For Me, Horror Games Are as Easy as Breathing

By mid-November, about seventy percent of Outlast's content had been completed.

The remaining thirty percent mainly involved voice acting, corresponding scene construction, and scripted presentation.

For Chen Xu, the greatest gain from developing Outlast was that it gave him a deeper understanding of how to use the editor.

At the same time, with his current resource access of 2048M, his monthly quota was more than enough for Outlast's content.

Aside from the game's development, the Nebula Game Platform had also quietly gone live during this period.

Chen Xu promoted it on his Official Blog.

But it did not cause much of a stir.

There was no such thing as industry giants taking notice or media outlets rushing to report on it.

Only a few media outlets that truly had no news put the announcement in their minor sections.

Unless someone specifically went looking for it, they would not even see it.

The only games currently available on the platform were To the Moon and Undertale.

As for sales, the two games had sold a total of 172 copies.

Yet their combined playtime had not even reached fifty hours.

Clearly, the players who bought them were probably Chen Xu's fans, simply purchasing another copy on his platform to support a designer and game company they liked.

Chen Xu was not discouraged by this. After all, a platform could not grow overnight.

The days passed, and early December arrived.

Outlast's development had also reached its conclusion.

Its corresponding promotional campaign began rolling out as well.

That day, Chen Xu suddenly made a post on his Official Blog.

The post was simple: a few lines of text and a game poster.

'Only by escaping can you survive!'

'Outlast launches on December 15!'

Below those words was Outlast's game poster.

The background appeared to be a room in a hospital, with medical equipment scattered all over the floor and tables.

Two large words were written on the wall: Outlast.

Under the night vision color scheme, they appeared black, immediately making people think of Bloodstain.

At the same time, someone with a face full of terror was lying beneath a bed in the corner, their right index finger pressed to their lips. It looked incredibly eerie.

As Chen Xu's Official Blog post went out, major media outlets began reporting on Outlast.

Outlast also went up early on the Official Game Platform.

Of course, it was currently only available for preorder.

The price was 65 yuan, not particularly expensive.

After all, Outlast was not a very large game.

Meanwhile, discussions about Outlast sprang up across major gaming communities and forums.

Of course, this was not spontaneous player interest. Although Undertale had earned some modest fame and To the Moon had taken first place in the Sci-Fi Conquest Game competition,

Chen Xu's current reputation was still not enough to create a hot topic through name recognition alone.

The reason behind all this was naturally the power of money.

As the days passed, Outlast finally reached its release day.

In Shark TV's gaming section, there was a livestream room called Commentator Old Boy.

"Why am I the only one here? Brother Huang went to the hospital for a physical exam. He'll probably be back later."

"Stop going on about horror games. I've told you already, horror games are completely stress-free for me. They're as easy as breathing."

"You want me to stream horror games because you think I might get scared shitless. But when you see me sitting there with a blank expression, acting like it's as easy as breathing, you'll be disappointed, right? Disappointed as hell."

"Fine, fine. Here's how it'll go. You all know I have no trouble with horror games. I've played too many of them before, so we'll try this one first. If it isn't scary, then when Brother Huang gets back, we'll play something else."

"Fine, fine, I'll turn on the camera for you. But honestly, you'll really be disappointed later. None of the expressions you're hoping to see will appear on my face."

"Because I'm a very calm person. Horror games are as easy as breathing for me."

Sun Yixie, who was commentating on gameplay footage, looked utterly calm and composed as he watched the livestream chat.

He said three times in a row that it was as easy as breathing.

He was quite confident in his own courage.

He opened the Official Game Platform, ignoring the chat messages saying, 'Big bro can't even open the game by himself.'

After fumbling around for a while, Sun Yixie installed the game, turned on the camera, and entered the game.

There was a brief crackling sound, followed by the game's title screen.

The entire screen had a bluish-green tint, like the color grading of old Hong Kong films and ghost movies.

The background showed a building resembling a hospital, with sparse lighting and drifting clouds. It looked extremely unsettling.

"It's got a little bit of a feeling to it, but only a little. Same as before, horror games are as easy as breathing for me."

Sun Yixie spoke while reading the chat.

At this point, he was still extremely confident.

"For difficulty, let's play normal for the first time."

After entering the game, the screen was first filled with darkness. A deep narrator's voice, eerie background music, and the sound of a car radio mixed with static came on.

'My name is Miles Upshur, an ordinary journalist. Deep in the remote Colorado mountains, an abandoned Psychiatric Hospital reopened after many years—Jushan Mental Hospital.'

'But one day, a mysterious person wrote me a letter telling me that a massive secret was hidden deep within this Psychiatric Hospital. To investigate the matter, I came here.'

The car radio narration briefly introduced the game's setting.

Sun Yixie felt absolutely nothing about it and remained as calm as he had claimed.

Because most horror games—or rather, horror movies—were like this.

After the narration ended, the game screen appeared.

However, it was still in an uncontrollable sequence.

The protagonist drove toward Jushan Mental Hospital.

The gloomy color palette, along with the car radio's static, immediately established the atmosphere.

Soon, the car reached its destination and stopped at an entrance to Jushan Mental Hospital.

The game's tutorial then appeared, telling him to pick up the camera and a letter from the passenger seat.

The letter contained the narration from earlier. The protagonist, a journalist, had come to Jushan Mental Hospital in hopes of uncovering a major story.

After picking up the letter, an objective appeared on the game screen: Enter Jushan Mental Hospital.

From that point on, the player could move freely in the game.

After getting out of the car, the night, the wind around him, the rustling leaves, and the fact that a Psychiatric Hospital was hardly a friendly place made Sun Yixie's heartbeat suddenly quicken just a little.