"21 Points" Development Complete!

The next day, Meng Shu opened the Cyber Platform developer backend, and the moment he saw the sales figures, he couldn't help but burst out laughing in his office.

Three weeks in, after yesterday's official release of "Dark Forest," sales had surged yet again.

It had now sold 1.66 million copies!

The total sales revenue had reached an unimaginable 114.5 million!

For a new company, this sum finally gave them a shred of confidence.

Though compared to the assets of his original world, this money was still a bit lacking.

But which entrepreneur starting from scratch could hit a small target of 100 million in just three weeks?

Still, this was largely thanks to the ads Infinite Network Entertainment had placed across the entire web.

Now, opening any mainstream video site would show a "Dark Forest" promotion.

Not to mention the other mid-tier websites—this must have attracted quite a few people.

"Dark Forest" achieving its current success wasn't just due to its solid quality; more importantly, it rode the wave of a blank market in this world.

Its exceptionally oppressive atmosphere and terrifying survival gameplay gave players a fresh experience while simultaneously stimulating their senses and psychology.

It was like Meng Shu eating hotpot for the first time—though he feared the spice, he craved it, even if the weather was scorching, he'd still enjoy steaming hotpot in an air-conditioned room.

He'd even go so far as to down Wanglaoji and Jiaduobao drinks just to savor the thrill of one bite of meat after another.

Now that the official version of "Dark Forest" had launched, the game would naturally fade over time.

This was an unavoidable issue.

But Meng Shu wanted to keep the game's momentum alive.

The best way to do that was...

"Open up MODs."

Meng Shu stared at the computer screen and spoke softly.

MODs, or game mods, could optimize and enhance the base game, giving it more possibilities and more gameplay experiences.

In his original world, the Steam Platform had a Workshop filled with MODs for every game.

This world's Cyber Platform had something similar, with an even simpler name—it was directly called the 'MOD Community.'

Meng Shu curled his lips into a slight smile and crossed his legs.

"Opening 'Dark Forest' to players, letting them create their own MODs to inject into the game, adding freshness, increasing playability, introducing new storylines, and letting players optimize the game content themselves—that's the best way to keep a game's popularity going," he said slowly, recalling the most classic game from his original world.

"The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim"!

That game was released in 2011, but right up until he crossed over, it remained popular, thriving globally through MODs, with new ones popping up every so often to keep the experience fresh.

Some players even used MODs to turn that sword-and-sorcery game into a full-on shooter.

Others used MODs to transform that role-playing game with zero impact feedback into a visceral, blood-splattering, punch-to-the-bone action RPG, skyrocketing the sense of impact.

It was truly a case of players teaching developers how to make games.

Because of MODs, that game stayed hot for eleven years straight!

Clearly, game modifications with player involvement had incredible longevity.

So, to keep "Dark Forest" hot and maintain its buzz, Meng Shu didn't mind opening up the MOD Community, allowing players to make limited modifications to the game's foundation.

But this didn't require his personal involvement—he'd just hire a batch of programmers to handle it, while also facilitating porting the game to other platforms.

As for him, he only needed to focus on developing new games.

Then, he wrote a congratulatory letter, mainly celebrating "Dark Forest" breaking through 1.5 million copies and thanking everyone for their support.

At the same time, he emphasized in it that the VR game "21 Points" would be released for free on schedule on the IGame Platform, and he asked for everyone's support when the time came.

After finishing the letter, he casually posted it as a status update on his Danmu Network account, then paid it no further mind.

Releasing "21 Points" for free was meant to prove his sincerity.

He knew that VR games in this world, due to technical limitations, were abysmal—even when major, well-known studios took a crack at it, they ended in miserable failure.

He also knew that players were skeptical and distrustful of VR games.

This wasn't hard to understand.

In his original world, it would be like some obscure little studio popping out of a corner, claiming they could develop "Red Dead Redemption 2" with just four or five people in a month—it would seem just as ridiculous and overambitious.

So when Meng Shu declared he would develop a VR game in a month that even major studios couldn't pull off, players didn't hold out hope; on the contrary, they didn't even pay attention.

Online, there was only that initial congratulatory post breaking 200,000 views and a few long-forgotten reposted articles.

Everyone's focus was more on "Dark Forest."

This showed just how little trust players in this world had in VR games, or rather, how little trust they had in Meng Shu.

This could lead to a situation where, after the game's release, players wouldn't buy in.

Even if its solid quality eventually caught up with sales, it would only prove itself over time.

So he decided that when the VR game "21 Points" launched, it would be released as a free download, letting people give it a try with a "might as well, it's free" mindset.

After all, VR was already widespread—anyone with a computer at home could use VR to play games.

When they were stunned by this gaming experience that surpassed the current era, Meng Shu believed that the next VR horror game.

Would absolutely explode in popularity!

Infinite Network Entertainment repeatedly tried to talk him out of this free idea, but he ignored them.

So in the end, they had no choice but to reluctantly agree to let Meng Shu release it for free on the IGame Platform.

But the revenue share for "Dark Forest" would increase by 0.5% as the price for "21 Points" being free.

On that point, it was just the nature of businessmen, and Meng Shu didn't care.

Now, the matter of "Dark Forest" was settled, and it was time to focus on developing "21 Points."

Only one week remained of his bold one-month declaration.

Meng Shu looked at the Monkey Simple Dev Engine in front of him.

Inside was the scene Xia Nianzhen had made.

He had to admit, this girl's skills were really something.

Although there were some differences from the original game, it was basically a high-quality replica.

On that front, he felt reassured.

Now there was another problem.

Since "21 Points" was a DLC for "Resident Evil 7," its characters were connected to the main game.

Now that he was pulling it out as a brand-new standalone game, the character relationships would need some adjustments.

Meng Shu sat in his chair with his arms crossed, frowning in thought.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him—he thought of an excellent reference!

"Saw"!

Right!

The opening of "21 Points" had Lucas explaining the game rules to the player and opponent through a black-and-white TV while controlling the whole scene.

So why not delete Lucas's character setup and adapt him into someone like Jigsaw?

Give him a mask, tweak his opening lines.

It would be almost too perfect!

No sooner said than done—Meng Shu immediately started making changes.

Also, because the game was just a small-scale DLC, it didn't have much development for the protagonist Clancy's poker opponent Hoffman.

Now that "21 Points" was being turned into a standalone game, the characters needed to be fleshed out too.

So in terms of dialogue, the protagonist Clancy and his opponent Hoffman would need more lines to leave a lasting impression on players—ideally making them feel the hardship of survival!

With that thought, Meng Shu's hands began to move faster.

Then, in the remaining time, he also contacted Infinite Network Entertainment, sending them the script to have them help find suitable voice actors and music.

And this publisher, true to being a top domestic company, sent back encrypted audio files within three days.

Meng Shu quickly imported them into the program, where the engine automatically matched and optimized them, saving him a ton of effort.

Finally, after Meng Shu's modifications and development, this standalone VR game "21 Points" was complete!