Contact the motion capture studio to produce various assets.
Meanwhile, Chen Xu led the entire team in developing Outlast.
The development cost of this game wasn't low, but neither was it as high as imagined.
After completing the budget report, the total development cost of the game, including subsequent promotional costs, was tentatively set at 6 million. Of course, it might increase slightly later, but it wouldn't exceed 8 million.
For a horror game, this figure was relatively large within the genre.
The team members were extremely excited about this.
After all, this was their first big project.
………………
As time progressed day by day,
Art, actions, and various resources were steadily produced.
The story dialogue for the game had already been written and would undergo voice acting later.
Various actions for the protagonist were also undergoing constant testing and refinement.
"Now I already feel a creepy feeling; how scary will the final product be?"
In the office, Ruan Ningxue sat in front of her computer, staring at the concept design art on the secondary monitor, still feeling a lingering fear.
These concept artworks were mainly scene images: the asylum building in darkness, scenes filled with blood and corpses, mentally ill patients hiding under hospital beds in dark rooms, and footage captured by a DV in night vision mode.
These few concept paintings fully showcased the eerie atmosphere of Outlast. It was spine-chilling just to look at them, let alone play the game.
You see, during the period of developing Outlast, she had been staying up late every night.
Why?
Because she was afraid!
That day, she didn't know what came over her—she actually took the DV given to her by Chen Xu and tried it out at night. The extremely hellish atmosphere instantly made her feel completely unwell.
After all, mental visualization followed by scaring oneself was the scariest thing.
But precisely because of this, her concept art designs, created according to Chen Xu's requirements, had an excellent feel to them.
"Yeah! And in the game, players can't fight back—they can only run away." Listening to Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin sighed beside her.
Chen Xu, who was working on an action design, smiled: "Isn't that engaging? And if we gave guns, it would easily turn into an FPS game. After all, fear stems from insufficient firepower."
Why do typical horror games include firearms?
On one hand, it enriches the game content; on the other, it provides players with an appropriate outlet for venting.
This approach is actually quite suitable—the previous life's Resident Evil adopted precisely this model.
But this method also has a significant flaw: it easily turns horror games into FPS games.
After all, horror arises from insufficient firepower. With enough firepower, fear can be suppressed.
Even Resident Evil in the previous life gradually went astray in this aspect.
After the fourth installment, it leaned heavily towards "Bang Bang Bang," only returning to the path of fear with the remake, and in Resident Evil Village, it perfectly balanced the rhythm.
Of course, for most players, what they cared about wasn't how terrifying the game was or how well-paced it was.
Their attention was entirely captured by Lady Dimitrescu and Lady Dimitrescu's three daughters.
"But Mr. Chen, when are we going to start the pre-release promotion for Outlast? I see many players online asking about the new work," Yang Xin said.
Unlike before, when only the three of them were in the R&D department, now with new employees onboarded, they properly addressed Chen Xu as "Mr. Chen" instead of calling each other by their first names as they used to.
"Yeah, the development progress feels really fast. It should be able to launch around December," Ruan Ningxue said.
The scale of Outlast wasn't very large. The main workload was concentrated on various actions and art asset production.
In terms of gameplay mode, development was extremely fast—there was almost no trial and error needed.
The development process had been smooth sailing.
"We don't need to rush spending money on promotion and pre-release promotion yet. We'll start in mid to late November."
"My official Weibo account already has quite a few followers. Also, do you two forget what day tomorrow is?"
Chen Xu said with a smile.
What day?
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue were taken aback, then looked at the lower right corner of their computer desktops.
October 30?
"Halloween! I've already pre-recorded the pre-release promotional materials, specifically waiting for this holiday to announce them."
"After all, players have been looking forward to it for a whole month. Announcing our new work on this holiday—wouldn't that be incredibly down-to-earth?"
Chen Xu smiled as he spoke to Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue, simultaneously opening a short video on his desktop.
The video wasn't long, only ten seconds.
At first, the screen was pitch black. The next moment,画面 appeared, but not a normal one.
It was the DV's night vision mode. In the upper right corner, a battery indicator was visible, and in the upper left corner, a red dot kept flashing, indicating the DV was recording.
The DV footage showed Chen Xu's office.
Chairs were toppled on the ground, and various documents on the desk were deliberately scattered.
The entire video was silent, completely devoid of sound.
Combined with the DV's night vision footage, it felt incredibly eerie and unsettling.
At the ninth second of playback, the DV footage suddenly trembled, as if the cameraperson had been attacked. Yet strangely, there was still not a single sound. Then the video ended, plunging into darkness.
Silence filled the office. Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue stared at Chen Xu, speechless for a long time.
"Mr. Chen, I think being down-to-earth shouldn't mean connecting all the way to the Underworld," Ruan Ningxue finally said after holding back for a long time, slowly looking at Chen Xu.
This pre-release promotion clearly signaled to players that their next project would be a horror game.
But could this promotional method really be called "down-to-earth"?
This was probably already connected straight to the Underworld.
Releasing on Halloween, and specifically filming such a DV recording at midnight.
You're really something else, Mr. Chen!
Beside her, Yang Xin couldn't help but voice her thoughts: "And Mr. Chen, didn't you say you were a Warrior of Love? Outlast has absolutely nothing to do with love. Can't we use something from the living world for this promotion?"
"How can you say it has nothing to do with love? Haven't horror game enthusiasts been saying there haven't been any good horror games in recent years? Why am I developing Outlast? It's my love for these players! Isn't that exactly what a Warrior of Love is?"
"As for something from the living world, don't you think this promotion perfectly aligns with the theme of Outlast? Besides, this will attract far greater attention than a normal announcement. We need to seize this popularity!" Chen Xu said solemnly.
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