"Oil drum!"
Robert stuck halfway up the slope, just a hair's breadth away from the next oil drum.
But those few steps felt like an insurmountable chasm.
The fuel gauge was completely empty; he had been cut off from power seconds ago.
No matter how much he struggled, the car continued to slide rapidly backward, eventually overturning at the bottom of the slope.
"This time it was going so smoothly! Damn it, is it because the engine isn't good enough? No, no, it must be a grip issue—"
Robert's eyes were bloodshot; he had lost count of how many rounds he had played.
Now, he continues to play almost instinctively.
It was just a seemingly cheap 2D game, but somehow he couldn't stop playing it.
It's pure, unstoppable, without any extraneous elements, just complete focus.
"Boss, these are today's documents."
Robert's flow state was abruptly broken when the accountant knocked on the office door and brought in today's reports.
He instinctively jolted and looked up at the old accountant.
A snowflake appeared before my eyes.
Robert quickly rubbed his sore eyes before nodding and taking the documents.
He looked out the window.
The sun was setting, and dusk was approaching.
"Get off work?"
Robert turned his gaze back into the office and realized that most of the people outside had already left.
"Did I just slack off all afternoon??"
He didn't even feel the reality of it.
In Robert's own perception, it seems he only played for a maximum of half an hour.
How come an entire afternoon has already passed?
Where has the time gone?
[Eighth characteristic of flow: altered sense of time], achieved.
A work that Lin Lixin had meticulously planned down to the smallest detail has now successfully fulfilled its mission.
Drawing a player from their first encounter into the game—
And it made him unable to live without the game!
The simpler something seems, the more it tests a designer's fundamental skills.
On his way home from work, Robert didn't hesitate for a second and drove straight to the game store.
Regardless, I have to buy another one.
He was quite certain that Yuli would like the game, and he was also quite certain that he needed a Switch.
However, at the front desk, Robert saw an unexpected figure.
He could recognize the other person's identity just from their back view.
"Hey, Sean, what a coincidence."
He reached out and patted Sean on the shoulder, then stood right next to him.
Robert's gaze passed over Sean and landed on the newly filled-out order form on the counter, where he paused slightly, slightly taken aback.
"Oh, Boss, what brings you here too?"
Sean was startled; he hadn't expected to run into Robert here.
"You little brat----"
Robert may be old-fashioned and out of touch with the times, but he's not stupid.
The moment he saw the order form, he understood exactly what was going on.
Good lad, you're really willing to invest!
The following day, Sean was promoted because he stepped into the company with his left foot first.
GAMENOVA Headquarters.
"FUCK! We're invincible!! Invincible!!!"
Sam once again experienced what it meant to be invincible.
Looking at the global handheld gaming market, apart from Nintendo's completely outdated Game & Watch, there are only two other consoles that can compete.
One is the NovaPocket, a dominant handheld gaming device that currently holds over 90% of the market share.
Handheld devices with even higher penetration rates than early mobile phones.
The other one is the newcomer NovaSwift, which sold over ten million units in its first month.
Such terrifying sales figures are so impressive that even the combined sales of several other companies probably wouldn't be enough to beat them.
Who would have thought that a seemingly simple 2D game could transform a handheld console into a shining star in gaming history?
This path almost perfectly replicates the wonderful chemistry between NovaPocket and Tetris.
"I've said this so many times, but—you're a fucking genius!"
Sam was gesticulating wildly, as if he were going crazy.
He had assumed that with Gamenova's relentless pursuit of high-quality content, players' expectations had already been raised to an alarming level.
Under these circumstances, perhaps only works of the caliber of Quake have the right to once again shake the world.
However, Lin Lixin shattered this perception by playing a small game that could fit on ROM flash memory.
Stockpiling materials is not the only way.
"The same goes for 'Shanghai' and ' Hill Climb Racing '! They're unbeatable!"
Lin Lixin seems to truly possess some kind of mysterious power; he can turn the simple into the magical, and the simpler the thing, the more captivating it becomes.
He looked at Lin Lixin, who was rapidly typing code on the PC, and said, "Can't you be a little more excited? That's ten million units!"
"----Yes, yes!"
Lin Lixin reluctantly agreed, saying, "Brother, you've been howling all day, aren't you tired?"
"Tired my ass! I'm having so much fun!"
Sam, completely oblivious to his surroundings, howled even louder.
"Now is not the time to relax; the NS's game lineup is still too weak."
Lin Lixin interrupted his rant, "The Zork Idle ' will be finished in the next couple of days. Cheer up, we still need to do the necessary promotion."
The positioning of Zork Idle is very subtle.
Its publicity and promotion are very difficult.
Although Zork Idle initially boosted sales thanks to its unique gameplay design, its sales growth has now plateaued with almost no new traffic.
However, this does not mean that the player base for Zork Idle is saturated.
A significant number of players are completely unaware of its existence.
A large portion of the players who enjoy this type of game are overworked office workers.
They don't read gaming magazines.
The large number coprocessor built into NovaSwift is a significant step in changing this situation.
Mobile devices also have their place, and might even be more suitable for them.
After all, not everyone can carry an NX with them.
"A game console can't rely on just a few games to survive."
Lin Lixin stopped what he was doing.
Despite the support of the N Language and NovaEngine, there are now quite a few third-party vendors joining the fray.
However, the difficulty of developing a multi-processor architecture has prevented them from making ideal progress.
Relying on third-party developers to enrich the Nintendo Switch's game lineup would take far too long.
Lin Lixin didn't intend to just slowly endure until the 1990s.
"Let Activision work on porting the Notebook to the Switch first."
The Activision team members are well-suited to perform 8- to 16-bit porting.
Blizzard Studio can also help in this regard.
As for GAMENOVA headquarters, they are focused on starting development plans for their next project as soon as possible.
But before that, Lin Lixin had another interesting project he wanted to try.
It's about time we went to check on Chief Qiao ' situation.