Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

• [ 23333333, what’s wrong brother Sun? Having some trouble breathing? ]

• [ Stop it everyone, please stop it he’s already dead XD ]

• [ “Horror games are as easy as breathing for me” ]

• [ Looks like he’ll need an oxygen machine, someone help ]

• [ HE NEED SOME MILK ]

• [ It’s ok bro, we can play something else if you’re struggling, just let us know, ok? ]

• [ Guys he’s obviously playing it up for the stream ]

Even though the stream was featuring a horror game, a relatively unpopular category, and even though the stream just started about 10 minutes ago, the chatroom was buzzing like it was prime-time on New Year’s Eve.

Seeing countless messages scrolling by, Sun Yixie felt a difficult mix of elation and embarrassment. This would do wonders for the channel, and all it took was the low, low cost of his dignity…

But this game! This game was completely different from anything he’s seen! It was turning everything he understood about horror games upside-down.

The atmosphere, the graphics, the immersion, it was strong. So strong that it was almost overwhelming. Somehow it felt similar to playing a good VR game. He shuddered at the thought of this game being adapted for VR.

Part of this is attributed to the nature of horror games. From a psychological perspective, players feel more immersed when they are focused on the game. Some games rely on storytelling, voice-acting, music, etc to pull players into a state of immersion. But horror games were a bit different.

Players start these games up, knowing they will get scared, knowing that the objective of the game is to scare them. What they don’t know is when and where the attempts will come from. When coupled with music and atmosphere, this is enough to keep players focused on the game and immersed.

That’s why players often feel drained or tired after playing for some time. The high levels of focus and concentration required can be mentally taxing.

Looking at his screen, then glancing back at the chat, Sun Yixie paused for a bit and reached out to grab his keyboard and mouse, laying them out on a hard piece of cardboard he picked up from the floor, and placed the whole setup on his lap.

He was attempting to relax himself by creating a bit of distance between him and the screen.

He was also attempting to ignore the increasingly speedy chatroom as the viewers gave their opinions on his current actions.

However, as he continued his exploration this way, Sun Yixie felt that this didn’t seem to help much. He instead began to experience a bit of paranoia, as if there were hidden things watching him from behind or around the room.

As he controlled Miles to crawl through a gap in the walls, into an air duct, he kept glancing towards his chat screen, taking comfort in sharing this newfound torment with so many people.

He looked around his room and raised his voice, trying to muster up the nonchalance he felt prior to booting up the game.

“Damn it! Ain’t nothing to be afraid of, damn it!”

“What’s the use of being scared? We just have to move forward step by step! I am in control! I’m not scared at all!”

After crawling out the other side, Sun Yixie had to take a moment to get rid of the lump in his throat. The walls around him were stained with blood.

He wanted to get out of this place as soon as he could, so he moved towards the half-opened door and pushed it open hastily.

In the next moment, the music in-game became sharp and loud, and a corpse hanging from the ceiling swung towards the protagonist, filling up the screen space.

Both Miles in the game and Sun Yixie outside the game let out an almost synchronized high-pitched scream.

[ AHHHHHH ]

“AHHHHHH!”

The scare made Sun Yixie repeat his earlier actions, retreating into a defensive shell. His breaths were heavy and his heart was beating out of his chest.

He lost face again, all because of that damn scare.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit! I can scream, but why are you screaming!” Sun Yixie pointed at the screen as he noticed the protagonist’s heavy breathing in his headphones, trying to change the topic.

It might be a bit hard to believe, but the main reason he got so scared wasn’t because of the hanging corpse appearing, but because of the protagonist’s own loud scream hitting him a few nanoseconds early.

Being already rattled, the sound of another person screaming made him subconsciously scream as well.

His legs, hidden from view under the table, were shaking and trembling slightly. And the back of his shirt was soaked in a cold sweat. This couldn’t be shown to the chat no matter what! His pride wouldn’t allow it!

Sun Yixie, patted his chest and took a few deep breaths, centering himself.

Looking back at the game screen, he hesitated for a moment, then got up from his chair and started walking around the room. He lowered the temperature of his air conditioning, then retrieved something from a nearby cabinet.

It was a thick hoodie with a knockoff superhero brand.

“Brothers, the room is getting too cold, I need some extra clothing.” Sun Yixie addressed the chat while putting it on, pulling up the hood and wearing his headphones over it.

This was, of course, taken as the peak of cowardice.

• [ ????????? ]

• [ Brother Sun is amazing. Brother Sun wears his hoodie because its cold, obviously ]

• [ Exactly, horror games are ez as breathing for Brother Sun, how could this level of game scare him? ]

• [ Don’t worry brother, we know you aren’t scared. Kappa ]

Seeing sarcastic comments flood the chat, Sun Yixie wanted to refute but couldn’t find the words to do so.

So he moved on in a huff, swiftly reloading the camcorder batteries and carried on in his exploration.

One of the doors was open so he moved into the room. It was littered with headless corpses. Blood painted the walls and floors, some even getting on the ceiling, and there wasn’t a piece of in-tact furniture to be found, everything was shattered.

Human heads lined the shelves and cupboards in various states of decay, but judging by the blood trails leaking downwards and pooling on the ground, some were rather fresh.

In the night-vision view of the camcorder, the horrid scene was amplified in the minds of everyone who laid eyes on it.

Sun Yixie, as the player, was most heavily affected by the mental debuff. He didn’t dare take a closer look at the corpses and random body parts.

“Go, go, go, go, go!”

Just as he reached the middle of the room, one of the “corpses” spoke up.

“Oh Shit! Fuck! Is this game actually trying to kill people?”

He trembled a bit, but didn’t scream out this time. Instead, mumbling curses into the mic.

Turning towards the source of the voice, he saw a man impaled on a steel rod, like a human kebab.

[ They killed us. They got out. The Variants ]

[ You can’t fight them. You have to hide ]

[ …Can unlock the main doors from Security Control ]

The dying man coughed blood and sputtered out his final words.

[ You have to get the fuck out of this terrible place… ]

Before going still.

He was obviously just a messenger NPC, meant to deliver his hints to the player and then fade into the background.

But at this moment, Sun Yixie no longer had any interest in the secrets of Mt. Massive Asylum. His mind was dominated by one thought:

Run!

The scenes and atmospheres were simply too oppressive, everything was uncomfortable and caused major unease. This quality of horror was unheard of in this world, it was borderline psychotic.

Why is he exploring this asylum? Why is he playing this damn game?! But still, he felt compelled to continue.

“Fuck this! Let me out… Let me OUT!!!”

With the help of the camcorder, he eventually made his way out of the dark room and into a more well-lit corridor.

However, he didn’t notice a shadow flickering past another door beside him.