Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

Although he is not a game designer, as a reporter for the evaluation, Li Yue is well-informed and has played many games.

But now this prologue of "The Last Survivor" really stuns him.

The short prologue of the game completes the three tasks of novice guidance, explaining the beginning of the plot, and narrating the background.

But what is more critical is not these three links, but to use an emotion to motivate.

At the beginning, Joel and Sarah's father and daughter interacted emotionally at home, making players feel warm.

Then the disaster begins, and the player will see Sarah looking around curiously and nervously in the conversation of her parents, as a little girl of her age should.

At this time, the player is brought into Sarah's emotions, which is why the focus of the game was given to Sarah at the beginning.

But the next step is the most daring mode in the game, where Sarah, who the player just fell in love with, immediately died in the riot.

And died tragically.

At the same time, when this sad emotion did not even erupt, with the black screen of the game screen, he immediately entered a new world.

Are you listening to the narration of the news report, introducing the background of the post-disaster world?

Li Yue has not recovered from the shock of Sarah's death and transition just now.

He didn't even dare to imagine how shocked the players would be at that time.

Although it's just the beginning, he has already seen one or two. It can be said that in this game, the Nebula game is too bold.

Because The Last of Us will be an emotionally-themed game.

This emotion is not about the theme in the game, but the empathy with the player.

Instead of the gameplay and levels, which are easier to make a fuss about, but to focus on and manipulate the player's emotions, can this game called "The Last Survivor" do it?

………………

With doubts, Li Yue quietly watched the next plot development.

The expected viral infection was not brought under control, and thousands of humans were infected, and once infected was tantamount to death.

Mountains of corpses piled up on the streets, and the city was placed under martial law.

Resident riots were then suppressed, and order in the entire country was on the verge of collapse.

Food and other necessities were strictly distributed, while some armed groups launched riots.

At this time, Joel also appeared on the camera again. It has been 20 years since the beginning. At this time, Joel was wearing shabby and messy clothes, his half-white hair was full of vicissitudes, and there was still a broken piece on his hand. table.

It was a birthday present from Joel's daughter Sarah that night twenty years ago.

Li Yue, who noticed this detail, suddenly felt that the wound that had been stabbed before seemed to be bleeding again.

After all, that scene was really disturbing.

Then a character from the previous promotional video appeared in the house, a woman named Tess.

Through the content of the dialogue between the two, Li Yue also gained a deeper understanding of the post-disaster world.

Although the infection has not been fully controlled and is still spreading, official forces still exist.

Such things as food are strictly controlled and need to be exchanged with ration cards.

Most of the entire city seemed to be in ruins, with the broken Stars and Stripes flags hanging from the tall buildings on both sides.

There are patrolling soldiers on the roof and on the street, and in the corner downstairs is a mountain of garbage.

There are also all kinds of desperate graffiti on the walls of the building.

'There is no future! ’

'Burn it all down! ’

'Only Firefly can save us! ’

But you can see it when you come to the street, and you can see the wanted notices about the "Firefly" rebel organization.

Armored jeeps patrol the streets, horns reminding people that they must carry new ID cards with them when they go out.

On the way there were two other people discussing some issues about being selected to work.

Tess reminded Joel that the distribution line has not been opened yet, and there should be no stock.

But it can be seen that even so, there are still people lining up in front of the ration line with a glimmer of hope.

Li Yue controlled Joel to hang out in the city, watching what the apocalyptic world in "The Last Survivor" was like.

In front of a building, soldiers blocked the building, and two heavily armed soldiers wearing protective suits drove the four people out of the building and asked them to kneel on the ground and raise their hands to be tested for infection.

These people are all runaways hiding in the blockade building. The first and the second were tested and not infected, but when the third person was reached, the detector sounded an alarm.

Without the slightest hesitation, the soldier in the protective suit directly pressed the opponent to the ground.

Despite the man's incessant shouting, the request to rescan the test indicated that the test was wrong.

But the soldier behind him showed no mercy, and directly injected the medicine into his body with a syringe. In less than two seconds, there was a twitch of his body, and then there was no sound.

When it was the fourth person's turn, he did not choose to be tested for infection, but was directly shot by soldiers in the delusion that he could escape.

During this period, Li Yue was a little curious and wanted to take a closer look, but the next moment he was brutally pushed to the ground by the soldiers.

And if he got close again, he would be shot down directly.

It can be said that the performance is quite real, and let alone the apocalypse, it is a free land where the air is full of gunshot smoke in peacetime, so close to it, you can definitely eat a peanut.

Except for this inspection scene, this is the case as long as there are soldiers.

It fully demonstrates what is called the end of the world, and the most worthless thing is human life.

Although so far, the game has not shown much of a **** picture about the end of the world.

But there are strict rules in this city, as well as some of the surrounding environment.

It has completely shown in front of Li Yue what a post-disaster world where civilization has collapsed is like.

There are no big scenes, not even battles.

But this simple opening of the game has already made Li Yue feel this apocalyptic atmosphere.

………………

Not only Li Yue is sighing, but the rest of the media participating in this closed evaluation can be said to have the same feeling.

The almost bold knife design in the opening scene, and when the strongest impact came, the instant transition made the player recall the shock just now.

This ingenious design can be said to be just right in terms of rhythm.

And the background and world design of the game also surprised them.

Because the world of "The Last Survivor" is not a world in which a disaster has just happened or has completely collapsed in ordinary apocalyptic games.

Rather, it is a world in which the entire civilized society has already begun to transform after its initial stage, a highly real world.

In twenty years, has civilization been destroyed?

It has been destroyed, and from the conversation between Tess and Joel, we can get a lot of information, such as smugglers who use the gray area to make money, and so-called hunters outside the quarantine zone.

But at the same time, there are still some civilizations left in this world, such as currency, military and so on.

Of course, in addition to this, there is another point that makes the reporters present for the evaluation curious and have some expectations.

That's about Sarah's death.

The kind of pain that is just liked and then destroyed, the pain is really shocking.

But in the same way, many small details in the front also indicate that this will not be a simple tool person.

Sarah's relationship with Joel, and the watch that's been worn for 20 years and still hasn't been taken off.

It seems that everything no longer implies what it is, and everyone believes that they will learn about it in the follow-up plot.