To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 289: Chapter 186 Desperate Game (First Update)_2

Thinking of this, Fang Cheng felt it necessary to check on it.

After organizing everything, he returned to the studio after the May Day holiday and handed over the USB drive processed with Immortal Spell to Huang Ping and the others.

“I did a framework over the weekend, Huang Ping, why don’t you refine it according to your own ideas?”

Then, he looked at Lin Nan and said, “This game will involve some mini-games, you’ll design them.”

“Okay.”

Lin Nan immediately nodded, then asked cautiously, “What’s the principle of the design?”

“Make the game a little more relaxed, just don’t make it too despairing.”

“…Hmm?”

Upon hearing this requirement, Lin Nan was utterly perplexed.

What kind of game would be so despair-inducing that it required mini-games for adjustment?

In the end, he seemed to remember something and said to everyone, “I forgot to mention, this game’s genre is horror, so we’re not going to sell it domestically but rather choose an international platform for its release. Mr. Shen will invite a person in charge from a foreign publisher to coordinate. Once you’re about done, we can get in touch with them.”

Knowing that this game was actually targeting the international market, Huang Ping became excited.

Fang Cheng Studio’s games had a great reputation domestically, but since Fang Cheng was not very interested in the international market, there had been no such arrangements.

Domestic games were, after all, quite weak; being able to appear in the international market and show one’s strength was the dream of every game developer aspiring to create successful home-grown titles.

The thought of being able to showcase his talent on an international stage thrilled Huang Ping!

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He downloaded and ran the game Fang Cheng had provided, full of anticipation, and started quite relaxed.

The name was pretty decent this time, “Heavenly Demon” had the right feel for a horror game, and translated conveniently into English.

But as for the content…

It seemed the boss had misunderstood the theme again.

Although it was a horror game, Fang Cheng seemed to have gone against several key points of horror games.

Recent horror games focus on being weaponless, to emphasize the player’s sense of powerlessness, but “Heavenly Demon” started the protagonist off with immense power, making it feel more like an exhilarating game.

It felt good using a PC, starting off running on the ground was quite ordinary, but once you learned to ‘Ride the wind and control the sword,’ the game’s temperament immediately improved.

Once the Sword Pill was wrapped, the sword light took off, and the speed and thrill of breaking through the air made Huang Ping unable to stop. He became more certain that this was indeed an exhilarating game.

The appearance of Demons did scare him momentarily, but seeing how easily he sliced them to pieces, Huang Ping thought to himself, “Exactly as expected.”

This game was indeed an exhilarating one.

“Monkey, this game is pretty…”

Facing Monkey sitting beside him, he was about to comment on how thrilling the game was, but then he turned to see Monkey nervously staring at the screen, continuously operating it.

“What’s wrong with you guys?” Huang Ping asked, puzzled.

“You can’t, damn it, you just can’t!” Monkey couldn’t help but mutter.

“So, what’s going on?” Huang Ping was even more confused, “Xiao Douzi?”

Xiao Douzi, usually as silent as a clay statue when playing games, was now wide-eyed, muttering the very same words as Monkey, “You can’t, damn it, you just can’t!”

“Does that phrase have some deep meaning?”

Knowing his colleagues were better gamers than he was, and presumably further in progress, Huang Ping could only turn around with confusion and continue playing.

Soon, he experienced his first betrayal.

He thought he was happily heading home, only to discover a massacre upon his arrival.

Under the bright sky, the sight of the ravaged village was bleak; he had good relations with every villager who now had been cleanly shredded, leaving Huang Ping with a chill down his spine as waves of despair and fear washed over him.

Especially when he saw that the terrifying monster actually bore the face of his childhood friend, he suddenly realized, knowing that this monster was in fact his childhood friend transformed.

But what fault was there in his childhood friend?

She was merely contaminated by poison and helplessly turned into a monster.

Sadder still, he was without the strength even to seek vengeance.

The monster before him was not on the same level as those from before; as satisfying as it had been to beat the monsters, it was just as satisfying for the monster to beat him.

In a daze, he felt that it was no longer the protagonist being beaten, but himself, with each punch bringing him intense real pain, leaving him unable to fight back.

After being defeated by the monster, the game did not end. However, because it was his childhood friend, the monster ultimately still controlled him to flee, leaving behind Huang Ping, battered and powerless, sprawled on the ground.

“Monkey…” Huang Ping couldn’t help but ask.

“I’ve tried it, it can be beaten,” Monkey said, staring at the screen. He didn’t need to look back to know what Huang Ping wanted to ask; “But it’s useless, after that the path is different, but dead is dead.”

Because of different actions, the plot branched here with Huang Ping’s protagonist embarking on a path to pursue his childhood friend after recovery, while Monkey’s protagonist set out on a journey of self-improvement to eliminate more demons.

The multi-branch setup provided various possibilities for the game, which also led Huang Ping to believe there must be a way to save everything.

So, they read documents to perfect the game while hoping to use the game mechanics to avoid the various tragic endings.

They soon discovered that the game was the very embodiment of malice.

It was especially adept at playing with the player’s emotions. Every time Huang Ping felt a glimmer of hope, a greater tragedy would strike head-on, plunging him into even greater despair.

However, compared to Monkey and Xiao Douzi, he felt he was still okay.

This game was absolutely unparalleled in messing with one’s state of mind. The stronger the player’s abilities, the more tragedies they encountered, while the weaker players could recuperatively get through some events and suffer less severe mental impacts.

After playing through one-third, Huang Ping said he could not take it anymore.

In that moment, he felt that players in China should build a temple of life for Fang Cheng, thankful that this thing was not directly released domestically, but instead went to torment players abroad.

He believed that after playing this game, they would surely understand what a heart-wrenching masterpiece is and what qualifies as a game of the year for healing.

Especially after learning that the script was actually written by Tang Mo, Huang Ping decided that if he ever got the chance, he would send Tang Mo a blade in the mail to thank him for writing such a great script.

After roughly playing through the game, Lin Nan also understood why Fang Cheng was so insistent that the mini-game play should be as relaxing as possible and alleviate players’ emotions.

Just looking at the darkness level of the plot, without some relaxing mini-games, it truly wouldn’t be alleviated.

However, she also understood that these mini-games were merely like drinking poison to quench thirst.

After drinking the sweet nectar, there was still the despair of the story to experience and the malice from the entire world.

The nectar served just as a line of defense against the horror of the world, and in comparison, the game’s horror became even more profound.

Forgive me, unnamed players abroad.

After mentally apologizing to the players abroad, Lin Nan continued making mini-games and couldn’t help but lament how fun her own mini-games were, how light the content was, and how amusing the dialogue within them was, which seemed to make the main storyline even more tragic.

Before they knew it, the follow-up work on the game was nearing its end.

After experiencing the initial despair, Huang Ping was now somewhat immune to horror games.

Jumpy horror games couldn’t scare him anymore, and he could even find humor in most horror comics after undergoing real despair, he didn’t care anymore.

The game was also close to being perfected, with all aspects balanced, but one question still remained unanswered for Huang Ping.

What was the game’s Easter egg?

Fang Cheng Studio’s games were always known for hiding Easter eggs, but this time he could not find any, nor had Fang Cheng mentioned it, presumably it was a game-changing Easter egg.

Compared to before, Huang Ping particularly hoped that this Easter egg would appear soon, otherwise, the protagonist was just too miserable.

However, the search for the Easter egg had to come to a halt soon, because the Prussian publisher introduced by Mr. Shen had finally arrived.