Chapter 252 What is the metaphysical mechanism?
The divination system has been developed, but it has not yet been tested.
To be precise, the code has not yet undergone formal reliability and stability testing. Chen Ba, Xiao Lu and others have tested it several times in private.
The result was naturally that everything was normal! Chen Ba was not surprised at all by this result, and even felt no ripples in his heart.
"Honestly..."
"Should we delete this testing process? It never finds any problems and it's just a waste of time."
Xiao Lu muttered, "We've been testing for a long time, but we only found a few bugs, and they're all minor ones. The real serious game bugs all depend on players to discover them."
What the hell is this?
This happened every time, making Xiao Lu feel a little unconfident and gradually doubting his own abilities.
He felt that he was not stupid, and was even smarter than the old guys like Brother Ba and Brother Dong. But when it came to testing new games, he was always criticized by Brother Ba.
It may happen once or twice, it may be an accident or carelessness.
But this happened more and more often. Every time the studio released a new game, he would be scolded. Who could stand this? "What are you talking about?"
Chen Ba said angrily, "Which game company would delete the testing phase? Even a chef has to taste the saltiness. Are you so confident about a new game?"
"If it's someone else's new game, I might not trust it and would spend time testing it a few more times. But I absolutely trust your new game, Brother Ba!"
"Thank you..."
Chen Ba was almost choked to death by Xiao Lu's words. What did he mean by "the game he made is absolutely reliable"? Does this mean that there will definitely be bugs? He was beating around the bush and saying that he was a bug maker. Did he think he couldn't hear it? Anyway.
Game testing is definitely a process that cannot be deleted and must be retained regardless of whether it is useful or not.
Although at Tianba Studio, testing new games to find potential bugs is a job that is likely to be in vain, what if a blind cat catches a dead mouse? The test still needs to be tested, and the classic joke of ordering fried rice in a bar needs to be passed on! Of course.
It was indeed not easy for Xiao Lu, because during the testing process, he wanted to find potential game bugs, which was too difficult.
After all, the studio has limited manpower, and Chen Ba cannot throw all the responsibility for unknown bugs in the game to him. The reason why he scolded and criticized him was purely because he had high expectations for him and hoped that he could make progress.
"Playing workplace PUA, right?"
Xiao Lu didn't buy it, he rolled his eyes and said, "You're the one who pays the salary, so of course you have the final say, after all I'm just a poor and helpless worker."
"Okay, let's go test the game."
Chen Ba couldn't stand his pitiful appearance, so he waved his hand and said, "I won't scold you this time, as long as you don't get scared and cry."
"Mountain Village Past" is a very scary game, especially after the outsourced eerie music is added, the atmosphere is simply amazing! Have you ever watched a horror movie? Before the weird and evil appear, is there always a particularly depressing music with particularly rapid and dense drum beats?
That’s right!
The game music of "Mountain Village Past" is also the same as that of horror movies. Combined with the hyper-realistic pictures of the Dream Engine, the atmosphere and sense of substitution can only be described in six words: cold sweat all over the body! However, the game is not all good.
The outstanding graphics, eerie music and magical divination system are certainly eye-catching, but the game's level design and puzzle elements are indeed a bit awkward compared to similar games.
The game plot is divided into several parts.
The first part is about the protagonist Hu Xi returning to the village, noticing something strange about the villagers, and then starting an investigation. The second part is about the escalation of clues, the mystery further expanded, and the exploration of other villagers' homes.
The third part is the most terrifying and the most difficult to accept. There are many shots and pictures in it that may cause nightmares and even physical discomfort after watching it.
"Why is blood black?"
"It must be black!"
The art designer in charge of this part explained: "On the one hand, red blood is difficult to pass the review, so the primary color cannot be used. On the other hand, black blood also highlights the abnormality in the game, suggesting that these villagers are no longer human."
The first reason is easy to understand.
In order to avoid the red line, many games now do this, with blue blood and green blood appearing in endlessly, and it is difficult to see blood of normal color anyway.
As for the second reason, Chen Ba thought about it carefully and felt that it made sense.
According to the plot setting and game background, these villagers in Sandong Village are actually "living dead" who have lost their lives due to evil spirits entering their bodies.
Every time the protagonist goes out late at night to look for clues, the mysterious monsters he encounters are actually the villagers who have revealed their true forms.
From this perspective, it is understandable that the bloodstains seen in the village were black after these monsters were killed. After all, these creatures can no longer be considered living people.
In addition to the black blood, the monsters in the game have another characteristic, that is, their bodies are between "real" and "virtual".
What does this mean?
This means that the villagers of Sandong Village will reveal their true forms at night and turn into monsters that have lost their reason and emotions, so ordinary attacks may become ineffective.
"Dad said that we should use magic to fight magic! So in the game, the props that restrain these evil creatures also have some metaphysical and mysterious colors."
Chen Ba explained: "For example, boy's urine!"
"ah?!!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire office was stunned, and everyone looked at Brother Ba, wanting to confirm whether they had heard it wrong.
"Ahem, boy's urine is so rare?"
“Not surprising!”
Luo Ji shook his head and said, "What we are curious about is, Brother Ba, you won't let players pee first when they encounter evil monsters while playing games, right?"
Everyone: “…”
Wow! This game is amazing!
When the protagonist thought of an evil creature chasing him, he calmly unbuckled his belt, urinated in a pot on the spot, and poured it on the evil creature. The scene was simply beautiful.
"Although it's similar to what you think, it's not that outrageous."
Chen Ba explained: "The general idea is that the protagonist has to go to the toilet from time to time, and then collect his own urine to protect himself when exploring at night."
Boy's urine is also limited.
Even if the protagonist produces and sells the items himself, it is impossible for him to have as much as he wants. The quantity must be controlled to ensure that players have certain means of self-defense, but cannot easily pass the level with the help of props.
"I see……"
After learning that it was impossible for the protagonist to produce an infinite amount of so-called boy's urine protection, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Okay!
Although this prop sounds weird, according to folk legends, it may work.
"In addition to boy's urine, there are other props in the game that can also help the protagonist overcome difficulties at critical moments."
Chen Ba tapped the table with his pen, and then emphasized: "As for these self-defense props, you need to design the source carefully. In short, they can't be too rampant, and the difficulty of obtaining them can't be too low."
A more common approach is to design several treasure chests or secret rooms on the map, and then players solve puzzles to get keys, open the treasure chests or secret rooms, and get the props inside.
It can also be a mission reward!
Anyway, there are many options to choose from, and it is not a fixed way to obtain items. You just need to control the output of props and keep them in a "not quite enough" state.
This is the only way to maintain the tension.
This is just like a horror game, where even if the protagonist is equipped with a pistol, the number of bullets is strictly limited.
Otherwise, get a gun and use your invincibility to sweep away all evil monsters. The tense and exciting game atmosphere will suddenly turn into a casual zombie-killing game.
"That's about it."
After giving instructions on the design and production of self-defense props, Chen Ba then asked, "I plan to price "Mountain Village Past" at 68 yuan. Do you think it's appropriate?"
"It's OK, acceptable."
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
“It’s a little expensive, but compared to similar games, our map is really big, and it’s worth the price.”
Everyone has different opinions.
However, the common point is that everyone agrees with the price of 68 yuan, and believes that the size and map scale of "Mountain Village Past" are worth the price.
Whether it is expensive or not depends on the score.
Some horror games even charge by "chapter", the first chapter sells for 20 or 30 yuan, and the second and third chapters sell for so much money in the form of DLC...
These games are not even half the size of "Mountain Village Past" in terms of size, but their charges are really unfair, and it is also quite speechless to charge by plot chapters.
"Mountain Village Past" is destined not to use these unorthodox methods. The game will definitely be released in its entirety at once after it is completed.
“Aren’t you going to do trial play and pre-sale?”
"Not this time!"
Chen Ba shook his head and said that "Mountain Village Past" is different in nature. It is a typical horror story game that focuses on experiencing the story.
Don't do any trial play or pre-sale for this kind of game, that would be a deliberate opportunity to spoil the game for players! Although "Mountain Village Past" is not afraid of spoilers due to the divination system, there is no need to cause trouble for yourself. The plot should be kept secret for as long as possible, and leaking it in advance is just looking for trouble.
…
There are no early trials or pre-sale leaks, so many players don’t know about the game "Mountain Village Past".
This does not include iced cola.
As one of the top 100 UP hosts in the Pili Pili gaming area, with 2.784 million fans, Bing Coke’s sources of information are extremely wide.
He knew the news about "Past Events in a Mountain Village".
Not only did he know about the game, he even knew it was a horror game.
As for why he knew the news, it had to do with a friend who opened a hot pot restaurant in Jiangning.
Coincidentally, the store opened by Bing Kele’s friend is not far from Tianba Studio, and it is also where they often have dinner together.
When my friend was serving food to their table, he overheard them talking about a new game. He immediately remembered the name of the game and told them to give them some iced Coke.
Ice Coke is very professional.
Although he learned in advance a piece of explosive news that was enough to earn millions of views and attention by posting a video, he did not leak the news.
Selling out friends for money is not very moral, and it's embarrassing to tell others the source of this information, so just keep it to yourself and don't tell anyone.
However, confidentiality aside, as a UP host in the gaming area, chasing hot topics is his nature and the basis for his survival.
"Past Events in a Mountain Village" is hidden so deeply that no one can get first-hand information about it. When the game is released, there will definitely be many bloggers, marketing accounts and UP hosts coming to take advantage of the popularity.
Don’t!
Bing Kele also wanted to take advantage of this popularity, but he estimated that with the attention Tianba Studio received across the entire network, it seemed that there was no need for him to add icing on the cake or provide timely assistance.
and……
This type of horror game is basically based on the story experience. If you make a long video, it may be reported by the game developer and removed from the shelves.
This is not surprising! For a game like "Mountain Village Past", once this kind of full-process long video appears online, it is likely to affect the growth of sales.
After all, if there are many people watching your video and they finish the game following your video, it is equivalent to playing it themselves. Who would buy the game? For this reason, Bing Kele tried to write a heartfelt email to Brother Ba, asking about the feasibility of this matter.
He soon received a reply.
Brother Ba told him in the email that he could take advantage of the popularity and traffic of "Village Past" as much as he wanted, and they would not report videos suspected of spoilers, nor would they interfere.
In Brother Ba's words, spoilers are allowed! "Mountain Village Past" is not afraid of spoilers, and it hopes that there will be as many videos as possible! Top 100 UP hosts like Bing Kele help their games make videos and advertise for free, and they are so happy that they can't wait to stop it.
"Are you not afraid of spoilers?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Bing Kele immediately became curious about "Past Events in a Mountain Village".
Isn't it said that this is a plot-based horror game? Why is this kind of horror game not afraid of spoilers? Is there any secret? Brother Ba didn't say, and he didn't dare to ask.
Since Brother Keba dares to say this, it means that "Mountain Village Past" is really not afraid of being spoiled, or spoilers will not affect players' desire to buy this game.
This is quite interesting!
Bing Kele searched the Internet but didn't find any latest news about "Mountain Village Past". There were a few leaks, but there was no real information. At most, he knew the name of the game.
However, in the Tianba community, he saw a post from an uncle who claimed to be "Brother Ba's relative", saying that the new game of Tianba Studio will be equipped with a "very metaphysical" game mechanism.
"Metaphysical mechanism?"
This word, not only other players in the community don’t understand it, even Bing Coke doesn’t quite understand it. What is the metaphysical mechanism?
Mechanism, metaphysics? How did these two words merge together? Is this the reason why Brother Ba is "not afraid of spoilers"? Unable to figure it out, Bing Kele looked at the replies under this post and found that everyone was questioning the identity of the poster, suspecting that he was just making up stories.
The poster got angry and posted a screenshot of the chat.
In the picture, Brother Ba affectionately calls him his relative and says he wants to be the godfather of his child...
"Chat records are nothing but evidence. Brother Ba even asked me to V him 50 and named me the leader of the Cowherd Cult!"
Netizens didn't believe him, but Bing Kele felt that the host was not lying and the chat record was probably true! After all, he had seen Brother Ba's profile picture, and it was indeed "not lending money"...
(End of this chapter)