Kapitel 5: Chapter 5 The Essence of a Horror Game_1
All fear stems from the unknown.
This is a line learned at the training academy, and it's also one of the guidelines for making horror games.
A horror game is the genre that takes the element of the unknown to the extreme, and it's the subject Fang Cheng is challenging.
Having checked out of the academy's dormitory, Fang Cheng called for a ride-share. While constantly reminding the driver to "keep your eyes on the road, not on me," he returned to his newly rented apartment.
The apartment was cheap and far from the city center, basically in the suburbs.
However, Fang Cheng could teleport at will, come and go as he pleased, and only occasionally took a car to experience life, so distance didn't matter.
His apartment was small and sparsely furnished, with just a bed and a computer. Beyond that, there was nothing else.
As an Immortal dedicated to the pursuit of the Taoist Way, Fang Cheng's room was almost devoid of possessions and devoid of any devices for pleasure.
But today, he was ready to indulge.
He picked up some soda, took out some high-calorie fried chicken he had ordered online, turned on his computer, downloaded all the top-ranked horror movies from a famous movie platform, opened sixty-four windows, watched each film at ten times the speed, and finished watching the top three hundred movies within an hour.
After finishing, he silently turned off the screen, then chewed on his crispy fried chicken, a question in his mind.
Where was the horror in these movies?
"Midnight Bell" — if the protagonist knew Palm Thunder, then the moment the antagonist crawled out, a single Palm Thunder would take them out.
"Dawn of the Living Dead" — if the protagonist knew Palm Thunder, a single Palm Thunder would be enough at the break of dawn.
In "Iron Blood Warrior," if the protagonist knew Palm Thunder, as soon as the warrior appeared, a Palm Thunder would suffice.
Other movies like "Vampire Legend," "Black Monday," and "Texas Chicken Killer" could all be resolved with a single Palm Thunder, so Fang Cheng couldn't understand why people found these movies scary.
Unable to draw inspiration from the movies, Fang Cheng decided to turn on his computer and start playing horror games based on rating recommendations.
After spending an hour completing a game involving a music box, black fog, and Cthulhu, he subconsciously thought "a Palm Thunder solves everything," when suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his brain, and he thought of a keyword.
Helplessness.
In those highly-rated horror games, the protagonist is always helpless.
They have to face terrifying monsters, huge beasts, elusive demons, and all they can do is run.
If you placed the essential items for escape on the monsters themselves, then the fear would intensify because the players would have to confront their own Heart Demons and defeat them.
Thinking this way, it seemed a bit fun.
So, Fang Cheng closed his eyes, and the next second, his entire being appeared above another planet.
As soon as he appeared in space, he felt a tentacle reaching out for him.
Clasping the tentacle that could pierce through heaven and earth, he saw that the whole planet had been devoured by a gray monster.
This monstrous creature was unimaginably huge, its gray skin covered in slime, which was filled with various rocks and trees, continually being devoured by the beast.
Maintaining his posture, Fang Cheng did not act but scrutinized the monster, nodding and saying, "So ugly, so terrifying."
The aura emanating from Fang Cheng affected this fearsome cosmic creature, instilling it with both fear and hunger.
Instinct told it that this was an existence it could never reach, but its voracious appetite drove its tentacles to lunge at Fang Cheng.
But Fang Cheng merely pushed through the void, unleashing a Palm Thunder. The invisible lightning pierced through the monster's body, shattering its core and killing the beast, which had already become one with the planet, on the spot.
However, he then cast another Mana spell, resurrecting the already dead monster once more.
Between life and death, the creature's will was utterly broken, and it tremulously extended its tentacles to submit to Fang Cheng.
"Very good. Eat slowly, and keep still in that position. Later, I'll let some little guys come over, and you just need to keep attacking them. Right, if any of the little guys touch the marking on your tentacles, then let them leave."
The monster in front of him was extremely ferocious in appearance and had an overwhelming desire to attack, making the players seem insignificantly tiny and utterly unable to escape.
The only way to pass the challenge was to touch the switch at the tip of its tentacles, which was, of course, an act of utter despair.
Although such a task was simple for him, an Immortal, it must have been terrifying for those players without the strength to truss a chicken.
He had even thought of a name for the game—"Towards Death and Life".
The massive Star-devouring Beast had millions of tentacles and could accommodate millions of players simultaneously, allowing him to validate his ideas through their performance and thus strengthen his Taoist Heart further.
The Spirit Gathering Array was ready, and the player's bodies were formed and their physical functions were adjusted—all was prepared!
He was now eager to see the players panic and scream.
Satisfied with his work, Fang Cheng sealed everything with Immortal Spell, packaged the game, and then began to select a platform to release it.
Last time, the rookie cup, aside from the honor, included a prize of ten thousand yuan.
Although an Immortal could live without money, he still wished to earn a little in the secular way, feeling that it would give him a better understanding of the people's experiences and help him in game development.
Using that money, he bought a small advertising spot and placed "Towards Death and Life" on the largest international Steam platform, still for free, and then returned to the planet where the Star-devouring Beast resided.
Now, all that was left was to wait for the players' performances.
At this moment, Wang Say Games could hardly take it anymore.
Seven consecutive days of grinding "The Forest's Second Son" had transformed his base dramatically and pushed him to the brink of exhaustion.
He had put off ranting about new games, advertising new games, revisiting old games, discussing games, and even his promotional streams.
All his time was spent chopping down trees in the forest, crafting, building his base, and preparing to launch a new assault on the Relic Guardian.
The last time, three hundred players joined forces and finally breached the first layer of defense of the Relic Guardian, draining its shield and toppling it to the ground.
Unexpectedly, that little darling managed to transform a second time.
The transformed Relic Guardian was even more formidable, instantly killing all the players, who cursed the game's developers while enthusiastically continuing to chop trees and craft equipment.
Wang Say Games wanted to continue, but someone in the live chat couldn't help but say, "Wang, give yourself a break."
"Stop grinding, get some sleep. The earlier you sleep, the longer you'll live; the longer you live, the longer you can grind; therefore, the earlier you sleep, the longer you can grind."
"Impeccable logic, totally convincing."
Wang yawned, ready to take the advice, when he saw an advertisement float by on the Steam platform.
"From your favorite, the developer of "The Forest's Second Son" has released a new game "Towards Death and Life", now on hot sale..."
"..."
"Forget my life!"
Kapitel 6: Chapter 6 The True Height_1
Fang Cheng's games were always small in size but high in quality, as always.
Seeing the [Horror] tag on the game, Wang Say Games chuckled and said, "Can't brush it off during the day, can't hide from it at night, tonight is a perfect night to play a horror game."
"Wang, don't die..."
"Don't panic, I know my limits. Let's make a rule: if I get scared, I'll go straight to bed. Alright, let's go!"
The title "Towards Death and Life" appeared, set against a gray and murky sky that looked more tragic than terrifying.
A massive, unidentified object soared into the clouds, its spiral body structure resembling the mythological Tower of Babel, reaching towards heaven.
There were no living creatures around, the trees looked dark due to the lack of sunlight, and the place where Wang was standing looked like a huge plaza—only it was devoid of people.
"The graphics are still so good, the details flawless. The various props have created a strong atmosphere of the apocalypse. Fang Cheng is absolutely a master of environmental atmosphere," he praised.
After his moment of appreciation, Wang Say Games began to control his character, executing some moves to become familiar with the character's traits.
Unlike "The Forest's Second Son," "Towards Death and Life" emphasized the character's weakness and vulnerability by deliberately setting their strength very low.
However, to give players a stronger sense of escapism, he gave them robust thighs, allowing them to jump as high as possible.
According to Fang Cheng's idea, upon entering the game, players would immediately see the massive Star-devouring Beast, and its terrifying presence would shatter their sanity, making them feel a profound sense of despair in comparison to its size.
But Fang Cheng had overlooked one issue.
That was the matter of size.
An Immortal with Divine Sense could instantly perceive the enormity of the Star-devouring Beast, but humans couldn't.
In the eyes of the Star-devouring Beast, humans were the size of viruses.
It couldn't even sense the presence of humans and could only wait blankly according to the commands left by Fang Cheng for the so-called "little guys" to arrive.
To humans, the tentacles of the Star-devouring Beast were like a towering Tower of Babel, impossible to fully perceive, unable to feel the horror within.
After getting the hang of the controls, Wang looked around and asked, puzzled, "Strange, what's the game's mission? It doesn't seem like you can gather resources from trees here. Will there be jump scares?"
Jump scares are when something terrifying suddenly appears with a frightening visage, startling the player and causing their heart rate to spike and limbs to chill.
There's nothing wrong with jump scares, but they are being overused lately, with most horror games on the market utilizing this feature, leading to a certain rigidity in game design.
However, Wang Say Games felt that Fang Cheng wasn't that kind of person.
A gaming genius like him should have more interesting ways to deliver horror.
While Wang was scouting his surroundings, someone in the live stream commented, "Wang, look up, there's something on your head!"
Quickly looking up, Wang saw something shining with a green light atop the immense tower, seemingly beckoning him forward.
"Wow, there really is something. It seems like it's telling us to go there."
"How do we get there?"
"Isn't there a tower beside us? Let's just follow the tower."
Wang nodded in agreement and then began to leap continuously, climbing up along the tower.
Minutes later, Wang was growing to like the game even more.
Even without a tutorial for beginners, he quickly understood the gameplay, which was 3D platform jumping.
Usually, 3D platform jumping games have problems with perspective and scale, causing players to misjudge their focus and fail to estimate their landing point, leading to failed jumps.
But in "Towards Death and Life," this issue was perfectly resolved.
Wang Say Games didn't know what the other party's solution was, he only knew that they had perfectly solved the issue of perspective change, allowing players to precisely judge their landing spots, making the previously difficult platform jumping easy and pleasing to the eye.
It was as if... he was truly jumping on platforms.
Although he had fallen a few times in the process, Wang quickly mastered the jumping technique and successfully climbed higher and higher.
By the time he was three hundred meters above the ground, he could see further buildings, the abandoned city, and collapsed landmarks. The ruined sights came at him, making him feel that this was not just any platform jumping game, but one with a world of profound background.
What happened here?
What lies at the end of the towering Tower of Babel?
Why was the city destroyed?
Where are the other people?
A wealth of details built a world that was both real and detailed, immersing Wang Say Games in all kinds of minutiae.
However, when he reached one thousand meters, the joy of jumping gradually faded, his flow state slowly diminished, and he became sleepy.
"It can't be that I have to jump all the way to the top, that would be too sleep-inducing."
"Exactly, the difficulty is unevenly created, it doesn't seem like Fang Cheng's work," a viewer in the live stream chat agreed.
"Jump another hundred meters, then sleep after that."
Just as he was about to stop the stream and go to sleep, a viewer in the live stream chat suddenly said, "Wang, stop playing for now and watch this video!"
Confused, he clicked on the link sent by the viewer and found it was actually a Bilibili video.
Since it was late at night, the video didn't have many views, but the like-to-coin ratio was incredibly high.
"Thirty minutes! 'Towards Death and Life' clear!"
Seeing this time, Wang felt a pang in his heart.
He had downloaded the game first thing but only played it roughly for thirty minutes. He had to go back to his "hometown" several times and start over, and in the end, he probably had not even climbed a quarter of the way.
But now, someone had already completed the game, gotten to the crux of it—how was that possible!
He hastily opened the video and immediately started watching, only to realize there was a problem right away.
The starting point was different!
His starting location was an abandoned plaza, but the other player's starting location was a dilapidated spaceship. Although the goal was the same for both—to climb to the top of the tower—the entire process was completely different.
He thought this time difference might be key, but Wang soon realized that the other player's gaming concept was different.
This newcomer YouTuber named "Xiao Douzi" had posted many videos, but had only a few hundred followers.
In his gameplay, he never spoke, just purely played the games, and the content was often speedrunning and guide-oriented, showing he was a player who loved to delve into games.
The quality of the videos was high, but because they were too hardcore and didn't include antics, they could never stand out in this somewhat restless era.
But after playing the game himself and then watching Xiao Douzi's videos, Wang only had one feeling.
Brilliant!
Truly brilliant!
Geschenke
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