Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 159: Welcome Mr. Gu Sheng to Japan

“This damn... is biased, isn’t it?”

Dongjin International Airport!

Upon arriving at the arrival hall, Gu Sheng imdiately spotted among the crowd holding welco signs one printed in standard Mandarin—

[Welco Mr. Gu Sheng to Japan]

For a mont, he thought he had beco the main character in Teacher Guo’s crosstalk routine.

Who the hell taught you to write signs like this?

I can understand that out of courtesy you wrote the sign in Mandarin, but this sign... the ambiguity is just too much!

Steeling himself, he stepped forward and saw that the person holding the sign was a neatly dressed Japanese woman, holding a bouquet of flowers.

It was strange. Although both China and Japan belong to Asia, Gu Sheng could imdiately distinguish between a Chinese young woman and a Japanese cherry blossom girl.

He couldn’t quite explain why.

“Kon’nichiwa? I’m Gu Sheng.”

Standing in front of the receptionist, Gu Sheng extended his hand.

His Japanese was a bit rough since he hadn’t studied much, just barely able to say a couple of phrases on arrival. For daily communication, he still used English.

“Ah... ah! Hai hai hai! Kon’nichiwa!”

Clearly, Gu Sheng’s youthfulness far exceeded what the receptionist had expected.

She was montarily stunned, then quickly stepped forward, handing the bouquet to Gu Sheng and bowing:

“Hello, Mr. Gu Sheng. Please forgive the poor welco! (English)”

Then she put away the sign and gestured politely for Gu Sheng to follow:

“Executive Director Moriya and the senior managers of the ga affairs departnt are waiting outside. Please co with .”

“Beautiful flowers, thank you. I appreciate it.”

Gu Sheng accepted the bouquet, smiled, nodded, and raised his hand to signal the reception etiquette to lead the way.

They exited the arrival hall, and near the entrance, Gu Sheng already saw Kora’s senior executives waiting outside.

At the forefront was none other than Moriya Tetsuya, Kora’s Executive Director of the Ga Division.

Flanking him were his secretary, Inoue Sanaeko, and the head of the ga departnt, Higashino Ta.

Behind the three were five or six others, all dressed in black suits with white shirts and ties, standing beside three black cars.

Two sedans in front and back, with a business MPV in the middle.

From afar, it looked like a yakuza entourage.

Oh wait, it wasn’t just looking like one. Kora actually seed to have connections in that realm.

Gu Sheng silently scoffed as he walked through the opened electric doors out of the airport.

On the other side, Moriya warmly greeted them with the secretary and departnt head:

“Hello, hello, Mr. Gu Sheng. Please forgive us for the poor welco and do bear with us.”

“Not at all, Mr. Moriya, you’re too courteous.”

Gu Sheng shook hands with Moriya and the others:

“I have long heard of Kora’s great na. It is truly an honor to co to Japan to collaborate.”

Polite greetings followed.

In business cooperation, such formalities were inevitable upon eting.

With Japan’s unique politeness, both sides bowed repeatedly, exchanging pleasantries for a full five minutes before Moriya gestured for Gu Sheng to get in the car:

“It’s inconvenient to talk here. Mr. Gu, please get in the car. We’ll first head to the hotel where you’re staying.”

Kora’s industry was vast.

Although called a comprehensive digital entertainnt company, they were involved in hotels, clubs, film and television, and various entertainnt sectors.

This was also Golden Wind’s future direction—a ga-centered, multi-industry parallel, fully integrated profit-driven pan-ga entertainnt company.

They exchanged a few simple words unrelated to ga cooperation during the ride.

After about ten minutes, the convoy arrived at the Dongjin Bay Intercontinental Hotel, diagonally opposite Kora’s company building.

This was a luxurious four-star hotel invested by Kora, where Gu Sheng was specially arranged a deluxe executive suite.

On the first day arriving in Japan, weary from travel, no matter how eager Kora was, Gu Sheng wouldn’t be expected to assu his position imdiately.

He was given half a day to rest.

That evening, Gu Sheng was invited to a welco banquet specially arranged by Kora’s senior managent.

…

During the banquet, both sides sipped lightly as Moriya spoke:

“We have already reviewed the PT demo proposal you sent earlier, Mr. Gu. It was astonishing.”

Indeed, just yesterday after buying business trip supplies with Little Nezha, Gu Sheng had spent an afternoon organizing the PT proposal.

After all, it was a demo version; the overall ga process wasn’t long, and with system assistance, it was quick.

The whole proposal was only about ten pages, so Moriya and others had squeezed in two rounds of review and discussion last night and this afternoon.

The unanimous conclusion was—top-notch.

Here, one must ntion the consistent horror ga design logic in this world.

Usually, a horror ga’s fundantal design is to make abstract fear concepts concrete through visuals.

Like creating a female ghost or a monster, turning “conceptual fear” into a “concrete entity” placed directly in front of players.

But PT was different.

It also embodied fear in tangible forms, designing the deford fetus and the ghost Lisa.

However, through confined spaces, scare points, fragnted information full of taphor and hints, and increasingly bizarre scene changes, it detached “conceptual fear” from “concrete entity” a second ti, imprinting it deeply in the player’s mind.

A dual physiological and psychological fear chain.

This technique wasn’t sothing just any designer could achieve.

Even Higashino Ta, who had served years as Kora’s ga affairs departnt head, bluntly admitted—this single demo alone was enough to cent Gu Sheng as the “Father of Psychological Horror.”

Undoubtedly, this gave everyone at Kora a shocking recognition of Gu Sheng’s strength and greatly boosted confidence in this IP.

So heartfelt praise was essential.

Beyond that, Moriya was most concerned:

“So, regarding the full ga, Mr. Gu, are you planning to continue this style, expanding and extending this puzzling story?”

Hearing this, Gu Sheng nodded, then shook his head:

“The style will definitely continue, as it is the main tone of our IP,”

“But the story itself won’t be the sa, or rather, not entirely the sa.”

Ah???

As soon as he said this, everyone at Kora gasped lightly, so even stunned!

What did Mr. Gu an?

The official version would no longer continue PT’s story, or not entirely?

Could it be that PT was just a separate storyline created solely for the demo?

The main story was actually deeper and broader?

“Uh... please forgive my ignorance, Mr. Gu,” Moriya was also a bit stunned, raising his hand:

“Please excuse my stupidity. I don’t quite understand what you an. Could you please explain in detail?”

As Moriya spoke, everyone at Kora put down their chopsticks, eager to listen.

“…Parallel,”

Gu Sheng thought briefly and picked up his chopsticks:

“Like these two chopsticks,”

“The Silent Hill demo, PT, will tell an obscure murder case through puzzles,”

“And the upcoming official version will also be triggered by a murder case,”

“What I want to do is make these two chopsticks independent, yet—”

At this point, Gu Sheng pointed the chopsticks together, mimicking a chopstick pinch, touching the tips:

“Different paths, sa destination.”

Hiss—!!!

As soon as he said this, everyone at the table gasped sharply, feeling their skin crawl!

Gu Sheng’s idea was even more terrifying than PT!

A madman!

Absolutely insane!

All present were from the ga division, knowledgeable about gas, and understood what Gu Sheng ant.

The demo design was already crazy enough!

But!

To Gu Sheng, it was still far from crazy enough!

Parallel lines converging on the sa destination!

God knows how complex such a structure would be!

Even this demo, which in their eyes was enough to support an entire ga, was to Gu Sheng only an appetizer independent from but related to the main version!

In other words!

This PT ensured a full display of Silent Hill’s psychological horror, told an obscure story within a limited ti, and kept the story detached from yet connected to the main storyline!

It was like a player using Neymar’s signature rainbow flick to bypass defenders, then ssi single-handedly dribbling past seven opponents, finally scoring with an Ibrahimović-style volley!

Unbelievable.

One might even call it mind-boggling!

“This... this...”

Moriya felt his scalp tingle!

He had never heard of such a ga design concept before!

For a mont, he kept grinning awkwardly!

“This... forgive for speaking plainly, Mr. Gu, but isn’t this design a bit too complicated?”

Gu Sheng chuckled lightly.

He knew Moriya wasn’t asking “Is it complicated?” but rather “Can you pull it off?”

After all, his idea revealed four big words inside and out—

I want it all!

But such a design was undoubtedly a double-edged sword!

If done well, it would set a new standard, shocking the market with a demo!

If done poorly, it would be a ss, better to just play it safe!

Gu Sheng was confident about this.

Of course, I can’t do it alone, haha!

But Hideo Kojima can.

I can call the gods.

“Please rest assured, Mr. Moriya,”

Gu Sheng smiled:

“After all, the demo’s reputation will greatly influence our cooperation on the full ga.”

Phew—

Moriya breathed a sigh of relief.

Gu Sheng’s confidence in his proposal was evident from this statent.

“Well then, we’ll look forward to it.”

As he spoke, Moriya raised his glass and toasted Gu Sheng.

After discussing the general concept, they put down their glasses, and Gu Sheng asked:

“Oh right, Mr. Moriya, how is the budget coming along?”

Budget.

The most crucial aspect of ga developnt.

Previously, over PT’s developnt cost, Golden Wind and Kora had several rounds of discussions.

At first, Kora proposed a budget of one million USD for PT, about seven million yuan.

This budget was already quite high.

After all, the initial purpose of the Silent Hill project was simply to enrich Kora’s ga variety on the Dongjin platform.

But upon hearing this budget, Gu Sheng shook his head repeatedly.

Too little.

He had high expectations for this ga—both graphics and full-sensory experience had to be presented at the best level.

Achieving the best effect required a higher budget.

Thus, after discussion, Kora raised the budget to 1.5 million USD.

Yet, this budget still couldn’t et Gu Sheng’s expectations.

Gu Sheng explained—

Originally, as a specially invited chief ga director temporarily assigned to Kora, he was not in a position to ddle in the demo budget.

After all, the demo production costs were solely decided by Kora, unrelated to Golden Wind.

If you give one million USD, I’ll deliver one million USD worth of quality; if fifty thousand, then fifty thousand.

However.

It was important to note that the demo’s quality and player feedback directly affected the full ga’s sales.

The more stunning our demo, the higher the official version’s sales would be.

Silent Hill’s initial concept perfectly matched my expertise in psychological horror.

I am confident and believe I have the ability to elevate this IP to an unprecedented height, potentially making it a milestone and one of the greatest works in full-sensory horror ga history.

And this depended on the budget.

As soon as Gu Sheng said this, Moriya was stunned!

Not because Gu Sheng was arrogant!

But because his arrogance was backed up!

After all, he had already created a gaming milestone!

Titanfall was right there!

That was Gu Sheng’s personally crafted divine IP!

And now, Gu Sheng was making such lofty expectations for Silent Hill!

This was an irresistible temptation for Moriya and the entire Kora.

This was a legendary horror ga IP!

If Gu Sheng really pulled it off, Kora would beco the sole true god of the horror ga market, dominating fully!

Because currently, there was no real contender in the horror ga circle!

Therefore!

After much discussion!

“Finally,”

Moriya said:

“We decided to raise the demo budget to 3 million USD.”

About twenty million yuan.

A demo budget nearly half of a small-scale APEX project.

Quite generous!

Gu Sheng secretly gave a thumbs-up.

With this, he could use the most advanced Phoenix Engine.

Indeed, the reason he had been pushing Kora for a bigger budget was to use this engine, hailed as “the world’s top engine for visual quality” nowadays!

Unlike Golden Wind’s usual ‘Phantom Dream 5’ engine, Phoenix Engine, released just six months ago, focused heavily on visual effects and rendering!

It upgraded and optimized real-ti ray tracing, global illumination simulation, and virtual micro-polygon geotry technology.

It featured real-ti voxel-based global illumination with excellent effects, truly achieving a “what you see during developnt is what you get” standard, greatly improving production detail and efficiency.

Its unique ‘virtual eyeball’ technology simulated human eye vision.

Not exaggerating, in terms of visual performance alone,

If Phantom Dream 5 made the ga world indistinguishable from reality,

Phoenix completely realized a second-world virtual visual architecture.

Of course!

The engine wasn’t perfect.

While Phoenix excelled in visual effects, its full-sensory technology and motion-assist support were not as advanced as Phantom Dream 5.

You win so, you lose so.

Phoenix was a specialized, uneven player.

But!

This specialization was exactly what Gu Sheng needed!

Silent Hill didn’t require high full-sensory tech support or many motion performances or assistance!

Psychological horror’s main requirent was imrsion, and the most direct, crude way to achieve imrsion was to infinitely improve visual quality!

Because among human senses, vision has the highest priority!

“Fantastic,”

Gu Sheng nodded sincerely, raising his glass:

“On behalf of the players, I thank Mr. Moriya and Kora for their understanding and support.”

“We’ll leave it to you, Mr. Gu!”

Moriya raised his glass and downed it in one gulp.

Both sides now understood each other’s primary concerns.

The rest of the banquet’s atmosphere beca much more relaxed.

Gu Sheng took the opportunity to ask Moriya about Kora’s branch industries and business developnt philosophy.

To beco bigger and stronger and achieve brilliance again, Golden Wind had to realize a multi-line parallel three-dinsional industry structure in the future.

Kora had abundant experience in this regard.

With ready-made experience right before him, it would be foolish not to take advantage.

After rounds of toasts and cups, when the banquet ended, it was already past ten p.m.

Gu Sheng was a little tipsy, returning to his suite to take a shower.

You have to admit, Old Lu’s previous analysis was indeed accurate.

The toiletries Little Nezha specially brought him really reminded him not to forget to “report work.”

He made a video call; Shen Miaomiao answered almost instantly.

On the video, Little Nezha was sprawled on the sofa, trying hard to be a lazy, laid-back salted fish.