He didn't expect that he would see the latest game released by his benefactor so early in the morning.
He still vividly remembered the first game made by this mysterious online friend.
Stardew Valley—he had been thoroughly hooked on it for a long time.
Although the game looked rough, it had an extraordinary charm.
Not just him, but a whole bunch of people in his company had been captivated by this game.
Later, his benefactor released a game called Loop Hero, which also had a unique gameplay style and the same kind of charm as Stardew Valley. It made players want to play just one more round, always feeling that the next round would make the game even better.
Then, the mysterious benefactor released a game called The Witch's House.
As for this game, well, he didn't like it that much—it was a bit too gloomy in the plot and had horror elements, meaning it would have a limited audience. But he also noticed that the people who liked it really loved it, and there was no fakeness in their enjoyment. As a result, the game's reviews were highly polarized—there were a lot of one-star and five-star reviews, but the middle ratings were few.
...
...
So, while the game had a certain audience, not everyone liked it.
This made Murakami Ichiro realize that the mysterious online benefactor who had been such a big help to him was also very talented in game development.
He even saw a slight hint of a "game god" in this mysterious online benefactor.
However, the "game god" was obviously more skilled at game development, whereas this mysterious benefactor's games always carried a unique personal touch, which made them difficult to become mainstream games.
Now, after nearly two years, his mysterious benefactor had released a new game.
Huh? He collaborated with someone else?
This was a bit different from his previous development style.
In the past, the mysterious benefactor had always worked alone.
This time, he had teamed up with a development team. This was unusual.
The game was priced at 1,900 yen, which was relatively high for an indie game.
Most indie games on the Battle.net platform were priced under 1,000 yen, and if you searched carefully, you could even find indie games priced at only 50 yen.
1,900 yen was considered the top price for indie games these days.
If the game had been released by an unknown indie developer, most players would probably ignore it.
However, this time, in addition to the mysterious benefactor, the game was also developed by a small but somewhat well-known game studio—a team of three college girls. Murakami Ichiro had had the chance to interview them and was quite impressed with their development skills.
This seemed like a strong collaboration.
With this in mind, Murakami Ichiro didn't hesitate and decided to buy the game.
Once he completed the purchase, the game began downloading automatically.
The game's size was about 400MB.
This was larger than most indie games these days.
A larger file size usually meant that the game would have more content.
No wonder the mysterious benefactor had chosen to collaborate on the development. Completing such a game alone would have been time-consuming.
Before long, the game was finished downloading.
Dead Cells, huh? A game about constant death?
That's quite a unique concept. From the screenshots on the game's homepage, it seemed to be a side-scrolling action game, categorized as a "Metroidvania" type.
The most famous games in this category were still Metroid and Castlevania.
Was this the mysterious benefactor's attempt to break through his own boundaries?
With anticipation, Murakami Ichiro entered the game.
The first thing that caught his eye was a castle building, depicted in pixel art, which had its own unique charm.
In an era when most games were striving for high-definition graphics, it was rare to see a game returning to the basics with pixel art. This was quite distinctive.
Of course, it could also be due to budget constraints?
Murakami Ichiro clicked on the game options, and the opening animation began.
The game started in a prisoner's cell, a place where everything began.
As the camera moved, it came to a spot resembling a pipe. Then, a mass of pixelated flesh rolled out from it and landed with a squelching sound.
In the background, Murakami Ichiro noticed a giant's corpse slumped on the ground. This immediately sparked his curiosity.
Who was this giant? What happened here? And what was this rolling mass of flesh?
The flesh quickly moved to a nearby body, and then it burrowed into the body, bringing it back to life.
And just like that, the game officially began. Murakami Ichiro stared at the screen in a daze.
This game... really has a unique style. As expected, it followed the usual strange path.
Most games would never be developed like this, as it looked very odd.
But in the context of an indie game and coming from the mysterious benefactor, everything made sense.
Following the tutorial, Murakami Ichiro quickly learned the basic controls—jump, move forward, roll.
He then started running forward with his character.
Immediately, he noticed how smooth and fluid the character's movements were, showing how much effort the developers had put into the character animations.
The default movement data from Unreal Engine wasn't enough to create such smooth animations.
Unless the mysterious benefactor had access to internal data from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment, which would allow them to obtain exclusive movement data.
After performing a few simple actions like jumping, running, and rolling, the character arrived at a large door.
In front of the door, a spear and short bow were floating, and a warrior-like woman seemed to be waiting there.
By talking to this female warrior, Murakami Ichiro quickly grasped the game's world-building.
The character he controlled seemed to be some strange undead creature.
The nature of their immortality wasn't explained, but if the character failed in the game's challenges, they wouldn't experience a game over. Instead, they would be reborn in the cell, starting a new cycle of battle.
Constant death, constant rebirth? Wouldn't this get a bit repetitive?
Murakami Ichiro thought about it, feeling that the game might not be as interesting as he initially thought.
But Murakami Ichiro was patient. His job was to play and review games, and he couldn't judge a game's quality based on its first impression. He decided to keep playing and see how it went.