Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

In the early hours of October 31st, followers of Chen Xu received a notification that there was a new upload.

The post contained a short video clip and a message : “Wanna guess what the new game is?”

Even though it was posted on such an ungodly hour, there were still a large number of night owls who followed Chen Xu’s socials.

So it didn’t take long for the likes, comments and reblogs to come flooding in.

Many were left puzzled. After all, Chen Xu’s intentions were obvious. This intensely eerie video posted at this timing indicates that his upcoming project would be horror related.

But what caused more discussion was the timing of this message.

The very next day, Chen Xu’s post kicked up quite a stir among the gaming media outlets.

After all, he had gained some measure of fame in the recent competition with his hit piece, ‘To the Moon’, making him good clickbait material for their articles.

And also, November was fast approaching. There would be little to no major releases worth mentioning during this time period because everyone would be waiting for the holiday season of December.

Meanwhile, the most heated discussions were conducted by the niche community of horror enthusiasts, sequestered away in their hidden places and dusty forums.

After all, even horror games have subgenres.

Discussions such as these were happening fervently in popular gaming forums and boards, but it was mostly wild analysis and ideas being thrown around. After all, Chen Xu’s video only hinted at the genre of game he was cooking up, without offering up many other details.

And It wasn’t just the players who were buzzing with curiosity either, there were many among the gaming media and game designers who were trying to get a feel for what was to come.

While members of the game designer community were having logical, level-headed conversations about Chen Xu, things were a bit more chaotic on the media side.

《 CREEPY VIDEO RELEASED AT MIDNIGHT!! WHAT IS CHEN XU’S MASTER PLAN??!! 》

《 FROM HEARTWARMING TO HORROR? DESIGNER CHEN XU’S NEXT MOVE 》

《 CHEN XU ABANDONS HIS LOYAL FANS! PURSUES NEW FIELD! CONFIDENT OR BLIND? 》

………..

Soon various articles flooded gaming news websites and forums. Most larger outlets tended to favor a more neutral approach, trying to maintain amicable relations with the designers featured in their articles.

But the same couldn’t be said for the smaller marketing accounts and lower tiered outlets, where creating a buzz was the business.

This was mainly due to the specific genre chosen by Chen Xu.

After all, it has been several years since the gaming industry was introduced to an excellent horror game. And even back then, its quality was still rather poor when compared to excellent games of the more popular genres like Action or Adventure games.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say that the horror scene is stagnant in this world.

There is a diverse range of horror games focusing on many types of antagonists. From zombies and ghost themed games popularized in China to serial killer and demon themed games popularized abroad.

There are also horror games that take a more grounded, realistic approach and horror titles that lean towards the supernatural and myth. josei

So there’s a lot to pick and choose from, but the scene isn’t exactly bustling either, almost none of them have sold well.

In the current market, the horror games that do make sales are usually from older IPs and are part of a series. But even those are facing lower and lower sales with each gaming season.

And one of the reasons is that none of these games have tried breaking out of their traditional restrictions.

They’re still relying on small, one-shot plotlines. Still using jumpscares as their main tool. Still relying on rudimentary FPS combat systems and designs.

Granted, none of these are bad per se, but it’s difficult to make things more exciting and take major risks when funding is limited and the investors are king.

For Chen Xu and the rest of Nebula Games, these discussions online have had very little impact.

Because the development progress of the game was ramping up significantly and many of the staff were now “in the zone” of their creative process.

While the game was not yet completed, many parts of the game could already be experienced.

And after experiencing those segments, Yang Xin, Ruan Ningxue, and many of the other team members came to a unanimous conclusion.

Don’t play this game at night.

It’s really scary, please send help.

Even though they had peered behind the curtain, participated in the creation of the game from scratch, and had access to the backend systems of the game…

The playable parts of ‘Outlast’ were still delivering a level of terror that was previously unseen in the horror gaming genre.

Yang Xin was closely monitoring the online buzz after Chen Xu’s post, and she made a silent prayer for the poor souls who would be the first to experience the monster they were about to unleash.