Kanemi said, "Anyway, I probably won't consider playing a ga like this. Of course, if you add farming elents to it, then that's another story."
Both Oto-chan and Aiko simultaneously rolled their eyes. Kanemi always wanted to add farming elents to every ga.
"Stop thinking about farming! Takayuki-sensei also said that this ga doesn't suit those kinds of elents. Growth and death are the core of this ga, and adding too much extra content would make the ga itself too lengthy," Aiko said.
This was Takayuki's exact wording, and Aiko actually agreed with him. If it were up to her, she wouldn't consider adding any additional features outside of the current gaplay.
But she had to admit, the difficulty of the ga was a bit high.
Would it end up like Monster Hunter, not attracting enough players?
Oto-chan said, "Forget about that. At least we've completed all the tasks that Takayuki-sensei assigned us. We've pretty much fulfilled all his requirents."
...
...
"Well then, let's just upload this ga to Takayuki-sensei and see what he thinks."
With that, Aiko opened her email and uploaded the completed Dead Cells ga to Takayuki.
It was just after 8 AM, and Takayuki had only just woken up.
However, when he heard the sound of the computer notification, he dragged himself out of bed to check it.
"Huh? The ga is already finished? It's faster than I expected."
Takayuki was slightly surprised. The efficiency of Aiko and the other two girls was truly impressive.
Dead Cells itself was a highly complex ga, especially for a small team. A developnt team of hundreds of people could compress the programming and other ga developnt tis to a minimum. But with only three people, even if the ga's gaplay was relatively simple, it wasn't easy to make.
And that didn't even take into account the high difficulty of developing Dead Cells as an indie ga.
Art design, animation design, gaplay, and level design—all of these things were enough to give anyone a headache.
But the three girls still managed to finish the developnt quickly.
"Takayuki-sensei, this is the ga we completed. Please have a look," Aiko wrote in the email with a careful ssage attached.
Takayuki replied imdiately, "Did you try playing the ga yourselves?"
Aiko: "Yes, Oto-chan and I have both tried it, and I even managed to clear it a few tis. The ga seems complete and ets all the requirents you gave us, Takayuki-sensei."
Takayuki: "Alright, then just upload it. How much do you plan to price it?"
"A... what?"
Aiko, Oto-chan, and Kanemi all froze when they saw Takayuki's ssage.
Takayuki wasn't going to check it himself?
"Takayuki-sensei, aren't you going to check the ga's completed state?"
Takayuki quickly responded, "The ga was mostly made by you. I just gave so direction. I believe that when you think it's ready, then it's ready. You don't need anyone else to give you a definitive answer. In the future, you can't expect to always review your gas. The only people who can truly determine whether the ga is good or not are the players, not ."
"But... but we thought you could still help us find so issues..." Aiko said, hesitant.
Takayuki: "It's inevitable that there will be issues during ga developnt. Don't chase after perfection. Do your best and trust your own judgnt. Don't you trust yourselves?"
Aiko stared at Takayuki's reply for a long mont, then Oto-chan looked at Aiko and asked, "Aiko, what are you thinking?"
Aiko gritted her teeth and typed back, "I understand, Takayuki-sensei. We should trust ourselves. Please upload the ga now."
Takayuki smiled. These three girls were growing quite well. He felt like he was becoming a competent teacher: "Okay, so how much are you planning to price the ga?"
"Um... ten dollars?" Aiko tentatively answered.
"Too low. Don't undervalue your own ga. Ten dollars doesn't reflect the true value of this ga. You can consider offering discounts later, but I think the ga deserves a higher price right now."
Aiko: "But... but Takayuki-sensei, the ga is already quite difficult. If we raise the price, won't fewer people be willing to buy it?"
Takayuki smiled as he typed, "Ah, so you're worried about that. It's understandable. You probably saw how Monster Hunter struggled with sales because of its difficulty, so now you're concerned about the sa thing?"
Aiko: "Mm."
Takayuki: "Don't worry. There are a lot more masochistic players in the market than you think. It's not like it was when Monster Hunter first ca out."
Over the years, players' tolerance for difficult gas had been gradually increasing.
People do enjoy having simpler gas to pass the ti, but sotis, a ga with a bit of difficulty can actually help release pent-up emotions and be more engaging.
If that weren't the case, Dark Souls wouldn't have beco so popular in Takayuki's ti.
Of course, the ga's imnse success was due to the brilliant Hidetaka Miyazaki, but it also involved cultivating players' tolerance for difficult gas over ti.
Maybe it was ti for Takayuki to consider developing a Souls-like ga himself?
The most recent Monster Hunter had already shown signs of a coback. However, no one outside of Gastar Electronic Entertainnt had detailed sales data, so it was hard to accurately gauge how players felt about difficult gas.
Later, Takayuki even ran a test. He deliberately increased the difficulty of the final boss in Titanfall by more than twice, making the enemies' combat skills and destructive power far stronger than in the original ga.
This was Takayuki's way of testing players' tolerance for difficult gas.
The feedback was extrely positive.
By that ti, players were already filled with anger, having seen the beloved character BT die at the hands of enemies. This made them even more eager for revenge.
Fueled by this emotion, even with the increased difficulty, players accepted it all.
When they finally defeated the final boss after countless attempts, dopamine flooded their brains, and the sense of exhilaration was unparalleled.
According to Gastar's online data, along with related video and livestream content, the retention rate for the final boss stage was the highest.
So, high-difficulty gas had already found fertile ground in this world, and it was ti for them to truly take off.
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