With Undertale earning both great reviews and great sales, the term "META" suddenly caught the attention of tons of designers in the industry.
If we're only talking about story, Undertale is definitely solid, but that alone wouldn't have earned this level of praise and success.
Once the META element was added though, everyone who played it had only one thing to say—
it blew them away.
It wasn't just indie game developers paying attention. Even mid- to high-level designers and people in the VR scene were taking a good look at Undertale.
Because in a way, it taught the entire industry a lesson.
It showed everyone what META design really means, and how it can be built into a game in a natural way.
But while a lot of designers were focused on this...
Lucas, on the other hand, was just relaxing.
Undertale's success really brought him both name and money.
He got it all.
In the office, Lucas held a bottle of Want-Want milk in one hand, and stared at the system UI screen that only he could see.
"Still not that great... Even though this gave more points than Mirror, I only got enough for two ten-pulls."
After removing the leftover, he had about 2.1 million points—just enough for 21 draws.
Compared to Mirror, Undertale really did give more, but still not a huge amount.
He thought through the reason behind it.
Points only counted if players paid for the game and personally felt strong emotions while playing.
Simply put, they had to spend money and feel something deeply—that's what generated points.
Just watching didn't count, no matter how shocked they were.
The most powerful emotional moment in Undertale, other than the first META twist, came from the Genocide route.
But very few people were actually willing to play that route—
especially after videos and walkthroughs came out. A lot of players just couldn't bring themselves to do it, and chose to watch instead.
So most of the points came from the first-time META shock players felt during their own runs.
While thinking it over, Lucas started drawing from the prize pool.
He had a total of 2.1 million points, so he didn't bother with ten-pulls.
There weren't any guarantees for an SSR or any bonus for doing ten at once anyway.
He just did single pulls. They say single pulls bring miracles, plus they kind of feel more meaningful.
Still, could they change the golden flash animation?
Watching the golden light flash again, Lucas felt nothing inside.
As the light faded, it revealed a basic "Story +1" skill book.
The brightest golden glow... for the most boring item. Way to go.
He sighed, then tapped through all the rest in one go.
After 21 pulls, Lucas figured maybe he should've washed his hands before doing it.
Aside from two memory capsules, everything else was just regular skill books—not a single rare one.
And as for the types, there was art, music, story, level design, game balance—he got all the basic ones.
He took a sip of milk, sighed at his bad luck, and used up all the skill books before closing the system.
He opened the official engine platform on his PC, logged into the Magic City Game Division's backend, and checked his account access.
Compared to the 1024 access level he had before, Lucas now had access to 2048 resources—basically double.
Clearly, even though he hadn't gotten any formal promotion, the game division had noticed the success of Undertale and bumped up his developer tier.
"Next, I need to start thinking about the next game," Lucas murmured, leaning back in his chair, looking a bit torn.
A AAA game?
Lucas ruled that out right away.
It just wasn't realistic.
He didn't have the resources, people, funding, or even the current skill level to take on a full-blown AAA project.
After all, small-budget games rely on creativity and story, while AAA games demand an all-around performance.
So for now, Lucas decided to stick with small-scale, low-budget titles.
At the same time, he'd work on building a solid team and getting Nebula Games fully up and running.
After all, the whole company right now only had three people making games: Anna, Rachel, and Lucas himself.
Now that there was some money, hiring new team members was a must.
He also wanted to keep racking up points and improving his skills.
As for making pay-to-win games, Lucas wasn't considering that at the moment.
That could seriously damage both his and Nebula Games' reputation.
And the huge success of Undertale proved one thing: this parallel world's gaming market was totally different from the one in his past life.
Even with buy-once games, you could still turn a solid profit. So Lucas was all-in on quality-first games.
......
In the meeting room, Lucas briefly shared the success of Undertale and the Mirror DLC with the team.
He also confirmed the next direction for the company, including expanding departments and hiring more staff.
They discussed some internal policies too, and as the boss, Lucas couldn't help but throw in a couple of pep talks.
He had to admit—giving people hope and motivation felt way better than being the one getting fed empty promises.
At that moment, Lucas finally understood why so many bosses in his past life loved giving long speeches and false hope.
It actually felt kind of good.
Once all the admin and HR matters were handled, only Anna and Rachel stayed behind in the meeting room to talk about the games.
"So, are we going to work on a sequel to Undertale next?" Anna asked, her face full of excitement for the future.
This—this was the kind of game industry she had dreamed of!
Rachel, sitting nearby, looked just as thrilled.
At first, she joined partly because of the connection between Lucas and Anna, and partly because working on a game felt interesting—like something with potential.
But now?
It wasn't just potential—it was full of promise!
Especially when she saw fan-made stories online that mixed Undertale with Mirror. It gave her a strange feeling.
After all, she had worked on both projects. She used to be the one drawing the content, and now she was seeing other people draw from her work.
Hearing Anna's question, Lucas smiled and nodded. "There's definitely a new project, but it's not a sequel to Undertale, and it's not going to be a META-style game either."
Not a sequel to Undertale, and not even a META game?
Anna and Rachel were both stunned.
(End of this chapter)
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