"Skyhill"

At this moment, Only Game.

Meng Shu sat in his office chair as a data panel surfaced in his mind.

Planning: 60+5 (Average)

Programming: 60+12 (Average)

Art: 60+4 (Average)

Music: 60+1 (Average)

Seeing this, Meng Shu nodded to himself.

Planning had increased by 2 points. It seemed modifying the game had worked, earning him additional stats again.

Programming had increased by 4 points. That felt a little low. After all, he had coded the entire game himself. Wasn't it even worth 5 points?

Art had increased by 2 points, which was only natural. The visual quality and every aspect of the environments were far superior to the original.

Music had actually increased by 1 point, which caught him somewhat by surprise.

He had originally thought it would remain unchanged like 21 Points had last time, since he had not put much effort into the music.

This time, he had merely had Infinite Network Entertainment recreate the sound effects and music from the concept design, and it had added 2 points. Interesting.

In that case, perhaps he should put more effort into music for the next game.

After checking the data panel, Meng Shu lowered his gaze to the Fear Points panel.

Dark Forest: 2.17 million people had been frightened (70,000 new)

21 Points: 4.2 million people had been frightened (100,000 new)

Visage: 280,000 people had been frightened

Total Fear Points: 5,198,000

"No way? I haven't even made back the cost!?"

Meng Shu's eyes snapped open.

5.19 million Fear Points left him stunned.

Because that... was still less than Visage's purchase price.

When he bought Visage, it had cost him a full 6.9 million Fear Points!

Meng Shu picked up his cup and took a big gulp, calming himself slightly.

"Fine. With prices of 99 and 70 yuan, plus the new numbers from the two older games, getting 5.19 million on the first day isn't exactly a loss. The Fear Points will definitely keep climbing over time, so it's no big deal."

However.

Meng Shu looked at Dark Forest and 21 Points.

The growth of both games had already started slowing down.

Sure enough, releasing games only domestically clearly had a ceiling.

He needed to talk to the publisher. The next game had to support multiple languages and launch worldwide.

Although it was on the Cyber Platform, not many people overseas knew about it because it had not been promoted or localized abroad.

At the same time, to increase the game's exposure, they would need to send the finished product to media review outlets for scores.

Lastly... there was the issue of political correctness.

Meng Shu frowned in silence, folded his arms, and leaned back in his chair.

This parallel world had one thing in common with his original world.

The West was still fooling itself.

To release games smoothly, developers would add politically correct elements to shut certain groups up.

But such things had existed in his original world too, so Meng Shu was no stranger to them.

There was a well-known Western producer who had strayed from the essence of game development. Knowing full well how Western game media leaned in their ratings, he had devoted himself to political correctness and stacked all kinds of rare buffs in his games that made players break out in cold sweats.

Sure enough, bolstered by layers of politically correct buffs, the game was adored by Western media and became a miracle title infamous among players for its extreme polarization.

As a result, many later games pushed even harder, no longer even bothering to pretend.

For example, Horizon's auntie face.

And then there was the female protagonist incident in Dying Light 2, where the development team had abruptly replaced the heroine with a Black woman, making her completely different from the one in the original demo.

Replacing her with a Black woman would not have been unacceptable in itself, but the excessive part was that the team took a face model actress who was not even ugly and turned her into an ape-like figure that players could barely stand to look at.

That face model actress had even been a beauty in Men in Black II back then.

So Chinese players who could not accept that aesthetic used mods to replace the heroine's model with the one from the early demo.

As a result, Western player communities opposed this behavior, claiming Chinese players were engaging in racial discrimination. They banned the use of that mod across major forums and demanded that Western players enjoy the game in its original form.

Of course, Chinese players did not care. Ban it if you wanted. They were using it anyway, and as long as it looked pleasing to them, who cared what others said?

Naturally, the hard-line attitude of Western player communities also sparked dissatisfied voices within their own ranks.

Thus, the rather classic line, "Some people can fool their brains, but they can't fool their dicks," received many likes on a certain mod site.

Ultimately, political correctness was to blame.

Meng Shu thought about it, then shook his head.

He was Chinese. There was no need for him to imitate foreign political correctness.

If his games were to launch on global console platforms or receive overseas localization, he would still only make what he wanted to make rather than blindly cater to game media. That would be putting the cart before the horse.

In Meng Shu's view, games should avoid politics as much as possible and give players a good gameplay experience.

But as the times progressed and capital became monopolized.

Politics had also begun actively moving closer to games and meddling in them.

Then they smuggled in private agendas, attacked other countries, and promoted themselves through games.

Meng Shu would avoid such things.

He would never engage in such despicable behavior as using games to indoctrinate players with twisted ideas.

Now, he looked at a game he had already decided on.

Skyhill.

It was a 2D side-scrolling game where players moved vertically downward.

Due to its development budget, the game was visibly poor and bare-bones.

But its gameplay was decent, and its mechanics were quite interesting.

It had gained a small burst of popularity after its release.

The game's setting told of an alternate Western world in the midst of a civil war between the North and South.

The Confederate side was losing ground and showing signs of defeat.

In desperation, the alliance launched a biological weapon capable of creating a mushroom cloud at New Europe.

And under such circumstances, the game's protagonist entered the stage.

The game explained that he had traveled to another city on business. Wanting to enjoy life, he checked into a luxury hotel called Skyhill and chose the presidential suite on the top, 100th Floor.

The suite's special feature was its excellent view and broad field of vision. The entire floor was part of the suite, and it even came with a direct elevator connecting to every floor.

So while living this life, he saw a green mushroom cloud erupting in the distance from the open view atop the 100th Floor.

At that moment, the world changed.

To prevent radiation exposure, the protagonist activated biological protection and locked himself on the 100th Floor, not daring to leave easily.

The elevator also malfunctioned at the worst possible time, and with no food or water in the room, he grew hungrier by the day.

At the same time, roars and chewing sounds came from outside, making the protagonist feel that things had gone far beyond his imagination.

Finally, in an instinctive burst, he decided to leave, descend to the first floor, and escape.

The gameplay was simple: go downstairs, collect food and items on various floors, then return to the 100th Floor before the hunger meter ran out to spend the night, craft items, and strengthen himself.

Then he would go downstairs again, repeating the process.

During this time, he could use collected items to craft materials for repairing the elevator. This allowed him to return to the top floor more quickly, or begin exploring downward directly from that floor rather than starting again from the 99th Floor and wasting hunger.

Because going downstairs consumed hunger.

Every floor and every room consumed one point upon entry.

Once hunger was depleted, health would start dropping until death.

Players had 100 points each of hunger and health, corresponding to 100 floors and 200 rooms.

Therefore, mindlessly going downstairs was not advisable. Making reasonable use of resources, replenishing one's condition in time, and pressing onward were the player's top priorities.

The game also had a skill system, but everything was locked at the start and could not be used.

Only by descending to lower floors would those skills gradually unlock.

There were also many mutated creatures in the Apartment Building, and the protagonist had to avoid those monsters while exploring downward.

If they truly could not be avoided, combat would begin.

However, since the game focused on exploration and survival, its combat was extremely rudimentary: turn-based, with one side attacking once and then the other, along with a chance to miss.

What Meng Shu wanted to do was purchase this game and turn its side-scrolling 2D format into a 3D VR version.

That was equivalent to remaking the game. While preserving its gameplay and conceptual setting, he would completely overhaul its hundred-story building, art assets, monster models, story missions, and more.

He would turn it into a true Horror Games title where players could freely survive and explore within the building.

The boss was out this morning, so I secretly wrote this.

Thank you to A Lai for the 1,500 reward. Thank you for your support!

Thank you to Mexican Chicken Roll for the 2 monthly tickets! Thank you to A Lai for the monthly ticket as well! Thank you both!