"But the event deadline's only about two weeks away! Can we really make it?" Anna asked doubtfully.
Even though registration doesn't start until early September…
This announcement had already been posted back in June.
That means most game studios or devs aiming for this contest have already been working on their projects for two or three months.
"Yeah, and for a sci-fi game, we probably don't have nearly enough people right now," Rachel chimed in.
After working on both Mirror and Undertale, Rachel wasn't a total beginner anymore.
Even if a sci-fi game isn't going to be some huge production, with just the three of them and such a tight deadline, it seemed impossible.
"Two weeks is plenty. This game will be even simpler than Undertale," Lucas said with a smile.
"A game even simpler than Undertale!?" Anna and Rachel both stared at him, completely stunned.
Is Undertale a great game?
Of course it is.
But is Undertale a big game?
Not at all.
And now Lucas says this new game is even smaller than Undertale?
So what kind of game is it, then?
"Smaller than Undertale? Can it even place in the competition?" Anna asked, skeptical.
Rachel stayed quiet and looked at Lucas, waiting for his answer.
"It's about participating. Whether it wins or not doesn't depend on size—it depends on whether it can move the players and judges," Lucas replied with a smile.
Hearing that, Anna was speechless.
"So it's like Undertale, but not a meta game?" Anna guessed, turning to Lucas.
The dev team only had three people, and the time limit was two weeks.
Judging by the genre, you could kind of guess it.
With such a short time frame, even by indie standards, making a game usually means doing something like Undertale.
"Pretty much," Lucas nodded with a smile.
There were a lot of directions he could've taken for the new game.
But based on the current progress and the point system, as soon as Lucas saw the event announcement, an idea popped into his head.
Seeing Rachel and Anna's curious faces, Lucas, still sitting in his seat, smiled and gave a brief explanation.
"In the future, there's a company that uses a special machine to enter people's memories and change them."
"But these artificial memories aren't temporary—they're permanent. That means once the person wakes up, their new memories clash with their real ones, causing confusion."
"So the technology is only used on people who are dying—those with regrets, who want to fulfill a wish by changing their memories, letting them die without regrets."
"The game begins with two employees of the company, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts , helping a dying man named Johnny fulfill his life's dream: to go to the moon."
The game Lucas wanted to make was called To the Moon.
It sounded like a sci-fi game.
But in reality, it's a story-driven game—a love story.
It's a very small game. In its previous life, it was even made using a simple engine called RPG Maker.
And there's no combat at all. The gameplay is all dialogue and puzzles.
Yet this simple little game moved countless players to tears. It's what you'd call a "tough guy crying" kind of game.
To the Moon also won a ton of awards.
In 2011, it beat out big titles like Catherine and Portal 2 to win GameSpot's Best Story award.
It also won Metacritic's Best Game and WIRED's Best Game that year.
In Steam's 2017 "I'm not crying, it's just something in my eye" category, it was a top nominee.
Its creator, Kan Gao, even appeared on CCTV's show The World Speaks to Me.
For Lucas, choosing this game was partly because of the sci-fi elements—it fit the event theme.
But also, he wanted to hit the players right in the feels with this one.
Undertale and Mirror just didn't have the same emotional punch anymore.
As for winning any awards, Lucas just went with the flow. Honestly, calling To the Moon a sci-fi game was a bit of a stretch.
It's small in scope, but its emotional power made Lucas stick with it.
He had also considered rage games like Jump King or Getting Over It.
But in the end, he gave up on those.
Sure, they can definitely stir up player emotions.
But the rules of the event required that players actually spend money for it to count.
If you don't have money, choosing this kind of game is basically a gamble.
If you win, it's off to the hotel for some fun. If you lose, you're stuck carrying cargo at the docks.
Of course, that's only if you're broke. But if you do have money, and with a bit of marketing and guidance, this type of game could easily become a huge hit. After all, live streaming is super popular in this parallel world.
And these games are basically tailor-made for streaming.
But even if they go viral, not many people actually play them—so Lucas wouldn't get much emotional engagement from players.
Plus, some of these games are pretty frustrating. Right now, what Lucas needs most is a good reputation.
So after thinking about it for a bit, he decided to pass on those games and instead chose To the Moon.
Great reviews and emotional impact for players—he gets both at once!
...
After briefly explaining the game to Rachel and Anna,
Lucas went back to his office to start writing the concept draft for To the Moon.
Of course, "concept draft" here mainly means the core story.
To help with that, Lucas also used a memory capsule to dig deep into his own memories.
He also wrote down the sheet music for a few classic piano tracks from To the Moon. With his current level of music skill and having a reference, it wasn't too hard.
The rest was just improvements—to make the game feel smoother to play and look better visually.
After all, the original To the Moon was a pixel game made with RPG Maker, and its clunky controls and visuals were its biggest drawbacks.
But with the technology in this parallel world, two weeks is more than enough to make To the Moon.
(End of this chapter)
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Let's do a challenge: for every 100 Power Stones, I'll release one bonus chapter.
Now, give me your Power Stones! (said in the most polite tone possible)
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Read +40 advanced chapters on my patre*n
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