Lucas also got in touch with a motion capture studio to start producing various assets.
At the same time, he led the team in developing Outlast.
The cost of this game wasn't exactly low, but it wasn't sky-high either.
After finishing the budget report, the total development cost for the game—including future marketing—was tentatively set at 1 million dollar.
Of course, that number might go up later, but it won't go over 1.5 million dollar.
For a horror game, that's a pretty big budget in this genre.
Everyone on the team was really excited.
After all, this was their first big project.
......
Days passed one by one.
Art, animations, and other assets were being steadily produced.
The game's script was also finished and would go through a second round of voice recording.
All of the main character's movements were being tested through trial and error.
"This already gives me the creeps—just imagine how scary the final game's going to be!"
In the office, Rachel sat at her desk, glancing at the concept art on her second screen, still feeling a bit shaken.
The concept art mainly showed environments—an abandoned mental hospital shrouded in darkness, scenes filled with blood and bodies, patients hiding under hospital beds in pitch-black rooms, and footage shot in night vision with a DV camera.
These images perfectly captured the eerie vibe of Outlast. Just looking at them was enough to send chills down your spine, let alone actually playing the game.
During the development of Outlast, she'd been staying up late almost every night.
Why?
Because she was scared.
She didn't even know what she was thinking that one night—she actually picked up the DV camera Lucas gave her and tried it out in the dark. The creepy vibe was so intense it completely freaked her out.
The scariest thing is when your imagination runs wild and you end up scaring yourself.
But maybe that's exactly why the concept art she designed—based on Lucas's ideas—turned out so well.
"Yeah! And in the game, the player can't fight back, only run," Anna said, agreeing with Rachel.
Lucas, who was working on an animation, smiled. "Isn't that the best part? If we gave the player a gun, it'd just turn into another FPS. Fear comes from being powerless."
In most horror games, why do they include guns?
Part of it is to add variety, but it also gives players a way to let off some steam.
That kind of design actually works really well. In the past, Resident Evil used this same approach.
But it also has a big drawback—it's easy for a horror game to become just another shooter.
Because fear fades when you have too much firepower.
That's actually what happened with Resident Evil over time.
Starting from RE4, the focus shifted more and more toward shooting until the remakes finally brought the horror feeling back. Resident Evil 8: Village managed to strike a really solid balance in pacing.
Still, for most players, they didn't really care how scary the game was or how well the pacing was handled.
All their attention went to Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters.
"But Boss Lucas, when are we going to start hyping up Outlast? A lot of players online are already asking about the new game," Anna said.
Unlike back in the early days when it was just the three of them in the dev team, now that new people had joined the company, they'd started calling Lucas 'Boss' instead of just using first names.
"Yeah, the dev progress seems really fast. We might be able to release it in December," Rachel added.
Outlast wasn't a massive game. Most of the work was focused on animations and art assets.
Because the core gameplay was so straightforward, there wasn't much trial and error involved.
Development had been smooth the whole way.
"There's no need to spend on promotion just yet—let's wait until mid to late November."
"There are already a lot of followers on our official account anyway. Also, did you two forget what tomorrow is?"
Lucas smiled as he asked.
What day?
Anna and Rachel paused for a second, then looked at the bottom-right corner of their computer screens.
October 30th?
"It's Halloween! I recorded the teaser in advance just for this moment—so we could release it right on the holiday."
"After all, the players have been waiting for a month. Announcing our new game during a holiday like this makes it feel more connected to real life, don't you think?"
Lucas smiled as he spoke to Anna and Rachel, then opened a short video file on his desktop.
The video was only about ten seconds long.
It started with a completely black screen. A second later, the screen lit up—but it wasn't a normal video.
It was in DV night vision mode. There was a battery indicator in the top right corner, and a red recording dot blinking in the top left, showing the DV was recording.
The DV footage showed Lucas's office.
A chair was knocked over on the floor, and papers on the desk were clearly scattered on purpose.
There wasn't a single sound throughout the video.
Combined with the greenish night vision look, it felt incredibly creepy and unsettling.
At the ninth second, the video suddenly shook, like the person filming had been attacked. But strangely, there was still no sound at all. Then the video ended and the screen went black.
The room was silent. Anna and Rachel stared at Lucas without saying a word.
"Boss Lucas, I think we went too grounded—it's like we've grounded ourselves straight into the afterlife," Rachel finally said after a long pause.
This teaser was clearly telling players their next game would be a horror game.
But was this really the way to make it feel grounded?
This wasn't just grounded—it felt like they dug straight into the underworld.
A Halloween release, shot in the middle of the night, and presented as a creepy DV clip.
You really went all in, Boss Lucas!
Anna couldn't hold back anymore either: "And Boss Lucas, didn't you say you were a warrior of love? 'Outlast' has nothing to do with love at all! Can't we do something a bit more cheerful for the teaser?"
"What do you mean it has nothing to do with love? Horror game fans have been saying for years that there hasn't been a good horror game in a while! Why am I making 'Outlast'? Because I care about those players—that's my love for them! Doesn't that make me a warrior of love?"
"And about the teaser being cheerful—you don't think this perfectly fits the theme of 'Outlast'? Besides, this kind of release grabs way more attention than a regular announcement. We've got to ride this wave!" Lucas said seriously.
(End of Chapter)
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