My game, you have no right to award

Chapter 150 Pseudo Tour
Todd skillfully manipulated the handle and started playing from the beginning of "Netherworld Mountain and Sea".

Zhou Kuang watched him play with great interest at first, but after a while, he began to yawn.

On the one hand, he didn't know how many people he had seen playing "Nether Mountain and Sea". Not only because he had watched countless versions during the internal testing of Kuangshi Games, but also because he searched for it himself after the game was released.

Yes, it may sound a bit boring, but Zhou Kuang really likes watching the anchors and players praise his games.

It is different from watching other players praise their favorite games in the past, because after all, they are games made by others. No matter how much you like them, you will eventually get tired of them and give up searching for them yourself.

"Netherworld Mountain and Sea" is the first time that Zhou Kuang has truly created a top-level 3A stand-alone game from scratch under his own hands.

He can honestly say that the quality of the game is quite good.

He never showed his attitude to anyone, but in his heart he was very proud of the project.

Therefore, he has been searching secretly on his own since the game was released. What he likes most is to see which anchor discovers the hidden Easter eggs and plots in the game and then expresses admiration.

This is the clever idea of ​​the game developers, which is to communicate with players in a private way to some extent through the game.

Game Easter eggs were originally created for this purpose.

On the other hand, Todd's way of playing is really... too conventional!
He doesn't have any fancy moves. Unlike many players who like to chase frantically, he prefers to defend and counterattack steadily.

This fighting style was very effective in the soul game "Netherworld Mountains and Seas". He easily killed the mermaid boss who was a "newcomer killer" for the first time.

And it has not been killed yet.

Todd didn't suffer, but Zhou Kuang lost interest.

It was as if it was a carefully planned prank, but the other party didn't fall for it at all.

"The combat feels great, the hit feedback is very realistic, and combat is the game's strong point." Todd gave his evaluation while playing.

Zhou Kuang also nodded without saying anything.

Of course he knew that what the other person said was right, because to him, it was a matter of course.

As long as it is an excellent soul game, the combat part must be one of the game's strengths.

Soul Escape is an action game after all. If the combat is not done well, how can it be called excellent?
Can a role-playing game with a poorly written plot be considered excellent?
Can a music game that can't do rhythm recognition well be considered excellent?
Can a card game that is not well balanced be called excellent?
"However, I don't like the Unreal Engine you're using."

Hearing this, Zhou Kuang raised his head and looked at Todd, who continued playing the game as if nothing had happened.

He frowned. Unreal Engine?
"why?"

Zhou Kuang asked directly.

“Unreal Engine’s lighting and shadow effects look really cool, but I feel like they overshadow the visuals a bit.”

“Players need simpler visual elements to become attached to and immersed in the game world.”

“The effects of Unreal Engine are an abrupt factor in this sense of immersion.”

"It will destroy the player's concentration. Without careful observation of the game world, it is difficult to empathize with the virtual world outside the monitor screen."

After hearing this, Zhou Kuang began to think.

What Todd said may be right. The visual performance of Unreal Engine is very explosive, but the gap between it and what people see is still very large.

After all, the structure of the human eye is different from that of the monitor. In any case, as long as it is not a brain-computer interface, the game screen cannot be exactly the same as reality.

The visual performance of Unreal Engine 5 has been significantly improved compared to Unreal Engine 4.

The short films produced with Unreal Engine 5 that simply show map scenes can even be mistaken for real ones, making people exclaim that the future is right before their eyes.

However, even so, there are still many loopholes in the picture, which gives people a sense of "fake people".

This is actually similar to the concept of the uncanny valley theory.

The uncanny valley theory states that humans will feel a liking for robots and non-human objects that are similar in appearance and movements, but when the degree of similarity reaches a certain level, humans will begin to feel extreme disgust and negative emotions.

Because when the similarity between robots and humans reaches a certain level, even the slightest difference will appear particularly glaring, thus creating a sense of horror, which is the so-called "pseudo-human feeling."

Only when robots reach a level of similarity to ordinary humans will humans begin to develop positive emotions again.

The same principle applies in games.

When many players play the latest Unreal Engine 5 game, they find that the graphics have been greatly improved and many details are becoming more and more like real pictures, but they begin to feel that the graphics are not as good as those of the Unreal Engine 4 game.

Zhou Kuang thought so.

Although "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" uses the Unreal Engine 4, it has also begun to show such a trend.

Todd's intuition was very sensitive, and he actually came up with the correct conclusion right away, which surprised him.

“Also, Unreal Engine takes up too many hardware resources, which I’m not satisfied with.”

“We once considered using Unreal Engine, but ultimately gave up. The high hardware requirements were one of the reasons.”

The game engine used by Bethesda, if Zhou Kuang remembers correctly, should be Creation Engine, right?
Is CE engine comparable to Unreal Engine? Is that true or not?
Zhou Kuang really wanted to complain.

Although what Todd said is correct, I'm afraid these reasons are not the most critical factors.

After all, compared to Bethesda's ancestral engine, which is seriously technologically backward, these are just minor problems.

The more critical reason is probably that Bethesda is used to using the old engine, and the cost of switching is too high?
Coupled with Todd's own "it just works" attitude and the technically conservative atmosphere brought about by a large number of veterans in Bethesda.

Instead of asking those programmers who are used to the CE engine to replace it with the Unreal Engine, it would be better to let them directly upgrade or rebuild the old engine!

And no matter how bad the old engine is, its support for mods is absolutely impeccable.

Without the support of the community, Bethesda would probably not be what it is today.

Finally, the CE engine is a self-developed engine after all, so it does not have to pay the 5% copyright fee and is Bethesda’s own son.

No matter how bad your own son is, can you as a parent admit it in public?
I have to be thick-skinned and praise him.

Although Zhou Kuang was complaining in his heart, he did not show it. Instead, he asked patiently.

"So, Lao Tao, what do you think is a better approach without replacing the engine?"

"Oh, by the way, you don't mind me calling you Lao Tao, right? If you think I'm calling you too old, I can also call you Xiao Tao."

"If you think I'm taking advantage of you, I can also call you Super Xiao Tao, so that you seem more powerful."

Zhou Kuang showed a sincere look.

Todd looked at Zhou Kuang with a slightly strange expression, and a hint of confusion seemed to flash across his eyes, but he finally shook his head.

"It's okay, you can call me Lao Tao."

"Okay, Lao Tao."

The veins on Todd's forehead seemed to twitch slightly, and Zhou Kuang felt that he must have seen it wrong.

"From my understanding, it's best to do some subtraction in the lighting and shadows." Todd cleared his throat and turned the topic back to the point. "The graphics are ultimately for the player's core experience."

"For your action game, I don't think the graphics are even the most important part of the core experience."

“Even if your game is not an open world, it is still very important to give players a certain degree of freedom and immersion.”

Open world?
This is probably what Todd is best at, right?

Zhou Kuang suddenly had some enlightenment in his mind.

The technical team sent by Antarctic Interactive Entertainment, along with the tireless efforts of Xu Yanjie and Wu Qianhe, have elevated the visuals of Netherworld to their current level. They have squeezed every ounce of Unreal Engine 4's potential, and further improvement is impossible without a new engine.

Zhou Kuang would never give up such an advantage.

What Todd said is certainly not wrong, but every game has its own style and focus that needs to be highlighted.

For Bethesda, the truth is that experience is more important than technology.

Zhou Kuang lowered his head and pondered for a moment before speaking.

"I understand what you mean, but our graphics are just the driving force that attracts players to experience Netherworld. We are still making action games that focus on experience and worldview construction. This will not change."

Todd nodded.

"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have told you so much."

"That's certainly my philosophy for making games. You have the ability to think for yourself, so you decide if what I say is right or not."

He shrugged and continued playing the game with the controller.

After several more bosses, Todd was finally killed.

Zhou Kuang breathed a sigh of relief. If Super Xiao Tao continued to fight without death, he would almost start to suspect that someone had changed the difficulty of the game.

Todd paused and commented.

"But the atmosphere of your game is really well done."

"I really like the fact that you used a lot of Eastern mythology. Even though I don't fully understand it, I can tell you put a lot of thought into it."

“All kinds of fantastic creatures that don’t exist in reality, full of imagination.”

"It's similar to The Elder Scrolls: The Mystery of the Ancients, with its vast worldview, various side quests, and the integration and shaping of various cultural symbols."

"But your battle rhythm is more compact, which is your unique style."

"I think if this wasn't an action game but an open world game, you would have more room to play."

Zhou Kuang listened without comment.

Maybe what he said was right, but the problem was that it was already very difficult for Megvii Games to expand to more than a hundred people. The consequence of frantically recruiting more than 80 employees was that it took a long time to fully integrate the team.

Therefore, Zhou Kuang felt that this level of expansion penalty had reached its limit.

There is no way a team of 100 people can complete an open world game unless they work on it for ten or eight years.

Ok?
Zhou Kuang suddenly realized something and looked up at Todd, but the other party did not show any strange expression.

Are you overthinking it?
Zhou Kuang shook his head and dismissed the idea.

“We don’t have as many employees as you do.”

"it's a pity."

Todd spread his hands, expressing helplessness.

After that, Todd didn't say anything else, but continued to play the game attentively.

Zhou Kuang was very bored and turned to study the things in the house.

There was no possibility of opening either the doors or the windows.

So he could only sit on the bed and turn on his cell phone, but there was no signal and he had completely lost contact with the outside world.

He sat on the bed bored, tilting his head and watching Todd play "Nether Mountain and Sea".

After an unknown amount of time, he was suddenly startled.

How long has it been?
Right?
Zhou Kuang remembered the last time he met the Italian producer Basilio. Although it took some time, overall it was still very short.

It only took an hour or two.

And now, Todd has even cleared the first map and reached the second map!

It was still daytime outside the window, as if time had not changed at all, even the position of the sun was exactly the same!
Judging from the progress of the game, at least five hours have passed now.

Zhou Kuang stood up and walked to Todd and touched his shoulder.

bumped into.

Fortunately, it’s not an illusion.

Zhou Kuang let out a long sigh.

Was I lucid dreaming? Was I too tired to dream?
Zhou Kuang pinched the back of his hand hard and slapped himself hard.

Damn, it hurts!
Zhou Kuang covered his face and grimaced.

Todd looked at the man in front of him, stunned.

what's the situation?
"Uh... why?"

Looking at Todd, although he knew that the other party was not the real Todd, Zhou Kuang still felt a little embarrassed.

"It's okay." Zhou Kuang said, then hesitated for a moment before asking, "Do you know where this is?"

"I know, your home."

Todd replied as a matter of course.

Also.

Zhou Kuang nodded.

"Then do you know how I can get out?"

Zhou Kuang continued to ask.

"I know." Todd looked at him as if he were a mental patient, then turned and pointed at the bedroom door.

"Why don't you just get out of there?"

"But I can't get out." Zhou Kuang spread his hands, turned and walked towards the door, trying to open it.

Sure enough, it still can't be opened.

Seeing this, Todd stood up, walked to the door and put his hand on the door handle.

"See, I told you, the door definitely can't be opened, otherwise why would I..." Zhou Kuang said, and his voice suddenly stopped.

Because he saw Todd actually opened the door.

WTF? !
Zhou Kuang leaned out to look, but was shocked to find that the outside was not his bedroom, and it was not even in his home!
It turned out to be a spacious office.

Employees were sitting at each workstation, working busily, and each of them was a foreigner with a high nose and deep eyes.

"Where is this?" Zhou Kuang turned around and asked Todd with shock in his eyes.

Todd bowed slightly, placed his left hand on his chest and bowed.

"Welcome to Rockville, Maryland."

(End of this chapter)