Seeing everyone's hesitant expressions, Lucas could more or less guess what they were thinking, so he smiled and explained.
"Relax, it's not what you think."
"In the game, bonfires aren't completely unable to teleport. As the story moves forward, once players pass through Undead Town, Blight Village, and other areas and successfully ring the bell, they can head to the royal city and obtain an item called the King's Vessel. That's when teleportation unlocks."
"Also, in the game, players can directly level up at bonfires."
Hearing Lucas's words, everyone suddenly understood.
"So the Fire Keeper's role was put onto the bonfire, and the teleport function was tied to a game item." Hector quickly figured out how the bonfire was designed.
"Exactly." Lucas nodded. "It was also done so players could really feel the clever design of the game's map."
So teleportation still existed, it was just tied to an item.
And this major design choice mainly showed how carefully crafted the game's maps were.
With all the interconnected areas, elevators, and shortcuts, players could move from one region to another in a very short time.
If we're talking about the peak of map design in the Souls series, without a doubt it's the map design of Dark Souls 1.
But if you just added teleportation to every location in the game, the brilliance of that map design would be greatly reduced.
After finishing his talk on the prologue subtitled Age of Fire., Lucas asked Rachel, Anna, the art team, and Hector's level design team to stay.
Next, he still needed to carefully go over the game's maps and all kinds of level design details.
Compared to the previous Souls game, the prologue needed much more detailed work.
"A simple trap design shouldn't be shallow. We already had some experience when developing Dark Souls—for example, putting two enemies in front of a blind corner."
"Normally, when players step into this spot, it becomes a blind angle, and if they're careless, they might get ambushed. This kind of corner trap has been used before, and it's a basic entry-level trick."
"But in the prologue, we can't be that low-level. We need to bring players brand new surprises. That means flipping the thinking around—not hiding it, but making it obvious."
"We want players to spot the trap that's right in front of them. But the real trap is hidden behind it, like layers of a cake. The outside layer is made for them to find, but in the treetops or corners, there's another enemy—that's the true setup."
"And there's another advantage to this. It makes players think, 'I only died because I was careless.'"
"So when players die, they'll become more cautious. With subtle guiding through design, they'll slowly be drawn into deeper and deeper traps, keeping the sense of challenge alive and giving them a real sense of achievement."
Lucas sat at the computer and roughly built a sample scene so everyone could understand what he meant.
Hector and the others swallowed hard. With bonfires not allowing teleportation, plus these kinds of traps and levels—this was just cruel!
Just imagining it in their heads, and recalling how players had suffered in the Dark Souls world before, they could already feel the deep malice in it.
"So it's basically like boiling a frog in warm water, while giving players the feeling of being tricked and still thanking you for it?" Anna nodded thoughtfully.
Lucas didn't reply, he just gave her a look.
Did she have to phrase it that harshly?
Though, it was pretty accurate.
"The main goal is to give players more gameplay. That way they can really feel surprised."
And what is gameplay, anyway?
"Dark Souls" is all about surprising level design, tense boss fights, and deadly traps everywhere, right?
If you take away these things, wouldn't that be letting the players down?
All of this is to make sure players can enjoy the fun of the game.
Everything is for the players, and it's not just empty words—he actually put it into action.
That's the kind of spirit a real game creator should have!
Hearing Lucas's words, Hector pressed his lips together and stayed quiet.
Surprising? Yeah, it really was.
But happy? Well… let's just say, players, good luck to you.
All we can do is feel sorry for you in advance.
After all, with a game like this, just imagining what it'll be like when it's finished already makes Hector a little scared.
...
When the meeting ended, the prequel of "Dark Souls" had officially entered development.
For now, most of the work was still on art production.
Since in this game, the action animations weren't changing much.
But the maps for the whole game basically had to be completely replaced.
Even the royal city, Farron's sewage pit, and the royal garden couldn't reuse the old assets.
After all, in terms of timeline, one is the end of the Age of Fire, and the other is just after the first fire was lit.
It needed to show the feeling of great changes over time, so players could sense the passing of ages.
Besides that, the main work now was the promo CG for "Dark Souls: Age of Fire.".
Lucas had already given the storyboard script to Anna and Rachel.
All that was left was the CG production.
The work was still handled by the same studio that made the opening cinematic for "Dark Souls".
Their past collaboration had been very smooth, and their quality was top-tier in the industry.
As for "Dark Souls: Age of Fire", there wasn't much Lucas needed to personally oversee for now. Also, this year's gameplay showcase would be handled by Ethan.
Unlike last year, Lucas didn't plan to prepare a brand-new game this time.
After all, they had just finished developing a big project, "It Takes Two", and now had already started the new Dark Souls project.
Time was really tight.
So this year's gameplay showcase, Lucas decided not to get involved.
As for overseas, Target Software had reached out to Lucas, planning to try a worldwide simultaneous release.
Lucas agreed with their suggestion.
After all, "Dark Souls"'s performance overseas last year was very impressive, and it gave the IP a certain level of recognition.
After summing up Nebula Games' current situation, Lucas leaned back on the sofa in his office and stretched.
But just then, the phone on the desk rang.
Lucas picked it up, and his face showed surprise.
It was actually a call from Game Division's landline.
Why would Game Division be calling him?
Lucas, full of confusion, answered the phone.
(End of The Chapter)
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