Almighty Video Game Designer

Many were tagging Chen Mo on Weibo.

“This map called Holy Land is pretty good, maybe give an official endorsement?”

“I recommend Holy Land too.”

“@Chen Mo, it’s a new year and time to make new games! Stop slacking off, my wallet can’t take it anymore!”

“@Chen Mo, please make a nice, non-scammy game like Warcraft. Please stop trying to milk my wallet with scammy games!”

Chen Mo was surprised to find that many diehard fans as he looked through his tags.

And there were many who were waiting for yet another high quality game.

Chen Mo decided to give everyone a small hint.

He sent out a short and simple Webio.

“The next game will be a single player RPG game, Western Fantasy.”

He included a concept art of Tristram Cathedral under the cover of darkness lit up by candles. There was a traveller who looked into the sky where there was an unidentified object flying towards the cathedral, giving away an ominous vibe.

The Weibo caught the attention of many.

“My goodness! Look at this, Chen Mo’s new Webio!”

“It’s coming, Chen Mo is making another PC game! I have my money ready! What kind of game do you think it is?”

“Are you dense? Didn’t Chen Mo already tell you it’s a singleplayer western fantasy RPG game? You can’t be more detailed than that!”

“From the looks of it, isn’t the atmosphere a bit too dark? It’s really ominous. The cathedral gives away the vibes of a cemetery.”

“Yeah, I think there are tombstones upon close look. I think there’s a shadow of a skull in one of the windows.”

“Maybe it’s related to Warcraft’s Undead?”

“Doesn’t look like it. The artstyle seems much gloomier than Warcraft. It does give away dark ages vibes though.”

“Chen Mo is finally making an RPG! I’m looking forward to this!”

“Unfortunately it’s a single player game. It probably wouldn’t feel as satisfying”

“Not necessarily, don’t you have to play single player games to get a good story? Moreover, designers usually make single player RPG games to get their names out there in order to reduce the risk for MMORPGs.”

“That’s true. It’s by Chen Mo, it must be good. We’ll just have to wait!”

“Geez, I thought he was going to make an RPG version of Warcraft. That’s too sad.”

“Who knows, maybe he has something else in mind. I want to play a Warcraft RPG too!”

It didn’t take long before the news spread around within the industry.

“Have you heard? Chen Mo’s new game is on the PC, a western fantasy themed single player RPG game.”

“I’ve heard about it. Thank the heavens that he’s doing that.”

“Why?”

“Hopefully this means he’s not making anymore mobile games, give us some breathing room!”

“But I’m in PC games, who’s going to give me breathing room?”

“Alright, take note that Chen Mo is making a singleplayer game. Emphasis on single player.”

“Oh, singleplayer. That makes it slightly better.”

“It’s great that it is single player, they have limited profitability after all. Seems like Chen Mo has the same thing in mind with Warcraft, he’s trying to work on his name and not for money.”

“We’d still have to be careful. It’d still be pretty bad if our games happened to be released around the same time. Take a look and see what he’s up to.”

“There’s a picture on Weibo! The game is called Diablo. This doesn’t look like a first person game.”

Maybe designers were trying to figure out what Chen Mo was up to via his We.

The new Weibo post was also quite simple. It specified that the game is called Diablo. It also included an image of a forty-five degree third person view with a dual axe wielding barbarian battling countless skeletons and demons.

“It really doesn’t look like a first person game. Is he planning a third person game?”

“Possibly. Third person games are easier anyways. It’s normal that he’d go for something more stable and predictable for his first RPG game.”

“That’s not bad as there are fewer and fewer third person games as it is going out of fashion. This game probably wouldn’t lose him money, but it’s unlikely that it’d get all that popular.”

“Yeah, I’ve also thought out what Chen Mo was planning. There’s too much first in making a first person MMORPG, which was why he chose to pivot using a third person RPG, focusing on the story and theme.”

“That’s what I think too. He’s making this game just for the players who like Western Fantasy themes. Luckily the playerbase of this game will have a huge overlap with Warcraft, which guarantees some of his sales.”

“We panicked for nothing. But I do feel kind of sad as this suggests that he’s admitting defeat? I remember how confident he was when he made Warcraft to go directly against Legion Conquest. Now he probably thinks that he doesn’t have the abilities and is playing safe.”

“Not sure if you guys noticed the color scheme of these artworks?”

“Color scheme?”

“Yeah, the colors are really dark.”

“Oh, maybe he’s trying to create a scary and ominous atmosphere.”

“It’s not as simple as that. Sure it might just be for atmosphere, but this combined with scary background music will give the players a lot of pressure. It’d be really tiring for them to play the game. Just take a look at the popular online games, none of them are dark at all as they fear the players might get tired quickly.”

“Oh is that so. I’ve learnt something today!”

“So I think Chen Mo made a mistake. He went too far just to create a unique Western Fantasy game, but he never considered if the players would accept it. The artstyle in particular is too out there! Just take a look at Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Zen Entertainment, none of them dare to do this!”

“Incredible. I’ve learnt so much from your analysis!”

“I think Chen Mo’s game will be profitable, but it’s not going to be much, possibly just breaking even. There’s no way this game will be as popular as his previous ones. Perhaps it’ll be well received in a niche community, but there’s no way this game will get popular.”

“Thank goodness for that!”

—

Many were talking about Chen Mo’s new game, industry professionals and players alike, but most of them didn’t expect too much from it.

The reasoning was simple, they thought that third person RPG games were one of the most ancient types of games, verging on extinction.

Moreover, the potential for these types of games have more or less been fully explored as the industry was dominated by first person games. How many players still liked ancient single player RPG games like these was a question that remained to be answered.