Ma Yang was way more excited than Pei Qian; after all, this was the first game that he had worked on.
Even though… all he did was fill up a requirement form.
The so called ‘bug check’ took around four hours but Pei Qian did not intend to waste anymore time.
The main reason was that the game came from a template and in itself, the template had already been through multiple checks and was an almost bug-free version.
Pei Qian merely tweaked some of the skills settings while changing the text descriptions. Other than that, he had not touched the other things and there would naturally not be any serious bugs.
But of course, even if there was any bug right now, Pei Qian wouldn’t be able to fix it on his own and would have to go online to hire someone to do it.
“Published.”
Pei Qian still went with the set workflow and submitted the game for the vetting process.
But before that, he had to determine the game’s title and summary.
He decided to go along with his previous line of thought. The name and summary must be so simplistic that gamers would not be able to understand it or guess at the game’s content.
It would be best if it did not contain any hot keywords as well.
For example, ‘Three Kingdoms’ must not appear in the game’s title!
Otherwise, gamers who liked three kingdoms related games would be able to find this game by searching with those keywords and they might download it to play.
Thinking for a moment, an idea struck Pei Qian as he started keying in the name and summary.
Name: Ghost General.
Summary: This is a normal card game with nothing new.
Sale Price: 10 yuan + in-game purchases.
He was certain that gamers would not be able to guess at the type of game it was just by reading the name and summary!
At the same time, the 10 yuan barrier of entry would be enough to deter most gamers who might accidentally stumble across the game.
Compared to The Lonely Desert Road, the game this time round had a larger size – after all, this was a mobile game with more content as well.
As such, the vetting process should take slightly longer and it would most likely only be done by the next day earliest.
After settling everything, Pei Qian’s worries of the previous day had disappeared entirely.
Even if the game’s original arts had decent quality, so what?
How would the gamers see the original arts if they don’t know about the existence of the game to begin with?
Pleased with himself, Pei Qian closed the back end with glee, full of hope towards the settlement a week later.
He could already envision himself in a bright future spending his days like a bum enjoying food and drinks after getting the 300,000…
…
…
That afternoon, Ruan Guangjian woke up from hunger.
The others had woken up as well.
Old Huang was packing the house as he cleared all the instant noodle cups and all sorts of rubbish in a huge trash bag, ready to throw it all away.
“Guangjian, you’re awake? How was it, have you handed in the work? Did the client request for any amendments?” Old Huang asked as he packed up.
Ruan Guangjian flipped out of bed. “Nopes. Boss Pei said he was extremely pleased and there’s no need for amendments.”
“Extremely pleased?” Old Huang was surprised. “What sort of a godly client is this? He didn’t even request for a single amendment?”
Ruan Guangjian nodded his head. “That’s right. Even though, it’s true that the quality of our original art has nothing much that needs to be amended,all these shitty clients would usually… eh, is there any cup noodles left?”
“Nopes, we finished them all. Let’s eat out tonight to celebrate,” Old Huang suggested.
Ruan Guangjian nodded his head in agreement. “Sure, that’s what I thought too. We’ll go out and have a good meal before splitting the money. It’s been rough on everyone for the past few days.”
“Gosh, you’re the one who had it worst,” Old Huang replied as he dragged a large trash bag out.
Ruan Guangjian had not expected that Pei Qian would accept the original art without any complaints.
Usually, even if the clients were extremely pleased with the project, they would nitpick on some small issues.
Rather than saying it was the fault of the client, it was fundamentally an issue with the workflow.
Most of the times, the client wasn’t a single person but a unit or a company.
The person who came in contact with the freelancers would just be a single employee of the client.
If the freelancers were to hand in a project and the person in charge of it at the client side were to accept it without any issues, he would have a hard time accounting for it to his superiors.
The fact that the employee did not find a single mistake with the end product may make him seem useless, as though he hadn’t done his job properly.
That was the reason why the clients would always nitpick on some small issues to make it seem as though they were doing something.
In fact, there would even be despairing scenarios such as… “Let’s just use the first draft”.
Ruan Guangjian was grateful as well that he had met with such an angel of a client this time round.
He was upfront with the payment and not only did he not bargain, he had even increased their pay!
The requirement form was casual – they could do what they wanted with the design!
No amendments were required of the designs that were accepted with satisfaction!
That had Ruan Guangjian feeling somewhat embarrassed.
However, when he thought about how much effort he had put in to provide those high quality original arts, Ruan Guangjian did not see an issue anymore.
All he could say was that working with straightforward people was a pleasant experience!
Having slogged their guts out for a whole three weeks, it was time for his roommates to have a good meal now that the money was transferred as well.
Ruan Guangjian brought the few of them to a small restaurant near the school and booked a suite while purchasing two cartons of beer from a supermarket nearby.
They were intending to stuff themselves completely and make merry till they were drunk.
“Right, Guangjian. Say, what sort of a game are we making with our original arts? When’s the game getting published?” Old Huang suddenly recalled an extremely important question as he ate the side dish.
It was only natural for them to want to see the game they’ve worked in get published sooner.
If it got popular, that would be even better.
“I’ve got no idea when it’s getting published too, I didn’t ask. However, I think all these games can only get published after multiple rounds of testing, right? I don’t think it’ll get published anytime soon.”
“Right, I could check it out.”
Ruan Guangjian had an account at ESRO’s resource website. He could check Pei Qian’s account to find his company and check the games they had published previously.
“Holy f*ck! The Lonely Desert Road was made by this company?!”
Ruan Guangjian was stunned.
He had long heard of that messed up game. Even though he hadn’t tried it himself, he had heard all sorts of things about it previously.
He then looked at the second game.
“It’s called Ghost General. A mobile card game that’s being vetted! This should be the game that our original art’s used for.”
“Wouldn’t that mean we’ll be able to play it soon?”
“Wait, isn’t this a little too fast…? I’ve only just sent the original art this morning and it was sent for vetting this afternoon? That means, we’ll be able to play it tomorrow night?!”
Ruan Guangjian was completely confounded by that lightning speed.
Most games would have to be tested for day
s or even a week, right? What if there was a bug in the game?
But yet, this game was published right that day?!
Old Huang chewed on his shelled peanuts. “That’s normal. Maybe the entire process was completed long ago and they were just waiting for our art resources to add on and complete the job? What’s so strange about it.”
Ruan Guangjian nodded his head. “Hmms, true. We’ll be able to download and check it out for ourselves tomorrow.”
“Come on! Let’s talk about the game tomorrow! A drink first!” Old Huang raised his glass as they clinked glasses merrily, intending to get completely drunk!
Chapter 21
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The next afternoon, Ruan Guangjian crawled out of bed having a slight hangover.
Thankfully, they had only drank beer and his head was mostly cleared after sleeping.
“Oh, right! The game!”
Ruan Guangjian suddenly recalled – the game should have passed through the vetting process by now!
He took out his phone impatiently and searched for Ghost General on the official platform.
The original art was something that he and his dormitory mates had rushed out after giving it burning tons of midnight oil and he cherished it like it was his own son. As such, he naturally hoped that the game would become popular.
By then, he could use the term concept designer on himself legitimately.
Thereafter, be it whether he was looking for jobs or seeking investments, things would definitely be easier for him once he tosses these original arts under his portfolio.
That was why even though he was just an artist outsourced with the job, he was even more concerned about it than Pei Qian was!
“Ah, the game’s passed the vetting process! Hurry and download it! Just search for Ghost General!”
Ruan Guangjian yelled out and his friends that had woken up scurried to download it on their phones.
After looking at the game’s information interface, Ruan Guangjian frowned.
Why was it so simple?
It was especially the case for the summary! Claiming that this guy was just barely doing his job was an understatement – it was clear he gave no f*cks at all!
Summary: This is a normal card game with nothing new
?!?!
Did the creator bear some grudge against his own game or something?!
Besides, most other games would place some promotional pictures or beautiful posters on this page to improve the impression of the game.
In any case, they would dump all the best art resources the game had to offer on the information page so that gamers would be tricked in.
As for whether the actual graphics matched the promotional pictures… that didn’t matter anymore; they would be able to retain part of the gamers that were tricked in.
But yet, Ghost General had no pictures at all!
That was the reason why the total downloads was still zero by the time Ruan Guangjian searched for it – even Pei Qian had not downloaded it yet.
“He must not have had the time to promote it since the game’s just gotten through the vetting process… yes, that must be it.”
Ruan Guangjian consoled himself while downloading and entering the game.
He naturally did not care about the 10 yuan cost of the game.
It was an extremely rudimentary card game with a gameplay that resembled Qute Three Kingdoms six months ago.
However, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing either.
Mobile games had never required overly complex systems or gameplays. In this age, the trend still leaned towards mobile games that were more relaxing.
Most of the gamers could only afford around three hours of daily gameplay spread through the entire day.
Therefore, most of the mobile card games around that period revolved around automated gameplays such as clearing stages and sweeps1 using energy and limited number of entries to control the amount of time gamers had to spend on the games.
Introducing too many flowery gameplays wasn’t something that would benefit them.
However, for a game such as Qute Three Kingdoms that has already been operating for a year, there exists a paradox.
While new gameplays were more effort than they were worth and could bloat the game such that gamers would find it too tedious, these same gamers would feel bored of the game if it remained the same all the time without any new elements.
As such, Qute Three Kingdoms would go through an update every three months or so to introduce new skills and cards. While that caused their game to turn bloated, they had no other choice.
However, that problem wouldn’t exist for a new game such as Ghost General.
While it made use of Qute Three Kingdoms’ older gameplay, it was a classic gameplay that had already gone through the market’s approval and gamers would be more accepting towards it.
All it took was a change of overall appearance to please the gamers.
Besides, since the game contained some of the more rudimentary playstyles, card gamers would be able to pick up on it quickly without finding it tedious or tiring.
Ruan Guangjian did not take long to draw some cards that were suitable for newcomers.
Looking at the overall effects, he felt that they were decent!
When he was creating the original arts, Ruan Guangjian knew that these would be used for a card game and as such, he had intentionally added some unique designs so that the characters would seem more moving.
For example, if Guan Yu the dragon was waving his blade and wanted to slash someone, his card would shake with that would vibe with the players.
The more he looked at them, the prouder Ruan Guangjian was.
“Indeed, I’m the only one who can create such perfect original arts!”
Initially, Ruan Guangjian was even worried that his art style may seem awkward or would not match with the game. But now, it looked completely fine.
Not only were the cards fitting in well, it even added a unique feel to the game.
The beautiful cards along with the decent interface effects and passable music and sound effects gave Ruan Guangjian quite a decent playing experience!
Having played other mobile card games before, it didn’t take long for Ruan Guangjian to get the hang of it.
Or perhaps, it was because he was the one who had created the original art and he felt like its father that Ruan Guangjian was even more enamored towards the game.
After a few minutes, he entered the routine card drawing segment.
Most of the card games would introduce a segment as such so that they could entice the players to stay with a rare card.
Of course, in order to ensure that the game’s paywall would work, the card would normally be just a normal purple card. It was something that may seem decent for newcomers but in reality, it wouldn’t be useful and would be taken as trash in the later stages.
Ruan Guangjian was naturally clear about that point.
However, he was stunned after 10 consecutive draws.
He had actually drawn two orange cards?!
Ruan Guangjian had a clear understanding of the cards’ values in-game. After all, the requirement form had stated clearly that a portion of the warriors would be made into rare cards.
Right now, he had already drawn two warriors – Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang. These two were true blue rare warriors and in fact, the rarest in the game!
Ruan Guangjian was completely confounded.
His first reaction was that this game must still be in its testing stage. That must be why the draw chances were set wrongly and there was a high chance of drawing rare warriors.
However, it did not take long before the next most ridiculous thing came along.
To Ruan Guangjian’s shock, he found out that the game’s shop only had a single purchasable item – a permanent membership card!
Players who do not purchase the membership card could only have a 10 draw daily while gamers who did
could have two 10 draws.
Other than that, Ruan Guangjian found no other purchasable items nor were there any premium systems or the likes.
In other words, while the game contained in-game purchase elements, the most one could spend was just 30 yuan! They couldn’t even top up more into the game if they wanted to!
“This… could this be because the game is in a testing stage and that’s why the functions are incomplete?”
“But that’s not right. Isn’t this the version that had already gotten through ESRO’s vetting process?”
Ruan Guangjian felt that something was wrong.
If the creators wanted to update the game or fix any bugs, they would have to apply to ESRO for a new vetting process.
Besides, there was a limited number of times that one could apply for a vet monthly and they couldn’t repeat it endlessly so that ESRO’s staff would not have their time wasted.
Usually, it would be the actual version of the game that was submitted for the vetting process and there shouldn’t be fundamental issues as such!
After all, the game would be published on the official shop after it was approved so that gamers could see and purchase it.
Out of responsibility for the gamers, the creators should not be changing the contents of the game incessantly as well.
Ruan Guangjian was thoroughly stumped.
Since it wasn’t a lowly error, it must have been intended by the creator!
He had not thought that Ghost General would be a mobile card game with this much conscience!
Wouldn’t they be making terrible losses then?!?!
Chapter 22
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It did not take long for the other people in the dormitory to raise the same issues.
“Why is there only a single purchasable item in the shop?”
“You’re only allowed to top up 30 yuan?”
“Also, you’re only entitled to an additional 10 draw chances per day after purchasing it? That seems useless!”
“What about premium systems? Qute Three Kingdoms is already at eight tiers of it!”
Everyone turned to look at Ruan Guangjian.
However, he did not know what was going on as well!
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