Inside the Nebula Games project room, Lucas was guiding Hector and the others in developing "Bloodborne."
Even though it's a Soulslike game, "Bloodborne" is very different from "Dark Souls."
For example, in terms of combat, "Bloodborne" is much faster-paced than "Dark Souls."
Don't be fooled by the 20 blood vials; you'll die much faster than in "Dark Souls."
Also, considering the different platforms of PC and VR, the game's development is a bit complicated when it comes to the camera. Plus, the game's art assets need to be made separately for both platforms.
"Um... the trap design here is too obvious. Players aren't newbies who haven't played Soulslike games before. There are no monsters in this corner, yet we put a shiny spot there. How could players fall for that so easily?" Lucas said, rejecting a collection point designed by Hector.
If players hadn't played Soulslike games before, they might fall for it.
But such a simple trick wouldn't fool players.
When players see this kind of scene, their first thought would probably be: There's no way Lucas would be so nice.
How would we give players that unexpected feeling of surprise?
"In the game, we need to be unpredictable. For example, these two collection items, don't design lurking monsters or traps. Wait until the third or fourth one before adding traps and monsters. We don't need a lot, but they must be high quality!"
"Also, if we add two tricks in the front, we can skip them in the third and fourth ones. Players carefully pick up items, only to find that they're outsmarting themselves. That's a kind of trap too."
"At the same time, there are some basic chain traps, one obvious and one hidden, so that players focus on the obvious trap, while the real killer move comes from the hidden one."
Lucas looked at Hector, Marcus, and the others, and sketched out the design of several trap locations on the development machine.
"Understood, Boss Lucas." Hector and the others silently gulped, taking a tissue from the box on the table to wipe the sweat from their palms.
"We must give players a sense of surprise and unexpectedness. After all, they are heroes who have linked the flame." Lucas reminded them again.
As for suffering?
Leaving his seat, Lucas stretched and walked towards the reception room.
He had an interview about the game coming up.
The main goal was to reveal some news and content to players through the media.
After all, other than the previous easter egg, players didn't even know the game's name. Players online were also confused. Lucas couldn't answer them all on the official blog.
Plus, many media outlets wanted to interview him, so Lucas agreed to two this time.
One was the foreign media outlet GameSpot, and the other was the domestic one, GameSpace.
"Boss Lucas!" Seeing Lucas enter the reception room, the reporters from GameSpace and GameSpot stood up to greet him.
"Hello," Lucas said with a smile.
The reporter from GameSpace was Ray. He basically always did the interviews with Lucas from Nebula Games. In fact, he was the first reporter to ever interview Lucas.
The GameSpot reporter was an older man named Lloyds, the editor-in-chief for GameSpot's content in China.
Both of them were a little excited sitting across from Lucas, because this was big news. They were the only two outlets in the world that got the first interview.
The camera crew from both outlets had already set up their cameras.
"Let's get straight to the point," Lucas said, smiling at the two reporters.
They had obviously discussed things beforehand. Lloyds from GameSpot asked first, "Okay, Boss Lucas, let's get to the main question. The first question a lot of players have is whether your new game is a Soulslike game?"
"The new project is called 'Bloodborne.' As for whether it's a Soulslike game, I can only say that it will give players a familiar feeling," Lucas said with a smile.
Hearing Lucas's words, Ray smiled knowingly. This was obviously a sideways confirmation, which made him very excited.
"Boss Lucas, how difficult is 'Bloodborne' compared to 'Dark Souls'?" Ray asked a very important question.
"How hard it is mainly depends on the player, and 'Bloodborne's' combat system is very different from 'Dark Souls'," Lucas said with a smile.
"Just saying that might not give everyone a good idea, so we've prepared some gameplay footage for you to see." Lucas paused and said.
Then he stood up and turned on the large screen, taking a controller from his assistant Lisa.
Ray and Lloyds sitting there, their eyes lit up.
Under their gaze, the game's visuals played on the big screen.
Of course, the cutscenes were skipped. It was mainly a gameplay demo based on combat testing.
The hunter in the game was standing in the patient ward of Yharnam, and a half-blooded werewolf was tearing at a corpse not far away.
"First of all, in the game, the number of blood vials that players carry will be greatly increased. Players can carry 20 blood vials, and monsters may drop blood vials after being killed, which greatly increases the game's margin for error."
As he spoke, Lucas controlled the hunter in the game to walk in front of the werewolf.
The werewolf in front of him roared and suddenly pounced on the hunter.
Afterwards, the hunter controlled by Lucas in the game nimbly dodged to the werewolf's back. Taking advantage of the werewolf's stunned state after attacking, he charged up his strength and slapped the werewolf, causing it to stagger. Then, he stabbed wildly in the direction of the werewolf's kidneys with his right hand.
'Thump!'
With a dull thud, the werewolf burst out a string of blood flowers, fell to the ground and died. A white light floated on the corpse, and Lucas picked it up and found two blood vials.
"Boss Lucas, this is!?" Looking at the hunter's awesome kidney stab attack in the game, Ray and Lloyds were both excited.
They were reporters, but they were also players.
They were also full of anticipation for this mysterious game.
"This is the finishing move in 'Bloodborne': visceral attack. It can be used when the monster is off balance, just like backstabs and finishing moves in 'Dark Souls'. Of course, in Bloodborne, players need to charge up from behind to trigger it," Lucas said with a smile.
Listening to Lucas's introduction, they were very surprised. Although the visceral attack judgment was more strict than in Dark Souls.
If they had 20 blood vials back when they were kindling the flame, what hero Gundyr, what cinder lords, would all be kids!
"Also in the game, there is a special mechanic, that is, after being attacked, the player will enter a state called bloodlust. At this time, as long as the player attacks the monster, they can take the lost health back."
"Is this encouraging players to be greedy, to attack?" Ray asked Lucas.
Players who have played Dark Souls and Monster Hunter know what behavior is the most dangerous.
That is being greedy.
Usually, players who like to be greedy are either masters or so good that they're untouchable.
Or they're doomed to die very early.
The Bloodborne mechanic encourages greed, which is just too terrible!
"Yes, that's right. This mechanic is mainly to encourage players to attack proactively, and it also shows a major feature of Bloodborne," Lucas nodded with a smile.
"A major feature?" Lloyds and Ray were both dumbfounded.
"Yes, a point that players complain about in Dark Souls is that wearing bulky armor is too ugly, and the rolling action is like rolling in mud and is very unsightly."
"So in Bloodborne, we replaced the European medieval knight armor style with British and Victorian clothing styles. Look at the hunter's windbreaker, look at this tricorn hat."
"Including rolling, in the game it has also been changed to a more flexible dodge." Lucas controlled the character in the game, performing two rolls and dodges.
"Then Boss Lucas, will the hunter's clothes in the game have defensive stats?" Ray seemed to realize something.
"Of course, it definitely does, but it won't have the defensive power of Havel's Set. Of course, we can't just weaken without strengthening the game. Without wearing heavy armor, players are faster and more agile in the game, so it's also easier to avoid monster attacks, which can make it easier for players to show off skill," Lucas said, laughing and summarizing.
As he spoke, Lucas controlled his character to find the first villager holding a torch. Facing the opponent's attack, he dodged directly behind him and charged up to knock him into a rigid state, and then performed a visceral attack, which looked very easy and satisfying.
It does seem quite easy, it's faster and more agile, and it's easy to dodge enemy attacks.
The two were surprised by Lucas's demo.
"Then Boss Lucas, are there shields in this game?" Lloyds asked a very important question at this time, which is also a question that online players are more concerned about.
"Shields? Of course, there are shields! But it's a bit different from Dark Souls. The shields in Bloodborne aren't available from the start, and they're not very good," Lucas said with a smile.
Hearing Lucas's words, Lloyds and Ray breathed a sigh of relief.
It's good if there are shields, it's good if there are shields. As for the saying that they're not very good, they ignored it.
They didn't notice that at this time, the smile on Lucas's face became unusually bright.
(End of this chapter)
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