Outrageous yet logical game design
"I understand, what President Jiang means is—" Yu Yue slapped his forehead, finally putting everything into practice.
He showed everyone a few keywords that he had quickly jotted down during the meeting.
There are many contradictions here, such as online versus offline, opposition versus cooperation, horror versus stress relief.
In a normal person's mind, these are clearly incompatible, but since President Jiang said so, he must have his reasons.
If this is the premise, then let's continue.
"First of all, we can see that most of the games on the market now, especially mobile games, are online games. The type with strong social attributes is more likely to win the favor of players."
"Moreover, once a player starts playing, their real-life social circle will naturally be integrated into the game."
"My first thought was that President Jiang probably wanted us to make two versions, one online and one offline."
This is also the most common approach to achieving both.
"However, our initial investment in this project was not large. If we also need to consider the quality of the game and the level of visual appeal, then we cannot simultaneously produce two versions."
Yu Yue paused briefly to catch his breath, and everyone eagerly awaited the next part of his speech.
"Actually, there is another type of game that can be called pseudo-online mode. It doesn't actually play online games, but it makes it look like players are socializing."
"Ah, I know that now, for example, a very common ranking system!" Someone immediately thought of an example.
Yu Yue gave the employee who spoke an approving look: "Yes, that's exactly what I meant. The ranking system can motivate players and create a sense of multiplayer participation."
"In addition to the common ranking system, there is also a creator system."
"I think when our game is finished, it should allow players to create their own content, since it's primarily text-based and doesn't actually require a lot of money for graphics."
"If we implement a creator system, along with a comment function, it would create a complete game ecosystem," someone nearby added, making a connection.
"This can be included in the design draft, but the comment function will likely need to be significantly limited to avoid problems later..."
Yu Yue didn't explain it clearly, but those who work in the game industry understand: "We could even integrate the comment function more deeply into the game."
"But I think that way, it still has more of a single-player feel."
While some may agree, others will naturally raise objections.
Yu Yue kept everyone in suspense: "President Jiang's key words haven't been fully interpreted yet, but perhaps this problem will be solved in a little while."
"Perhaps we could add some features to the game to give players a sense of companionship. What do you think about having built-in AI? Allowing players to interact with the AI?"
Yu Yue nodded in agreement: "The idea is good, but the cost is relatively high. It can be put into subsequent version iterations."
"Then what do you mean by opposition and alliance?" The next step was quickly presented.
"This is something I couldn't understand at first no matter how hard I tried."
"Everyone surely remembers the board game we played during our team building activity not long ago, right? The first board game we chose was Werewolf. We've all played it ourselves, so we should be able to feel the sense of opposition and cooperation."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
That... was indeed very memorable.
Firstly, this team-building format is very novel, and secondly, everyone's actions were indeed quite ingenious, thinking back on it.
Yu Yue continued with satisfaction: "Just like the Werewolf game we've played, plus the limited interaction mentioned earlier, it allows you to deceive players or reveal part of the truth."
“I know that. It’s a montage-style deception. It tells the truth, but not all of it, or it tells all of it but in a scrambled order.”
"In that case, the game itself might have a very simple gameplay, but with the addition of players, it will become very diverse."
Yu Yue clapped generously, not hesitating to praise himself: "Yes, that's right, exactly like that."
"If we create this kind of framework, then for players, especially new players, the sense of horror will naturally come up."
"But I have another question..."
The girl with glasses silently reached out her hand: "Didn't President Jiang also say that it's important to feel a sense of stress relief?"
Everyone fell into a brief moment of contemplation.
Yu Yue didn't really understand the necessity of this point.
Stress-relieving games have emerged in modern society because many young people experience stress to varying degrees.
In the midst of a busy day and night, the negative emotions brought about by heavy work and life need to be released; only by venting can one relax.
Decompression games are usually mobile games that take up very little memory and run quickly.
Because the purpose is to release stress by utilizing various fragmented moments.
Generally speaking, stress-relieving games are very simple and childlike to operate, requiring no learning curve, and you can enjoy playing them as soon as you start.
Many stress-relieving games help you de-stress through release and often involve a sense of destruction. Classic examples include Fruit Ninja and Roller Crush.
Another type of game relieves stress through collection, absorbing and digesting all the player's pressure.
Although the two types of processes are different, they achieve the same goal.
This leads us to discuss why decompression games can decompress stress.
It boils down to a few common elements: relaxing visuals and music, simple game rules, complex game design, and satisfying the player's destructive urges or some other desire.
But at the same time, President Jiang also demanded that there be a certain sense of terror...
Such lighthearted visuals and music are perhaps impossible to achieve.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
“If that’s the case… I think it’s possible to release the pressure by ultimately destroying this sense of terror,” Zhuang Xu boldly stated.
He was very experienced in playing games, and under Yu Yue's guidance, he gradually figured out the tricks of the trade.
Yu Yue nodded and immediately began to applaud.
After such a long brainstorming session, we finally came up with a prototype of the game.
A pseudo-online, slightly horror-themed text-based adventure and stress-relieving game.
I must say, Zhixing Games' games are indeed unique.
Following the established route, everyone quickly came up with a variety of ideas to enrich the gameplay.
In other game companies, the core concept design of a game is usually handled by the most senior and outstanding employees.
Generally speaking, the rest of the people don't have much room to participate; they are just cogs in the machine at different stages of the game.
But at Zhixing Games, perhaps because it's a startup, the concept design of this game was completed collaboratively by everyone. It felt incredibly rewarding to gradually solve the key challenges left by President Jiang.
After playing games for so many days, I can finally dedicate myself wholeheartedly to President Jiang!
A basic architecture was thus born.
Yu Yue summarized why today's brainstorming session was so successful.
The truth is that I was exploited too much at my previous company, with absolutely no time to rest or recharge. In fact, my superiors never thought about letting me contribute anything.
This has resulted in everyone being in a state of suppression.
After joining Zhixing Games, I had a long break, and I even spent my workday playing games.
To be honest, game designers don't necessarily play games themselves, and few actually play from a player's perspective and mindset.
I played the game for a whole week.
When two perspectives collide suddenly, many new ideas will naturally emerge.
The applause in the conference room gradually subsided.
"The game's skeleton is now complete; the next step is to add the flesh and blood."
There's still one problem that hasn't been solved.
This is probably the hardest thing for Yu Yue to understand: what does it mean to say, "But for games, players are very important, aren't they?"
Ironically, this was the point that President Jiang first raised, and it is the core of the issue.
If you're going to make a game for players, then it must be one that shares common memories within a certain group.
The world is vast, and the Chinese people are numerous.
Choosing a suitable target group is difficult, especially when it comes to extracting a story that fits the core of the narrative.
When President Jiang spoke of this point, he went into far more detail than those contradictory conjunctions. It was certainly a very important request, but what exactly did he intend to achieve?
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.
It was at this time that Zhuang Xu received the new payment for his work from the production team of the "Survival Diary of Contemporary Migrant Workers" program.
His phone rang, and he looked down at it.
The inspiration that had been teetering on the edge, that I felt I was about to grasp but hadn't quite caught, suddenly returned.
"Brother Yu! I understand, I know what story I need to tell!"
Zhuang Xu then turned his phone, which had its screen lit up, towards everyone.
Speaking of this, everyone gets really excited.
Well, those who choose a startup game company with no foundation must have some material suitable for "The Survival Diary of Modern Working People".
All eyes turned to Zhuang Xu.
"You're a real talent, kid. I completely agree with that idea."
"Me too, which means we don't need to create a sense of horror through visuals and music at all, Brother Yu."
Yu Yue stroked his chin thoughtfully. Given the current broadcast schedule of "The Survival Diary of Contemporary Working People," if the game development could keep up...
They could totally ride the wave of popularity from this variety show!
This way, a significant amount of marketing expenses can be saved and the subsidies can be redirected to the development team.
Yu Yue's eyes gradually brightened, and he patted Zhuang Xu's shoulder forcefully: "Now that things are mostly settled, I'll officially start working on the design drafts."
In my second week at the company, I finally had work to do instead of slacking off. Everyone was still very enthusiastic and ready to get started immediately.
Um……
Yu Yue was the main one who was busy. Concept design was the chief planner's job, while the others continued to play games to gather inspiration.
Yu Yue quickly organized the notes left from the brainstorming session. The more he organized them, the more he wondered how such a seamless game could be created.
This was truly his first time making a game, and he achieved a feeling of "a masterpiece born of nature, a stroke of genius by chance."
I never imagined that just a few keywords could lead to such a game.
Of course, Yu Yue wasn't sure about the market situation, but he was somewhat confident.
Once the design drafts are complete, I can send them to General Manager Jiang. I wonder what his opinion will be...
Yu Yue was really looking forward to it.
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