I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 553 - 178: The Internet is buzzing! The company that teaches the whole world how to make games!_2

Chapter 553: Chapter 178: The Internet is buzzing! The company that teaches the whole world how to make games!_2

Players would feel like they’re hitting walls everywhere, even at a glance.

And hitting walls is, precisely, the antithesis of speed.

Regarding this, Kate’s proposed solution was,

"Let’s just abandon the traditional 2D side-scrolling flat design and set the race track directly on an endless highway."

"Players will only need to drive forward from left to right because, in terms of movement direction, it still maintains the tradition of side-scrolling games."

"Does Director Kate mean to make the racing cars’ perspective a cross-sectional view as well?" An employee, visualizing the scene Kate proposed, asked.

"Yes." As Kate entered work mode, she put away her dismissive expression about this game design competition, nodded solemnly, and said, "In this process, players can further strengthen themselves by constantly picking up various items that appear on the highway."

"Sounds pretty good." The employees recorded Kate’s idea, while discussing it animatedly.

"Then there’s only one problem left, platform jumping."

"How would a racing car perform platform jumping?"

"It’s a bit hard to imagine that scene."

"We surely can’t install springs on the tires."

"I think springs aren’t really the issue here; there are plenty of games these days where racing cars can fly, and they’re not poorly received by players. So something like a spring can simply be glossed over with the ’modification’ setting," Kate mused, spinning her pen before looking up at her staff. "The real issue is, how should we handle the roads that have already been driven on?"

Surveying the faces of her team, which looked slightly baffled, Kate further expressed her doubts.

In traditional side-scrollers, unless it’s a scroll map (like scrolling terrain that cannot be returned to once passed, similar to a scroll being rolled up),

players are able to backtrack.

And now, more and more designers like to hide things on the return path, allowing players to backtrack two or even three times to discover things they missed earlier, reusing the map to reduce workload.

But again, the problem persists.

If we add platform jumping to the racing car,

even if players don’t mind your car having springs or even flying,

they won’t be able to turn back once they’ve driven past.

After all, it’s the same issue.

Even if your game has a setting where cars can turn around,

in player’s common sense, turning around equals slowing down.

Slowing down will lead to dissatisfaction.

So, if we eliminate the ’allow to turn around’ setting,

it becomes the same as a scroll map in traditional side-scrollers.

Players can only choose one path and drive forward.

But this leads to a critical problem.

Almost all players deeply despise the ’enforced missing out’ setting.

For example, if there are A, B, C three forks in the road ahead,

and the player chooses A and gets a purple racing car part,

they will start to wonder, "Would I have received a gold part if I had chosen B?"

Traditional side-scrollers can give players the chance to go back and check.

But with racing cars lacking the mechanism to ’allow to turn around’, once an opportunity is missed on this car ride, it’s missed forever.

And because of the random play of the loot-box type, this mistake is magnified.

Leading players to never know in their lifetime what lies within B and C after they have missed that chance.

This displeasure, not from player choice but from improper game design, can lead to player resentment.

I play games to have fun.

You not only fail to deliver fun, but you also constantly flood my mind with thoughts like, "I feel like I missed out on a fortune" or "Would it be better if I had chosen the other road."

Then, player abandonment of the game is inevitable.

This issue is even thornier than the previous two.

The employees in the meeting room thus engaged in a fierce discussion about it.

Only two hours later,

did everyone finally settle on a somewhat acceptable solution—platform shuttling mechanism.

That is, in front of the player’s screen, not just one highway would appear.

But rather three or even four roads.

These roads are not interconnected.

They are separated by green belts, pedestrian flow, city buildings, and a series of other elements that fit with the level’s scene.

Players need to collect parts and meet the shuttling conditions to freely switch between these separated roads.

That way, when it comes time to choose key parts, if the parts on the several roads are clearly visible,

players won’t feel any regret.

After all, I showed you before you made your choice; you selected what you wanted most out of the key items, and even if you think the part isn’t strong enough later, you can’t blame the game developers, right?

It would also motivate players to start another race.

Finally, after a meeting that lasted several hours,

the directors of Hope Flute’s design department put their heads together and finalized the gameplay for this racing game that combines loot-box elements with side-scrolling and platform jumping, naming it "Escaping Highway."

Over the next two weeks, they rallied hundreds from across the department, working overtime to rush the development.

And for the most labor-intensive part of the scene mapping,

they reused some previously made racing game scenes, which, after a series of Photoshop modifications, were implanted into the new game to be used again.

Anyway, this game wasn’t aiming for sales; it seemed like the intention was to make a splash at the Huaxia Nation’s Game Design Conference and thereby gain recognition for Hope Flute in East Asia.