Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

On the 8th of October, just after the National Day vacation, the core members of the development team, including Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue, were called into Chen Xu’s office.

“Morning everyone, I trust you had a restful holiday. If you recall, I mentioned we will be busy when we get back, so I’m going to lay out the plans for our next project.”

“It will have action elements. Qin Yi, please make arrangements with the motion capture studio in our contacts list as soon as possible. We’re going to take the chance to establish a library of rig motions.”

Chen Xu gave instructions to a young man in his twenties who looked to be developing a bald spot, how unfortunate.

“Noted, Mr Chen.” Qin Yi nodded.

The concept and usage of motion capture is similar to that of his previous life, it was not considered a high-end expenditure.

It is simply a convenient method to save time and money compared to animating manually. The movements will come out more naturally as well.

And here, with the saturated establishment of motion capture studios, the problem of high initial investment is eliminated.

Chen Xu plans to form good relations with a mature studio. After all, such materials will likely be used frequently in his future projects.

“Alright, have a look at what’s in store this time.”

Chen Xu had his workstation connected to the projector, and with a tap of a button, the draft design concepts of ‘Outlast’, was displayed on the wall.

This was something he had been working on with the aid of a memory capsule for the past few days.

“It’s… a horror game?” Yang Xin looked at Chen Xu in surprise.

The people gathered in the room sat in stunned silence, unsure of how to respond. This kind of game was definitely not something they expected.

They came in expecting story-focused, plot driven experiences like ‘To the Moon’ and ‘Undertale’, games that were fundamentally RPGs.

But to venture into the horror genre, and it wasn’t even in an RPG style… It’s really unexpected.

And there’s a very important point: didn’t you say earlier, Mr Chen, that you’re a warrior of love?

What has that got to do with horror games!?

Looking at the expressions on everyone’s faces, Chen Xu could more or less guess what they were thinking.

Because this kind of game is really difficult to make.

You could say that horror games are a type of game that really puts your production capabilities to the test.

If a horror game can’t make the player feel scared, it’ll be downgraded to a funny game instead.

Plus, the market for horror games is perpetually overlooked by large companies, with only small and medium sized companies bothering to produce anything.

With the difference in funding, most designers who try their hand at the horror genre will make liberal use of the most common, cheap technique in horror media, the Jump Scare.

Put simply, a Jump Scare is when an image or scene changes abruptly and without warning, often accompanied by loud noises.

For example, when you are trying to take a picture of a tall girl, and when you’re about to press the button, she turns into a monster and gets in your face, that’s a standard jump scare.

Although many consider it cliché, it cannot be denied that it is a classic and effective technique to bring fear to the players.

But jump scares are also a double-edged sword, when used well, it’s a satisfying experience that will be remembered fondly.

Used poorly, it’s trash.

Excellent horror games often make use of jump scares, but this gives the wrong impression to less experienced designers, so they tend to make games filled purely with jump scares and wonder why the ratings are low.

A genuinely good horror game wants to keep players in prolonged states of oppression with short lulls in between.

Because the most stressful part of a horror game is not the scare itself, but the anticipation and uncertainty about when the scare will happen.

Having jump scares is fine for a horror game, but it’s bad when overused. The core of horror is to have the audience scare themselves with their imagination, which is the most difficult aspect.

Inside his office, Chen Xu was busy explaining these concepts to everyone and emphasizing key points to pay attention to in ‘Outlast’.

“To be honest, for personal reasons, the development time for this project will be tight. Otherwise, I would have liked to take everyone on a field trip to soak in realistic atmospheres. Like abandoned hospitals, schools or villages to gain a deeper understanding.” Chen Xu said with a remorseful look on his face.

Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. While Qin Yi and the others all lowered their heads or looked away.

“It’s alright, I can feel how disheartened you are by the loss of this opportunity. But no worries, when we develop more horror games in the future, I’ll definitely take every one of you there,” Chen Xu said with a smile.

The silence continued.

Who would regret such a thing!?

“Also, Zhang Yida, regarding the marketing of the new game, we need to pay special attention to video sharing and live streaming platforms. You’ll need to come up with a good proposition for that, and get me a list of suitable influencers.”

Chen Xu turned to regard the young man, who nodded and gave a curt reply, “Understood”.

With their current available funding, Nebula Games had no reason to skimp on marketing.

Moreover, horror games have inherently good synergy with live streaming. So leveraging streaming and video platforms will quickly spread hype and awareness, and if the game turns out to be worthwhile, word-of-mouth will quickly outpace any paid marketing campaigns.

There’s also a difference between playing a horror game and watching someone else do it.

After all, many players don’t have the courage to play a horror game by themselves, but enjoy watching other people play it to see their reactions, living vicariously while being carried.

Some may even grow bolder after watching, and decide to try it out themselves. But they might still stop progressing after a particularly stressful scare.

While this might be a problem for some types of games, it is not so for a horror game. Instead, this will likely contribute to growing the popularity and prestige of the game.

In his past life, the ‘Outlast’ series managed to achieve sales of over 15 million copies, largely thanks to the rise in popularity of the video content and live streaming industry.

Chen Xu continued his explanations. Narrowing down the core concepts of ‘Outlast’ to his awaiting team.

First, the outline. Players take on the role of a non-combatant thrust into a threatening environment. And just like the name of the title, the only way to move forward is to “Outlast” the situation.

Second, the key feature, the camera. Unlike most other horror games in the market with their nuclear-powered flashlights that never run out of power, the player will be dependent on the night-vision mode of their equipped video camera for navigation.

The camera will use up battery power and the player will have to go out of their way to find more, so this becomes another driving point in the game.

Third, the plot and pacing. Chen Xu spent extra time going through this part, because the feel of the game would greatly hinge on this.

“…and Ruan Ningxue, regarding the video camera and atmosphere of the scenes, you’ll need to pay special attention to this part. The players have to be as immersed as possible.

When you get back home, wait until around 3am and turn off all the lights at home, I want you to really experience it and bring it to life.”

“This is the type of video camera the in-game version will be based on. Please take this home and experience it in the dark as well. We have to get this right.”

While speaking, Chen Xu reached under his desk to retrieve a handheld video camera and placed it in front of Ruan Ningxue.

Ruan Ningxue: ??????

Staring at the camera in front of her, it felt more and more difficult to maintain her smile.

Boss, please have some humanity.