"Outlast"

After accepting the interview.

Before Chen Xu had even made it back to Nebula Games from the Game Department, less than twenty minutes had passed.

Interview reports from major media outlets had already been published.

"Revealed: Nebula Games' next game is most likely..."

"Chen Xu: I think I should be a Warrior of Love."

"No plans for a new game yet, but Chen Xu's remarks suggest that Nebula Games' next title will likely be a heartwarming romance game!"

"A rising star among indie game developers: Warrior of Love—Chen Xu!"

The buzz around Sci-Fi Conquest Game had yet to fully fade, while To the Moon was still featured on the official platform's recommendation page.

These interview articles also introduced many players to Chen Xu.

Including the Official Blog, his follower count had already reached 800,000.

Given the current momentum, surpassing one million was only a matter of time.

At the same time, To the Moon had been added to the official account's verified profile as one of its representative works, along with a "Warrior of Love" tag.

Under the related interview articles, plenty of players were also discussing it enthusiastically.

"A Warrior of Love? What the hell is that!?"

"Come to think of it, Chen Xu really does seem like a Warrior of Love. Leaving Magic Mirror aside, every character had a pure-love storyline. Though those other fallen routes were kind of... well..."

"And Undertale's Pacifist Ending was full of love too. As for the latest game, To the Moon, that one was entirely about love."

"Now that you put it that way, it actually makes sense!"

"But I'm more curious about what Chen Xu's next game will be."

"It should be a really heartwarming game, right?"

"Exactly. He's a Warrior of Love, after all."

Chen Xu, however, did not pay much attention to what was happening online.

Because after arriving at the Nebula Games office, he was alone in his office drawing rewards.

Golden light bloomed before his eyes, one burst after another.

The visual effects looked damn impressive.

It was just that the results were far too realistic.

Fifty draws in a row.

Thirty-seven of them were ordinary skill books, covering everything from storylines and music to Level Design.

There were four rare skill books: one on architecture, one on psychology, and two on music.

The remaining nine were all Memory Capsules.

"There's one draw left. Might as well use it." Seeing that he had exactly enough points for one final draw, Chen Xu did not hesitate and used them immediately.

Amid the golden light, something actually came out this time, much to Chen Xu's surprise!

It was not a rare skill book, but a special item like the Memory Capsule.

"Single draws really can create miracles? Is this some kind of mystical luck? But what is this thing?" Chen Xu fell silent for a moment.

Fear Converter (120 days)

Effect: Converts players' fear value into ten times the points (maximum: 6 million)

Clearly, this was a limited-time item, essentially a double-experience card with a cap, except it only applied to players' fear.

What he did not know was whether that cap applied before or after conversion.

Still, Chen Xu guessed that it was most likely the post-conversion limit.

"And unlike the Memory Capsule, this thing is actually time-limited. Is this hinting that I should make a horror game next?" Chen Xu felt a little speechless.

As for what game to make next, Chen Xu had been considering it for some time.

First, it would not be another small-scale project like before. This time, he at least wanted to move toward 3D games.

But at the same time, the scale could not be too large.

Although game development in this Parallel World was much simpler than it had been in his previous life.

That did not mean technical experience was unnecessary.

It was like building with blocks. Everyone had access to the same pieces, but what they could build depended on their own skill.

Games were the same, especially FPS and ACT games.

Take action games, for example. The most important thing was impact.

And how did one create that sense of impact?

Sound effects, controller feedback, visual effects, UI screen shake, and all kinds of physical hit detection and collision.

There was also something even more essential: Freeze Frame.

The same was true for FPS games.

So Chen Xu did not intend for his next project to be overly complicated.

Come to think of it, a horror game might not be a bad choice. It could include some action elements, while those action elements would not be the main focus of the horror game, Chen Xu thought, rubbing his chin.

Although he had an idea in mind, Chen Xu did not act immediately. Instead, he first went online to get a general understanding of the current state of horror games in this Parallel World.

Put simply, it was not much different from his previous life.

Whether in film or gaming, horror titles rarely received major budgets.

They were generally the sort of projects that aimed for big returns with small investments.

Compared to his previous life, however, pure horror games held a much larger market share here.

There were even individual titles that had sold close to ten million copies.

Of course, those were older games that went on steep holiday sales every year and had been available for quite a few years.

In addition, there was not a single horror game better suited to VR.

After all, the development costs for VR games were enormous.

And horror games themselves were a relatively niche genre.

Unless someone had a particular fondness for horror culture, no one would develop a horror game for the VR platform.

The risk was simply too great.

As for horror games on the PC platform, they were divided into two types. One used a relatively low-budget approach.

Like Undertale and To the Moon.

The other was developed as a small-to-medium-scale game.

After gaining a rough understanding of the horror game market and its development in this Parallel World.

Chen Xu quickly made his decision.

He would make it as a small-to-medium-scale game. With the revenue brought in by Magic Mirror, Undertale, and To the Moon, Nebula Games currently had a certain amount of capital.

Besides, horror games were only niche when compared with traditional genres like FPS and RPG.

If done well enough to generate buzz, horror games could sell just as well.

The next question was which game to make.

Chen Xu still had quite a few options when it came to horror games.

After giving it some careful thought, Chen Xu decided to choose Outlast as his next game.

Mainly because it was a better fit.

In terms of scale, Outlast had a playtime of around five hours. Of course, if someone rushed through it, they could probably finish in under an hour.

Secondly, compared with horror games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and The Evil Within, Outlast had a convenient advantage.

In this game, the player took on the role of a journalist who could only run away and could not fight back.

For Chen Xu, Outlast was really a game for helping the team settle in and for testing the game engine more thoroughly.

As for action and shooting, those could be recreated through the monsters in the game, while the protagonist controlled by the player only needed basic movement design such as running and climbing.

In every respect, Outlast was a game that fit Chen Xu's expectations quite well.

The only issue he needed to worry about was approval.

After all, unlike Eastern-style horror games such as Silent Hill and Fatal Frame, Outlast was pure Western horror, meaning it was relatively bloody.

Although the approval system in this Parallel World was highly refined, whether it could pass review would ultimately depend on what the Game Department said.