To the Moon

"But the event is only a little over half a month away! Can we really make it in time?" Yang Xin voiced her doubts.

Although registration opened in early September.

This announcement had actually been released as early as June.

In other words, game studios and developers targeting this game competition had basically begun development two or three months ago.

"Right, and for a sci-fi game, aren't we seriously understaffed right now?" Ruan Ningxue chimed in as well.

After working on Magic Mirror and Undertale, Ruan Ningxue was no longer as clueless as she had been before.

A sci-fi game definitely would not be some massive production, but with only the three of them developing it and such a tight deadline, there was no way they could finish in time, right?

"Half a month is more than enough. This game will be even smaller in scope than Undertale," Chen Xu said with a smile.

"Smaller in scope than Undertale!?" Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at Chen Xu in bewilderment.

Was Undertale good?

Naturally, it was excellent.

But was Undertale large in scope?

Not at all.

Yet according to Chen Xu, this new game would be even smaller in scope than Undertale?

Then what kind of game was it supposed to be?

"Can a game smaller in scope than Undertale even place in the event?" Yang Xin remained skeptical.

Ruan Ningxue said nothing. She simply looked at Chen Xu and waited for him to explain.

"The important thing is participation. Besides, whether we win an award has nothing to do with scope. What really matters is whether it can move the players and judges," Chen Xu said with a smile.

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

"So the new game will be similar to Undertale, but not META?" Yang Xin guessed as she asked Chen Xu.

They only had half a month, and the development team consisted of just the three of them.

Judging by the genre, it was actually not too hard to guess.

With so little time, if they wanted to develop a game, even by indie standards, it would basically have to be something like Undertale.

"More or less." Chen Xu nodded with a smile.

There were actually many possible directions for the new game.

However, taking their current development and the corresponding points into account, the moment Chen Xu saw this event, an idea had already surfaced in his mind.

Looking at the curious Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, Chen Xu sat in his chair and gave them a brief explanation with a smile.

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

"But these artificial memories are not temporary. They are permanent. This means that when the person wakes up, the new memories will conflict with their real ones, resulting in memory disorder."

"So this technology can only be used on people who are near death. It gives those who carry regrets in life and wish to fulfill their desires by changing their memories a new life and new memories, allowing them to die without any regrets."

"The game begins with two employees of the company that provides this service, Dr. Eva and Dr. Neil, fulfilling the dying Johnny's lifelong dream: going to the moon."

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

Of course, it sounded rather like a sci-fi game.

But in reality, it was a game about telling a story—the story of a pair of lovers.

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

Furthermore, the entire game had no combat whatsoever. Its gameplay consisted of story dialogue and puzzles.

Yet it was precisely such a simple game that moved countless players to tears. It was truly a game that could make even tough men cry.

To the Moon had also won countless honors.

At GameSpot's 2011 Game of the Year awards, it beat major titles such as Catherine and Portal 2 to win Best Writing.

It also took home numerous awards that year, including Metacritic's Best Game and WIRED's Best Game.

It was also a leading nominee for Steam's 2017 "I'm Not Crying, There's Something in My Eye" award.

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

For Chen Xu, choosing this game was partly because it contained some sci-fi elements, making it suitable for this event.

The other reason was that Chen Xu wanted to use this game to harvest a wave of emotional points from players.

After all, relying solely on Undertale and Magic Mirror was starting to feel a little weak.

As for winning awards, Chen Xu could only leave that to fate. After all, forcing To the Moon into the sci-fi genre was still rather far-fetched.

Its modest scope and unique ability to heal countless players were both reasons Chen Xu chose this game.

Of course, before this, Chen Xu had also considered frustrating games like Jump King and Getting Over It.

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

From the perspective of harvesting players' emotional points, those games were incredibly effective.

But the key was that the system only counted points after players had spent money.

If he had no money, choosing that type of game would basically be a gamble.

Win, and it was luxury hotels and massages; lose, and it was hauling cargo at the docks.

Of course, that was only if he had no money. If he did have money, then with a little guidance and good marketing, those kinds of games could also become explosive, phenomenon-level hits. After all, the livestreaming industry was also highly developed in the Parallel World.

Those games could be called textbook livestream games.

But no matter how popular they became, if not many players actually played them, Chen Xu would not be able to harvest emotional points.

Besides, those games were genuinely a little too punishing. For Chen Xu at this stage, a good reputation was still extremely important.

So after merely considering them, he ruled them out and chose To the Moon instead.

Good reviews and harvesting players' emotional points—it was killing multiple birds with one stone!

After briefly explaining the game to Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin.

Chen Xu returned to his office and began writing the design concept document for To the Moon.

Of course, calling it a design concept document was somewhat misleading. It was mainly the core story.

For this, Chen Xu used a Memory Capsule to explore the memories buried deep in his mind.

He also wrote down the sheet music for several classic piano pieces from To the Moon. With references available, it was not too difficult given his current musical ability.

What remained were some improvements, pushing the game's controls and visual presentation a step further.

After all, as a pixel game made with RPG Maker, the original To the Moon's visual presentation and awkward controls had been its biggest flaws.

With the technology of the Parallel World, half a month was more than enough to develop To the Moon.