"In horror movies, there are many themes of ghosts and monsters, and the visual impact is stronger. However, there is also a type of horror movie that is completely made up of ordinary people, and the horror effect is also very impressive.
"To put it bluntly, horror is just a feeling. There is no need to be too obsessed with the visual impact of ghosts and mutated monsters.
"Take our company as an example. As long as we close the curtains, everyone will be immersed in the atmosphere of horror. Then, one scream will be enough to make everyone feel terrified …
"Therefore, the creation of the atmosphere is the most important. The human heart is sometimes scarier than ghosts and monsters … this should be a very important point.
"If we can replicate this feeling in the company in the game, wouldn't we achieve the same effect of horror?"
Wang Xiaobin felt the same way. "Yes, yes, yes, I wanted to say that just now.
"In that case, we can create a horror scene in the game and then throw many players into it. Let the horror gradually 'infect' and 'spread' among the crowd, just like what happened in our company."
Ye Zhizhou continued. "In other words, in this game, the sense of horror does not come from the pictures of ghosts and monsters, but from the malice of other players, from the constantly spreading atmosphere of fear, and from the environment.
"Then, after the spread of fear, there will definitely be conflict between players.
"Players must not have a completely cooperative relationship with each other. Otherwise, it will become 'singing the Internationale and entering a haunted house hand in hand'. That would lose the challenge, and it would be the opposite of our goal.
"We must let there be conflict and confrontation between players. Let players scare each other. Isn't this completely unpredictable danger the source of the sense of horror?
"As for the way players fight against each other … Boss Pei has already revealed to us that it is the weapon system!"
Ye Zhizhou looked at the third point that Boss Pei had emphasized. "The strongest weapon is a pistol. That's because the players in the game are all ordinary people and not monsters. That's why we can't have overly powerful weapons. That would cause the battle between players to lose balance."
"The other weapons could be daggers or stones. In short, they can cause harm to ordinary people, but they can't kill them in one blow."
The two of them discussed and took notes.
Lin Wan interrupted at the right time. "There's a hidden setting in there. Although Boss Pei did not explain it clearly, we've been able to figure it out during our deductions."
"To achieve the effect of fear spreading among the Players, it means that most of the Players should be 'innocent' in the beginning, and when they enter the confrontation later, it means that some of the Players will become 'victimizers'."
"How should I change it?"
Ye Zhizhou frowned and thought for a moment. "I remember Boss Pei saying that the most people in this game would be … psychotic?"
Lin Wan nodded. "That's right, mental illness!"
"According to the plot, the perpetrators should be mentally unstable and dangerous people, or rather, lunatics."
"I think we can introduce the 'mental strength' that exists in many games, which is the concept of sanity. Many elements in a scene will increase the mental pressure of the players. Once it reaches a certain value, the players will go crazy and become the perpetrators, wanting to kill the normal players."
Wang Xiaobin nodded as he recorded. "As expected, everything is clear now."
"It's just that some of the details are still lacking."
"For example … since it's a multiplayer online game, should we add a voice chat system? Should we allow the Players in the game to chat with each other?"
"If the Players could chat with each other, they would carry out a series of idiotic actions to reduce the horror of the game. They might also discuss through voice chat and form malicious teams to exploit loopholes in the game, reducing the fun of the game. "
"If they can't chat with each other … it would lose a lot of its fun. There wouldn't be much interaction between the Players, and they might only fight and not cooperate."
Ye Zhizhou pondered for a moment. "That's easy. Since 'speaking in the game' is so important, we have to think of a way to restrict it. "
"Players can speak, but they can't speak casually. Every word they say is very precious, and they might be punished if they say too much. "
"For example … becoming a lunatic."
"A qualified horror game should be like the atmosphere in our company."
"Everyone is groping their way forward in the dark."
"If someone suddenly says something, everyone will scream out loud …"
"Now that you mention it, I suddenly thought of a good game name."
"Be Quiet.
The Chinese name would be 'Shh!' "
…
With the brainstorming of the three of them, the idea for this horror game was born very quickly.
The horror game Be Quiet.
The basic idea was a multiplayer horror game. Each game would be made up of eight Players and a random number of NPCs.
The number of NPCs would vary from four to eight, and the NPCs would be played by AI to create a certain confusion effect on the Players.
All the Players and NPCs would enter a randomly generated game map to search for items, find a way out, and interact with other Players and NPCs.
The game map would use different settings, with the initial plan being: a mental hospital, a lunatic village, an inn in the countryside, an old castle, and a school.
These settings would be highly random. Through the program's algorithm, the purpose of each room and the items within would be randomly refreshed before the start of each game.
Each room would have items that could be picked up and set items. The set items could not be carried on the person, but they could be used to create some special effects. For example, the radio could play a specific recording to increase mental pressure.
The Players and NPCs would randomly spawn at a few spawn points on the map. After the game started, they would start exploring the map.
The Players would find some special items on the map, such as daggers, bandages, psychotropic drugs, strange statues, and so on. Some of these items could attack others, some could heal themselves, some could reduce mental pressure, and some could increase it.
How they were used depended on the Players' strategy.
At the same time, the eight Players would have different identities at the start. Different identities would have different conditions for winning.
Among the eight Players, there would be one police officer, three good people, three mental patients, and one ambitious person.
The goal of the police officer and good people was to escape, the mental patient's goal was to make everyone fall into madness or die, and the ambitious person's goal was to survive alone.
If there were NPCs, they would be distributed according to the ratio of half good people and half mental patients.
When the Player died, his identity would finally be revealed.
There were some weapons and items in the setting. The police officer was born with a pistol, which could cause a lot of damage to both normal people and lunatics. The other Players could obtain items from the setting, or they could throw them on the ground and give them to others.
The commonly used items were daggers and flashlights. Daggers dealt high damage to normal people, and flashlights dealt high damage to lunatics.
Other than that, there were axes, flash bombs, and other weapons that were harder to obtain but more powerful.
Mental patients did not equal lunatics.
'Lunatic' was a concept relative to normal people.
At the start, the police officer, good person, mental patient, and ambitious person were all normal people. Their initial attributes were completely the same.
With the passage of time and the influence of some of the items in the scenario, some players' mental stress would continue to increase. When it reached a certain threshold and they had not taken any medicine to reduce their mental stress, they would turn from a 'normal person' to a 'madman'.
Lunatics' basic attributes such as movement speed, health, and attack power would be higher than normal people, but once they entered the 'lunatic' state, the Player would completely lose the ability to communicate. Their muscles would expand and their body would change, allowing other Players to see them directly.
Voice communication was allowed in the game, but it would be strictly limited.
The Player could only say one sentence in the game for ten seconds at a time. After speaking, the sentence would be processed by the system's voice software and played.
With every sentence spoken, the player's mental pressure would increase.
If they did not speak at all, other Players would easily see them as enemies or AI. If they spoke too much, it would increase the risk of becoming a lunatic, and it would also cause other Players to suspect their true intentions.
In addition, to prevent idiotic Players from creating a show effect, the game deleted most of the meaningless actions.
For example, they could only jump when they passed through certain terrains. Otherwise, they could not jump blindly on the spot.
For the Players, especially those who played the roles of mental patients and ambitious people, they could adopt different strategies and playstyles in the game. This was similar to many board games.
The police officer and good person had to search for traps and exits in the setting while being wary of others. If necessary, they had to act decisively to eliminate hidden dangers.
Mental patients had a much lower mental pressure than good people. They could use the items in the setting to turn into lunatics and attack good people. They could also pretend to be good people to lure other good people into traps.
Ambitious people could also disguise themselves as good people or lunatics according to the current situation to achieve their goals.
Every Player had to constantly guess each other's identity in the game and adjust their own strategies at the same time.
At the end of the game, a comprehensive score would be given based on each Player's data, gaming time, and different roles.
For example, the ambitious person was a very difficult character to win. Therefore, if he lost, he would only lose a small number of points. If he won, he would gain a lot of points. At the same time, killing, solving puzzles, collecting items, and so on would all be added to the game. Therefore, even if the ambitious person's goal was very difficult to achieve, he would still have the motivation to continue playing.
…
In a short afternoon, the general framework of the game had been set up.
Raising questions and solving problems. In this endless cycle, some of the game's settings were quickly finalized.
Looking at the densely written design draft, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin could not help but feel emotional.
It was much smoother than they had imagined!
Previously, they had been playing horror games while thinking about the game's settings. They had not achieved much after two weeks.
However, in just one afternoon, the prototype of the game had been completed!
What was the difference between the two times?
The difference was that Boss Pei had pointed out the direction while Director Lin had provided a way to analyze Boss Pei's intentions.
According to this train of thought, all the problems were easily solved!
Until now, although no one was sure if the game would be successful, at least the gameplay was complete. There were no similar competitive games in the market. The first impression it gave people was that it was very novel.
Moreover, Boss Pei had pointed out a clear path for the game. That was equivalent to giving everyone a reassurance.
Looking at the design draft, Ye Zhizhou could not help but feel emotional.
"Could this be the final product of this horror game that Boss Pei had thought of?
"How exciting!"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
