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text丨cai bao

layout丨lu jiu

……

add two rules.

after going through countless hardships and abandoning your previous soul, you finally stood at the exit of the world. and you finally learned that -

in "rule 5", the three words that were erased■■■, which is actually:

“rule one”。

rule 5: don’t trustrule one。

rule 1: machines are our gods

rule 1: machines are our gods

rule 1: machines are our gods

anyone can see that the prologue of "white noise survival guide" is all about a very unique branch of "new weird stories" today - "rule-based weird stories".

within an hour of the game's opening, the player, who has lost his memory for unknown reasons, falls into an extremely abstract stream-of-consciousness journey, unable to move in the vast white fog, and is also instilled with the six inexplicable "rules" mentioned above.

you are repeatedly attacked by mechanical monsters in the white fog, and your mind echoes with a will that does not belong to you. you have no idea who is your friend or foe, and how credible the rules are. you are in a state of mental confusion. but through the clues left by the world, you are still gradually approaching the truth, and finally realize that this world is just a lie.

and my amnesia was just an insurance policy set up by my past self for this moment.

today, humans all over the world have been indoctrinated by machines with "rule 1":machines are the gods of mankind.

and only you know that the machines that have now become "gods" were once just human creations.

the machine is lying.

(players need to collect combination clues themselves

to infer the truth of the current situation)

although you know the truth, you cannot let the machines know that you are an alien. you must hide yourself in the white noise, clear the domination of the mechanical rules, and perhaps win over some surviving human forces. as a cyber detective, you have to track down clues, brew opportunities, and gradually take back this world from the mechanical ancient gods.

thus, "rule-based weird stories" and "cthulhu" are naturally combined with "action roguelike" to form the game foundation of "white noise survival guide".

this is not common - or rather, no one dares to think of doing it.

in the past few years when "new strange stories" has become a hot topic in the second-tier games, most of the related products we have seen have adopted the framework of the scp foundation, that is, the worldview of "control, containment, and protection". for example, modern society is full of various "supernatural phenomena" that ordinary people cannot understand. in order to deal with these existences beyond common sense, a secret agency came into being to quietly protect the world's safety from the threat of supernatural entities.

but just from the description at the beginning of this article, you can see that "white noise survival guide" is very different.

it chose a radical and bold direction: the player is the only one who knows the truth about the world, and all other humans have been brainwashed by the rules of the mechanical gods. the world is full of unspeakable dangers, and the player is isolated and helpless - there are very few second-hand games that put players in such a "high-pressure" situation. most second-hand games may strive to create a world that players are willing to pin their lives on - but i think no player would want to live in a desperate and terrifying world like "white noise survival guide".

in september 2023, the action-game "white noise survival guide" developed by tectree studio released its first pv. the entire pv only uses the tone of "rule-based weird talk" to tell several "rules" in the "white noise survival guide":

1. do not travel unless necessary on white noise days. if you must travel, please wear professional protective equipment.

2. please do not use electronic devices. frequent garbled code on the devices will increase your mental burden.

(games often use "codes" to show "abnormalities")

3. even if you have made the above preparations, you may still encounter unknown risks. special statement: white noise accidents are not covered by commercial insurance.

4. if the protective equipment is damaged, please seek refuge in a safe house with an orange door as soon as possible.

5. exposure to white noise can easily cause hallucinations, and everything you experience may be part of the hallucination.

6. the safe house is completely silent and there will be no music. if you hear music, please leave immediately.

7. if you see the ancient gods, it means you can no longer survive. humans are just the humblest sacrifices of our mechanical creators. please use all means to leave your last message and guide our future direction.

(there is actually a pv that allows the character to "die")

this pv effect is quite amazing. many players think that the "weird" atmosphere shown in the pv is quite fresh, and they all hope that the game itself can continue the atmosphere created in the pv.

judging from the performance of the first test of the game in june 2024, "white noise survival guide" has indeed achieved this. the so-called "rule-based weird talk" is really not a gimmick.

the essence of rule-based weird talk is an art of tapping into the player's sensitivity to the "wrong" atmosphere. usually, the most exciting part of rule-based weird talk is when the "new rules" and "old rules" suddenly conflict.

producer of white noise survival guideling dongjunthe game is also very clear about this, so it designed the conflict between "rule five" and "rule one" in the prologue, creating such a "goose bumps" moment for the players.

ling dongjun said that in the first test, they collected questionnaires from nearly a quarter of the players. although there were differences in various aspects, they were surprisingly consistent in the plot: the test players all gave extremely high scores, with an overall score of more than 4.5 (out of 5).

you know, in the complex public opinion environment of 2024 - in this market where most games have to choose to use various trendy elements and labels to try to differentiate themselves in order to stand out, there is a second-tier game that "returns to basics" and has received such a degree of recognition for the most basic "plot".

this is a very, very rare thing.

so, how did "white noise survival guide", which can attract players with its plot in 2024, come into being? why can it hit the unique positioning of "rule-based weird story × mechanical cthulhu × action pigeon"? what is the secret of the game's highly praised plot?

the first beta of the game has just ended, and the developers of titanium shell tree are preparing for the second beta. the producer ling dongjun was also very busy, and finally squeezed out some time to talk to us about the story of "white noise survival guide".

ling dongjun said that their initial motivation was tounique enough. players should be able to get the uniqueness of the game as soon as they play. the choice of themes such as rule-based weird stories is just one of the results of the pursuit of "uniqueness". however, it is not random. the combination of "rule system", "cthulhu" and "action pigeon" which seem to be difficult to relate is also a logical deduction.

first, they set the stage - a world with highly advanced technology. in this world, people have very different ideas. there are people like players who pursue the truth, and of course there are also loyal believers who regard huge machines as gods and believe that "god" created humans. thus, we have the basic concept of "mechanical gods" that we see.

when it comes to machinery, ai naturally comes to mind. today, the learning process of ai is indeed an unpredictable black box. humans only know what materials ai has learned and what results it has obtained, but they cannot figure out the process of ai forming logical chains and various semantic associations. ling dongjun thought, the relationship between humans and ai today is a kind of "cthulhu"! so the concept of "ai ancient god" naturally emerged.

he then deduced - if these "ai ancient gods" want to control humans, what methods will they use? he thinks they use "instructions", and instructions are a kind of rules - so there is a framework of "rule system".

ling dongjun believes that the game's action-packed gameplay is essentially a "choiceruleto change the "build" experience.

after this deduction, "white noise survival guide" is what players see today.

however, as the saying goes, all fear comes from insufficient firepower. if you give the player a gun in a horror game, it is likely to ruin the entire game.

so, just as the players in the comments section of the first exposure pv worried, as a work with "anti-" and "new weird" elements, does "white noise survival guide" also face similar problems - it must maintain the mysterious and strange atmosphere of the rule-based weird and anti-, while giving players a powerful act performance to kill mechanical enemies in a fancy way. how can titanium shell tree balance this conflict between "force" and "terror"?

for ling dongjun, in fact, within the framework of "white noise survival guide", force and terror do not conflict. because as mentioned earlier, although the player is the only one who knows the truth, the environment he lives in is quite high-pressure: the humans around him (even including the well-known playable characters that have been announced) have been brainwashed by mechanical rules to some extent, and their cognition is completely based on "rule one". on top of this, the ai ​​that dominates the machinery is also constantly monitoring the player; and as a "cyber detective", the player needs to use various hacking methods to shuttle through the virtual space to solve one case and puzzle after another in an isolated and helpless situation. it is essentially a "puzzle-solving" process.

(for example, yomi who tragically witnessed the "ancient god" in the pv)

then again, whether it is the design of acting as a cyber detective to solve puzzles or the arrangement of the main storyline of the game, it may be similar to "black myth: wukong》it is somewhat related.

the white noise survival guide project was launched in the second half of 2021 and has been in development for nearly three years. ling dongjun thinks it is a coincidence, because what inspired him to start his own business and make games happened to be the first actual demo of black myth: wukong in 2020.

it’s a long story.

ling dongjun entered the game industry with a "creative" mindset about a dozen years ago. at that time, he saw a game developer popularize the concept of "ip". at that time, he thought it was wonderful, and the word ip indirectly expressed the creation he pursued.

however, when he shared his ideas about ip with his boss, the boss almost thought he was crazy. this is true. in that era, most chinese games did not even mention ip, and even "gameplay" was a rare word.

"after entering the gaming industry with a creative mindset, i discovered that reality was completely different from what i had imagined. what people cared about most were social interactions and numbers," said ling dongjun.

but this made him more determined to create ip.

later, he joined a large company and participated in a famous card rpg project. at that time, the project tried many ip adaptation forms, with some successes and some failures. among them, although this movie project invested heavily, it received very bad reviews after its release, which he felt was a pity.

this made ling dongjun start to think about the nature of ip and its differences in different media - how to ensure that ip can show its charm in different media?

he wondered why many games became less interesting after being adapted into movies and tv shows. of course, there must be a reason that "games are an art that focuses more on interaction." but for him, the games he wants to make are works that "even if adapted into movies and tv shows, the audience will feel that the plot is excellent." they are works that can retain the charm of the story even if they cross media. the different forms of expression of the same ip in different media are exactly what he is most interested in.

while making games, ling dongjun also produces various articles related to games, movies and tv.elden ringthe plot of "the witcher" was praised by netizens as "detailed and elegant", and the story creation of "the witcher" in different media was studied. the narrative method of the "god of war" series adapted the norse mythology was discussed. the martin-style story methodology of the adapted series "dragon king's family" was analyzed, and how the "fairy tale feeling" of "cyberpunk: edgewalker" touched people's hearts...

of course, he also enjoys writing stories, and the two that best reflect his ideas are steam water margin and cyber ​​myth.

as the names suggest, both works are re-creations of "traditional culture". the story of wu song fighting the tiger has become an alternative criminal investigation story involving "superpowers" such as time travel and self-healing; and the story of the lotus lantern has become a story in which "chen xiang is a replica of yang jian, and he keeps repeating the history in his confrontation with the emperor ji fa, trying to save his relatives."

he really likes this creative method of telling a "modern" story with the help of concepts familiar to the audience. for a creator like him who is used to "blaspheming" the original work, the accusation of "disrespecting the original work" that "black myth: wukong" is currently facing seems like a joke.

ling dongjun believes that the so-called "original work" is just one of the countless adaptations in hundreds of years of history, and even when people say "original work", they may not be referring to the same thing. everyone can like or dislike any adaptation, and think it is good or bad. but thinking that adaptations must conform to some standard answer is undoubtedly wishful thinking.

yes, whether it is the sun wukong who "makes trouble in heaven", the sun wukong who "goes to the west to seek buddhist scriptures", or the sun wukong who "talks about love", they are all just artistic processing of a certain aspect of the image of sun wukong.

"no matter what the subject is, i think what we creators create isstories of the times, stories of the present。”

ling dongjun's "cybermyth" actually has the same core as the predecessor of "black myth: wukong" - "art of war: red tide", also produced by feng ji - using "science fiction" to deconstruct "tradition" and tell contemporary stories.

(the art of war: red tide also has character settings such as "sun wukong", "bull demon king", "human demon god war", etc., but everything takes place in the universe)

finally, after seeing the debut of black myth: wukong, ling dongjun decided to start his own business and make a game of his own from scratch.

as you can imagine, to develop such a "deviant" script within the narrative framework of eryou, the requirements for copywriting skills are very high - but ling dongjun cleverly incorporated his own ideas into the game. for example, the first chapter of "white noise" is full of shadows of "the legend of white snake", and as early as in "cyber ​​mythology", ling dongjun had already re-created "the legend of white snake", in which many elements such as "psychologist" and "hallucination" can match.

among all the game producers i have met, ling dongjun is indeed a very talkative person. he talked endlessly about many points of view on ip adaptation and game design, but in the end - the topic returned to his essence - creator.

he said that creation is an exciting intellectual game, a "spiritual communication" between readers and authors. the fun of this "spiritual communication" lies in that when readers accurately perceive the intentions buried by the creator in the story, they will be extremely happy.

"our entire production team likes to watch a live broadcast host. some of our jokes, some dialogues, and sometimes some designs in battles that are based on music effects - these have all been discovered by players. when we find out this, we will be very happy and excited for the whole day. and the fun that keeps us making games is moments like this," ling dongjun said with a smile.

for him, the romance of creation is just that simple.

in any case, i hope that "white noise survival guide" can use their unique skills to bring a little plot shock to the current second-hand game market.