Chapter 248 Metaphysics is necessary!

Sandong Village.

A remote and poor village located deep in the mountains, where there are almost no young people and only elderly people.

The name of the village comes from three natural caves that are connected to each other, hence the name Sandong Village.

Hu Xi's parents were not from this village, but he grew up in Sandong Village. The reason was that more than 20 years ago, Lao Hu, a barefoot doctor in the village, found him abandoned on the roadside while returning from the county town with a kerosene lamp to get medicine.

Since he had no name, Lao Hu named him Hu Xi, and with the help of the villagers, he barely raised him up...

"But Lao Hu is dead!"

Chen Ba's storytelling skills are not very high, and he can only let everyone understand the outline of the story simply: "Old Hu's death is the main reason that prompted Hu Xi to return home, and it is also the main task of the game."

Simply put, "Mountain Village Past" is a standard Chinese horror game.

What is Chinese horror? A ghost bride? A red wedding dress? A crooked Buddha statue? Colorful paper figures?

That’s right!

Different from the visual impact horror created by blood and real objects in the West, Chinese horror is more about creating a sense of psychological discomfort and impact.

"Past Events in a Mountain Village" tells the story of the protagonist Hu Xi who learns that his adoptive father has died unexpectedly and returns to his hometown to bury him. In the process, he discovers that the real cause of his adoptive father's death may not be that simple, and that Sandong Village is not as simple as he imagined, so he secretly investigates the truth.

"So what is the truth?"

Although Xiao Lu was very afraid of those supernatural things, he was fascinated by what he heard and couldn't wait to know the answer.

Monsters and demons, which category?

"The truth?"

"The truth is that Old Hu should have died a long time ago due to cancer, but Hu Xi was still young and didn't want to die so soon, so he used a forbidden method to extend his life."

Chen Ba curled his lips and said, "This is the superficial truth. There is a deeper truth, which is that everyone in Sandong Village is doing this, except for Hu Xi's adoptive father, Lao Hu."

"ah?!"

Hearing this, Xiao Lu was shocked and asked, "Is everyone doing this? Then, wouldn't everyone in this village be immortal?"

"What a fuss!"

Before Chen Ba opened his mouth, Luo Ji on the side could not help but complain: "If it was really that simple, it wouldn't be considered a forbidden method, and Old Hu wouldn't have died."

“That’s right!”

"Remember what I said at the beginning? There are basically no young people in Sandong Village. Except for Hu Xi, all the people are elderly!"

Chen Ba repeated the background setting again. This time, not only did Luo Ji understand it, but even Xiao Lu was horrified.

How could a normal village be filled with only elderly people, without a single young person or child?

Don’t they have any offspring?

This is obviously impossible!

The possibility that the whole village suffers from infertility is obviously lower than that there is something wrong with the people in this village. Anyone who is not stupid knows that there is someone playing tricks on this village because there are no young people or children.

Who is it? Considering the context, Brother Ba had previously introduced the truth of the story, and Xiao Lu drew inferences from it: "So this is the price of longevity?"

"Yes!"

Chen Ba nodded: "Not only that, the reason why Sandong Village has become a gloomy and gloomy village without any breath of living people is also because of the backlash."

At this point, the outline and context of the story are already very clear.

There is a problem in Sandong Village!

The problem lies with the old people in the village and the three natural caves that exude a strange atmosphere. Hu Xi has been kept in the dark by Old Hu, who sent him to school because he did not want him to be implicated.

In fact, Lao Hu is the last "living person" in the village!

Therefore, his death and Hu Xi's return home also marked the complete disappearance of Sandong Village from the world, and there were no living people in this village anymore.

“That’s not right!”

"Since Old Hu was the last one to die, how did the news of his death spread? And how did the protagonist Hu Xi find out about it?" Xiao Lu asked with a frown.

This must be a plot bug, right? Is Brother Ba out of his mind? He just said that Hu Xi returned to his hometown to hold a funeral for his adoptive father and let him rest in peace, but how come he turned around and said that Old Hu was the last living person? "Wait..."

“I think I understand it!”

Luo Ji said thoughtfully: "Brother Ba's living people mean from the audience's perspective, that is, from God's perspective, there are no living people in Sandong Village anymore."

"But from the perspective of ordinary people in the plot, Sandong Village is still the same, bustling, and the elderly are all healthy, with no signs of anything unusual."

“That’s right!”

Chen Ba confirmed Lao Luo's guess.

This is the fact. The main reason why Hu Xi received the news of his adoptive father's death and returned to his hometown to repay his gratitude to his fellow villagers is that everything in Sandong Village is normal during the day! Please note that this is during the day.

Once night falls, the true face of Sandong Village will be revealed. It is actually a deserted "ghost village" full of evil spirits! "Zhao, spoilers are really boring."

Xiao Lu scratched his head and said, "After hearing what you said, I feel like I don't even need to play the game anymore, because I've figured out all the puzzles."

“So, it’s best not to search for guides or watch videos when playing horror games like this, otherwise you’ll lose interest in playing after being spoiled.”

Chen Ba smiled.

Knowing the origin, process and ending of a game's plot before playing the game, commonly known as spoilers, is indeed a fatal blow to a horror game.

Let alone "Past Events in the Mountain Village".

If any horror game is spoiled by others before you play it, you won’t be very interested in playing it. After all, the most important “sense of suspense” of a horror game has been destroyed.

“Alright, alright!”

After clapping his hands and signaling everyone to look at him, Chen Ba assigned tasks and said, "We game developers should forget about suspense and excitement."

"What we need to do now is to design puzzle exploration and parkour chase scenes according to the plot..."

As for solving puzzles, this is not what Chen Ba is good at.

He has never even played the "escape room" game that young people love the most. He is a complete novice in this area, so he needs to seek everyone's opinions and ideas.

"Puzzle solving is nothing more than a process of collecting clues to find the truth and solve puzzles. Leave this to me. I'm pretty good at this!"

Luo Ji took the initiative to share a tough piece of bone and solved a difficult problem for Chen Ba.

As for the rest of the work, it is not that difficult compared to the puzzle-solving part.

"The music is outsourced, so we, the tone-deaf guys, should not cause trouble for them."

At this point, Xiao Lu seemed to have thought of something and suddenly asked, "By the way, does this type of horror game only have an exploration puzzle gameplay?"

“That’s about right!”

"Horror games want to create a scary atmosphere, so they must focus on this kind of exploration and puzzle-solving gameplay."

Chen Ba asked curiously, "Do you have any other ideas? Tell me, what other gameplay can be added to horror games?"

"Brother Ba, you've already talked about the parkour gameplay. Besides that, I think since it's Chinese horror, can we add some unique Chinese elements into it?"

"For example?"

"For example, fortune-telling, this should be very unique, right?"

Little Lu said freely: "In addition to fortune-telling, we can also incorporate some of our folk customs and traditions into the game."

"Fortune-telling?"

When Chen Ba heard this, his expression became thoughtful.

These things that we usually don't pay much attention to, if added to a Chinese horror game, seem to have some miraculous effects? I can't say it's miraculous! I can only say that the atmosphere will be more sufficient, and it can also continuously exert psychological impact on players from the side.

Give me an example!

The player is about to go to a new location, looking for new clues to solve the puzzle. Before leaving, he read his fortune and it turned out to be a bad omen! The copper coins were cracked, which was enough to show how dangerous and terrifying this trip was.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

Once this hexagram appears, even if the player has not encountered anything abnormal, he will feel inexplicably depressed and heavy in his heart, his nerves will be tense all the time, and he will feel like he can't breathe.

“This is fun…”

Luo Ji chuckled and said, "Playing this kind of horror game, it's reasonable to encounter a hexagram of great misfortune. I'm already scared before it even starts."

Is this thing reliable?

It's a stunt. A smart person can see at a glance that this is a trick. The game designer is deliberately playing tricks on the players!

But this thing is a bit scary. In reality, few people believe in it. After all, they have received higher education and will not be so sure that the hexagram can represent everything.

But this is a game! And it is a horror game full of metaphysical mystery! In such a game, if the hexagram shows a bad omen, will you feel heavy-hearted? If it shows a good omen, the player's confidence will increase instantly, and all the demons and monsters will have to stand aside.

"It's like this..."

Chen Ba agreed, "If you asked me to have my fortune told in real life and told me that I had a bad omen, I would probably kick that guy in the back."

But in the game "Mountain Village Past", it's different.

It's normal for horror games to have some metaphysical and mysterious elements. Since you have played this game, you must have guessed that there is some "out of touch with reality" content in the game.

Since everything is out of touch with reality, then the hexagram shows a very bad omen, and turning back he is chased and killed by a terrifying monster. This should be reasonable, right?

"Then let's sew it up!"

Xiao Lu suddenly had an idea: "This hexagram can be combined with the game content to expand the application scenarios and scope of this divination."

For example, there is a strange and terrifying creature chasing me from behind, and there is a three-way intersection ahead.

Don’t panic, believe in the power of metaphysics, and tell your fortune first! OK!

The hexagram shows that going to the left is the "way of life" and going to the right is the "way of death".

The supernatural cannot save the innocent, and money cannot change fate? Are you kidding! It’s fine if you say this in other games, but you still don’t believe in the supernatural after playing “Mountain Village Past”? If you don’t believe it, then what is chasing you? Urgent syrup?

"It can also be like this..."

Xiao Lu's analogy broadened everyone's thinking, so Liu Jinfu also gave an example of a practical application scenario.

This type of horror game usually faces many "timing" choices.

Therefore, in addition to providing early warnings of good and bad luck, divination can also add some "date selection" functions that divination already has.

"What's the meaning?"

Xiao Lu didn't quite understand what Lao Luo meant by choosing a day. "The hexagram shows that today is not a good day to explore! So you went, and as a result, there were more strange things today than usual, and the monsters were more sensitive and more difficult to deal with than usual..."

Lao Luo explained: "You may not have a clear idea of ​​what I mean, so let me put it another way. Auspicious times are normal or easy difficulty, and unlucky times are difficult or hell difficulty."

"I see."

Xiao Lu understood that the application of divination and date selection in the game is actually to give players a chance to freely choose the difficulty.

If you don't want to waste time waiting for the so-called auspicious time or day, then don't worry about the hexagram and just do it according to the difficult level. You can't blame anyone if you get scared to tears or even pee your pants.

If you think it is too dangerous and want to play the game more cautiously, and are not in a hurry to explore the unknown or search for clues, then wait for an auspicious day and time, the difficulty will be slightly reduced, and the level of horror and fright will not be too bad.

“Is this a big difference?”

Chen Ba is more concerned about this issue. If the difficulty of the game caused by auspicious days and times varies greatly, then "Mountain Village Past" may form two extremes.

One group of people said that this game is so scary, so frightening, it scared the hell out of me! Another group of people said that this game is not scary at all, not scary enough, and feels not as good as XX...

“Not really!”

Luo Ji shook his head: "If we really do it, the difference in difficulty will definitely not be that big. Even on an auspicious day and time, it will be thrilling and exciting."

"That's good!"

Chen Ba thought about it, and finally looked at Xiao Lu who made this suggestion, and asked him: "Since it was you who proposed it, how about you do the divination?"

“I can’t…”

Xiao Lu shook his head to refuse.

Although he was the one who proposed the suggestion, he really couldn't write the program. After all, this thing sounds simple, but it is actually quite complicated to implement.

After all, this "hexagram" will be linked to many aspects such as game difficulty and game content.

And it is quite random.

Everything in the game is controllable, but the player is an exception. This is the only uncontrollable factor in the game.

After all, no one can predict in what occasion, time, and situation the players will use this function, so the hexagram is naturally not static.

Once the hexagram changes, other content in the game must also change...

Oh my god!

Xiao Lu felt a headache just thinking about it. This project was enormous. In order to implement the divination function, he had to ask Brother Ba to help.

After all, Brother Ba's technical strength and amount of code are recognized as the best in the studio, and no one dares to question that.

The code written by Brother Ba is even more amazing. Just because Lu Jing can't do it doesn't mean Brother Ba can't do it. All those who look down on Brother Ba have been slapped in the face by his actual actions.

It's just a divination function. Although it's a little more random and the workload is a little larger, can it be difficult for Brother Ba? "Well said, praise me more!"

Chen Ba felt so comfortable after being praised, as if he had just come out of a bath and massage parlor, and took the task without hesitation.

Although he guessed that this was most likely Xiao Lu's flattery, it was not a big problem because what Xiao Lu said was true.

Only he can do this job, no one else can do it! (End of this chapter)