The Dot Hero Creator's Surprise Hit
The Anomaly Control Department
In Arizona, 32-year-old game reviewer and freelance journalist Adam had spent another full day diving into Storm. As someone who earned money from writing reviews, he checked the list of newly released games looking for something worth writing about, but nothing suitable caught his eye.
Page one, page two, page three.
As he scrolled quickly through the titles, he spotted a game with the code [ACD] on it.
It had just been uploaded, fresh off the press.
“Storm has made it easier to discover good games now that it’s mainstream, but… the number of developers trying to get away with half-assed stuff is steadily rising. ACD? I don’t even know what it means.”
Adam received praise for being a reviewer who would play even the worst games just to write a review, but he wasn’t about to touch something this lacking in effort.
The recent game he had stopped reviewing, Just Run, had been the same way. Sure, the graphics were crude, but could the entire game be summed up as just pressing the right arrow key and moving forward?
He figured [ACD] was probably one of those games and was about to switch to the next page when he accidentally clicked it with his mouse.
Adam was about to hit the back button, but he paused for a moment.
The lengthy game introduction didn’t grab him, but the developer name listed below looked familiar.
“Play… Forge Studio?”
PlayForge? The one I know?
He clicked on the developer information and saw the familiar logo that always appeared when launching Dot Hero.
“Whoa…!”
His mind snapped back to full attention.
“Why did they announce a new release without even promoting it…!”
He had received royalties from PlayForge last month and had written an article based on the strategies he had used, yet they hadn’t even given him a heads-up about their new game. It made him angry.
“They still haven’t shaken off their one-man developer mentality.”
Their mindset that they only needed to create good games and word would spread on its own was infuriating, just like in the Dot Hero days.
Of course, this was Adam’s misunderstanding. He was simply checking the less popular sections, which is why he had found the game late. The game [ACD] was already prominently displayed on Storm’s main page, and articles from major webzines were scheduled to appear there as well.
“If it’s PlayForge, I suppose I should try it out.”
His interest skyrocketed, so he read the full introduction text.
“Anomaly Control Department, shortened to ACD. Hmm… Is it a survival genre? Does it seem like a game where you run away from monsters?”
It wasn’t as fresh as Dot Hero, but Adam didn’t feel disappointed. How could every game be completely new? He had realized long ago that “fun” was the most important thing, even if the game wasn’t fresh.
“Price is $14.99. Not cheap, not expensive.”
Adam decided he would review this game today and bought it.
“30 minutes. The size is pretty big. I need to prepare in advance.”
After grabbing a drink to drink during the play and heading to the restroom, he waited a bit and the download finished.
He launched the game without hesitation.
The screen went dark and an intro played.
Dududududududu
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PlayForge
The familiar screen that appeared whenever he launched Dot Hero for updates was here, but the sound was slightly different. It was more solemn than before.
“It looks like they changed the sound depending on the game. Not bad. Little details like this add to the fun.”
The short intro ended and the game started.
Adam wandered around the main screen for a moment and decided to play the game first, so he clicked the Play button immediately.
Clank clank clank.
Clank clank clank.
He saw special forces members gripping their guns inside a sturdy SWAT van, looking tense. It felt like the van was moving somewhere because it kept clanking.
Adam moved his mouse to check the surroundings and quickly analyzed the game.
“Cartoon graphics and first-person.”
It seemed they used a first-person viewpoint as a tool for immersion, and the graphics were cute but not childish, so it was pretty good.
“The sound isn’t bad either.”
From the Dot Hero days, the sound had always been excellent.
‘I think the sound artist at PlayForge was this guy named Daniel. Everything he made was good.’
Not something the average person would know, but it was basic for a professional reviewer to remember the developers of the company that made games he liked.
Kiiiik
The vehicle heading somewhere stopped.
And the character opened his mouth.
“We have arrived. Prepare.”
“Yes, sir!”
Adam immersed himself in the game and felt one thing was regrettable.
“No voice acting. Where on earth did all the money from Dot Hero go?”
The characters’ dialogues were text-processed.
It wasn’t an important issue, just a minor complaint.
However, he quickly became immersed in the game enough to forget his complaints about PlayForge.
Agent entering the dark isolation room relying on a single flashlight. The cartoon graphics weren’t scary, but the sound crafted a weird sense of unease by controlling the gap.
“Something… is going to appear.”
As he had expected, faint blood stains were found on the wall, bodies hanging on the wall in a grotesque pose, and then the grotesque appeared.
“Hihuhu.”
“Huh!”
Adam was startled by the suddenly appearing weird clown. Although it wasn’t scary, he couldn’t help but jump-scare.
Team members NPC dying in an instant.
Following the system prompt to escape, Adam started running.
“It’s… it has a pretty, pretty… horror atmosphere…?”
Following the system’s guidance, Adam manipulated the character and discovered the log of the researcher who worked in the isolation room.
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[No. 51 Laughing Clown]
[Risk Level 1]
[Entity-type Grotesque]
A grotesque that simply loves to make people laugh. It follows the person who laughed at its actions. Report the grotesque to the civilian, capture and isolate it by using the fact that it follows the person who laughed.
[Day 1 of isolation. No anomalies discovered.]
[Day 17 of isolation. Confirmed that the corner of the clown’s mouth has lowered by about 1 degree. No other anomalies discovered.]
[Day 30 of isolation. The clown’s mouth corner has lowered. It no longer laughs.]
[Day 41 of isolation. Strange reaction from the researcher in charge of No. 51. Repeatedly mentioning the meaningless sentence ‘If you laugh, you become happy.’ Planned to be transferred to a mental hospital for observation.]
[Day 42 of isolation. The laughing clown escaped. The security team failed to re-isolate it. Block the entire isolation room according to procedure and wait for headquarters’ rescue. So far, the laughing clown hasn’t harmed anyone who saw it and laughed.]
“So it’s enough to laugh… How do I make it laugh?”
Since the system told him the shortcut key for expression of emotion, dealing with the laughing clown that followed him was not difficult.
“Hihihaha!”
“Hehe. If I only know the method, what can this guy do?”
Adam kept tapping the F1 key and approached the laughing clown. It held a balloon sword and couldn’t move at all. Laughing continuously, a message [Press G to capture] appeared, so he pressed G.
“Hizzhaoh!”
Something cube-shaped appeared in his hand, and the grotesque sucked into the cube while making a strange laughing sound.
He headed to the SWAT vehicle they had ridden in with the cube in hand. The screen changed to a cutscene. Alpha Dog, the playable character, waited a moment for the operator who should have been in the car, made up his mind, turned on the engine, and left the scene.
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Mission complete
“Pretty good. Not bad…. But isn’t this the end? I know the strategy for the laughing clown, but why wasn’t the isolation room closed and why didn’t the internal staff show what happened?”
It was supposed to be the end, but it wasn’t.
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Next Mission
Agent Matching…
Compatibility Checking…
Mission Level Definition…
The screen automatically switched, and suddenly the game started again.
“What?”
“Eh? Who are you?”
The sudden random start of the game was startling, and even more so the unfamiliar voice coming through the headset. Other players must have felt the same, as they were filled with surprise at the sudden multiplayer.
“Um… I don’t know what’s going on, but welcome to everyone. I’m Adam from Arizona. Anyone with experience playing this game?”
“Nope. I just started. Just finished the tutorial.”
“Eh? Me too. It seems like the system automatically matches after clearing the tutorial. By the way, the voice chat quality is clear. Your voices are really well heard.”
Everyone was silent not knowing what to do when,
System message appeared.
“Um… From what you’re saying, it seems everyone was captured while playing story mode, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then my expectation is that capturing the grotesques inside the isolation room like before will complete the mission. The reason for the forced matching is probably because the game is aimed at multiplayer.”
“Really? Then let’s go together.”
The group who decided to move together.
Unlike the forest last time, the map was like a desert.
“Here! Found the entrance to the isolation room!”
“Good. Very smooth.”
After opening the entrance that had nearly been buried in sand, a corridor leading underground appeared.
“This is Hot Guy. Entering from now on.”
“Hot Guy?”
“Hmph. Code name. Did I give off a good atmosphere?”
“Haha! Interesting? Then I’ll be Coyote.”
“That kind of atmosphere? Then I’ll be Big Eagle.”
They were the first people met through forced matching, but as hard gamers who played new games, the codes matched.
‘This isn’t bad either.’
Entering the isolation room with a good atmosphere, smiling at the new connection.
They were wiped out in five minutes.
“What?! What the heck was that grotesque just now? It killed us the moment the mummy appeared!”
“D, let’s try again. We must not have found the strategy.”
“Okay. Let’s try again.”
Next round.
Deep-sea isolation room.
They were wiped out again.
“Fuck-! It looked suspicious even if you looked at it, but why did you put it on?”
“S, sorry. Out of curiosity… I didn’t know wearing glasses would turn you into a grotesque.”
“Hey. Friends. I think there needs to be someone left in the SWAT vehicle to handle the operator role. It’s not just giving a walkie-talkie for nothing.”
“Then I’ll handle the operation.”
The group who decided on the operator who would rummage through the database left in the vehicle planned to clear the next mission and turned the game again.
“Hahahaha! See! I was right!”
“You’re a gamer. If you hadn’t told us the information, we would have almost been wiped out again.”
“But… I thought it was enough to capture just one, but apparently not. Mission success rank is D. There are nine more grotesques left. There are grotesques we haven’t discovered.”
“It seems you can go to a harder difficulty if you get an S-rank or higher. Hmm…. I want to play the game more, what about you?”
Adam, who had become close friends, nodded his head.
“Let’s go together. I was already thinking about analyzing the game more.”
“Analyzing?”
“Ah, I’m a game specialist journalist.”
“Oh! Shit? For real?”
“Adam Smith. Have you heard of him?”
“Holy crap! The named reviewer from the regression? You’re that guy? I’ve read a few of your reviews! You tricked me into buying a trash game.”
They had planned to play just a little more, but time passed unnoticed as they played the game.
“Hey. It’s morning now. Let’s go to bed. I feel like I ran 10 hours but I can’t do any more because I’m tired.”
“I’m a bit tired too.”
“Is it up to here?”
Seeing the teammates who wanted to end the party, Adam felt a little regretful and asked cautiously.
“I was thinking about playing ACD more when I wake up tomorrow… Do you want to play together if you have time?”
“Hey. Adam. Did you think of making another party? A little disappointing.”
“Haha! No! You guys were the priority. The game just came out a day ago, where else would I find players like you. So, shall we play together?”
“Sure.”
They disbanded the party after making an afternoon appointment.
“Ugh! I guess I should go to bed too.”
Adam was about to turn off the computer when he paused and turned Storm back on.
“I almost forgot.”
He gave [ACD] a review of “overwhelmingly positive” and jumped into bed.
*
“D, Director! T, the number of simultaneous connections has exceeded 20,000! S, the server can’t, can’t handle it!”
“Connect to A-Cloud and pay for more servers. It seems the server load is high because of voice chat.”
“Director! What about 70,000 downloads? The current check shows that 72,000 people have downloaded it.”
“It’s a lot. Terraria swept the first half with 50,000, so it must be because of the Storm main exposure. It got attention faster than expected.”
“Director. Someone asked when the article will be posted.”
“Tell them it can be posted from now on.”
He was completely out of it.
Unlike Dot Hero, a flood of things to handle came.
“Sukho. Are you checking the bugs reported by users?”
“Yes, Director! We are classifying by the time it takes to fix and how fatal the bug is!”
“Good. Keep it up, Daniel. How is the community atmosphere?”
“Just occasional mentions. They seem too busy playing to be paying attention. Most of them are just saying they’ll play it once and let us know.”
The start wasn’t bad.
No, it was more than that. More than there was to add.