That's right. The special invited competition project Gu Sheng prepared for the Mini Game Festival was none other than Stardew Valley, hailed as a masterpiece in his previous life!

Of course.

The members of Golden Experience Studio knew nothing about this and were even quite unfamiliar with it.

"What is this...?"

As all members of the Golden Experience team gathered and looked at the game cover on the big screen, team leader Jiang Yun spoke up with keen interest:

"Pixel style?"

Pixel style held extraordinary significance for Golden Wind.

Back in the day, when Golden Wind was still a tiny studio, they dominated the Mini Game Festival with a pixel-style game (incidentally knocking out Jiang Yun's game too).

After all, if Golden Wind hadn't defeated his Fantasy Domination with Vampire Survivors back then, there wouldn't have been the subsequent vote ranking manipulation incident.

Without the ranking manipulation, he wouldn't have eventually joined Golden Wind and become the leader of Golden Experience.

And now, when a pixel-style mini-game was placed before him again, the person steering the ship had become himself.

To be honest, this feeling was quite marvelous.

Jiang Yun was very interested.

"Exactly,"

Gu Sheng nodded:

"A pixel-style role-playing casual game, or... it has another not-so-professional game classification name—"

Stardew Valley.

Theoretically speaking, it should indeed be classified as a role-playing game.

In this game, players would portray a young person crushed by the "996 blessing" who one day unexpectedly receives a letter from their grandfather.

In the letter, the grandfather writes: "By the time you read this letter, you must be desperately in need of a change. Long ago, the same thing happened to me, and I forgot what the most important things in life really were..."

The grandfather leaves a dilapidated farm to the protagonist, claiming it will be the perfect start to their new life.

Thus, the protagonist ultimately can't endure the dark, endless corporate drone existence, packs their backpack, and comes to Stardew Valley town to begin their pastoral life.

The game is overall relaxed and fun—planting vegetables, fishing, quarrying stones, and mining are quite delightful. Moreover, during festivals, the town holds unique fun activities.

The noisy pressure and decadent distractions of concrete jungles seem to vanish completely here.

Here, there are only carrots growing from the soil, truffles dug up by pigs, sweet and delicious starfruit wine, and amusing gossip about the mayor that makes people smile knowingly.

Just as the poet Haizi wrote—

From tomorrow on, be a happy person

Feed horses, chop wood, travel the world

From tomorrow on, care about food and vegetables

I have a house, facing the sea, with spring blossoms...

But rather than calling it a "role-playing game," Gu Sheng preferred to call it—

"A farming game."

"Farming game?"

Hearing this, Jiang Yun, Kailing, and Jiang Shan exchanged glances, clearly not understanding.

You have to understand!

In this world, while there were many game genres, they ultimately couldn't escape having an ultimate mission objective.

Like scores in sports games, kill counts in shooting games, rankings in racing games, etc.

Even games like Tetris and Mario ultimately had final mission objectives—

Eliminate blocks to accumulate points, and pass difficult levels to rescue the princess.

But "farming"...?

What was the game's purpose?

The growth of crops?

Once a batch of crops grew, was the mission accomplished?

For a moment, the Golden Experience studio members looked at each other, completely unable to understand what gameplay elements President Gu's "farming game" could possibly have.

However, under everyone's questioning and puzzled gazes, Gu Sheng's answer was even more astonishing:

"The purpose of this game... is to have no purpose."

After saying this.

Gu Sheng thought for a moment, then shrugged with a smile:

"Or rather, the ultimate purpose of this game is to let players feel relaxed and live life well."

The joy of spring planting and autumn harvest could be the game's purpose.

The fish kings of four seasons could be the game's purpose.

The medals from various activities could be the game's purpose.

The combat of mine exploration could also be the game's purpose.

Our purpose is to have no purpose.

Because life is never measured by scores and rankings to determine success or failure.

Of course! Kill counts are even less valid!

Perhaps in real life, due to various reasons, we can't live the carefree life we want,

But in games, Golden Wind is willing to provide everyone with such a spiritual harbor, to heal pained and weary souls, giving players a moment of pause and respite on their life's journey.

This is the charm of farming games.

Wow—

Hearing President Gu's words, the Golden Experience employees couldn't help but murmur inwardly.

Our president really knows how to spin a tale.

He really understands how to tug at players' heartstrings.

Simple words, like Zenyata activating his ultimate, instantly made people ["Experience Tranquility"].

The key was!

Thinking according to the president's logic—being able to return home after work, hold a controller, grow some flowers, tend some plants, feed some chickens, pet some sheep, and exchange warm greetings with neighbors.

Even just fishing as the sun sets in the west—

Come to think of it, that did seem like a pretty good experience.

There was a feeling of being both boring and fun.

After all, no one had ever made such a game before.

Not just never made—they'd never even heard of it!

But that being said!

Such a pixel-style mini-game probably wouldn't cost much money—at most 1.5 million dollars would be completely sufficient.

After all, Plants vs. Zombies only cost 1.15 million dollars.

The production costs of these two games were probably quite similar.

Thinking of this!

The Golden Experience designers looked at each other, then smiled and nodded one after another:

"Then leave it to us!"

A casual mini-project!

Entrusting it to the current Golden Experience Studio was simply most appropriate.

After all, they had been working intensely for over half a year previously, pouring their hearts into the globally popular Overwatch.

Now, making a mini-game for fun could also count as a form of vacation.

Moreover, Gu Sheng didn't have particularly high expectations for Stardew Valley's sales.

Yes.

He didn't think Stardew Valley could recreate the legend of Plants vs. Zombies from back then—it might not even surpass Overcooked.

And such concerns naturally had their basis.

First, as the first casual pixel mini-game in this world with elements like "farming, fishing, and mining," players might not accept it.

Second, and most importantly—

Stardew Valley's release date would clash with Resident Evil 7.

Yes.

I'm crashing into myself.

Very awkward.

But also helpless.

Because Resident Evil 7's release date had long been determined. This time, they were confronting Komera again, with both sides standing firm against each other, setting the game release dates for the same day.

And the day after Resident Evil 7's release!

The Yiyou Mini Game Festival would open. Then, Stardew Valley would become the flagship title of the Mini Game Festival, leading Huaguo's various mini-game developers and their works overseas for the second time.

When Resident Evil 7 meets Stardew Valley?

Which one had higher topicality was obvious at a glance.

Moreover!

Currently, almost all of Golden Wind's promotional focus was on Resident Evil 7!

Because this round of Resident Evil 7, Shen Miaomiao absolutely had to make it profitable!

It didn't matter how much profit, but it absolutely could not lose money!

Why?

Because she needed Resident Evil 8 to lose money!

As everyone knew!

Currently, Resident Evil 7, strictly speaking, wasn't yet "Golden Wind's Resident Evil."

Shinji Mikami had only licensed the Resident Evil IP to them at the price of one dollar, giving them a chance to prove themselves—to see if a return to horror with Resident Evil 7 could turn the tide and reverse the IP's previous decline.

And if they could pass this test successfully!

Only then!

Would Shinji Mikami engage in negotiations with them to sell the copyright in his hands to Golden Wind.

That would be a huge expense!

According to Old Gu, if the super IP Resident Evil were sold externally, the starting price would be 500 million dollars.

500 million dollars for IP acquisition, plus Resident Evil 8's related production costs...

Total costs easily reaching 600-800 million dollars.

Forget the maximum four-week settlement period—even if you gave them another four weeks, such an enormous cost absolutely couldn't be recouped in a short time!

And she!

Shen Miaomiao!

At that time, she only needed to keep an eye on her man to prevent this spendthrift from coming up with sales models like "dual platforms" again, while also supervising XunTeng and Yiyou, these two whales, to prevent them from arbitrarily reducing their commission rates,

Then everything would be accomplished perfectly, and she could just sit back and wait for the 100x return inherited from Resident Evil 7.

Yes, Shen Miaomiao's ambition lay with Resident Evil 8.

Thus, Resident Evil 7 became the second work after Sekiro that Shen Miaomiao seriously supervised promotions for.

Speaking of which, Komera was really quite unlucky.

The last time Shen Miaomiao used her [Serious Promotion] power, it was also directed at them.

But the difference was,

Last time, they fortunately had Moriya Tetsuya holding the fort. Although they ultimately failed because of Uekoe Kagemasa's stubbornness and self-importance, throughout the entire pre-release promotion battle, Komera never fell behind and even subtly held the initiative.

But this time!

Komera not only lost Moriya.

What was even more terrifying was—

"...Now Moriya firmly stands on Golden Wind's side, launching promotional attacks against us that have us completely overwhelmed!"

Actually, originally, Nakamurai was quite confident about this confrontation.

Although theoretically, Golden Wind now had the "Resident Evil IP" as backing, and the demo quality seemed slightly better than Silent Hill 2's.

But Komera had massive financial resources!

With total investment reaching 350 million dollars, Nakamurai had ample confidence to battle Golden Wind.

However!

As the E3 exhibition closed and the promotional war between both sides officially began, upon first contact!

Nakamurai was dumbfounded.

Originally defense-oriented Golden Wind actually took the initiative this time, directly breaking through with high prices, once again securing the huge billboard advertising space at Ginza Shopping Center not far from Komera.

This time, even advertisements for Yiyou X2 and Polar Bear third-generation motion-sensing pods joined the battle, taking two-thirds of Ginza's main shopping street and seizing the most advantageous promotional positions.

Moreover, according to Nakamurai's understanding, Golden Wind's bids this time were quite high, but the penalty fees for breach of contract were similarly astronomical.

Meaning, these advertisements related to Resident Evil 7 and Yiyou XunTeng motion-sensing pods, once put up, would never come down again.

Unless Komera was willing to pay those dizzying sky-high penalty fees to force Ginza Shopping Center to breach contract.

But that was impossible.

Meaning, right from the start, Golden Wind occupied advantageous positions within Neon's domestic market, implementing a domestic erosion plan against Komera.

That wasn't all.

Some said Komera didn't respond because they planned to delay release to avoid Golden Wind.

The very next day, because Komera didn't promptly respond to Golden Wind's large-scale Neon promotions, countless related media and forum headlines were filled with theories about "Komera surrendering without a fight."

Others said Komera had huge internal funding gaps, and the demo shown at E3 was their development result, with all subsequent content being rushed half-finished products.

Various opinions abounded, with all sorts of negative theories.

And while they were still overwhelmed dealing with negative news, Golden Wind retracted their targets. Leveraging Tiansi Bull's headquarters in Thailand, they planted flags at key promotional positions across half of Asia, using this convenience to extend into Europe while deploying heavy forces in the western United States to massively seize market share!

For a time!

West with Huaguo, south with Thailand, east with the western US.

It seemed now, the closest promotional channel to Komera was only Siberia.

Hiss—

If memory served, the last time Neon set foot in Siberia was during World War II when they went there to plant potatoes.

A blitzkrieg promotion without any Poland!

Golden Wind didn't spend too much money, but through their connections and first-mover advantage, used high penalty fees to solidify their promotional shares in important locations worldwide.

And all of this!

Couldn't have happened without one person's behind-the-scenes manipulation.

This person not only had extensive connections.

But also significant influence within Neon's domestic market.

Otherwise, Golden Wind's blitzkrieg wouldn't have proceeded so smoothly, nor would Komera have been plunged into a surrounded predicament so quickly.

Moriya Tetsuya.

Yes.

A situation more terrifying than "Moriya's resignation" was—

Moriya being on the opposite side!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com