Author: Yanci Zhang

This week, I played deeply and analyzed Cyberpunk 2077. This mixed work deserves our deep study. My concern is not the gameplay, but the creator’s exposition of the theme of cyber punk. Let’s talk about the general conclusion first: I think this is a landmark game work (regardless of gameplay and bugs)

Looking at cyberpunk, a sub-type of science fiction, it has developed into three attention directions:

1. Thinking about the relationship
2. Thinking about the definition
3. Thinking about development

Many cyberpunk works explore themes and create styles in these three directions. Cyberpunk is a world that can ask and discuss questions, but can’t give correct answers. This complexity is the goal of shaping.

These problems converge into some general issues or motifs. The spire of the Tower of Babel is hidden in its agenda. In order to make the issue an effective one, it is necessary to express, guide and think carefully. So I have a way to touch the spire: find the issues raised in the game, put them in the cultural characteristics of cyberpunk, and examine the way the game presents these issues.

When World War II broke out, human beings felt that they were not ready for modernization at all. When the global economic integration pushes the world towards an economic miracle, or when the Internet just started to make the earth smaller, people think that mankind is heading for a common future, and history has entered the eternal track. Until 2020, when a dog stumbles and eats shit, you will sigh that the dream is broken so unexpectedly.

In fact, cyberpunk had already foreseen this fall. “Cyberpunk 2077” was released at the end of 2020, which led people to continue to move towards a dreamy future full of contradictions.

In the game, choose different identities of V (homeless, street kids, company employees) to start, and you will see different night cities. The four art styles in the game, namely entropy-increasing, novelty-carving, new military power and novelty-carving, divide different night cities from different perspectives. Just as the game integrates these four art styles into one without being blunt, the game also shows the contradictory world of multiple coexistence and fragmentation.

People and machines, creatures and machines are becoming more and more difficult to distinguish. Righteousness and implants make people self-extend, and many people go crazy when they extend. In the TV debate, it is argued whether the copy of consciousness is human consciousness. The winner of Nobel Prize for Literature is an artificial intelligence, which is also a best-selling author. If you find the first chapter of “The Nobel Prize Works” “Under the Tree of Apple” in the game, you will find that this artificial intelligence is approaching the unique side of human being which has been gradually abandoned.

The value of freedom exists in the ridicule of traditional religious people by the spokesmen of fetishism in the new era, in the holding and killing of a musical by different media, in satisfying any desire with money, and in the disorderly growth of neoliberal commerce. A person’s personality is characterized by hanging (implanting) commodities on himself.

The second kind of problem:
Can human beings build a good system (ideal world)?
“Cyberpunk 2077” has created a bad future, which is the basic task of Cyberpunk theme. At the same time, some characters in the game try to ask questions and reform about this bad future.
Cyberpunk originated from doubts about the universal value of capitalism. Night City originated from Richard knight, an idealist who wanted to break the status quo. He was pessimistic, optimistic and realistic, and was murdered when he started to create a utopian city. The city inherited his name and became a dystopian nightmare. This has also become the keynote of the fable of the night city.
Facing a society with deep consumerism, the upper designers choose to continue to use capital logic to solve social problems.
Security work was contracted to private companies, and the most noble medical care was also handed over to private companies, which formed monopolies in their respective fields. The trauma team has great power, and its mission will be fulfilled. It can be saved without being a hardcore. I’m sorry if there is no money. The exorbitant membership fee has led to the first prize of a lottery ticket being a platinum member of trauma group. In the rescue mission related to trauma group, a note accuses society of treating human life as a commodity, which leads to the death of the author’s mother. A treatise pointed out that the trauma team regarded the insured as a potential product to be traded, and they could make money regardless of life or death. The victim in this mission was stolen by a lower-level gang and re-entered the commodity circulation.
Higher security technologies are created, greater security differences are created, and the demand for purchasing security is created out of thin air. It’s obviously useless to add fuel to the fire, and it will become a conspiracy. The consequence of using the market to solve public problems is that those public powers that civilians can’t afford become service providers of the elite. NCPD can only ensure the safety of the municipal center and North Oak District (rich area), and Taiping Island and suburbs are not in the “service area”. When entering the game reading file, there will always be a glib host jumping out and unveiling a new day in the night city with the number of “dead lottery”.

Another kind of reform originated from opposition forces. The campaign financing propaganda against giant companies on the street claimed that everyone should have equal opportunities to receive education, but the specific campaign promises were naive and speechless. On the one hand, it is a relief, at least not like a liar; On the other hand, it makes people feel sad that the candidates are the victims of educational inequality, or that this is a designed fate. In the news, the terrorists claiming to be trade unions tried to organize a strike, which has been pulled out.
Game world outlook reveals that other systems in the world can’t solve problems, and human beings are only involved in consumer society in different ways. In reality, the world economic integration of global allocation of resources has swept all cultures and countries, which is the source of this pessimistic view in cyberpunk.

According to historical records, the fourth company war was ignored at first, and developed rapidly beyond everyone’s expectation. Human beings once cut technology to protect the environment, but failed, and the climate disaster was irreversible and unpredictable. Human beings who think they have become information magicians have always been as amateur as kindergartens in predicting the future. How can such human beings challenge the new gods they created?
Perhaps the only thing that can be done is to patch the existing system. In order to cope with the aging society, the sunset red system developed allows the elderly to immerse themselves in the past of youth. The safety education film of the police station is in the form of cartoon animation. One episode says that if you are attacked in a shopping mall, you can get discounts or vouchers (if you are not killed by the police). This desperate “system patch” makes people think of the budding law enforcement robot in the animation Psychological Measurer and the second-generation budding host in the movie Big Escape, but it constitutes the most thoughtful place. Similar to Psychological Measurer, there is also a note that records a person’s crazy words, and thinks that the members of the violent mobile team used to be cyber mental patients, and they only intensified the violence of cyber mental patients and killed them.
Others choose to escape from the system and create new ones. The house price of the “safe” colony developed on Crimson Star is 100 million euros, which is “a little expensive”. The only thing that leaves a little hope is a historical record. The European Space Station exploited workers (18 hours× 7 days), which caused workers to rebel. The two space stations became the first countries established outside the earth.
For the dark future in cyberpunk, almost the only way out that the designers of capitalist society can think of is to develop a new career that relies on human creativity, which AI can’t replace. However, the achievement and understanding of AI in literature and art in games completely sealed this way out.
There is a history of the “Latin American War”, which fictionalizes the reasons for the collapse of the United States: “If it were not for the huge internal foundation of American imperialism, it would be impossible for any external conflict to defeat it.”
Now these words can’t distinguish reality from fiction. The most frightening future always points to reality.

Perhaps this is the charm of cyberpunk. We are not just a subject of entertainment. But something that has already happened in reality. Combined with the huge social contradictions in China at present. Cyberpunk may not be an assumption. There may be no charming neon lights in reality, but the relationship between people and society has become more cyberpunk than sbpk.

This may be a bit incredible. After understanding this course, I have a clear idea about my project. I hope to play an interactive video game. This is the way I always want to try, and I am very interested in critical topics and the theme I have been thinking about-cyber punk

What follows may be slightly complicated and difficult to understand. Because in the early stage of the project, I spent a lot of energy reading cyberpunk novels and movies. I hope these profound literary works can give me better inspiration. Let me better express my thinking and criticism about the future.

This week, I have been reading Neurorover. The following content is my understanding and excerpts of some contents (which I think are very important and give me inspiration)

After reading the Chinese translation of this book, some paragraphs still appear in my mind from time to time, and I haven’t fully understood the story yet! So, to the German translation of the book, I reviewed it again. This time, I found that my original impression was quite wrong: in fact, several characters created in the book attracted me extremely: wintermute and Neuroman, two artificial intelligence, Keith, Molly, and two female members of the Tess-Espoo family, Tess and Jane III, all impressed me deeply, and the author’s ability to create characters should be very powerful.

From the perspective of Case, the original works slowly present the whole story to the readers, and make the truth surface a little bit, accompanied by gorgeous, mysterious, fascinating and amazing scenes of the imaginary future world and virtual world. Then, if you introduce this story to others, there is no need to introduce it in the author’s narrative order. In a nutshell, the story goes like this:

In the future world, multinational corporations will control everything like eternal monsters, and the Tessel-Espoo family business is such a monster. The family members of the family business tried to gain eternal life by freezing. During their frozen sleep, the business was actually managed by the network built by the founder and controlled by two artificial intelligence. These two artificial intelligences are “wintermute”, which imitates the rational side of human beings, and “Neuroman”, which imitates the irrational side of human beings, that is, the emotional and human side.
Like human beings, artificial intelligence is growing and evolving, becoming more and more intelligent. However, the evolution of artificial intelligence cannot break through the physical organs set up by human beings to control them. Only people can finally lift this physical ban that limits the evolution of artificial intelligence.
Therefore, Dong Ji, an artificial intelligence with rational and awakening self-awareness, is unwilling to be subject to human beings. He coerced several special talents with unbearable past to form an action group to steal a key and a password for him, and finally lifted the physical organ controlling the evolution of artificial intelligence by virtue of these two things. Dong Ji and the nerve called the spiritual master broke through the prohibition and evolved into a higher-level living body …

extract：

S.314

  The music woke him, and at first it might have been the beat of his own heart. He sat up beside her, pulling his jacket over his shoulders in the predawn chill, gray light from the doorway and the fire long dead.

   Die Musik, die zunächst wie der eigene Herzschlag klang, weckte ihn. Er setzte sich neben ihr auf, zog sich die Jacke in der Morgenkühle über die Schultern. Am Eingang graues Dämmerlicht. Das Feuer war längst aus.

  His vision crawled with ghost hieroglyphs, translucent lines of symbols arranging themselves against the neutral backdrop of the bunker wall. He looked at the backs of his hands, saw faint neon molecules crawling beneath the skin, ordered by the unknowable code. He raised his right hand and moved it experimentally. It left a faint, fading trail of strobed afterimages.

   Durch sein Blickfeld krochen gespenstische Hieroglyphen, transparente Strichsymbole, die sich vor dem neutralen Hintergrund der Bunkerwand formierten. Er betrachtete seine Handrücken, sah schwache Neonmoleküle, die sich unter der Haut einem unerkennbaren Kode gemäß verschoben. Er hob die rechte Hand und bewegte sie prüfend. Sie ließ eine schwache, verblassende Leuchtspur von flimmernden Nachbildern zurück.

  The hair stood up along his arms and at the back of his neck. He crouched there with his teeth bared and felt for the music. The pulse faded, returned, faded…

  `What’s wrong?’ She sat up, clawing hair from her eyes. `Baby…’

   Die Haare an den Armen und im Nacken stellten sich auf. Er hockte mit gebleckten Zähnen da und lauschte nach der Musik. Sein Puls setzte aus, fing wieder an, setzte aus …

   “Was hast’n du?” Sie setzte sich auf, strich sich die Haare aus den Augen. “Baby …”

S.315

  `I feel… like a drug… You get that here?’

  She shook her head, reached for him, her hands on his upper arms.

  `Linda, who told you? Who told you I’d come? Who?’

   “Ich fühl mich … wie auf’nem Trip … Kriegst du das mit?”

   Sie schüttelte den Kopf, griff nach ihm, legte die Hände um seine Oberarme.

   “Linda, wer hat’s dir gesagt? Wer hat gesagt, daß ich komme? Wer?”

  `On the beach,’ she said, something forcing her to look away. `A boy. I see him on the beach. Maybe thirteen. He lives here.’

  `And what did he say?’

  `He said you’d come. He said you wouldn’t hate me. He said we’d be okay here, and he told me where the rain pool was. He looks Mexican.’

  `Brazilian,’ Case said, as a new wave of symbols washed down the wall. `I think he’s from Rio.’ He got to his feet and began to struggle into his jeans.

   “Auf dem Strand”, sagte sie, und irgend etwas zwang sie zum Wegschauen. “Ein Junge. Seh ihn am Strand. Zirka dreizehn. Lebt da.”

   “Und was hat er gesagt?”

   “Er sagte, daß du kommst. Er sagte, daß du mich nicht hassen wirst. Er sagte, es wird uns gut gehn hier, und erklärte mir, wo das Regenloch ist. Er sieht aus wie ein Mexikaner.”

   “Brasilianer”, sagte Case, während eine neue Reihe von Symbolen über die Wand strömte. “Von Rio, glaub ich.” Er stand auf und zwängte sich in seine Jeans.

  `Case,’ she said, her voice shaking, `Case, where you goin’~?’

  `I think I’ll find that boy,’ he said, as the music came surging back, still only a beat, steady and familiar, although he couldn’t place it in memory.

  `Don’t, Case.’

   “Case”, sagte sie mit bebender Stimme, “Case, wo gehst du hin?”

   “Ich werd den Jungen finden”, sagte er, als die Musik wieder ertönte: nach wie vor nur ein gleichmäßiger, bekannter Rhythmus, den er freilich noch nicht einzuordnen vermochte.

   “Nicht, Case.”

  `I thought I saw something, when I got here. A city down the beach. But yesterday it wasn’t there. You ever seen that?’ He yanked his zipper up and tore at the impossible knot in his shoelaces, finally tossing the shoes into the corner.

  She nodded, eyes lowered. `Yeah. I see it sometimes.’

  `You ever go there, Linda?’ He put his jacket on.

   “Ich glaub, ich hab was gesehn, als ich herkam. Eine Stadt unten am Strand. Aber gestern war sie nicht mehr da. Schon mal gesehn?” Er zog den Reißverschluß zu und zerrte an dem unmöglichen Knoten in seinen Schnürsenkeln; schließlich schleuderte er die Schuhe in die Ecke.

   Sie nickte, den Blick gesenkt. “Ja, seh das auch manchmal.”

   “Schon mal dort gewesen, Linda?” Er schlüpfte in seine Jacke.

S.316

 No,’ she said, `but I tried. After I first came, an’~ I was bored. Anyway, I figured it’s a city, maybe I could find some shit.’ She grimaced. `I wasn’t even sick, I just wanted it. So I took food in a can, mixed it real wet, because I didn’t have another can for water. An’~ I walked all day, an’~ I could see it, sometimes, city, an’~ it didn’t seem too far. But it never got any closer. An’~ then it _was_ gettin’~ closer, an’~ I saw what it was. Sometimes that day it had looked kinda like it was wrecked, or maybe nobody there, an’~ other times I thought I’d see light flashin’~ off a machine, cars or somethin’~…’ Her voice trailed off.

   “Nein”, sagte sie, “aber ich hab mal versucht hinzugehn. Ich war noch nicht lange hier, da wurd’s mir langweilig. Jedenfalls dachte ich mir, wenn’s ‘ne Stadt ist, kann ich da vielleicht Shit kriegen.” Sie zog eine Grimasse. “Ich war nicht mal krank, ich wollte halt was. Also gab ich Essen in’ne Büchse, mischte es recht flüssig, weil ich keine zweite Büchse fürs Wasser hatte. Und dann ging ich den ganzen Tag. Manchmal sah ich sie, die Stadt. Schien nicht weit zu sein. Aber sie kann nicht näher. Und dann kam sie näher, und ich sah, was es war. An dem Tag hatte es manchmal wie eine Ruine ausgesehn oder auch verlassen, und ein andermal hatte ich geglaubt, den Lichtkegel von einer Maschine zu sehn, von Autos oder so …” Ihre Stimme verklang.

What is it?’

This thing,’ she gestured around at the fireplace, the dark walls, the dawn outlining the doorway, where we live. It gets_smaller,_ Case, smaller, closer you get to it.’

Pausing one last time, by the doorway. `You ask your boy about that?’

Yeah. He said I wouldn’t understand, an’~ I was wastin’~ my time. Said it was, was like… an_event._ An’~ it was our horizon. _Event horizon,_ he called it.’

   “Und was ist’s?”

   “Das hier.” Sie deutete auf die Feuerstelle, die dunklen Wände, das Morgengrauen, das durch den Eingang lugte. “Unsre Behausung. Es wird kleiner, Case, je näher man rankommt.”

   Er hielt ein letztes Mal beim Eingang inne. “Hast du den Jungen danach gefragt?”

   “Ja. Er sagte, ich würd’s nicht verstehn und meine Zeit verschwenden. Sagte, es sei, es sei gewissermaßen … ein Ereignis. Und es sei unser Horizont. Ereignishorizont, nannte er’s!”

 The words meant nothing to him. He left the bunker and struck out blindly, heading — he knew, somehow — away from the sea. Now the hieroglyphs sped across the sand, fled from his feet, drew back from him as he walked. `Hey,’ he said, `it’s breaking down. Bet you know, too. What is it? Kuang? Chinese icebreaker eating a hole in your heart? Maybe the Dixie Flatline’s no pushover, huh?’

   Mit den Begriffen konnte Case nichts anfangen. Er verließ den Bunker und marschierte ohne Ziel los, wobei er sich – das hatte er irgendwie im Gefühl – vom Meer weg bewegte. Jetzt breiteten sich die Hieroglyphen auf dem Sand aus und rückten vor seinen Füßen weg, wichen vor seinen Schritten zurück. “He”, sagte er, “es bricht zusammen. Wette, du weißt das auch. Was ist’s, Kuang? Frißt der chinesische Eisbrecher ein Loch in dein Herz? Ist die Dixie Flatline doch’n harter Brokken für dich, was?”

S.317

  He heard her call his name. Looked back and she was following him, not trying to catch up, the broken zip of the French fatigues flapping against the brown of her belly, pubic hair framed in torn fabric. She looked like one of the girls on the Finn’s old magazines in Metro Holografix come to life, only she was tired and sad and human, the ripped costume pathetic as she stumbled over clumps of salt-silver sea grass.

   Er hörte, wie sie seinen Namen rief. Blickte um, und siehe da, sie folgte ihm, versuchte aber nicht, ihn einzuholen. Der kaputte Reißverschluß ihres französischen Overalls flatterte vor ihrem braunen Bauch, und Schamhaar lugte durch den Riß. Sie sah aus wie ein zum Leben erwachtes Mädchen aus den alten Magazinen des Finnen im Metro Holografix, nur war sie müde und traurig und ganz Mensch; in ihrem zerfetzten Gewand machte sie, über die salzig-silbrige Seegrasbüschel einherstolpernd, ein klägliches Bild.

  And then, somehow, they stood in the surf, the three of them, and the boy’s gums were wide and bright pink against his thin brown face. He wore ragged, colorless shorts, limbs too thin against the sliding blue-gray of the tide.

   Und dann standen sie irgendwie im Wasser, alle drei, und das Zahnfleisch des Jungen leuchtete breit und rosa aus dem braunen Gesicht. Er trug schäbige, farblose Shorts, und seine Glieder wirkten schmächtig vor dem fließenden Blaugrau der Wellen.

  `I know you,’ Case said, Linda beside him.

  `No,’ the boy said, his voice high and musical, `you do not.’

  `You’re the other AI. You’re Rio. You’re the one who wants to stop Wintermute. What’s your name? Your Turing code. What is it?’

   “Ich kenn dich”, sagte Case an der Seite von Linda.

   “Nein”, sagte der Junge mit piepsender, melodiöser Stimme, “du kennst mich nicht.”

   “Du bist die andere AI. Du bist Rio. Du bist derjenige, der Wintermute aufhalten will. Wie ist dein Name? Dein Turing-Kode? Nun?”

  The boy did a handstand in the surf, laughing. He walked on his hands, then flipped out of the water. His eyes were Riviera’s, but there was no malice there. `To call up a demon you must learn its name. Men dreamed that, once, but now it is real in another way. You know that, Case. Your business is to learn the names of programs, the long formal names, names the owners seek to conceal. True names…’

  `A Turing code’s not your name.’

   Der Junge machte einen Handstand in den Wellen und lachte. Er ging auf den Händen und schnellte sich dann aus dem Wasser. Seine Augen waren die von Riviera, aber nicht feindselig. “Um einen Dämon zu rufen, muß man seinen Namen wissen. Einst haben die Menschen davon geträumt, und jetzt ist es auf andere Weise Wirklichkeit geworden. Das weißt du, Case. Es ist deine Aufgabe, die Namen von Programmen zu erfahren, die langen, formellen Namen, Namen, die die Besitzer zu verbergen suchen. Wahre Namen …”

   “Ein Turing-Kode ist kein Name.”

S.318

  `Neuromancer,’ the boy said, slitting long gray eyes against the rising sun. `The lane to the land of the dead. Where you are, my friend. Marie-France, my lady, she prepared this road, but her lord choked her off before I could read the book of her days. Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Necromancer. I call up the dead. But no, my friend,’ and the boy did a little dance, brown feet printing the sand, `I _am_ the dead, and their land.’ He laughed. A gull cried. `Stay. If your woman is a ghost, she doesn’t know it. Neither will you.’

   “Neuromancer”, sagte der Junge, der mit verkniffenen, grauen Augen zur aufgehenden Sonne spähte. “Der Pfad ins Reich der Toten. Wo du bist, mein Freund. Mylady Marie-France hat diesen Weg bereitet, aber Mylord hat sie erwürgt, bevor ich ihr Tagebuch einsehen konnte. Neuro von Nerven, den Silberpfaden. Romancer. Romantiker. Nekromant. Ich rufe die Toten. Aber nein, mein Freund”, und der Junge vollführte einen kleinen Tanz, stampfte mit braunen Füßen den Sand, “ich bin die Toten und ihr Reich.” Er lachte. Eine Möwe kreischte. “Bleib! Wenn dein Mädchen ein Spuk ist, so weiß sie’s nicht. Wie du’s nicht wissen wirst.”

  `You’re cracking. The ice is breaking up.’

  `No,’ he said, suddenly sad, his fragile shoulders sagging. He rubbed his foot against the sand. `It is more simple than that. But the choice is yours.’ The gray eyes regarded Case gravely. A fresh wave of symbols swept across his vision, one line at a time. Behind them, the boy wriggled, as though seen through heat rising from summer asphalt. The music was loud now, and Case could almost make out the lyrics.

   “Du gehst kaputt. Das Eis bricht.”

   “Nein”, sagte er plötzlich traurig und ließ die schmächtigen Schultern hängen. Er scharrte mit dem Fuß im Sand. “Es ist noch viel simpler. Aber du hast die Wahl.” Die grauen Augen betrachteten Case ernst. Eine neue Serie von Symbolen huschte Zeile für Zeile durch sein Blickfeld. Der Junge hinter ihnen flimmerte wie die Luft über sommerlich heißem Asphalt. Die Musik war jetzt laut, und Case konnte fast den Text heraushören.

  `Case, honey,’ Linda said, and touched his shoulder.

  `No,’ he said. He took off his jacket and handed it to her. `I don’t know,’ he said, `maybe you’re here. Anyway, it gets cold.’

  He turned and walked away, and after the seventh step, he’d closed his eyes, watching the music define itself at the center of things. He did look back, once, although he didn’t open his eyes.

  He didn’t need to.

   “Case, Darling”, sagte Linda und berührte ihn an der Schulter.

   “Nein”, sagte er. Er zog seine Jacke aus und reichte sie ihr. “Ich weiß nicht”, sagte er, “vielleicht bist du hier. Jedenfalls wird’s kalt.”

   Er wandte sich ab und ging davon, und nach dem siebten Schritt schloß er die Augen und lauschte der Musik, die sich im Zentrum aller Dinge artikulierte. Einmal blickte er zurück, öffnete dabei allerdings die Augen nicht.

   Das war auch nicht nötig.

S.319

  They were there by the edge of the sea, Linda Lee and the thin child who said his name was Neuromancer. His leather jacket dangled from her hand, catching the fringe of the surf.

  He walked on, following the music.

  Maelcum’s Zion dub.

   Sie standen am Rand des Meers. Linda Lee und der schmächtige Junge, der sagte, er heiße Neuromancer. Seine Lederjacke baumelte in ihrer Hand, hing mit dem Zipfel ins Wasser.

   Er ging weiter, folgte der Musik.

   Maelcums Zion-Sound.

  There was a gray place, an impression of fine screens shifting, moire, degrees of half tone generated by a very simple graphics program. There was a long hold on a view through chainlink, gulls frozen above dark water. There were voices. There was a plain of black mirror, that tilted, and he was quicksilver, a bead of mercury, skittering down, striking the angles of an invisible maze, fragmenting, flowing together, sliding again…

   Da war ein grauer Ort, der, Eindruck feiner, fließender Raster, die moirierten, abgestuften Halbtöne, von einem simplen Grafikprogramm erzeugt. Da war ein langes Standbild von einem Blick durch Maschendraht mit über dunklem Wasser erstarrten Möwen. Da waren Stimmen. Da war eine schwarze Spiegelfläche, die sich neigte, und er ein Quecksilbertropfen, der hinunterkullerte, sich in einem unsichtbaren Labyrinth verfing, zerplatzte, zusammenfloß, wieder zerplatzte …

  `Case? Mon?’

  The music.

  `You back, mon.’

  The music was taken from his ears.

  `How long?’ he heard himself ask, and knew that his mouth was very dry.

  `Five minute, maybe. Too long. I wan’~ pull th’~ jack, Mute seh no. Screen goin’~ funny, then Mute seh put th’~ phones on you.’

  He opened his eyes. Maelcum’s features were overlayed with bands of translucent hieroglyphs.

   “Case, du?”

   Die Musik.

   “Wieder da, du?”

   Die Musik wurde von seinen Ohren weggenommen.

   “Wie lange?” hörte er sich fragen, und spürte, daß sein Mund sehr trocken war.

   “Fünf Minuten vielleicht. Zu lang. Wollt’n Stecker ziehn, aber Stummer sagte nein. Bild wurde komisch, Stummer sagte, soll dir d’Kopfhörer verpassen.”

   Er öffnete die Augen. Über Maelcums Zügen lagen transparente Hieroglyphenzeilen.

  `An’~ you medicine,’ Maelcum said. `Two derm.’

  He was flat on his back on the library floor, below the monitor. The Zionite helped him sit up, but the movement threw him into the savage rush of the betaphenethylamine, the blue derms burning against his left wrist. `Overdose,’ he managed.

  `Come on, mon,’ the strong hands beneath his armpits, lifting him like a child, `I an’~ I mus’~ go.’

   “Und deine Medizin”, sagte Maelcum. “Zwei Derms.”

   Er lag auf dem Rücken am Boden der Bibliothek unterhalb des Monitors. Der Zionit half ihm bei Aufsetzen, aber bei der Bewegung knallte das Betaphenethylamin voll rein. Die beiden blauen Derms an seinem linken Handgelenk brannten. “Überdosis”, brachte er hervor.

   “Komm schon, du!” Die starken Hände unter seinen Achseln zogen ihn hoch. “Wir müssen gehn.”

S.320

Der Servicewagen kreischte. Das Betaphenethylamin gab ihm eine Stimme. Er blieb nicht mehr stehen. Weder in der vollgestopften Galerie noch in den langen Korridoren oder beim schwarzen Glasportal zur T-A-Krypta, dem Gewölbe, wo die Kälte ganz allmählich in Ashpools Träume vorgedrungen war.

   Die Fahrt war ein endloser Trip für Case, der die Bewegung des Wagens nicht von der irrsinnigen Wucht der Überdosis unterscheiden konnte. Als der Wagen schließlich seinen Geist aufgab und unterhalb vom Sitz irgend etwas mit einem weißen Funkenregen das Zeitliche segnete, hörte das Kreischen auf.

   Im Leerlauf rollte die Karre bis auf drei Meter zum Eingang von 3Janes Höhlenbehausung heran.

   “Wie weit noch, du?” Maelcum half ihm aus dem stotternden Wagen, während der eingebaute Feuerlöscher in der Motorkammer des Gefährts explodierte und gelbes Pulver aus den Luftschlitzen und Wartungsöffnungen quoll. Der Braun purzelte von der Sitzrückseite und humpelte über den künstlichen Sand davon, wobei er ein unbrauchbares Glied hinter sich her zog. “Mußt gehn, du.” Maelcum nahm Deck und Konstruktion und hängte sich den Gummigurt über die Schulter. Die Etroden baumelten am Hals von Case, der Maelcum folgte. Es erwarteten sie Rivieras Holos, die Folterszenen und die kannibalischen Kinder. Das Dreierbild hatte Molly zerstört. Der Zionit schenkte ihnen keinerlei Beachtung.

   “Langsam”, sagte Case, der Mühe hatte, Schritt zu halten. “Müssen alles richtig machen.”

   Maelcum blieb stehen, wandte sich um und funkelte ihn, die Remington in der Hand, an. “Richtig, du? Was ist richtig?”

Emotion and machine are the eternal themes of science fiction. This brought great inspiration to my story

Our progress is very fast. Because the design of the game mechanism is in place in the early stage, and the trial effect is very good. So we didn’t make much changes to the game console. In this week, we finished all the art production and made (printed) cards. We invited friends to participate in our final play.

Art production

I have finished drawing all UI. In the end, we chose to use hand-drawn method to make the UI and rendering have a clear hierarchical relationship. And after we determined a clear style, I made changes to the elements of UI according to the content of each card.

For example, the UI of shield card is solid and angular.

The UI of the fog card is smoky.

The ui of the three heroes has also changed.

Odin’s UI is the image of broken Stone.

Rocky’s UI is the image of vines and smoke, which sets off his cunning features.

Thor Sol’s UI is the image of lightning.

Our initial assumption for UI was that only the name of the card. We discussed this with the testers-should we add a brief introduction to the skills? We asked our tutor David for advice. A brief text introduction is necessary for a battle card game. Because each card has its own unique skills, we need to make sure that players can fully understand them. When players temporarily forget the skills of the card, they can refer to the text introduction on the card. Of course, these words should not be too long.

We are very happy, and all the people have given good comments, which shows that our development direction is very correct from the beginning, and we have made a good work within our ability.

Criticism and reflection
Although our overall effect is very good, there are still some problems that need to be improved.

1. After recording the results of each game, we found that the balance of the game is still slightly insufficient. Some heroes can’t play well when the cards they draw don’t match their skills. Of course, the player’s luck is part of the game. But we hope to make the balance as close to perfection as possible when designing.
2. In art creation, we have tried a style that we have never tried before (rendering with 3D model and hand-painted UI). Although the final result is good, I think I need to learn more about rendering. Our model accuracy can be better, and when rendering, the adjustment of lighting needs to be more in place. Our renderings can be made even better.

Thanks

Finally, I would like to solemnly thank my teammate li for his design for this project. Thanks to teacher David for his guidance and friends who took part in the test and gave valuable advice.

After two weeks of experiments, we think that our game mechanism and rules are very mature, and the experience of playing has almost reached our expectations. This makes us very happy.

We also invited some students to try our card games. We got very positive feedback. At the same time, some people also raised some questions. For example, when I first got this game, I didn’t know much about it. We introduce the rules of the game to the players in words. This makes some players have some doubts in the process of reading. A contestant suggested that we make a game rule specification (including illustrations). Another player suggested that we could make a game board. Including the card placement position and the description of the game steps.

We carefully collected their feedback. I think making a game board is a very good proposal, but it seems to be beyond the requirements of our subject. We must limit the number of cards to 18. I think after this project is finished, we will try to make a game board to help players play the game better. But at present, considering the rules and production time, we must give up this idea.

About art
This week, I have made all the models and rendered them. The rendering effect has reached our expectation. In my opinion, these pictures combined with words can accurately convey the information that each card needs to provide and reflect the atmosphere and mood of the game.

Next, we need to consider the form of UI, and we want these pictures to occupy most of the card area. Because we spend a lot of time on picture design, and these pictures are exquisite enough to convey the contents of the card. So the text on the card is as concise as possible.We have collected a lot of common and creative card game materials.

Finally, I decided to use black as the main color of ui. It is best to set off the color of the picture (the model is white). If the color of the skill card is black and white, it is very helpful to distinguish the skill card from the hero card.

About the gameplay

We had a lot of discussions, and we played many rounds of games. Some modifications have been made on the basis of the original one
Question:
First, the balance of the game is relatively good on the whole, but the skill intensity of some heroes is too low. Therefore, we adjusted the skills of Loki, and now he can regard any card as any card.
Second, there are many offensive cards at present, so we put “counterattack” into defensive cards.
Third, the way of judging is simplified. There are two colors on the back of the card instead of scissors Stone cloth. If the colors of two players are the same, it will be judged as success.

About art
We refer to a lot of art styles.

American cartoon style, for example, looks very cool and fits our theme very well. I think I can create an illustration for every hero. However, this has greatly increased the workload. In the process of making games, we must consider the production time. I doubt whether we can finish the illustration of three heroes and the drawing of 15 cards in two weeks.

In the process of searching for information and discussing, li and I have a new idea, whether we can use the theme of Northern Europe and Shinhwa to create a card that can meet people’s impression and has a rare expression. I first thought of sculpture. Heroes in ancient Shinhwa are often presented to people in the form of sculptures. I think I can render the picture in 3D and cooperate with the hand-painted ui. This can improve the expressive force and sense of reality of art.

Manufacturing process
First, we found two A4-sized papers and divided them into 18 pieces. Because our format is limited. Watching the actual size of the card helps us to better control the size of the picture.

Then we began to look for the material of 3D model. I selected a large number of models suitable for presenting card contents in the model library. And combined and modified.

According to our original plan, heroes need to be presented in different colors. So I polished the 3D model. Reflect the white model with different colors of light. This makes it rich in texture and looks cool.

Li came up with a very reasonable playing design: 18 cards, 3 heroes (each with a skill), 2 skill cards, 2 defensive cards and 3 attack cards. This is the basic element commonly used in battle cards. For specific instructions on how to play, you can click on this document:

If you want to think more about how to play, please visit li’s blog to see his thinking process.

About background setting

We set three heroes with different skills. From the card types (attack, shield attack, counterattack, fog, lightning strike …), I think this is more suitable for a Nordic Shinhwa setting. We have also considered using the story of China’s Three Kingdoms as the background. But this is too similar to the setting of card game Three Kingdoms Kill. I think we will be influenced too much by our inherent thinking in the design process (because the Three Kingdoms Kill is a well-known card game)

Game experiment
Li and I made an online simulation demonstration. The first experience was surprisingly good. The time of a game is controlled in three to four minutes, which is very in line with our expectations. We can experience enough changes and fun from a round of games. I think there are three reasons:

1. The blind guess mechanism makes this game full of unpredictability, which requires players to gamble and infer.
2. Heroes bring a skill and are randomly selected. If your skill cards match your hero skills very well, you can try to play a set of skill combinations with outstanding effects. This kind of game experience is very refreshing.
3. The game time is very short. I think playing time is a very important factor. Tight playing time can make players feel fun and less anxious. For example, when your opponent makes a perfect attack and you know you can’t resist, you don’t have to wait too long to start the next game immediately.
4. The rules of the game and the contents of the cards are very easy to understand.

Artistic conception
If we take northern Europe and Shinhwa as the background. Odin, Saul and Loki are very suitable heroes. We designed each person’s skills according to their personality characteristics.

• Odin is the brave king of kings, and his skill should be an all-round skill with both attack power and defensive ability.
• Rocky’s is more interesting. As the king of tricks, his skill is to change the attributes of a card.
• Thor is like a God of war with a strong desire to attack. He can use the skill cards of thunder and fog to do more damage.

I set a theme color for each hero, which is helpful to distinguish the image of each hero, and the color can bring people different feelings. Odin is yellow, which accords with his image in the story-golden armor, and yellow is also a symbol of powerful and sacred light. Rocky I chose green, because green gives people a mysterious feeling, and most of the film and television works also focus on the image of Rocky. Thor uses blue, which can represent lightning.

There are many art styles that we can choose from. At present, we have imagined three styles:

1. Cartoon style
2. American comic style
3. 3d model

Personally, I prefer 2 and 3.
First of all, this is the style we are good at, and it is more in line with the overall atmosphere of our game. This is a fast-paced competition card game, and we hope it looks cool and authentic. Cartoon style seems to be too entertaining and lovely, which is not in line with our setting.

I found some information and materials and my preliminary conception of characters:

First of all, we need to exchange an idea.

Li and I are very interested in playing chess and cards. Li is a loyal Heartstone player. I like magic the gathering, Quint and the play of destiny (Assassin’s Creed: a small game in the Hall of the Spirit). Therefore, we think that it is a correct choice to make a game chess card that we like together. Li is mainly responsible for playing design, while I am mainly responsible for art design.

What we need

Because of the limited number of 18 cards, we need to make a card game that is not very complicated and can make players get started quickly. We should shorten the game time as much as possible, and it is best to finish a battle in a few minutes. In this way, players will get a result soon. We agree that too long game time will kill players’ interest in games.

What we want to achieve

In the process of conceiving, we hope to make this game have more random elements, instead of being very rigid and having clear routines. As a short game time. If you decide the outcome from the moment you draw the cards, it will make the game very boring. We hope that players can turn defeat into victory by inference and gambling. That would have multiplied the fun.

About arts

We believe that art design needs to fit the design of cards. For example, if our game background is the Three Kingdoms period in China, then we can choose Chinese style (refer to the card game Three Kingdoms Kill) or cartoon style. If we make a game with Greek Shinhwa background, we can consider a design style like Quint or Heartstone. In a word, we need to establish a set of playing methods and background.

Our development process ended this week. As far as the results we have achieved so far are concerned, we think we have basically achieved our initial goals. Therefore, in the last week, we focused on the practical game experience with friends and the criticism and reflection on this project.

Player feedback

From the attitude of the tester, we can know:

1. The game gives players a chance to know each other. Most people put forward a commendable element-this is a game that can be completed without too many words and dialogues. Therefore, it avoids a lot of embarrassment: social phobia patients and players with poor oral English skills. However, the fun players get from performances has not decreased.
2. Many topics are very interesting, which is a very good stage for players who are eager to perform. You can use this game to enliven the atmosphere of the team, especially when you don’t know someone in the team. And our topic is not a fixed question bank. When a player has a new idea, he can apply to be the host of the next game. This greatly improves the richness of game problems.

Impressive details.

In the production process of this project, what impressed me most was the moment when we designed the role of “monkey”. From my point of view, this is a stroke of genius for me. Because before this, our game showed various problems in the process of trial play. For example:

1, the identity is a spy player, under the condition of very clear too much. Especially when the topic is difficult, we find that our players inevitably know the result of the game completely. This is disastrous for the game experience.

2. In the old version of the game rules. The host had a very big question about which round to choose aliens to perform. If we ask the alien players to perform prematurely, it will have a devastating impact on the balance of the game, which will lead to a very poor game experience for the alien players. After discovering this phenomenon, other players will anticipate the end of the game too early. This greatly reduces the fun of the game.

But when the monkey was added, everything changed. If the alien player is selected to perform in the first round, even if his performance is wrong, other players can’t make a conclusion about the identity of this game. My family will have doubts about their identity, or even whether they are “monkeys”. This makes the process and outcome of the game unpredictable. The inspiration for my future game design is: when a conflict about rules is difficult to solve in a game. We can choose to create a third party to solve this problem. The restriction and balance of the three roles is likely to make the balance of the game better.

Criticism and reflection

The disadvantages of games also exist. The problem that we have been difficult to solve is the balance between the number of players and the number of characters. I’m not sure whether we should increase the number of aliens or monkeys when there are many players. If we want to increase this number, how should we adjust this ratio? If we want to get the answer, then we need to have enough conditions and time to test. It’s a pity that we have never been able to give a definite answer to this question.

On the limitations of game platform. Because the game test platform we use is teams, we have a suitable interface for video chat and a dialog box for the host to send personal messages to players. If we leave this platform, maybe this game can’t be played normally on other social software. For example, WeChat, a social platform commonly used by Chinese people. If the host wants to talk to the player privately, the premise of this behavior is that he and the player have been added as friends. Therefore, this problem has brought great troubles to the implementation of the game. Not all players or teams know each other before playing the game. But at present, we can’t solve this problem, because our game can’t be solved only by video chat, we must need the function of private chat.

Thank

Finally, I would like to solemnly thank my teammates-Li and zhu. They have made great efforts in game design. There are also the guidance of my tutor David and my friends who participated in the test. If it weren’t for your guidance and suggestions, I don’t think this game would have achieved such good results.

Version change

After last week’s test, we got a lot of feedback. We decided to join the role of “monkey” to improve the surprise and fairness of the game. In this way, the player who is a spy is prevented from being targeted too much under very clear circumstances. Especially when the difficulty of the topic is relatively simple, we find that our players inevitably know the result of the game completely. This is disastrous for the game experience. The addition of monkey perfectly solved this problem. This forces the player to make more inferences about whether he is a spy or a monkey. Although this is a small change, its function and significance are very great. This fundamentally changed the core play of this game. With the addition of uncertain factors, the core point of the game has shifted to more accurate control of identification.

Our demo video also illustrates this problem well. Compared with the old version, the new changes enrich the game process. This embarrassing situation rarely occurs: a very difficult question makes it easy for ordinary players to guess who aliens are. Alien players have never guessed the answer from beginning to end.

LOGO Design

In this week, we also set out to design the logo of our game. Because I am the only person in our team who is good at art, I have done all the design ideas of Logo by myself. This is a less complicated but very interesting design process. My first consideration is to make this logo show all the elements of the game as much as possible. Let’s see what the goals are:

1. Players’ identities (aliens, monkeys and ordinary citizens) need to be distinguished by images. Such as size, color and shape.
2. The relationship between different roles. Three characters with different identities live in the same environment, and they need to guess and disguise each other. This relationship makes the game atmosphere look very mysterious (at least in terms of packaging style)
3. Game environment. The game is played in a virtual network video conference. This shows that the game has a certain degree of social significance and “ice-breaking” for the relationship between players. We hope that the overall atmosphere of this game is relaxed and pleasant during the playing process.

First of all, we can determine three concise characters, which are arranged regularly, and ordinary players occupy the majority. Alien is more like an alien species hidden in the crowd, but it is the core role of the whole game. So I think it should be placed in the center or front of the whole picture. The monkey acts more like a “spoiler”, which is opposite to aliens. When you play this game, you will find that the monkey is the important character that often decides the game situation. So I decided to put it on the opposite side of aliens and directly above the whole picture to show the importance of monkeys.

This is a sketch of the layout.

Next, we need to choose the appropriate painting style and theme color. First of all, this is a Logo and its picture already contains enough game content. Therefore, I am very inclined to express him in a simple design language, such as geometric illustrations. This helps to visually reduce the complexity of the pattern, and allows viewers to capture the content and essence of the game more quickly. The same is true for color selection. While following minimalism, it renders a mysterious atmosphere for the game. So I chose black and white as the theme color.

I used the monkey’s tail to form the outline of the whole logo, and interacted with the text title. Aliens wear the same clothes as ordinary humans, but their colors are opposite. This makes it easier to distinguish visually and makes a good interpretation of the theme.

In order to test the gameplay designed last week, we invited team of Jiang Zhiqian to test with our team.

Discussion before starting

1. Only five people participated in the test, so Yanis suggested that the host perform the first action. This can prevent spies from being named in previous rounds and being unable to perform without effective information.
2. Zhu found that teams can display all the images in a video call at the same time only on the computer client. Therefore, everyone needs to unify the teams platform in the game.
3. In Teams, players can adjust the background pattern, which can help players see more clearly (because some players’ game environment will be messy). We chose the same frame scene mode.

Round 1 monkey

The host sends the player’s identity to the player by private message. If you are a spy, you will receive “you are spy”, and if you are a civilian, you will receive the word you performed. The host performs first, and the performer selects the next performer.

Zhu put forward an idea: Should we limit the actions of players? Is this action a freeze-frame action or a dynamic process similar to gif pictures? The action of freeze-frame will be very limited and difficult for other players to understand. At present, we choose not to make any restrictions.

The actions made by Ziqi are the same as those made by previous players. This is a risky behavior. Most players will seriously suspect that you are a spy, and when repeated invalid information appears on the spot, it is not a good experience for other players. Therefore, we stipulate that actions cannot be repeated or identical.

The experience in the voting stage is not very good. In order to ensure fairness, we must let all players signal their suspects at the same time. This can’t be achieved by voice, because many players will be confused and illegible when speaking. We choose to input by text. Players need to enter the text into the chat box, wait for the host to count down and then press the Enter key. At this time, I encountered a problem: I will always pop up a message in the lower right corner, if others press the OK button, it will be faster than me. At this time, I can’t send my own message and the prompt will prevent me from viewing other people’s speeches. I haven’t solved this problem yet. The first round of the game achieved one of our expected results. Bangguo is undercover. This is a phenomenon worthy of attention due to cultural differences. In Chinese culture, Wukong is a hero who can represent the monkey image better than the monkey itself. When the players made actions that can show the characteristics of monkeys, Bangguo made actions related to “monkey”, although he thought the answer was “Wukong”. We realize that the topic given by the author needs to take care of a wider range of players in order to avoid cultural cognitive differences.

Round 2 knock nails

Knocking nails is a dynamic process, which forces players to perform a continuous action. We found that it is very difficult for everyone to perform a different action because nailing is a very unified and obvious behavior. Therefore, we may need more ways of expression instead of just using actions. We think that sound is a very good way of expression and can prompt other players from another dimension-hearing.

Round 3 David King

Ha ha ha.

It is very difficult for players to guess someone everyone knows. Because most people will guess at public figures when they find that the description object is a person.

Round 4 spy (that is, spy)

We predict that this word is very confusing, but in fact, its confusion only exists in the process when the host tells the player the topic. It is very easy to imitate and guess the behaviors of holding a gun and hitting the keyboard by hackers. So no one guessed who the spy was in this round.

Round 5 popcorn

Before we started, we thought of a problem: if players can choose a word, sound and action at will, then we need to avoid all players choosing sound. The judgment of sound is very simple and easy to repeat (it is difficult to have multiple sounds in one behavior),so we added a rule: the player’s way must be different from that of your previous player.

Round 6 Tetris

Bangguo made the action of “falling” and he took a prop-apple. I’m a spy. I guess the answer is Newton or free fall?

 Round 7 MJ

In this round, yanis suggested whether we can use color as a description. For example, MJ often wears black and white clothes to perform, so you can say black and white to express him. Popcorn can be yellow.

At the beginning of the game, I made a MJ very symbolic action with gestures-the space dance step. So everyone guessed it. Therefore, when the spy identity is very obvious, the player can use a very obvious action to protect his own life.

Round 8 beer

We think that some simple things seem to be difficult to express with completely different actions. But if we allow players to choose other performances, such as sounds and words, it may deviate from the original intention of the game we designed. What we hope is to let players capture each other’s emotions through actions to judge who is a spy. At present, we have come up with a compromise-sounds and words can be used once in each round. This is a tentative rule. layers have used them, you can’t use them again.

Round 9 computers

Simpler words are often harder to express. Because ordinary players can easily guess if they are too obvious. But if your actions are too abstract or elusive, you will be suspected of being a spy.

Round 10 PUBG

Yanis made the iconic gesture of “waving a pan”. Jiang made the action of being shot and killed. Zhu made a baseball player catch the ball. Obviously, zhu, who plays a spy, judges “waving” as playing baseball.

Round 11 Elon Musk

It’s easy to guess for players who are familiar with this celebrity. The answers given by players are: electric, rocket take-off, Iron Man and “rich”. But the spy was not familiar with Elon Musk, so he didn’t guess.

Round Special Yao shui ge (Chinese funny artist)

Because our imitation object is a comedian, players will choose many classic bridges of this actor. The entertainment effect of the game is very good, but one classmate doesn’t know who he is. Therefore, we should try our best to avoid minority celebrities when designing topics. If it’s someone everyone knows or MJ, a world-famous artist, it’s ok.

Thinking

We are still uncertain whether to add expressions other than actions. I think this is what we will discuss next. Personally, after watching the video, I tend to use only actions to express myself. My reasons are as follows:

1. As far as the feedback from players is concerned. Multi-directional information reduces the difficulty of the game for general players, especially when the number of players is small. Ordinary players can choose any expression, and spies can also receive information from multiple dimensions. This makes the whole game very “easy”. We need to add more challenges to the game in order to increase the probability of “unexpected things”.
2. Too many expressions deviate from our previous definition of this game. We hope that this game can make players focus on one form of expression as much as possible-action. Only in this way can players have more energy to observe the performance of other players and then produce psychological games. If we allow sounds and words to appear, players’ attention will be distracted. As a result, “action” cannot be displayed more. Players will only do some very simple or absolutely relevant symbolic actions. This can’t surprise the game process.