Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

Eventually, the car came to a stop before the entrance to the asylum.

Sun Yixie stared blankly at the dark, looming buildings in the background, while the sound of cold, rustling winds swept ominously through his headphones…

He put his palms together and took a deep breath before addressing the chat.

“Okay. Before I start, I need to ask you guys… If I were to, hypothetically speaking, decide to play another game right now, would that be okay with y’all?”

Thus, the revolution began.

“Alright, fine, fine I’ll play it.”

Thus, the revolution ended.

“Lemme just turn on the lights real quick.” Sun Yixie said as he reached over the screen to hit the switch, causing the recording studio to light up brightly.

Thus the flames of revolution were lit once more.

• [ COWAAAAAAAAAAAARD ]

• [ Didn’t somebody say this was EZ? 😂 ]

• [ Wow, turning on the lights 5s in smh ]

• [ You scared? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 ]

• [ It’s okay if you’re scared lil bro, let’s wait for big brother Lemon to come home and take care of you~ ]

• [ If it’s as easy as breathing, why turn on the lights? ]

• [ TURN OFF THE LIGHTS 😡TURN OFF THE LIGHTS 😡TURN OFF THE LIGHTS 😡TURN OFF THE LIGHTS 😡TURN OFF THE LIGHTS 😡 ]

• [ removed by moderators ]

“No! Shut up! I’m keeping them on! Mods, time out anyone that spams light stuff!”

“Ahem. I’ll say it again for those in the back, horror games are like breathing for me, no pressure at all. But occasionally, I get startled, alright? I get startled. Just some minor tension is all.”

Sun Yixie joked around with the chat, trying to ease his nerves and buy time to calm his mind.

After a while, he leaned back into his gaming chair and put his headphones back on, finally getting back into the game.

Some minor tutorials were highlighted on the screen, and he became more aware of the gameplay features and setting.

Generally, horror games in this parallel world will fall into one of two categories.

The first being games with combat systems, where players can collect weapons to kill monsters and deal with bosses.

And the second being games with no combat system at all, where players avoid monsters and solve puzzles to progress.

The vast majority of “popular” horror games involve the first category. And the second category, while existent, was only used in obscure titles or certain segments of a full game.

So far, just by looking around, Sun Yixie is rather impressed by the production value being displayed. This ‘Outlast’ does not seem to be a half-hearted project like so many others before it.

Just from the atmosphere alone, he could feel that this experience would be something special.

Even if the graphics weren’t rendered up to the levels of the latest triple A titles, it had a certain level of gritty realism that lends well into immersion. And for a horror game, that was a big deal.

“God dammit man, I am not scared! How could I be scared?! Hold on and let me check the controls first!”

Again, Sun Yixie was interacting with the chat to delay the inevitable.

• [ Lmao, quit stalling ]

• [ Stalling ]

• [ Stalling LOL ]

And so his adventure began.

After searching around the car and the unmanned guard station, he collected several items: A camcorder, some batteries, and a blue folder.

Following the instructions on screen, he loaded the batteries into the camcorder and turned it on.

Somehow, the surroundings became even more eerie behind the green-tinted filter of the camcorder.

Sun Yixie made a few conjectures as he looked around with the camcorder active. Being an experienced horror game streamer, he could make a few rough guesses at the gameplay.

There would probably be some dark environments where he’d need to use it to find his way.

In any other horror game, this wouldn’t be an issue for him. But as he continued to stall and look around the game world, he couldn’t help the nervousness creeping into his system.

After a thorough sweep of the immediate surroundings, Sun Yixie finally pushed open the iron gates and stepped into the courtyard.

The surroundings were cloaked in silence, and the flickering lights shining through some of the asylum windows were not reassuring in the slightest, It felt like countless eyes were watching.

While controlling the character and moving along the path, Sun Yixie suddenly halted.

One of the rooms of the asylum lit up, and a dark figure could be seen standing still at the window.

His eyes widened as he pushed the keys on his keyboard, having the character bring up the camcorder and zooming in to see.

But the figure seemed to notice his movements, and quickly moved away and out of view. The room lights were turned off after a brief moment.

Sun Yixie felt a chill move up from his feet to the top of his head.

Although nothing really happened, and no monsters were shown, his anxiety rose and his heartbeat quickened.

The dark asylum building now seemed more menacing in his eyes, like a beast with its mouth wide open, waiting for him to take a step inside.

The feeling of dread in his heart was amplified as he took a few more looks at the surroundings, noticing the armored vehicles left parked around the compound.

These were riot control vehicles… Why were they here at a mental hospital? Did a riot happen here? But the document said this place was abandoned years ago…

The main entrance turned out to be locked, so he wandered around, eventually finding a small hole in the iron fences and crawling his way inside.

A few more gameplay prompts appeared to guide him at this point.

Running, jumping, climbing and crouching.

The game’s POV camera work was polished, and the slight vibrations in sync with the character movements were subtle but detailed. This was reaching a level of quality that Sun Yixie had never witnessed in horror games before.

Through his headphones, the heavy breathing of the protagonist could be clearly heard as he exerted himself.

Following the guidance prompts, he made his way to an open window, and as soon as he climbed inside, the lights in the room went out.

The surroundings were plunged into sudden darkness.

Sun Yixie, who was not expecting something like this, was visibly shaken.

• [ LOL what did I just see ]

• [ yall see how wide his eyes went? ]

• [ lmao did he just shake for real? ]

• [ Sun, if you’re scared, just say it bro ]

• [ 😂 ]

Could chat still be chat if they didn’t notice something like this?

The quality of the game and the reactions of the streamer was really pumping up the viewers. The chat was speeding by so fast that it was having slight buffering issues.

Clearly, a large portion of viewers were spooked as well and were using the interaction to dampen their fears. But it was hard to look away.

“Damn… Dammit! There’s nothing happening! Nothing to be scared of! It’s just a video game! Pixels! I’m not gonna let pixels scare me!”

Sun Yixie let out a warcry and turned on the camcorder’s night vision mode. The green hue made the atmosphere even more intense.

Letting out another, slightly smaller, warcry, Sun Yixie began to explore the area.

He pushed open a door that was slightly ajar and walked forward.

Suddenly, a previously inactive television was turned on, emitting a sharp static noise.

“AHHHHHHH!”

The noise broke down the frail mental barrier Sun Yixie had erected for himself and really shook him.

In fear and surprise, he let out a shrill shriek that could be considered world-class, flailed his legs wildly, and covered his eyes.

After a few seconds to calm down, and realizing that no other sounds were flooding his headphones, he parted his hands slightly to peep at the screen.

In-game, the dark room was partially lit by the white static of the television, no other movements were seen and the protagonist was standing, safe and sound.

Confirming that there was no immediate danger, Sun Yixie let his hands drop from his face onto his chest as he let out a sigh in relief.

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