Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 358 - 367: Zhou Yang’s Suggestion

Chapter 358: Chapter 367: Zhou Yang’s Suggestion

Clearly, this requirement seemed quite unreasonable at first glance.

Couldn’t they just nail down the entire world background from the start? Why would they need to randomly modify it during the subsequent development process?

Lilith was busy with a lot of things in Hell, so it was unlikely for her to watch over the project every day. Moreover, since she only came in at night, it wasn’t feasible to ask Nitiandang’s employees to work overtime daily, which could easily lead to oversights concerning the daytime work.

According to the previous development process, the game plan was thoroughly settled from the beginning and no further modifications were made afterward.

That way, even if Lilith didn’t monitor the development progress, it wouldn’t deviate too much from her original design.

As for the occasional bugs... those could be chalked up to accidents, but at least they seemed to be just bugs.

But if the world background could continuously change during development, it meant that Lilith wouldn’t be able to oversee this aspect comprehensively, which was risky.

Zhou Yang hastily explained, "President Li, this is also for the sake of improving the game quality!

"Because we simply can’t finalize the entire world view at this stage.

"The initial start of the game, I designed it like this:

"The player’s birthplace is on an island, which is called ’Eden.’ Depending on the player’s chosen gender preference, the island will feature a variety of charming game characters.

"In the early stages of the game, players can converse, chat, and engage in specific activities with these characters to build relationships, just like a typical romance game.

"But our game will also transform into a horror game, and this part of the content needs to be well thought out.

"According to your idea, President Li, we’re not using live-action shooting or anime-style art but opting for realistic graphics to blend the romance and horror parts more naturally, right?

"Then, the storyline of both aspects should be somewhat connected, or else it will be hard to invoke those spine-chilling feelings in the players.

"Subsequent characters may each correspond to a different horror mode, such as post-apocalyptic, zombie, science fiction, paranormal, and so on...

"Although we can’t pin down the specifics right now, clearly we won’t have enough time to finalize all of this from the start.

"We can only determine the characters first during the later development process, then create the corresponding backgrounds, design the levels, and devise the specific gameplay..."

Lilith thought carefully and seemed to find the requirement fairly reasonable.

After all, strictly speaking, shouldn’t this game be counted as infinite world travel?

It’s quite different from other romance games, as each game character actually corresponds to different horror content, which means the workload is immense.

If they were to design all content from the beginning, the design phase alone could take two months or even longer, which was unacceptable for the impatient Lilith.

So, they had to design and produce concurrently.

For instance, creating a character with a paranormal slant, then around that character, designing a paranormal horror background and developing it into a horror game level. Moreover, this background should ideally have intricate connections with certain elements originally present on the island.

Because only then could they maximally evoke the players’ sense of fear.

If the two were completely disconnected, players wouldn’t feel that creeping horror, and the negative emotions induced could be lessened.

And merely changing the background likely wouldn’t create any positive emotions in the players, right?

Considering this, Lilith emphasized, "Changing the background is fine, but there’s one condition—it absolutely cannot deviate from the realm of horror games!

"Besides the initial island scene, all other scenarios must be horror game scenes."

Zhou Yang nodded, "Of course, President Li, that was exactly my intention.

"Besides, I have a small suggestion."

Lilith became cautious again, "Hmm? A small suggestion? I’m willing to listen, but I can’t guarantee I’ll agree."

Zhou Yang hurriedly replied, "Of course, President Li, a suggestion means that you can choose to listen or not. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called a suggestion.

"My idea is, perhaps we could also include some elements of psychological horror in the game?"

Lilith seemed not to understand at first, "Psychological horror? What’s that?"

Zhou Yang explained, "Psychological horror, as opposed to visual horror, doesn’t rely on specific imagery or sensory stimulation but rather creates mental suggestion. For example, through particular sound effects, creepy elements in the visuals, or actions that defy logic, it creates a specific atmosphere of horror.

"I think that since this is a horror game, relying solely on visual scares probably won’t be very effective.

"After all, with the current level of official platform censorship, it’s hard to surpass the classic horror games from abroad in visual horror.

"By adding some psychological horror elements, the frightening effect could be improved."

Lilith frowned slightly, "Hmm... you do have a point!"

Even though it was a horror game, the domestic and international environments were different, and it was difficult to create a strong visual impact with ample gore and blood like foreign games did.

That’s also why domestic games often focus on atmosphere rather than specific graphics.

On one hand, it fits more with the Chinese style of horror and on the other, it helps reduce censorship pressure.

For Lilith, adding psychological horror elements seemed like a good way to better stimulate negative emotions in players, and she saw no reason to refuse.

"So... what exactly do we do? Add some weird phenomena to the Eden scenario?" Lilith asked.

Zhou Yang explained, "That’s just one aspect.

"I think, in addition to that, we could also appropriately add some meta elements, meaning letting the game characters break the fourth wall and interact directly with the players, or even alter the game files, and so on.

"This sensation of breaking the fourth wall should provide a more tense, thrilling, and terrifying experience for the player.

"It’s like when a streamer plays a horror game and suddenly the cabinet behind them moves, the computer screen dims, or the lights go out... These can create a more shocking and scary effect."

Lilith had an epiphany, "Oh... like that! That does sound good."

Although she didn’t entirely understand the specifics of meta gaming, listening to Zhou Yang’s description, she felt it really was a good method to generate additional negative emotions.

"Good! Let’s do that then!

"In any case, complete the design as quickly as possible and start the formal development stage!"