The live stream viewers mercilessly mocked him.

“Hilarious! Old Qiao is just like one of those self-satisfied food critics who insists on trying to cook, and this is the result.”

“People really shouldn’t be so overconfident. Why on earth did you think you could become an indie game developer? Don’t you have any self-awareness?”

“It’s clear now that while the Morning Dew Game Editor is indeed easier than the official editor, it’s still beyond the intellectual capacity of Teacher Qiao.”

Qiao Liang indignantly defended himself: “Just you wait! After I finish streaming, I’ll secretly study this editor. One day I’ll produce a game that will blind you all with its brilliance.”

“But my failure today at least proves one thing—indie game developers really don’t have it easy.”

“Every ‘trash game’ you see might actually represent the blood, sweat, and tears of a group of people.”

“Of course, bad games still deserve criticism, but we should also support indie developers’ efforts appropriately and acknowledge their strengths.”

“That old saying is true: knowledge from books is shallow; true understanding comes from practice.”

“As players, we can criticize any game without restraint, but only by becoming designers ourselves can we understand the difficulties involved.”

Qiao Liang recalled his earlier attempt at game creation. Initially, he had only wanted to create a wolf that could eat sheep, but he immediately encountered a small problem: he didn’t know how to add an attack action to the wolf.

This small problem was quickly solved, but solving it only revealed new problems.

For instance, within what range should the wolf perform its attack action? Should blood splash after the attack? Should there be multiple attack animations to make it more realistic? What if the wolf’s attack actions didn’t align properly with the sheep, resulting in air-biting or model clipping?

These kinds of problems were endless. Implementing even the simplest function in a game involved a massive amount of design work behind the scenes.

It was like cooking.

For diners, it’s easy to judge if a dish is too salty or too bland. But for chefs, the final taste of a dish might be the result of more than a dozen different procedures, and a problem with any single step could cause the end result to deviate greatly from expectations.

This level of difficulty is impossible to understand for those who have never actually cooked.

Qiao Liang discovered an unexpected benefit of this editor: it allowed ordinary players to experience the daily work of game designers.

The official editor wasn’t open to everyone and had a certain barrier to entry. Most players wouldn’t deliberately download the official game editor, so very few had actually experienced game development.

But the Morning Dew Game Editor was built into the Morning Dew gaming platform. The initial program wasn’t large, though it contained numerous plugin packages and resource packages.

Many players, out of curiosity, would try the editor function when opening the Morning Dew platform. Even those who only dabbled briefly, like Qiao Liang, could at least understand the challenges of game development.

And those with real talent who developed a passion for game design could continue downloading new program packages and resource packages, continuously improving their design skills through self-learning. Perhaps one day, another excellent indie game developer would emerge.

After checking out the Morning Dew Game Editor, Qiao Liang turned his attention to “Millet Departure,” which he had been eagerly awaiting for a long time.

The game had experienced a significant delay, though during the announcement of the delay, officials had clearly explained that they were making adjustments for the new editor and adding new game content.

So while players weren’t happy about the delay, they remained full of anticipation.

After all, as the saying goes, no one remembers a garbage game that was released on time.

Unless that garbage game had enough bugs to become a meme.

Of course, that was just a joke. But the principle was sound—whether a game releases a month or two early or late doesn’t really matter; what’s crucial is the quality of the game.

Qiao Liang had already purchased and downloaded “Millet Departure,” so he launched it directly.

…

The game opened with a promotional animation that wasn’t fundamentally different from the one released during the promotional period, though it appeared more refined in its details.

The final scene still showed the old Taoist priest carrying away an infant from a village of monsters, turning his back as roaring flames rose up, burning everything to ashes.

The scene shifted, and the formal game plot began.

A young man carrying a sword on his back knelt before an unmarked grave beside a thatched cottage in the mountains, kowtowing several times.

Clearly, according to the plot development, the old Taoist priest had brought the child to the deep mountains to teach him martial arts. Now the old Taoist had passed away, and the young man was preparing to descend the mountain to slay demons and monsters.

Next came the initial tutorial stage. Qiao Liang found that he could control the protagonist to move, attack, use simple magic, or pick up items.

Players could enter the small cottage to collect some equipment.

They could also go to the surrounding clearing to practice on wooden dummies or perform various operations from the tutorial.

While performing these actions, the young man would hear the old Taoist’s past admonitions echoing in his ears.

“Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Military strategy—each has its strengths. Though you learned from me, you need not confine yourself to Taoist methods. The divine powers of these four paths, as long as they can save the common people of the world, all have their merits.”

“The world is in chaos, with demons plaguing mankind. It is our duty to eliminate these demons, uphold the Way, and save the people, so that the masses no longer suffer the pain of displacement, and people of wisdom no longer lament the sorrow of Millet Departure.”

“Man follows Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Way, and the Way follows Nature.”

“The path lies beneath your own feet. How you walk it—remember—think thrice before acting.”

After the simple learning and familiarization process, the young man descended the mountain. Qiao Liang officially began his journey of suffering.

…

Although “Millet Departure” had previously released some gameplay videos, Qiao Liang still thought it was just a reskinned version of “Turn Back to Shore.”

After all, the entire combat system gave off the same sense of suffering as “Turn Back to Shore.”

But after playing, Qiao Liang discovered that the two were actually quite different.

“Millet Departure” wasn’t a poor imitation of “Turn Back to Shore”—it had its own design philosophy.

In the plot of “Millet Departure,” the protagonist would receive inheritances from Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Military strategy. Each system would grant the protagonist powerful abilities beyond the basic combat system.

The basic combat system had similarities with “Turn Back to Shore.” Various weapons like knives, spears, swords, and halberds all had different uses. Purely refining one’s operational skills and mastering various weapons to complete the game was certainly one approach. But using the powerful abilities of the four different systems could have a tiger-adding-wings effect.

Although all four systems could enhance player attributes, each had its own characteristics.

For example, Taoist arts were suitable for players who preferred thorough preparation before battle, seeking maximum enhancement.

Buddhist methods provided permanent buff effects, suitable for lazy players.

Confucianism could target enemy weaknesses, making it the best choice for speedruns. Only players with superb skills could maximize its effectiveness.

Military strategy was a versatile effect, suitable for beginners. It allowed for pre-battle preparation and enhanced group buffs when playing online or summoning NPCs—a no-brainer choice for newcomers.

This reflected a fundamental difference in design philosophy between “Millet Departure” and “Turn Back to Shore.”

“Millet Departure” allowed players to reduce game difficulty through various rich game mechanics and skill combinations, even achieving a mowing-down effect in certain key battles of the first playthrough, allowing for mindless progression.

The prerequisite, of course, was a very deep understanding of game mechanics.

If players didn’t like studying combat mechanics in “Turn Back to Shore,” that was fine—just die a few more times, and they’d eventually become skilled through familiarity.

But in “Millet Departure,” if players stubbornly refused to learn game mechanics and insisted on brute-forcing their way through monsters, the outcome would likely be quite tragic.

Of course, it’s hard to say which design is better—they simply cater to different player groups and focus on different gaming pleasures.

Additionally, there had been rumors that “Millet Departure” might adopt a level-based layout. This seemed to have been one of the design team’s proposals, but clearly, it hadn’t carried over to the final game.

Like “Turn Back to Shore,” “Millet Departure” still featured a seamless large map with various scenes tightly connected. There were no jarring level transitions.

Players would take on the role of this young man traveling far and wide, visiting many different scenes throughout the game.

For instance, at the northern border, the protagonist would participate in battles between Central Plains armies and foreign cavalry.

They would personally witness countless Buddhist pagodas collapsing instantly as soldiers suppressed Buddhism.

Furthermore, they would enter the heavily guarded imperial city, conversing with several important figures in the current plot, choosing to support one of the princes to become the new emperor.

All these scenes were interconnected, with each scene containing a magic array allowing players to teleport between different locations.

This constructed a miniature fictional world within the game.

Of course, the early rumors that the “Millet Departure” project team wanted to use a level-based format weren’t baseless—Yan Qi initially did have such intentions.

The seamless large map and level-based modes each had their advantages and disadvantages.

Since “Millet Departure’s” game mechanics included grinding gameplay, players might repeatedly experience combat in certain areas to obtain specific items or resources they urgently needed.

In such cases, a level-based design would be more convenient.

However, after careful consideration, Yan Qi felt that the level-based mode weakened players’ immersion too severely, so he decided to put in extra effort to achieve the same effect on a seamless large map.

Simply put, players could use special items or talismans to temporarily alter the state of certain areas, returning to specific time points to re-engage in particular battles and obtain rewards again.

Meanwhile, the core seamless world would still change according to plot progression.

While this approach wasn’t perfect, it combined the seamless large map and level-based mode as much as possible, creating grinding gameplay on a seamless large map.