Skyhill

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Skyhill (天空之山) 49
Alias(es)	Skyhill 49
Developer	Only Game 63 86
Producer	Meng Shu 66
Occupation/Role	3D VR survival-horror exploration game 49 60
Status	Released 84
First Appearance	Chapter 49 49

Development

Skyhill originated as a low-budget 2D side-scrolling game centered on vertically descending through a hotel. Meng Shu acquired it for 40,000 Fear Points, receiving its development tutorial, concept art, and VR production method. He retained its core premise and mechanics while rebuilding it as a 3D VR horror game. 49 50

The remake expanded the hotel, monster roster, quests, art assets, and world-building. Xia Nianzhen revised scenes under Meng Shu's direction, while Qiu Yuan worked on monster modeling and motion capture; the project reached 90% completion before its voice and music files were integrated. 50 59

• The original concept art included unimplemented enemies such as the Scissor Monster, Wall-Crawling Monster, and Slime Monster. 50
• Meng Shu changed the original linear structure into a freer exploration format with a central escape objective and optional encounters. 50 122
• Every staircase flight was designed with thirteen steps, using the number's ominous reputation in the game's Western setting to reinforce tension. 59

Gameplay

Core Objective

The player begins in the presidential suite on the 100th floor of Skyhill Hotel and must descend to the first floor to escape. The journey requires managing hunger and health while searching rooms, navigating damaged routes, and surviving hostile encounters. 49

• The hotel contains 100 above-ground floors and at least three basement levels. 152
• Blocked routes can require environmental solutions; for example, a collapsed stairwell on the 77th floor requires restoring power and repairing an elevator. 83
• The original game unlocked one survival skill for every ten floors descended. 64
• The final version supports up to three players in co-op sessions. 83

Exploration and Random Events

Skyhill uses first-person VR presentation, minimal interface elements, random events, and scattered side content to make each descent unpredictable. 60 82 122

• Players can receive cryptic messages from an unknown sender questioning whether Skyhill and the protagonist truly exist. 63 69
• A lens mechanic can reveal otherwise invisible ghosts or entities. 63
• Weapons range from improvised tools, such as a metal baseball bat, to firearms found during exploration. 64 77 84
• The game combines survival horror with shooting, though combat remains dangerous rather than making the player secure. 49 84

Setting and Plot

Hotel Scenario

Within the apparent game scenario, Skyhill takes place in an alternate-history West during a civil war. As the Confederacy faces defeat, it deploys a biochemical weapon against New Europe, creating a green mushroom cloud and devastating the city. 49

The protagonist is ostensibly a businessman staying in Skyhill Hotel's luxurious 100th-floor presidential suite. After witnessing the blast, he activates the suite's biological defense system and seals himself inside. The elevator fails, supplies run out, and sounds of growling and chewing beyond the door force him to begin descending. 49 66

D-5671 and the Illusion Helmet

The hotel apocalypse is ultimately revealed to be a near-real hallucination generated by Z-FBC-0825, the FBC's Illusion Helmet. The protagonist is D-Class Personnel D-5671, an experimental subject placed under the helmet while unconscious. 50 92 93

D-5671 was a father whose daughter died from terminal illness amid financial hardship. He was subsequently deceived and used by the Federal Bureau of Control for experimentation. His grief, resentment toward society, and hatred of the organization shape the ruined city and monsters within the false world. 89 90 92

• Z-FBC-0825 can place a wearer's consciousness into a false world with its own apparent reality and an altered passage of time. 63 92 93
• D-9931 reportedly spent more than two thousand years inside such a world and emerged as an evolved non-human lifeform with advanced knowledge and alien languages. 63
• A lizard that entered the helmet's world for a week became the dangerous entity designated 0682. 60 93 151
• The FBC can erase memories and treats D-Class Personnel as disposable experimental subjects. 89 94

Endings

Ending	Outcome	Notes
Jump Ending	After descending to the apparent first floor, the protagonist finds himself back on the rooftop and jumps to his death.	This was the first ending described from the original game. 50
Three standard endings	The protagonist receives no genuinely good outcome.	Players initially discussed three major endings, all of which end with his death. 91 92
Hidden fourth ending	D-5671 wakes from the illusion and attempts to escape the FBC facility, but ultimately fails.	The final scene reveals a metal door marked W-FBC-0173. 93 94

Release and Reception

Milestone	Details
Live demo	The 30-minute demo reached 1.01 million views, 710,000 likes, 550,000 coins, 490,000 favorites, and 190,000 shares on Danmu Network within four hours. 63
Pre-orders	More than 670,000 copies were pre-ordered within just over a day, including purchases from overseas markets. 65
Launch	Demand at release was high enough to crash the servers. 83
First-day sales	Sold 1.44 million copies within 24 hours, surpassing the domestic first-day sales record of the preceding decade. 86

Players particularly praised Skyhill's vertical descent structure, large amount of content, random events, co-op play, and oppressive monster encounters. 82

Connection to *Control Failure*

Skyhill is presented as a branch work connected to a larger FBC storyline. Its hidden ending directly leads into Control Failure. 66 94

• After escaping the Z-FBC-0825 experiment, D-5671 reaches the control room of W-FBC-0173 and is shot by Agent Ulgrin. 50 137
• The gunshot distracts the D-Class Personnel inside W-FBC-0173's control room, after which the entity kills them. 137
• Later analysis establishes that D-5671's death did not cause the wider Control Failure; the door malfunction and facility blackout were orchestrated by the parallel-world protagonist, Jieming Walker. 171
• D-5671's body can be seen through surveillance footage during Control Failure. 138

Trivia

• A promotional post claimed that Skyhill's environments were modeled with roughly 70–80% similarity to Yingshan Psychiatric Hospital, with additional corridors added to extend routes. 64
• The game was marketed globally with multilingual support. 49 65
• Despite players initially treating the W-FBC-0173 door as a clue that D-5671 caused the FBC disaster, later revelations portray him as another victim of the institution he despised. 171