Chapter 73 Out of Control Accompaniment: Platycodon Overture!

A week later, the Deep Blue Game Platform announced the competition's selection rules again:

Official score (30%): Selected by the Deep Blue jury, the criteria include innovation, graphics, gameplay, anticipation, etc.

Netizen voting (accounting for 70%): Bind player identity, one person one vote, players directly participate in voting!

Rankings are displayed in real time.

The registration deadline is September 1st. All contestants can register and submit their works.

In September, players can start playing directly on the Deep Blue platform and vote for their favorite games.

The final results of the competition will be announced on October 10th!

This time is obviously very tight, but,

The producers are on a tight schedule!

Lu Ming’s time is even tighter!

November is almost settled, and Lu Ming must ensure that he finds the Wolong that belongs to Jingyue before November!

…

At the same time, the three people in the Camera Obscura studio were also working frantically.

Ever since they barely finalized the idea for their little game, they have been in a state of extreme anxiety.

"It's over, it's over, our game crashed again"

Sun Qianli stared at the screen full of error messages and collapsed in his chair in despair.

"Why is it that after two minutes of playing the game, the character is suddenly teleported out of the interface, or gets stuck in stone and can't move?"

Gong Min looked like she had lost all hope in life.

"...Brother, that must be a mistake when you calculated the coordinates. I told you yesterday that the model shouldn't be so large, but you insisted on adding a hyper-realistic lighting system. Now look what happens, the players are blinded by it."

"And your gameplay is so complicated. There are more and more frameworks now. We need to streamline it!"

Wang Hao held the game design document in his hand and muttered,

"This game was originally just a 2D hand-drawn level-breaking mini-game. Why would we need a lighting and shadow system? Having more shadows wouldn't necessarily add any extra points!"

"This is beyond the capabilities of the three of us!"

Gong Min held his head in his hands and pulled his hair frantically:

"Don't blame me! It was Qianli who said he wanted to make the game more unique!"

Wang Hao took a deep breath and tried to calm down:

“It’s a feature, but the problem is… we haven’t even done the most basic interaction yet!”

“…”

The office fell into dead silence.

Five minutes later, Sun Qianli stood up suddenly.

"Never mind! Let's fix the bug first! As long as it works!"

"Yes! Let's play first!"

"We're running out of time. Someone else on Deep Blue has already released a trial version of the game. We need to hurry!"

"Who told us to outsource so much work? I almost confused this game with the client's requirements!"

"I can't help it, it's all ingrained in my memory! I told you our game development is difficult."

"...Wait a minute, what's the name of our game?"

“…”

The three of them were stunned, looked at each other, and remained silent for a long time.

"It seems like it hasn't been named yet!"

Wang Hao covered his face, his voice sounding a little broken.

Sun Qianli looked dazed.

"No way? Didn't we discuss this?"

Gong Min flipped through his design documents expressionlessly, over and over again, and finally slapped his forehead.

"Fuck, it's really undecided!"

Sun Qianli touched his chin, thought for a moment, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind:

"In my opinion, the characteristic of our game is the accompaniment. Why don't we call it "Out of Control Accompaniment"?"

Wang Hao: "How about adding a subtitle? Otherwise, this isn't even 2D!"

Gong Min thought about it and said, "How about calling it "Out of Control Accompaniment: Platycodon Overture"?"

"There's no time left, so let it go!"

The three of them looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

Gong Min quickly opened the game interface, changed the undetermined blank space of the LOGO to the newly determined title, and then excitedly hit the Enter key.

"OK, the name is settled! Then let's move on..."

"Keep fixing the bugs!"

Sun Qianli and Wang Hao shouted in unison.

The three of them immediately plunged into frantic code patching and debugging.

Time passed by minute by minute, and the sound of several people typing on the keyboard never stopped...

…

On the other side, in the meeting room of Whale Leap Game,

Zhou Yizhou's portrait appeared on the projection screen after a long absence.

Today is the first full-staff video conference of the "Time Journey" team.

This game has now entered the formal development stage, and the plot framework, task design, NPC interaction logic and other contents need to be further finalized.

On the laptop screen on the table was a detailed plot outline.

"Time Journey": A soldier searches for a way out in the endless cycle of war.

In the video,

Zhou Yizhou cleared his throat and said:

"Mr. Lu, we've been perfecting the game framework of Time Journey. Now, we need to delve deeper into the plot."

“The core experience of this game is not only the difficulty, but also the cruelty of war itself.

We want players to feel despair, helplessness, struggle, and... a glimmer of hope that seems out of reach."

"We've already decided on the main plot of the game."

Zhou Yizhou displayed several key words on the whiteboard:

World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and future wars

Lu Ming nodded.

He could accept this idea. After all, there were only so many backgrounds to choose from in a shooting game.

Zhou Yizhou looked at Lu Ming,

"But the question is, how do we make players experience each battle firsthand?"

"Currently, our most unique setting is the time loop."

"The main thing is, every time the protagonist dies, the time is reset, but the NPCs don't forget!"

"This means that if you abandoned your comrades in a previous battle, the next time they cycle, they might question you, dislike you, or even attack you directly."

"If you attack an NPC at the beginning, he will shoot you in advance in the next cycle, or even have someone ambush you."

"Also, in a specific context, you might have a different experience. For example, at the beginning of the game, all you have are old-fashioned weapons from the First World War, with strong recoil, slow reloads, and poor aiming."

"Even our plot has not only soldiers, but also many villagers and other NPCs."

“…”

Lu Ming supported his chin and watched Zhou Yizhou talking in the video with a thoughtful look on his face.

I have to say that Lao Zhou is worthy of being the player he has chosen.

Right from the start, he was full of literary madness, talking about the cruelty of war, helpless struggle, and unattainable hope...

It sounds quite profound, but games are not meant to understand war, much less to suffer!

"Anti-war themes? The cycle of war?"

"Heh, this game will definitely get you scolded."

This is how liberal arts students make games!

Lu Ming was already beaming with joy. Wasn’t this exactly what he was aiming for?

Who likes to touch the fire stick when playing shooting games?

The recoil is so strong, can't I use a slingshot?

Who would like to play a game that is full of philosophical reflection and brain-burning?

After listening to Zhou Yizhou's analysis, Lu Ming did not intend to intervene.

This time, he wanted to let Zhou Yizhou give full play to his potential!

This is Lu Ming's trust in him!

This is the judgment of a senior game planner!

Soon, the meeting ended.

Lu Ming did not make any suggestions, only one thing, which was to let Lao Zhou go ahead and do it!

Subsequently, the official Weibo account of Whale Leap Games and major social media platforms began to update simultaneously.

【Jingyue Games】New work: "Time Journey" officially launched!

Can you survive the endless cycle of war?

Gunfight + Souls + real battlefield experience, a stand-alone masterpiece! Stay tuned!

Once this news was released, gaming forums and social media platforms exploded within just a few hours!

“The whale leap has begun again!!!”

"A new game coming out? It looks like it's going to be a blockbuster!"

"My favorite is war games, so I'm looking forward to it!"

"Is this a single-player game? Finally, no krypton gold required!"

“…”