Tokyo Video Game Tycoon.

After working in the city for more than a decade, Chiaki Suzuki had almost forgotten what it felt like to be in his hometown.

This game allowed him to rediscover the joys of his childhood.

He really loved this game, even though it seemed so ordinary and the graphics were a bit bad, it brought back his original passion for the game.

Many people share similar feelings with Chiaki Suzuki, and without exception, they all love the heartwarming feeling that Stardew Valley evokes.

Some people even found the courage to return to their hometowns after playing this game.

A game made by one person sold 50,000 copies, with an average selling price of 1,700 yen.

Battle.net also took this opportunity to promote its revenue-sharing terms.

Game developers can receive 70% of the game's revenue.

Battle.net also added a special tag to Stardew Valley: Indie Game.

The term "indie game" is easy to understand. Just like independent films in the film industry, they are works created by one or a very small number of people with very low costs.

Independent films are very mature in the film industry, but video games were something that very few people had tried before.

Most people subconsciously define video games as products that require a high level of investment.

Perhaps it's because video game programming, drawing, music, and level design are all highly specialized, which makes most people hesitant to take on these complex tasks. In addition, the recent trend in video games is towards high-investment games. Only a few casual games from Yuxing Electronic Entertainment can capture some players outside of gaming, but the potential of casual games has not yet been seen by anyone. Most people are still focused on games with high investment.

Under these circumstances, no one expected that a dark horse would suddenly emerge.

Fifty thousand game sales may not seem like much to large companies, but for some game developers who are feeling lost, it seems to have opened a whole new door.

Stardew Valley's graphics aren't great, but it still achieved a small success.

Professional developers can quickly determine that Stardew Valley is not difficult to develop in any aspect; all it lacks is a creative idea.

If there is truly enough creativity, then the quality of the image seems less important, and high investment is naturally even less necessary.

This has given many confused game developers a new direction.

It turns out that success isn't only achieved through big-budget productions.

Look, Stardew Valley was created by just one person, and it's not that difficult to recreate the gameplay and graphics of Stardew Valley.

Even a game like this can sell 50,000 copies, bringing in approximately 50 million yen.

This is roughly equivalent to five years' income for a senior white-collar worker.

The game developers, still feeling lost, were now seeing tears in their eyes.

Moreover, sales of Stardew Valley have not stopped; the game continues to increase in sales, which means that the developers of the game can continue to earn revenue from it.

This is practically their role model!

For a time, Stardew Valley was not only circulating among game enthusiasts, but was also being discussed in small circles of game developers.

At the same time, the game's developers were also discussed: Nintendo is the damn world ruler.

This name is really strange.

The name seems to imply that Nintendo is incredibly powerful.

But what is Nintendo? Or rather, who is Nintendo?

One netizen commented: "The name Nintendo sounds like a century-old company. Only century-old companies are qualified to call themselves 'Do' (堂), which is a custom in Japan. Don't you know that?"

Netizen 2: "What does 'Ren Tian' mean? It seems to imply resignation to fate?"

One netizen commented: "It seems so. A century-old company that leaves everything to fate? Why would such a century-old company dominate the world? I really can't understand it."

Netizen 3: "Wait a minute, what are you guys discussing?"

One netizen commented: "Here comes another new guy, and I have to repeat myself again. Fine, I'll just say it again. We are now discussing what Nintendo actually means and why this game developer calls Nintendo the ruler of the world."

Netizen 3: "Is this the key point? I thought you guys were discussing game development philosophies, which made me happy for a while."

Netizen 2: "The names of game developers are also very meaningful. What makes you think you can look down on the names of game developers?"

Netizen 4: "Everyone! Breaking news! I just found an ancient linguist who seems to say that in an ancient language called Varys, Nintendo represents the most holy god. Perhaps Mr. Nintendo is describing a certain most holy god who is the ruler of the world?"

One netizen, 123, commented: "How did this get back to the topic of deities?"

……

Zhu Youxing, who was idly browsing the internet, was completely bewildered when he saw the chat content in this chat room.

Why do these people always like to analyze such trivial things for no reason?

This person was just making a joke; of course, people in this world wouldn't know what Nintendo actually is.

In addition to the username "Nintendo is the world's ruler," he also registered a series of alternate usernames such as "Sony is great," "Ubisoft potato cultivation expert," "Ten years of making games, nine years of making CG," "Making CG with heart, making games with feet," and so on.

He happened to be browsing chat rooms on a secondary account that had been used for ten years of game development and nine years of CG development, and unexpectedly found a group of people idly discussing this kind of thing.

When you have time, try playing my game. I'll show you that games aren't always good just because they require a lot of investment. Sometimes, small and beautiful games can be just as charming.

However, it is meaningless to talk about Zhuyouxing here; the people here simply don't care about Zhuyouxing.

They were just busy discussing who this predecessor called Nintendo was and why he was the world's ruler.

As expected, netizens have endless imaginations, and there's no point in trying to explain yourself.

However, it's quite interesting to occasionally read the discussions of these silly netizens.

Of course, after reading the hilarious discussions among netizens, he still had something important to do: encourage more people in the community to develop indie games, because this world shouldn't only have big-budget games.

The world needs more independent games.

Chapter 534 I Hit Myself

534

Zhu Youxing proved through his own experience that video games do not only require big productions.

Aiko, Kazumi, and Oto-chan's initial disappointment was restored, and their fighting spirit was even stronger than before.

At the same time, the three of them felt somewhat ashamed of themselves for having so easily given up on video games.

Zhu Youxing essentially taught them a very direct lesson; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him their second parent.

This rekindled their hope and strengthened their resolve to continue developing the game.

After settling these matters, Zhuyouxing temporarily stopped paying attention to the Stardew Valley game he had released. This could be updated occasionally through Battle.net, or even handed over to his subordinates to do. The reason why Stardew Valley is so appealing is because of its very complete gameplay, which can truly immerse people in it.

As long as the core user base remains intact and new content continues to be released, the game can continue to attract more players.

The company's employees now have an even higher level of admiration for Zhu Youxing.

They were all people who had played Stardew Valley afterward. While not everyone was interested in the game, at least 80% of the employees fell in love with Stardew Valley, which is quite an achievement.

From this perspective alone, it's easy to foresee that Stardew Valley's future is very bright.

Moreover, after Kazuo Murakami, the most authoritative figure in the game media industry, gave the game a five-star rating, more and more game review media outlets soon began to publish related articles.

There were almost no negative reviews, and the worst one was an eight out of ten.

There have been rumors that this game was developed by one person, and this person called Nintendo, who is said to be the world's ruler, has become the object of many people's admiration.

At the same time, sales figures are more clearly reflected in this situation.

Stardew Valley only sold around 50,000 units in its first week.

Sales doubled in the second week, reaching 100,000 units.

This is still nothing compared to the sales figures of some of the games from Yuxing Electronic Entertainment.

However, achieving growth against the trend is truly remarkable.

It's rare for a game to buck the trend and achieve growth.

If a game experiences growth against the trend, it already proves to some extent how fun it is.

Then, sales continued to grow in the third week, reaching 150,000 units.

Two hundred thousand in the fourth week.

In the fifth week, it suddenly surged to 400,000.

It was like a rocket soaring to new heights, leaving everyone speechless.

Those who learned the inside story, and that the game was entirely developed by Zhu Youxing, admired him even more after learning that he was the sole architect of the game.

This era is no longer the one ten years ago when games were just emerging.

Gamers in this era have become more discerning, and ordinary games are no longer enough to impress them.

Even so, these players are still willing to spend money to buy Stardew Valley.

"It's so much fun, I haven't slept for days." "This game reminds me of my childhood farm life." "It's really fun, I haven't played such an interesting game in a long time. The game itself is small, but the content is very rich. I don't even want to leave Pelican Town." "The graphics are a bit bad, but surprisingly fun. I will definitely recommend it to my friends!" These words of praise began to appear online one after another, seemingly trying to elevate the mysterious person who developed this game to a god-like status.

If Zhu Youxing were to see this scene in later generations, he would definitely think it was a publicity stunt by online trolls.

However, the netizens in this world are still relatively pure, and the internet has not yet completely become the mainstream of society, so at this moment, these words of praise should be mostly from real people making evaluations.

Of course, there will still be some negative reviews of the game, but these negative reviews are basically drowned out by the tide of positive reviews and can't make any waves at all.

In addition, because Zhuyouxing posted on the game's homepage that there would be more updates to the game, players were even more excited about what would happen next, and a lot of posts urging for more updates quickly flooded the comments section of the game.

Positive reviews and calls for more updates are pouring in.

Even though Zhu Youxing only drew a few words on the page, such as marriage gameplay, online gameplay, and cooking gameplay, it attracted a lot of attention from players. It was as if Zhu Youxing was an unforgivable bastard if he didn't hurry up and update these gameplay features.

Meanwhile, some highly professional farmers have also come forward to share their experiences.

They said very seriously that in real life, it's impossible for crops to grow overnight; cultivating crops is very energy-consuming and mentally taxing.

However, it must be said that simplifying this aspect of the game is a very appropriate move.

This greatly reduces the players' painful experience of farming, thus making them genuinely interested in planting.

Because this game was released by Zhuyouxing using a secondary account, it is not officially a game from Youxing Electronics Entertainment, so there is no official forum.

However, players have quickly created a Stardew Valley forum where a large number of people are discussing the so-called game storyline, whether Pelican Town is real, whether such a place exists in the world, and some players are providing various Stardew Valley guides.

As long as there are enough players, a whole bunch of unorthodox gameplay will emerge. You can never imagine how big the players' imaginations are. They can always find some strange and unusual strategies and gameplay methods. Even Zhu Youxing himself did not expect that such a function existed.

Zhu Youxing, on the contrary, began to enjoy reading the various discussions among netizens.

The discussion among players in this spontaneously formed forum is exceptionally lively. Some fans have even started discussing which female character in the game is prettier or which one would be more suitable to be a wife. This game is truly amazing, and they are willing to call it the best game of the year, even surpassing the games from Yuxing Electronics Entertainment, which is quite rare.