Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 10

One hour earlier.

The DouDou review team member with the ID “LuoDiChengHe”¹ rushed to their supervisor, who immediately presented Miss Ye’s submitted game to their boss.

DouDou’s current decision-maker, President Lin, played Night of Campus Horror and fell into deep thought.

With years of experience running a gaming platform, it wasn’t hard to recognize the explosive potential of this game. However, its concept was extremely innovative. The interstellar gaming community’s understanding of horror games remained stuck on zombie survival or slasher escape scenarios. Narrative-driven games like this were usually categorized as role-playing or dating sims by default.

Without proper marketing, Night of Campus Horror could easily be buried due to poor target audience alignment.

“Team Leader Sun, what’s your take?”

As the head of the review team, Sun You firmly nodded.

“Ever since Chu Yuanming, our star designer, signed a long-term deal with Feixun, their momentum has surpassed ours.”

“Chu Yuanming recently announced that his new game will release in a week. The demo they released over a month ago is still topping Feixun’s trending charts. It’s dominating the competition as the hottest upcoming release. Unsurprisingly, Feixun’s main push during this period will be that game. But as far as I know, we don’t yet have a flagship game of comparable scale, do we?”

President Lin’s voice turned somber.
“Do you think Night of Campus Horror can compete with Chu Yuanming’s new release? Allocating all of our platform’s resources to a newcomer’s game—is it worth the risk?”

“President Lin, I believe you already know the answer.”

Lin Ruoyun stared out at the scenery, silent for a long time.

Finally, she spoke slowly.
“Our platform’s decline has been ongoing for nearly two years. Although this designer is a rookie, in this game, I see the kind of vitality capable of shaking up the current market dynamics—it’s worth the gamble!”

“We’re not the only ones who can see the potential of this game. Contact Miss Ye immediately and offer the most generous terms we can to secure exclusive release rights for our platform!”

Naturally, “LuoDiChengHe,” the first to discover Miss Ye’s game, was tasked with handling the negotiation.

Following President Lin’s order, Ye Yuxi was greeted with an unprecedented level of enthusiasm.

LuoDiChengHe:
“Hello, Master Ye! DouDou is extremely impressed by your game’s potential, and we’d love to secure exclusive release rights for it!”

“We’ve prepared two contract options: the first is a standard 60/40 revenue split (platform 40, you 60), along with a one-time signing bonus of up to 2,000 credits. The bonus will be transferred to your account as soon as the prologue demo is released. Once the full version launches, we’ll also provide tiered bonuses based on player purchase milestones!”

Having just experienced Feixun’s exploitative contract, Ye Yuxi found this sudden display of generosity almost suspicious.

Miss Ye:
“By 60/40, you mean the platform takes 40 and I take 60, correct?”

LuoDiChengHe, thinking she might be dissatisfied with the offer, assumed she was a confident genius looking for an even better deal. Panicking slightly, they immediately presented a second proposal.

LuoDiChengHe:
“No worries, Master Ye! We’re very optimistic about your work and are willing to offer a special 70/30 split (you 70, us 30) under a premium contract. The signing bonus remains unchanged. However, the premium split would exclude milestone bonuses. How does that sound?”

To ensure Miss Ye felt DouDou’s sincerity, LuoDiChengHe held nothing back, making the best offer without any attempt to drive the price down.

“Of course, everything is negotiable. If the sales data performs exceptionally well later, we could also apply for additional bonuses just for you. Please consider it carefully! ( •͈ᴗ⁃͈)ᓂ- – -♡”

Ye Yuxi was genuinely stunned by this level of warmth and earnestness.

Soon after, LuoDiChengHe sent over the contract, which was about a dozen pages long. It clearly outlined the terms, including the 70% revenue share for the designer.

The copyrights remain with the author. Signing the contract only means the game must launch on DouDou as the first-release platform and remain exclusive for two months after the full version’s release.

The most appealing part? DouDou was willing to handle all the marketing at a reasonable cost, which could be deducted from future revenue shares. Importantly, based on the contract, it seemed DouDou planned to give her game a massive push!

“If you have your own promotional channels, you can coordinate with us to proceed,” they added.

So far, DouDou had left Ye Yuxi with an impression of flexibility and sincerity, perfectly patching up the frustration from her earlier experiences.

Without hesitation, she signed the electronic contract.

When news of the successful signing reached DouDou’s management, they breathed a sigh of relief—but not entirely.

They had placed their bet on this newcomer, but whether she could rise to the challenge remained uncertain.

Yet in the near future, they would come to realize that the path chosen by “Miss Ye” was none other than the path blessed by the goddess of victory.

That same evening, a prominent new-game trial link appeared on DouDou’s homepage.

This wasn’t part of their full-fledged marketing campaign—it was merely a test to gauge which player demographics might resonate most with this innovative horror game.

At 9 PM, popular gaming streamer “CodLiver”² started his livestream as scheduled.

“Alright, folks, I promised to stream a DouDou game today, and here I am. Honestly, I don’t know why you’re all so eager to see something from DouDou. Isn’t Feixun’s new demo for Falling Stars 2 by the great Yuan Shen exciting enough?”

The audience in his virtual space chat immediately erupted:

[“Falling Stars 2 is great, sure—it expands on the original’s lore and has improved gameplay. But it’s still just a demo, and every streamer has already played it to death!”]

[“Exactly! Fish General³ must have played it too, right? It’s better to save it for the official release and use a different game to tide us over.”]

[“DouDou might be in decline, but it’s still an established platform. Let’s follow General Yu and see if we can find any hidden gems!”]

CodLiver shook his head in mock despair.
“How many times have I told you, stop calling me Fish General—it makes me sound dumb! Just call me Liver Bro, alright?”

[“Got it, Fish General.”]

[“Sure thing, Fish General.”]

“…”

CodLiver could only sigh in resignation—what else could he do? He had to indulge his fans.

Navigating the virtual space with practiced ease, he entered DouDou’s online store and began browsing the latest releases.

“I’ve already played most of the older games; nothing new there. Let’s check out the fresh ones… Hmm? What’s this?”

His eyes landed on the cover of a game.

The artwork depicted a nighttime scene of a scenic bridge, shrouded in mist. In the background loomed a dark archway and a five-to-six-story building silhouetted against the fog.

But the most striking element was the central focus: four characters—two men and two women—each with distinctive features and faces frozen in terror, as if they had witnessed something horrifying.

“This cover is intriguing… A horror game? Oh, that’s a rare tag.”

He read the title aloud:
“Night of Campus Horror: The May Bridge. Trial content includes only the prologue?”

“Let me guess—just a hunch—the trial’s paywall will hit right when the zombie outbreak begins or after the killer completes the first chase. Although it doesn’t have a zombie tag, that’s just my speculation.”

“Whatever, I’ve played all kinds of games before. Alright, brothers and sisters, let’s use this as our opening act for the night!”