Best Independent Game?

He stared at the banner, the hand holding his mouse trembling slightly.

There was a small icon on the banner. In the dark black-and-white image, someone held a pistol at a ragged mother and child huddled in a corner.

The icon was tiny, yet every detail was crystal clear. The gunman's expression was indifferent, devoid of emotion. The mother clutching her child in the corner had her eyes shut tight, biting her lip. Her face was filled with resignation, but one hand still covered her child's eyes.

Just looking at that little icon made a sense of tragedy rise in his heart.

When he clicked the banner, a page popped up displaying a huge game poster—the enlarged version of that small icon.

The enlarged image was even clearer, revealing more details.

The black, dried stains on the floor looked like dried blood. In one corner of the image, a filthy hand hung limply.

A hole had been smashed through the glass window.

It looked as though someone had broken it with a stone, or perhaps... a bullet.

"This War of Mine?" Silver read the game's title from the poster and couldn't help swallowing. This was the new game?

How the hell did they make it so fast?

I was just saying there was no way you could make a new game in such a short time, and the very next second you released a game trailer.

You fucking watched my stream, didn't you? You were just waiting to slap me in the face, weren't you?

Silver rubbed his face. That slap had really hurt.

'666, that slap made the monkey face hurt like hell!'

'As expected of that old bastard Black Star. He really knows how to torture the monkey.'

'Looking forward to the new game. Hopefully it tortures the monkey until he's begging to die.'

The chat burst into laughter. The whole scene was just too comical.

He had only just confidently talked trash about someone, only to get slapped in the face the very next second. It was unbelievably satisfying.

Silver rubbed his face and seriously read the game's description.

Just from looking at the cover, he took back what he had said earlier about it being a game with shoddy textures.

Although the cover used only black and white, the artwork was exceptionally polished. It was obvious how much care the development team had put into it.

"This game is a survival game? Players must make decisions based on their own moral principles. There are no 'choices' here, only 'do' and 'do not.'" Silver read the passage, his brows furrowing tightly.

There were still fifteen days until the game's official release and download availability.

Just from the description alone, he couldn't guess how the game would be played.

Just like Getting over it and Dead Cells, no one could guess what the designer was thinking.

Before playing those two games, who could have imagined that every failure meant starting over from the beginning?

That every death also meant starting over from the beginning?

"Fine! Half a month, right? I'll wait!" Silver gritted his back teeth. He wanted to see what kind of game they could make with only a few months of development.

But what confused him the most was why Steam was promoting Ethan Vale's game.

That was treatment even many famous game studios could not get!

No one could give him an answer, because he was not the only one confused. Even the people at Yogame had been utterly stunned by this move.

"Did something happen? Why is Steam promoting a game from a tiny developer like Sprout Studio?" Teng Feng poked at his temple. He truly couldn't understand this move.

If Steam was the big brother of the gaming platform industry,

Then Yogame was merely a little brother trailing behind and picking up scraps.

Their goal was to grow bigger and stronger one day, and create new glory.

But now, their big brother was holding in the palm of his hand the nobody he had once driven off Yogame, even giving him promotional resources for his new game. Teng Feng simply could not understand it.

There was nothing wrong with recommending games. The problem was that big brother had never given this treatment to anyone else!

What was so special about this tiny Sprout Studio?!

"Boss, we found something. Apparently, Dead Cells has a chance of winning the TGA Best Independent Game award at the end of the year." In the meeting room, a subordinate quickly reported the latest news.

It included the domestic and overseas sales figures for Dead Cells gathered through their investigation, as well as the level of discussion it had generated both at home and abroad.

The data showed that Dead Cells ranked first in both downloads and online discussion.

"Best Independent Game?" Teng Feng froze. They had been eyeing that award for a long time, but had never managed to win it.

And now he was being told that an award like that could be won by a studio he had driven away through suppression?

Not long ago, they had even secretly hired a game reviewer to write a negative review of the game. It had merely backfired.

That reviewer was still being cursed nonstop by players.

The reviewer wanted to clear the game and write a genuine review based on a full playthrough, but still had not managed to beat it.

"Y-yes... that's what they're saying... Players have already declared that they'll give their Best Independent Game votes to Dead Cells." Yogame's data analyst cautiously glanced at Teng Feng's expression.

"What about our game?" Teng Feng clenched his fists. He felt like he had a breath trapped in his chest that he could not let out.

"Our game has also been completed, and we're currently discussing the release date," the head of the game design department quickly replied.

"We'll release ours in half a month too." Teng Feng pressed a hand against the table. "Start promoting the new game right now. When they release their game in half a month, we'll release ours at the same time."

After hearing him, the people below remained silent, only glancing at him timidly.

"What? Are you treating my words like they went in one ear and out the other? I said our game will release on the same day as theirs!"

"Otherwise, what are we supposed to use to compete for the Best Independent Game award? Compete with our heads?" Teng Feng said coldly.

"No game studio in the world can produce two high-quality games within three months. Now that there's already Dead Cells, there absolutely cannot be a second one."

"His momentum is fierce right now. If his second game is merely passable, the fans he accumulated before will shift their emotional investment to other games. That will be our opportunity."

Teng Feng had never expected Dead Cells to become such a massive hit.

Even now, he could not understand why Dead Cells had become popular.

A game where dying meant starting over, a game that constantly tortured players—how could it possibly win an independent game award?

If a game like his could do it, then why couldn't games made by studios under Yogame do the same?

The game on their side was a standard feel-good game.

No one in the meeting room spoke. They all looked silently at Teng Feng seated at the head of the table.

Ours is better than Dead Cells?

Teng Feng might have confidence, but they certainly did not.

Everyone looked at the documents on the table. The two words, 'Black Star,' were painfully conspicuous.