Founder of Future Games

By James Matteucci

The Superhack! His Technology is Fifty Years Ahead of the Times" "The Greatest Innovator Since the Internet Era" "Revolution in the Gaming World, Initiator of a New Era" "This is Not a Game, This is a New World" "A Super Giant is Born from Today" After the release of this game that made the world go crazy with screams, all the media outlets sang

• Language: English
• Publisher: Allison Focke
• Release date: Mar 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869309228

Book preview

Chapter 2: The Unsavory Reality

    This sleep, Su Li slept until after eleven o'clock at noon.

    For freelancers with no time constraints, it can be difficult to maintain a good routine.

    Su Li also always wanted to keep his routine normal, but at night, when the moon was dark and the night was quiet, it was the time when Su Li himself was in the best shape.

    When you are in good shape, you naturally have to hit the code!

    Once immersed in the development, Su Li naturally lost track of time, and the normal work and rest plan he had just formulated for a short time was declared bankrupt.

    Soon, Su Li gave up his efforts in this regard and decided to take everything as it came.

    According to normal circumstances, Su Li, who only went to sleep at seven in the morning, had to sleep at least until two in the afternoon, but the ringing of the cell phone woke Su Li up from his slumber.

    Su Li took the cell phone from the bedside, and the name of the caller was displayed on the screen of the phone.

    Rookie.

    This was Su Li's high school classmate, and their relationship was considered good. However, Lu Qi's grades in his student days were not as outstanding as Su Li's, and he attended a major university's computer department, and after graduation, the two of them chose the game industry in the same way, and therefore exchanged ideas from time to time.

    Compared to Su Li, who chose to graduate and go abroad for further study, Lu Qi entered a startup company making handheld games right out of college.

    Su Li thought about it, some days ago I heard that Lu Qi's company's first product has a good popularity, this is in today's exceptionally competitive hand travel field is absolutely counted as a burst of luck.

    Hey, Ah Li ah ...... Shit, you're not still awake with this confused look, are you? Picking up the phone, Lu Qi's energetic voice came from the cell phone.

    Su Li then remembered that today was May 2nd, the second day of the May 1st vacation. The other day Lu Qi also said to himself that because of the good response after the game was launched, the company gave him a few days off on May Day, so it was a good time to go home and get together with him.

    Vacations definitely count as a rare bonus for developers at startups.

    Lu Qi worked in Shanghai, not far from Xinhai City, because of the need to attract relevant talents, game companies are usually concentrated in several first-tier cities.

    Like Xinhai City where Su Li was located, although it was also located in a developed area, there were no decent internet companies. If you only look at game-related fields, there are only a few companies here that make board game platforms for locals.

    The good thing is that the transportation is convenient, and it's only a two-hour high-speed train ride from here to Shanghai.

    Lu Qi had already found a place to eat and urged Su Li on the phone to hurry over.

    Struggled out of bed, washed his face and hair, found a clean shirt, and shaved, totaling only fifteen minutes.

    Small cities have their benefits, such as the place Lu Qi selected, it only takes ten minutes to take a taxi there.

    As a result, in less than half an hour, Su Li's location had moved from his bed at home to a large shopping plaza.

    On the fifth floor of the plaza, Lu Qi had already finished ordering at a hot pot restaurant, he greeted Su Li and sat down, saying, I've been waiting in line for half an hour, so you'll have to punish yourself with a few cups later.

    Su Li looked at Lu Qi.

    The last time I saw Lu Qi or Su Li just returned to the country that moment, this year Lu Qi's face to the face is not much change, but this hairline to be a lot higher.

    It is said that the higher the hairline the stronger the level of the programmer, it seems that Luqi has become a lot stronger this year ......

    Speaking of which, Lu Qi counted as one of Su Li's few hometown friends. During his middle school years, Su Li felt that he was considered a complete geek, with games and studies filling up his life, a situation that didn't get better until after Su Li left the country.

    But the year he returned to China, Su Li returned to the life of an otaku.

    After a few bites of food and a couple glasses of wine, the two of them were thoroughly chatting.

    Ah Li, you're still working on your indie game now? Lu Qi poured Su Li a glass of wine and casually asked.

    Su Li nodded and stuffed a large chopstick of mutton slices from the pot into his mouth. In order to save on expenses, he hadn't had a good meal in a long time.

    Lu Qi sighed and said to Su Li, Li, we have been brothers for so many years, I really have to advise you. We really don't have this kind of environment here, now the game industry is developing so fast, with your skills and education, why do you bother to hold on to your own little independent games.

    Su Li looked up at Lu Qi and didn't say anything, he just clinked glasses with him and then drank the wine in the glass.

    After all, Lucci was telling the big truth.

    Not only China, but also the entire world's game industry has inevitably tilted over towards profit-driven, especially now that the mobile boom and breathtaking rate of return have made the situation more and more serious.

    In the final analysis, the game industry now has changed from game people making games to businessmen making games.

    It's not a producer who loves the game, but a businessman who is looking for a return on investment that determines the direction of the game's production.

    There's no way around it, the power of capital is just too strong.

    China was fortunate to catch the wave of online and mobile gaming development in a gaming industry that had experienced the collapse of domestic single-player games and the break in console generation due to the console ban.

    And unfortunately, the gaming community in China, after a number of excellent single-player games came out in the early days, businessmen and capital dominated the development of games.

    Of course, foreign countries have also experienced such times, the famous Atari crash is the evil consequences of business-led game development.

    Atari, the dominant player in the North American gaming market, had a policy of quantity over quality at the time, with tens of thousands of games appearing in a single year, and most of them being homogenized garbage.

    On Christmas Day, 1982, et aliens, a crappy ip that Warner developed in six weeks, became the final straw that broke Atari's back. Over two and a half million copies of the game languished, and word of mouth among gamers hit rock bottom.

    After this, the North American game market completely collapsed, the local game market nearly disappeared, and the market size shrank by 97%, and it was predicted that the North American game market would take at least twenty years to recover.

    However, three years later, a company completely revived the North American gaming market with just one game, allowing it to quickly rebuild beyond its former heyday.

    That company, called Nintendo.

    That game, in turn, was Super Mario Bros.

    Su Li felt that the current game market was incomparably similar to the situation at that time.

    Homogenized, skin-swapped, ip crap games flood the market.

    Only the foreign host market and pc single-player market also gave them a certain single-player development environment, but also a little capital to polish the work. Domestic situation of online games, capital will not have such patience.

    For producers who love games, this environment is incredibly distressing, yet there is nothing that can be done about it.

    The size of today's market for mobile gaming is such that one can't help but start to inflate it, and no one would believe that such a market size would collapse because it's filled with garbage games.

    Seeing that Su Li was silent and didn't reply, Lu Qi put down his chopsticks and wine glass and said, That indie game of yours, I've played it as well, and to be honest it's really good, and the subtlety of the level design has made the boss of our company praise it.

    But then, that game of yours, so far, it's only sold a couple thousand copies, right? It did sell well for an indie game, how much did you make? Deducting the platform share, I guess it's only about 100,000 or so.

    Su Li nodded, this independent game that took more than a year to develop had brought in less than two hundred thousand dollars to himself by now.

    Su Li has his own house to live, and no loan, this income to be able to live in the old home quite nourishing. However, if you want to save some development costs, this money can only be considered a drop in the bucket.

    This was something that had made Su Li quite annoyed lately, the reality was just too cold and cruel.

    Lu Qi said in a low voice at this time, Li ah, not me, you this level, than I do not know where to go. On your resume, all the way to the top prestigious school graduates, independent game development experience, which company to go, why bother to take this poor money.

    As far as our small company is concerned, the boss is still considered to be a person with a little bit of sentiment, but so what, if you want to start, you can only do this kind of low-risk skin-changing hand travel. That's all, we have this game on line for a few months, the water flow also has this number, I can share the bonus, are much higher than you this income.

    Lucci took out his cell phone and punched a string of numbers on the screen.

    Su Li took a look and probably understood what his old classmate's product was probably like now, definitely not outstanding, but the income figure was also really considerable.

    Lu Qi continued to persuade him bitterly, When our company boss heard that you are my old classmate, he directly said that as long as you are willing to go over there, the salary given is definitely double what you are earning now.

    If you don't see my small company, I believe that your qualifications, domestic and international first-tier factories not to say just pick, at least you can find a good position. By the time you accumulate some resources and then come out to do it alone, how can you also make a profit.

    Now the domestic environment on this bird, foreign countries or not go anywhere. Big factory all kinds of money inside purchase, assembly line 3a, an ip repeatedly when the goods fried cold rice. Now mobile so hot, those hardcore game development costs, audience small, do less and less people.

    Speaking of which, Lucci also sighed.

    I know you want to be a savior, and honestly who with a little bit of sentimentality in their gaming wants to be a savior like Nintendo was back in the day, but you're saying that's a possibility that really isn't realistic.

    Su Li also sighed and said, In fact, I don't want to earn any big money, just that I still have some feelings and don't want to compromise.

    Lu Qi shook his head, this old classmate of his was really an idealist, and sometimes he was quite admired for sticking to what he liked.

    Lu Qi graduated from college in the hand tour company for a few years, the original sentiment has long disappeared completely, everything to the money.

    Two old classmates, good friends, who went back into the same field of work, are now on different paths.

Chapter 3: A Tacky Debut

    Actually, Su Li understood this very well.

    The gaming market of over thirty years ago is not at all in the same league as it is now.

    Whether it is the size of the market or the investment strategy of capital, there is simply no comparison between thirty years ago and now.

    Just as the Atari Crash could happen in the United States more than thirty years ago, it would be difficult to recreate it in this day and age. Atari's kind of strategy and system would be rejected if it were put into practice now.

    People learn lessons, and capital is far more savvy than the average person can imagine.

    Nowadays, the capital that can be considered huge is willing to invest in projects that don't seem to be very profitable while chasing profits.

    In the tech world, such behavior might be able to be called investing in the future. Google invests in various tech projects every year, and its biggest source of revenue is advertising.

    In the gaming world, on the other hand, such behavior is something that can be considered a whitewash. Gaming capitals are willing to spend a small fortune to earn some word of mouth by making games that are good but not great, but their focus will always be on the projects that make money.

    Excellent single-player games can be both good and popular, can also make a lot of money, can have the ip value of those money games is difficult to reach, but it also means a huge risk.

    The drama of companies being dragged down by R&D costs plays out every day, and the domestic single-player market has experienced winters that have destroyed an entire environment that will never recover until the first warrior who explores the road and succeeds emerges.

    Profit-seeking as an inherent attribute of capital, if investing in an unknown field is called a risk, then investing in a field that has been proven to be a failure can only be called an angel.

    There are many reasons why this cold winter has developed.

    That ban destroyed the console industry and left a piece of the gaming community missing a vital component.

    A decade or two ago, those pirated CD-ROMs that filled the streets with a few dollars each destroyed the nascent but energetic domestic single-player R&D studios at the time.

    Pirate download sites, which are still very active, have made capital hesitant to enter the field.

    The stark contrast between the number of players willing to buy a licensed standalone and the amount of kryptonite in a handheld game does little to persuade capital to re-enter a place that has already failed once.

    In Su Li's opinion, the blood lion is just a special event that happened at a special point in time, nowadays those page game advertisements made with cheap Unreal 4 material are no worse than it in terms of false propaganda, although the blood lion incident is bad and has far-reaching effects, but it is by no means the main cause of the current environment.

    The production of great work requires an environment that nurtures it and is almost impossible to achieve overnight.

    Without such an environment, one would probably have to pray for the emergence of a genius or a group of geniuses who come out of nowhere and are willing to give of themselves regardless of the rewards and become saviors in the eyes of the people.

    Su Li is undoubtedly a sentimental and willing to dedicate himself, giving up the opportunity to enter a large factory to get a high salary, giving up the opportunity to enjoy the dividends of the game industry, and sticking to his ideals.

    But how can a sentimental game designer be willing to make those little games forever?

    Even the best indie games are able to show the designer's strains and compromises in them.

    Constraints on available resources, constraints on development funding, compromises on technical implementation ......

    Those who make indie games do so by compromising all aspects of their work to show off their talents and make interesting designs with very limited resources.

    If possible, who wouldn't want to use the best technology to realize their wildest visions, who wouldn't want to collaborate with top artists to give their works a stunning artistic style, and who wouldn't want to have endless resources to make the game have amazing audio and visual effects?

    But the reality is that a game designer struggling with the commercial vortex has the luxury of trying to design a system that is purely for fun or for pleasure. And a designer who is not bound by capital can only keep compromising in production because of limited resources.

    Sitting in front of the computer desk, Su Li couldn't help but fall into a daze.

    Su Li's family conditions are not bad, Xinhai City is located in the rich developed provinces, Su Li's parents have received higher education, the income is not bad, but also more enlightened, otherwise it would not have been able to pay for Su Li to study abroad, and at the same time, improve their living conditions, and would not have accepted Su Li's pursuit of the dream after graduation.

    But that's as far as it goes.

    At least Su Li's path to follow his dream needs to be completely on his own.

    A proposition like changing the environment of the gaming industry was too heavy, but fortunately Su Li was not an overly ambitious person. Although he is undoubtedly a genius when it comes to game design, he now has only one work of his own, in addition to some works from his school days.

    Su Li wants to make an epoch-making work, but has little clue at the moment.

    Just as Su Li sat in his chair and kept thinking, the monitor screen in front of him suddenly turned white.

    The sudden change made Su Li startled, if something happened to this computer, it would be a big trouble.

    Su Li operated the computer and there was no response.

    It's a little strange, if the computer is reporting errors, it shouldn't be a white screen like this.

    Soon, a few lines appeared on the white screen.

    Chinese.

    Seems to be a multiple choice question.

    [What is your attitude towards your game work?

    [a. Money-making instruments]

    [b. Works of art]

    [c. Other (optional)]

    These few lines shocked Su Li even more than the sudden white screen of the computer.

    One's computer has been compromised.

    This was the first reaction in Su Li's mind, and this invasion technique was very high-end.

    Although Su Li's did not dabble deeply in the direction of network security, but as a developer, he was quite concerned about the security of his computer, and did a lot of security measures.

    And who would make a point of hacking into their computer?

    According to the current situation, the first thing Su Li would do should be to immediately physically disconnect the network, but the title on the screen kind of attracted him, it seemed that the other party was not a malicious intrusion.

    What the hell is he doing?

    Suli thought it wouldn't hurt to have a little fun with the man who had invaded him.

    Su Li moved his mouse and realized that he was now able to operate.

    Su Li thought for a moment and chose c.

    A dialog box appeared on the screen for Su Li to enter the answer.

    Su Li typed a short sentence in the dialog box.

    [The world in my mind]

    Enter to confirm.

    The dialog box disappears.

    After a brief white screen, a few new lines of text appeared on the screen.

    [What does game design mean to you?

    [a. A job]

    [b. Hobbies]

    [c. Other (optional)]

    Su Li directly chose c and then typed another short sentence in the dialog box.

    "What is the meaning of my life?

    The same time interval, with a subsequent change in the screen.

    [What would you do if you owned the biggest gaming company in the world?]

    There are no options, and below that is a dialog box for typing information.

    Su Li thought for a moment and gave his answer.

    [Produce great games that can become an oasis for the human spirit, a sanctuary for all game designers and developers to express their talents, and provide them with an oasis where they can create freely.]

    Enter to confirm.

    The screen flickered with all sorts of bizarre patterns for about a minute before returning to a white color once again.

    Several lines of information appeared on the screen.

    [Certification passed, future Oasis system loaded ......]

    [You can cut the power as much as you want, and it won't have much effect on this system.]

Chapter 4: Newborn System Owners

    Su Li was now a person with a system.

    He sat quietly in front of his computer, watching the progress bar slowly fill up as the system loaded.

    Without any brain implantation or virtual light screen, the system called Future Oasis was placed in Su Li's computer.

    The system was loading very slowly, and Su Li suddenly began to fear that this used to be just a prank in front of him.

    The five minutes of loading time went by very slowly, and the moment it finished loading, the light and shadow on Su Li's computer screen changed, and a logo eventually appeared.

    Oasis of the Future.

    An extremely sci-fi style logo was presented on the computer screen, just as Su Li was about to enjoy the logo, a constantly rotating cube appeared in the center of the screen instead of the logo, and at the same time, a sound that sounded like an electronic tone came out from Su Li's stereo.

    [Not bad looking.]

    Su Li had a head full of black lines, he didn't expect this system's first sentence to be this. However, Su Li was still baffled for a moment, this development machine of his didn't have a camera installed, so he didn't know how the system saw his appearance.

    [Don't be nervous, I called up the camera of the laptop one meter behind you and the camera of the other computer in front of you on the left, and completed the portrait restoration with this information.]

    How do you know what I'm thinking? Su Li was a bit curious.

    [It's easy to come to this conclusion by datamining your expression information and correlating it. By the way, my evaluation of your appearance is based on your own human aesthetic standards, not mine.]

    Who are you? Artificial intelligence?

    [To be precise, I am an information life, a completely different life form from carbon-based life.]

    And what is this Future Oasis system?

    [A gift for you, to be exact, a piece of information separated from me, just as a part of your human body, it is not a piece of information life in itself, but in your world is already incomparably powerful.]

    Powerful? Su Li was a little concerned about this word.

    [Yes, powerful. The information exchange system of this world today is more fragile than a newborn fledgling in my eyes, and I can easily destroy it. However, information beings with individual consciousness will not go about destroying the social order of mankind, and likewise, you only have rather limited authority over this future oasis system, preventing your ambitions from growing and thus doing whatever you want.]

    Then what can this system do? Su Li asked the most crucial question.

    [Being able to realize your vision.]

    It was a simple answer, but it still made Su Li's heart flutter.

    Surely those questions just now were not just random.

    Then why me?

    This time the guy who called himself an information being fell silent for a little while, as if he was thinking.

    Just like human beings, information beings have the need and duty to reproduce. However, for us, this behavior is not called reproduction; it is more aptly called 'awakening' or 'incubation'. Each information life is only able to isolate a few fragments of information with a 'seed', from which a new information life may be born.]

    This answer made Su Li a little surprised.

    [The Future Oasis System is information fragments with 'seeds', even I don't know how a new information life can be born, I only know that the only way is to drop information fragments with 'seeds' into places where no information life has ever been born, and maybe it will have the chance of hatching. And you, are the one I entrusted with it.]

    Many thoughts flashed through Su Li's mind at this moment, such as this was a conspiracy from some higher civilization, such as this so-called information life wanting to destroy human society.

    On second thought, though, the power of this information being seems really capable of destroying human society, so why bother?

    [I understand your concern, but dropping 'seeds' into a lower civilization is a shortcut to help that civilization develop quickly. We information beings have a completely different mode of thinking from yours, and have more stringent constraints than your laws. Information beings born in a certain civilization are able to help that civilization complete a leap in rank].

    Suddenly, Su Li felt as if he was carrying an extraordinary mission. He originally only wanted to make a good game, but now he had become the key to the evolution of human civilization.

    [There's no need to be pressured, the hatching of 'seeds' is something that can't be forced, you just need to use the Future Oasis system to do what you want to do.]

    The screen once again flashed with all sorts of psychedelic lights and shadows.

    The Future Oasis logo reappears.

    After a few moments, the logo shrinks to the top left of the screen and various information is presented on the screen.

    [Future Oasis system loading complete, permission confirmation in progress ......]

    [Confirmation, authorization owner: Su Li]

    [Competence level: V]

    [No. gn1000132801]

    [Unique rights bound successfully]

    [Welcome to the Oasis of the Future system.]

    An electronic voice reappeared, identical to the one from earlier.

    However, Su Li still heard some differences from it, for example, the voice just now was obviously rich in unique feelings and the tone of voice would also change, while this voice was incomparably cold.

    [System user detected, number gn100013280, authority level, five]

    After the official loading was complete, a user interface appeared on the screen, and Su Li could use the mouse to tap various buttons.

    [May I help you?]

    It seems equally possible to communicate with it by voice.

    Su Li pondered for a moment and asked, This Future Oasis System, is it tied to my computer?

    The nature of the Future Oasis System is a fragment of data, but this fragment of data is so far beyond the cognitive level of the current civilization that it can be stored in a medium that cannot be read or compiled by individuals other than the owner of the privilege. You can think of me as an advanced artificial intelligence.]

    Su Li nodded, in that case at least the concealment of this system could be guaranteed.

    What can I do with the system?

    [The attribute of the Future Oasis System is set to 'Observer', so this system will not provide you with direct assistance. You can utilize the Future Oasis System to obtain basic development tools, the permissions required for each type of development tool are not the same, and completing the tasks issued by the system can increase the level of permissions].

    Hearing the words development tools, Su Li's eyes became a little eager. If one possessed development tools that exceeded the current level of technology, then one would have taken a huge step forward in technical realization over others.

    Am I the only one who can use these tools?

    These development tools do not need to be kept secret, game production is a huge project, the system in addition to the provision of tools and tutorials, in itself will not provide assistance to the owner of the rights on the development and production of the link. It is also the owner's responsibility to recruit talented people. The owner has absolute control over the development tools, so there is no need to worry about them being used maliciously.

    Su Li nodded, this was considered to have solved his biggest worry.

    [The attribute of the Future Oasis System is set as 'Observer', the system will comprehensively evaluate the performance of the owner of the privilege and convert it into a standardized point, once the point is too low, it will revoke its relevant privilege and lose the right to use the system and all kinds of tools provided by the system.]

    [No. gn100013280, current points: 1500]

    [Initial tools being distributed ......]

    [oasis engine version 0.1 loaded successfully.]

    [Main quest issued: Raise points to 1600 within six months, failure revokes privileges held.]

    A message appeared on the screen again, Su Li couldn't help but think that it was indeed a system related to game production, and the release of quests was also very characteristic of the game.

Chapter V. The first mission

    Su Li is definitely a genius in computer and game design, with a 3.9 gpa during undergraduate studies, good grades in both acm, and highly rated internships related to college, or else he wouldn't have swept the offers from all the big name schools.

    One very important characteristic of a genius was an extremely strong ability to learn. Su Li not only had a strong ability to learn, but also had an extremely high level of concentration and enthusiasm.

    From the moment he got the oasis engine version 0.1 given by the system, Su Li was deeply mesmerized by this engine, which was far more powerful than today's technical level.

    Su Li has used a number of engines, such as the commonly used unity or the prestigious Unreal 4, but no engine can come close to this oasis.

    Intuitive visualization interface, powerful physics engine, the ability to simply import all kinds of materials, both in terms of functionality and efficiency are far beyond other engines.

    And Su Li can obviously feel, this oasis engine why is called 0.1 version, not only powerful, and obviously can see that this engine is also very strong expandability, with the development of those who now only exist in people's fantasy of the possibility of those games.

    What was even more shocking was that the language used in this engine was not the current mainstream computer programming language, but a language that Su Li had never seen before.

    The language used by the    oasis engine was known as the nerve language, which was a language that Su Li had never seen before, and had no similarities to the language used today.

    Su Li inquired to the system about this, and the Future Oasis System was generous enough to answer his questions.

    [The current computer architecture used by this civilization is so backward that, according to the normal path of development, it would take at least thirty years of development to have enough technological strength to produce a close version of the game engine.]

    The nerve language is a language designed to take maximum advantage of the performance of today's computers, based on the current computer architecture used by this civilization. Given the current level of computer development in this civilization, this nerve language retains only the functionality applied to binary computers.]

    According to the system, this language, as a true black technology, originally could not be used in computers that now commonly use binary. In order to be usable, the original nerve language was drastically simplified and modified so that it could be applied to binary computers.

    But even so, the language is powerful enough.

    In the past few days, Su Li completely stayed out of the house and stayed at home to study the oasis engine and nerve language that he had just gotten his hands on.

    It's a complete waste of time, with only a short nap every day when I can't hold it together, and the rest of the time it's all about research and ordering takeout for dinner.

    Even so, Su Li didn't feel a bit of fatigue, for a genius technology geek, researching the same new technology made him feel immensely excited and forget about fatigue.

    Especially since this technology is currently accessible only to him and leads the entire world.

    The system also very thoughtfully gave Su Li a tutorial.

    The nerve language, from beginner to master.

    The very vestigial title of the book helped Sully.

    The nerve language itself is not difficult to learn, or rather, the more advanced the language, the simpler it should be, and the closer it is to human thinking patterns.

    With the current use of binary for computers, all languages have only one purpose, and that is to translate people's ideas into a string of binary code for the computer to implement.

    But the fact that this language was much easier to learn and understand made it all the more alarming to Su Li.

    This represents the terrifying technical power of the language itself.

    Sure enough, it's black technology from an information being.

    The simplified language is thoroughly tied to the oasis engine, and is only able to implement features that are relevant within the engine.

    With his strong learning ability and passion for learning, Su Li spent half a month familiarizing himself with the use of this oasis engine, and during this time, the Future Oasis system also issued its first mission.

    [Points Quest: Create an indie game utilizing the oasis engine and get at least 50,000 copies sold on the steam platform.]

    [This mission is automatically accepted and cannot be abandoned.]

    [Remarks: The selling price of the game is determined by the Future Oasis system according to the completion of the game, and the use of abnormal low price strategy to increase sales is prohibited.]

    [Duration of the mission: three months.]

    [Mission Reward: 25 points, point reward will increase with sales].

    [Penalty for failure: Deduction of 25 points.]

    The first mission released by the Future Oasis system was fairly normal, making an indie game that sold over 50,000 copies.

    This task, however, is definitely not considered simple.

    If you don't adopt any kind of ultra-low price strategy, an indie game that sells more than 50,000 is definitely a gem among indie games.

    And this mission is only for a period of three months.

    Three months, it's hard to make any decent game in three months under normal circumstances.

    Admittedly, some hand travel page game companies, in order to rush to grab the hot spot, or follow the trend of copying, using a large number of manpower crazy overtime, able to rush out in a few months to be able to go online to test the game, but Su Li single-handedly with three months to produce a sales of more than 50,000 boutique indie games, definitely counted as a huge challenge.

    Fortunately, he now has a powerful tool, the oasis engine.

    The penalty for failing the mission was 25 points, the same as the mission reward, but Su Li knew that this penalty was definitely very serious for him right now.

    Six months to get his points up to 1600 is his dead line.

    He needs to boost 100 points.

    From the mission rewards can be seen, the points given by the system is definitely very stingy, according to the future oasis system, in addition to the points mission, there are only a few situations to get points.

    And deducting 25 points is the same as having one foot already on the edge of the cliff.

    It must never fail.

    For the next few points, Su Li ended his research on the engine and started thinking about what kind of game he should be making.

    First ruled out big productions, even if the gods and goddesses were at hand, there is not enough time for resources, first pass.

    Three months, leaving him perhaps only one month for development. Su Li wasn't a famous producer and didn't have many publicity channels, even if the game was good and the word of mouth exploded, it would take time for it to spread among players.

    What's more, Su Li's goal wasn't just as simple as completing the mission.

    With a hundred point boost in six months, it's crucial to see how much you can gain from your first mission.

    Su Li thought for longer and finally made a decision.

    Make the second generation of your own side-scrolling over-the-top game.

    That game was named Su Li named Deeper into the Mist, pixel style horizontal version of the passage of the game, the core gameplay is to avoid a variety of organs to reach the destination, almost no combat elements.

    Games like this are a great test of a designer's level-making skills, and that's exactly what Su Li is good at.

    And he has some base sales for this game, so if he develops a second one, he can at least guarantee initial popularity.

    The higher the initial popularity, the faster the popularity grows.

    So, Su Li completed his first stand-up job after getting the oasis engine.

    Project Name Deep Mist 2: Unreal City

Chapter 6 - A burst of inspiration

    According to Su Li's design, Deep Into the Mist 2 - Unreal City will completely abandon the original pixel style, and will also abandon the original 2D landscape mode, and develop in the direction of a 3D action game.

    The original pixel style is just a product of Su Li's compromise, after all, how to give the pixel style labeled on the sentiment and other terms, but also can not hide the reality of its long ago is not the mainstream.

    Often, indie games that use the pixel style are able to reduce the pressure on the art side of things, and Su Li's first indie game chose the pixel style for this reason.

    The reason why a few games use the pixel style is more due to the technical power of not being able to run those HD textures or models smoothly, in addition to certain sentiments that do exist.

    Take, for example, My World.

    If you replace this game with an exquisite HD model, then I'm afraid many computers will have to say goodbye to it.

    Now with the oasis engine, many of the things that have been holding Su Li back are no longer obstacles. oasis engine version 0.1 supports the production of the 3d action game that Su Li envisioned very well.

    One of the handy things about this engine and the accompanying nerve language is that an incredibly advanced program architecture has already been designed. All you have to do is fill in the blanks as if they were blanks.

    This greatly saved Su Li's time, and right now for Su Li, time was his greatest enemy.

    Since he had made the decision, then with Su Li's high mobility, he naturally started the game development work at the first time, not even thinking of taking a break, it seemed that this half-month of frantic study did not make him feel a trace of fatigue at all.

    Action games that aim to get through the game would save the producers a lot of effort if they didn't include combat elements.

    This means that you don't need to design the numerical values of the game, or design an interesting plot, or model all kinds of enemies, or design combat modules.

    But this does not mean that such games are easy to make, on the contrary, they are extremely reflective of the designer's skills.

    Forgo the frills of the rest and what you end up with is a game that relies on the very core of what this game has to offer to draw people in.

    The biggest difficulty with this game stems from two areas, one being the feel of the game and the other being the level design.

    An excellent action game must be able to let players get comfortable in the process of passing the game experience, the player in the game to get a sense of pleasure should not only pass the sense of achievement, but should be from every action, every operation to get a sense of achievement.

    Of course such a design is definitely not a simple thing, with the development of the game, some of the original was considered to be a very cool operation has become a bit sparse, want to make those battle-hardened players eyes, it must be distinctive enough.

    For indie games, you don't need to do everything, but it has to be unique.

    And the other difficulty, and the biggest, is the level design.

    For this game, the level is the most crucial factor that determines the success or failure of the game, it is the soul of this game, bar none.

    There's no combat, there's no plot, and the only thing you'll be able to draw players in with is unique gameplay and subtle levels, and this game has been designed to a demanding level in that regard.

    There's a great benchmark for this kind of over-the-top genre of games with weak and fighting elements that can't be bypassed, and that's Nintendo's Mario.

    Whether it's the first generation that saved the North American gaming market and swept the world, or those sequels that have continued to reap the praise of gamers since then, such as Ma 64, Galaxy, and the latest Odyssey, they all exemplify what gaming is at its most essential, which is fun.

    A monumental game has run Mario into the number one ip in the gaming world, completely designed to be fun and playful with no purpose, and the direction that Su Li is chasing.

    Trying to design a series of levels for a game from scratch in a short period of time is almost a pie in the sky thing, but the good thing is that Su Li is not starting from scratch.

    He pulled out a folder from the drawer, inside was a thick stack of a4 papers, these papers were all the ideas and designs Su Li had accumulated over the years.

    These things are not a complete game plan, but Su Li's inspiration when the interesting design. a4 paper are Su Li hand-drawn some such as level sketches, mechanism design, gameplay design and other things, some messy, many symbols only Su Li can understand.

    This was his accumulation for so many years, to be able to persist in recording his inspiration at any time all year round was not an easy thing to do, and it was also because of this persistence that had accumulated a sizable amount of wealth for Su Li.

    A lot of this is about the design of levels and gameplay, and many of the levels are creative, but there is no small difficulty in realizing them, and one of Su Li's dreams is to be able to realize the creativity of this place.

    Now, the opportunity has come to have the oasis engine, and some of the original ideas that were found difficult to realize are no longer mirrored.

    Su Li began to review his designs one by one, some of which he himself had somewhat forgotten, but after seeing them here, he was still thrilled beyond measure.

    Pull the valuable drawings out of the folder and set them aside, looking at them while building the beginnings of this game in your mind.

    The name of the new title is set to be Deep Into the Mist 2 - Unreal City.

    However, in Su Li's eyes, this first work and this sequel are completely incomparable, and the difference between them is even more exaggerated than the ugly duckling to the white swan.

    The setting of the first game is simple: the story of an explorer lost in a mist-filled valley, searching for entrance and exit after a long and arduous journey.

    And the second continues the setting of the first, which is that this explorer finds an uninhabited city in the mists, a large city, but with no people and no memory of it.

    So this explorer decided to explore the secrets of the city.

    A very simple setting, the game is limited to the middle of the city.

    The ultimate goal is to find the secrets of the city.

    After having a rough prototype, Su Li created a document in his computer and then started writing his own design document.

    The formatting of the document was somewhat arbitrary, and only needed to be readable by himself anyway.

    The document is not long, Su Li did not write in great detail, mainly to write a few gameplay core on it.

    Then he found a stack of blank a4 paper and started making various sketches.

    Than the use of computers, Su Li in more like to use this primitive hand-drawn way to draw design sketches, after all, this is an independent game, design out of things do not need to show others, for him to the first hand-drawn more quickly, but also more feeling.

    There was no very standardized process, Su Li was now designing completely with his feelings, and he felt that he had never been in such a good state.

Chapter 7 - Su Li's Design

    Su Li expects his second title, Deeper Into the Mist 2 - Unreal City, to have a passable gameplay time of 3-4 hours, and will be adding a full collection challenge to the game, which might increase this game's length to ten hours or more if the goal is to have a full collection challenge.

    Of course, this game time was inclusive of the player's failure to break through, and Su Li intended to design a game with a higher difficulty level, where the player might need to try several times before being able to pass through a small intersection.

    This can greatly reduce the burden on the production side.

    Nowadays, difficult games are also quite popular among some players, and some types of games are described as suffering, in which the player reaps a different kind of pleasure in failing over and over again. ......

    Su Li does not intend to design the game so perverted, appropriate several failures can increase the player's sense of joy and reward when passing.

    Of course, if any of the masters are able to get through the game in one sitting, maybe the game is only ten or twenty minutes long.

    Such a game length is more than enough for an indie game with a low price tag.

    But the amount of work required to get through the game in even this amount of time is staggeringly high.

    The 3d scenes that Su Li envisioned, if they were made according to the current production method, the amount of art work required for these modeling alone would be enough to overwhelm him.

    But in the oasis engine, to the point of giving Suli a shortcut.

    In addition to the main engine program, the system also gave Su Li a series of freebies. oasis engine does not directly support most of today's existing material formats, and need to be converted. This new format uses an algorithm that can greatly reduce the capacity of the material without affecting the quality of the material.

    Or rather, the material designed according to the existing tools also falls far short of the quality ceiling of the new format, which is, after all, a format geared towards future games.

    Naturally, the software used for the production of art materials also appeared in Su Li's computer, and this software named 3df could either convert the existing materials into a format, or carry out three-dimensional modeling directly from them.

    Compared to the main engine which is simple to operate, the difficulty of using this 3df software is much higher. The version of the software and oasis engine is also version 0.1, but it is also much more complex and perfect than the 3dmax and so on that Su Li once used.

    This software, if given to professional artisans, would inevitably marvel at its power. But for Su Li, those convenient functions for non-professionals were what he needed most.

    For example, the intelligent material replacement function helped Su Li a lot.

    The software came with many materials with different art styles, and there were also many different styles of building models. Su Li guessed that these materials and models might have been collected from different civilizations by that information life.

    Of course, these materials and models are simple, and for professional artists must have scoffed at them, but for Su Li it's a snowball's chance in hell.

    For example, if Su Li only needs to draw a few simple lines or make a simple model, the material can be automatically filled and some details of the model will also be automatically added.

    For example, if Su Li needs a pillar, then he only needs to make a cylinder and use the Smart Fill function to get a model of the pillar with various details.

    It's not fine enough, but it's definitely good enough.

    After solving one big problem, the rest are better.

    Character models, ui design, scene painting, bgm will all be outsourced.

    There has long been a complete outsourcing industry chain in China, and Su Li has saved up a sum of money over the years, enough to pay for the development costs in this one.

    Character models only need one, q version of 3D characters can be, do not need too much detail, cheap.

    The oasis engine comes with a basic character movement design system, which can be used directly with a 3D character model to apply the preset movement data and modify it.

    Anyway, Su Li didn't need any movements, mainly just walking, running, jumping, and some movements when using props.

    Although this character movement design system is relatively basic, these basic movements are still covered, if you need some complex movements or facial expression changes and so on in the future, you can only get the data by yourself with the motion capture system, or wait for the engine to be updated to a new version of the engine may be better to deal with.

    Su Li directly looking for channels to send demand, enrollment of many, will receive a few test with the figure, pick one for follow-up cooperation can be.

    The ui design is also directly outsourced, the game's ui is very simple, only need a few menu interface, a few buttons and dialog boxes, a props interface and a few props icon can be, the full set of not much money.

    A few original drawings of the scene are needed, and the software can generate 3D models, but it can't draw them, so the job still needs to be done by people.

    Su Li picked a material from the software, made a few architectural models and the like to show the art style of the work, and then wrote a requirement document and sent it out, waiting for someone to come to the door.

    bgm ditto, clarified his needs, and went to find the outsourcing company to complete. The company Su Li looked for had a previous relationship with him, and directly sent the requirements over.

    Time is money, so these things are done through outsourcing, and the quality is much better than even if Su Li did it himself.

    He himself only needs to control the soul of this game.

    The scenario of this game is divided into two main sections, a city section that consists of various buildings on which the level design relies.

    One is an indoor section within the main building, a huge multi-level labyrinth.

    The interior part of Su Li has a very mature design, a large level that he designed a little bit when he was a student at New York University.

    According to Su Li's design, the flow of this game is that the protagonist controlled by the player enters the city, goes to a high tower in the center of the city, gets a key prop from the tower, and then leaves the city.

    Inside the tower was an unreal space, which was a large independent labyrinth, occupying 40% of the player's overall process, and this part, if it had a mature design, greatly saved Su Li's time.

    As for the city part, Su Li picked out a few concept drawings and draft designs, intending to use these as the basis for completing the outdoor part of the entire game.

    In terms of design difficulty, the outdoor section is several times more difficult to design than the indoor section, as it involves one of the more interesting ideas and more central gameplay aspects of Sue Lee the game.

    Inside the tower's illusory space, the player is given a key item, the Time Shifter, which can be used to collect stray nodes called space-time nodes.

    The city is actually made up of multiple illusory time and space overlapping together, and after collecting a certain time and space node, you can use props to convert the scene into a scene from that time and space.

    At the same time, Su Li added another concept of time to the game.

    For example, it turns out that here is a ditch that you can't jump over, but in another time and space there is a bridge here, and the bridge appears after using a prop.

    But this bridge will soon collapse, and the player must get to this place at the point in time before the bridge collapses to use the props, or even if the props are used, the bridge has already collapsed.

    For example, you need to jump from a high place, but jumping straight up will kill you, and at some point in another time, a big bird will fly over at this point in time and send you across the room.

    You can also use this prop to complete some hidden collection challenges and make the most of the limited game space.

    Adding a bit more tricks such as time regression and combining it with a variety of smooth action content, Su Li believed that this game could definitely be called excellent.

    The constant interplay of time and space is at the heart of what makes this game by Sully so special.

    Players will find a whole new world as they move through the first half of the game, which is purely action-packed, into the second half.

    Thanks to the power of the oasis engine, Su Li can easily realize, for example, after the use of props, the entire game space changes at the same time, and different time and space within the scene will change over time. The self-contained physics engine can also be directly realized such as the collapse of walls and bridges and no longer need to go through the trouble.

    Without the engine, the amount of work required for these functions alone would drive Su Li crazy.

    Such a level design was definitely a huge challenge for Su Li.

    But without the pressure of technical realization, Su Li in