Chapter 1 Turning Back is the Shore

The story of "Turning Back is the Shore" takes place in ancient Huaxia, a time unknown. It was originally a peaceful and serene village, but suddenly more and more people began losing their three hun and seven po (souls), turning into wandering spirits.

These people would gradually lose their memories and reason, wandering aimlessly, attacking those with complete souls, and unconsciously heading towards a distant direction.

According to the survivors, that direction was called "Huangquan Road" (Road to the Underworld).

According to the village elders, the dead were originally captured by Heibai Wuchang (Black and White Impermanence, the two messengers of the underworld), and sent to the Yin Cao Difu (underworld) to be judged by Yanluo (King Yama), who would decide whether they would be reincarnated, enter the six realms of reincarnation, or be cast into the eighteen levels of hell.

But for some unknown reason, Heibai Wuchang no longer escorted the dying, so whether they died of old age or violently, they could only wander on Huangquan Road, unable to reach the Yin Cao Difu.

These wandering souls and vengeful ghosts were instinctively drawn to the Yin Cao Difu, but couldn't find the correct path, and over time, they became even more ferocious.

Thus, the human world gradually turned into a purgatory.

The protagonist, played by the player, is an ordinary dying person whose three hun and seven po are already incomplete. But in the darkness, he seems to sense something calling him from a distant direction.

In order not to become an unconscious wandering soul, and to explore the truth of all this, the protagonist embarks on Huangquan Road, entering the Yin Cao Difu with a mortal body.

The game's process is roughly divided into several parts:

The initial small village in the human world;

A town completely occupied by wandering souls and vengeful ghosts;

The treacherous Guimen Pass (Ghost Gate Pass);

Huangquan Road, wandering with a large number of vengeful ghosts;

The San Tu River, overgrown with Manjusaka flowers;

The Wangchuan River and Naihe Bridge at the end of Huangquan Road;

The Wangxiang Terrace (Terrace of Homecoming) and Sansheng Stone (Three Lives Stone) beside Naihe Bridge;

The majestic Yanluo Main Hall;

The chaotic six realms of reincarnation;

The deepest Avici Hell...

In addition, the game's bosses will also be selected from traditional mythology, such as Meng Po on the Naihe Bridge, the four judges of the underworld: Lu Zhi Dao of the Chacha Si, Zhong Kui of the Fa'e Si, Wei Zheng of the Shangshan Si, and Cui Jue of the Yinlu Si (using purple, green, blue, and orange as the four main colors, respectively), the ten Kings of Hell of the underworld, and so on.

In addition, according to President Pei's request, every time the player dies, all the monsters will respawn, so there will be a Buddha statue every so often for guidance.

Dilapidated temples, Buddha statues, earth god temples, earth god statues, and other elements will be distributed throughout the entire game.

In this worldview, there is no Buddha, only broken Buddha statues, hinting at the legendary Dharma-ending Age.

The Buddha statues are save points, allowing players to restore their state and refresh the surrounding monsters, while the earth god statues can collect nearby residual souls to enhance the character's attributes.

All of this content isn't actually that much because the budget is limited, so the entire game process is only about twelve to thirteen hours, of course, provided that the player is familiar enough with the combat and progresses steadily.

If it's a beginner, the completion time is likely to be extended to dozens of hours, or even indefinitely.

The game isn't linear; sometimes players need to backtrack in order to reach the next scene.

For example, at the beginning, players must first go to the town occupied by vengeful ghosts, defeat the wronged souls gathered in the town to gain initial enhancements, obtain some special items to deal with wandering souls (Buddhist beads, talismans, etc.), and then return to the initial small village to kill a dying old man and follow his soul to embark on Huangquan Road.

If the player doesn't go to the town but directly kills the old man and follows his soul to embark on Huangquan Road, the journey will be very difficult.

Similarly, players can also choose at Yanluo Main Hall.

To go deep into the Yanluo Main Hall and destroy all the judges and Yanluo, becoming a true vengeful ghost;

Or to enter the chaotic six realms of reincarnation, reincarnate, and start over, staying away from this terrible world;

Or to go deep into Avici Hell, kill the already insane town guardians, and sacrifice oneself to suppress the wronged souls...

The game will set three to five endings, each depending on the player's choices at key points.

And the key hints for making these choices are hidden in the game's plot.

In the game, players will hear snippets from NPCs, and can also kill some wandering souls or bosses to seize the residual memories in their three hun and seven po, obtaining some readable memory fragments.

On some key items or scenes (such as the Sansheng Stone), some very subtle hints can also be obtained through the prompts of these items.

Scenes like the Sansheng Stone can also be reused; as the player's game progresses, different content can be seen on the Sansheng Stone each time, affecting some key plot twists.

Of course, when players embark on different plot branches, there will be different monsters in the same location; scene reuse can save some money.

These hints are the key to dissuading foreign players.

Pei Qian didn't ask for these hints to be written in poetry, after all, the difficulty of poetry is too high.

As long as they are written in relatively obscure ancient Chinese, ensuring that most people who have received nine years of compulsory education can guess the general meaning.

It's not that Pei Qian doesn't like poetry; it's mainly that even if he made such a request, Lu Mingliang and the others wouldn't be able to do it.

...

These are just preliminary designs.

In the early stages of game development, it's enough to roughly determine the game's scenes, bosses, and story flow to ensure that preliminary preparations (such as making art requests) can be completed smoothly.

More detailed content and details can be continuously improved during the game's development, and some settings and content can be changed at any time.

Ma Yiqun explained the game's worldview and the work that everyone needed to be responsible for in detail.

Relatively speaking, everyone was not interested in the screening work, but was more interested in the plot of the game "Turning Back is the Shore."

Because so far, the manuscripts selected from Zhongdian Chinese Website are really not that good.

If there was really a good book with an interesting opening, fast pace, novel plot, and captivating story, everyone's emotions might be more excited.

But there wasn't.

That is to say, no matter how everyone chooses manuscripts, it is basically impossible for a hit to appear that suddenly makes the entire website popular.

As for guiding authors, that's even more nonsense; after all, most editors themselves only have a superficial understanding, and if they guide others, what if they mess things up?

But the game "Turning Back is the Shore" is different.

Tengda Games' latest masterpiece!

Investment of ten million!

President Pei personally took the helm!

No matter how you look at it, this game is definitely going to be a hit; even if it can't make as much money as "Fortress at Sea," it will definitely earn as much reputation as "Game Producer."

If you participate in the development of this game, or even personally write a section of the game's plot, then you can brag about it to your friends!

Zhu Anxing's eyes lit up after listening to Ma Yiqun's introduction.

"Brother Ma, I want to write!"

"Can we directly post the content we write on our website? We can treat it as the game's official novel."

"We can divide up the tasks, with each person responsible for a part of the content, including the game's entire chronicle, as well as the background stories of the various bosses and NPCs, as a supplement to the game."

"Although it may not be used, it's better than us groping around aimlessly and reinventing the wheel."

Ma Yiqun thought about it, and it seemed to make sense.

Anyway, there's nothing to do now, and even if they personally write web novels, many people don't know what subject matter to write about.

So, they might as well write the plot of "Turning Back is the Shore" together, and after it's written, select a portion of the plot to put into the game.

Ma Yiqun nodded, "Okay, then while you're reviewing manuscripts, think more about the plot of 'Turning Back is the Shore.'"

"We'll hold a meeting every week to specifically discuss the plot design, and I'll give feedback to the project team."