Chapter 1660 "Shu Li"

The audience in the comments section began to mock him.

"Dying of laughter, Old Qiao is acting like a food critic with an inflated ego, insisting on cooking himself and ending up like this."

"People shouldn't be too confident. Why exactly did you think you could be an indie game developer? Don't you have any self-awareness?"

"I see now, the Dawn Games Editor is definitely easier than the official editor, but it's still not something someone with Qiao Laoshi's IQ can handle."

Qiao Liang retorted, unconvinced, "Just you wait, after this broadcast, I'll secretly work hard to study this editor. Someday, I'll come up with a finished game and blow your minds."

"But... my failure today at least proves one thing, that indie game developers really have it tough."

"Every trash game you see might be the result of a group of people pouring their hearts and souls into it."

"Of course, trash games should still be criticized, but everyone should also appropriately support the fruits of indie game developers' labor and look at their good points."

"Like the saying goes, 'To know the matter by learning from books is shallow; only through practice can one truly understand.'"

"From a player's perspective, you can criticize any game without reservation, but only by actually becoming a designer can you understand the difficulties involved."

Qiao Liang recalled his previous attempt to make a game. At first, he just wanted to make a wolf that eats sheep, but then he encountered a small problem: he didn't know how to add an attack animation to the wolf.

This small problem was quickly solved, but after solving it, he discovered new problems.

For example, within what range should the wolf make an attack animation? Should there be blood splattering after the attack? Should there be multiple attack animations to make it look more realistic? What if the wolf's attack animation doesn't match the sheep and there's clipping?

There were a lot of problems like this. Implementing a very simple function in a game requires a huge amount of design behind it.

It's like cooking.

For diners, it's easy to taste whether a dish is too salty or too bland. But for a chef, the final flavor of a dish might be achieved through a dozen different steps, and any problem in any one of those steps could cause the final result to deviate greatly from their expectations.

The difficulty involved is something that people who haven't actually cooked can't understand.

Qiao Liang discovered that this editor actually had an unexpected benefit: it allowed ordinary players to experience the daily work of game designers.

Because the official editor wasn't open to everyone; it had a certain barrier to entry. And most players basically wouldn't bother downloading the official game editor, so relatively few players had actually experienced making games.

But the Dawn Games Editor was built into the Dawn Games Platform. The initial program wasn't very large, but it contained a large number of plug-in program packages and resource packages.

Many players, out of curiosity, would try the editor function when they opened the Dawn Games Platform. Even if they only dabbled like Qiao Liang, they could at least understand the difficulties of game development.

And those who were truly talented and enjoyed game design as a result could continue to download new program packages and resource packages, constantly improve their design skills through self-study, and maybe one day, another excellent indie game developer would emerge.

After looking at the Dawn Games Editor, Qiao Liang turned his attention to *Shu Li*, which he had been eagerly awaiting for a long time.

*Shu Li* had been delayed once, but when it was delayed, the official announcement had made it very clear that this was to make some modifications for the new editor and would add new game content.

So, although the players were unhappy, they were still full of anticipation.

After all, there's that saying, no one remembers a trash game that was released on time.

Unless the trash game has so many bugs that they become memes.

Of course, that's just a joke. But the principle is correct: whether a game is released a month or two early or late doesn't really matter; the key is the quality of the game.

Qiao Liang had already purchased and downloaded *Shu Li* and went straight into the game.

...

The game opened with a promotional animation, which wasn't fundamentally different from the promotional animation released during the pre-release hype, but the details were more refined.

The last scene was still the old Taoist priest picking up the infant from the monster village, turning around and leaving, with raging flames burning everything to ashes.

The camera switched to formally enter the game's story.

A young man carrying a sword kowtowed a few times in front of an unnamed grave next to a mountain hut.

Obviously, according to the plot development, the old Taoist priest should have taken the child to the mountains to teach him martial arts, and now the old Taoist priest had passed away, and the young man was about to go down the mountain to slay demons and eliminate evil.

Then entered the initial newbie tutorial stage, Qiao Liang found that he could control the protagonist to move, attack, use some simple spells, or pick up items.

Players can go into the small hut to pick up some props.

You can also go to the open space around to hit wooden stakes or perform various operations in the newbie guide.

While doing this operation, the young man would also recall the old Taoist priest's past instructions.

"The four schools of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Military Strategists each have their strengths. Although you have learned from me, you don't have to be bound by the Taoist methods. As long as the four schools of Taoist magic can save the people of the world, they all have their merits."

"The world is in chaos, and demons are wreaking havoc on earth. We should eliminate demons and defend the Tao to save the common people, so that all the people in the world will no longer suffer the pain of exile. So that people of insight no longer lament the sorrow of *Shu Li*."

"Man follows the Earth, the Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows Nature."

"The road is under your own feet, how to walk it, remember, think thrice before acting."

After simple learning and familiarization, the young man went down the mountain. Qiao Liang officially began his journey of suffering.

...

Although *Shu Li* had released some trial videos before, Qiao Liang still thought it was just *Rebirth Online* with a different background.

After all, the feeling of suffering in the entire combat system was very similar to *Rebirth Online*.

But after playing it, Qiao Liang realized that there was actually a big difference between the two.

*Shu Li* wasn't a clumsy imitation of *Rebirth Online*; it had its own design concepts.

In the story of *Shu Li*, the protagonist will gain the inheritance of the four schools of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Military Strategists. Each system will give the protagonist powerful abilities in addition to the basic combat system.

The basic combat system has similarities with *Rebirth Online*. Various weapons such as knives, spears, swords, and halberds have different uses. Purely relying on honing your own operating skills and skillfully using various weapons to clear the game is certainly one way to play. But if you use the powerful abilities of the four different systems, it can have a multiplying effect.

Although the four systems can all improve player attributes, they each have their own characteristics.

For example, Taoism is suitable for players who make full preparations before the battle and pursue maximum improvement.

Buddhism provides permanent buffs and is suitable for lazy people.

Confucianism can target the weaknesses of enemies and is the best choice for speedrunning. Only skilled veteran players can maximize its effectiveness.

And the Military Strategist system is a very versatile effect, suitable for novice players. You can prepare before the battle, or you can improve the group buff effect when linking up or summoning NPCs. Novices can just choose it without thinking.

This reflects that *Shu Li*'s design concept is fundamentally different from *Rebirth Online*.

*Shu Li* allows players to reduce the difficulty of the game through various rich game mechanics and skill combinations, and even achieve a mowing effect in certain key battles in the first playthrough, which can be cleared mindlessly.

Of course, the prerequisite is a very deep understanding of the game mechanics.

If players in *Rebirth Online* don't like to study the game's combat mechanics, it doesn't matter, as long as you die a few more times, you will always become skilled.

But in *Shu Li*, if players stubbornly refuse to learn the game mechanics and always insist on using their flesh to fight the monsters head-on, then the final ending will probably be quite tragic.

Of course, it's hard to say which of these two designs is better or worse. It can only be said that they are aimed at different player groups and focus on different game fun.

In addition, there were rumors before that *Shu Li* might adopt a level-based layout. This once seemed to be a design team's plan, but this plan was obviously not continued in the official game.

*Shu Li*, like *Rebirth Online*, is still a seamless large map, with each scene closely linked together. There will be no rigid operations such as switching levels.

Players play as this young man traveling around and will come to many different scenes in the game.

For example, on the northern border, the protagonist will participate in the battlefield between the Central Plains army and alien cavalry.

He will also personally experience the scene of countless pagodas collapsing instantly and soldiers destroying the Buddha.

In addition, he will also enter the heavily guarded imperial city, talk to several important figures in the current plot, choose to support one of the princes, and become the new emperor.

All these scenes are connected to each other, and each scene has a magic circle for players to teleport between different scenes.

In this way, a miniature version of a fictional world is built in the game.

Of course, the earliest *Shu Li* project team wanted to make it into a level format. This statement is not groundless. Yan Qi did have such a plan.

Because these two methods, seamless large maps and level mode, actually have their own advantages and disadvantages.

*Shu Li* also includes the gameplay of grinding in the game mechanics, so players may repeatedly experience the battle in a certain area to obtain a certain item or resource that they need most urgently.

At this time, it will be more convenient to make it with levels.

However, after repeated consideration, Yan Qi felt that the level mode weakened the player's sense of immersion in the game too much, so he decided to put in more effort to achieve the same effect on a seamless large map.

In short, players can temporarily change the state of a certain area through special props or talismans, so that they can return to a certain special time node and re-participate in a specific battle, so as to obtain the relevant rewards again.

And the main body of the entire seamless world will still change according to the progress of the plot.

Although this method is not perfect, it at least combines the seamless large map and the level mode as much as possible, and creates a grinding gameplay on the seamless large map.