Chapter 353: Parkour, No Wait, Horror Game
In the conference room, all members except those from the "League of Legends" division had gathered, waiting for Chen Mo to announce the new game.
Of course, Qian Kun was present. Although he was fully responsible for the version updates of "League of Legends," he still had to oversee some of the numerical values and level structures for the new project, so he had to be involved throughout the entire process. After such a long period of training, Qian Kun had proven himself increasingly reliable to Chen Mo. Apart from his undying chuunibyou soul for monetization schemes, he was already a very competent designer in every other aspect.
"Boss, hurry up and announce the new game this time!" Su Jinyu said impatiently.
Zhou Hanyu asked, "Yeah, boss. You only mentioned setting up a motion capture studio. Are we making an RPG game or a first-person adventure?"
Zheng Hongxi was also very excited. "Hmm, I think it's definitely an RPG. After all, role-playing games are the true test of a company's hardcore strength!"
Qian Kun clearly disagreed with this statement. "Nonono, what do you mean RPGs prove a company's hardcore strength? Obviously, it's monetization games that prove it!"
Lin Xiao looked at Qian Kun with a face full of black lines. It was clear that the current head of the "League of Legends" project had an extreme obsession with monetization, which made her, a big fan of the game, very worried.
Chen Mo smiled. Obviously, no one had guessed what the next game would be yet, which made him very satisfied.
If I let you guess that easily, where would my face as the boss be?
Chen Mo lightly tapped the keyboard of his laptop, and a document appeared on the projector screen.
"Outlast" Design Concept Draft.
"Outlast?" Su Jinyu was a bit confused. "Is it similar to the 'Don't Starve' we made before? A VR version of a high-end 'Don't Starve'?"
Zheng Hongxi stroked his chin. "Judging by the name, it seems like a survival game too, but it shouldn't be the same type as 'Don't Starve.' Strictly speaking, the content of 'Don't Starve' is about 'surviving,' but the word 'outlast' feels..."
Qian Kun said, "It seems like..."
Zhou Hanyu said incredulously, "A, a horror game?"
Chen Mo made a "you guessed it" gesture. "Very smart. That's right, it's a horror game."
Everyone: "..."
Obviously, this game type was completely beyond their expectations. In China, virtually no major game company was willing to touch the horror game genre, not even Dizhao Interactive or Chanyi Interactive.
The domestic companies that actually made horror games were all small studios or indie game designers. They felt that with their design capabilities, making other types of games would be uncompetitive, so they turned to horror games.
And the horror games produced by these companies were often just bait-and-switch works, like "Mansion of Terror," cashing in and running away.
The reasons were complex, but ultimately boiled down to two aspects: censorship and experience.
Censorship goes without saying. This kind of borderline content was something most game companies were unwilling to risk.
As for experience, it meant that domestic game companies had no history or accumulation in making horror games. Designers didn't have a good grasp of player psychology, so the horror games they made were easily seen through, not scary at all, and often turned into parody games.
Hearing that Chen Mo planned to make a horror game, everyone was quite surprised. But it also piqued their curiosity. After all, every game Chen Mo made exceeded their expectations and was always very successful, so they were all looking forward to seeing what kind of horror game he would develop this time.
Chen Mo looked at everyone. "For now, horror games are a very niche genre in China. But they are also a type of game with strong topicality, a kind of classic game."
"Just like the 'Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy' I made before. That game itself wasn't friendly to most players, but its watchability and topicality were explosive."
"The same goes for horror games. Maybe most people don't have the courage to play them, but if a horror game is well-made, it will quickly dominate various streaming platforms and video websites, spreading very fast and gaining high visibility."
"Next, I'll briefly go over the design concept draft for this game. It's divided into four parts: control mode, script story, related resources, and player psychology management."
Chen Mo began to explain the core gameplay and main appeal of "Outlast" to everyone.
In fact, although AAA titles seemed very high-end, their production process was relatively fixed, like products from an assembly line. As long as risk control was in place and money was invested, it was almost inevitable to produce a work above average.
For example, AAA titles were like heavy industry: cumbersome steps, complex procedures, a relatively fixed process, high investment, and high risk. Competitive online games like "League of Legends" and PUBG were more like the IT industry, without particularly high technical barriers, with the key being creativity, ideas, and promotion.
The reason many foreign studios could steadily produce AAA titles at a rate of one per year was precisely because this was a relatively assembly-line production model.
For instance, for Naughty Dog, which made "The Last of Us" and "Uncharted," these two games seemed very different in terms of story and genre, but their gameplay was similar. As long as the script, scenes, and characters were swapped, they could be made quite smoothly.
So, when Chen Mo explained, he focused on the highlights of "Outlast."
For example, it was a parkour-style—no wait—horror game where the protagonist's combat power was completely zero, and he could only keep running away.
Another example was the protagonist's night vision mode on the DV and the gameplay of collecting batteries, which were very important settings.
These features, which were clearly different from the crappy domestic horror games on the market, were all singled out by Chen Mo and explained in detail.
The entire game flow was broken down into many segments by Chen Mo. Under each major scene, completing each small side quest would trigger different events. The overall game flow had a rhythm of slow and fast, and in this ebb and flow, the players' tension would be fully mobilized.
After finishing the concept draft, everyone was very excited.
Zheng Hongxi: "Wow, boss, this horror game is awesome! It feels even more thrilling than the games we've made before!"
Su Jinyu: "It has a blockbuster feel! If this is made for VR, won't it scare the players' pants off?"
Zhou Hanyu: "I'm not sure if this game will be popular, but our company will definitely be popular... The only domestic company that can make a good horror game? Just thinking about that title is exciting."
Qian Kun: "How about we turn one of our company's rooms into a mental hospital as a memento?"
Everyone: "Get lost!"
Fu Guangnan frowned slightly. "Boss, the game is good, but... can it pass the review???"