"Oh! It's here, sis! It finally loaded!"
On Shark Live Platform, in the livestream room of Great Zhou Empress Shi Liuliu and Prince Zhuang Zhuang.
The two were biological siblings. Whenever they had time, they would stream together, and today was no exception.
Hearing her younger brother's reminder in the voice channel, Liu Liu hurriedly refreshed her page as well.
Immediately afterward, Yiyou Platform's homepage changed into a flashy Mini-Game Development Festival event banner.
"It loaded for me too!"
"Wow—"
Looking at the dazzling main interface, Liu Liu felt a little overwhelmed.
"So many games. My indecisiveness is acting up."
"I heard there are nearly six hundred participating games,"
Zhuang Zhuang said.
"It really is hard to know which one to play first."
"How about we look for multiplayer games first? We can play together for a while."
Liu Liu suggested.
"Sure,"
Zhuang Zhuang answered. Then, before long, he found a target.
"Hey, sis, search Xingmang Games. I think the game they released this time is multiplayer."
"Xingmang?"
Liu Liu was somewhat surprised.
"Isn't Xingmang a pretty established game company? They can actually participate in this event too..."
As she spoke, Liu Liu typed Xingmang Games into the search bar.
The search page immediately popped up.
Sure enough, under Xingmang Games was a title called "Brother's Big Adventure," participating in this event.
"I've downloaded it."
The game was small, and Liu Liu finished installing it in no time.
"Okay, I invited you to the room."
On the other end, Zhuang Zhuang had also created a room and pulled his sister into the game.
The moment she entered the game, Liu Liu was hit by a familiar feeling.
The crude stick-figure art style, two little black-and-white characters with frozen expressions, question-mark blocks hanging in midair, and malicious-looking clouds drifting through the sky.
Everything about it was so familiar.
"This... is it a sequel to Mario Bros.?"
It was clear that Mario Bros. had left Liu Liu with quite a bit of psychological trauma. The moment she saw this art style, she got a little PTSD.
"It looks so familiar."
"No,"
Zhuang Zhuang said.
"Mario Bros. isn't from Xingmang. This is probably... just an art style similar to Mario Bros."
As they spoke!
The two entered the game.
On the brief black screen, "x3" was written behind a little white character.
Then, the actual game screen appeared.
The little white character controlled by Zhuang Zhuang stood beneath a row of question-mark blocks, while two slow-moving little monsters approached from ahead.
"Uh, so..."
Zhuang Zhuang's voice in the voice channel was hesitant.
"So multiplayer means taking turns like Mario, with three lives each..."
"Looks like it," Liu Liu said, somewhat disappointed. She smiled helplessly. "Please begin your performance, little brother."
"What's there to perform?"
Zhuang Zhuang chuckled.
"I bet that if I jump up and hit that question-mark block, I'll die."
As he spoke, Zhuang Zhuang controlled the little white character into a leap, precisely headbutting the block.
Bang—
The block exploded on the spot, killing him just as Zhuang Zhuang had predicted.
"See?"
Zhuang Zhuang was not annoyed in the slightest. He even seemed a little amused.
"I saw right through it!"
"Pfft, look at you,"
Liu Liu laughed.
"You make it sound like you can predict everything. Weren't you so amazing that it took you over forty lives to clear Mario Bros.' first level?"
"Tsk, sis, listen to yourself,"
Faced with his sister's doubts, Zhuang Zhuang clicked his tongue.
"I've been through countless battles now. Just watch—wherever I say there's a trap, there'll definitely be one!"
As he spoke!
Zhuang Zhuang charged forward, making precise predictions all the way—
"A monster will fly out of this pipe..."
"You can't hit this question mark..."
"A row of monsters will fall from the sky..."
"You'll die if you touch the clouds..."
Very quickly!
Under Zhuang Zhuang's commentary, all three lives were used up.
The viewers immediately found it rather dull.
'This feels kind of boring.'
'Yeah, why didn't it feel like this when we watched Mario Bros. before?'
'True. The visuals and Gameplay are exactly like Mario Bros., but it still feels like something is missing.'
'It just doesn't have that flavor.'
'It doesn't even seem that hard.'
'It doesn't have Mario Bros.' old entertainment value.'
'Is it because Prince Zhuang has been tempered by it?'
'Not fun...'
Looking at the barrage of discussion in the chat, Liu Liu was actually rather puzzled too.
This game clearly did not look any different from Mario Bros.
So why did it feel less fun than Mario Bros.?
It just felt like... something was missing.
Zhuang Zhuang was more perceptive.
"I'll tell you what it's missing,"
Seeing the questions in the chat, Zhuang Zhuang explained.
"Although this game looks similar to Mario Bros. in form,"
"its obstacle design is nowhere near Mario Bros.' level."
As a streamer who had cleared the game with over two hundred lives.
Zhuang Zhuang had absolute authority when it came to Mario Bros.
"Mario Bros.' obstacle design is very logical,"
"The designer usually starts by using a decoy to lure the player into taking the bait,"
"Then, they use the real obstacle to trap you or get you killed,"
"You could say that nearly every prediction a player makes has already been predicted by the designer. That's why they can torment you half to death,"
At that, Zhuang Zhuang changed the subject and pointed at the "Big Adventure" before them.
"But this game, bluntly speaking, just piles up obstacles,"
"There's little connection between each obstacle—really, you could say there's none,"
"The reason you feel it isn't fun or entertaining is, at its root, because I predicted this game's designer,"
"When the designer's traps can be easily seen through by the player, this kind of game loses its fun."
His words!
Were like a revelation!
The chat immediately came to its senses—
'As expected of Prince Zhuang, who secretly played games since childhood.'
'That's absolutely right...'
'His understanding of games has always been damn impressive.'
'So profound it hurts.'
'As expected of the man who once smashed a keyboard. His game knowledge is on another level!'
'Indeed, this game's obstacle design is way too superficial.'
'It shows the designer is at my level. They only saw that Mario Bros. was hard, without knowing why it was both hard and fun.'
'Carry him away, carry him away.'
'Next one, sis...'
After Zhuang Zhuang's explanation, the viewers in the chat finally realized that Mario Bros.—which seemed ordinary and sold itself on breaking players' spirits—was actually far less simple than it appeared.
Liu Liu nodded as well.
"It seems designers who can create that kind of game logic really are rare."
"They're extremely rare,"
Zhuang Zhuang said with a grin.
"Think about it, sis. I've been playing games since I was seven. For him to make me feel that miserable, he definitely has some skill."
Pfft—
Zhuang Zhuang's words made Liu Liu unable to hold back her laughter.
Then her eyes lit up. "Oh, right! Speaking of Mario Bros., did that company participate in this Development Festival? I remember it was a newly established game company too."
At that reminder, Zhuang Zhuang slapped his palm.
"Oh, right! How could we forget them?"
After all!
The two games released by Golden Wind had both given him endless enjoyment.
With that in mind, Zhuang Zhuang closed "Brother's Big Adventure" from Xingmang Games, reopened Yiyou Platform's homepage, and clicked the search bar—
"Uh... that company seemed to be called Golden Wind..."
"Oh! Found it!"
Beneath the search bar, a game labeled with the words "Development Festival" appeared—
"Vampire Survivors"
Before you continue