“And it’s finally over!” Sunset shouted. She let out a satisfied sigh and grinned toward her camera. “And that’s today’s stream done. Thank you all for coming! Now, I’m going to take a much-needed break. See you guys tomorrow for the Tirek’s Revenge stream.” Sunset turned off her camera and streaming program, officially signaling the end of the day’s activity.
When the camera turned off, she let out another sigh and sunk into her chair. Looking over to her side she saw the cause of her recent bout of daily streams, a broken pipe system with very clear repairs. She was smart enough to put money away incase such a thing happened, but now she needed to fill that reserve again. Luckily, she made decent profit from her streams since she moved to a more gamer-focused platform. Said platform also came with new benefits, particularly sponsorships and advance game copies, mostly the former. The platform screens all the business deals ad gives them out to their streamers if they’re proven to be reputable.
Sunset wanted to get a sponsorship, but her channel was too small to receive one, until now. With her ten-thousandth subscriber, she was officially big enough to receive the emails. There was a part of her that knew better than to get her hopes up any time soon. That was until she opened her channel’s inbox to find a message waiting for her.
Sunset grinned and opened the message, “Let’s see what we’ve got!”
[Dear Sunset Shimmer of the Dusk Gaming channel, we at King & Knox Productions would like to extend a hand in partnership for your gaming channel.]
Sunset stopped there and opened a new tab on her computer. The platform filters possible sponsorships and she knew people had biases. So, she was going to do her due diligence before continuing.
She didn’t find much about King & Knox Productions, which wasn’t surprising given what she did find. Apparently, King & Knox was a new company looking to break out into the gaming world. She didn’t find anything objectionable, so she returned to the email to continue reading.
[We would like you to stream and/or record a Let’s Play for our new game coming out next month. We have left a description of the game for you to decide whether you would enjoy it or not.]
Sunset appreciated that. She wanted to know what she was getting into before committing a game to her channel.
[We have also given you an advanced copy of the first levels of the game to experience. You can stream/record these levels for your channel as you see fit to drum up interest for the game. This is yours to keep, even if you choose not to partner with us. If you accept our offer, you will receive the full game for free when it is released next month to continue your adventures, as well as all downloadable content to be released. We look forward to your response.]
Sunset already liked this company. It was rare for companies these days to be so open with their product and so willing to have Let’s Players like her to stream their games. That alone made her want to work with them. However, she still had a description to read.
[Harmonia Rising]
[A 10000-to-1 hack and slash adventure through the world of Harmonia.]
Sunset raised an eyebrow. She’d never played one of these games before, though she was interested to try one out. It was obviously a power trip, and that was fine by her.
[Harmonia has been at war for hundreds of years. Warlords vie for power to sit at the top and unite their land once more. The stalemate will end soon, and with it the war. Take your sides and fight for your chosen leader. Each battle will change the political landscape of Harmonia, so choose wisely. Will you stand for another’s banner, or will you become the conqueror?]
Sunset finished the description and nodded. “Alright. I think I’ll try this out.” She sent a reply to King & Knox Productions to officially partner with them for the upcoming game before returning to the email. Punching in the code into her console, she was ready to try out the game. It was too late to stream, but patience was something rarely associated with Sunset.
Once it was done downloading, she was more than ready to start playing. The game opened to show the title screen: a large field with a forlorn flag of white and gold sticking out of the ground. Pressing start caused the flag to get caught in a breeze and unfurling. The camera zoomed in to show the flag was also the primary menu.
Sunset nodded a bit, “That’s pretty clever. Okay, first up, settings.”
After putting everything into place in just the way she liked it, she pressed New Game and leaned forward a little more in anticipation. The first thing she saw was a character creation screen.
“Oh? Alright, let’s see what we’ve got.”
Sunset decided to put herself into the game and set the values accordingly. Her first hiccup came when she was asked to select a weapon/method of attack. Her given options were Sword, Spear, Katana, Pyromancy, Cryomancy, and Celestial magic. She was told more options would be made available later on, but these were the options she had right now. Thankfully, she was allowed to try them out a little.
Sword was fairly standard. The character was given a blade to fight with. It was a straight, double-edged combat sword. Most of the attacks involved the usual sword swing attacks you’d see in games. Some special attacks involved creating shockwaves either by swinging/thrusting the blade or by slamming the sword into the ground. It was likely the option for new players.
Spear was also very straight forward. Her character would be given a spear to fight with. Again, swinging attacks were prevalent, but the majority of the attacks were trusting moves. The special attacks allowed her to knock over opponents or escape direct interactions and gain some distance.
Katana granted the character a weapon of the same name at her hip. The fighting style focused on quick draws into quick swings to end on the cliché returning of the blade to its scabbard. That said, Sunset loved that cliché and was A-Okay with that. The special abilities were mostly counter attacks, hovering her hand near the sword’s hilt to attack when she’s struck. Sunset could tell this was likely the hardest of all the physical weapons, and that excited her inner gamer.
Pyromancy gave her character the power to wield fire magic in the game. Basic attacks involved tossing fireballs around that explode after a set distance. Special attacks included walls of fire, flame traps, fire cones, the usual fire-based attacks.
Cryomancy gave the character ice magic to wield. Basic attacks created icicles to throw like small knives. Special attacks created various items out of the ice like a hammer which splintered on impact, a bomb tossed to create a freezing mist, and a set of spikes to come up from the ground.
Celestial magic gave her character a tome. Each attack caused shooting starts to descend onto the field to attack her enemies. Special attacks created constellations that interacted with the world depending on the stars’ formations. It was plenty flashy, but Sunset didn’t find it too enthralling.
Sunset selected the Katana and moved on to the starting equipment screen. Since the armor actually had an effect on the game’s playstyle, she selected light armor and speed-based gear. After a while, she was ready to start her game.
Sunset grinned and held up her controller in anticipation, “Okay! Let’s do this!”
As she started the game in earnest, everything suddenly went white. An all-consuming light followed a silent darkness.
So, it begins.