When I write a bug it becomes the core gameplay.

Chapter 406: So unlucky!
Gu Fan couldn't help but frowned slightly: "Boss Li, let me emphasize again, I'm just an ordinary programmer. If you ask me to find problems in the code I wrote, maybe I can barely do it, but finding problems in the code written by others is really too..."

Lilith frowned and said firmly: "I'll give you a bonus!"

"Okay!" Gu Fan immediately opened the source code of "Heartbeat Dream" on his computer and began to check it carefully.

The night was long and Lilith still had plenty of time, so she was not in a hurry at all. She just waited with a stern face.

Obviously, there is something wrong with "Heartbeat Dream"!

Although Lilith still doesn't quite understand where the problem lies.

Is it just a matter of the plot being inexplicably confusing and causing players to make up their own stories? Absolutely not.

Because there are many designs in "Heartbeat Dreamland" that are visible to the naked eye and exceed Lilith's expectations. Even those functions that Zhou Yang had reported before, such as the added psychological horror elements and meta game elements, after taking all these functions into account, "Heartbeat Dreamland" still has some "superfluous" functions.

And it was precisely because too many feet were added that a grass snake was inexplicably beautified into a dragon!

What Lilith has to do now is to let Gu Fan make a careful comparison and find out all these "superfluous" parts to see if Zhou Yang, as the producer of this project, has any ulterior motives!
“Let’s start from the last GM mode!

"As far as I can remember, there was no mention of this kind of thing in the design draft!"

Lilith is coming with great force.

Obviously, this was the biggest flaw she could see.

There is a lot of early design content for the game "Heartbeat Dream", including the folder in the game's root directory, which of course was specially designed by Zhou Yang.

Players can make changes to the game by deleting, copying and pasting the files in this folder. This is the "meta element" that Zhou Yang mentioned before.

But the problem is that there is no such thing as GM mode in the design plan!

It's easy to figure out that in the end, Elios successfully activated the GM mode, allowing players to adjust various data in the game, and even skip or extend the horror content according to their own preferences. This is absolutely contrary to Lilith's original design intention.

Because what Lilith wants is for players to contribute negative emotions, and the existence of the GM mode will inevitably greatly reduce the generation of negative emotions.

This means that players who don't like horror content can skip it, while players who like horror content can experience it repeatedly. If everyone removes the parts they don't like from the game, won't the negative emotions generated inevitably decrease?

Absolutely intolerable!

Lilith now wants to get the ironclad evidence that Zhou Yang set up this "GM mode", so as to prove that this boy must not be kept!

Gu Fan first searched through the design plan, and then said, "There is no mention of this GM mode anywhere in the design plan."

Lilith was not surprised: "Well, look at the code!"

It seems that Zhou Yang is a well-trained traitor. He also knows that such things cannot be clearly written in the design plan to leave evidence.

Although in theory, all designs of designers must be completed through design plans, and programmers are unwilling to do functions that are not written in the plan, but in actual operation, there are still many loopholes.

Especially in a company with a relatively flat structure like Against the Heaven, where designers and programmers have a good relationship privately, it is not impossible for things like adding features verbally.

If the design is not written, but the code is there...

Then Lilith not only found out the traitor Zhou Yang, but also the programmer who wrote this function!

Gu Fan looked solemnly as he carefully searched through the lines of code, and then found the various functional interfaces of the GM mode in the editor.

Then he fell silent.

Lilith keenly felt that the situation seemed a little complicated, and hurriedly asked, "Have you found out?"

Gu Fan thought for a while, but seemed unable to come to an accurate conclusion: "I need to think about it again."

Lilith frowned: "If you have found out, then you have found out. If you haven't found out, then you haven't found out. What does it mean to think about it again? You are not trying to cover up these two people!"

Gu Fan laughed in silence: "How could that be, President Li, you worry too much.

"Well, since you're so anxious, I won't dig into the details or think about the specific reasons. I'll just report the facts I observed to you. You can figure out the specific reasons yourself."

Lilith laughed: "Humph, that's how it should be. I'm much smarter than you. If you can't figure this out, don't think about it. Just leave it to me."

Gu Fan nodded: "Of course, President Li is wise and intelligent.

"That's right. I looked through the code for related functions, but I have to admit that there is nothing in the code that directly leads to the 'GM mode'."

Lilith was shocked. Her eyes suddenly widened. "What are you talking about, Gu Fan? Are you sure you are not talking nonsense? How can a function that is not in the code be implemented by itself? You mean, this is a miracle?
"Oh, it's a miracle!"

There was a deep distrust in her eyes. Obviously, Lilith began to suspect whether this was some kind of lame cover-up by Gu Fan.

Gu Fan hurriedly explained: "Boss Li, please listen to me first."

He quickly opened the so-called "GM mode" interface in the editor.

"Boss Li, do you find this interface familiar?"

Lilith frowned and shook her head: "Not familiar."

Gu Fan pointed to some elements on the interface, especially the buttons, background frame, etc.

Lilith looked at it carefully again, but still couldn't see any major problems.

"What's wrong with the button? Isn't it normal? Oh, it seems that compared with the buttons on other interfaces, it is a little... rough? A little blurry? If you look closely, the background of the button seems to be a little wrong. Is it slightly stretched?"

Gu Fan clapped his hands and said, "Boss Li, you really have a keen eye!
“Look at this interface again.”

As he spoke, he opened another interface.

This interface looks exactly the same as the one in GM mode, except that the way it is opened is different.

In the game, "GM mode" can only be enabled after Ellios is turned into the highest authority guide. However, the new interface that Gu Fan opened was not in the official version of the game, but in the internal test version of "Heartbeat Dreamland".

To open it, there is no need for complicated operations such as using AI. Gu Fan just presses a combination key on the keyboard and the interface pops up directly.

Lilith was a little surprised: "This...

"Is this an internal testing tool?" Gu Fan nodded: "Boss Li is wise! Yes, this is an internal testing tool."

As Lilith has extensive experience in game development, she is already very familiar with internal testing tools.

The testing group has limited number of people and limited time, so in order to improve testing efficiency, programmers are often required to develop some GM tools to assist in testing work.

For example, all the functions in the GM mode, such as not triggering horror content, extending the duration of horror content, adjusting the acquisition rate of various data, etc., are all for the test team to test related codes faster and better.

Because this GM tool is only used for internal testing and will never be included in the official version, the production is relatively perfunctory. The buttons, interfaces, etc. in it are all pieced together using the generic materials that already exist in the game. Many of the buttons don't even match the size, so they have been slightly stretched, and you will find the rough edges only if you look closely.

So the question is, how did something that was originally an internal testing version become the official version?
And the activation method is also different!

Gu Fan continued: "Boss Li, my guess is that this is the case.

“This GM tool may be related to many contents in the game. Instead of directly finding it from all the codes and deleting it, it is better to just delete the entrance.

"Because in the original internal beta version, it was activated by hotkeys, and there was no other way to activate it. Therefore, as long as the hotkey commands in the game are deleted, theoretically, players will no longer have any chance to activate it."

Lilith's expression became even uglier: "In theory?"

Gu Fan nodded: "Yes, but I don't know why, this interface still appears in the official version. I guess...it may be related to AI.

“Because in the game, in order to better create the effect of psychological horror and also to highlight the meta game elements, we actually gave these AIs very high permissions.

"For example... calling some data from the game's source code."

Lilith narrowed her eyes slightly. "So what you mean is... this interface, and this so-called GM mode, are all set up by Elios's AI itself?"

Her face was full of an expression that said "Guess whether I believe it or not".

Gu Fan coughed twice and said, "Boss Li, if you don't believe me, you can ask other programmers to check it again.

“I will just state a few certain facts.

"First of all, we are using the latest version of fake-AI. Compared with the AI ​​in "The Legend of the Dragon King" and "The Forsaken City", this version of AI has made great progress and its intelligence level is already very high.

“Secondly, during the production process of the game Heartbeat Dream, the AI ​​was indeed given extremely high permissions, even including the permission to delete and modify in-game files at will.

"Although the permission to delete and modify files is limited to the archive and character folders in the root directory, AI has many other permissions, such as the permission to call in-game resources and determine certain data. For example, when players experience the game, the timing of the appearance of horror content is determined by AI."

Lilith was stunned for a moment: "What? This was also decided by AI?"

Gu Fan nodded: "From the current code, yes.

"Ms. Li, didn't you specifically request this before? You hope that the transition from romance to horror content must be at the 'best time'.

"But obviously, each player has different playing habits, pursues different characters, and participates in different activities. Although we can set some special triggering moments, such as Yvette's face changing when she turns her head to confess at the beach, these special triggering moments alone are obviously not enough.

“We can’t design every trigger and hardcode it into the program. That way there will be a lack of randomness, and players will quickly figure out the rules and take precautions. This is also contrary to your design, President Li.

“So, the solution we finally adopted was to let AI participate in decision-making.

“Let the AI ​​combine special algorithms based on the situation in the game to introduce horror content when the player is most relaxed.

“In this case, we have to open the internal interface of the GM tool to the AI, allowing the AI ​​to call some of the codes and operations.

"Oh, this should also be one of the reasons why the programmers did not delete this GM tool in the official version."

The corner of Lilith's mouth twitched slightly, and she seemed to know what the problem was.

“So… the AI ​​actually mistakenly called up a scrapped design that the production team had decided not to use, is that right?

"Didn't the production team consider this possibility before?"

Gu Fan fell into deep thought: "This...I'm afraid I haven't considered it.

“Theoretically, the probability of this happening is not high, so it is normal for the production team not to consider this possibility.

“The key lies in the latest version of fake-AI. No one in our company has fully understood its intelligence level so far, and I haven’t fully understood it either.

"From the perspective of the fake-AI development team, they certainly hope that this AI is as smart as possible, so they will not add too many restrictions to it after the technological breakthrough. However, we seem to have seriously underestimated the capabilities of this AI. After opening up high permissions to it, we did not impose any particularly detailed restrictions...

“And then something unexpected happened.”

Lilith was speechless for a long time. Finally, she said in a daze, "You mean to say that many of these outrageous behaviors are actually the subjective will of the AI ​​in the game? Did they decide to do this themselves?
"For example, in the end, it was Eleos's AI that took the initiative to call up this GM interface for the player?"

Gu Fan nodded: "From the current situation... yes."

Lilith leaned back in her chair instantly. Although she still seemed unable to accept this reality, considering the outrageous situation in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", this kind of thing was not impossible to happen.

You know, when playing "Legend of the Condor Heroes", AI could only operate within the game, but fake-AI had already caused so many troubles.

The fake-AI used in "Heartbeat Dreamland" is the result of version iteration. It is not only smarter, but also has the authority to call in-game resources and even modify game data.

It doesn't seem impossible to delete one or two game character files and call on some abandoned designs that originally existed in the game.

Originally, this should have been a definite bug.

If fake-AI did these things in other games, it would definitely be a serious and malicious bug that would seriously affect the player's gaming experience and would definitely generate a lot of negative emotions.

But it’s completely different in “Heartbeat Dream”!

Due to the previous preparations, many players have already regarded these as part of the game. When they encounter these bugs, they are not angry at all. Instead, they are deeply moved, so much so that their negative emotions are greatly reduced!
What happened to the promise that fake-AI would be used to generate game texts to save time and effort?
Wasn’t it said that even if fake-AI is used, it shouldn’t have much impact on the game content?

Somehow two negatives equal a positive!

Lilith felt that she was extremely unlucky. If there was a problem in any link here, this result would not have occurred. It would only have turned into a series of bugs that affected the player experience.

But by some strange coincidence, all of them came together!

(End of this chapter)