Chapter 94: Thoughts on Launch

Chapter 94: Thoughts on LaunchHello everyone, this is Andlao, your loyal friend who is about to go on the shelves.

I’ve been thinking about what to write for the shelf message, talking about the origins of the work? Or some reasons for the plot? But I think these things can be left for the end-of-volume remarks.

So after thinking for a long time, I decided why not talk about my writing thoughts.

Readers familiar with me should know that I, the author, was an art student before typing... well, I can’t really say it was art because my school taught all sorts of things; they even taught me how to operate a WeChat official account (the method was to infiltrate various group chats to send ads).

I personally love art, and influenced by these, when I write articles, I always think about some sense of art... This sounds a bit ridiculous, after all, the medium for my thoughts now is words, not paintings.

But I want to lean towards this, before I started writing this book, I also discussed with people, the story I wrote is limited by my own logic, for example, I care more about the uniformity of art style, so this has led me to avoid things that don’t match the story’s art style when writing the book.

Correspondingly, I also want to write something novel, something that can make everyone feel "new and curious."

For example, the common weapons in novels, swords, spears, and axes, people are already accustomed to. To bring a sense of novelty, a "familiar yet strange" feeling, I chose the folding knife as a weapon. In the construction of Opus, I also tried to be closer to a sense of design.

Readers who have read my previous book should be able to feel it. The old Dunling in the last book was like this, the whole city presented a feeling of a giant tree, airships patrolling the skies, the giant Dunling Tower piercing the sky, the broken dome at the top serving as the command center, beneath the tower’s body was the huge steam system pillared by the furnace, deep underground housed the research center, with complex pipes and railways spread across the surface and underground, with the Pit of Mourning as the end in the dark depths.

In the previous book, because of the story’s emphasis, I didn’t write much about architecture. I personally still like architectural design and environment, so in this book, I think I’ll construct this city better and integrate it into the plot.

Previously, in the comments section of this Chapter, I saw someone mention "War of the Twin Cities." Actually, the constructions of Opus and the Great Rift are not like Zu’an and Piltover.

Although Zu’an is a chaotic place, it is still somewhat a city under the commonsense rules. The wandering crossroads imagined by me feel more like a front-line base, with the front being the great Abyss, hiding countless nightmares inside. A group of desperadoes eke out a living here, sacrificing to the unknown entities in the Abyss for survival space.

I was inspired to a certain extent by "From the Abyss," a city built on ruins, with a huge rift Abyss at its center, hiding all sorts of oddities inside, and no one knows its end. All conspiracies and secrets await future generations to explore.

This is a highly healing work, if you’re interested, you can take a look. Speaking candidly, I also pre-ordered a Li Mingqing toy, which has been delayed from last year to March, annoying!

I really like Metroidvania-style games, such as "Hollow Knight," "Ori," etc. I love that feeling of exploring new maps with the storyline’s progression, and with my design, the Great Rift is also like this place, revealing little by little to the readers as the plot advances.

More importantly, the side-scrolling mode gives it clear directions, players would wonder what’s at the left end, what’s at the right end, what’s at the topmost, and what’s at the bottom.

So I want to incorporate this sense of reaching the end into the story, making the city feel "depth."

Of course, I hope these designs are interrelated rather than disconnected, like the connection between Weiming City and its surrounding areas in "Sekiro," which is quite good; they are mutually connected and closely related.

I like that kind of distortion under common circumstances, that weirdness feeling, so in Opus, under commonsense, there would be various oddities, one after another of fascinating urban legends.

Actually, from here, you should be able to sense that when writing this book, I’m thinking more about how I would do it if this were a game. Hence, the plot advances like a Metroidvania game, continually gaining new abilities and knowledge to explore new areas, with regions being interconnected, eliminating a sense of abrupt map changing.

Then, back to another point that many people mentioned, the prototype of the Order Bureau.

This initially comes down to one night when I was listening to Russian post-punk. I don’t know if it’s due to historical factors or what, but I feel Russian post-punk has a lot of depth. When I heard the song "Клетка," I saw the album cover and thought it was awesome.

At that time, I was struggling with how to add a sense of "novelty" to the new book, although it’s words, I also wanted it to present some visual aesthetics. I saw the album cover was a Brutalism-style building, and after looking at a few more representative images, I suddenly came to a realization.

It matched the taste.

The main art style of the Order Bureau is Brutalism, which is the style of the familiar game "Control." This game’s design gave me great inspiration.