Chapter 1659: “Shu Li”
The bullet screen comments mocked him.
“I’m dying of laughter. Old Qiao is like a food critic who felt good about himself. He insisted on trying to cook himself, but in the end, he ended up like this.”
“Humans cannot be too confident. Why do you think you can be an independent game designer? Don’t you know?”
“I can tell. Dawn Games game editor is indeed less difficult than the official game editor, but it is still not something that someone with Teacher Qiao’s IQ can control.”
Qiao Liang explained himself indignantly. “Just wait. I’ll work hard on researching this game editor after the broadcast. I’ll take out a finished game one day to blind you.”
“However, my failure today proves at least one thing: independent game designers are indeed not easy.”
“Every rubbish game that everyone sees might have gathered the hard work of a group of people.”
“Of course, we still have to scold rubbish games. However, everyone should appropriately support the hardwork of independent game designers and see how outstanding they are.”
“That’s a good saying. You might not understand much on paper, but you’ll never understand.”
“You can criticize any game unscrupulously from the perspective of players. Only those who are truly designers can understand the difficulties involved.”
Qiao Liang recalled the process when he tried to create the game. At first, he only wanted to be a wolf that knew how to eat sheep. However, he realized that he had a small problem. He did not know how to increase the attacking movements of the wolf.
This small problem was quickly resolved. However, after solving it, he discovered a new problem.
For example, what range would this wolf make an attack? Should there be blood spurting out to attack after making an action, should it make a few more movements that seemed more realistic? What if the wolf’s attack movements and the sheep did not cooperate well and there was a situation of biting through space or wearing models?
There were a lot of such problems. In order to achieve a very simple function in the game, there was a huge amount of design behind it.
It was just like cooking.
It was very easy for customers to taste a dish that was salty or light. However, for chefs, the final taste of a dish might be completed through more than ten different steps. Any problem with the order could cause the final outcome to be hugely different from their expectations.
The difficulty level of this was incomprehensible to those who had never really cooked before.
Qiao Liang realized that there was another unexpected benefit to this game editor. It allowed ordinary players to experience the daily work of game designers.
That was because the official game editor was not open to everyone. There was a certain threshold. Most players would not deliberately download the official game editor. Thus, very few players had truly experienced making games.
However, the Dawn Games game editor was built internally on Dawn Games platform. The initial program was actually not big. However, there were a large number of plug-in programming bags and resource bags inside.
Many players would try the game editor function when they opened the Dawn Games platform out of curiosity. People like Qiao Liang who took a sip would at least understand the difficulties of game production.
On the other hand, those who were truly talented and liked game design because of that could continue to download new programmers and resource packs. They could continue to improve their design standards through self-learning. For all they knew, another outstanding independent game designer might appear in the future.
After looking at the Dawn Games game editor, Qiao Liang looked at the ‘Shu Li’ that he had been waiting for for a long time.
The game ‘Shu Li’ had undergone a huge delay. However, the official platform had already made it very clear that they were going to modify the new game editor and explain that they would add new game content.
Therefore, the players were still filled with hope even though they were unhappy.
After all, there was a saying: No one would remember a rubbish game that was released on time.
That was unless there were enough bugs in this rubbish game to make a meme.
Of course, this was just a joke. However, there was no problem with the logic. It did not matter much if a game was released one or two months earlier or one or two months later. The key was still the quality of the game.
Qiao Liang had already bought and downloaded ‘Shu Li’ and entered the game.
…
The opening scene of the game was a promotional animation. It was not fundamentally different from the promotional animation that was released previously. However, the details looked more exquisite.
The last scene was still the old Taoist picking up the baby from the monster village and turning to leave. The raging flames burned everything to ashes.
The scene changed and entered the game plot.
A young man with a treasure sword on his back was facing him. He kowtowed a few times in a nameless grave next to the straw house in the mountain.
Obviously, according to the development of the plot, the old Taoist should have brought the child into the deep mountains to impart martial arts. At that moment, the old Taoist was already gone, and the young man was going down the mountain to kill demons.
Then, it entered the initial novice guidance stage. Qiao Liang found that he could control the protagonist to move, attack, use simple spells or pick up items.
Players could enter the small straw house to pick up some props.
He could also play wood piles or execute the various operations in the newbie guide.
At the same time, the young man recalled the old Taoist’s instructions.
“The Confucian, Shi, and Dao soldiers each have their own strengths. You might have learned from me, but you don’t have to be constrained to the Daoist methods. As long as the four Dao techniques and divine arts can save the people in the world, they have their merits.”
“The world is in chaos, and demons are bringing disaster to the human world. We are the ones who get rid of the demons and protect the commoners, so that the people in the world will no longer suffer the pain of being exiled. We are the ones who made the wise stop sighing at the sorrow of Shu Li.”
“Man and earth, earth and heaven, heaven and earth, heaven and magic, nature.”
“The path is under your feet. Think carefully about how to walk it.”
After a simple learning and familiarity, the young man descended the mountain. Qiao Liang officially began his torturous journey.
…
Shu Li had already released some trial videos previously but Qiao Liang still thought that this was just a Repent and be Saved that had changed the background.
After all, the suffering that the entire combat system gave people was very similar to Repent and be Saved.
However, Qiao Liang realized that there was a huge difference between the two after playing.
‘Shu Li’ was not a clumsy imitation of Repent and be Saved. It had its own design concept.
In the plot of ‘Shu Li’, the protagonist would obtain the heritage of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and soldiers. Every system would give the protagonist a powerful ability outside the basic combat system.
The basic combat system was similar to Repent and be Saved. There were different uses for weapons such as knives, spears, swords, halberds, and so on. They relied purely on their own operating skills. It was definitely a gameplay to be proficient in using various weapons to clear the game. However, if they used the powerful abilities of four different systems, they would be like a tiger that had grown wings.
The four systems could increase players’ stats but they had their own characteristics.
For example, dao techniques were suitable for players who were well-prepared before battle to pursue maximum improvement.
On the other hand, Buddha Dharma provided a permanent buff effect that was suitable for lazy people.
Confucianism could be targeted at the enemy’s weakness. It was the best choice for speed. Only veteran players with superb operations could maximize its effect.
On the other hand, the art of war had a very useful effect. It was suitable for players who had just entered the game. They could prepare in advance for the battle. They could also improve the group enhancement effect when summoning NPCs. Newbies could choose brainlessly.
This reflected the fundamental difference between the design concept of Shu Li and Repent and be Saved.
“Shu Li” allowed players to reduce the difficulty of the game through various rich game mechanisms and skills combination. They could even achieve the effect of cutting grass in key battles for the week. They could pass it brainlessly.
Of course, the prerequisite was that he had a deep understanding of the game mechanism.
It did not matter if players did not like to study the game’s combat mechanism in Repent and be Saved. As long as they died a few more times, they would be familiar with it.
However, in Shu Li, if players were stubborn and did not learn the game mechanism but insisted on using their bodies to fight the monsters, the final outcome would probably be rather tragic.
Of course, it was difficult to say which design was better. They could only say that they were facing different gamers and focused on different game fun.
Other than that, there were rumors that Shu Li might use a stage layout. This seemed to be a plan of the design team previously, but this plan obviously did not extend to the official game.
‘Shu Li’ was the same as Repent and be Saved. It was still a huge, seamless map. The various scenes were closely connected. There would not be the stiff operation of switching stages.
Players would play the role of this young man and travel around. They would arrive at many different scenes in the game.
For example, at the border of the north, the protagonist would participate in the battle between the army of the central plains and the cavalry of the alien race.
He would also personally experience the collapse of countless Buddha Towers and the scene of soldiers destroying Buddha.
Other than that, they would also enter the heavily-protected imperial city and talk to a few important characters in the current plot. They would choose to support a certain prince and become the new emperor.
All of these scenes were connected together. Each scene had a magic circle for players to teleport between different scenes.
That would create a miniature framework world in the game.
Of course, at the beginning, the project team of “Shu Li” wanted to make it into a checkpoint form. This saying was not groundless. Yan Qi had indeed had such plans back then.
That was because both of these methods had their advantages and disadvantages in such a seamless map and checkpoint model.
‘Shu Li’ might repeatedly experience the battle in a certain area and obtain some props or resources that they were in urgent need of because the game mechanism also included the gameplay.
It would be more convenient to use the stages to create it then.
However, after much consideration, Yan Qi felt that the checkpoint model was still too weak for players’ immersion in the game. Thus, he decided to work harder to achieve the same effect on the seamless map.
Simply put, players could temporarily change the state of a certain area through special props or talisman charms. They could return to a special time point and participate in a specific battle again to obtain the relevant rewards.
The main body of the entire seamless world would still change according to the progress of the plot.
This method might not be perfect, but it would at least combine the seamless map and the checkpoint model as much as possible and create a gameplay on the seamless map.