Let you make a game, what the hell is Pokemon?.

Chapter 176: The Phantom in the Dark - Preview! (4k)

Ling Feng stared blankly at the system notification.

"A brand new game?"

The system's malicious voice then rang out:
[Ding! Yes, the work that the host releases for the first time in the current world must be completely new. Directly porting an existing game is not allowed; otherwise, it may cause unpredictable rule conflicts and fluctuations, resulting in empty chaos that could lead to a broken link and other unforeseen risks.]

Ling Feng seemed to be deep in thought upon hearing this.

There are actually such restrictions?

But thinking about it carefully, it seems to make sense, since I've already traveled to another time and space.

The system's explanation sounded again, confirming the rule:
[That's true. When the host transmigrates to the new world, the first game cannot be released as a game that was already released in the other world at this moment. Otherwise, it will cause uncontrollable fluctuations, and the host will need to create a completely new game for release.]

Ling Feng pondered for a moment. "I see..."

However, this time, I've already gathered enough information, gaining a preliminary understanding of this world's technological level, the current state of Pokémon, and the potential dangers of the "Genesis Engine." Since I can't release the game directly for the time being, there's not much point in staying here.

Let's go back to our original world first and figure out what to do.

He made a decision.

With a thought, Ling Feng activated the return function of the "Dimensional Communicator." The familiar feeling of weightlessness and spatial distortion returned, and in a flash, he was back in his familiar living room.

At this moment, Gengar was sprawled out on the sofa cushions, its massive body taking up almost half of the sofa. A small game controller was loosely held by its short paws and rested on its round belly.

It was clearly tired from playing; the television screen, now dark, still reflected its sleeping image, its mouth slightly open as it snored, a trace of drool even clinging to the corner of its mouth—it must have been dreaming of something delicious.
Ling Feng's sudden appearance shattered the tranquility.

The subtle fluctuations in his teleportation space startled the sleeping Gengar.

He jolted awake, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and sprang up, flailing his short arms and legs wildly in the air, dropping the game controller he was holding onto the carpet.

He stared with his signature big red eyes, scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, and let out a call that was both awkward and polite: "Hey hey!!"

Looking at Gengar's appearance, Ling Feng couldn't help but smile helplessly.

Although only two hours had passed in that world, according to the system, almost a day should have passed in the real world.

In other words, this guy probably had a great time while I was away.

Ling Feng walked over, bent down to pick up the game controller from the ground, and casually rubbed Gengar's cold head.

"What are you afraid of? I'm not really your boss. It's okay to slack off, just don't slack off for too long."

"Besides, you've taken good care of the house and haven't destroyed it, so that's good enough."

Upon hearing this, Gengar floated to Lingfeng's side and laughed happily before turning around and flying back to its room, clearly going to get back to work.

After calming Gengar, Ling Feng checked the system notification in front of him.

[Note: This world traversal (PM-0734) lasted a total of 2 hours. Based on the extent of information exploration and the minor fluctuations caused during this period, 330 Emotion Points were awarded.]

[The "Dimensional Communicator" channel is replenishing its energy... After the next channel to this world is opened, at least 500 Emotion Points must be accumulated in that world to reopen it. Note: The required points will increase with each subsequent opening. If the requirement is not met even once, the channel to that world will be permanently closed.]

Ling Feng looked at the prompt, not surprised at all.

After all, this travel device wasn't meant for him to go shopping in another world. He knew very well that the system was encouraging him to continuously produce high-quality games in order to earn emotional points in that other world.
It seems that I'll have to bring a new game with me when I go to that world next time.

Just then, a soft "ding" interrupted his thoughts.

His phone screen, which was on his computer desktop, lit up, and a push notification from a mainstream gaming news app caught his eye—"Intense Competition at the New Game Festival! Pokémon Fantasy Era Makes a Comeback and Takes the Top Spot!"

A comeback to the top?

Ling Feng raised an eyebrow, casually picked up his phone, unlocked it, and opened the notification.

The first thing you see is a report with pictures and text, featuring a cool promotional poster for Pokémon Fantasy Age and a screenshot of the real-time leaderboard for the new game festival.

Sure enough, the top spot has changed.

[DreamWorks' highly anticipated title, *Pokémon Fantasy Era*, continues its soaring popularity. With its top-tier 3D graphics and rich online social gameplay, it has successfully surpassed the previously dominant *Pokémon Emerald*, taking the number one spot on the New Games Festival chart! The deep foundation and formidable strength of this veteran game developer have once again been proven!]

Below the report, the editor enthusiastically touted the many advantages of "Fantasy Era," from its detailed modeling to its gorgeous skill effects, from its vast open world to its rich multiplayer battle modes, praising it to the skies.

Ling Feng was not easily swayed by the content of these articles. He knew that they were probably paid trolls hired by Dream Factory. He scrolled down and opened the detailed data page to carefully examine the comparison of various core indicators of the two games.

As expected, although "Fantasy Era" surpassed "Emerald" in the rankings of the new game festival, it lagged far behind "Emerald" in key metrics such as actual downloads, average daily active user time, and especially player-generated positive reviews. In fact, "Emerald" was almost twice as high as "Emerald" in terms of paid conversion rate and user retention rate.

He then opened the game forums and social media, where he could find genuine feedback from players.

The situation is even more polarized. In the popular comments section, besides some players expressing approval of *Fantasy Era*'s graphics and innovations, there are far more complaints and criticisms:
The visuals are undeniably stunning, but the monetization points are just too plentiful! Pulling for spirits costs money, buying skins costs money, even speeding up hatching costs money? Do they really think I'm a sucker?

The gameplay feels like a reskinned version of the previous games; it's all about catching Pokémon and grinding dungeons. It can't compare to the free-to-play single-player adventure experience of games like Emerald.

[Dream Factory uses the same old tricks: they spend a lot of money on advertising and offer great early-game benefits, but once you're in, they start using all sorts of tricks to force you to spend money.]

I still prefer the pure feel of Emerald. Although the graphics are pixelated, the gameplay depth and storyline are truly exceptional.

Meanwhile, loyal players who supported Emerald left comments on related topics, which were clearly more aggressive:
[Haha, number one on the leaderboard? That's probably faked, isn't it? Dare to look at the real data?]

[Exactly, if it weren't for Dream Factory's massive advertising campaign and hiring online trolls to inflate ratings, would they have reached number one?]

[Waiting for "Wind" Studio to be proven wrong! We believe in the power of the Wind God!]

[This thing can actually be number one on the leaderboard? I'm starting to think there's something fishy going on in the gaming industry!] Ling Feng turned off his phone screen, leaned back in his chair, and sighed softly.

The situation couldn't be clearer. Dream Factory, this long-established giant, has clearly used its most proficient business tactic—the powerful hand of capital—to give it a strong push.

With their vast financial resources and extensive marketing channels, they used massive advertising campaigns, short-term recharge promotions, and classic tactics of manipulating rankings to artificially inflate their game's popularity index to surpass that of Emerald.

This tactic is simple and brutal, but it is often very effective in business competition, especially in situations of information asymmetry. It can easily mislead some casual players, since not everyone is aware of the current situation of Emerald.

Ling Feng now enjoys an astonishing income from Emeralds. If he wanted, he could easily wage a real money-driven traffic war against Dream Factory, competing to see who could run their ads the loudest.

But he gave up the idea after thinking about it for less than thirty seconds.

Because I don't need it.

Now there's an even simpler way to ignite the emerald craze.

That would mean releasing a completely new game in the same series right as the first playthrough of Emerald is about to end.

This is the one I had already decided on long ago—the Phantom of Darkness!

Coincidentally, he also needed a brand new game for players in another world to experience.

Ling Feng's thinking suddenly became clear: first promote it in Emerald, then release Dark Phantom directly in that world, and then go back to this world to bring Dark Phantom up. This should avoid the problem of time travel items.

After all, the system only said that the first game you need to release in another world must be one that hasn't appeared in other worlds yet. It didn't say that once you release it in that world, you can't release it again when you come back.

However, just to be on the safe side, Ling Feng still asked the system, and after receiving a feasible answer, he made a decision directly.

Start creating the Dark Phantom now!

Speaking of which, he was quite impressed with this game.

Unlike "Ultimate Emerald," which emphasizes hardcore gameplay and high difficulty, "Black and White" has a very good storyline. To put it more officially, it tells a profound story about light and darkness, truth and ideals, with a tortuous and touching plot.

To put it more directly, it tells the story of the protagonist's invincible journey, subduing various mythical beasts and annihilating all sorts of dark organizations.

At the same time, it has extremely high gameplay appeal, rich Pokémon training paths, frequent legendary Pokémon encounters, rare Pokémon and mythical Pokémon everywhere, and a relaxed and fast-paced gameplay. It's practically made for the player's gaming experience. When he played it for the first time as a child, he stayed up until dawn.

Using this game to deal with the current situation is definitely the most appropriate thing to do.

Moreover, this time he plans to use a 3D engine directly to create the game, bringing a brand new upgrade in visual presentation.

It's not like DreamWorks is the only company that can do 3D; they can do it themselves.

Moreover, with the added benefits of those modules, I can do even better!

This is a direct, technologically superior blow to the game Dream Factory!

Without further ado, Ling Feng immediately sat back down at his computer and posted a fairly official server-wide announcement on his Emerald game server:

[Wind Studio's Big Announcement! To all our dear trainers:]
Thank you all for your continued support and love for Pokémon Emerald! Every bit of your enthusiasm is our motivation to move forward.

However, the real adventure never ends, and the charm of the Pokémon world goes far beyond this. Therefore, the brand new series game, Pokémon Black and White, will be launched this week.

This game will be built using a brand-new, self-developed next-generation 3D engine, dedicated to presenting you with an unprecedented, grander, more detailed, and more vibrant Pokémon world!

In addition, this game will achieve seamless data exchange between mobile and PC platforms! It also innovatively supports seamless switching between various smart devices for a superior gaming experience, including but not limited to mainstream game consoles, smart in-car entertainment screens, and high-end smartwatches, allowing you to play and enjoy the fun anytime.

A legendary epic tale of intertwined light and darkness, a breathtaking adventure, is about to begin! Stay tuned for more updates!

After reviewing the announcement and confirming that everything was correct, Ling Feng took a deep breath and clicked the "Publish" button.

This announcement was like a boulder thrown into a seemingly calm lake, instantly creating huge waves!

First, on Cynthia's forum, the post was pushed to the top of the trending list almost instantly, and the number of replies skyrocketed at an astonishing rate:

[Holy crap?! What did I just see?! Is Storm Studios' production speed on a rocket?! I've only reached the third gym in Emerald, and I haven't even caught all my Pokémon yet, and a new game is already here?!]

[The Darkest Nightmare? That title sounds like it has a lot of backstory! It feels like it has a deeper tone than The Emerald. Looking forward to it!]

[Wait! Did I read that right? Fully 3D?! And it even supports playing on watches and car screens?! Is this for real?! Dream Factory was just bragging about their mobile and PC cross-platform synchronization, and now they've already dominated all platforms?!]

Some people have raised doubts:
[Um, while I really like Emerald, rationally speaking, isn't this announcement a bit over the top? Jumping from pixel art to 3D in such a short time, and implementing so many cross-platform features... Could it be that they're just hyping it up because they dropped off the charts at the New Game Festival?]

To be fair, and to be calm, there is indeed a possibility...

But some people seemed very supportive:
[The quality of Emerald speaks for itself; they're definitely a conscientious manufacturer, why would they lie to us? Let's just wait and see what this... the Phantom of the Black... is all about!]

[Haha, Dream Factory's shills sniffed out the scent and showed up? What's there to brag about your 'Pay-to-Win Era' besides the graphics? The gameplay is miles behind 'Emerald'!]

[What's all the fuss about? Let's see what they're made of! I play both games anyway, so we'll see how the quality turns out!]

Players reacted intensely, ranging from ecstatic anticipation to rational skepticism and even sarcasm.

Regardless, the topic of Wind Studio's upcoming new game "The Darkest Nightmare" spread like wildfire from the core gamer community to the entire gaming world, accompanied by impactful keywords such as "full 3D" and "cross-platform compatibility".

It even started to attract the attention of some game-related self-media editors, who immediately began writing reports to capitalize on the trend.

This news quickly reached Dream Factory as well.

(End of this chapter)