Soon, reviews of Donât Starve started popping up.
âI noticed that the game is actually really rich. Although I was a bit lost at the start, but you canât stop once you get into it.â
âI was wondering how this could be a sandbox game with such a small game? Turns out Chen Mo actually managed to make a really rich sandbox game!â
âAm I the only one who died in the first night to darkness...â
â+1, first death was because of darkness, dying to unknown mobs. Second death was after ten days to hunger, third death was on day 11 killed by hounds during the night. For my fourth death, I caught a bird, found a pig village, fed spider flesh to one of them and started an alliance, started planning my future home, before becoming insane from too much spider flesh.â
âTo be honest, this game is terrible for new players. There are so many dangers you could die any time!â
âThereâs one thing you have to remember when playing this game: No zuo no die...[1]â
âThe game is surprisingly good and addictive. But I have one question, how come thereâs nothing coming out of me when Iâm eating so much? Why do I have to pick up after other animals? I want it to be self sustaining!â
âIt looks like a small game, but thereâs a lot of good gameplay! Youâd spend tens of hours just trying to learn the game, and youâll experience many exciting things during that process! I think the best part of this game is that thereâs no rule that the world has to follow, on the contrary, this allows them to create many different mobs, increasing the difficulty in the process!â
âTo be honest, Iâve never starved to death. I donât know why the game is called Donât Starve, I think a better name for this game would be, â100 ways for Wilson to dieâ.
âI love this art style. Although it has a cartoony 2D art style, itâs quite refreshing when every other game is in 3D.
âAlthough itâs a small game, itâs a sincere one!â
âI realised Chen Mo allowed mods like he did for previous games. Iâm thinking about making a mod, how does a character mod sound? Iâll import Arthas and his special ability will be eating corpses! Haha!â
âThis game has a co-op mode too. Itâs an incredible feeling to play with friends all as different characters, helping one another survive!â
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Although Donât Starve didnât have a lot of downloads initially, itâs reviews were as high as 9.5!
It was because most players who bought Donât Starve were Chen Moâs fans, who usually liked sandbox survival games like these, naturally, these players gave Donât Starve good reviews.
In the moments right after its release, Donât Starve was still a niche game without large scale promotion. As it had a niche art style and gameplay, it wasnât surprising that it didnât receive explosive growth.
However, with Thunderbolt Gaming Platform and Chen Moâs name on the line, Donât Starve received a decent amount of sales at twenty-four thousand copies.
Moreover, this number was still increasing, estimated to sell two million copies in the first month.
Donât Starve was a long-lasting game after all, and because of its distinct style and great reputation, it had huge potential for growth.
This number wasnât comparable to Lifeline as it was twenty times more expensive, it was normal to have less sales.
In his previous life, Donât Starve sold five million copies after making its debut in China. Of course Tencent Gaming Platformâs great distribution played a part, as well as its good review on Steam.
Chen Moâs Donât Starve was considered a completely new type of game in the parallel world, so it was normal that its first steps started off slow. Once the players go up, the game would finally reach its full potential.
There were various different reactions as the players noticed the sales and ratings.
âHooray! I hoped to see the Chen Mo who made Plants vs Zombies, incredibly creative, rich play style, a small game like this can be a classic game too! In my mind, this is the real Chen Mo!â
âYeah, Chen Mo was wasting his potential making pay to win games!â
âI asked why Chen Mo wasnât updating Diablo, but I have my answer. You donât have to if you donât want to, Chen Mo, Iâll forgive you for making a game like Donât Starve!â
âBut itâs still kind of sad, you canât replace the old with the new this soon, Diablo is still waiting for you!â
âYeah, you have to think about the feelings of us Nephalem!â
âWarcraft players are shaking. Itâs sad that thereâs only one Chen Mo, how good would it be if there were more of him to make games!â
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The players who liked Donât Starve gave it a lot of praise.
The players who didnât like it hoped Chen Mo would make other games.
Diablo players were still waiting for a DLC.
This was why Chen Mo hoped Chen Mo could create copies of himself to provide for all different types of player.
Chen Moâs player base was now huge after developing so many games.
There were casual gamers who liked Plants vs Zombies and Lifeline.
Western Fantasy fans who liked Warcraft and Diablo.
Fans of Chinese themed games who like Wulin Legend.
And players who liked pay to win games like I am MT and Onmyoji.
It was hard to provide for everyone because of how different their tastes were. There was no way Chen Mo could make a game that covered all the bases either.
All these players could do was wait for Chen Moâs next move.
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Industry professionals paid more attention to Donât Starve than the average player.
After Chen Mo developed Diablo to teach the ones who dismissed third person RPGs a lesson, nobody dared to underestimate Chen Mo again.
Every game Chen Mo released was something that was weird and completely different.
Such as the card game I am MT that was âcompletely freeâ.
Or the third person single player game Diablo.
But he was met with success every time, proving everything the industry professionals knew wrong.
Nobody could deny the fact that Chen Mo hadnât made any mistakes so far, and anyone who uses laymanâs logic to explain his moves would inevitably fail.
TL note[1]: Itâs a Chinese saying âNo zuo no die, why you try?â basically meaning, you donât have to do it, so why bother?