In the Magic City Game Division—
At this moment, in the Magic City Game Division, the officials and judges in charge of the sci-fi game jam were holding a meeting to go over the results.
Unlike regular players, these judges have to try every game. So they base their ratings on summaries from their review teams, plus their own gameplay impressions.
Let's be real—there's no way they could play through every story from start to finish with so many games in such a short time.
And since players were often unhappy with past winners, this time the scores combined both player votes and official reviews.
The whole point of the contest held by the game department was to help guide the local game market in a better direction.
But the game market is driven by the players.
Even if the official judges pick a game that fits the theme, if players don't like it, how can it possibly influence the market?
"Let's start with voting for the top prize. Everyone, please explain your choices one by one," said the lead judge sitting at the head of the table.
"NetDragon's game, Galactic Heroes, developed by designer Marcus—while the story and balancing have a few flaws, the level design and pacing are very well done," said the first judge.
"Nebula Games' To the Moon, developed by Lucas—though its gameplay isn't anything special, the story told in reverse is incredibly well-paced and beautifully handled," added another.
"I agree. Even though Lucas's game is different from his earlier Undertale and doesn't have a particularly creative system or mechanics, the pure storytelling alone is powerful enough to move people."
"Galactic Heroes is a great game, no doubt. But To the Moon is also excellent. From a personal point of view, most indie developers just don't have the resources to make something like Galactic Heroes, but To the Moon is different. That's why I lean more toward To the Moon."
"I get that it's a good game, but can To the Moon really be called a sci-fi game? It's more of a love story, isn't it?"
"Well, strictly speaking, it's not really sci-fi. But if we hold everything to that standard, more than 40% of this year's entries wouldn't qualify as sci-fi either."
"I'm still not convinced. I think Galactic Heroes is more promising."
......
The lead judge of the contest found himself caught in a heated debate over which game should win.
At the same time, countless players online were trying out the competing games.
In terms of early publicity, many of the games had received plenty of exposure.
But the one who got the most attention was clearly Lucas.
Undertale was still fresh in people's minds, and then Bell, who had been pretending to be dead, suddenly reappeared—only to get absolutely shut down by Lucas.
That whole drama gave Lucas even more exposure.
Because of that, lots of players rushed to try To the Moon as soon as it came out.
Online forums and player groups were already full of people recommending the game and talking about it.
"Everyone, go play Lucas's new game To the Moon! It had me crying!"
"Come on, is it really that emotional? Isn't this the game Lucas made in just a couple of weeks?"
"So what if it only took a few weeks? If it's good, it's good! The story is super touching—play it and you'll understand what it means when even tough guys cry."
"Damn, just reading your comments is making me tear up again!"
"Is it really that emotional?"
"Just go play it yourself. I didn't realize how easily I could cry until I played this!"
"Seriously? Alright, I'm gonna buy it and give it a shot."
"So, who are you voting for? I'm voting To the Moon no matter what!"
"Same here. My vote goes to To the Moon!"
"Yeah, it was moving, but is it really fair to call To the Moon a sci-fi game?"
"Who cares if it's sci-fi or not? I'm voting for it anyway!"
Everyone who played To the Moon right away didn't hesitate to cast their votes for it.
As for whether it technically counts as sci-fi—
After experiencing the story, most players didn't care at all.
Whether it was sci-fi or not didn't matter to them.
They thought the game was good, it moved them—that was reason enough to vote.
As for whether it fit the contest rules, that was something for the officials to decide.
...…
Soon, the sales numbers for the first three days came in.
To the Moon took the lead with 193,000 copies sold. Second place, Galactic Heroes, sold 87,000.
That's a huge gap.
But there were two big reasons To the Moon pulled so far ahead in sales.
To the Moon is available on both mobile and PC, which means a wider player base.
Also, it only costs 2 dollar.
In comparison, Galaxy Heroes is priced at 9 dollar.
To be fair, To the Moon is cheaper partly because of how short the game is.
From start to finish, it only takes a little over four hours to complete.
But even so, the lower price makes a big difference in sales.
(End of this chapter)
---
Read +45 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
Free Tier can read 3 advanced chapters
---