"Golden Wind announces engine officially enters development stage"

"CloudPower's next-gen motion-sensing blockbuster 'The Lord of the Rings: Gollum' announced to exhibit at this year's Gamescom Cologne"

"Komera reveals that current merger progress is smooth; acquisition expected before Gamescom opens"

"According to joint statistics from SNG and Twitch, online reserved viewers for this year's Gamescom Cologne have surpassed 32 million"

"Tianlang, a renowned studio under XunTeng, announces cooperation with Polish engine Pride, will fully abandon the Illusion Engine series"

"German developer FoxForce's president posts about planned development to upgrade their commercial engine"

"…"

Tension escalated!

Once the world war across the global games industry sparked by Illusion Engine's price changes ignited, developers from West to East all seemed to spring into action.

They not only accelerated upgrades to their in-house engines but also seized the opportunity to open their engines for commercial licensing, trying to grab market share left vacant by Illusion Engine's baffling maneuvers.

As for the other commercial engines? Naturally, they celebrated with drums and gongs. Everyone spread the news, rejoiced at Illusion Engine's stock drop, and mercilessly stoked public opinion—kicking Illusion Engine further while it lay down.

Of course!

Beyond that, as the focal battleground of this gaming-world war, the Cologne Gamescom at the end of February became the thing players cared about most—bar none!

Over 32 million reserved viewers surpassed the usual numbers by more than double!

Discussion, gossip, hot takes…

For the global games industry, this might be an unprecedented war. But for players, it was an unprecedented media carnival.

Especially for Golden Wind and CloudPower!

Based on the current situation, the key clash at this Gamescom was already crystal clear. Golden Wind’s hand-made, no-engine "My World" would go head-to-head with CloudPower’s massively funded next-gen IP derivative "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum."

One was a blocky pixel game with a total investment of only twenty million dollars. The other paid over a hundred million dollars just for licensing—an absolute 3S-level next-gen blockbuster.

Which is better seemed obvious. Frankly, Golden Wind looked like it was driving its development history in reverse. Twenty million dollars in investment! Remember, when Golden Wind first faced Komera, their release Escape cost nearly nineteen million dollars to produce! Back then, Golden Wind hadn't yet absorbed Steel Chain Fingers, hadn't acquired Melancholy Blues, and hadn't gone through multiple rounds of salary increases; personnel costs back then were far lower than now.

In other words! Times had changed. Although Golden Wind’s labor costs had increased, the team producing this game—the Golden Experience Studio—was still made up of the same people. In some ways, their outsourcing costs were even lower than they had been for Escape.

If this isn't driving backward, what is?

So voices in the market began saying—I'm thinking twenty million versus 328 million, even if Gollum craps the bed, surely a twenty-million project can't pull off a miracle, right?

If this were a battle, it's like 2,000 versus 32,800—on average one to sixteen. Don't talk about people; even sixteen pigs ganging up on one person might be enough to trample them to death.

So even before the battle began, many bystander players predicted Golden Wind could be heading for the biggest Waterloo in its history.

As for Konik, seeing such public opinion, he couldn't help laughing three times, more eagerly awaiting the moment at Gamescom to personally bury Golden Wind and gleefully receive that near-priceless IP reputation.

However!

Before Konik could open his mouth wide!

A single piece of news suddenly flipped the extremely unfavorable situation for Golden Wind—

[Golden Wind V: "What are you doing?"]

What are you doing?

That was an everyday, perfectly ordinary question. It was also the title of the first trailer for My World…

…

"So—?"

Seeing that strange trailer title, Dream made a baffled face.

"What kind of weird name is this…"

Dream was one of the new streamers on Mouse. Well, calling him new was a stretch—he had actually streamed on Mouse for nearly four years. Previously, Dream had been lukewarm in popularity because he usually streamed relatively casual, relaxing games. Low game heat meant low personal heat.

Until a few months ago! While almost every streaming platform was broadcasting Resident Evil 7 and its successive DLCs, Dream, following his personal taste, didn't go with the flow. Instead he stumbled upon Stardew Valley and embraced pastoral life. Unexpectedly, that unintentional choice made him one of the first players to fully explore Stardew Valley. His guides for making money and improving friendships quickly spread through the gaming community after the game's reputation exploded.

Even later, during the Call of Duty boom, he still didn't play it—he merely bought it and let it gather dust in his warehouse. After Nuyan released Euro Truck Simulator, he proudly became a truck driver and even formed a convoy team with his good friend George, hauling long-distance every day.

Now, thanks to his personal game tastes, streaming style, and the great live chemistry with George, Dream had become a major streamer with 7.6 million followers.

And today, with My World’s first trailer released, Dream—who had long been curious about this odd pixel-block game—immediately opened Golden Wind's official Twitter and started watching the trailer—

Ding… dong…

As a piano piece flowed like a babbling brook, the image gradually emerged. In an empty office, the ticking of a clock sounded faintly. A man in a sky-blue shirt was still working overtime, bent over his desk, sketching on a tablet, seemingly drafting blueprints.

"…What???"

Dream couldn't help a soft exclamation.

"This is actually a… live-action trailer? Oh my god, the last live-action trailer I saw from Golden Wind was for Phasmophobia!"

Game trailers rarely used live actors, so Dream’s surprise was understandable.

At this moment, the livestream chat lit up—viewers reacting in unison:

"Finally something new, typical Golden Wind"

"Too bad it's not Sam and Mia appearing"

"LOOOOOOL"

"So Golden Wind is really going retro?"

"Back to Phasmophobia vibes"

"But the gap between live-action and block people is huge—how will Golden Wind balance it?"

"Pretty interesting, let's see if there are any surprises…"

"…"

As the audience chatted!

Knock knock knock—

Suddenly, a rustling thud came from beneath the floor at the foot of the overtime worker. Then! Crack! With a faint breaking sound, two floor tiles beside the man's feet split, and a girl with braided blonde hair wearing a grass-green shirt popped her head up, clutching a pixel-style shovel—giving a cartoonish magical sense of the dimensional barrier being breached and pixel style invading reality!

"Hey! Steve! What are you doing?"

Half of the girl's body poked out of the floor as she tilted her head and asked the man bent over his work.

"Ah… ah! Ah?"

Steve burst into surprise at the girl suddenly emerging from the floor tiles.

"Uh… hi… Alex, I'm drafting architectural designs, what are you—"

"Hiya—"

Alex waved and planted the pixel shovel beside her, then reached out her hand.

"You're off work already! Or… could you find some inspiration down in the world below?"

"World below…?"

Hearing Alex, Steve looked puzzled. He reached out to ask, but just then Alex yanked him toward the ground!

Whoosh—!!!

In an instant, the camera angle pierced the dark dimensional barrier. With the two of them screaming, a brand-new pixel world suddenly appeared before them! The clouds floating in the sky were sharp-edged blocks, rolling hills on the ground were blocks, even the sun on the distant horizon was a massive square!

At that moment, they were falling from high above! When screaming Steve turned his head, he found Alex had also become a cute blocky girl!

"Wooooooooow—!!!"

"Ohhhhh—my fvking god!"

The dimensional breakthrough camera movement instantly sent the livestream into delighted exclamations! Dream shouted repeatedly, marveling at Golden Wind's imagination!

Without question, such a set piece was dazzling. From the three-dimensional real world, a time-space hole dug with a pixel shovel instantly transported them into a pixelated block world—this level of visual tension and expression made viewers cry out in wonder!

Plop!

A bucket of water accurately poured at their feet as Alex successfully landed with Steve on the lush green grass.

"Oh—oh my god—I'm gonna puke—"

Steve patted his rattled chest with his thick rectangular arm and looked around at the wondrous world.

Hills stretched in every direction, oak trees of various heights grew naturally in the fields. Without exception, everything here was composed of pixelated blocks—every oak canopy made of square green cubes.

"Whoa—"

Steve was stunned by the amazing sight.

"Where is—this?"

Alex, walking ahead, turned and made a follow-me gesture toward Steve.

"Welcome to—"

"My World."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com