There were so many things to complain about that Chen Mo didn't know where to start. But Chen Mo already had a rough idea of how the story would turn out when he was halfway through the story, and came up with the ending.
Based on the usual conclusion, this horror game was similar to Chinese horror movies. It could be summed up in one sentence: "Mental patients think more, mentally retarded children have more fun."
Chen Mo couldn't help but feel disappointed. How could a horror game of this level bring true joy to the players? How could they let the players experience a baptism of fear?
For gamers who didn't like horror games, they wouldn't play this game at all. However, for gamers who liked horror games, "In The Haunted House" was simply a QJ for their IQ.
It was time to let the players experience what a real horror game was like!
…
Chen Mo already had some experience with VR games when he made Minecraft. According to the usual process, he would first make a PC version, then improve the quality and resources of the game before porting it to VR.
However, making a horror game like Outlast and a building game like Minecraft would require a completely different amount of resources. Chen Mo was currently faced with two serious problems.
One was how to make sure the players' mental and physical health wasn't the same as making games like Minecraft.
The second was how to better express the characters' expressions and actions to make the game more realistic.
The original Outlast was so immersive that many players didn't even dare to play it on PC. They would often scream in fear and take a long time to clear each level. If the game was ported to VR, the immersion would only increase exponentially. While the players would find it more exciting, they would also be more afraid.
If safety measures weren't taken, the players might get sick from fear even if they weren't already sick.
Fortunately, some foreign horror games already had corresponding settings. For example, through the VR gaming pod, the player's vital signs and health status would be monitored in real time. Once the fear level exceeded a certain value, the game would automatically be disconnected. Or, at the beginning, the player could only use the sober experience. After clearing the game once, the fully immersive experience and higher difficulty would be unlocked, and so on.
There was not much technical difficulty in these settings. It was just that the settings were slightly more complicated.
Chen Mo was already very good at expressing and moving his character, especially after eating so many movement skill books. Ordinary character movements, such as climbing, jumping, attacking, and so on, could all be very realistic.
However, it was difficult to perfectly control a character's expressions. Even if you could, it would be a waste of effort, as the character's expression, mouth shape, and words had to be perfectly matched. It was too inefficient to control all the expressions by hand, and it would tire Chen Mo to death.
If it was a lazy domestic game company, they wouldn't even bother with the character's facial expressions and mouth movements, or they would just do a general "speaking" action and be done with it.
However, in a VR game, the character's expression and mouth movements were necessary. Otherwise, it would feel fake when observed from a close distance.
Most big studios would use motion capture when producing a first-person perspective masterpiece like this. This was one of the most common methods used by European and American companies in his previous life to produce AAA games.
The so-called motion capture was to invite some real actors to act out the words and actions of the characters in the movie. These actors would have a tracking device installed on their bodies and key parts of their faces, accurately recording their movements and converting it into data for the character model in the game.
This technology was first used in movies, such as Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and so on. It was quickly used in video games.
In the parallel world, this technology was widely used in the video game industry. Some of the major companies in China such as Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Zen Entertainment had their own motion capture studios.
Chen Mo was also planning to set up his own motion capture studio, as Outlast wouldn't be the only game he would use motion capture in. There would be many uses for this studio in the future, as he planned to make more first-person games with different themes.
Moreover, another benefit of Outlast was that it didn't require many actors.
As it was a horror game, apart from patients with tumors all over their faces, there were also fully armed soldiers. They basically didn't show their faces, didn't speak, and didn't have any expressions. All they had to do was scream and charge at the male protagonist in weird poses.
The only ones who had expressions were the priest, scissorhands, and other characters. These people's expressions were quite scary, and the actors didn't need to be perfect. They just needed to be as scary as possible. If it didn't work out, they could adjust the movements later on so it wouldn't affect the quality of the game.
If he really wanted to make a game like GTA 5, Chen Mo would be exhausted to death just from looking for actors.
Chen Mo briefly mentioned the motion capture studio to Zhou Hanyu, asking him to check it out. He also wanted to talk to Guo Feng from Dazzling Aurora Studio to see if there were any reliable actors in China that could be recommended.
There was actually a group of foreign actors in China, and it took a bit of effort to find them, but it was still possible.
The main reason was that there were occasionally companies in the country that made games with foreign themes. These actors also had a certain market demand in the country. Their schedules were also quite full. They made quite a lot of money by making guest appearances in movies and TV dramas, dubbing for the overseas versions of domestic games, etc.
Fortunately, Outlast didn't require a lot of dubbing, and one or two foreign actors who were fluent in English could basically handle it. Of course, some special voices would require post-production.
…
The motion capture studio needed quite a bit of space, but it didn't need to be in the same space as the experience store. Therefore, Chen Mo rented an extra floor in the office building where Dazzling Aurora Studio was located, making it easier to make the cinematics in the game.
Zhou Hanyu then posted some recruitment notices online, hiring a few people with relevant work experience, and the studio was finally set up.
The price of a full set of motion capture equipment was quite high, around ten million RMB, including a full system and a professional motion capture camera. Chen Mo bought it without hesitation, as he was going to buy it sooner or later.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
