vrcanaries Chapter 36: Those who learn from me live, those who copy me die!
Chapter 36: Those who learn from me live, those who copy me die!
"What's going on? What are you guys doing?!"
"We work so hard, paying you tens of thousands every month to support you, and this is the kind of garbage you produce?"
The next day, in the president's office of Aurora Games.
The operations director of Aurora Games didn't dare to lift his head, keeping his eyes down and staring at his toes.
As soon as Ji Yuan arrived at the office, the operations director came to see him.
He handed over the details of the newly acquired Steam Engine platform and the new game development festival.
One of them is a game that uses their Aurora Games logo.
The sales results were simply appalling.
Ji Yuan frowned, his face showing extreme embarrassment.
The sales figures for this steam engine platform made him look very unhappy, which is why he lost his temper first thing in the morning.
Although it damages the liver, it is indeed too infuriating!
"I need you to prepare for both possibilities!"
"First, we're preparing to discuss a collaboration with Insomnia Studio. If possible, Aurora Games could invest in them."
"We only need 30% of the shares and will absolutely not interfere in their operations."
"How did you do it?"
The operations director lowered his head, barely daring to breathe.
Damn it, this isn't my fault. I was negotiating a partnership or acquisition with Aurora Games.
That's the marketing director's business. I'm just an operations person, what does it have to do with me?
However, he dared not speak loudly.
This Mr. Ji is the executive vice president directly dispatched from Heilong Entertainment, and his actual position is even higher than that of the president of Aurora Games.
Although he knew nothing about games, his power was undeniable.
Once you provoke the other party and make them unhappy.
Even if you've already reached the position of director of the operations department, you should still be laid off if necessary.
"Mr. Ji, we don't know either."
"Back then, Mr. Su signed a betting agreement with us, which stipulated that if they lost after their third game was launched..."
"Just grant our request."
"But now—"
"Now? Now we're making a roguelike dungeon crawler game based on their second game, The Binding of Isaac!"
"Now, a whole night has passed! And we've only sold five hundred servings!"
"Five hundred copies!"
Yes, that's right!
In response to this betting agreement, Aurora Games also made preparations.
It's a complete rip-off of The Binding of Isaac!
They created a roguelike dungeon game with poor graphics and gameplay.
In the gaming industry, gameplay isn't considered plagiarism. Even Nintendo, the well-known company Shen Huaizhou's predecessor, couldn't win a lawsuit against those games with Pokémon-like gameplay.
Especially after Palu appeared, Nintendo's laws seemed to become a joke.
Therefore, the fact that the gameplay does not constitute plagiarism has already been accepted by the player community.
Just at this time.
Inside the office, a familiar voice rang in my ears.
If Shen Huaizhou were here, he would be able to see it.
That's Chen Dazhuang.
I was just about to end the broadcast at 2 AM last night, but I was up before 11 AM this morning.
So, with the other friends not up, the live stream of "Human: Fall Flat" wasn't very interesting.
So I just randomly picked a game on the Steam platform.
"uh-huh?"
"This name is interesting; it's practically a dungeon and adventure story?"
"It's from Aurora Games? How come no one has reviewed it after a whole night?"
"Then I'll have to take a good look at this batch."
However, it didn't even take five minutes; the time was up.
Then, Da Zhuang's roar came from the computer.
"Damn! What a piece of trash game!"
"Can't you even understand copying? Isaac has already shown you that the most distinctive feature of roguelike games is that every game has a different start!"
"You even plagiarized the plot and props, Aurora, you're utterly despicable!"
"I've never seen you guys make a roguelike game before, but you copied it because Isaac became popular, right?"
"Do you even know what a rogue pigeon dungeon is? You idiot!"
In the live stream, Chen Dazhuang played for less than ten minutes before decisively choosing to uninstall and request a refund.
They actually dare to sell this for seventy!
He wouldn't even bother buying this game for seven yuan!
This game, Dungeon & Adventure, is indeed a roguelike game, but at the start of each game, you are given three choices.
Choose from three items, which are then divided into green, blue, and purple.
Above the purple, there is a golden prop.
Each room you enter will randomly spawn an item.
These tools are not used for multiplication, but for addition.
If you choose the flying sword in this room, and a missile spawns in the next room...
The item upgrades you can choose from will appear in these two categories.
As the number of items increases, just like with the rolling ball, you'll eventually get stuck and fail because there's no interaction between your items.
Ji Yuan's expression was extremely grim at that moment.
It's bad enough that sales were only a meager 500 copies in one night, but now, after finally getting a live streamer to help them sell their products...
However, this is the comment given.
"Director Yan, can you explain this?"
"How did you manage to get this project approved?"
"Um?"
Although Ji Yuan's tone was perfectly normal at that moment, Director Yan of the Operations Department was already drenched in sweat.
In this late autumn season, my back was completely soaked.
Meanwhile, Chen Dazhuang's voice continued uninterrupted in the live stream room:
"This game is nowhere near as good as The Binding of Isaac. The randomness in The Binding of Isaac is what makes it so interesting."
"The fun of roguelike games lies in the combination of items and the strategies for turning the tide of the game."
"The Aurora model..."
"What's the difference between this and pay-to-win games?"
"There are only a few items, and the map is almost fixed, so it gets boring after a few levels."
"It's still the same old grind-heavy gameplay, it's boring."
Dazhuang was one of the earliest players to get his hands on The Binding of Isaac, and he has played the game for over a hundred hours!
There's absolutely nothing wrong with striking that pose of a gaming expert.
Little did he know that his words would resonate in the office of a major game company, where an operations director was standing on the edge of his forehead.
Sweating profusely in this late autumn season.
"Aurora is quite adept at copying other people's gameplay."
"But they overlooked the fact that the core gameplay of roguelike games is not just about grinding."
"The lifespan of a grind-based game is absolutely no match for a game like 'The Binding of Isaac,' so to speak—"
"Those who learn from me will live; those who imitate me will die."
"It's not wrong to learn from roguelike gameplay, but if you only see the surface, then this game is not far from dying."
(PS: Most of these games are mini-games; that's generally how they are.)