Chapter 284 Is this a soul-like game?
Chen Ba chose people with disabilities as the so-called special group because he had to consider the audience and influence of the game.
The main theme of the game is to call on everyone to care more about people with disabilities by experiencing their daily lives. The idea is similar to the public welfare game "See" once launched by Penguin.
but……
Since Chen Ba is aiming for the annual award, the quality of this game must be "aiming for 3A" level, and it is impossible for it to become a small-scale game like "See".
"Is it really 3A?"
"Not necessarily. It could also be quasi-3A, or sub-3A..."
Chen Ba explained: "There is no fixed standard. The minimum requirement is just to be eligible for the annual award nomination."
Anyway, it's definitely right to aim for the annual award. As for whether the final product reaches the 3A standard, that's another matter.
"OK! So what kind of game is this? Strategy management, RPG, open world adventure, or combat?"
"Open world adventure!"
"At the same time, this is also an RPG role-playing multiplayer cooperative game. Players will play the role of disabled people in different situations and complete tasks in the game."
Role-playing is a must. After all, we want to let players experience how difficult life is for people with disabilities, so naturally they should be allowed to play the role themselves.
As for multiplayer cooperation, this involves another gameplay.
How to describe it? Chen Ba scratched his head, and after a moment gave an idea: "Anyone who has played GTA knows that in addition to the story mode, you can also perform robbery missions online."
The general idea is similar to GTA. Usually players play their own games, each playing the role of a disabled person to travel in this open world.
But if you get tired of the stand-alone mode, you can also enter the online mode and play a unique "team mission" with other players.
The game is set in a modern city.
In the game, players will play the role of a man/woman with varying degrees of physical disabilities due to congenital or acquired reasons, and advance step by step along the main plot line, eventually becoming a big entrepreneur/gold medal teacher/medical expert/sports champion/ace host/great scientist...
“The Sims?”
"No, no, no, the degree of freedom is not that high. Relatively speaking, it's still mainly about following the plot."
Chen Ba waved his hand and said, "Don't forget, the most important thing about our game is not the gameplay, but the relative uniqueness of the subject matter."
The name of the game is "Abba's Story".
Yes!
Chen Ba shamelessly borrowed the name of a classic movie and said that it was not his fault because he was just too lazy to think of a name.
The protagonist's nickname is Aba.
The origin of this nickname actually reveals some things, such as the protagonist may not be a normal person with a healthy body.
Where exactly is the problem?
This has to do with a special setting in the game - random symptoms. The problems of the protagonist Aba appear randomly. He may be lame, dumb, or blind...
In short, this mechanism will randomly generate a special symptom, allowing players to experience the difficulties of this special group.
Take the example of Aba being mute.
In the main storyline, Aba often encounters difficulties in finding a job because he cannot speak. Even the low-paid restaurant waiter refuses to hire him because he cannot speak and customers cannot understand his gestures.
"In our games, the protagonist doesn't necessarily have to be portrayed as a positive, optimistic and sunny character."
After thinking for a moment, Chen Ba continued, "Although such a protagonist would be in line with the mainstream values of society, you and I both know that this situation is relatively rare..."
To put it bluntly, it's just empty talk! There are examples of people who are optimistic, cheerful, positive, passionate about life, and won't give up easily in the face of setbacks, but they are relatively rare.
Chen Ba still believes that in order to make the game more profound, some different adjustments can be made in the characterization of the protagonist.
Inferiority, cowardice, social phobia, bad temper, suicidal tendencies, autism, depression, and sarcastic...
These settings that seem to be incompatible with the "protagonist" can actually be added to the game. Chen Ba believes that only by fully restoring reality can the game achieve the desired effect.
"Isn't this... not good?"
Yang Dong hesitated and said, "I'm not questioning your idea. What I mean is, will a protagonist with such a personality setting cause controversy for our game?"
You know, "Abba's Story" is a game with disabled people as the protagonists.
In such a game, what will the players think of shaping the protagonist into this kind of character? Will the public question and criticize Tianba Studio? "Listen to me..."
Chen Ba insisted: "As I said before, if you want to experience something, you should give players the most realistic and unforgettable experience. Don't make it like watching a movie, where you cry your heart out while watching it, but forget everything after you leave the theater."
Is the story of Aba, who is optimistic, cheerful and positive, bravely overcoming his own shortcomings and finally succeeding, inspiring and touching? Of course it is inspiring and touching! But such a story is too "movie-like". When you first watch it, you will find it very touching and inspiring, but after everything is over, you will find that Aba's success is actually inevitable.
Chen Ba said that although he made this game with utilitarian motives, he also sincerely hoped that everyone could be more understanding and tolerant, and care about and love the disabled friends around them.
Therefore, he feels that the experience must be the most authentic one, and it cannot be like making a movie, just for the sake of being moved or for the sake of being inspired.
"Just role-playing?"
"That's not the case. In my opinion, Abba's Story is actually a soul-like game!"
Yang Dong: “Ah…?”
Do you want to hear what you are saying? "Abba's Story" is actually a soul-like game? Is this something a human can say?
Where is your soul element?
"The game is extremely difficult, with a strong sense of frustration and an incredibly low completion rate. Isn't this a Souls-like game?"
Chen Ba laughed loudly and said, "You don't think that Aba will always succeed? Wrong, absolutely wrong!"
"The Story of Abba" is extremely difficult.
Chen Ba treated this game completely according to the standards of a soul-like game. Every task in the game is actually equivalent to a level BOSS.
As for the boss of soul-like games, it is well known that you have to die several times, even to the point of being terrified, and you cannot make even the slightest mistake in your operations, before you have any hope of defeating it.
Same principle.
The main quests in "The Story of Abba" are so difficult that it makes your scalp numb. Players must accurately grasp every opportunity and choice, and their thinking must be clear in order to achieve the ultimate goal.
The only thing to be thankful for is that soul-like games require a lot of skill, including the control of various shield counters or dodge timings, etc.
"The Legend of Abba" does not require that much operation skills, and people with clumsy hands can also play it. There is no situation where people with clumsy hands cannot play this game.
But the difficulty of this game lies in the brain. If your thinking is not clear enough, or your brain is not working well enough, you will still get stuck. It is useless to watch the teaching posts and videos posted by others.
“The high difficulty and strong sense of frustration of the game are actually intended to lower the completion rate as much as possible, and the purpose of lowering the completion rate is to highlight the core concept of the game!”
Chen Ba nodded and said, "No one will cherish or take to heart things that are too easy to obtain. What you can't get is the most precious, and the harder it is to obtain, the more unforgettable it is."
The extremely high difficulty and strong sense of frustration of the game greatly reduces the overall clearance rate of players.
The low completion rate also reflects the core concept of the game "Abba's Story" - please care more about the disabled people around you, they have a hard time! "What I want to see is that nine out of ten players are tortured by the game and say that the difficulty is too high. Why is there such a perverted difficulty..."
Chen Ba smiled mysteriously and said, "If someone complains to me that the game is too difficult and hopes that I can lower the difficulty, then I can say that."
"What?"
"Games can adjust the difficulty for you and allow you to reload the game, but what about reality?"
Yang Dong: “…”
Good, good! He knew that Brother Ba's move must have a deeper meaning. It turned out that he was waiting here! He was waiting for players to complain that the game was too difficult, and then he said this to pretend to be a master! But really, if a player complained that the game was too difficult and hoped to lower the difficulty, and Brother Ba happened to say this...
He really got it!
One thing leads to another. After carefully listening to Brother Ba's description of "The Legend of Aba", Yang Dong said thoughtfully: "If it is really made and the quality of the game is good, your plan will really succeed."
If this doesn't win the award, who will? Please!
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
If "Abba's Story" is nominated for the TGA annual award next year, who can compete with Brother Ba?
I'm afraid that as soon as the nomination list was announced, Brother Ba began to prepare his acceptance speech, thinking about what to say when he goes on stage and in which cabinet to put the trophy when he gets it back.
No kidding, based on Brother Ba’s description of “The Legend of Aba”, this game is definitely a hot favorite for “winning prizes”!
You mean the quality of the game?
It is a big production comparable to 3A, and it also integrates many popular elements such as open world, role-playing, multi-line narrative, etc. Can you say that the quality of this game is poor?
Since the game quality is not bad and is not much inferior to standard 3A games, does that mean it is not popular?
Bullshit!
It’s easy to guess that the emergence of a new blockbuster “comparable to 3A” in the gaming industry will definitely be a hot topic on the entire Internet, and there will be a large number of people flocking to the game’s launch.
Do you think this is a little game?
It is a masterpiece comparable to 3A. It can be said that it has not yet been officially launched, but just a little rumor can cause heated discussion across the entire Internet.
Not to mention, Tianba Studio is not short of money, and by then there will definitely be overwhelming promotional tweets and advertisements, and it will be hard for players not to know about it.
There is no need to worry about popularity.
It is popular, hot, and topical, the game quality is so high, and the subject matter is impeccable. "The Story of Abba" is simply invincible.
The only problem might be...
The planning of this game is so huge, how much will it cost to actually make it? Is the liquid funds on Tianba Studio's books enough to develop this "AAA-level" game? "Don't worry, there is enough money."
Chen Ba said that you can worry about anything except money.
After all, when developing "Star Emperor 2", Tianba Studio received a lot of sponsorship fees. Although those sponsorships could not be misappropriated, they were all spent in the end.
But there is a saying that goes, the money you spend can be recovered to some extent!
It’s nothing more than “washing” again.
…
While Chen Ba and Yang Dong were chatting enthusiastically about "The True Story of Aba" in the company, the duo of Lao Chen and Lao Wang were also chatting.
However, if Chen Ba heard the topic they were talking about, he would probably be shocked! "Are you...authentic?"
Looking at the trump card that Lao Wang had used, even though Lao Chen had already prepared himself mentally, he was still shocked.
Sir, are you serious?
By the way, where did this medical record get forged? It looks just like the real thing, and it even has the doctor's signature on it. It's amazing.
"It must be authentic!"
Old Wang said with great joy, "Because I know it's hard to fool my daughter with fake medical records, so I just used the real medical records, and I started preparing them half a year ago, so there will be absolutely no problem."
"Real medical records?!"
Old Chen was startled and looked at Old Wang with wide eyes: "Do you really have cancer and won't live long?"
"Cancer is fake, medical records are real!"
Lao Wang raised his eyebrows and said, "I secretly acquired this private hospital a year ago. From the director and doctors to the nurses and security guards, I have informed everyone."
In other words, he had concealed his "illness" from his daughter for half a year, and there was a large amount of witnesses and evidence on this matter that could withstand her investigation and questioning.
There are even hospital records...
And another thing, in order to make himself look more realistic, Lao Wang even hired a special makeup artist to prepare various "haggard" looks for him.
“It’s absolutely perfect!”
Old Chen praised sincerely: "Let alone your daughter, even I, who knows the truth, would probably believe that you are really dying in the face of so many witnesses and evidence."
"But I have another question. If you pretend to be sick, what will happen to your company?"
"I said hello, too."
Lao Wang said calmly, "Except for a few directors, no one else knows the truth. The board of directors will keep the secret for me and cooperate with my performance. There will be no problem."
Is this also in your plan? Lao Chen was convinced. He was indeed a first-generation entrepreneur who built his fortune from scratch and became worth billions. The script was arranged perfectly.
Even when Conan comes, we have to dodge!
"Then how should I cooperate with you in your script?" Lao Chen asked.
"You just need to tell your son about my illness and hospitalization at the appropriate time, and then find an opportunity to bring him to the hospital to visit me. I will make all the arrangements from then on."
Lao Wang said confidently: "As long as the two of us brothers work together, we can definitely let these two young people know that old people are more experienced!"
"Indeed, it's still a little bit difficult for young people to play tricks on us! Come on, let's continue drinking..."
“Okay, okay!”
At the dinner table, the two people who originally called each other brother and younger brother unconsciously called each other in-laws. Their relationship became closer and the atmosphere became much more harmonious.
(End of this chapter)