this is after factoring in the refunds. So we should break even within 3 days,” Chen Xu answered with a smile.

Compared to many other games, ‘Outlast’ had a noticeably higher refund rate. But this was within Chen Xu’s expectations.

After all, it was a horror game. An exceptionally terrifying one, even by his previous world’s standards. So it was only natural that many players would be too frightened to continue playing.

“Aww… looks like only 2000 copies were sold on our own platform…” Yang Xin said regretfully while peeking at Chen Xu’s personal computer.

While Chen Xu hadn’t been explicitly mentioning his intentions with the Nebula Games official launcher / storefront, the internal resource allocation provided towards it made things rather clear.

“Our discounts aren’t competitive and the platform still lacks recognition. Plus, our games catalog isn’t at a level to draw people in yet, we currently only have ‘Outlast’ as a major title,” Chen Xu replied in a calming tone, his lips curling slightly upwards, “It’s a gradual process, our time will come.”

In the current era of the parallel world, internet culture was in full swing, there were tons of companies and tons of platforms out there. Building up your own would be an uphill battle.

In his previous life, Chen Xu witnessed the battle between Microsoft and Sony during the peak of the console wars. Both sides had wins and losses over 3 generations of consoles.

But while Microsoft achieved some notable successes, it lost a critical battle while transitioning to the internet era, resulting in the reign of the PS4.

Sony pivoted more quickly to embrace digital games and social gaming, allowing the company to dominate the market.

And even after Microsoft leveraged its vast resources, acquiring studios left and right, launching several subscription services, it still ended up lagging behind Sony for a long time.

Similarly in the PC market, Epic Games tried to leverage its breakout hit ‘Fortnite’ to establish its own platform, aggressively spending money to secure users even while operating at a loss.

But Steam was an industry titan, boasting a massive catalog of games and a suite of convenient services to compliment its platform.

Thinking back, Chen Xu was reminded of Tencent as well. It managed to get a leg up on older giants such as NetEase and Shanda largely due to being the first to establish instant messaging.

Wouldn’t it be great to build a company that could rival those titans one day? Chen Xu mused inwardly, having high goals was nice, but it was time to focus on matters at hand and deal with things as they come.

He shifted the conversation: “Right now, the potential of ‘Outlast’ has yet to be fully realized. There’s a good chance for a sales boom in the near future, get ready for it.”

“Oh? How so?” Ruan Ningxue and the others were intrigued.

“Pay attention to streamers and video content creators, those will soon be our largest driving force,” Chen Xu said with a gentle smile, he was looking forward to the reactions and compilations that would surely come.

For a horror game to be truly competitive in sales, it needed to go viral.

This means making a break out of not only the niche horror game enthusiasts, but also the gaming community in general. It had to make normies get hooked on watching other people get scared.

This worst case scenario would be to remain confined to the initial niche, sales would be doomed in that case.

Great examples would be ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’, which took the world by storm and topped YouTube charts, becoming a universally known franchise.

And the ‘Resident Evil’ series, which produced iconic characters and memes such as Leon, Ada, rock puncher Chris and hand sanitizer warrior Ethan. Alongside infamous mods such as the Fly Swatter weapon specifically for Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters.

Other IPs such as ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Outlast’ enjoyed mainstream exposure through video essays, streams and playthroughs.

In contrast, games such as ‘Fatal Frame’, ‘Siren’, ‘Clock Tower’, and ‘The Evil Within’, while excellent in their own ways, remained obscure to all but dedicated horror game fans, failing to break into the mainstream.

This need to break out of the horror niche also applied to movies as well, as the majority of players and viewers simply weren’t hardcore horror enthusiasts.

They were simply curious about how a game or movie could possibly scare people so much.

And while it was uncommon for movies to offer refunds, games did it all the time, yet players usually do not choose to go for the refunds, even if they did not continue playing.

After all, once a game is purchased and sitting in your collection, maybe you will play and finish it one day

This is one of the reasons why many games have a low completion rate, horror games especially.

As of now, Chen Xu’s ‘Outlast’ was two days post release, and it already hit 130,000 copies sold. This was impressive, but he knew this was only the beginning.

Over time, as influencers and content creators realized what a goldmine of content this game could be, sales would accelerate.

The buzz on video and streaming sites had yet to reach its peak.

……..

As predicted, while the spark was lit, it took some time for the craze of ‘Outlast’ to spread.

On several streaming platforms, the game rose in the ranks to become a hotspot for audiences who loved watching their favourite streamers descend into madness.

Many unsuspecting streamers were bombarded with requests and recommendations to play the newly released title.

Donation message:

[ Hey! Try ‘Outlast’! It’s a new game by the same guy who made ‘To the Moon’. It’s a heartwarming experience! You’ll love it! ]

[ Why not play ‘Outlast’? It’s super popular right now! ]

[ It’s great for content! Someone streamed it and hit 3 million views! Let’s go grind! ]

[ ‘Outlast’ or riot ]

Even streamers who didn’t usually do gaming content were “gently coerced” by their own fanbases to try the game out, ultimately agreeing due to simple curiosity or a need to keep up with trends.

Some were attracted by the reputation of To the Moon and wondered what its creator was up to. And some wanted to replicate the success they saw in their peers and build their communities.

Regardless of the reason, more and more hapless streamers willingly jumped into the hungering maw that was ‘Outlast’.

The resulting storm of chaos and excitement that followed would leave lasting waves in the world of streaming.

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