He swallowed his words back.
‘You’re not even giving us a chance to speak!’
Pei Qian circled around everyone.
“Alright, the design team will have a week to come up with the draft. Bao Xu, you’ll be in charge of the creativity aspect and the general picture of things. Huang Sibo, form the design team and start to have meetings to streamline the draft while assigning the tasks.”
“Ma Yang, your job now is to learn more from the rest of them and try to help best as you can.”
“Inform me right away if you encounter any issues, especially if it pertains to money! Don’t be shy!”
“Meeting’s over!”
Pei Qian felt relaxed the moment he was done with the meeting.
Was that how it felt to be a boss?
Handing out all his tasks for his underlings without having to worry about anything? Was that how awesome it was supposed to feel?
But of course, for most bosses, even if they were to become overseers, they would still ask around and try to keep up with the progress of work.
However, Pei Qian was going to let go as much as he possibly could without asking more at all!
He wasn’t concerned as to how the end product would be like!
Naturally, he would have to drag out some of the critical phases as well, such as when they should produce the design draft, the first demo prototype and the deadline for vetting selection et cetera.
It was fine if the game was substandard as long as it could get through the vetting process and they had not wasted their time. Otherwise, the system would deem it as a violation.
Pei Qian’s goal was to allow this group of people under him to do and spend as they wished as long as the game was produced!
Chapter 42
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Everyone left the meeting room one after another.
Huang Sibo held Bao Xu back.
“Brother Bao, I’ll have to trouble you to hurry with the concept then. We’ll need at least 5 days to come up with the design draft. It’ll be best if you have a rough idea by tomorrow so that we can communicate as early as possible.”
Huang Sibo was extremely polite.
That was because he did not know Bao Xu’s background and his opinion of the latter was merely based on a few things.
First, he seemed old with a receding hairline.
Second, he was an elite gamer and he had special overtime privileges as well as Boss Pei’s trust.
Third, he was always silent as though he was in deep thoughts.
Through those observations, Huang Sibo gathered that Huang Sibo must be a senior.
Bao Xu nodded his head. “Alright, Brother Huang.”
Bao Xu did not know of Huang Sibo’s background as well. However, as a year one undergraduate, he garnered that Huang Sibo must be a senior since the latter had been in the field since graduation.
Both parties thought that the other was using ‘brother’ as a form of pleasantry and neither thought too much into it.
Who would have thought that the other was actually truly sincere?
Huang Sibo returned to his work desk, feeling both happy and uneasy.
He was happy because he had discovered this place where the boss and colleagues were so friendly and polite. Compared to the strict, oppressive environment of his previous company, this was entirely different.
He was uneasy because he was afraid he might be a burden due to his lack of capabilities.
Immediately, he looked through all the different design drafts he had collected previously to make a last minute attempt at revision.
That way, he would be able to do up the design draft once Bao Xu has a concept.
As for Bao Xu, he had already swiftly entered the conceptualization phase.
All his memories of various FPS games gushed into his mind, providing inspiration.
Making the game easy for newbies? That wasn’t difficult and could be managed with some simple adjustments.
For example, he could adjust the character hitboxes – particularly at the head area – so that new gamers would have a higher headshot rate.
Or perhaps, he could hasten the zoom and firing speed of sniper rifles. That way, newbies would be able to master sniping in the fastest possible time.
Even though Bao Xu wasn’t so well versed in FPS games that he could be considered a professional gamer, he was definitely an expert amongst the laymen.
Based on his own hand sensitivity, he could provide the necessary adjustments with ease.
As for the paywall weapons, there wasn’t any big issue about it as well – all they had to do was to set the price higher.
The only difficulty for Bao Xu lies in Pei Qian’s first demand for the story mode!
He fell into deep thoughts.
To be frank, that was something that he could not understand at all.
That was because most of the trending domestic FPS games did not have any story mode at all. Counter Strike did not have it as well – all they had to do was to fight one another.
Although it was true that some massive overseas standalone FPS games had a story mode, they were large companies compared to Tengda!
With a 30 men team, trying to produce a story mode in the same way as massive overseas FPS games could be considered to be overestimating their own strength.
Even though Bao Xu had just entered the games industry, he was quite clear about these things.
He had no choice but to think about it the other way round.
For a company with only 30 employees, it was clear that they would not be able to create a story mode in the same way as massive overseas FPS games.
‘If a layman such as himself knew about it, would their brilliant Boss Pei not?’
‘He must know about it as well!’
‘Since he knows, why would he set such a strict requirement then?’
‘This is a test and a hint as well!’
‘Boss Pei’s testing our capabilities and hinting to us at the same time that we must not do it in the same way as those massive overseas FPS games!’
‘If so, how should we proceed…?’
Bao Xu fell into deep thoughts.
…
5pm in the afternoon.
Pei Qian was slipping away joyfully.
The feeling of being able to knock off at such a timing was awesome!
Of course, as the boss, Pei Qian could not skip work entirely.
But if he could, he would not have enjoyed the type of delight he felt waiting for work to end as well as the exhilaration when it finally did.
It was just as a rich second-generation heir landlord who owned over 30 apartments but yet insisted on collecting rent daily had once said, “Men must not be lazy, or they’ll turn useless.”
That was Pei Qian’s exact thoughts as well. Even though the system had given him a special privilege of having a carefree life as long as he were to lose some money casually, he must not cause himself to turn useless due to over immersion in his happiness.
The feeling of having to study only when he felt like it and knocking off right on the dot was the driving motivation to keep him fighting on and not turn useless.
The previous week, Pei Qian had to chase everyone to knock off at 5pm, especially those who were used to overtime such as Huang Sibo.
That was called correcting the wrong habits of employees!
But of course, Bao Xu was an exception. By permitting him to play games in the company, Pei Qian could spend more on the electricity bill as well.
After an entire week of effort, Pei Qian felt that most of the employees have already gotten rid of their bad habits.
After all, who would want to do overtime for no reason?
All of them had cultivated the same habit as Pei Qian of knocking off on the dot and that pleased him.
…
Huang Sibo was initially packing his desk, but he sat down right away when he saw Pei Qian leave.<
br />
He decided that he had to take the risk!
He was going to ignore Boss Pei’s warning of deducting his salary and stay back for overtime!
This overtime was completely voluntary.
That was because Huang Sibo felt extremely uneasy – he felt that he wasn’t capable enough of taking on the role of being a chief planner. That was why he wanted to stay back to revise more and prepare himself thoroughly so that he wouldn’t be a burden!
As for the other employees, most of them had knocked off on the dot.
After all, they had nothing much to do as of now – everyone was waiting expectantly for Bao Xu’s concept draft.
Huang Sibo contemplated how he should explain himself should Boss Pei return to the office suddenly.
However, it did not take long for him to realize that his worries were unfounded. Boss Pei was not someone with so much free time that he would come back to check if anyone was doing overtime.
Before long, Huang Sibo and Bao Xu were the only ones left in the massive office space.
Bao Xu took out a huge pack of chips from the snacks area and got himself a cup of coffee from the pantry, navigating the place with experience.
All of those were provided by the company without limits.
At the start, Bao Xu was so pleasantly surprised with that fact that he drank coffee and soft drinks as a replacement for water. However, after he did so for some time, he realized that it was nothing much and he went back to a normal intake level.
Even though he was slightly surprised when he saw that Huang Sibo had not left as well, he did not say anything much, merely returning to his desk to draw on a blank piece of paper.
…
8pm at night.
Bao Xu got up and walked to Huang Sibo, holding a piece of paper that looked as though it was a talisman that was filled with all sorts of scribbles and symbols.
“Brother Huang, I’m almost done,” Bao Xu said.
Huang Sibo nodded furiously. “Please elaborate, Brother Bao.”
Bao Xu pulled a chair over and started explaining his general thoughts to Huang Sibo.
“Of Boss Pei’s three demands, two of them are easy. The difficulty lies in the story mode.”
“I think that we’ll definitely not be able to match up to the story mode of those massive overseas FPS games, be it in terms of characters, actions or settings. There’s no way we can compete with them.”
Huang Sibo nodded. “Right, that’s what I thought too.”
Chapter 43
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Therefore, I think that this is a test for us by Boss Pei. A thesis assignment.’
“Boss Pei’s specialty is in low risk high reward gambles.”
“That was the case for both The Lonely Desert Road and Ghost General!”
“Therefore, we have to try producing the best result using the least resources as well!”
“I’ve thought about it from a few different aspects. Characters, setting and cutscenes… we have to save as much as we can. Otherwise, the produced story mode is going to be meaningless. We have to employ limited resources where they are needed most!”
Bao Xu was confident.
Huang Sibo continued nodding, expressing his agreement.
Bao Xu then continued, “Actually, once we’re decided that we have to save resources as much as possible, we only have a few options left to play with.”
“First, character design. The game will employ a first person point of view. That way, we’ll be able to save on creating the character models and make do with just showing their arms and legs.”
“We can go with a zombie theme as the genre where there are two types of enemies in the game, zombies and mercenaries. We can make use of universal templates and just modify them to ensure that there’s a huge variety of creatures.”
Huang Sibo nodded his head. “Yes, understood. That’s a good idea. However, if there’s only zombies and mercenaries, I don’t think there’ll be much of a story? We still need side characters too.”
“I’ve already thought about that. We just need one — a little girl.”
Bao Xu looked at the talisman like paper on his hands. “In order to save on resources, I’m intending to set it such that the little girl will be a mute. That way, we can save on the dialogue and voiceover cost. The entire game’s sound will merely require some of the common fighting sound effects.”
Huang Sibo was stunned. “Huh? The only side character is someone who can’t speak? How are we going to develop the story that way?”
Through Huang Sibo’s understanding, a side character’s dialogue is a critical element of displaying drama and character traits.
If they only had a single side character to begin with and they were to make her mute without any dialogue, wouldn’t the entire game turn into a silent one?
Bao Xu thought about it. “Yes… there’s no choice. This is the result of compromising. If we allow the little girl to speak, we’ll have to look for professionals to voice act. Not just that, we’ll have to create an accent based on her character background as well and that’ll be a lot of work.”
“Besides, I think that the story won’t be affected even if the girl can’t speak. We can use other ways to define her.”
“For example, through her actions, expression and motions.”
“If it’s a mute character, a little girl is the best way to go about it.”
“There are two reasons for the girl to exist.”
“First, she’s an emotional support. The entire game revolves around zombies and mercenaries. To the gamers, she will be like a beacon of light within the darkness and she can help to balance their emotions so that it won’t be merely filled with ratatatat sounds of guns.”
“Second, she can take part in some puzzle solving portions of the game. Many massive overseas standalone games deploy similar tactics to allow gamers to solve puzzles with in-game NPCs. We can create a scenario such as the main door being locked and the only other exit is a narrow ventilation tunnel at the side where the little girl will have to climb through to help the main character open the door.”
“That way, be it in terms of emotional support or practicality, the little girl will be extremely important to the gamers.”
Huang Sibo nodded. “Yes, that sounds great! However, I’ve got another question. What about the story background? Is it a doomsday theme? The world’s theme must be able to fit in zombies, the little girl and mercenaries and it has to be logical without feeling forced.”
Bao Xu underlined something on the talisman paper. “We’re now at the second point, setting.”
“There’s a prerequisite that the setting must be one that can be easily replicated. Say, if we have to create three hours worth of a story experience, most overseas standalone games would provide around four completely different settings with varying styles. That’s too difficult for us to accomplish.”
“What I’m thinking is for the story to take place in a crucial stronghold in the middle of the ocean where some evil corporation is conducting virus testing. Their goal is to be able to modify mercenaries into tireless warriors through their experiments.”
“That way, the main character’s story goal would be to kill his way out of the stronghold from the bottom level all the way to the top before escaping. That way, the only type of style we need to provide for the gamers would be one that’s within a secret base.”
“We can differentiate the levels with many ways such as changing the monsters or doing minor adjustments to the settings as long as it’s in the style of a secret base. With just some slight modifications, we can easily create differentiating settings.”
“For example, some of the settings could be polluted by the virus where the walls and floors are rusted or filled with blood and flesh. We could leave some of them in their original states, albeit disordered. Some of the settings will have massive damage as the mercenaries make use of flamethrowers to cle
ar the corpses…”
“With a single setting, we can create different scenarios and that will easily fulfill the setting requirement for the game.”
Huang Sibo rubbed his chin. “Yes, that does sound good! However, if this evil corporation has a base in the middle of the ocean, why would there be a little girl?”
“That’s easy,” Bao Xu continued, “The girl carries some sort of a special antibody and that’s why she was captured by the corporation for experimentation. Through the process of it, she lost her ability to speak as well.”
“That’s brilliant!”
Huang Sibo’s eyes flashed. “Besides, we can even extend that setting. I think we can make it so that the little girl’s blood can be used to help the main character heal. For example, if the player were to be accidentally caught or bitten by the zombies, the little girl would use a syringe to draw her own blood to heal the main character.”
“That’s a great idea!” Bao Xu thought that it was a smart suggestion as well. “That way, the little girl will be even more important to the gamers! Each time she draws her blood, that will deepen the bond between the gamers and the little girl. Following which, she will turn weaker and move slower the more blood she draws. In order to not let the little girl suffer, the gamers will have to improve on their own skills to deal with the enemies more efficiently. That will help them immerse deeper into the game too!”
With that, much of the content was swiftly settled through their brainstorming session.
The game would take place on a secret stronghold in the middle of the ocean and the main character was a special forces soldier of the east who had infiltrated into the base for investigation. However, the virus breakout happened right when he was there.
To escape, he will have to kill his way up to the highest level of the stronghold while acquiring weapons from his enemies and defeating endless waves of zombies and mercenaries.
In the midst of escaping, the main character would come across a little girl who was mute and she would end up becoming his reason to get out of the place alive.
The entire story would revolve around this main character and the little girl.
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