Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players
Chapter 46: Being Down-to-Earth Doesn't Mean Going All the Way to the Underworld
Chen Xu contacted a motion-capture studio and began producing all kinds of assets.
At the same time, he led the entire team in developing Outlast.
The game's development cost was not low, but it wasn't as high as one might have imagined, either.
After completing the budget report, the total development cost, including subsequent promotional expenses, was tentatively set at 6 million.
Of course, the figure might increase later, but it would not exceed 8 million.
For a horror game, this was already a relatively substantial budget for the genre.
Naturally, everyone on the team was extremely excited.
After all, this was their first major project.
............
Time passed day by day.
Art assets, animations, and various other resources were being produced steadily.
The game's story dialogue had also been completed and would undergo voice recording later.
The protagonist's various movements were likewise being tested and refined through trial and error.
"I already feel a little creeped out. How terrifying is the finished game going to be?!"
Inside the office, Ruan Ningxue sat in front of her computer, looking at the concept art displayed on the secondary monitor beside her. She still felt shaken.
The concept art mainly consisted of environmental scenes: a psychiatric hospital building shrouded in darkness; scenes filled with blood and corpses; mental patients hiding beneath hospital beds in dark rooms; and footage captured through the DV camera's night-vision mode.
These few pieces of concept art perfectly conveyed the eerie atmosphere of Outlast.
Forget actually playing it, even looking at them was enough to send a chill down one's spine.
And during the period they had been developing Outlast, Ruan Ningxue had been staying up quite late every night.
Why?
Because she was scared!
Especially after taking the DV camera Chen Xu had given her and actually trying it out, the utterly hellish atmosphere had left her feeling thoroughly traumatized.
After all, imagining things yourself and then scaring yourself with your own imagination was the most terrifying thing of all.
Of course, precisely because of this, the concept art she produced according to Chen Xu's requirements turned out to be extremely effective.
"Yeah. And players can't even fight back in the game. They can only run away," Yang Xin said with a sigh after hearing Ruan Ningxue.
Chen Xu, who was working on an animation design, smiled.
"Isn't that what makes it exciting? Besides, if the player had a gun, it would easily turn into an FPS. After all, fear comes from a lack of firepower."
Why did ordinary horror games include firearms?
On one hand, they enriched the game's content. On the other, they gave players an appropriate outlet for releasing their tension.
This approach was actually quite effective. Resident Evil in his previous life had adopted precisely this model.
But it also had a major drawback: it was easy for a horror game to gradually turn into an FPS.
After all, fear came from insufficient firepower. As long as you had enough firepower, you could suppress that fear.
Resident Evil in his previous life had gradually gone astray in this regard.
After the fourth installment, the series increasingly leaned toward simply shooting everything in sight, until the remakes returned to a more fear-oriented approach. And in Resident Evil Village, the pacing was handled to an exceptionally polished degree.
Of course, for most players, what they cared about wasn't how frightening the game was or how well-paced it was.
All their attention had been captured by Dimitrescu and her three daughters.
"But President Chen, when are we going to start warming up the promotion for Outlast? I've seen a lot of players online asking about our new game," Yang Xin asked.
Unlike before, when the development department consisted of just the three of them, the company now had a number of new employees.
As a result, they properly addressed Chen Xu as "President Chen" rather than simply calling each other by name like they had in the past.
"Yeah. The development progress feels pretty fast. I think we should be able to launch around December," Ruan Ningxue said.
Outlast wasn't particularly large in scope. Most of the workload was concentrated on producing animation and art assets.
As for the gameplay itself, development was progressing incredibly quickly. There was practically no need for trial and error.
The entire development process had been smooth sailing.
"There's no need to spend money on promotion and warm-up campaigns yet. Let's wait until mid-to-late November before we start."
"I've also got quite a lot of followers on my official account now. Besides, do you two remember what tomorrow is?"
Chen Xu smiled.
What day was tomorrow?
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue froze for a moment before looking at the bottom-right corner of the computer screen.
October 30?
"It's Halloween!"
"I already recorded the promotional material ahead of time specifically for this day. We'll release it as part of the holiday campaign."
"Players have been waiting for a month already, so announcing news about our new game on this particular holiday—isn't that pretty down-to-earth?"
Chen Xu smiled at Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue as he clicked on a short video sitting on his desktop.
The video wasn't long, it's only ten seconds in total.
At first, the screen was completely black.
The next moment, an image appeared, but it wasn't a normal image.
Instead, it was the DV camera's night-vision mode.
In the upper-right corner, there was a battery indicator, while a red dot in the upper-left corner blinked continuously, indicating that the DV was recording.
The footage showed Chen Xu's office.
A chair had been knocked over onto the floor, while the various documents on the desk had deliberately been scattered into disarray.
The entire video was completely silent.
Combined with the DV's night-vision footage, it created an incredibly eerie and unsettling atmosphere.
At the ninth second, the DV footage suddenly shook, as though the person filming had been attacked.
Yet strangely, there still wasn't the slightest sound.
Then the video ended, and the screen fell back into darkness.
The office fell completely silent.
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at Chen Xu for a long time without saying a word.
"President Chen, I don't think being down-to-earth means we have to go all the way to the underworld."
After holding it in for a while, Ruan Ningxue finally looked at Chen Xu and slowly spoke.
This promotional video was obviously making it crystal clear to players that the game they were about to develop was a horror game.
But the key question was: could this really be considered a down-to-earth promotional strategy?
It had practically gone all the way to the underworld.
Releasing it on Halloween, and even specifically filming a DV recording like this in the middle of the night.
President Chen, you really were something!
Yang Xin beside her couldn't help but say what she had been thinking as well.
"And President Chen, didn't you say you were a Warrior of Love? Outlast has absolutely nothing to do with love! And couldn't we at least put something a little more... normal in the promotional campaign?!"
"How does it have nothing to do with love?"
"In recent years, haven't horror game enthusiasts constantly complained that there haven't been any good horror games? Why am I making Outlast? Because it's my love for those players! Doesn't that make me a Warrior of Love?"
"As for something more normal, don't you think this promotion fits Outlast's theme perfectly?"
"And besides, this is going to attract far more attention than simply announcing the game normally would. We need to capitalize on this buzz!" Chen Xu spoke with complete seriousness.