Chapter 720: Nathan Drake
The development process for *Uncharted* was going relatively smoothly.
In reality, the development pipeline for AAA titles is fairly standardized. Once certain gameplay mechanics and systems are created, they can be reused in subsequent games.
For example, when Naughty Dog was developing *Uncharted 4*, they were heavily influenced by *The Last of Us*. In areas like gunfights and hand-to-hand combat, the two games shared certain commonalities.
Additionally, the art team under Chen Mo was constantly gathering various art resources, including scenes and characters from ancient and modern times, both domestic and international.
The Fantasy World Editor contained a wealth of art assets, some of which were of very high quality. Although they couldn’t be used directly after purchase, modifying them could still reduce some workload.
Art resources could also be purchased from overseas websites. For objects in special scenes, there was no need to model and texture everything from scratch, bit by bit.
At the same time, the overall project team was continuously expanding. From *Dark Souls* to *PUBG* to *Uncharted*, the game worlds Chen Mo envisioned were growing larger and larger, inevitably leading to a corresponding increase in development staff.
Moreover, Thunderbolt Entertainment was not short on money now. Time was the most precious resource. If the development progress was slowed due to insufficient manpower, the heads of the HR department and various development teams would likely face some harsh criticism.
Of course, the expansion wasn’t blind. Thunderbolt Entertainment’s recruitment standards targeted the top talent in the domestic gaming industry. Even ordinary employees had to be experienced and capable of getting things done.
In terms of scale, Thunderbolt Entertainment might not rank in the top three domestically, but Chen Mo was pursuing a boutique strategy. Every game developed by Thunderbolt Entertainment was a high-quality product. In terms of reputation, fame, and international influence, Thunderbolt Entertainment was already the undisputed number one in the country.
Speaking purely of reputation, in the eyes of European and American players, Thunderbolt Entertainment was already a bigger and more impressive company than GA...
...
Meanwhile, news about the VR game *Lost Treasure* was continuously trickling into the domestic market through various channels.
After all, this was a hot IP at the time. They had to find ways to maintain its momentum. Once it cooled down, getting it hot again wouldn’t be easy.
If that happened, even game sales might be affected.
At some international gaming expos, *Lost Treasure* began to reveal gameplay footage and demo clips. These materials were then brought back to the domestic market by various gaming media outlets.
After seeing these gameplay clips and demo footage, domestic players couldn’t stay calm either!
“Hey, this game seems way better than I imagined?”
“Yeah, at least from the visuals, the fidelity is pretty high!”
“That zipline maneuver—is that standard gameplay or a special cutscene? It does a great job recreating the movie scene.”
“If it can really match the movie’s quality, even if it’s a bit of a cash grab, I’ll buy it!”
“Not bad. Even though it’s from the most scummy big company, it’s still a big company! Worth looking forward to!”
Players were very excited after seeing these visuals. After all, the main gimmick and selling point of this type of game was the graphics. As a major studio, GA could at least guarantee the visuals, regardless of the game’s overall quality.
What’s more, with the *Lost Treasure* IP backing it up, if things followed the usual script, the *Lost Treasure* game was practically guaranteed to make money.
Then, just as the promotion for *Lost Treasure* was hitting its stride, Chen Mo posted a Weibo update.
The post featured an image of Nathan Drake. It was a concept art piece. On both sides of the image were towering cliffs. On the left, mercenaries were firing guns. On the right, there were some strange wooden frames, hanging cages containing the corpses of pirates left to die.
Nathan Drake occupied the center of the image. It looked like he had just leaped from the left cliff. His body was stretched out in mid-air, swinging a rope, trying to hook onto the cliff on the right.
The entire concept art was incredibly detailed, exquisitely crafted, and the composition was full of tension. From this single image, many details about the game could be inferred.
The body of the Weibo post was a brief introduction to Nathan Drake.
“Character introduction: Nathan Drake.”
“He is handsome, smooth-talking, slightly mysterious, yet somehow inexplicably reliable. He is a great adventurer who has experienced countless incredible adventures beyond the imagination of ordinary people.”
“He has followed in the footsteps of Sir Francis Drake to find the lost El Dorado, the City of a Thousand Pillars in the desert, followed Marco Polo’s trail to discover the sleeping kingdom of Shambhala, and found the pirate utopia built by the great pirate Henry Every.”
“His legendary life can be summed up by a famous quote.”
“‘I have seen things, at least half of which I have never told anyone, because I know no one would believe them.’ — Marco Polo”
...
As soon as this Weibo post was released, players instantly exploded!
The meaning of Chen Mo’s post was crystal clear—this was a new game announcement!
The image and text made it obvious: this was an adventure-themed game, very similar to *Lost Treasure*. It even listed the places the protagonist had adventured to!
The lost El Dorado.
The City of a Thousand Pillars in the desert.
The kingdom of Shambhala.
Henry Every’s pirate utopia.
Many players realized that these were all legendary treasure locations that had been rumored throughout history!
“Holy crap, big news, big news! Chen Mo is making an adventure game??”
“What does this mean? Is he going head-to-head with *Lost Treasure*?”
“Obviously! A new game is a sure thing!”
“I was wondering why Chen Mo didn’t make a move when all those other game companies were fighting over the *Lost Treasure* IP. Turns out he was planning to create his own new IP!”
“Can he pull it off?? The story is super important for this kind of game. And Chen Mo is making a Western protagonist!”
“A Western protagonist makes sense. If it were a domestic protagonist, it might cause censorship issues. Besides, Chen Mo is good at Western-themed games.”
“I don’t care what kind of protagonist it is, as long as the game is fun!”
“But so far, there’s only one piece of concept art? Any in-game footage or demo videos?”
“Just wait. When Chen Mo drops a hint, it usually means the game is almost done. Are you really worried about Chen Mo’s development speed?”
...
As soon as this Weibo post was released, the players’ enthusiasm was instantly ignited!
In fact, *Lost Treasure* had been hyped up for a long time. With all the movie and game materials, players both domestic and international were extremely excited.
But as soon as Chen Mo announced he was making an adventure game, he snatched away all the buzz that *Lost Treasure* had worked so hard to generate!
Although many players hadn’t seen the detailed information about Chen Mo’s new game, Thunderbolt Games’ reputation was well-known. Regardless of what the game was actually like, just the phrase “Created by Chen Mo” was enough to get people excited!
Many players from Europe and America even took the initiative to leave comments on the official social media accounts of *Lost Treasure*, saying, “Thunderbolt Games is coming for you!”
The official staff of *Lost Treasure* were completely baffled: “What the hell! We’ve been promoting this for so long, why is everyone talking about another game?!”
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