Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players
Chapter 32: How Did It Suddenly Turn Creepy?
As the two doctors continued talking, Dong Zhen finally reached the point where he could control the game.
The dialogue was simple but also carried a certain amount of sarcasm. Even when they arrived beside the squirrel, the two doctors continued bickering with each other.
"The details in this game are actually pretty good. The dialogue and everything is really detailed. It's exactly like Undertale—everything is packed with little details."
Dong Zhen controlled the characters while commenting on the game.
For example, when they came across a signpost, the characters would make fun of it, wondering whether leaving a sign like this in the mountains wouldn't just result in someone stealing it.
The dialogue was funny, but it also made Dong Zhen feel like his job as a streamer was being taken away from him.
After all, making these kinds of jokes was usually his job.
But if the game had already made all the jokes for him, what was he supposed to say?
"A story-driven game? It seems a little dull so far."
Dong Zhen was somewhat curious.
Aside from moving something resembling a stone out of the way, the entire game so far consisted almost entirely of walking around and having simple conversations. There didn't seem to be anything particularly special about the gameplay.
After all, Undertale at least had simple bullet-hell combat sequences.
The one thing that really stood out was the music.
From Mirror, to Undertale, and now To the Moon, Chen Xu's music choices were genuinely excellent.
As for the graphics, Chen Xu's To the Moon had made some improvements compared with the kind of pixel graphics found in the RPG Maker version from his previous life.
But they were still only average. They were nowhere near what could be called outstanding.
While Dong Zhen was thinking about this, Dr. Neil and Dr. Eva finally arrived at their destination: a large mansion.
After the two doctors knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman opened it for them.
According to the introduction, the woman's name was Lily.
She was responsible for taking care of the elderly Johnny. The two children who had been playing the piano earlier were her daughter and son.
After introducing herself, Lily led the two doctors upstairs.
Downstairs, the two children fought briefly over who would get to play the piano first before eventually sitting side by side and playing together.
It was the same piano melody that had played before the doctors' car accident.
Was this the game's main theme? Dong Zhen wondered.
While Eva and Neil continued bickering, Lily and the doctors discussed the condition of the game's protagonist, Johnny.
Johnny was currently bedridden and had been unconscious for a long time. The only indication that he was still alive was the continued presence of his vital signs.
According to the doctor, he probably only had two or three days left.
And Johnny's final wish was to go to the moon.
But why did he want to go to the moon?
Lily, his caretaker, said she didn't know.
Although Johnny was her employer, he normally didn't speak to anyone. He was a strange man who was difficult to understand.
"Damn, this old guy has some wild ambitions! He wants to go to the moon. So the main point of this game is to figure out why he wants to go to the moon and then help him fulfill his wish?"
"A puzzle game? Finally! This is my kind of game! I'm good at brain games!"
Based on the information he had gathered so far, Dong Zhen slapped his thigh.
After talking to Lily, he learned that they needed to find certain important clues connected to Johnny before they could enter his memories and alter them.
A person's memories covered an entire lifetime, and the machine couldn't simply scan all of them at once. They therefore needed objects that could serve as memory anchors.
While Eva stayed behind to operate the machine, Dong Zhen controlled Neil and wandered around the house.
"Damn, this old guy is pretty rich! This house is huge!"
"But seriously, this old man is lucky that he ran into me. You want to go to the moon? No problem. If you wanted to go to Mars, I'd get you there too!"
As he spoke, Dong Zhen controlled Neil as he wandered around the first floor.
He talked to the two children and tried to get them to show him around the house so he could find some useful clues.
However, the two brats told him to get them a candy cane first.
"You know how annoying these two brats are? Whatever. An adult shouldn't hold a grudge against children."
When he reached the kitchen, the doctor spotted the candy cane sitting on a shelf.
Unfortunately, he was too short to reach it.
He therefore had to move a nearby stool over and stand on it to reach the candy cane.
"Don't say nonsense. How could I possibly be unable to reach it? It's the doctor in the game who can't reach it, not me!"
"I'm a towering 1.92 meters tall. You think I can't reach a cabinet? What kind of joke is that?"
Looking at the barrage of comments in his livestream, the corner of Dong Zhen's mouth twitched.
But he refused to back down.
If he said he was 1.92 meters tall, then he was 1.92 meters tall—the kind of guy who could jump up and dunk a basketball!
After handing the candy cane to the two brats, he obtained some clues from them.
When Johnny was still able to move around, he apparently often went down to the basement. The piano piece the two children had been playing was also something Johnny used to play frequently when he was healthy.
Following the children's directions, Dong Zhen arrived at a small room in the basement.
It was pitch-black, with a desk lamp sitting nearby.
But the moment Dong Zhen switched on the lamp, the game's music suddenly changed.
It became eerie, gloomy, and unsettling.
Combined with the dim yellow light, the room was filled entirely with rabbits folded out of colored paper.
"What the hell? How did this suddenly turn into a horror game?!"
The sudden change in atmosphere caught Dong Zhen completely off guard, and goosebumps immediately covered his skin.
The room wasn't particularly large. It looked more like a storage room.
Hand-folded rabbits were piled all over the floor. On a table near the door sat a platypus plush toy.
It wasn't exactly scary, but it certainly created a sense of psychological pressure.
The barrage in the livestream chat was also going crazy.
"The atmosphere suddenly got really creepy!"
"Is this secretly a horror game?"
"Guys, keep spamming the chat. I'm scared!"
"Why are you all acting like scared little girls? It's broad daylight! What are you afraid of?"
Dong Zhen glanced at the overly dramatic comments and adjusted his mindset before searching the room.
The platypus plush could be picked up. It looked like an important key item.
As for the game itself, although the atmosphere had suddenly become rather sinister, Dong Zhen had checked the game earlier and there was no horror tag.
It was simply categorized as an adventure and story-driven game.
No need to panic. Even if it really was a horror game, so what?
He was a towering 1.92 meters tall, the kind of guy who could jump up and dunk a basketball. How could a mere video game possibly scare him?
"Alright, look at how scared you guys are!"
"Anyway, let's keep going and see what this game is really hiding. Why does the old man want to go to the moon? What's the secret behind all these paper rabbits? We'll uncover everything later, alright?"
After chatting with the viewers for a moment, Dong Zhen continued progressing through the game's story.