Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 390 - 399: Premeditated Fraudulent Behavior!

Chapter 390: Chapter 399: Premeditated Fraudulent Behavior!

What the heck?

Instructor Ding’s first reaction was, "Scammer, definitely a scammer!"

At first glance, this was clearly meant to be a hoax to make the streamer suffer, and surely after playing through the horror content with bated breath, I’d find out there were no rewards at all.

Ha, Little Ding has seen many battles, what kind of audience haven’t I encountered? Your little tricks can’t fool me.

However, after a simple search online, Instructor Ding discovered that it was actually true!

Although many players choose to just hit alt+F4 upon encountering horror content, there are also those who are bold and stubborn enough to persist through the entire horror level.

Instructor Ding took a quick look at "Heartbeat Dream," and each female character’s corresponding horror level seemed to be different.

For example, the character Yarvette he was pursuing, being a Nordic-themed girl and sharing the same name as one of the Valkyrie, meant her horror level was filled with Nordic horror elements.

Like blue-skinned ghosts frozen in ice, swimming pools turning into frozen abysses, and Yarvette apparently suffering from the same Curse of Immortality as Balder, among other things.

If it were other girls, then there would be different levels based on different backgrounds!

For instance, a North American girl’s level might lean towards gore-filled horror movies, with various zombies and horrifying giants wielding chainsaws;

The Neon girl’s level seemed like a night parade of one hundred demons, where players would suddenly find themselves in environments like Naraku Prison, chased by Hungry Ghosts and various demons;

There were even Chinese-style horrors, where the girl would turn into a Paper Bride, dragging players into terrifying dreams...

Of course, since the game had just been released, most players had only dipped their toes in and experienced just the first part of the horror content.

However, since the game does not restrict the order of wooing girls, depending on the initial character chosen, the levels experienced by players also fell into specific categories.

In some levels, players had absolutely no power to fight back, and could only run; but in some levels, players could have a small handgun.

Only in levels with weapons, the monsters tended to be stronger and faster.

And players’ available ammunition resources, weapon power, reload speed, and so forth, were all subject to strict limitations.

Clearly, in this aspect, "Heartbeat Dream" followed the standard horror game design thinking.

Many players have said that, at its core, all fear is really just a fear of insufficient firepower, and the designers of "Heartbeat Dream" clearly understood this, maximizing this fear of insufficient firepower as much as possible.

Instructor Ding randomly picked a video that hadn’t been uploaded for long and directly dragged the progress bar to the end to take a look.

Hmm... there really were extra rewards?

Compared to simply pressing alt+F4 to quit the game, if one could complete this level, the rewards were almost doubled!

Of course, the designers were clearly being cunning with the numbers, such as with two very crucial items, one being an Eden invitation, and the other a Treasure-Level swimsuit selection gift pack.

The former allows you to invite another new guest to Eden, while the latter directly gives you a top-level swimsuit.

But obviously, such rewards are not always available, otherwise players would just unlock all characters and swimsuits by quitting a few times, given the limited content of the game, with only so many characters and costumes.

So as players delve deeper into the game, these two rewards will gradually be restricted and won’t be available every time.

However, other rewards are given generously, much more so than the typical mobile game on the market right now.

After all, "Heartbeat Dream" is a one-time purchase game and doesn’t need to control the length of play time like typical mobile games do. For Lilith, as long as the player conquers negative emotions, that counts as a victory, no matter how long they play.

Moreover, the rewards for clearing these horror levels go beyond that.

In addition to the standard rewards being directly doubled, new stories and content can be unlocked.

And these are something that members of the "Crash Quit Party" cannot activate no matter how many times they close the game.

Initially, Instructor Ding thought that wooing the girl and winning her over was the end goal, since he had already confessed, right? According to the typical romance game formula, that should be considered a perfect achievement.

But after watching the video, he realized that was not the case at all!

If a player manages to clear a horror level once, their affection with the girl can be increased even further, potentially breaking past the initial limit.

The girl’s daily conversations and behaviors will undergo some changes.

There will also be many new interactive options added between the player and the girl.

Perhaps the biggest difference among these is... realism?

Previously, even if the player had confessed to a girl or had been confessed to by a girl, solidifying the relationship, there wouldn’t be any special scenarios if they continued to interact with other girls.

All the girls would get along harmoniously, with virtually no jealously or rivalry in the plot. The protagonist could date as many girls as they wanted without any issues, leading many players to exclaim that it was simply too unrealistic, like a sci-fi game!

However, according to what could be seen in the video, it seems that each time a player clears a horror segment, the girls’ behavior becomes more "real," or rather, closer to that of real people.

Once affection levels break the initial cap, if the player pursues other girls, the original girl’s affection begins to drop, and she may even show some "angry" expressions.

"Crap, there’s such a thing?"

Instructor Ding now has some insight as to why the romance part resembled a sci-fi game, so the romance and horror elements actually relate to each other?

So using alt+F4 to get a reward wasn’t a bug, but a trap that the developers had intentionally set up in advance?

"Does that mean this game, under the guise of a dating sim, is actually a horror game?

"The goal of the game isn’t really to let players experience sweet love, but purely to trick them into getting killed?

"This seems exactly like boiling a frog in warm water!

"You start with one or two minor bugs as a foundation, on one hand scaring the players a little, and on the other hand appeasing them as much as possible.

"When everyone begins to doubt whether these are real bugs, that’s when the true horror levels get sprung on you!

"But at that point, there’s a glimmer of hope left, discovering that immediately quitting the game allows for easy rewards, so many players, even though they know they’ll get scared, stay for the rewards for a bit longer.

"Finally, you’re told that if you clear the horror levels you’ll get even more rewards, activating the true content of the game, forcing everyone to confront their fears...

"I must say, isn’t this combination punch a bit too much!

"If it was labeled as a horror game from the start, there definitely wouldn’t be as many players; if the horror levels were introduced the first time without the bug build-up, there would be many more dropouts than now...

"In summary, Nitiandang did this on purpose! They used this method to trick the most people into getting frightened, it’s a premeditated scam!!"

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