Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

In a certain district in Capital City.

Yang Xin sat on the sofa with both legs resting on the coffee table in front of her. She turned to Ruan Ningxue, who was sitting next to her, coloring her manuscript, and asked,

“Xiaoxue, will you really not consider making a game with me?” 

Ruan Ningxue put down her brush and rolled her eyes.

“Sister Xin, your little ship has holes and leaks and is about to be flooded.” 

Yang Xin replied immediately.

“Ahem, it’s just a rough patch, and I still have three employees on my side! And look at your studio, Xiaoxue. Can you even call it a studio? What kind of studio has just one person?” 

“At least I make a profit! And Sister Xin, three months ago, didn’t you have 8 employees?” 

“People have their own desires, the employees under me are also pursuing their dreams, I can’t not let them go, right? By the way, Xiaoxue, how is your classmate’s game doing?”

Yang Xin was slightly embarrassed and asked Ruan Ningxue to change the subject.

“I haven’t been paying attention, maybe the results aren’t too good.” Hearing Yang Xin’s words, Ruan Ning Xue gently shook her head.

“Then this studio of yours will soon have extra hands?” Yang Xin thought of something and asked, obviously also knowing the agreement between the two people.

“Most likely, but I guess Chen Xu is in a bad mood right now.” Ruan Ningxue sighed and said.

During this time, she hadn’t even taken the initiative to contact Chen Xu.

After all, she also consulted Yang Xin after the end production, and the other party was not at all optimistic.

Although this sister of hers has created three games in a row, these funds are all gone.

But at least she can be considered an industry professional. 

Plus, the three failed games are still completed products, so she must have gained some experience from this, right?

During the month of game development with Chen Xu, Ruan Ningxue could clearly feel Chen Xu’s passion.

And she could also feel, especially when she was able to control the flow and drive the content, the unique enjoyment of playing video games.

The feeling was great, and at that time, she came to understand why Chen Xu wanted to develop a game.

Therefore, during this period, she did not ask about the results of the game, especially when the other party had previously said that she would be paid for her work as soon as the game successfully raised funds.

Even though she didn’t care about it herself, it was impossible for her to tell Chen Xu to forget about it.

After all, it wasn’t about the money and it wasn’t really her business.

Besides, she was getting busy with her doujin schedule, so she didn’t pay too much attention to the game.

She was also willing to let Chen Xu use this time to calm down and adjust his mood. She’d chat him up when the time was right. 

For the sake of this classmate, she was worrying herself silly!

Yang Xin lamented in her heart.

“There’s no way around it, many newcomers think that 18R games are easy, but it can only be said that the risk is relatively low. In reality, when is game development ever easy? By the way, Xiao Xue, what’s the name of your classmate’s game? Let me search it up right now.”

Yang Xin said with emotion and in the tone of an old veteran. 

This reminded her of her three previous failures.

Even though she hadn’t met Ruan Ningxue’s classmate in person, Yang Xin inexplicably had a strange feeling.

She felt like she could empathize with him at this moment.

Especially when Ruan Ningxue told her that the other party broke the boat and went all in on this project. 

(Broke the boat = to cut off your own path of retreat, all or nothing! Let’s gooooo.)

This made her even more certain that the other party was definitely someone who loved video games, just like herself.

Remembering the frustration she felt when she made her first game that died at launch, Yang Xin still had some sympathy for Chen Xu at this moment.

If she wasn’t losing so much money right now, she would have asked Ruan Ningxue to introduce him to her company. 

Such a talent who loves games is the kind of employee she wants!

“Don’t worry, Xue, when the time comes, I’ll be the bad example for your schoolmate, and you can use me to comfort him.” Yang Xin patted Ruan Ningxue’s shoulder.

In the end we’re all just people, the pain of this failure, she could understand.

“Thank you Sister Xin, by the way, the name of the game is called ‘Mirror’, but the platform it’s on seems to be the overseas version.” Ruan Ningxue said to Yang Xin.

The game had launched even though she hadn’t asked Chen Xu, she did take a quick look, but at the time, the ratings and whatnot hadn’t been unlocked yet, so she wasn’t sure how well it was doing.

“Mirror, why does that sound familiar?”

“It feels like I’ve heard it from somewhere before?”

“Wait …… this game!”

After hearing the name of the game from Ruan Ningxue’s side, Yang Xin started mumbling and opened the official game platform.

For some reason, she kept feeling that the name rang a bell.

She moved to the overseas version of the platform, typed in, and then searched.

Then Yang Xin fell silent and turned her head to stare at Ruan Ningxue dead in the face. 

“Damn it, this is the one who you said couldn’t get good results? This is the classmate you said was making a game for the first time? The one who didn’t know anything?”

“Are you kidding me?”

She said, realizing why it sounded so familiar!

When she was browsing the game forums earlier, she saw a ton of posts mentioning this game. 

Then she looked at the game’s storepage. 

USER RATING 9.6

REVIEWS 1724

Yang Xin was no longer calm.

Sympathy, empathy?

What is that? Is it tasty?

Who the hell could empathize with this kind of person?

Who the hell would sympathize with this kind of person?

A 9.6 rating, and so many reviews!

It’s only been how many days, and there are already over 1700?

This kind of feeling, she had yet to experience it!

How vexing!

“So Chen Xu’s game was actually a success?” Ruan Ningxue asked innocently.

“More than a success, it’s a huge success! For God’s sake, this is an 18R game! And it’s only been a few days, with such high ratings and so many reviews, I think it’s going to sell more than the peak of my three games!

Yang Xin said enviously.

As she watched the growing performance of ‘Mirror’ on the storefront, she began to feel queasy and uncomfortable.

Especially when she thought about what she just said to Ningxue, offering herself up as a bad example for the comfort of others.

Good Lord, she had become the bad example for real!

However, Yang Xin quickly threw off this embarrassing feeling when she stood up and grabbed Ningxue’s arm.

“Xiao Xue, please! Please introduce me to this great god!”

“Let me learn his ways!”

As the saying goes, the pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first. 

Well, maybe that’s not quite right, but it’s close enough.

After all, if you can’t turn into a big shot, but you find someone who might, why not cling onto those rock-solid thighs?

(pavilion closest to the water enjoys moonlight first = to benefit from intimacy with an influential person)