He didn't give the curious crowd a full explanation.
After chatting for a bit, Lucas went back to his office.
Leaning back in his chair, he looked at a platform data report Lisa had just sent him, then narrowed his eyes in thought.
The Nebula Games platform now had 91 million registered users.
Its daily active users stayed around 17 million.
At its peak, the highest number of players online at the same time was 4.1 million, which happened last year after the gameplay expo when Fall Guys launched.
Of course, that number came from multiple games combined, not just one.
Even so, for a single platform, that was already a huge number.
But compared to the big distribution platforms, it still wasn't much.
In the local market, the two biggest competitors were SkyNova and NetDragon.
Some of the smaller, mid-tier platforms kept running independently.
But quite a few had already joined either of the two giants.
After Dark Souls: Age of Fire launched, both Tenda and NetDragon tried to buy shares in Nebula Games and pull it into their networks. Lucas turned them down.
Now, Lucas felt it was time to take another big step forward.
But it definitely wouldn't be an easy step.
In his plan, the next games would focus more on connecting players.
Not purely multiplayer, but with features and content that let players share experiences with each other on the platform.
Don't Starve had been a test run in that direction.
It was also a test of whether players would buy games that only launched on the Nebula Games platform.
At the same time, it tested whether players in this world would accept sandbox gameplay.
In just two weeks, sales had reached 1.9 million. Reaching 4 million in the first month wouldn't be hard, and sales were holding steady. Player-made mods were also starting to roll out.
Whether it was Overcooked or Fall Guys, players had shown plenty of creativity. For Nebula Games, the workshop had already become a big selling point of the platform.
With all this in mind, Lucas felt the time was right to launch a sandbox game that could take the players by storm.
And this would also be Nebula Games' trump card for pushing the platform forward again.
So Lucas's choice was: Minecraft.
The reason for choosing this game is actually very simple.
There are three main points.
The first is that it was just way too successful.
How successful?
In the previous world, Minecraft sold over 200 million copies worldwide in ten years.
Whether it was on mobile, PC, consoles, VR, or handhelds, Minecraft could be found everywhere.
The second point is Minecraft's unique charm.
What Minecraft shows isn't fancy graphics or special effects, but gameplay itself.
Take building blocks for example. Most people have played with them before, and even if they haven't, everyone has had the thought of wanting to create a world of their own.
It could be through stacking blocks, drawing on paper, or building something in your mind with your eyes closed.
Minecraft does exactly this. It gives players a simple way to make those ideas real.
Players can create and destroy blocks in a 3D world, building amazing structures, inventions, and works of art.
Of course, if it were only that, Minecraft would never have reached such heights.
Its almost limitless gameplay lets players create in single-player or on multiplayer servers, with many special features like redstone circuits for logic and remote actions, minecarts, and rails.
Beyond that, players can also go on adventures, fight tough bosses, and play it like an RPG.
But no matter how you play, everything in Minecraft revolves around one core idea.
Creation.
Not just simple block-stacking, but also scientific creations with redstone logic and automation.
You could say Minecraft is much more than just a game. Without design sense or spatial thinking, you wouldn't even be able to build a nice-looking house.
For example, someone else's base might be a huge luxury mansion.
Meanwhile, your house looks like a prison from the outside, and once you step inside… wow, it looks even more like one!
Just like how Ocarina of Time defined 3D games, Minecraft defined what a sandbox game is.
So much so that when people in the past talked about sandbox games, they would naturally think of Minecraft.
Even though Minecraft wasn't the first sandbox game, its success and perfection tied the genre tightly to itself.
As many Minecraft players say, playing MC isn't just treating it like a game, but more like a toy. And as a toy, providing ways to play is its true essence.
What kind of game it is depends completely on how the player sees it.
The third point, of course, is that Minecraft can further boost the influence of the Nebula Games platform, while also being one of the games most suited for mods.
Right now, Nebula Games' workshop system is more than enough to support this masterpiece.
............
After deciding on the game, Lucas was working on the concept draft for Minecraft in the office.
Even though this game was incredibly successful, writing the concept draft for Minecraft was actually easier than it had been for Dark Souls.
That's because the whole game is mainly built around creativity.
Everything circles back to that one point.
Compared to Dark Souls, which needed to cover art, stats, story, combat systems, and so on, Minecraft's side of things wasn't exactly simple, but it also wasn't nearly as troublesome.
It took about two days for Lucas to finish drafting the design concept for Minecraft.
During that time, Rachel and Hector were still busy maintaining the Don't Starve mod community.
Once Lucas was sure there were no mistakes, he called Hector, Rachel, and the others who were still working into the meeting room.
(End of The Chapter)
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