Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

Aya Tsukino nodded: "It seems so, because they think that only games like this will be more popular in this day and age, and those small-scale games don't have much of a market."

Zhu Youxing said strangely, "Who said that? Haven't we also made a lot of casual games? Although none of them have generated significant feedback, they have all spread by word of mouth and cultivated a lot of non-gamers, expanding our market base. Who dares to say that such small-scale productions cannot be popular?"

Aya Tsukino shook her head and said, "But even if we just make a small game, it will require more than a dozen or twenty people and cost at least ten million yen to make. This is an unbearable cost for three high school girls, as their families cannot afford such expenses."

Zhu Youxing seemed to understand something. He asked in return, "But many of our current third-party game studios also started from scratch. They created their own value in the process and became outstanding game developers. No one can achieve success overnight."

"That's true, but these three girls still felt that the barrier to entry for game development was a bit too high. This might be an instinctive reaction, not because of whether the cost of game development is high or not."

When the three girls went to Youxing Electronic Entertainment Company, Zhu Youxing told them that they didn't need to be overly ambitious. They just needed to develop games step by step and be down-to-earth. They could start with some simple 4399 mini-games and then gradually make more outstanding games. This is a process of accumulating experience, and everyone needs to take this step now.

However, the gaming industry in the world today seems to be a little bit distorted.

At this moment, Zhu Youxing also remembered some things.

Recently, many game companies, economic news outlets, and industry insiders have been talking about big-budget productions, constantly promoting their own high-investment games, which are said to start at least in the tens of millions of US dollars. However, indie games, which previously only involved a few people and garnered attention, are gradually being neglected.

Chapter 522 The Neglected Indie Game

522

It seems that game developers around the world have really fallen into a vicious cycle.

If Aya Tsukino hadn't suddenly brought it up, Takeyusei wouldn't have really noticed.

This is not just a problem for three girls.

It's not entirely because the three of them were a bit too ambitious.

Another reason is that the current environment is also trending towards praising big-budget productions.

However, this is actually unreasonable.

A truly healthy cultural and entertainment industry means that works, whether big-budget or low-budget independent productions, have an audience.

In particular, independent games can stand shoulder to shoulder with large-scale industrial games in the industry. Independent games are not much worse than large-scale games, and independent games have their own significance.

There is such a healthy system in the film industry.

First, some unknown directors try out directions that big-budget productions have never attempted before, and then conduct low-cost trial and error. Once an independent film achieves a breakthrough in a certain direction, big-budget films will follow suit and explore that direction more deeply.

This gives low-budget independent films the opportunity to shine, while high-budget films can also experiment with a much smaller budget to find a direction for film production that has a higher chance of success.

In this way, independent films and big-budget films can form a very positive complement.

This system is equally applicable to the video game industry.

Big-budget games shouldn't be taken lightly, as they involve hundreds of millions of dollars.

No capital can accept losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Therefore, starting with indie games and exploring a successful path before expanding to larger-scale games is a very good direction.

However, the world is quite different.

The environment for indie games in this world is very shallow, or even nonexistent.

Zhuyouxing has tried to encourage individuals to develop games several times before, and has also held several game development themed competitions.

However, these efforts have yielded little result. Most people, after gaining a certain foundation in game development, choose to join a game company directly, participate in large-scale games, and become a cog in the machine of these large-scale games.

Takeyusei looked very serious and thoughtful for more than ten minutes, while Tsukino Aya patiently watched Takeyusei and waited for his answer.

Tsukino Aya knows Takeyuusei well. When he's deep in thought, there's no need to disturb him; you just need to wait quietly by his side. He must be thinking intensely right now, and it's probably not just about the questions she asked. Takeyuusei has obviously thought of something else based on the troubles of the three girls she mentioned.

"color."

"Ok?"

"It seems... I've steered the world's game development in a direction I don't particularly want to see."

Tsukino Aya was stunned.

She didn't immediately understand what Zhu Youxing was talking about.

Zhu Youxing murmured, "This world seems to lack the environment for independent game development, which is actually somewhat abnormal and unreasonable."

Aya Tsukino asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why? Isn't the gaming industry booming right now?"

Zhu Youxing nodded: "That's right, but..."

However, this is based on the premise that the company continuously leads the industry.

Those working in the game industry in this world see themselves as a benchmark, thinking that it's enough to just learn from them and follow the path that Zhu Youxing has already paved.

Zhuyouxing has truly become the godfather of the video game industry.

However, this also led many people to look up to him, and only to Zhu Youxing.

Naturally, this brought Zhu Youxing unparalleled influence. In the video game industry, he had the most authoritative voice, and people regarded everything he said as gospel.

The light emanating from him was so dazzling that everyone overlooked the occasional tiny sparkles beneath it.

But he was ultimately just a human being; he was not a true god.

His power is limited. He can still innovate now, but when his inspiration runs dry, those who have been watching him will probably be instantly bewildered.

At that time, Zhu Youxing even felt that the entire industry would be greatly shaken as a result.

This is not an exaggeration, but rather a very likely scenario.

Even the most successful people are gradually declining. Does that mean the gaming industry is also coming to an end? Does that mean the industry's development potential has reached its limit?

Perhaps when one is unable to surpass oneself time and time again, it may cause upheaval no less than the Atari crash of the previous life.

Of course, this possibility is actually very low. Even with decades of experience in game development from his previous life, Zhu Youxing might not be able to present all the high-quality games from his previous life to this world in this lifetime. He shouldn't need to worry about these things.

However, this is still not working for the industry as a whole, and we must find a way to change it.

At this moment, Takeyusei finally came to his senses and looked at Tsukino Aya, who had been silently watching him. At this moment, Takeyusei suddenly felt a very touching emotion, an emotion that was very rare since he came to this world. He seemed to have a slight impulse to do something, but he quickly suppressed his thoughts about games.

“Ah Cai, just like I said, the game industry shouldn’t develop like this. We should find ways to give independent games a certain voice.”

Zhu Youxing's first thought was to use his fame to encourage more game developers to create independent games.

But that's not enough. Mere encouragement is like hoping, like taking a chance, that a super genius will suddenly emerge from the indie game scene and develop a phenomenal indie game.

If Zhu Youxing did that, he might as well just spend his own money to buy lottery tickets.

Upon hearing Takeyusei's words, Tsukino Aya simply asked calmly, "What do you want to do?"

“I want…” Zhu Youxing’s eyes shone brightly, “to develop a game without using my own name, and to develop it all by myself, without relying on anyone else, just like when I first created the FC game console, I handled all the game development myself.”

From music and art to programming, level design, and gameplay design, Zhuyouxing was involved in every aspect, creating an independent game with only his participation.

Bamboo Star, a top-tier indie game developed by one person and achieving instant fame, has already come up with a solution that should be very suitable for this world right now.

In his mind, a simple 2D character, a hoe, and a letter appeared.

The game is called Stardew Valley.

Chapter 523 New Territory

523

Stardew Valley is a game with a very legendary history.

This is a farming simulation game developed entirely by one person, which ultimately took five years to complete.

Its inspiration comes from the early Harvest Moon, as well as later games such as Minecraft and Animal Crossing.

While Stardew Valley can't be said to be the culmination of these games, it certainly presents the characteristics of these inspired games very well, making it a rare and top-tier indie game.

And the people who made this game

It was a work created by only one person, and it had already achieved a terrifying sales volume of 20 million before Zhu Youxing traveled through time.

It's important to know that Stardew Valley was released in 2016, an era when top-tier games were everywhere and sandbox games were as common as dogs. Many people were already dazzled by these top-notch and cool games.

However, Stardew Valley still manages to attract every player who plays the game with its very unique charm, and people are captivated by Stardew Valley.

However, it's still quite astonishing that it took one person five years to develop such a game.

But in reality, this person himself was not very efficient at developing games; he spent very little time in a highly efficient development state over the five years.

For a period of time, he even needed his wife's help to make ends meet. However, this was not because the game developer was deliberately slacking off. The main reason was that he was developing the game alone, and there was almost no one to provide guidance during the development process. He had no idea whether the direction he was taking was popular or correct. It was all a mystery.

In such a situation, a shadow may fall over his mind, and he may begin to doubt whether the game he developed is good enough.

But Zhu Youxing doesn't need to worry about that.

First of all, he is now a top-notch game developer, and he has mastered the use of various creative ideas and gameplay techniques.

Even if he were to return to his original world, he would definitely become a top-tier game developer, given the experience he gained from playing countless top-tier games over ten years.

Furthermore, Zhu Youxing is also a very efficient person. During the game development process, he is unlikely to slack off too much. In addition, he has a very mature development path and knows how to make it, which can actually save a lot of time.

I roughly estimate that under ideal conditions of intense work, I should be able to complete the initial development of Stardew Valley in one to two months, which means adding the mainstream gameplay content, such as farming, decorating, mining, and social activities.

That's enough for now. He will gradually add more features over time to make the game more and more complete.

"Zhuyou, are you just trying to set an example for those three girls because of their troubles?"

When Tsukino Aya heard Takeyusei's proposed game development plan, she felt it was a bit outrageous.

This time, he wants to develop the game all by himself, with almost no help from a second person, which is actually a very inefficient approach for Zhuyouxing at this point.

Zhu Youxing originally had no reason to do this, but now that he suddenly wants to do it, it seems that the only reason is to set an example for the three girls.

"I guess so, but not entirely. It was what you told me about these three girls that reminded me of the current state of the industry. I actually want more game developers to realize that games shouldn't just be big productions."

Zhu Youxing doesn't want the game industry to stop functioning without him; he still hopes that people in this world can continuously unleash their creativity to create outstanding games.

His original intention has not changed so far: to play the excellent games created by the people of this world. Simply replicating the games from his previous life would be a bit boring.

Now that we have a direction, let's get started without delay.

This time, he doesn't plan to use his own reputation, and he doesn't even plan to launch the game on his own home console and handheld platforms from the beginning.

His target platform is the PC platform.

It just so happens that I have been trying to cultivate PC users' habits of using my own Battle.net gaming platform, which is similar to Steam in its previous life and now has hundreds of games.

However, apart from first-party games like StarCraft and Doom, BambooStar doesn't have any other competitive titles.