My game is depressing worldwide.

Upon hearing this, everyone in the studio exchanged bewildered glances.

Shen Qingtu raised his hand and asked, "What is a Souls-like game?"

"Oh, I forgot to explain. This will be a demo of our next buy-to-play single-player game, Dark Souls. Because of its innovation and fun, it will create a new genre of action games, so we named it after it—Souls-like."

These words were met with a long silence, leaving everyone bewildered.

There's also the concept of xxlike on Earth, meaning that every world is strikingly similar.

What they have in common is that these games all pioneered a new type of gameplay.

It relies on its fun, replicability, and wide acceptance, as well as favorable timing, location, and people—all these factors are indispensable.

That's what everyone thought.

Given the size of Asylum Studios, why would they suddenly decide to make an action game demo and then claim that this thing is going to create a new genre?

What a joke.

Zhou Qian scratched his head and asked hesitantly, "Brother Xuan, have you been under a lot of stress lately? Have you considered seeing a psychologist?"

"Good question, don't ask it again." Chen Xuan ignored him. "You might not have a good idea just by talking about it, or we can use a concept that you can accept—the performance of the game's protagonist will be far inferior to that of BOSS and elite monsters in all aspects, and even inferior to some small monsters."

Everyone was stunned by these words.

Even Yu Xiaoming, whose development skills weren't particularly strong, couldn't help but ask, "If that's the case, it will make the game too difficult, causing players to feel extremely frustrated! Think it over, Brother Xuan."

"Yeah, boss. In every aspect, its performance is far inferior to that of the elite BOSS. Players have to fight for a long time, but if they make a mistake, won't they be killed in two hits?"

"Isn't this a bit illogical? The boss can fly and teleport, while the players move like snails?"

"Of course not," Chen Xuan replied, but before the players could breathe a sigh of relief, he added, "We will give players a roll skill with 13 frames of invincibility, and it will share stamina resources with actions such as attacking and raising a shield, to prevent players from abusing it."

Everyone: ? ? ? ? ?

"Boss, have some decency... what's the difference between 13 frames per second invincibility and none at all?"

"They share stamina? Doesn't that easily lead to the awkward situation where you can't attack the enemy after dodging an attack?"

"This design... isn't it a bit too difficult?"

Shen Qingtu didn't join the discussion, but instead asked, "With this design, are you trying to create a retro-style, high-difficulty action game?"

"Of course not, there are still quite a few differences. First of all, players cannot save themselves in the game; they need to find a save point called a 'campfire.' This save point also serves to restore character status, level up characters, and teleport to other campfires."

"Secondly, the main currency in the game is 'Souls,' which is the basic currency for purchasing items and also the experience points for leveling up."

"Third, once a player dies, they will drop all their 'souls' and respawn at the campfire, along with all the monsters that died along the way. The dropped souls can be retrieved, but if the player dies again, they will lose them permanently."

"Fourth, the map and quest guidance have been removed. Players do not know the location of the next campfire and need to carefully explore the numerous forks in the road."

Fifth, all items and rewards that can improve character performance require players to explore more side paths at great risk; there will be no freebies.

"Sixth, the map design is too complex to explain in a sentence or two, so let's not talk about it for now. The demo version doesn't need such a complex design."

After talking for quite a while, Chen Xuan picked up his teacup, took a sip, and then asked, "Is there anything you can ask me?"

Everyone: ......

It's all problems!

What's the point of doing this?! It can't just be torturing the players!

Although it is difficult to know the true nature of a game just by talking about it.

But......

This game, titled "Dark Souls," sounds like it's no ordinary game.

Moreover, everyone was somewhat confused for a moment.

This thing completely overturned what they learned in school, and they all felt at a loss as to how to use it.

What positive feedback loop, what lowering the barrier to entry, what appropriately reducing the penalty for death...?

Isn't Dark Souls doing the complete opposite?

What kind of expressive desire exists in game creation?

No, I just want to say "baba aba" and do whatever the boss tells me to do.

Yu Xiaoming: "Boss, what's the point of making this demo? Are we going to put the Honkai Impact 3rd project on hold?"

Upon hearing this, Xiong Xuewen was so anxious he almost jumped up.

"Of course not. The Lunar New Year is just around the corner, so consider this demo a Lunar New Year gift, a chance for players to experience Future Studio's work in advance. At the same time, let's see if we can use it to... cough, invite an experienced and highly capable combat designer."

It's already the end of December, and there's only a little over a month left until the Lunar New Year.

Zhou Qian raised his hand: "What about the scale of the demo?"

"8% of the work is done in boss battles—Gundam, the Ashen Judge."

As he spoke, Chen Xuan picked up the graphics tablet and began to write and draw on it.

Xiong Xuewen curiously came closer and looked at it.

As more images appeared on the screen, his eyes grew increasingly surprised, eventually becoming somewhat excited.

Handsome!

This BOSS was tall and dark-colored, wearing heavy armor covered in wear and tear, standing in the center of the square like a weathered statue.

He resembled a defeated knight, his mask hanging low, a long spiral sword embedded in his body, and a halberd in his hand. Sticky tentacles grew from the back of his head, as if he had been parasitized.

At the same time, there are also some arrows pointing out annotations on the screen, explaining some key design points.

Zhou Qian was also watching; the new combat planner had not yet joined the company, so he and another employee needed to work part-time.

"Gundam the Ashen One is designed with two phases. In the first phase, his main attack is with his halberd, which mainly tests the player's shield parrying skills. In the second phase, his main attack is with slapping or slamming and swinging of his tentacles, which mainly tests the player's rolling skills."

"Note that the BOSS must be aggressive. Unless the player parries the attack, the only time you can attack is during the very short animation before and after the attack."

"The boss battle lasts about 2 to 3 minutes. Of course, some players may find a trick or have superb skills and end the battle in 1 minute; or some players may be particularly good at surviving and can drag it out to about 4 minutes to win or die. The goal is to ensure that the battle time for the vast majority of players is within this range."

"If you have any malicious designs you can't wait to come up with, or methods that can torture the players, you can also add them."

After a small project initiation meeting, or rather a brainstorming session, Chen Xuan stretched and sat back down at his computer to continue watching the live stream.

"Brother Xuan, aren't you keeping an eye on us? This game has such a strong personal style; we're afraid we won't understand some of your creative ideas. Also, why are you so engrossed in watching Lao Wei's livestream?"

"Of course... it's about finding the first victim for Dark Souls."