Even though it wasn’t a complex story, the content was far from simple!
While the little girl was the only side character, as long as she was created carefully, she would definitely leave an everlasting impression for the gamers compared to a dozen useless calefares!
Huang Sibo took notes on his computer tirelessly.
When he looked at the file, he was shocked as well.
What a perfect plan it was!
This was the result of just a few mere hours of conceptualization on Bao Xu’s part?
It had not only solved the issue of the limited resources in the game, the story was logical, balanced, emotional and memorable!
Huang Sibo could not help but raise his thumbs up. “Brother Bao, you’re amazing!”
Bao Xu shook his head. “No, I merely completed the thesis assignment set by Boss Pei. He must have thought of this right from the start and was merely giving us a test to see if we could understand his thoughts.”
Chapter 44
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
That was not how Huang Sibo thought of things but after Bao Xu’s comment, he found himself agreeing to it.
Everything till that point seemed as though they fell into pieces perfectly – it was as though Pei Qian had planned for it intentionally!
He had set the condition that the game must have a story mode despite its genre and under that prerequisite, Bao Xu’s idea was the perfect solution!
Not only was it acceptable, it was the best fit for the situation!
Could it have been a coincidence?
Of course not! The reason why Boss Pei could have created two successful hits previously coupled with the fact that he had set those three conditions before the game’s development meant that he must have wanted things to steer in this direction to begin with!
Indeed, Boss Pei was truly a mysterious man who had everything under his control…
Huang Sibo could not help but feel shivers run down his spine – was this the world of the truly great designers?
“Hold on, there’s another problem,” Huang Sibo suddenly recalled. “How are you planning to resolve Boss Pei’s two other demands? One of it is to lower the difficulty level for newbies and the other one is to sell epic weapons where the permanent use price would be set at 888.”
Bao Xu was confident. “I’ve thought about those two points as well.”
“Lowering the difficulty level to make it suitable for newbies, that’s an issue with sensitivity. As long as we were to adjust the hitboxes of the players, trajectory speed of the bullets and the speed of zooming, that will do. We don’t have to worry about those, we can adjust it along the way.”
“As to why we’re doing that, I’m still unable to understand Boss Pei’s intention for now. However, since he was the one who made the demand, he can’t be wrong. Let’s just follow along.”
“As for the part about epic weapons, that’s actually part of Boss Pei’s lofty ambitions!”
“Initially, I could not understand it as well, thinking that it was to merely just sell expensive weapons.”
“However, I started asking myself why Boss Pei would come up with such a simple demand. There must be a deeper reason for us to dig out behind his words!”
“After a long time, I finally understood.”
“Epic weapons where the permanent usage price was set at 888… what about the price of the non permanent trial use period?”
“If we have epic weapons, does that mean we must have normal, elite and hero weapons too?”
“How should the gamers obtain all those different types of weapons? Through a permanent use pass as well? No, absolutely not!”
“Boss Pei only said that the epic weapons would cost 888 for a permanent use pass. That means that the other weapons are not for selling!”
“In other words, Boss Pei’s hinting to us that the in-game weapons must have different tiers such as normal, elite, hero and epic et cetera! All of those weapons will then be divided into two types, those that are available for permanent use and those for limited time use.”
“Other than the epic weapons where permanent usage cost 888, we can let the gamers obtain the other weapons through various methods!”
“For example, if gamers were to clear a certain stage within the story, we’ll give them one!”
“If they were to clock a number of games in the PvP mode, we’ll give them one!”
“If they were to log in for a certain number of days, we’ll give another one!”
“I think… that should be what Boss Pei’s referring to!”
Huang Sibo was enlightened. “Oh, I see! I was wondering why Boss Pei would come up with such a brainless demand. It’s actually because he has other intentions for it!”
Bao Xu then continued, “Besides, during the story conceptualization, I’ve got some leftovers that we can make use of as special gameplay components.”
“For example, during my initial consideration, the game would consist of many evolving zombies. We can come up with a biochemical mode!”
“Also, some of the employed mercenaries in the game were modified by the evil corporation to be half invisible apparitions. We can then come up with an apparition mode!”
“Coupled with our initial deathmatch, co-op and bomb diffuse modes, the game will contain many different modes!”
“Besides, all these modes will not require much art resources. Most importantly, all of them are within the budget for the programming and creating them won’t delay our schedule by much as well. We can still make it on time!”
Huang Sibo’s hand was typing furiously as he recorded all these mind-blowing ideas.
Perfect, it was way too perfect!
When he had just received the assignment from Boss Pei, Huang Sibo was befuddled and did not know how he should proceed.
It was especially the case after he heard the three demands that Boss Pei gave them.
But with Bao Xu’s explanation, everything became clear as day!
Boss Pei was not trying to make things difficult for them – he was hinting to them indirectly!
Suddenly, Huang Sibo was extremely touched.
Clearly, Bao Xu knew that Huang Sibo and Bao Xu were limited in their capabilities – it was easy to steer off track creating a game in a field they had no experience in.
Once the game’s direction went off course, it would be akin to a death sentence and they would just stray further off the more they invested.
Therefore, Boss Pei was actually trying to fix the direction of the game through the three demands!
“I see… Boss Pei was actually concerned about our feelings…”
“He did not want to take complete charge of the project because he knows that it wouldn’t help with our growth.”
“He chose to hint to us in such a subtle way so that we’ll be able to make use of our brains to go ahead with the design process and create an exceptional game…”
“Boss Pei… he’s truly well intentioned…”
Huang Sibo’s eyes were brimming with tears.
He was determined to write a proper design draft so that they could create this game perfectly and not let Boss Pei down!
…
…
November 14th, Wednesday’s afternoon.
Pei Qian had lessons for the past two days and had not appeared at the office.
It was also because they were mainly waiting for the design team to come up with the draft. Before that, not much work could be done.
Since Pei Qian’s presence at the office wouldn’t amount to any productivity and might even cause the other employees to skive off, he decided against returning.
Today’s lesson was by that ‘I’m not taking attendance, I merely want to get to know everyone’ male teacher. Pei Qian could recall it clearly because he fell into the trap of trusting this man.
Therefore, he must not commit the same mistake this time round!
But to be honest, t
he lesson was truly boring…
Pei Qian yawned as he whisked out his phone to check how long more the lesson lasted.
However, he found out that Huang Sibo had pinged him in the company’s group chat.
“Boss Pei, the design draft’s almost done. Do you want to take a look and make sure we’re heading in the right direction?”
He had attached a document as well.
“Two days. Is this considered fast or slow? Pretty fast, right? Forget it, let’s take a look first.”
Pei Qian had not much experience as to how fast a design draft should be produced. The only thing he knew was that based on this speed, it wouldn’t be an issue having it completed by the end of the week.
This was a new employee after all and there was no reason for him to skive off with the newfound enthusiasm for work.
‘Yes, I truly hope that you guys can understand as soon as possible that it’s fine to skive off…’
Pei Qian then opened the file.
“My eyes…”
Pei Qian had not written nor seen a design draft before – this was his first time.
His first thoughts were… dizzying!
There was too much content!
This was a massive design draft where every single turn was by a couple of pages with over hundreds of thousands of words and lines of content written all over!
Every single line was possibly important and not a single word could be overlooked.
Not just that, Huang Sibo had mentioned that this was a first draft; that meant to say that it wasn’t modified yet.
Some parts were overly verbose while others were overly simplistic – all of them would require fixing in the future.
Huang Sibo’s consideration was to have Pei Qian look through the document to ensure that there is nothing wrong with the general direction they were headed for before making further amendments.
Otherwise, if they were to discover that there’s an issue with the course of direction post amendment, it would be a waste of time to do everything from scratch.
In the end, Pei Qian was stumped.
There were already a lot of messy details to begin with, and he had to look through everything on the small screen of his phone…
He was even having suicidal thoughts.
The only thing he could do was to look through everything quickly and roughly.
He wanted to check if Huang Sibo had fulfilled his three demands!
As though Huang Sibo knew what Pei Qian wanted, he had even outlined those portions specifically so that Pei Qian could find them with ease.
First, story mode. Yes, it was present and there were around four hours of it planned – that was long.
Second, lowered difficulty level. Yes, it was present too.
Third, epic weapons. They had followed Pei Qian’s fixed price demands of 888 for permanent use.
“Not bad! They’ve fulfilled my demands!”
Pei Qian was delighted.
He replied immediately, “Not bad. Let’s continue in this direction.”
Chapter 45
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
When he saw Boss Pei’s reply, Huang Sibo was elated.
Indeed, their work was recognized by Boss Pei!
That meant that the direction they had decided on was the one that Boss Pei had wanted – Boss Pei was truly farsighted in his ambitions!
Once again, Pei Qian’s image was elevated in the eyes of Huang Sibo.
“Boss Pei, there’s another problem – the name of the game.”
“Bao Xu wants to name it Ocean Stronghold. I think the name sounds a little strange and gaudy but I’m helpless with names and can’t come up with anything good… do you want to suggest anything instead, Boss Pei?”
‘Ocean Stronghold?’
‘Why does that name sound so familiar?’
Pei Qian suddenly recalled. “That’s right! That name sounds like the title of a movie that had failed 1 in my previous life!”
He was sold right away. “Ocean Stronghold is good! Let’s decide on that!”
“Huh? Are you not going to reconsider it, Boss Pei? We’ve still got time to settle on a final name.”
“It’s fine! Ocean Stronghold sounds good! I love it!”
“Sure thing, Boss Pei. I’ll continue with the design draft then,” Huang Sibo could only accept it.
Pei Qian was delighted.
‘Was the name Ocean Stronghold not good? It was awesome!’
‘It sounds absolutely auspicious!’
‘A sure sign that we’ll lose money!’
‘These guys don’t know what it’s like for a 300 million investment to only reap in 100 million in the box office. That’s what we call a super loss!’
‘Since that movie can make such a huge loss, my game can also lose a couple of millions with a similar name, right?’
‘Yes! What a perfect name for our game!’
Pei Qian was thoroughly satisfied with that name.
…
Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd., at night.
Everyone from the design team was still hard at work.
Huang Sibo and Bao Xu had been doing overtime for the past two days so that they could rush out the design draft as quickly as possible for the game to enter development phase officially.
Everyone else on the design team was assigned other tasks.
Once the draft was done, every single function would have to be dissected into details and that would be completed by the other members of the design team before eventually concluded by Huang Sibo.
That included the model of the game, weaponry and art resources requirements – all of those required cleaning up.
There were many things to handle.
However, Huang Sibo did not request for the others to stay overtime. Instead, they chose to do it on their own accord and Huang Sibo could not even persuade them to leave!
Since he had no choice, he could only let them be.
Their working attitudes were similar to Huang Sibo’s.
All of them were initially bottom feeders at their respective companies, dealing with repetitive work that required no technical skills and were constantly bullied as well.
However, things were different after they arrived at Tengda.
All of them were in charge of a function to engage in independent designs.
The working environment here was relaxed with an understanding boss and friendly colleagues where everyone fought towards a common goal.
Most importantly, the game that they were creating wasn’t one that was going to exploit money through cheap paywalls, it was something that was going to reinvent the current gameplays!
All of these various factors attributed to their deep passion for their job and thus, they were naturally willing to stay for overtime.
Since he had no choice, he could only let them be.
In any case, their overtime would only last a week. Once the design draft was done and the workload was decreased, things should be fine.
Bao Xu spent the period of time rapidly trying out various FPS games as well, especially the massive overseas productions.
Producing a good story for Ocean Stronghold was no easy task.
To engage the gamers emotionally while immersing them in the story through a single little mute girl would require immaculate design.
“Brother Huang, there’s a story portion that I think is rather decent. I’ll record it and send it to you to see if it could be used,” Bao Xu said.
“Alright, Brother Bao. Received.”
Huang Sibo opened the video that Bao Xu sent and checked through the first person perspective of the plot.
Both he and Bao Xu had spent much effort into creating the story. After all, this was one of the highlights of the game and they had to make it spectacular.
The video that Bao Xu had sent over was indeed great. After all, it was a product from a massive overseas game and the plot was extremely immersive suc
h that Huang Sibo was thoroughly engrossed.
He had not noticed a certain large face passing by the entrance.
…
…
Knock, knock!
Pei Qian’s rented apartment rang with knocking sounds.
“Oh? It’s already so late.”
Pei Qian checked the time – it was around 8pm at night.
The only two people who knew about this place were Assistant Xin and Ma Yang. The former should not disturb him at this timing and hence it could only be the latter.
But, what was he here for?
Pei Qian opened the door and indeed he was greeted by Ma Yang’s large face.
“Brother Qian! I’ve discovered something! Huang Sibo and the others are sneakily doing overtime! They’re using the company’s computers!” Ma Yang’s declaration was as though he had discovered a catastrophic secret.
Pei Qian’s face could not help but turn black.
Ma Yang’s emphasis was on them using the company’s computers while Pei Qian’s emphasis was on overtime.
What were they thinking to do overtime?
What was wrong with Huang Sibo – bad habits are hard to kick!
Wasn’t I chasing everyone home just a week ago? Why are you guys still doing overtime despite my reminders not to?!
Taking the words of the boss so lightly? Incredulous!
“What is Huang Sibo overtiming for? The draft? The design?” Pei Qian was displeased.
“Err…” Ma Yang tried recalling what he saw. “Playing games.”
Pei Qian was stunned.
Playing games?
Suddenly, his expression lightened.
He knew that Bao Xu would stay on after work in the company to play games – that was a privilege Pei Qian had accorded to him.
But why was Huang Sibo doing the same as well? Did he learn from Bao Xu?
The only thing Pei Qian did not allow was for the employees to stay overtime to do work. But if they were doing so to play games, that would be fine.
At that thought, Pei Qian’s face was much cheerier. “Are you sure you saw right? Huang Sibo was playing games?”
Ma Yang nodded. “That’s right! Thats why I’m reporting it to you? Does that count as them wasting company resources? Tomorrow, do you want to reprimand them in the office?”
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