Almighty Video Game Designer

Chapter 191: Playtest

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Single player games like Chen Mo’s Wulin Legend and Zen Entertainment’s Tale of the sword usually get around four hundred thousand sales in their first month, which wasn’t much.

Many felt that Chen Mo was playing safe by making a game like this. Even considering the fact that he was known for good stories, he might sell alright, but it definitely wouldn’t be incredibly popular.

Moreover, the game might have gone a little too far in its concept judging from the concept art. How many players would like spooky dark themes like this?

If it wasn’t managed well, it would most certainly drive away most of the players.

Some were looking forward to it.

Some were questioning it.

Some were making fun of it.

—

Chen Mo didn’t seem to mind at all as he wouldn’t usually pay attention to these doubts. Only after the game was completed will they know how good the game was.

It was more likely to not to make predictions at this stage.

Diablo’s development was going along swimmingly.

As there were more hands on the project, the speed it was moving along also increased.

In Chen Mo’s previous life, the development of Diablo 3 took a long time. There was a gap of twelve years from Diablo 2 to Diablo 3.

Of course there were many back and forths during this time, and the majority of the time wouldn’t have been spent on developing the game, but on remaking assets.

Another problem was that the team responsible for Diablo 2 left Blizzard, adding more time on the development for Diablo 3.

As the first versions weren’t taken well by the hire ups, multiple revisions were required, which was why Diablo 3 didn’t feel the same as Diablo 2.

Chen Mo could completely bypass all the difficulties that the team went through as the development of the game increased dramatically as he viewed these matters through mature eyes.

Zhou Hanyu would polish up sketches of monsters and characters by Chen Mo before sending it to a company to make the models and animations before making quality assessments.

A few other assistants dealt with the areas, design of the levels, as well as the flow of the combat.

Cinematics that were higher quality than Warcraft were also in the works.

There were also tasks like balancing, equipment design, as well as some details with the players. Under Chen Mo’s leadership, the entire development process was streamlined, dramatically increasing the speed of the development.

Diablo was more challenging to develop than Warcraft, but with the extra help, it’s development was faster than Warcraft. It only took four months before having a working game that was in its early stages.

The cinematics weren’t done and neither was the balancing. Challenge Rift, ranked ladder, and professional mode weren’t in the game either, but the game was playable.

—

Chen Mo sat down in an empty massage chair in the experience store.

He had been working hard the past few days reviewing graphical resources and level design. He decided to take a much needed rest after finally having some free time.

Zou Zhou was on a computer next to him playing Warcraft.

“You’ve been working hard, manager. How’s the new game going?” Zou Zhou said as he passed Chen Mo a can of drink, “I’ve been itching to play the new game upon hearing its an RPG. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see the development of the game as Goldfish, Qian Kun, and the others have moved.

“It’s playable now. I’ll grab a hard-drive for you to playtest later.”

Zou Zhuo was shocked to hear that, “Is it really playable? Hooray! Manager, your efficiency sure is scary!”

Chen Mo went back to the office next door before copying a incomplete Diablo to install onto Zou Zhou’s computer.

Chen Mo estimated that the game should be live in two weeks or so. It’d be a good idea for Zou Zhou to test the game out and experience the flow of the game in order to collect some feedback.

It didn’t take long to install. Zou Zhou could barely contain his excitement as he was proud to be the first player to playtest this game.

The other players gathered around too.

“My goodness, Diablo is playable already?”

“Manager, you’re like a sow giving birth to all these games! Start the game so we can take a look!”

“Incredible, let’s watch.”

“Manager, I wanna play too!”

Chen Mo laughed, “Hold your horses. This is just a playtesting version. There are many things that aren’t up to scratch, so you guys will have to wait. I’ll install it onto the computers in the experience store next week for you guys to try out.”

Zou Zhou clicked on the icon, “Whatever, I’m going in!”

Everybody else huddled around to watch Zou Zhou play the game.

Just as expected, there was a cinematic as he started the game.

It started off with some red wax before Thunderbolt gaming’s logo was stamped on.

The camera panned upwards, below the seal was a vellum with text written in an unknown language.

Following the tense melody was a raspy old voice.

“And at the end of days, the first sign shall appear in the heavens

“Justice shall fall upon the world of men, the armies of light and shadow will clash across the field of eternity...”

Drawing after drawing appeared on the vellum one after another accompanying the voiceover.

Crows appeared on a battlefield filled with spears. A lightning appeared in the sky before light leaked onto the ground like a waterfall. Many warriors descended from the heavens, charging towards the demons.

The angels and demons were at war before the earth split open, coming out of it a huge demon charging with its mouth open.

Leah awoke violently with horror still in her eyes.

The old Deckard Cain was looking through ancient scripts in the dark cathedral.

“If these translations are correct, the powers of hell could already be on the move. The world must be told of the coming darkness!”

“You do believe me, don’t you Leah? It has begun...”

At this moment, the cathedral started shaking, and a meteor appeared in the sky following a flash of lightning.

The meteor flew across the sky, landing right in the middle of the cathedral. The shock from the impact caused Leah to end up on all fours, but as she got up to search for Deckard Cain, there was only a crater left where he used to be.

“Uncle!”

The ending of the cinematic followed her scream. At this moment, both Chinese and English versions of the name appeared on the screen.

Diablo¹!