<h4>Chapter 212: Lacklustre Diablo Follow Up?</h4>


    Chen Mo releasing Diablo and Don’t Starve one after another caused a decent reaction in the videogamemunity, although not one as big as the copying craze from mobile card games.


    This was expected as the main characteristics of the game were really unique and hard to replicate.


    Diablo did allow industry professionals to realise the market gap in satisfying hack and sh games, but how to fill that gap was a very difficult question.


    If they followed Diablo and made a third person game with a dark art style, setting aside if they were capable of spending money to reach the quality of Diablo, even if they did, would the yers buy a game that was such a tant Diablo copy?


    Therefore, the only way out was to make a simr VR game, which was exactly what Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was doing.


    But for the otherpanies? There was too much risk involved with making VR games. Moreover, many changes had to be made to it, sopanies who could take such a big risk were few and far between.


    Don’t Starve was also a simr unreplicatable game in the eyes of many video game designers.


    Because nobody understood how it managed to sell this many copies.


    Story? Art style? Music and audio effects?


    Items? ystyle? Sandbox mode?


    One thing’s for sure, this was a rtively sessful sandbox game. This was because of its excellent quality and rich ystyle which replicates the physiological needs of humans, which triggers a desire to create in yers.


    But how could one create a sandbox game simr to Don’t Starve?


    Nobody knows.


    Sandbox games may seem nice to make, but they are actually incredibly difficult to develop. The sessful sandbox games always seem easy to recreate during analysis, just that they didn’t think of it.


    Therefore, although the reviews were good for Diablo and Don’t Starve, it didn’t create a copying craze like mobile card games did.


    Moreover, as Diablo looked better and better, it also gained more and more haters.


    “There are yersining about how Diablo sucks in theter stages on the official forums again.”


    “Yeah, I saw thating. I’ve tried the game out too, it felt great at the start, but it became incredibly monotonous at theter stages of the game. If it wasn’t for the desire to grind for equipment, I doubt many would continue ying.”


    “They’ll get sick of grinding great eventually. The better the gear, the rarer it is. You might not even see one piece of usable equipment the more you y, and that just feels terrible.”


    “That only means that Chen Mo isn’t invincible. Sure he could make games that are ying long into the future, this game isn’t one of them.”


    It can’t be helped. I think Chen Mo thought of this at the start. It’s like a one time thing that’s packaged really well with incredible cinematics. It feels good when you’re killing mobs too. That’s how they get you to buy the game as they neglect everything after they secure your money.”


    “That’s quite normal. It’s a single yer game, you need to stopparing it to the standards of online games.”


    “Chen Mo immediately pivoted to developing Don’t Starve right after releasing Diablo. Obviously he doesn’t expect Diablo to make him money in the long term.”


    “YEah, I think so too. Maybe Chen Mo is nning for the future by dipping his toes in all the different genres. If Diablo doesn’t work out, he can continue with Don’t Starve.”


    “I was shocked when Chen Mo released Diablo, but obviously it was just for show. Sure the sales were amazing, but the yers are already sick of it. It’s not going tost into the future.”


    “Yeah, I think the show’s over.”


    “I heard that Emperor Dynasty Emperor is making a Diablo style VR game. Wonder how that’s going.”


    “I think Yan Zhenyuan is working on it. There’s no questions with the abilities of the video game designer, nor is there any with the distribution and funding of the game. I think the game will more than likely be popr.”


    “Yeah, maybe even more popr than Diablo as it’s more immersive in VR.”


    “It’s hard to say, there’s a lot of risk in porting a PC game into VR. It’s like making a whole new game.”


    “Yan Zhenyuan is an S-grade designer after all, there isn’t a single game he released that failed. Moreover, there’s plenty of theory to support this game’s sess too. Think about it, killing enemies left and right in VR, it’ll really be covering the market gap when that is released.”


    “That’s true. Sigh, looks like Chen Mo failed a little bit here. He should have brought this game outter. He should probably be on his way to making VR games soon, if he brought it out in a year or so, he’d probably develop his own VR Diablo. He’s just giving Emperor Dynasty ideas by releasing it now!”


    —


    Yan Zhenyuan was also ying Diablo.


    He had a clear idea of the controls of this game so far. The high quality story and cinematics and the thoughtful detailed creepy atmosphere was just the packaging. The real core of the game is hacking and shing and the bncing of the game.


    Of course, the packaging of the game was so good the yers felt like they got more than they paid for.


    In reality, theter stages of Diablopletely depended on numerical simtion.


    At the same time the yers continue grinding, they are getting better equipment, increasing their strength, and moving to the next difficulties. Meaning the bncing of the game bes the main driving force for yers to continue ying.


    This may seem like a model that worked at first nce, but so far Diablo didn’t seem to be able to achieve this.


    Yan Zhenyuan was also thinking about how to solve this problem as he was making a VR version of Diablo which was on PC. The profits of the game would be dramatically impacted if the yers were sick of it after a month or two.


    As VR games required much more financially than PC games, they could only wish they’d lose a bit less money if they sold the game by copies. The thought of making money like that was a fool’s dream.


    “I need to think of something soon.”


    Yan Zhenyuan’s project was now in its first steps as all parts of development were moving along steadily, but he’d have to quickly think of something to ensure the longevity of the game.


    It was almost November, and ording to the roadn, it should be in its test phase theing June, and be released theing August.


    “Whatever, I’ll move with the online game idea for now, have as much socialization and trading in the game as possible. Then I’ll need to drag out the ytime and slow down how quickly new yers level up.


    Yan Zhenyuan decided that since the problem was really difficult to solve, he may as well take a page out of the book of online games and retain yers through various online activities.