Kapitel 73: C73: Development Direction

Accompanied by my official blog release. It attracted a rain of complaints from countless players and has been shared across various game communities. Under the comments section on my official blog, numerous dwellers have gathered.

Essentially, most of them were expressing the same sentiment: You think we're buying this?

Communication, tolerance, patience? It sounds reasonable, but they can't shake the feeling that I'm trying to pull a fast one on them.

Some players believed my explanations, others didn't. However, one thing remained constant: The cute and warm look of Overcooked Since its launch on Valentine's Day, the game has been all over major streaming platforms, video websites, and game communities.

For a time, everyone was talking about this unique co-op game. Sales of Overcooked steadily increased as well.

A week after its release, sales officially exceeded 350,000 copies. Compared to the previous successes of Undertale, To the Moon, and even Escape, which the industry was not too optimistic about, the 350,000 sales of Overcooked may not seem as high as expected.

However, there's an important detail here—320,000 of those sales came from the Neon Game platform. This means we gave away 160,000 copies.

But what matters more is that, compared to Escape or To the Moon, Overcooked brought in a significant number of users to the Neon platform.

Granted, these users aren't particularly loyal yet, but they are users nonetheless. At the very least, they've installed the Neon platform application on their computers and registered for the Neon Game Pass.

This is something Escape couldn't achieve.

For the game time, Overcooked also outperforms Escape. Very few players have the guts to play a game like Escape for long stretches. Most players would buy it, watch others play, and maybe play it themselves in a while years later.

But Overcooked is different—playing it with your best friends is an entirely different experience. The game's success has also put Neon Games and myself in the spotlight.

Before this, Undertale sparked a wave of metagame trends in the indie game world, and I even won a sci-fi award with To the Moon.

For most companies in the gaming industry, though, these achievements are impressive but not groundbreaking.

However, with two back-to-back successes—Escape and Overcooked—we've hit a level of popularity We hadn't experienced before. We had also entered the eyes of wary as a source of discomfort.

At the Neon Games office...

Leaning back on the sofa, I watched as my points under my System UI continued to peak. I have to admit, Overcooked is quite something. The speed at which points accumulate is on par with Escape, which had its item-driven boost.

In one week, I've already amassed enough points for 20 consecutive draws.

Looking at the points on the interface, I decided not to spend them just yet. Those last draws scared me—nothing but Normal items.

Better to stockpile. Big rewards will come with forbearance and patience.

As for the next project, I haven't given it much thought. My current capabilities are enough for now. I'll save the lottery for later when there will be a real need—after all, those points won't suddenly sprout wings and fly away. They won't expire like the cane of coke.

Besides, the new year has just begun. Since last year, the company has expanded quite a bit, but we're still understaffed. I'll need to hire more people to handle different operations.

Unlike Undertale, To the Moon, or Escape, Overcooked is a multiplayer online game. We'll have to open new areas and keep rolling out updates.

Someone needs to take responsibility for these kinds of operations of the game. The platform also requires operators.

In addition, I will develop true multiplayer games in the future, which will require an even more capable operations team. After all, I need to train this team and embed the culture of Neon Games into them.

For any game, operations can be said to be the top priority, especially for multiplayer games. Sometimes, operations even surpass the need as compared to the game resources in the game itself.

The next priority is the development team, which will continue to expand. We'll need talent for music, action, and art. I mentioned before in the office that this would be a challenge, and now, it's clear we need to recruit more people—about 15 more.

As for the office space, it's already getting crowded, so we should consider expanding. The entire floor above our current office seems to be vacant, so I'll have someone contact them about subletting.

After confirming these points, I called the office and instructed them to begin recruitment. Although recruiting in the short term isn't realistic, I'm not in a hurry. Two to three months should be sufficient.

During this period, however, I received a somewhat unexpected phone call from Net Dragon. It wasn't just a courtesy call—they expressed interest in acquiring Neon Games. Given the success of our recent titles, while they may not be large productions, they've been undeniably successful. In particular, Escape and Overcooked have generated a lot of buzz.

As one of the giants in the gaming industry, it's only natural that Net Dragon would pay attention to Neon Games. The day after Net Dragon's offer, I also received a call from Tenghua, who somehow got my contact information and wanted to talk.

Currently, in the gaming world, these two companies are in direct competition. Simply put, when Tenghua makes a move, Net Dragon steps in, and vice versa. Now, both of them are pursuing Neon Games, but I've already decided-We are not for sale.

Still, this allows me to gauge how both companies view Neon Games.

"Anyway, I need to speed up the development process!"

I hung up the phone and leaned back thoughtfully. There isn't a lot of capital within Neon Games at the moment, but according to our current trajectory, we're not lacking either.

So far, cumulative sales for titles like Magic, Undertale, To the Moon, Escape, and Overcooked have exceeded 10 million and are still growing.

Among these games, some have high R&D costs, while others have lower ones. But overall, they are all profitable.

When accounting for daily employee salaries, bonuses, rent, and other expenses, our company, Nebula Games, still has nearly 200 million in liquidity.

For large-scale VR platform games, the average development cost is typically between $50 million and $150 million. Of course, this is just the average; some top-tier masterpieces can cost even more.

For a masterpiece on the PC platform, the cost usually ranges from $10 million to $40 million. It's now possible for us to handle it, but it still carries some risks—especially since these are just the R&D costs. This doesn't include marketing and promotion.

It's impossible to develop a masterpiece without a proper announcement, right? What's more, our current manpower is somewhat limited, so expanding the team is a must.

The next step is to develop AAA-level games. Even if it's on the PC platform, we must create hype for our platform.

To get Neon Games into the eyes of most players quickly and attract a solid player base, one of the best methods is to have exclusive titles. This is a very traditional yet effective strategy.

However, taking the exclusive game route might affect sales. Initially, I planned to stick to smaller and mid-sized projects, playing it safe. Gradually, we would stabilize the Neon Games platform and expand its library.

But now, I need to carefully consider the next step in our development direction.