Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 60 Is this really a BUG?

Chapter 60: Chapter 60 Is this really a BUG?

This extensive review caused a strong reaction among the player community, especially concerning the application of fake-AI, which can only be described as a stroke of genius!

Even several seasoned game review agencies, as well as game producers, have expressed high praise for this aspect.

Game design has always been an art of "dancing in shackles."

In ancient times, top game producers created games with just a few dozen MBs, or even a few hundred KBs, of storage.

They used pixel art and 8-bit music to deliver an impressive gaming experience to players.

However, in modern times, as game development technology has become more advanced, with increasingly realistic graphics and ever-expanding game sizes, producers seem to have gradually lost this precious ability.

They have started relying on powerful technology and can’t even properly optimize the most fundamental aspects of games, let alone use these technological shortcomings for unique design purposes.

Take fake-AI, for example, which is the most powerful artificial intelligence chat program invented by humans to date, and under certain conditions can even replace humans in some simple artistic creations.

Yet, even with such powerful technology, no producer has managed to perfectly integrate it into a game.

Many make excuses, blaming technological limitations.

But clearly, this is a deficiency in design ability.

When designers of the past created classic games with hundreds of KBs of storage and 8-bit music, no one complained about insufficient technology, but now, with fake-AI available, designers can’t utilize it. This obviously isn’t due to the existence of technological "shackles" but rather a decline in the designers’ ability to "dance in shackles"!

In contrast, "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" was able to perfectly integrate this technology into the game mechanics and even achieved an unprecedented show effect!

This kind of innovation, of course, deserves serious study by all game producers!

...

...

Early the next morning, Zhou Yang, yawning and listless, arrived at the company.

He had not yet recovered from the failure of "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon."

Such is the nature of game development: a game represents a company’s long, busy periods of effort, embodying a tremendous amount of passion. When the game succeeds, it brings an indescribable joy and pride, and when it fails, it also brings an indescribable dejection and loss.

For some designers with strong self-esteem, the failure of a game could make them lose appetite for a month or two.

Zhou Yang had gone to bed before 11 the previous night but hadn’t fallen asleep. Now he had to get up early to squeeze into the subway, leaving him feeling groggy and dazed.

The location of Nitiandang games was a bit off-the-beaten-path. It would have been fine if he lived on the north side of Capital City, but Zhou Yang lived on the east side, which meant an hour’s ride on the subway each way, truly inconvenient.

"Forget it, the company probably won’t last much longer anyway. If it really closes down, I’ll find a new job closer to where I live..."

With these thoughts in mind, Zhou Yang seated himself at his desk, opened his laptop, and casually browsed the web to check the game reviews.

However, after just a few scrolls, he bolted upright.

His sleepiness was swept away, and he was no longer tired!

"What’s going on?

"No, what happened? It’s only been one night; how did our game turn to ’mostly positive’ reviews?!"

Zhou Yang looked around in shock, but he had arrived early due to a smooth subway ride. Now it was only 8:30, half an hour before official work hours, and the others hadn’t arrived yet.

Thus, this shocking discovery naturally couldn’t be shared with the others right away.

Zhou Yang was well aware that in light of so many negative reviews beforehand, for the game to achieve a "mostly positive" rating now meant that a considerable number of recent players must have given positive reviews, and many who had previously given negative reviews had changed to positive ones.

In other words, although the game was rated "mostly positive" at the moment, if this trend continued, it wouldn’t be long before the game would be hailed as "overwhelmingly positive"!

All this gave Zhou Yang a surreal feeling, making him wonder if he was still half asleep, and whether the scenes on his subway commute to the office were all an illusion.

He hurriedly searched online for the ins and outs of the situation, and quickly, he figured out exactly what had happened.

Simply put, it was because of a BUG!

Players could use the "Brocade Bag" to activate the "Observing Stars" effect on other NPCs, letting their fake-AI see other generals’ Seven-dimensional attributes, disliked generals, and biographical data. This influenced these AIs’ decision-making, which allowed players to easily accomplish many things that were previously impossible!

A large number of players successfully used this method to support the Han Dynasty and fulfilled Prime Minister Zhuge’s regrets.

And even after clearing the game, they continued to play with undiminished enthusiasm.

Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon had essentially become a players’ playground simulator, where they wracked their brains to come up with various clever maneuvers to change some key moments in the Three Kingdoms era, then record the special AI storylines and conversations they triggered and share them online.

There were also those who creatively messed around, extending Zhuge Liang’s lifespan to over a hundred with "Warding off the Star", and even did the same for Liu Bei and Guan Yu...

In any case, the game seemed to hold too many possibilities, limited only by imagination, not capability!

Although sometimes the generated storylines were too ridiculous, or didn’t meet the players’ expectations, just one or two delightful storylines were enough to sustain players’ interest, leading them to replay the game over and over.

With this chain-reaction spreading, Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon continued to soar in popularity, quickly reversing its reputation!

As for why Zhou Yang knew it was a BUG,

it’s simple, because it was entirely unplanned in development!

He himself was the damned designer of the game, how could he not know what the original design was?

In the design documents, there was never a mention of "Wolong Strategy being stackable", and logically speaking, "Observing Stars" and "Warding off the Star" are both Wolong Strategies, which were supposed to be for Zhuge Liang’s use only. How does it make sense for other generals or even Demons to use them?

Now, the whole net was puzzled, and everyone was discussing, is this really a BUG?

If it isn’t a BUG, why wasn’t it disclosed to everyone from the start?

But if it is a BUG, that’s even weirder, since all the delightful points that revolve around this BUG, including using fake-AI for generals, AI dubbing, Demons, and Destiny’s Chosen, would all become meaningless, even downright infuriating design choices.

One can only say that this is very much in keeping with Nitiandang’s usual style.

From Infernal Trajectory to Sisyphus, and from Against Heaven Blocks to Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon, a mechanism that looks much like a BUG becomes the core gameplay and resonates with other designs in the game.

They really wanted to grab a Nitiandang employee and ask earnestly, is this really a BUG or not? You’ve got me all confused!

But as a Nitiandang employee, Zhou Yang was even more confused than the netizens.

Yeah, is this really a BUG or what? I don’t even know!

Looking from internal information, this was undoubtedly a BUG:

It wasn’t written in the design documents;

The entire company, from planners to artists to testers, had never thought of this kind of operation;

Even when the game didn’t sell well after launch, the boss still cheered everyone up by saying we wouldn’t lay off anyone, no matter what.

This all seemed like an accident, right?

But this "accident" somehow corresponded bizarrely with the game content, creating an effect that brought it to life and turned lead into gold...

Zhou Yang vigorously scratched his head, feeling his scalp itch, as if he was about to grow a brain.

At this moment, 9 a.m. was approaching, and other employees of the company were also starting to sit down at their workstations and begin their day.

They were feeling just like Zhou Yang: from bewildered to shocked, then to delighted and skeptical, and finally to utterly baffled.

Happiness came so unexpectedly that everyone was not prepared!

Only Su Tong was relatively calm – after all, she had experienced the same scenario twice before, being the company’s employee number 002 and having seen more of the world than the other employees.

In this atmosphere of joy and confusion, Gu Fan arrived.

As usual, he carried the coffee he ordered from downstairs and came up at his own leisurely pace, giving off an air of being unfazed by the waves around him.