"To the Moon"

"But the event is only about half a month away, isn't it? Can we make it in time?" Yang Xin expressed doubt.

Even though registration opens in early September.

This announcement had already been released back in June.

That means basically any game studios or developers targeting this recruitment competition had already started development two or three months ago.

"Yeah, and for a sci-fi themed game, don't we have way too few people right now?" Ruan Ningxue chimed in.

After developing "Magic Mirror" and "Undertale," Ruan Ningxue was no longer the clueless newbie she used to be.

A sci-fi game—even if it definitely wouldn't be some big-budget production—still only had the three of them as developers, and with such a tight deadline, it was surely impossible, right?

"Half a month is plenty of time. This is a game even simpler in scope than 'Undertale,'" Chen Xu said with a smile.

"A game simpler in scope than 'Undertale'!?" Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at Chen Xu, dumbfounded.

Was "Undertale" good?

Of course it was.

Was "Undertale" large in scope?

Not at all.

But now, according to Chen Xu, this new game was even smaller in scope than "Undertale"?

What kind of game was that?

"If it's smaller than 'Undertale,' can it even place in the competition?" Yang Xin remained skeptical.

Ruan Ningxue said nothing, just looked at Chen Xu, waiting for an explanation.

"It's about participation, and whether we win an award has nothing to do with scope. What really matters is whether it can move the players and the judges," Chen Xu said with a smile.

Hearing Chen Xu's words, Yang Xin was left speechless.

"So the new game is similar to 'Undertale,' but not a meta type?" Yang Xin guessed, asking Chen Xu.

With half a month and a development team of just the three of them.

From a genre perspective, it was pretty easy to guess.

In such a short time, to develop a game—even by indie game standards—it would basically have to be something like "Undertale."

"Pretty much." Chen Xu nodded with a smile.

As for ideas for the new game, there were actually plenty of directions to choose from.

But considering their current progress and the corresponding points, when he saw this event, an idea had already popped into Chen Xu's mind.

Watching the curious Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, Chen Xu sat in his seat and gave a simple description with a smile.

"In a future world, there exists a company that can use special machines to enter people's memories and alter them."

"But these artificial memories aren't temporary—they're permanent. That means when the person wakes up, the implanted memories clash with their real ones, causing confusion."

"So this technology can only be used on the dying, to fulfill the wishes of those who have regrets in life by changing their memories, giving them a new life and memories so they pass away without any regrets."

"And the whole game's story begins with two employees of this company, Dr. Eva and Dr. Neil, fulfilling the lifelong dream of a dying man named Johnny: to go to the moon."

The game Chen Xu decided to make was called "To the Moon."

Sure, it sounded like a sci-fi game on the surface.

But in reality, this game was a story-driven one, telling the tale of a pair of lovers.

It was an incredibly small-scale game. In his past life, it had even been made using an engine tool called RPG Maker.

And the entire game had no combat at all. Its gameplay consisted of story dialogue and puzzles.

Yet this simple game moved countless players to tears—a true "tough guy cries" kind of game.

And "To the Moon" had won countless accolades.

In 2011, it won GameSpot's Best Story award, beating out big titles like Catherine and Portal 2.

It also took home Metacritic's Best Game, WIRED's Best Game, and many other awards that same year.

On Steam in 2017, it was a top nominee in the "I Didn't Cry, There Was Just Sand in My Eyes" category.

Its creator, Gao Kan, even appeared on CCVT's program "World, Listen to Me."

For Chen Xu, choosing this game was partly because it had a sci-fi element, fitting the event.

On the other hand, he wanted to use this game to harvest a wave of emotional points from players.

After all, relying solely on "Undertale" and "Magic Mirror" was getting a bit stale.

As for winning awards, Chen Xu could only say he'd leave it to fate—after all, forcing "To the Moon" into the sci-fi genre was a bit of a stretch.

Its small scope and its unique ability to heal countless players were the reasons Chen Xu settled on this game.

Of course, before this, he had also considered troll games like "Jump King" and "Getting Over It."

But after thinking it over, he decided to give them up.

Even though those games were great for milking players' emotions, But the key is the system's judgment—it only counts if the player has actually spent money.

If you're broke, picking this kind of game is basically gambling.

Win, and it's a hotel spa; lose, and it's hauling sacks at the dock.

Of course, that's when you're broke. When you have money, with a bit of marketing and guidance, this type of game can still blow up into a phenomenon—after all, in the parallel world, the livestreaming industry is also highly developed.

And these games can be called textbook livestreaming games.

But popular as they might be, if players don't actually play much, Chen Xu can't harvest any emotional points either.

Besides, these few games are really a bit of a scam. For Chen Xu right now, maintaining a good reputation is still very important.

So he just thought about it for a moment, then ruled those games out and chose "To the Moon" instead.

Reputation plus harvesting players' emotional points—it kills two birds with one stone!

After briefly explaining the game to Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, Chen Xu returned to his own office to draft the design concept for "To the Moon."

Of course, calling it a design concept was really just writing out the core storyline.

To do that, Chen Xu used a Memory Capsule to explore the depths of his memory.

He also transcribed the sheet music for several classic piano pieces from "To the Moon." With a reference, his current musical ability was more than enough to handle it.

The rest was just improvements—making the game's controls and visual presentation even better.

After all, the original "To the Moon," as a pixel game made with RPG Maker, had its biggest flaws in visual presentation and clunky controls.

With the technology of the parallel world, half a month was more than enough to develop "To the Moon."