nycdaug Chapter 195 Tension is more terrifying than a sudden outburst.
Chapter 195 Tension is more terrifying than a sudden outburst.
Chapter 195 Tension is more terrifying than a sudden outburst.
David, being a seasoned gamer, quickly recovered after a brief moment of surprise.
"Optical illusion!"
A typical 2D-era technique for simulating 3D effects.
Because of the rapid advancements in 3D technology these days, David had momentarily forgotten that he could do this.
"This approach is somewhat similar to Sega's OUTRUN arcade racing game."
Last year's arcade game used similar technology to achieve a relatively smooth 3D terrain effect.
Unfortunately, due to Gamenova's great success in the 3D field, its influence was not as great as expected.
However, as a rare 3D title for arcade platforms, OUTRUN still achieved amazing success in Japan and parts of North America.
"That's right, but instead of using the racing game approach, we'll greatly simplify the controls."
Lin Lixin recalled the development of parkour-style action games, ultimately tracing its origins back to a PS1-era title.
Pepsi Superman
As its name suggests, this is a promotional game launched in collaboration with Pepsi.
The main character is a grotesque figure wearing a classic Pepsi blue and white bodysuit.
Dodge obstacles and collect cola by jumping, dashing, and other actions.
This gameplay seems to be essentially the same as the parkour games that became popular on mobile devices later on.
This type of gameplay has a very counterintuitive mechanism compared to most games today, and it even goes against the paradigm of game design.
"We made it so that the character doesn't need to control movement, but can focus on avoiding obstacles and collecting items."
"what?"
"Control" has always been an important and basic requirement for players in a game.
Even interactive movie-style visual novels follow this system, giving players sufficient control.
A game can only truly immerse players when their actions are meaningful and they feel a sense of control over the game.
Otherwise, it would be no different from a movie.
As hardware capabilities have advanced, manufacturers are trying to cram in as much hardware as possible, making game controls as complex and varied as possible.
Just like in racing games, in the 8-bit era, players could only rigidly and mechanically control the car to switch lanes to avoid obstacles in a certain lane.
However, thanks to the increased capabilities of arcade platforms, games like Outrun have been able to implement open-world designs that were previously unimaginable.
The exhilarating feeling of pushing boundaries when the wheels roll over the lane lines is a unique happiness belonging to these players who have been suppressed by the limitations of the game's features for a long time.
Works like "Pepsi Superman" even have a sprint function, and racing games also often feature nitro boosts.
It's fair to say that if a game doesn't make the most of all the buttons on the controller, it's being lazy.
However, Lin Lixin's words simply and directly told David: it's not necessary to do that.
"No need to control movement? What do you mean?"
"It means exactly what it says, keeping the character in a state of automatic forward movement."
Lin Lixin thought for a moment, then simply went back to the computer and continued writing a few more paragraphs.
Thanks to the excellent performance of the N language compiler, he was able to quickly implement what he wanted to do.
"Look, we've simplified all the game controls to just four directional keys: up, down, left, and right."
As he restarted the game, when Lin Lixin pressed the up key, the block representing the character bounced up and then fell back down.
Although it hasn't been integrated with the physics engine designed by Christopher yet, the animation appears somewhat stiff.
But it's sufficient for demonstration purposes.
Then it moves downwards, and the block is suddenly flattened, as if it has fallen down, before quickly springing back.
As for left and right, the effect of turning is simulated by rotating the horizontal line during the fall.
It was simple, but it was enough for David to understand what he meant.
"Incredible!"
David clapped his hands suddenly, "Simplify the complex, return to the basics!"
Simple yet sophisticated, content that appears simple often requires designers to invest a great deal of effort in refining it.
This ingenious design perfectly reflects David's own design philosophy.
"I thought you were a material-hoarding maniac—"
He laughed heartily, and his eyes held a different kind of gleam as he looked at Lin Lixin.
The highest quality of a designer is to intricately design limited functions and use ingenuity to provide the best possible gaming experience for players!
"We started out in a rented room, after all."
"So, let's follow the theme of PitfalI!? Continuously moving through the rainforest, collecting treasures? The obstacles are the classic crocodile pools and poisonous snakes, and so on."
After calming down, David began to further develop the subject matter.
Since it's based on Pitfal!, he naturally found corresponding images for various elements as soon as possible.
"Hmm—I have a better idea."
These types of parkour games share a common characteristic.
Whether it's the police officer relentlessly chasing after them in Subway Surfers or the baboons after Temple Run.
In these types of games, there's always something chasing after the player, and if they get caught, they're immediately Game Over.
"Let the sense of crisis come from the feeling of falling behind, rather than from the immediate crisis we see and experience, thus transforming the sense of crisis into psychological fear."
Sometimes, tension is more frightening than pure jump scares.
The constant threat of the enemy amplifies the potential consequences of mistakes to the player's subconscious.
Moreover, there is an extremely insidious factor involved here: sunk costs.
As players' scores increase and their results approach their limits, even nearing the leaderboard, the consequences of failure become increasingly difficult for them to accept.
In this environment, a seemingly insignificant mistake allows the baboons to catch up a few steps, and just having them peek out from the bottom of the screen is enough to send the player's heart rate soaring to 180.
Who says playing games isn't keeping you healthy? This is so good for you, bro.
"—Goodness gracious."
David briefly simulated the concept proposed by Lin Lixin in his mind, and a strange expression immediately appeared on his face.
That's terrible!
This is scarier than those poorly made horror movies.
"I understand what you mean. A player won't be defeated by a small mistake; instead, it will shorten the distance between the pursuer and the player, right?"
David nodded, then suddenly a thought struck him.
This relatively abstract mechanism made him think of something more concrete.
"Simply put—it's like a health bar, right?"
"That's true."
"I understand—then let's use Indiana Jones as a model and design the scene as an ancient temple?"
"That's right, this is a good opportunity to test out true 3D models of polygons."
Without the complex scene rendering of Quake, they can use the freed-up graphics performance elsewhere to create something that looks extremely impressive in this day and age.
"Hiss—Speaking of which, why did we use it as a model?"
Lin Lixin suddenly slapped his forehead.
Wasn't the official gamification of Indiana Jones done by Howard Warshaw?
Why don't you just go directly to Spielberg and Lucas?
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