August 18th, Wednesday.

The demo for *Rebirth from the Brink* is out.

The so-called demo, also known as a "demonstration," "presentation," or "sample," can be considered an initial playable version in the context of games.

For games like *Rebirth from the Brink*, as long as the character models, actions, combat system, and other elements are roughly completed, they can be combined with a few scenes to create an initial version.

Generally, the optimization of the initial version is carried out in parallel with the development of subsequent scene resources. While waiting for the art team to create new scenes and monsters, the character's actions, combat details, and other aspects are being debugged, which speeds up the development progress.

President Pei's office.

Li Yada is debugging on Pei Qian's computer, confirming whether some of the values are correct. Once she's done, she'll hand it over to President Pei for a test run.

Pei Qian is standing beside her, watching her debug the data in the game.

The production threshold for action games is very, very high.

Why do some domestic action games have such terrible hit feedback and feel so uncomfortable to play, while some foreign AAA masterpieces feel so smooth and exhilarating in combat?

It all boils down to one thing: details.

For example, when a character is holding different weapons such as a dagger, a straight sword, or a war hammer, the specific actions are definitely different, and each frame of each action needs to be adjusted very carefully.

Of course, motion capture helps, but it still needs to be adjusted.

If any frame of movement is off, crooked, too fast, or too slow, it will make the player feel that it's not smooth.

In addition, when using different weapons to strike enemies, the enemy's reaction should also be different, and the surrounding environment should also show corresponding signs of damage.

For example, attacking an enemy with a dagger should feel very different from attacking an enemy with a war hammer.

If a war hammer smashes into a monster and the monster doesn't react much, it will make the player feel that the "hit feedback is very poor" and "unrealistic".

Therefore, adjusting the hit feedback is a technical and physical task.

But these problems can all be solved with money.

*Rebirth from the Brink* bought the best action templates and also found the best 3D artists on the resource station to make fine adjustments, so the action is very smooth, which is a clear distinction from typical domestic games.

In the end, it's all about money.

Of course, adjusting the actions is the artists' job, and Li Yada can't get involved, but adjusting the values is something she has to do herself.

For example, when a player attacks with different weapons, how much health should the monster lose? How many hits to kill? Different attack methods trigger different hit animations, which does more damage? How much more?

These are all numerical problems.

Although similar immersive AAA masterpieces will try to avoid using health bars and other UI to display health, they will still have specific values, but the game just hides the values.

Li Yada did a final check of the filled-in values, preparing to stand up and let President Pei experience it.

Pei Qian stopped her: "Wait a minute, adjust the data again, increase the monster's stats a bit."

Li Yada was taken aback: "Adjust it again? It's already very high."

Pei Qian nodded: "Higher. Double the attack power, no, triple it."

Li Yada: "?"

President Pei had said before that *Rebirth from the Brink* must be a game with an extremely high difficulty, and everyone on the project team must rack their brains and do everything possible to make players fail.

Persuading as many players as possible to quit is the first task of all project team members.

It must be said that Lu Mingliang is very obedient, truly doing things strictly according to President Pei's requirements, and Bao Xu has also provided a lot of constructive suggestions in the process.

As a result, President Pei is still not satisfied?

Pei Qian didn't explain much. He knew very well that even if Lu Mingliang did things strictly according to his requirements, their imagination would definitely still fall short.

Adding more monster attack power can't be wrong.

Li Yada adjusted her glasses and increased the monster's attack power to three times the original, as Pei Qian said.

In this way, the already low margin for error instantly became even lower.

After making the changes, Li Yada stood up, handed the controller to Pei Qian, and stood aside.

She wanted to see how President Pei played this game!

President Pei is so confident in asking me to increase the monster's attack power to three times the original, is it because he doesn't think this difficulty is challenging for him?

Or is President Pei a gaming genius like Bao Xu, only able to find enjoyment in the game at a higher difficulty?

Li Yada pushed up her glasses, watching intently.

Pei Qian took the controller, sat in his boss chair, and started the game.

The initial scene is in a small village, which was originally a peaceful and serene village, but more and more people are losing their three souls and seven spirits (Daoist concept of a person's spiritual essence) and turning into wandering souls.

These people are dressed in tattered clothes and look emaciated, and they are holding strange weapons such as choppers, hoes, scythes, and pitchforks, or even empty-handed, holding rocks.

The monsters are scattered throughout the village, doing some clueless things.

Some are constantly chopping at a wooden stake with an ax, but there is no firewood on the stake. They just futilely raise the ax and chop down, repeating the process;

Some are squatting in the corner, facing the wall, muttering sentences with unclear meanings;

Some are constantly walking towards the wall. They have completely lost their minds, but they will still unconsciously walk towards the road to the underworld, but they don't realize that there is a wall in front of them;

Some are wandering aimlessly in the village, and when they see someone with a clear mind, they will scream and rush over like crazy...

The protagonist is similar to them, also wearing tattered clothes and holding a crude weapon.

In the courtyard where the player is born, some basic weapons are provided, such as choppers, axes, sticks, pitchforks, and so on. During the game, players will also constantly acquire other weapons, which can be used freely, provided that the stats are sufficient.

Pei Qian chose the chopper, which is relatively easy to use for beginners, and rushed towards the first monster ahead.

The monster was holding a pitchfork and immediately realized that Pei Qian was approaching. The long pitchfork stabbed out before Pei Qian's chopper could even reach it!

With a "whoosh" sound, Pei Qian saw that more than half of the health bar in the upper left corner was gone.

Pei Qian frantically pressed the dodge button. The monster holding the pitchfork happened to attack again after Pei Qian dodged, emptying Pei Qian's remaining health.

"Hehehehehe..."

The monster holding the pitchfork made a string of strange laughter and turned away.

Leaving only a black screen.

Pei Qian: "..."

Li Yada: "..."

The scene was a bit awkward.