Chapitre 45: C45: Be Yourself, Mr. Chen
On October 29th, right between the break, I called Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, and several other staff members from various departments into my office.
"As I mentioned before the competition, we're going to start developing a larger project."
"This one will involve more action elements. Qin Yi, when the time comes, make sure to get in touch with the motion capture studio. We'll need plenty of materials for the next stages."
I turned to Qin Yi, a young man around twenty-five or twenty-six, with a bit of a receding hairline.
"No problem, Mr. Chen," he nodded.
Motion capture isn't exactly cutting-edge, whether it's in this world or the one I remember from before.
Compared to manually animating movements, motion capture has clear advantages—it's cost-effective, efficient, and produces more natural results.
If it weren't for the hefty capital investment required to establish a fully equipped motion capture studio, I'd have done it already.
But now, setting up our studio is a must. With future game development plans, we're going to need a steady flow of these materials.
"Alright, let's get into the game we're developing this time," I said
After a few quick instructions, I projected the screen from my laptop onto the wall.
Over the past few days, I've been refining the first draft of the concept design for Escape with the help of the memory capsule.
"Escape... a horror game?" Yang Xin looked at me with surprise.
Why isn't she looking at the screen?
Oh, •✞_✞•
She wasn't the only one. Ruan Ningxue, Qin Yi, and a few others were also caught off guard.
They had never considered this genre to be next.
They'd thought about story-driven games like To the Moon, the meta style of Undertale, and traditional RPGs, but a horror game? That was unexpected.
After all, horror games occupy a strange space in the market.
But more importantly—hadn't he been talking about creating games that focus on love and emotions?
How does this connect with love? Are you sure you are a warrior of love? Not some Warrior of dread! ┐(´д`)┌
Looking at everyone's expressions, I could somewhat guess what was on their minds.
This type of game is really difficult to pull off. This might be their concern.
It can be said that horror games are a genre that tests a developer's production skills to the limit. But market reaction is also a kind of litmus test for us.
After all, if a horror game doesn't make players feel terrified, it's likely to end up being a butt of jokes. Where streams will do a proper X-ray of your game and some special one will either castrate you or butcher you on live stream.
Add to that the niche market for horror games, and it's no wonder big companies don't focus on them. It's mainly smaller or independent studios that take on these projects.
Without a lot of financial backing, most designers resort to using jump scares, a technique often seen in horror movies and games.
A jump scare, simply put, is when you're watching something seemingly normal, like a long-legged lady walking toward you. Just as you're gearing up to take a shot, she suddenly turns into an old witch with a bloody face, pressing right up against yours. That's a textbook jump scare.
While some consider it cheap, there's no denying that jump scares are a classic and effective way to instill fear.
But jump scares are a double-edged sword. Done right, they can elevate a game to greatness; when done poorly, they can ruin the experience.
Great horror games often use jump scares, so dismissing them outright as a sign of lazy design is a misconception.
In truth, a well-crafted horror game is one where players feel a constant, underlying sense of dread. Where your heartbeat rates are never normal. It is a rare experience and few achieve the level of it.
The real fear in a horror game doesn't come from the actual scares but from the tension of not knowing when the next one will strike.
A good horror game might use jump scares, but overusing them is a mistake. The challenge is using jump scares sparingly, in a way that makes players scare themselves just by anticipating what's coming next. That's the true art—and difficulty—of creating a horror game.
In the office, I explained to the team the key things to keep in mind while developing "Escape."
"Honestly, we don't have much time left for development. Otherwise, I would've loved to take you all on a field trip to an abandoned hospital. That way, we could arrange things and give everyone a deeper understanding of the atmosphere we're aiming for." I said, somewhat regretfully.
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at me with wide eyes, while Qin Yi and the others lowered their heads, not saying a word.
"Don't worry, there's no need for regret. When we work on horror games in the future, I'll take everyone on one of those trips,"
"Furthermore, when we have enough money, we might also build some of the horror houses. They will help in our production in the long run" I added with a smile.
The group collectively went silent.
Who would want that? ┻━┻︵ \(°□°)/ ︵ ┻━┻
"Also, Zhang Yi, regarding the promotion of the game, we need to focus on creating buzz on video and live-streaming platforms. Let's work on a plan around that," I said, moving the conversation toward Zhang Yi, who handles our marketing.
Zhang Yi, who had been sitting quietly up until then, nodded when he heard me and replied, "Got it, Mr Chen."
Now that Neon Games has more money, we can't afford to slack off on the marketing.
Zhong isn't coming back soon. (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ
Besides, horror games tend to have great potential for live streams, where the reactions of streamers can spread the game's popularity quickly.
After all, there are plenty of people who don't dare to play horror games themselves but love watching others go through the terrifying experience.
And with many horror games, watching and playing are two completely different experiences.
It's not that players who think a particular horror game is scary enough don't exist—they do, and sometimes they even go ahead and buy the game themselves.
However, there's a high chance that when they start playing, they might get too scared to continue. But all of this helps fuel the game's popularity.
These factors are all important.
In my previous experience, the Escape series reached sales of over 15 million copies, and a large part of that success was tied to the rise of live-streaming.
What about this world? Where Live Stream is already developed!
After a few brief explanations, I continued to discuss the core elements of "Escape" with everyone.
First off, as the title suggests, the player takes on the role of an unarmed reporter. When faced with terrifying situations, there's only one option: escape.
Another key feature is the in-game camera. Unlike the traditional, never-ending flashlight in most games, the reporter in "Escape" uses the camera's night vision function to navigate dark scenes.
However, unlike traditional flashlights, the night vision mode consumes battery power.
The player has a limited number of batteries, which adds a sense of urgency and drives the gameplay forward.
I also went over the game's plot and pacing with everyone.
"Ruan Ningxue, you'll need to pay special attention to how we create the effect and the atmosphere of the scenes. Try playing it in the early hours of the morning, with all the lights off, to get a feel for it."
"I've also got props ready for you. You can take them home and try it out when you're ready."
As I was speaking, I placed a handheld camera from my desk in front of Ruan Ningxue.
Her face gradually lost its smile as she looked at the camera.
Be yourself, Mr. Chen! She screamed internally.
Chapter end...
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Chen Xu is currently the youngest in the office.
Secondly, I have interfered with the dates. I will try to fix it up so that it look natural at least. No, matter how advance the alternate world is. it can't just cut 14 month game development time to just 2 months.
So I will change some dates and figure to try to make it a bit natural.
There will be mistakes and error, for sure. Please help me combat them by pointing them out. So I can edit that part.
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