Samdong Village.

A remote and impoverished village deep in the mountains, with little to no young people, and all the elderly.

The name of the village comes from the three natural karst caves that are connected to each other, hence the name Sandong Village.

Hu Xi's parents were not from this village, but he grew up in Samdong Village. The reason is that more than 20 years ago, Lao Hu, a barefoot doctor in the village, found him abandoned on the side of the road on his way back from taking medicine from the county seat with a kerosene lamp.

Without a name, Lao Hu named him Hu Xi, and with the help of the villagers, he was reluctantly raised......

"But Lao Hu is dead!"

Chen Ba's level of storytelling is not high, so he can only let everyone understand the synopsis of the story simply: "Lao Hu's death is the main reason for Hu Xi to go home, and it is also the main task of the game." ”

To put it simply, Once Upon a Time in a Mountain Village is a standard Chinese horror game.

What is Chinese Horror?

Ghost bride? Red wedding dress? A crooked statue of a bodhisattva? Colorful paper figures?

That's right!

Different from the visual impact horror created by the West with gore and physical objects, Chinese horror is more about creating a sense of psychological discomfort and impact.

"Once Upon a Time in a Mountain Village" tells the story of the protagonist Hu Xi who learned that his adoptive father died unexpectedly and returned to his hometown to bury his adoptive father.

"And what is the truth?"

Although Xiao Lu was very afraid of those gods and ghosts, he was fascinated by this listen, so he couldn't wait to know the answer.

Demons and monsters, which kind?

"The truth?"

"The truth is that Lao Hu actually had cancer and should have died a long time ago, but Hu Xi was still young and didn't want to die like this, so he used a taboo method to extend his life."

Chen Ba pursed his lips and said: "This is the shallow truth, and there is a deeper truth, that is, everyone in Sandong Village is doing this except for Hu Xi's adoptive father, Lao Hu. ”

"Huh?!"

Suddenly hearing this, Xiao Lu was stunned and said, "Everyone is doing this? Isn't the people of this village immortal? ”

"What's going on!"

Before Chen Ba could speak, Luo Ji on the side couldn't help but complain: "If it is really that simple, it cannot be called a taboo method, and Lao Hu will not die." ”

"That's right!"

"Remember what I said at the beginning? There are basically no young people in Sandong Village, and even except for Hu Xi, all of them are elderly! ”

Chen Ba repeated the background setting again, and now not only Luo Ji understood, but even Xiao Lu shuddered.

How can a normal village be full of old people, not a single young person, and no small child?

Don't they have any offspring?

This is obviously impossible!

The whole village has the possibility of suffering from infertility, which is obviously lower than the problem of people in this village, as long as you are not stupid, you know that there are no young people in this village, there are no children, there are people who are playing ghosts.

So who is it?

Combined with the context, Brother Ba introduced the truth of the story before, and Xiao Lu drew inferences: "So this is the price of life extension?" ”

"Yes!"

Chen Ba nodded: "Not only that, but the reason why Sandong Village has become a village with a gloomy aura and no living breath is also due to the backlash. ”

Speaking of which, the synopsis and context of the story are already very clear.

There is a problem with Samdong Village!

The problem lies in the old man in the village and the three natural caves that reveal a strange atmosphere, Hu Xi has been kept in the dark by the old Hu, and he doesn't want to be involved when he goes to school.

In fact, Lao Hu is already the last "living person" in the village!

Therefore, his death, as well as Hu Xi's homecoming, also marked the complete disappearance of Sandong Village from the world, and there were no living people in this village.

"That's not right!"

"Since Lao Hu was the last to die, how did the news of his death get out? How did the protagonist Hu Xi find out? Xiao Lu frowned and asked.

This should be a plot bug, right?

Did Brother Ba have a brain in water, and he said in the last second that Hu Xi returned to his hometown to hold a funeral for his adoptive father, so that he could be buried in the ground, why did he turn his head and say that Lao Hu was the last living person?

"Wait......"

"I seem to figure it out!"

Luo Ji said thoughtfully: "Brother Ba, a living person, means from the perspective of the audience, that is, from the perspective of God, there are no living people in Sandong Village. ”

"But from the perspective of ordinary people in the plot, Sandong Village is still the same, lively and lively, and the old people are all healthy and healthy, so I can't see the slightest difference."

"That's right!"

Chen Ba affirmed Lao Luo's guess.

In fact, the main reason why Hu Xi was able to receive the news of his adoptive father's death and return to his hometown to repay the villagers is actually that everything is normal in Sandong Village during the day!

Note that this is speaking of daytime.

Once night falls, Sandong Village will reveal its true face, which is actually an empty and demonic "Hades Village"!

"Blanch, spoilers are really boring."

Xiao Lu scratched his head and said, "Hearing you say this, I feel that I don't need to play the game anymore, and I have figured out all the puzzles." ”

"So, it's best not to search for guides or watch videos when playing this kind of horror game, otherwise after being spoiled, you won't be interested in playing."

Chen Ba smiled.

Before you play the game, you can learn the causes, processes and endings of the game, which is commonly known as spoilers, which is indeed a fatal blow to a horror game.

Don't talk about "Once Upon a Time in a Mountain Village".

Any horror game that has been spoiled by others before playing it doesn't arouse much interest, after all, the most important "sense of suspense" of horror games has been destroyed.

"Alright, alright!"

After clapping his hands and signaling all eyes to look at him, Chen Ba assigned the task and said: "We who make games, don't want any sense of suspense and excitement." ”

"What we need to do now is to design puzzle exploration and parkour chase scenes in turn according to the plot......"

Regarding puzzle solving, this is not the part that Chen Ba is good at.

He hasn't even played the "escape room" that young people love the most, and he is a pure novice in this regard, so he needs to consult everyone's opinions and ideas.

"Solving puzzles is nothing more than a process of collecting clues to find the truth and solving puzzles. Leave this to me, I'm still good at it! ”

Luo Ji took the initiative to take a hard bone that was more difficult to gnaw and solved a thorny problem for Chen Ba.

As for the rest of the work, it's not that difficult compared to the puzzle part.

"The music is outsourced, so don't make a mess of people if we don't have five notes."

Speaking of this, Xiao Lu seemed to think of something, and suddenly asked: "By the way, is there only one exploration and puzzle gameplay in this kind of horror game?" ”

"Almost!"

"If a horror game wants to create a terrifying atmosphere, it must be based on this kind of exploration and puzzle gameplay."

Chen Ba was curious: "Do you have other ideas?" Let's talk about it, what else can be added to a horror game? ”

"Parkour is a way to play, Brother Ba, you have already said it, in addition, I think since it is a Chinese-style horror, can we add a little Chinese-style unique elements to it?"

"For example?"

"For example, divination, this should be very distinctive, right?"

Xiao Lu said freely: "In addition to divination and fortune telling, you can also integrate a little bit of our unique folk customs and traditional customs into the game." ”

"Divination?"

When Chen Ba heard this, his expression was thoughtful.

These things that I don't usually pay much attention to, if they are added to a Chinese-style horror game, it seems to really have a little miraculous effect?

It can't be said to be a miracle!

It can only be said that the sense of atmosphere will be relatively sufficient, and it can also continuously exert psychological impact on players from the side.

Here's an example!

Players are about to travel to a new location, look for new clues to solve the puzzle, and give themselves a hexagram before leaving, good, big murderer!

The copper coins are cracked, which is enough to reflect the treacherous horror of this trip.

As soon as this hexagram comes out, even if the player has not encountered something abnormal, he will feel very depressed and heavy in his heart, and his nerves will be tense all the time, and there will be a feeling of being out of breath.

"This is a fun ......"

Luo Ji said with a smile: "Playing this kind of horror game, reasoning and encountering hexagrams like a murderer, I was already scared before I started." ”

Is this thing reliable?

Reliable hammer! Smart people can see at a glance that this is a trick, and the game designer deliberately plays with the player's mentality!

But it's a bit bluffing to not be able to stand this thing, few people will believe in this set in reality, after all, they are all highly educated, and they will not be so sure that hexagrams can represent everything.

But it's the game!

And it's a horror game full of metaphysical mysteries!

In such a game, the hexagram shows the murderer, do you feel very heavy? If this shows good luck, the player's confidence will be doubled in an instant, and all demons and monsters will have to lean aside.

"That's ......"

Chen Ba agreed: "In reality, if you ask me to tell a fortune and say that I have a bad omen, then I will probably give that guy a backhand." ”

But in the game Once Upon a Time in a Mountain Village, it's different.

Horror games,It's normal to have a bit of metaphysical mystery.,Since you've played this game.,You must have guessed that the game is a bit "out of reality" content.。

Since it's all out of reality, the hexagram shows that the murderer will be chased to death by a terrifying monster when he turns around, which should be quite reasonable, right?

"Then let's stitch it up!"

Xiao Lu suddenly thought: "This hexagram can be combined with the content of the game to expand the application scenarios and scope of this divination." ”

For example, there was a strange and terrifying creature chasing me behind me, and there was a three-way intersection in front of me.

Don't panic, believe in the power of metaphysics, and give yourself a hexagram first!

OK！

The hexagram indicates that going to the left is the "path of life" and to the right is the "path of death".

Xuan doesn't save the wrong, Krypton doesn't change his life?

Joke! It's okay to say this in other games.,You still don't believe in metaphysics when you play "Once Upon a Time in the Mountain Village"? If you don't believe me, what is chasing you behind you? Rush syrup?

"You can ...... like this"

Xiao Lu's analogy expanded everyone's thinking, so Liu Jinfu also gave an example of a practical application scenario.

This kind of horror game usually faces many "timing" choices.

Therefore, in addition to providing early warning of good luck and evil, the content of divination calculation can also add some of the "day selection" functions that divination already has.

"What do you mean?"

Xiao Lu didn't understand very well, what did Lao Luo mean by this day?

"The hexagram shows that today is not a good time to explore! It turned out that there were more strange things to do today than usual, and the monsters were sharper and more difficult than usual......"

Lao Luo explained: "You may not have any concept of this, so I will say it another way." Auspicious times are Normal or Easy difficulty, and non-auspicious times are Hard or Hell difficulty. ”

"I see."

Xiao Lu understood, the application of this divination day in the game is actually to give players a chance to choose the difficulty freely.

If you don't want to ink and wait for any so-called auspicious times and auspicious days, then you can ignore the hexagrams, just do it according to the high difficulty, and no one is to blame if you are scared to cry or pee.

If you feel too dangerous and want to play the game safely, and you are not in a hurry to explore the unknown or search for clues, then wait for the auspicious time, the difficulty will be slightly lower, and the level of horror and scare will be okay.

"Is this a big difference?"

Chen Ba is more concerned about this issue, if the difficulty of the game caused by auspicious days and auspicious times changes greatly, then "Once Upon a Time in the Mountain Village" may form two extremes.

A group of people said that this game was so scary, so scary, it scared my soul away!

The other group said that the game was not scary at all, nor was it scary enough, and it didn't feel as good as XX......

"Not really!"

Luo Ji shook his head: "If you really want to do it, the difficulty gap is definitely not that big, even if it is auspicious, it is very thrilling." ”

"That's good!"

Chen Ba thought for a while, and finally looked at Xiao Lu who made this suggestion, and asked him, "Since you proposed it, how about you doing the content of this divination?" ”

"I can't ......"

Xiao Lu shook his head in refusal.

Although he made the suggestion, he couldn't really write this program. After all, this thing is simple, but it is actually quite complicated to implement.

After all, this "hexagram" will link the game difficulty, game content and many other aspects.

And the randomness is relatively large.

Everything in the game is controllable, but the player is an exception, and this is the only uncontrollable factor in the game.

After all, no one can imagine when the player will use this function on what occasion, when, and under what circumstances, so the hexagram is naturally not static.

As soon as the hexagram changes, the rest of the game has to change with it......

Hold the grass!

Just thinking about Xiao Lu makes me feel a headache, this amount of work is terrible, and to do this divination function, I still have to ask Brother Ba to come out.

After all, Brother Ba's technical strength and the amount of code are recognized by the studio as the first, and no one dares to question that.

The code written by Brother Ba is even more of a god, and what he Lu Jing can't do doesn't mean that Brother Ba can't do it either. All the people who underestimated Brother Ba were all swollen by his actual actions.

It's just a divination and fortune telling function, although the randomness is a little stronger, and the amount of work is a little larger, but this can be a rare overlord?

"Well said, a few more compliments!"

Chen Ba was praised with a comfortable face, as if he had just come out of a bath and massage shop, and took on the task without hesitation.

Although he guessed that this was mostly Xiao Lu's sycophant offensive, it was not a big problem, and what Xiao Lu said was also the truth.

This is the only job he can do, and no one else can do it!

(End of chapter)