The story of “Return to Shore” takes place in ancient China during an unknown era. Originally a peaceful and tranquil small village, people suddenly began losing their three souls and seven spirits, becoming wandering ghosts.

These people gradually lost their memories and sanity, wandering, attacking those with intact souls and spirits, and unconsciously moving toward a certain direction in the distance.

Among the survivors, this direction was called the “Path to the Yellow Springs.”

According to village elders, the deceased were originally captured by the Black and White Impermanence, sent to the Underworld to face King Yama’s judgment, determining whether they would reincarnate as humans, enter the six paths of reincarnation, or be cast into the eighteen levels of hell.

But for some unknown reason, Black and White Impermanence no longer guided those on the verge of death. Therefore, whether people’s natural lifespans had ended or they died unexpectedly, all could only wander on the Path to the Yellow Springs, unable to reach the Underworld.

These wandering spirits and malevolent ghosts instinctively felt the call of the Underworld but couldn’t find the correct path. Over time, they became increasingly ferocious.

Thus, the human realm gradually transformed into purgatory.

The protagonist controlled by players is an ordinary dying person whose three souls and seven spirits are already incomplete. However, in some mysterious way, they sense something calling to them from a distant direction.

To avoid becoming a mindless wandering ghost and to investigate the truth behind everything, the protagonist sets out on the Path to the Yellow Springs, entering the Underworld as a mortal.

The game flow is roughly divided into several parts:

The initial small human village;

Towns are completely occupied by wandering spirits;

The treacherous Ghost Gate;

The Path to the Yellow Springs is haunted by numerous malevolent spirits;

The Sanzu River is lined with spider lilies;

The River of Forgetfulness and Bridge of Helplessness at the end of the Yellow Springs Path;

The Hometown-Gazing Platform and Three Lives Stone beside the Bridge of Helplessness;

The magnificent main hall of King Yama;

The chaotic Six Paths of Reincarnation;

The deepest Avici Hell…

Additionally, the game’s bosses will be characters selected from traditional mythology, such as Meng Po at the Bridge of Helplessness, the Four Great Judges of the Underworld: Inspector Lu Zhidao, Punisher of Evil Zhong Kui, Rewarder of Good Wei Zheng, Keeper of Underworld Law Cui Jue (each using purple, green, blue, and orange as their main color schemes), the Ten Kings of Hell, and so on.

Furthermore, as per Mr. Pei’s requirements, when players die, all minor enemies respawn, so Buddha statues for respawning are placed at intervals.

Dilapidated temples, Buddha statues, earth god temples, and earth god statues will be distributed throughout the game.

In this world, there are no living Buddhas, only broken Buddha statues, suggesting the legendary Dharma-Ending Age.

Buddha statues serve as save points, allowing players to restore their status and refresh nearby enemies, while earth god statues can be used to collect nearby wandering souls to enhance character attributes.

All this content isn’t that much because the budget is limited, so the entire game will take about twelve to thirteen hours to complete, assuming the player is familiar with combat and progresses steadily.

For beginners, completion time might extend to dozens of hours, or even indefinitely.

The game isn’t linear; sometimes players need to backtrack to reach the next scene.

For example, at the start, players must first go to a town occupied by malevolent spirits, defeat the vengeful spirits gathered there, obtain initial enhancements, acquire special items for dealing with wandering souls (such as prayer beads and talismans), then return to the initial village, kill a dying old man, and follow his soul to embark on the Path to the Yellow Springs.

If players don’t go to the town first but directly kill the old man and follow his soul onto the Path to the Yellow Springs, the journey will be extremely difficult.

Similarly, in King Yama’s main hall, players can choose:

To penetrate deep into King Yama’s hall, eliminate all judges and Yama himself, becoming a truly malevolent ghost;

Or enter the chaotic Six Paths of Reincarnation, be reborn as a human, and escape this terrifying world;

Or venture into Avici Hell, defeat the crazed Guardian, and sacrifice oneself to suppress vengeful spirits…

The game will have three to five endings, each determined by player choices at critical junctures.

The key hints for making these choices are hidden within the game’s plot.

In the game, players will hear fragments of information from NPCs, or they can kill wandering souls or bosses to obtain remnants of memories from their three souls and seven spirits, acquiring readable memory fragments.

Some especially cryptic hints can also be found through prompts on key items or scenes (like the Three Lives Stone).

Scenes like the Three Lives Stone can be repurposed; players can see different content each time they visit as the game progresses, influencing key plot twists.

Of course, different monsters will appear in the same location when players take different story branches, allowing scene reuse to save some funds.

These hints are the key to deterring foreign players.

Pei Qian didn’t require these hints to be written in poetry, as poetry would be too difficult.

It’s sufficient to write them in obscure ancient Chinese that most people with nine years of compulsory education can roughly understand.

It’s not that Pei Qian dislikes poetry; mainly, even if he made such a request, Lü Mingliang and his team couldn’t fulfill it.

…

These are just preliminary designs.

In the early stages of game development, it’s enough to roughly determine the game’s scenes, bosses, and story flow, ensuring that preparatory work (such as art requirements) can proceed smoothly.

More detailed content and specifics can be continuously refined during the development process, and some settings and content can be modified at any time.

Ma Yiqun explained the game’s worldbuilding and everyone’s responsibilities in detail.

Comparatively, they showed little interest in manuscript screening but were more intrigued by the plot of “Return to Shore.”

So far, the quality of manuscripts selected for Terminal Chinese Web has not been that good.

If there were truly interesting beginnings, fast-paced, novel plots, and captivating good books, everyone might be more excited.

But there weren’t any.

This meant that no matter how carefully they selected manuscripts, they were unlikely to find a hit that would make the entire website popular.

As for guiding authors, that was even more nonsensical, since most editors themselves only had a partial understanding. If they tried to guide others, they might do more harm than good.

But “Return to Shore” was different.

Tenda Games’ latest masterpiece!

Million-yuan investment!

Personally directed by Mr. Pei!

No matter how you looked at it, this game was going to be a huge hit. Even if it couldn’t earn as much money as “Sea Fortress,” it would certainly gain a reputation like “Game Producer.”

If they participated in the game’s development, even personally writing a segment of the game’s plot, they could boast about it to friends later!

After listening to Ma Yiqun’s introduction, Zhu Anxing’s eyes lit up.

“Brother Ma, I want to write!”

“Can we directly publish our written content on our website? It could be considered the game’s official novel.”

“We can divide the tasks, with each person responsible for a portion of the content, including the game’s entire chronology and the background stories of various bosses and NPCs, as supplementary material for the game.”

“Although it might not all be used, it’s much better than us fumbling around aimlessly or working in isolation.”

Ma Yiqun thought about it and realized this made sense.

Since there wasn’t much to do now, and even if people wanted to write web novels themselves, many didn’t know what genre to write in.

So they might as well write the plot for “Return to Shore” together, and afterward, select portions of the plot to include in the game.

Ma Yiqun nodded: “Alright, so in addition to reviewing manuscripts, everyone should consider the plot for ‘Return to Shore.'”

“From now on, we’ll hold weekly meetings specifically to discuss plot design, and I’ll provide feedback to the project team.”