When he was a child, he would run through the fields, watching little insects tumble around the crops. Occasionally, squirrels or birds—those mischievous creatures—would sneak in and steal from the fields.
After over ten years of working in the city, Chiaki Suzuki had nearly forgotten what that life in his hotown felt like.
But this ga brought him back to those beautiful childhood mories.
He really loved this ga. Even though it looked plain and unimpressive, with its poor visuals, it helped him rediscover his original joy.
Many people shared similar emotions with Chiaki Suzuki, and without exception, they all loved the warm feeling that Stardew Valley brought them.
So even gained the courage to return to their hotowns after playing this ga.
A ga made by just one person, selling 50,000 copies at an average price of 1,700 yen.
Battle also took this opportunity to promote its revenue-sharing model.
...
...
Ga developers could receive 70% of the ga's revenue.
At the sa ti, Battle added a special tag to Stardew Valley: Indie Ga.
The term "indie ga" was easy enough to understand—just like independent films in the movie industry, created by one or very few people with very low budgets.
In film, indie movies had already matured greatly, but in the ga industry, very few had ventured into this space before.
Most people subconsciously believed that video gas had to be high-budget products.
Perhaps it was because things like programming, illustration, music, and level design were so specialized that most people felt overwheld by the complexity of it all. On top of that, the industry had recently leaned more toward high-budget developnt. Only a few of Gastar Electronic Entertainnt's casual gas had been able to win over players outside the gaming community—but the potential of casual gas still hadn't been fully realized, and the focus remained on high-end production.
In this environnt, no one expected a small dark horse to suddenly appear.
50,000 sales may not be much for a big company, but for developers in a slump, it was like a brand-new door had opened.
Stardew Valley didn't have great visuals, but even so, it achieved modest success.
Professional developers could imdiately see that Stardew Valley wasn't difficult to make in terms of developnt. The only thing it really needed was a good idea.
And if you had a strong enough idea, then high-end visuals weren't really necessary. High budgets beca less important too.
That revelation gave a lot of lost developers a brand-new sense of direction.
So success didn't only co from big-budget gas after all.
Look—Stardew Valley was made by one person. And creating a ga with similar visuals and gaplay wasn't even all that hard.
Yet this ga still sold 50,000 copies, bringing in around 50 million yen.
That was roughly equivalent to five years' salary for a well-paid white-collar worker.
Those still struggling in the ga developnt world had their eyes lit up red with envy.
And Stardew Valley's sales hadn't even stopped—it was still steadily growing, which ant the person who made it could continue to earn revenue.
To them, this was the ultimate role model!
In no ti at all, Stardew Valley was no longer just talked about in gaming circles—it beca a hot topic in ga developer communities as well.
Along with it ca discussions about the developer: "Nintendo is F***ing the Ruler of the World."
That na was seriously weird.
It seed like the na was praising Nintendo as being amazing.
But what was Nintendo? Or rather, who was Nintendo?
User1: "The na 'Nintendo' sounds like so kind of centuries-old shop. Only century-old establishnts are allowed to call themselves '堂' (hall). That's a Japanese tradition, didn't you guys know?"
User2: "Then what does '任天' an? Sounds kind of like 'leave it to fate'?"
User1: "Yeah, kind of. So, a centuries-old shop that leaves things up to fate? Why would that kind of store be the ruler of the world? I really don't get it."
User3: "Wait, what are you guys talking about?"
User1: "Oh, another one shows up. Do I really have to repeat this again? Fine, I'll say it one more ti. We're trying to figure out what 'Nintendo' ans and why the ga developer called Nintendo the ruler of the world."
User3: "Is that really the important part? I thought you guys were discussing the ga's design philosophy. Got my hopes up for nothing."
User2: "Hey, the developer's na is important too! Why are you looking down on it?"
User4: "Everyone! Breaking news—I just found a historical linguist who says in an ancient language called 'Valis,' 'Nintendo' ant 'Supre Holy Deity.' So maybe this Mr. Nintendo was referring to a divine being as the ruler of the world?"
User123: "Wait, how did this beco about gods again?"
...
Takayuki, who had been aimlessly browsing the internet, stared at this chat thread in total confusion.
Why were these people always so obsessed with interpreting such nonsense?
It was just a joke, a random handle he used. Of course no one in this world could actually understand what "Nintendo" really ant.
And besides that userna—"Nintendo is F***ing the Ruler of the World"—he'd also registered a bunch of other troll nas, like "Sony Supre," "Ubisoft Potato Farming Expert," "Ten Years Making Gas, Nine Years Making CG," "Crafted With CG, Coded With Feet," and so on.
At the mont, he was using the alt account "Ten Years Making Gas, Nine Years Making CG" to browse the forums—only to find a bunch of people seriously debating the aning of his old userna.
Why don't you guys just go play my ga instead? Maybe then you'd understand that high budget doesn't always equal quality—a small, polished ga can be just as charming.
But simply saying that in this chatroom was pointless. No one would listen to him.
They were too busy obsessing over who this mysterious "Mr. Nintendo" was and why he was the "ruler of the world."
Yup. The imagination of netizens truly knows no bounds. No matter how much he tried to explain, it would be pointless.
Still, watching these goofy discussions was oddly entertaining.
Of course, once he was done reading their nonsense, he had real work to do—encouraging more people in the community to explore indie ga developnt. This world shouldn't just have big-budget gas.
This world needs more indie gas.
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