16. Staged Accident

In the meeting room, Chen Xu was explaining the relevant content of Undertale to Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue.

The "Magic Mirror" segment wasn't too much of a problem—just follow the previous template, add the corresponding character sprites and text dialogue, and it would be done.

The main focus going forward would still be on developing the content for Undertale.

Undertale was a game created by an indie game designer in its previous life.

Yet it moved countless players around the world. It could be said that this was a very classic META game.

However, unlike META games like Pony Island, ICEY, or The Stanley Parable, Undertale could be said to perfectly combine META elements with RPG elements, even subverting players' understanding of traditional RPG settings.

The core concept of the game was quite clear.

The main core of Undertale was the story paired with META-style twists. As for the gameplay, it was just a seasoning for the game.

Of course, there were some aspects Chen Xu planned to improve.

For example, compared to its previous life, the game art for Undertale would definitely need to be better.

The crude pixel art style and hand-drawn lines of the previous life's Undertale weren't because that style was good for the game.

It was simply because there was no money—after all, it was a personal indie game.

As for the so-called critics and media who claimed the art style was unique after Undertale blew up, that was all nonsense.

It's true that pixel games aren't always due to a lack of money. For example, Octopath Traveler in the previous life used pixels to create a blend of modern and nostalgic aesthetics, and some retro-themed games deliberately used pixels.

But for a META game centered on story, better visual presentation would only add to the game, not detract from it.

For instance, Minecraft chose a pixel style because its block-building gameplay matched pixel representation.

But the art style of Undertale was definitely not a compromise for the sake of gameplay.

Of course, setting aside visual presentation, the story and music of Undertale were classics.

Finally, Sans' 'Megalovania' and Undyne's 'Battle Against a True Hero' were both very iconic.

After briefly introducing some core content of Undertale to the two, Chen Xu also showed Ruan Ningxue the character design drafts for the main characters.

The kind and gentle Toriel, the king who looked merciful before battle but wielded a trident with majestic might like a war god once fighting began, the tall and short Skeleton Brothers, and Flowey, who seemed innocent but was a master of exaggerated expressions...

Chen Xu would oversee the character designs for the main roles.

As for the common monsters, they would be outsourced—as long as they met the requirements, they'd be accepted upon inspection.

Next was the story aspect: the Pacifist Route, the Kind Route, the Genocide Route, and the Masochist Route.

Chen Xu had already outlined the relevant plots for the different routes using the Memory Capsule he'd drawn from the system earlier.

The rest would mainly be filled in by Yang Xin.

After assigning their respective duties, Chen Xu sat down at his seat, logged into the official engine's backend, and prepared to set up the basic framework for Undertale.

"Ningxue, when you were developing 'Magic Mirror' before, did you develop games like this too?"

Holding the incredibly detailed manuscript in her hands, Yang Xin was still a bit dazed.

Beside her, Ruan Ningxue, who was already designing based on the character requirement sheets, looked puzzled. "Yeah, why, Sister Xin? Is there something wrong with developing games this way?"

"There's a lot wrong! This is way too smooth! The ideas are way too clear!" Yang Xin's eyes widened, but she kept her voice low.

Although in terms of scale, Undertale felt like a small-scale game.

It was just too smooth—it gave Yang Xin the illusion that even a dog on a leash could do it.

Thinking back to the chaos of game development at her previous company, for a moment Yang Xin wondered if the employees she'd hired back then had all been putting on an act for her.

Sighing to herself, Yang Xin began carefully reviewing the story of Undertale, figuring out how to fill it in.

Sitting in his seat, Chen Xu wasn't thinking about anything messy at all.

At this moment, he was experimenting with the official engine.

The computational resources available to him had increased by about twenty times compared to before.

In the backend, the currently usable resources were 0/1024MB.

Converted to the units of the previous life, that was about 1 GB, but Chen Xu also checked the tutorial and related new content.

In this parallel world, these resources were more than enough.

As for wanting more—

Either raise his designer rank, or spend money.

To raise his rank, he could either slowly grind it out, which was the so-called seniority.

Other than that, he'd need to win some prestigious awards or make a positive, forward-driving contribution to the game industry.

To some extent, the birth of Magic Mirror had already promoted innovation in the adult game industry.

After roughly understanding this, Chen Xu gently shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

Instead, he began developing Undertale.

For Chen Xu, this indie game wasn't particularly difficult.

Developing a game like this in a parallel world's technology didn't take much effort.

What really took time and energy was the story text, character art, and music.

You see, in a game like Undertale, the music is absolutely outstanding.

This is also true for many other indie game works.

Story, music, and creative gameplay have always been the three pillars of indie games.

"Sister Yang, who's this guy, coming out to bite us?"

"A troll, probably jealous of Magic Mirror's sales, plus his own new game is about to launch, so he's deliberately picking a fight for attention. This guy's a repeat offender."

Noticing the commotion between Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue, Chen Xu was a bit curious: "What's going on?"

Seeing Chen Xu arrive, Yang Xin picked up Ruan Ningxue's phone: "It's this, a guy who specializes in trolling."

Chen Xu took the phone. On it was a video reposted by a media outlet called Game Time Media.

He tapped to open it. In the video, a middle-aged man was reviewing a game, and the game's image was Magic Mirror—of course, with the clothed character art.

'To grab players' attention, game designers nowadays will do anything.'

'Vulgar, utterly vulgar!'

'Gaming is an artistic industry. Calling a work like this a game feels like a desecration of gaming to me.'

'Can a game designer like this push the industry forward?'

'No, they cannot!'

'If my upcoming game Blossom had content like this, I wouldn't have the face to show myself.'

'So here, I also hope that the majority of game designers will cut back on gimmicks and focus more on how to make truly good games, instead of resorting to this kind of vulgar content to boost sales.'

The video was about two minutes long, and the guy spoke with an air of righteous indignation.

But when Chen Xu scrolled through the comments, something interesting caught his eye.

Besides a bunch of players cheering him on, there was also a large crowd mocking him.

'Zhong Da Pao, you're back again?'

'Vulgar? Then I've gotta go critique it!'

'Other people's games: vulgar! My game: art!'

'So, when are you going to promote your new game?'

'Bro upstairs, you're not paying attention to Zhong Da Pao's cannon-firing segment. He already plugged it, didn't he? The game's called Blossom.'

After watching the whole video, along with some comments in the comment section and Yang Xin's explanation, Chen Xu roughly understood the situation.

The guy was named Zhong Mei, a designer under Hepatitis Culture and Sports, and he was also the boss of that company.

His reputation in the gaming circle was a mixed bag.

On the good side, Zhong Mei had indeed produced some decent works in the past.

In recent years, while his games hadn't been blockbusters, their quality wasn't too bad either.

On the bad side, it was Zhong Mei's character.

He often deliberately targeted games that were popular and somewhat controversial at the time, trashing them to promote and elevate his own games.

Not just Chen Xu, but many other game designers had been bitten by him like this.