"All of these games share one common trait—their development time was definitely not long. If Unreal Engine was used, most of them could have been completed in less than a day."
"I'm not saying that a game must take a long time to make. Some games can indeed be created quickly through creativity. But these games should serve as counterexamples. If you want your removed games to regain players' trust, then you need to put real care into development. Game development is not simple—it requires genuine effort."
Takayuki spent almost an entire day going through more than a hundred removed games, one by one.
From each game's concept to its development details, he spoke as if he were the actual creator of all those games, fully understanding every nuance of their development.
Some of the developers felt deeply ashamed.
Not all of them were like Hanladi, who only cared about quick money. Some genuinely wanted to make good games, but laziness had led to mediocre results.
After Takayuki's guidance, many of them had an epiphany. At the very least, they now knew how to move forward with development—and from there, the remaining work would be much easier.
As for the other developers present, they benefited even more.
During development, they constantly ran into problems, yet often had no one to give them reasonable advice or answers.
There was no shortage of game development guides online, and Gamestar Electronic Entertainment's official website even provided a complete development workflow.
But a workflow alone could never cover every detail of the development process.
By treating these hundred-plus games as a comprehensive collection of development problems, Takayuki solved them live—effectively addressing many issues other developers faced as well, leaving them suddenly enlightened.
"So that's it! This stuttering issue I've been struggling with for ages—it was caused by this! I searched everywhere before and couldn't find the problem. Now it finally makes sense!"
"Different gameplay systems can cause unexpected conflicts like this? They can even crash the entire system? That's unbelievable. Game development really is complex—I was thinking too simply before."
Everyone frantically took notes, recording every key point Takayuki mentioned.
Of course, the exchange meeting was livestreamed, and the footage would be archived. Anyone who wanted to revisit it could watch the recording later.
In the future, Takayuki would hold at least one such meeting every year, using some of that year's games as negative examples.
Some might feel embarrassed about being used as counterexamples, but in time, being singled out by Takayuki would become a different kind of honor. A game noticed by him would inevitably have something special worth learning from—even if it was flawed.
That said, this time around, the developers of the removed games didn't receive such generous treatment.
"Sorry—I talked a bit too much today. My throat's gone dry."
By a little past seven in the evening, the number of people in the venue had barely decreased from the beginning.
Most people would have been exhausted by now, but the attendees were still highly energized.
Having the chance to discuss game development directly with Takayuki—and get personal answers—was incredibly rare.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Takayuki!"
"I've really learned a lot today."
"Absolutely. I feel like my future development efficiency will improve drastically. Without this meeting, I might not have made much progress for a long time."
Everyone felt fortunate—grateful that they had come to this exchange meeting.
The gains far exceeded what they could have achieved by working alone in isolation.
If they could, they would have happily stayed even longer.
But all meetings must come to an end.
Before concluding, Takayuki brought up several cyberpunk games that he had tested earlier but had not removed.
If there were negative examples, there also had to be positive ones.
Some cyberpunk games might indeed have ridden the trend—but that was fine. As long as the work itself was solid, anything could be discussed.
What made some games unacceptable was not trend-chasing, but doing so carelessly—treating players like fools and insulting their intelligence.
Those were the games Takayuki had no mercy for.
But for games that delivered a good experience, he personally recommended them on the spot.
One such game was Cyberpunk: Hacker Trace, a roguelike with Metroidvania-style gameplay.
There was nothing fundamentally wrong with its mechanics, and its art style was clearly the result of thoughtful design—not a collection of public-domain assets or outright copies.
More impressively, the game had no major bugs.
The full playthrough lasted around seven hours, and the experience was densely packed and well-paced. It was genuinely a solid game. Even on the day before the exchange meeting, the developers were still fixing bugs, doing their best to make the game as polished as possible.
That attitude alone was worth Takayuki's recommendation.
Several other games were similar—qualified works that earned his praise. He didn't hold back his compliments and expressed his hope that more people would continue creating within the cyberpunk genre.
Takayuki didn't mind others riding the cyberpunk wave. On the contrary, he hoped more creators would produce richer cyberpunk works.
Whether in film, animation, games, or literature—cyberpunk was a culture worth exploring deeply.
The developers whose games Takayuki praised were overjoyed.
Being praised by him had become an honor in itself.
And even before this, they had already gained significant profits through Battle.net's official recommendations, making them the true beneficiaries of this incident. They were now among the platform's most loyal supporters.
At the same time, this sent a clear signal to the outside world:
If your game is made without care, Battle.net—the world's largest game distribution platform—can remove it at any time.
If you believe in your abilities, you're free to list your game elsewhere.
Battle.net simply won't accept it.
The exchange meeting finally ended at around eight in the evening.
And at that very moment, online discussions began surging at a rapid pace.