Inside the Nebula Games office.
Most of the planned buildings were already finished, with only a few still being wrapped up.
"Lucas, look—SkyNova just announced the launch date for Voyage. It's January 21st!" Hector said a little nervously.
"It's fine. Don't forget our plan. You don't need to worry about Minecraft's promotion; I've already set things up with the operations team," Lucas said with a smile.
"As for Voyage, it's not even the same type of game as Minecraft. And with that launch date, I think they'll end up feeling pretty awkward," Lucas said with confidence.
So far there was only Don't Starve as a reference point. And even then, Don't Starve was a very unusual kind of sandbox—it had a strong, clear goal.
That led many designers to focus only on the survival part.
In doing so, they ended up ignoring the biggest strength of sandbox games: creativity.
Take Marcus's Wasteland for example.
Or even SkyNova's new Sailing. Just from its trailers and promo material, Lucas could already tell they had gone off track.
They completely ignored creativity, going against the true spirit of sandbox games.
To be fair, based on what had been shown, Lucas felt those games leaned more toward "miniature world" games—building a finely crafted world for players to explore.
Still, Lucas believed they would probably sell well.
On one hand, the quality was there. On the other hand, even if they went off the sandbox path, mixing in a few sandbox features with solid gameplay still made them appealing.
But to become a smash hit? The chances weren't that high.
And as for Sailing's launch timing, if it came after Minecraft's full release or alongside Minecraft's trial, Lucas felt it wouldn't matter much.
After all, the game industry isn't a zero-sum game. Even though Sailing was advertised as sandbox, its gameplay was completely different from Minecraft.
So for now? Lucas could only say: good luck.
.........
On January 3rd, Minecraft's trial download officially opened.
It would run for five days.
Players who had been following the game rushed to download it and jumped in as soon as possible.
At her desk, Hannah saw the game unlock on her screen. Smiling from ear to ear, she grabbed her phone to take a picture.
What? Use the system screenshot button or the game's screenshot feature?
No way—she wanted to snap it with her phone, upside down, with bad focus.
After taking the photo, Hannah sent it to Zack: "When do you get off work!? I'm already playing over here!"
Almost instantly, Zack replied: "Soon, half an hour. Should be home in about an hour. Want me to bring you something to eat?"
That was exactly what she wanted to hear. Seeing his reply, Hannah happily typed back: "Bring me roast duck rice from downstairs, and for the duck bones, cumin seasoning only, no chili powder."
After a short chat with Zack, Hannah quickly clicked on the Minecraft icon.
She had to admit, Don't Starve had really amazed her before.
The last time she got this hooked on a game, it had been Fall Guys and It Takes Two.
She had also tried out some sandbox games from other studios in between, but most of them were boring.
As for Minecraft, she had been looking forward to it for a long time.
Even though it had pixel graphics, and even though the trailers didn't really show much, she was still full of excitement.
After all, Don't Starve didn't even have a trailer, just Lucas's text posts on the official blog.
Once she entered the game, the Nebula Games logo was skipped.
Then her eyes landed on a pixelated grassland scene.
Far off, white clouds floated across the sky, and sunlight broke through, shining onto the ground.
The clouds spelled out the game's name and logo: Minecraft.
The sunlight also cast moving shadows on the ground.
And the loading screen was quite interesting—not a flat menu, but an interactive one.
On this screen, the player controlled Steve, who was standing on a small, isolated island.
The island wasn't big, and it was surrounded by invisible walls.
Beyond them stretched an endless ocean with the rising sun on the horizon.
On the island stood a few houses.
On them were written options like "Quit Game," "Settings," "Mods," and "Start Game."
Everything in the game was made up of blocks.
Before this, Hannah thought the pixel style would make her uncomfortable.
But once she entered the game, she realized it was just like the promo video Lucas had posted on the official account.
Even though it used pixel blocks, with the HD textures and lighting effects, the pixel look had its own charm.
"This feels a bit different from what I imagined. The footage in the trailer must have been real too."
Looking at the unique UI, Hannah couldn't help but admire it in her heart.
Before, when she first heard Minecraft was a pixel game, what she worried about most was the graphics.
She wasn't exactly a graphics-obsessed player, but she still preferred games that looked better.
And while Minecraft was blocky, Lucas had clearly put a lot of thought into its visuals.
Besides the HD textures and lighting effects, there were also small details added.
In Minecraft, players could clearly see the changes in light and shadow, especially since the game had a weather system.
After rain, when the sun came out, rainbows and mist combined with the lighting effects, looking very beautiful.
Even the loading screen gave players a direct feel of the game's visuals.
Without thinking too much, Hannah first checked the MOD section. Just like in Don't Starve, there wasn't much there yet.
Then she entered the main menu.
There were four modes to choose from.
The first was Single Player, the second Multiplayer, the third LAN Play, which let players on the same network connect together.
The fourth was Community Play, where players used their own host as a server with their save file.
But since this was early access, only Single Player and LAN Play were open.
Of course, even in Single Player, players could invite friends through the Nebula Games platform to join their server.
So LAN Play sounded useless at first.
But actually, this mode was prepared for mobile players. For PC players it wasn't very necessary, but as players liked to say, "I might not need it, but you can't not have it." Since it didn't take much extra work, they developed it anyway.
"Guess I'll just try Single Player." Hannah muttered to herself, then picked it and entered the game.
(End of The Chapter)
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