Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players
Chapter 45: Be a Decent Human Being, President Chen
On October 8, after the National Day holiday, Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, and the staff from the various departments were all summoned to Chen Xu's office.
"I mentioned it to everyone before the National Day holiday. Our next project will be a relatively large-scale game."
"It'll involve quite a few action elements. Qin Yi, contact an animation motion-capture studio when the time comes. We'll need a lot of motion-capture assets later on."
Chen Xu spoke to a young man in his mid-twenties who already looked slightly balding.
"No problem, President Chen." The young man, Qin Yi, nodded.
Motion capture was nothing particularly high-end, whether in his previous life or in this parallel world.
Compared with manually keyframing every movement, motion capture had enormous advantages.
It was cheaper, more efficient, and more natural.
If setting up a mature motion-capture studio didn't require such a substantial amount of capital, Chen Xu would have considered establishing one directly.
After all, as Nebula Games developed more games in the future, they would certainly need to produce corresponding assets on a regular basis.
"All right, everyone. Let's take a look at the game we're going to develop this time."
After briefly explaining a few things, Chen Xu projected his laptop screen onto the wall.
Over the past few days, with the help of the Memory Capsule, Chen Xu had already completed the initial design concept for Outlast.
"A... horror game?"
Yang Xin looked at Chen Xu somewhat incredulously.
It wasn't just Yang Xin. Ruan Ningxue, Qin Yi, and the newer employees who had joined the company later were all somewhat stunned.
This was a genre they had never expected at all.
They had thought about story-driven games like To the Moon, the meta-style approach of Undertale, traditional RPGs, and so on.
But a horror game?
That had genuinely come out of nowhere.
After all, horror games were actually in a rather awkward position.
And there was another very important point.
Hadn't President Chen previously said that he was a "Warrior of Love"?
What the hell did a horror game have to do with love?!
Looking at everyone's expressions, Chen Xu could more or less guess what they were thinking.
Games of this type were genuinely difficult to make.
Horror games could be said to be one of the genres that tested a developer's skill level the most.
After all, if a horror game couldn't make players feel afraid, it would most likely end up becoming a comedy game.
On top of that, the horror game market was inherently limited. Large companies looked down on it, leaving smaller and mid-sized companies to produce most of these games.
Without sufficient funding and resources, most designers would resort to the technique commonly used in horror movies and games:
Jump scares.
A jump scare, simply put, was like this:
Imagine you're looking at a picture of a tall, long-legged beauty slowly approaching you.
Just as you're getting incredibly excited and preparing to raise your gun and fire, she suddenly transforms into a hideous old witch, her face covered in blood and her grotesque features pressed right up against yours.
That's a textbook jump scare.
Although jump scares were often regarded as an extremely cheap and outdated technique, there was no denying that they were a classic and highly effective method of frightening players.
But jump scares could also be described as a double-edged sword.
Used well, they could help create a masterpiece.
Used poorly, they could turn a game into complete garbage.
Truly excellent horror games also frequently used jump scares.
Therefore, the idea that a horror game was inherently bad simply because it used jump scares was a serious misconception.
A truly effective horror game was one that kept players under a constant sense of pressure throughout the experience.
Because the scariest thing about a horror game wasn't actually being frightened.
It was the anxiety of not knowing when you were going to be frightened.
A horror game could absolutely use jump scares, but they could never be overused.
The real core of horror game design—and also its most difficult aspect—was figuring out how to use jump scares to make players scare themselves during the course of the game.
Inside the office, Chen Xu explained the various points the team needed to pay attention to when developing Outlast.
"Actually, the only problem is that we don't have quite enough development time. Otherwise, I'd really like to take everyone on a field trip. We could find some abandoned hospital or something, then set it up a little so everyone could get a more profound understanding of what we're trying to achieve."
Chen Xu looked regretful as he spoke.
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at Chen Xu with their eyes wide open.
Qin Yi and the others silently lowered their heads.
"Don't worry about it. There's no need to regret it. When we develop another horror game in the future, I'll definitely take everyone there," Chen Xu smiled as he spoke.
Everyone was instantly speechless.
Who the hell would regret missing out on something like that?!
"Also, Zhang Yida, regarding the game's promotion, pay attention to this. We need to build a hot topic around video and livestreaming platforms. Come up with a promotional plan when the time comes."
After making a brief joke, Chen Xu turned toward Zhang Yida from the marketing department.
Zhang Yida, who had been sitting there silently the entire time, nodded when he heard Chen Xu and replied, "Understood, President Chen."
At this point, Nebula Games had accumulated a modest amount of capital, so naturally they weren't going to neglect promotion.
Moreover, good horror games inherently had strong potential for livestreaming. They could leverage livestreaming and video platforms to quickly spread and build momentum around the game.
After all, there were plenty of players who didn't dare to play horror games themselves, yet loved watching other people play them.
And for many horror games, watching someone else play and playing the game yourself were two completely different experiences.
There were certainly players who would watch a horror game and think, Is that all there is?, then buy it and play it themselves.
Although there was a good chance they'd get so scared that they wouldn't dare continue playing, that still helped spread the game's popularity.
All of these factors were important.
The Outlast series' sales of more than 15 million copies in his previous life were, to a considerable extent, also related to the rise of the livestreaming industry at the time.
After briefly explaining these points, Chen Xu continued introducing the core elements of Outlast to everyone.
First of all, just as the game's name suggested, the player played an unarmed journalist. When faced with all kinds of terrifying situations, there was only one choice:
Run.
Next was the game's camera mechanic.
Unlike the nuclear-powered flashlights that seemingly never ran out of power in traditional games, the journalist's camera in Outlast had a night-vision function that was essential for navigating dark environments.
But unlike a nuclear-powered flashlight, activating night vision consumed batteries.
And the player's supply of batteries was limited.
This created an important gameplay pressure point.
The game's story and pacing were also among the core elements Chen Xu dissected and explained to everyone, piece by piece.
"Hmm. For the DV-style visuals and the creation of the environmental atmosphere, Ruan Ningxue, you'll need to pay special attention to that. When it's late at night, you can turn off all the lights at home and really experience it for yourself."
"I've also prepared the equipment. You can take it home with you and try it out."
As he spoke, Chen Xu picked up a handheld DV camera from his desk and placed it beside Ruan Ningxue.
Ruan Ningxue: ??????
As she stared at the handheld DV camera in front of her, the smile on her face gradually disappeared.
Could you at least act like a decent human being, President Chen?!