Why could it be even more disastrous than "Infernal Trajectory"?
Clearly, it came down to two things, one being the price, and the other being the gameplay.
"Infernal Trajectory" was priced at only 18 yuan, and for an FPS game with decent quality and outstanding graphics, this price was practically a steal. Many people bought it without even looking at its content.
But "Sisyphus" was priced almost three times higher, and naturally, the number of players who bought it without thinking plummeted.
Plus, although "Infernal Trajectory" had ridiculously difficult settings, once you entered single-player mode, you'd get headshot, but at least players could have fun playing around and shooting guns in the online mode.
Even if they got thrashed, the process of shooting guns was still exciting and fun.
But "Sisyphus"? Forget about shooting guns, even basic movements and jumps lacked any sense of exhilaration, making one feel like they were experiencing the life of a polio sufferer!
All these factors combined allowed "Sisyphus" to achieve an even more "impressive" record than "Infernal Trajectory" within 2 hours of its release.
Of course, Gu Fan was well aware that there was indeed a market for such "suffering games".
There are some high-difficulty games on the market that, despite being unfriendly to newcomers, can still become popular because of their great live-streaming appeal and eventually achieve decent sales.
But obviously, as the most game-savvy demon in Hell, Lilith had anticipated this.
The line between a "suffering game" and a "defense game" is often paper-thin.
Gu Fan instantly realized that "Sisyphus" lacked something to qualify as a decent game.
What was it missing?
It's simple, a key "thrill factor"!
In all other suffering games, although players suffer, they also get greater joy after overcoming these hardships.
If there's only suffering without joy, then it's not a "suffering game", but rather, a "defense game".
Take "Digging Upward", a game Gu Fan played in his previous life. While it might seem defensive, it actually had a huge thrill factor: players could use the hammer to bounce or hook onto a protruding wall and then exert force to jump a vast distance in an instant.
The risk involved in this maneuver was extremely high, but the payoff was also substantial, success bringing immense sensory stimulation, which is why so many players tirelessly engaged with it.
If, in that game, players could only move at a snail's pace, swinging the hammer slowly, it wouldn't have become popular solely with the absurd difficulty and compilations of streamers breaking down.
Tension and relaxation are the essence of game design.
"Sisyphus", this game, was missing such a critical element, which is why, to date, it remains a pure trash game, utterly failing to motivate players to engage for long periods or to make a purchase.
Lilith enjoyed her chips, picked up the projector remote, and swiftly flicked through several live stream rooms.
Clearly, the style of these rooms was much like that of Instructor Ding's.
Meanwhile, Gu Fan took out his smartphone and quickly checked the game reviews and feedback on various gaming platforms.
As expected, they were also quite negative.
The majority of the negative reviews focused on the game's feeble protagonist and ludicrous difficulty. In a nutshell, the core of an excellent suffering game has never been about suffering, but about the thrill that comes after the suffering.
"Sisyphus", this game, provided no thrill at all, so it wasn't really a suffering game but rather a defense game!
Naturally, the game's ratings plummeted, following in the footsteps of "Infernal Trajectory", quickly reaching a "mixed" reception, and heading towards "overwhelmingly negative".
Lilith stayed up until past 1 AM, satisfied with the evening's work.
Good, it looks like a peaceful night! No mysterious bugs like last time cropped up, and the collection of negative emotions was quite optimistic.
Before she left, she glanced at Gu Fan; he seemed unaffected, probably just tired from recent game development, yawning as he got ready to brush his teeth and go to bed.
...
...
The next evening.
Lilith revisited Gu Fan's place, contentedly lying on the couch while savoring Instructor Ding's live stream.
As for Gu Fan, he continued to monitor the shifts in negative sentiment and game data.
Clearly, Instructor Ding's enthusiasm was not as high as the first day.
Last night, quite a few streamers broadcast "Sisyphus", but today, the number had greatly diminished.
Some streamers were deterred by the game itself, while others were advised against continuing by their viewers.
Even the viewers could clearly sense that this game seemed to have no fun to it!
While watching streamers break down was somewhat interesting, unlike other suffering games, "Sisyphus" tended to also make the audience feel bored and weary.
Consequently, many streamers opted out after a brief trial.
Instructor Ding, however, was in an awkward position, having promised to stream for five days. It was only the second day, too soon to back out, leaving him no choice but to grit his teeth and continue.
"Alright, brothers, we're still on "Sisyphus" today.
"Let's continue."
In the game, there were only three major save points, and Instructor Ding hadn't reached the first one yet. If he exited now, he would have to start from the beginning, so he returned to the initial seaside to continue rolling the rock.
One could distinctly feel that the popularity of the live stream had also dropped, as the audience had already watched for two hours yesterday and the novelty had worn off.
Instructor Ding himself was also feeling bored and could only mechanically push the rock while chatting with viewers to maintain the live stream's temperature as much as possible.
Lilith was very pleased.
Gu Fan could guess what she was thinking: "Serve you right for messing with me! Now that I've got the chance, I'm going to torment you properly!"
Gu Fan had no doubt that if possible, Lilith would even want Instructor Ding to play Sisyphus for a lifetime, suffering the same torment at the foot of Infernal Mountain.
While playing, Instructor Ding yawned.
And the increasingly frequent negative emotion numbers floating across Gu Fan's view also indicated that Instructor Ding's patience was slowly being worn away.
However, it was at this moment that Instructor Ding suddenly shouted.
"Ah, damn!"
That shout nearly jolted the drowsy viewers in the live stream awake, and instantly a long string of question marks drifted across the chat.
"What's with the surprise act!"
"Little Ding, what are you doing? If you're that bored, go chew on a lighter; don't force it."
"Right, you almost gave me a heart attack."
Instructor Ding at that moment looked like a driver who had just woken up from fatigue driving, pointing at his computer screen incredulously, "Guys, did you notice just now, did this big rock speed up?"
This question left the viewers in the live stream stumped.
Sped up?
How could that be!
Instructor Ding had already live-streamed for two hours yesterday. The mechanics of this game were so simple, and he had thoroughly figured them out; there was no such thing as a speeding mechanism, was there?
It must have been a hallucination from driving while tired.
But of course, Instructor Ding disagreed. He trusted his own feeling very much.
"It's impossible. It definitely sped up just now; I can feel it! I would never have gotten to this point at normal speed!
"Strange, how could it have sped up..."
"Could it be?"
Instructor Ding thought back to his previous actions and vaguely formed a hypothesis.
He had Sisyphus back up a bit to reach a relatively flat and open area.
Then, he began to roll the rock forward again.
Only this time, he didn't just press the "W" key; during the process of moving, he would press the "spacebar" at intervals!
Instructor Ding used a mechanical keyboard, which was loud, and everyone in the live stream could clearly hear the rhythmic tap-tap sounds.
Afterward, a shocking scene occurred.
The big rock actually started rolling faster and faster!
If Instructor Ding hadn't been prepared, he might even have rushed off the cliff because he couldn't brake in time.
"Guys, this game... has bugged out again!
"Hey, why did I say 'again'?"
Instructor Ding scratched his buzz cut, as if he had once again opened the gate to a new world!
...
Upon discovering the bug, Instructor Ding immediately conducted repeated tests on it.
He quickly found the reason.
It seemed to be because of the "jump" action!
As everyone knows, in the game Sisyphus, the action corresponding to the "spacebar" is "jump."
But, the "jump" action can only be performed when "carrying the rock."
If you press the spacebar in a normal state, Sisyphus will also make a kicking motion, but since his hands still need to support the big rock in front, he can't actually jump up.
Moreover, this action is very subtle and easy to overlook.
However, this simple "kicking" motion could actually provide a small boost to the rock's speed!
Under normal conditions, Sisyphus's pushing force is fixed, and the rock moves at a constant speed.
But this small boost broke the balance.
If a player managed to keep pressing the spacebar continuously and at a certain rhythm, this tiny boost could stack and keep adding up, even making the big rock roll faster and faster!