Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 457: The Producer's Care and Pride
The beginning of the video was stitched together using footage from other games and all sorts of goofy meme edits. Combined with Qiao Liang's distinctive voice, it quickly pulled the audience into the mood.
Then, the footage switched to BE QUIET, and Qiao Liang began introducing the game's mechanics.
"Considering that many people still haven't tried this game out—whether out of spite or for other reasons—I'm going to give a detailed introduction to the gameplay and what makes it so brilliant."
"If some of you veteran viewers already know all this, feel free to skip straight to the conclusion section at the end."
"This is an online multiplayer horror game, so please throw away every preconceived notion you have about traditional single-player horror games, and embrace an entirely new kind of fear!"
"In the past, single-player horror games generally created fear through just a few methods:"
"Disturbing environments and monster designs, unexpected plot developments, and sudden jump scares."
"These games often feature terrifying settings: fog-covered mysterious towns, cannibal villages filled with crazed inhabitants, laboratories overrun with zombies, and so on. Through mountains of corpses, rivers of blood, and grotesque creature designs, they assault the player's senses visually and audibly."
"At the same time, these single-player games manipulate the player's fear through story elements. NPCs might tie the protagonist up and subject them to all sorts of torture—gouging out eyes, cutting out tongues, chopping off fingers, anything imaginable. When players immerse themselves in the protagonist's perspective, they experience an extreme sense of horror as well."
"And finally, there are the sudden scares—opening a door only for a corpse to fall out, or walking normally before suddenly being grabbed by a monster…"
"These are the typical forms of horror we experience in traditional single-player horror games."
"Of course, these are all classic horror game techniques. But now, I want to point out the two biggest flaws in this approach."
"First: the stimulation is too direct."
"Many developers, in an effort to make their games scarier, simply pile on more blood and gore, create increasingly disgusting monsters, and design all kinds of horrifying torture scenes…"
"But this kind of stimulation is mainly sensory stimulation. It may create physical discomfort, and excessive sensory shock can also make the game feel overly grotesque and lacking in artistic refinement."
"True fear comes from within the human heart!"
"Second: low replayability."
"Players may indeed experience intense terror during their first playthrough, but once they've completed the game once, replaying it becomes dull and uninspiring."
"For ordinary players, they don't want to go through that kind of experience a second time. And for hardcore players, subsequent playthroughs just turn into speedruns, completely losing the meaning of horror itself."
"And the emergence of BE QUIET was precisely to forge a new path—to solve these two problems that horror games have never truly solved before. It allows players to experience a deep psychological terror without constantly forcing grotesque imagery into their faces, while also making the game infinitely replayable!"
…
What followed was an introduction to the game's core mechanics, along with reviews of several matches Qiao Liang himself had played.
Each match uses random matchmaking based on player rank, assigns a random map, and spawns players at random starting points within that map.
The functions of the rooms and the items found inside are randomized each game. However, larger rooms and key locations generally contain better loot.
Eight players take on different roles: police officers, ordinary survivors, insane, and ambitious schemers. Aside from the police, nobody can confirm anyone else's identity. Each role has its own objectives.
For the police and ordinary survivors, victory conditions are relatively straightforward. The map is under lockdown, and players must search different areas for encrypted incantations. Once enough incantations are activated, a random exit will appear somewhere on the map, allowing everyone to attempt an escape.
Qiao Liang divided the overall gameplay flow into four stages.
The first stage is the free exploration phase. Since players begin far apart from one another, everyone tries to search nearby rooms and open areas as efficiently as possible, gathering useful items related to their role while deciding their next course of action based on the equipment they obtain.
"Next comes the initial contact phase. Generally speaking, a small number of insane players will choose to immediately lose control and transform into madman at this point, but doing so also risks getting surrounded and beaten down by the police and large groups of survivors using items. Other insane players will instead choose to disguise themselves as normal survivors."
"At this stage, the police will usually begin gathering other players together while collecting items, organizing everyone to search for the encrypted incantations hidden throughout the map."
"However, because of the game's SAN-value system, the more people gather in one area, the more likely whispers are to appear. Voice communication between players also lowers SAN values, so players can't stay grouped together for long. They must eventually split up in a coordinated way and search for the incantations separately."
"At this point, the game enters the third phase: the chaotic battle phase."
"During this phase, some insane players will suddenly transform into madmen using the items they've accumulated and begin attacking survivors. Survivors can either flee or fight back. Of course, insane players can also use certain methods to lower a survivor's SAN value until they become insane themselves, forcibly pushing them onto the madman' victory route…"
"In short, this part of the game becomes extremely chaotic. Players may cooperate with one another, or they may scheme against each other."
"Finally comes the endgame phase. By this point, only two or three players are usually left alive, most of the encrypted incantations on the map have been solved, and the remaining players use their skills and current equipment to battle for ultimate victory."
After that, Qiao Liang briefly introduced several particularly interesting matches he had personally experienced.
Of course, from Pei Qian's perspective, these reviewed matches weren't especially mind-blowing.
Because no matter how strategic a game is, there still has to be a limit. If it becomes too complicated, most players simply won't understand how to play, which would be awkward.
But when actually immersed in the game, the experience becomes incredibly thrilling.
For Pei Qian, he had never truly experienced BE QUIET in depth before, because it was an online multiplayer game, and playing alone simply wasn't feasible…
Now, after listening to Qiao Liang's explanation, Pei Qian instantly understood.
The early-game looting phase resembled battle royale games. The identity system was somewhat similar to tabletop games like Three Kingdoms Kill or Werewolf. Meanwhile, the player-versus-player combat had elements reminiscent of asymmetric competitive games like Dead by Daylight.
And the game's core enjoyment mainly came from three aspects:
First, the game had high replayability and a certain degree of luck. Many players chased after "god-tier openings"—for example, an insane player immediately finds a room full of SAN-restoring and health-restoring items, transforming instantly and going on a massacre. Others, despite poor early loot, could still achieve victory through careful play, sticking close to the police, or strong strategic planning.
Second, there was the battle of wits within the game's rules. Players used limited communication to direct or mislead others, deduce identities, and manipulate suspicions, very similar to social deduction board games.
Third, like Dead by Daylight, players could show off mechanical skill—using items and techniques to overcome stronger enemies. Meanwhile, survivors experienced a unique kind of horror: players constantly distrusted one another, nobody knew when someone might suddenly attack, and everyone could only stumble through the darkness cautiously, afraid to make a sound…
This horror came from other players—from the human mind itself—so it had far more variation than ordinary single-player horror games.
For example, some madman players would deliberately hide inside rooms, waiting for survivors to enter searching for encrypted incantations before suddenly jumping out to attack.
In short, no matter how well a video explained it, it could never fully replicate the feeling of personally playing the game.
But through his editing techniques and detailed analysis, Qiao Liang carefully dissected every core thrill the game had to offer. Especially whenever he explained an interesting mechanic, the barrage comments instantly flooded with messages like "HOLY SHIT," as viewers exclaimed in amazement:
"You can actually play the game like that?!"
…
Finally, the video entered its conclusion section.
"By this point, I believe everyone now has a decent understanding of how BE QUIET works."
"So let's return to the original topic: why did the developers go through so much effort creating the ARG game and the eyeball-tracking game?"
"After all, they could've easily done nothing at all—simply opened purchases and thrown all the players directly into the game."
"They created such a complicated puzzle-solving event, added a barrier before purchasing the game, and even painstakingly turned it into a game of its own to ensure a certain level of entertainment—all without charging a single cent."
"And the purpose of doing this was to help every player who enters the game integrate into it faster and more effectively!"
"If these things had been built directly into the game itself, then players who bought the game only to realize it wasn't suitable for them would still have to go through the trouble of requesting a refund. That's a hassle. So the developers simply decided to place the process outside the game, sparing unsuitable players from the tedious refund process altogether."
"Some people will definitely ask: does passing this test mean you're suitable for the game?"
"And here's what I want to say: not necessarily, but most likely, yes."
"Think about it, what are the most important qualities needed for BE QUIET?"
"A certain level of gaming intelligence, the mental fortitude to resist fear, and a willingness to seriously learn and engage with the game."
"At this point, everyone should realize that the purchase prerequisites are actually testing exactly these three things!"
"The ARG puzzle-solving tests your gaming intelligence; the eyeball-tracking game tests your resistance to horror; and the entire testing process itself examines whether you have patience and a serious attitude toward learning."
"If you give up after encountering just a little difficulty, if you have no interest in puzzle-solving games, if the solutions have already been revealed and you still can't even be bothered to copy the answers, or if you can't persist through the eyeball-tracking game…"
"Then you probably wouldn't find any enjoyment in BE QUIET anyway—and might even ruin the experience for other players!"
"You could say this test simultaneously benefits two types of players:"
"For players who are suited to the game, it protects their gameplay experience."
"For players who aren't suited to the game, it saves them time and protects their wallets."
"And the only side that actually suffers losses is the game company itself, which sacrifices revenue."
"But for the sake of the game's long-term lifespan, and for the sake of giving players a better experience, the developers willingly gave up that income. Even while facing intense controversy and endless criticism, they never once came out to defend themselves. They simply endured it all in silence."
"That's why many people say: 'The developers must be insane. Why not just open sales directly? Why go through all this unnecessary trouble with purchase requirements that block people from buying the game? Isn't this just disgusting?'"
"And I want to say: yes, in a sense, this really is discouraging certain players from entering."
"But please calm down and think carefully, after doing all this, maybe the developers weren't acting for their own benefit at all. Maybe they were doing it so every player could have a better gaming experience?"
"That's why the title of this episode is The Effort and Pride of a Top-Tier Game Producer!"
"To give players a better experience, he painstakingly created all these complicated prerequisites before purchase. Yet at the same time, he proudly refused to explain himself to everyone, instead maintaining an indifferent attitude: whether you understand or not, whether you praise me or curse me—it doesn't matter. The game is right here."
"I believe having a thoughtful, principled, and conscientious game producer like this is a blessing for every domestic gamer!"
"Too many game companies today only think about groveling before players and pandering to whales. Spend money, and you get to become the king, slaughtering everyone in-game… They set no barriers. They don't want you to think. They just want you to click your mouse mindlessly in exchange for fake progression systems and meaningless items…"
"But are you truly happy? Has your wallet slowly become emptier? Has your thinking gradually become duller? How long has it been since you experienced that thrill deep within your soul—the kind that comes from solving a puzzle or discovering an entirely new way to play a game?"
"If every designer in the country only made games like that, wouldn't that be a terrible shame?"
"So, for everyone interested in this game, I hope you can calm down, carefully appreciate the designer's true intentions, patiently complete those prerequisites, and personally experience this deeply complex game for yourselves."
"I believe you'll discover an entirely new and breathtaking world!"
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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 536: Still Going with the "Bare Walls" Style[1]
Link: https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284[2]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284
[2] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284