Chapter 277 - 184: Different Endings of the Game (2)

Good endings, everyone can easily come up with several, and each ending is very satisfying, which doesn’t pose a challenge to them.

But bad endings, those with regrets, make everyone a bit hesitant, not daring to express their attitudes and thoughts.

"This is what I think..."

Lu shared his thoughts.

In a bad ending, the protagonist is sure to have regrets, and these regrets can only be completed through a second or third playthrough.

Regrets come from various levels.

People or cities that could have been protected but ultimately weren’t, main tasks that could have been completed but weren’t.

The protagonist is not all-powerful.

During the first playthrough, he will definitely leave regrets that are difficult to complete for various reasons. These regrets mainly involve the death of certain plot characters.

They could have lived, but because of the player’s choices or not being perfect enough, they died...

"Like the sister, Chen Jia!"

Lu pointed out that if you want to create an ending filled with regrets that makes players want to restart the game to achieve a perfect ending, there must be the death of a heavyweight character as a foil.

Obviously, it’s time for the tool-like sister to come into play again!

In the plot, the bond between the protagonist and the sister can be made stronger, so that the sister’s death is valuable, and it would make players desperately want to achieve the perfect ending.

"Not bad!"

Chen Ba nodded, acknowledging that the sister could indeed be sacrificed a bit.

Besides the sister, it’s also possible to give the protagonist some NPC teammates and partners. These characters helped the protagonist significantly, but ended up dying.

How did they die?

Of course, through the foreshadowing of various side quests in the earlier to middle stages; if the player doesn’t check the gameplay guide ahead and focuses on a mainline speedrun, these characters might face a bad fate.

Aside from the plot’s ending, the evolutionary path’s ending is also important.

Based on different player genres and evolutionary modes, different endings are ultimately resulted, which is also a nice branch option.

For instance, the player obtained the extremely rare Vermilion Bird bloodline, likely transforming into a true Vermilion Bird Divine Beast at the end of the game.

I don’t want to be human anymore, JoJo!

Different evolutionary paths naturally trigger different settlement animations and achieve different achievement endings at the last scene of the game.

There’s no optimal choice.

Evolution doesn’t have the best or worst option, it’s merely different paths with distinct abilities leading to different endings.

Players shouldn’t blindly choose the evolutionary direction and path during gameplay, as this is a key moment that can determine the direction of the game’s ending.

"There seem to be quite a number of endings!"

"A rough calculation, there are dozens of endings just with different evolutionary routes, with the plot’s endings added, almost a hundred endings, right?" Lu clicked his tongue.

"Nothing to worry about, it’s just the number that sounds large."

Chen Ba shook his head.

More than a hundred endings may sound exaggerated, but the overall direction of the game’s end is generally the same.

The protagonist ultimately becomes the leader of humanity, leading mankind to regain the position of Earth’s dominator, opening up a new era of Martial Dao, exploring outer space...

These hundred-plus endings just add a little regret or minor changes to the protagonist on this background basis.

"It’s indeed not very impactful."

Lu suddenly laughed and said: "It feels less stimulating than the ’Cold Window Study Simulator’, at least in that, there’s a real divide between paradise and hell."

Either you get into your desired school, or you fail, miss entry, these two endings are worlds apart.

In contrast, in ’Global Evolution’.

As long as you persist until the end, the endings may have some minor regrets, but overall it’s very fulfilling, at least the protagonist climbed to the pinnacle of Martial Dao without dying midway.

"Certainly..."

"I don’t think there’s a 3A game that purposefully obliterates the player’s efforts from tens of hours, then ends up wasting efforts, right?" Chen Ba retorted.

3A games, especially 3A RPG games, no matter how many variants and derivatives the final endings have, one core point remains unchanged: the protagonist is destined to succeed.

Really can’t mess around!

For a mini-game, ending up wasting efforts, realizing it was all a dream, might be acceptable.

But for a 3A game, with the whole game process lasting over dozens of hours, the player’s energy and time investment is undeniable.

If the game developer insists on shaking things up, after the player struggles for tens of hours to tell them "this is actually a dream", that all their efforts were wasted...

Sorry!

If they dare to toy with players this way, the result will certainly be tragic; the players’ wrath will make the game developer pay an unbearable price.

Buddies toil for tens of hours, and only to be told it’s just a dream?

How’s that different from reading a few-million-word web novel, watching a dozen episodes of a drama, and the ending actually changes nothing, the protagonist returns to the start?

What a joke!

If Chen Ba were an ordinary player, seeing such an ending, the mindset would definitely explode, and be beyond repair.

Previously, he read a novel that ended like this, two main characters jointly scheming, and as a result, the author was lambasted by readers as an idiot, having to hurriedly modify the ending overnight.

Games follow the same rationale.

This kind of joke is really unacceptable, players surely can’t take it.

If players were asked to choose their most hated game ending, "waking up to find it was just a dream" must be at the top.

Because this ending truly makes players feel like clowns.

Everyone played for so long, only for you to say it’s just a dream; isn’t that teasing me? No matter how bad or disgusting an ending might be, it’s better than "it was just a dream."

"Indeed..."

Lu agrees deeply with this.

It was just a dream, the blow to players is indeed too great, unless brain damaged, no one would dare to do this.

Even if the plot can’t be continued, you can give the main characters a deus ex machina, a happy ending that exits like lightning!

"Speaking of which, the plot in ’Global Evolution’ marks a noticeable improvement compared to earlier game versions..."

Chen Ba said with relief: "There are nearly 500,000 words just in various character biographies and background setting documents."

Honestly, this workload isn’t much different from writing a novel.

You know, there are over 500,000 words just in pure background and character settings, adding various main and side plots can surely total to a million words.

What does a million words represent?

This amount of text already surpasses any previous game. It is undoubtedly Tianba Studio’s most story-rich, character-rich, and well-rounded game in history!

For this, Chen Ba even had a thought.

After Zhong Shengwei’s wedding ends, upon returning to the studio, he plans to contact a top web novel writer to write a novel based on the million words of ’Global Evolution.’

Then publish it, sell it as game merchandise, and interested players can buy one for reading and collection.

"Sounds promising!"

Zhong Shengwei, with a wine glass in hand, suddenly appeared behind the two and said: "If there really is such a novel, whether or not it’s good is uncertain, but game players should be very interested."

"That’s for sure."

Chen Ba thought of a hardcover ’League of Legends Artbook’ he once bought.

Truthfully, the content of that book is quite tedious for non-gamers, enough to put them to sleep.

But for those who play the game and are interested in its world background and heroes’ backstories, that book is fascinating.

This is also why Chen Ba wants to hire someone to write a custom game novel.

In outsiders’ eyes it might be boring, but for the players of this game, it wouldn’t be just ordinarily interesting.

This book can also help players understand ’Global Evolution’ better, expanding the game’s reach and influence, achieving a win-win situation!