diskusbooks #221 - The game development process is too abstract (2 in 1 order required)
#221 - The game development process is too abstract (2 in 1 order required)
The sky was filled with mist.
Suddenly, a torrential downpour appeared on the horizon, and the wild storm caused the octopus warrior's tentacles to dance and twist in the wind.
However, having finally arrived here after countless hardships, the warrior would never give up easily.
His body writhed, deftly dodging various divine punishments from the heavens.
The roar of Gaia, the Earth Goddess, echoed from the horizon, but the warrior paid it no heed; at this moment, all he saw was the Olympus Mountains.
The spider clan, the fish-people, and the rat-people warriors had already reached the summit; he absolutely could not disgrace the deep-sea clan.
Although Gaia had built thick fortresses around the mountains due to repeated violations of the sacred mountain and the Temple of Gaia, this was no obstacle for the warrior.
His tentacles gradually climbed onto the fortress's thick walls, then forcefully bound and wrapped around them.
Rumble! Rumble!
The fortress walls quickly crumbled.
The octopus warrior's torso quickly wrapped around and climbed up the mountainside.
The geology of the sacred mountain was too soft and smooth, and the Earth Goddess's divine punishment caused the ground to constantly shake.
To firmly grip the ground, the warrior used the suction cups on his arms.
Chu~
When the suction cups adhered to the ground, the entire earth trembled even more violently.
From the distant twilight horizon, the roar of the Gaia God came!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Giant rocks constantly fell from the sky as divine punishment, but to avoid falling from the mountainside of the sacred mountain, the warrior instead sucked onto the ground even harder.
Finally, after countless hardships, the warrior destroyed the temple on the summit and found Gaia's secret treasure.
The deep-sea clan warrior's heart was filled with emotion at the sight of the secret treasure.
To seize the secret treasure as quickly as possible, he used the largest suction cup on his arm to suck it towards him.
Bo~ Chu!
At the moment of sucking the secret treasure—
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The sacred mountain erupted with an unprecedented earthquake, and in the distance, the massive body of the Gaia God roared and fell beyond the horizon...
...
After an unknown amount of time, Wang Su, who had just finished this nightmare, woke up from her chair in the restaurant.
She looked around and found that Liu Mengyuan and the other employees of Peach Blossom Village had already returned; only the bodyguard sisters and Xia Shangyu were by her side.
"Sister Su, it's okay, we've already grilled and eaten the whole box of octopuses to avenge you."
The bodyguard sisters licked their lips with lingering enjoyment.
Wang Su looked down at her collar, which was now wet with octopus slime.
Touching the flush on her face that had not yet faded, she sighed.
After experiencing four Waterloo encounters, she had now completely given up on using this method to fool Liu Mengyuan.
"How's your side? Have you asked Mr. Lu Yu's thoughts?"
"No, I didn't have time."
Xia Shangyu smiled awkwardly; she didn't say that the reason Wang Su was in such an embarrassing situation was all because of a seemingly unintentional mistake by Lu Yu.
Wang Su sighed and gently stroked the wet clothes in front of her.
In fact, she now realized that using deception and trickery could not solve any problems.
Even if she could scare Liu Mengyuan away with intimidation now, as long as the love connection was not severed, then these two young people would still be like dry firewood meeting a raging fire.
In a sense, her every outcome was probably a punishment in the dark for her unjust actions.
"I'm taking a flight back to Shenzhen tomorrow to personally apologize to the chairman."
"You're giving up?" Xia Shangyu raised her eyebrows.
"Yes," Wang Su's voice was firm.
"I'll... take the same flight back with you tomorrow."
This meal was not in vain for Xia Shangyu; through her conversation with Lu Yu, Xia Shangyu had also strengthened her resolve.
...
At the same time, the hotel where the Peach Blossom Village employees were staying.
Tonight was the last night of this month-long team-building trip.
The employees were happily sharing their travel experiences in the company's large group chat.
Whether it was the primeval forests of Xishuangbanna, the feasts in the villages, or the upcoming trips to Dali, Lijiang, and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, all had left unforgettable travel imprints in their hearts.
At this time, the discussion was particularly lively in the group for the Transcendent Moe Girl project team.
Script Planner Xu Qin:
"When I was at the dinner party tonight, I heard from many company seniors that our CEO Lu, as an old layered cake, especially likes to give game development hints during the enjoyment process.
Before, we had already added many new elements to the game through the fight with elephants in the rainforest.
But after that, all we played was visiting ancient cities and snow mountains, which can be said to have nothing to do with saving the world across time and space; what are we going to do about this?"
"..."
The other developers in the group were also silent.
This was not the first time this matter had stumped them.
It should be said that the entire development process of this game was quite abstract.
They were either doing all kinds of chuunibyou and embarrassing things to the extreme within the company, or they were brainstorming recklessly while eating, drinking, and playing outside.
Especially Miss Wan Xiaotong, it seemed that no matter how unconventional her brainstorming was, CEO Lu would support her unconditionally.
At this time, Wan Xiaotong, who had been silently observing everyone's discussion, once again began to say some chuunibyou lines in the group that no one could understand.
Official translator Xu Qin quickly translated Wan Xiaotong's words into plain language and displayed them in the chat group:
First of all, the 《Transcendent Moe Girl Appraisal Guide》 is a fictional fantasy world with a time-travel theme.
Players will travel through three time anchors: "Ancient", "Modern", and "Future".
The "Modern" time anchor takes place on the Lanya Continent, a sword-and-magic world similar to a medieval setting.
In the center of this continent, the Cecil Kingdom regularly organizes foreign food events, inviting moe girl partners to taste food from different worlds.
In short, it is a feast in the game.
These foods also have their own characteristics.
For example, stir-fried dragon eggs with tomatoes, steamed slime stew with pumpkin soup, braised grilled goblins, and medium-rare grilled minotaurs, etc.
Players can not only eat these delicacies, but also participate in gardening, farming, and hunting, creating their own exclusive dishes, and even the recipe will be named after the player who invented the dish.
This food festival can also be used as a permanent event in the game.
In the middle and late stages of the game story, travelers from other time and space will also participate in this event. Creatures from different time and space and cultural backgrounds will have the honor of being stewed in the same pot by the players...
After listening to Xu Qin's endless explanation of Wan Xiaotong's brainstorming, everyone in the project team was amazed.
Yao Jun smiled: "No wonder I saw Miss Wan Xiaotong always writing something casually in a notebook when we were eating at the village feast?"
Du Biao, the server programmer of the project team, complained again:
"Ah, this gameplay sounds even more complicated than 《Feast Simulator》, which involves many player-defined elements. The producer is brainstorming, and the programmers are going bald."
Liu Mengyuan:
"The game 《Transcendent Moe Girl》, from the very beginning of the project, focused on randomness.
Since moe girls and weapons are randomly generated in this world, it doesn't matter if some recipes are randomly generated."
Chu Xiong: "After Zhang Fan and I return to the company, we will find a way to improve the Peach Blossom Kaiwu engine. After 《Feast Simulator》 became popular, many small and medium-sized developers are testing our game engine, so our technical team has also obtained a lot of user feedback data."
...
Seeing everyone discussing enthusiastically, Xu Qin said anxiously:
"Everyone, don't worry, Miss Xiaotong has other ideas."
With that, she continued to translate Wan Xiaotong's words in the group:
"In the game's plot, located at the "Ancient" anchor point, is the old city of the lost ancient kingdom of "Griffin".
Therefore, in the game's plot, we can design the "Ancient City Creed" series of tasks.
After all, we are an action game, players need to lead moe girl partners to climb the ancient city building, find a dedicated bird's-eye view point, and overlook the panoramic view.
After that, you can quickly move between the various bird's-eye view points in the city.
Of course, in the process of completing this task, the role of the moe girl will also be reflected, and the moe girls need to cooperate with each other.
In addition, there can also be a series of witch prophecy tasks.
In the ancient city in the game, there is the "Rope Witch" time-space shrine passed down from generation to generation.
Players can find the mysterious "Witch" in the Witch Alley to perform prophecy tasks and obtain clues about future tasks and hidden teleportation points.
This process is also accompanied by many puzzle elements.
As for the third epic mission, it is the "Acting City Lord" series of missions.
In the game's story background, the ancient city of Griffin was destroyed due to a prolonged war with the monster tribe.
The latest novel is first published on 6|9|书|吧|
The player will serve as the acting city lord, travel through time and space, bring various ancient decorative items from the time points of various civilizations, add color to the ancient city, rejuvenate the second spring, and increase the city's prosperity.
As the prosperity of the ancient city recovers, many legendary ancient moe girls will appear.
Even mythological moe girls such as "Nuwa", "Eve", and "Himiko" will appear.
...
Chu Xiong sent a sweating expression in the group:
"Listening to Miss Wan, she seems to want to add the games 《Assassin's Creed》 and 《Cities: Skylines》 to our action game?"
"It's an open-world action game."
Liu Mengyuan added,
"I personally support Miss Wan's ideas. After all, this game is Peach Blossom Village's next-generation flagship, and it is a mission to face off against Mileyou at the Sky Dignity Cup."
Ye Kun, the level planner of the project team, said:
"I understand your original intention to make this game well, but the Sky Dignity Cup is just around the corner. If the content of these designs is to be fully restored to the game, the cost and construction period may not be a small amount."
Liu Mengyuan:
"This is not a problem. Has everyone forgotten? CEO Lu said from the very beginning of the project that he would not consider costs and investment. How much budget the company has, how much budget will be spent.
In short, it is all-in, all-in!
Based on the company's cost reduction and efficiency enhancement system, if everyone is a little struggling to do it, we will not hesitate to expand."
With Liu Mengyuan giving everyone this reassurance, no one in the group objected anymore.
...
Xu Qin interjected at this time:
"Um, I'm sorry to interrupt, Miss Wan still has the brainstorming of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain trip to say."
Then, she began to continue explaining Wan Xiaotong's design:
《Snow Mountain Adventure Mission》
Players can accept the "Snow Mountain Adventure Mission", challenge different areas of the snow mountain at the ancient anchor point, unlock hidden adventure stories and obtain special equipment.
Unfold the "Treasure Hunt" mission in the river valley at the foot of the snow mountain and solve the mystery of the ancient treasure.
《Ice Skate Racing》
Players and moe girl partners participate in exciting snow skateboard races, and players control boats to traverse the cold river while avoiding obstacles and monster attacks, improving the team's sprint skills.
《River Valley Camping Survival Challenge》
Players need to experience camping life in the river valley, respond to various natural conditions, and improve the team's survival skills.
Cross the single-plank bridge on the snow mountain peak while performing balance and action challenges to improve the team's balance skills.
Participate in fierce snowball fights to exercise the team's reaction speed and combat skills.
...
After listening to Wan Xiaotong's brainstorming, everyone was completely convinced.
This is also stuffing 《Uncharted》 and 《Stardew Valley》 in it.
Undoubtedly, the development cost has soared to an order of magnitude.
But since the entire company, from management to producers, has no objections, what can these grassroots employees say?
Sacrifice your life to accompany the gentleman!
Even, excitement flowed in their eyes, because they had never done this level of flagship project in their careers.
Personally participating in the production of such a masterpiece is exciting enough!
Li Hongmei watched the entire conversation above and quietly squeezed a sweat in her heart.
I always feel that the entire project team is like they've been injected with chicken blood. I hope the company doesn't go all the way on the road to losing control.
...
Next Monday, the headquarters building of Liu's Group, the chairman's office.
Liu Lan sat at her desk as usual,
But at this time, her charming face was full of shock and disbelief.
Because at this time, in front of her, was a resignation letter.
The signatory of the resignation letter was Xia Shangyu.
"What do you mean? A prank?"
Liu Lan was silent for a long time and squeezed out these words from between her teeth.
It's almost the twelfth lunar month, and there are still several months before April Fool's Day. What international joke is her best friend playing with her.
Honestly, Liu Lan felt a little dissatisfied in her heart. She still had a lot of serious things to deal with and had no time to play with this girl.
"Sister Liu, I'm serious."
Xia Shangyu looked directly into Liu Lan's beautiful eyes with a serious expression.
"I want to officially resign from the position of the group's chief headhunter and business intelligence director. Thank you very much, sister, for taking care of me for so many years. Even if I resign from Liu's Group, it will not affect the relationship between our sisters."
Liu Lan was stunned for a good while before realizing that Xia Shangyu wasn't joking.
Xia Shangyu sighed and continued, "Also, I'm very sorry, Sister Liu, about the poaching of Taoyuan Village employees. I've failed to meet your expectations. This past month, I haven't poached a single employee, so in a sense, I'm resigning to take responsibility."
She gave a self-deprecating smile.
Liu Lan felt a faint sense of unease. Her good sister had always been quite loyal to the group over the years, charging into battle for the group and making great contributions.
It wasn't as if larger companies hadn't tried to recruit her, but she had always insisted on staying at Liu's Group.
In her own words, she had gotten used to staying in one place for too long and didn't like moving around.
Who exactly, and with what tempting conditions, had forced Xia Shangyu to resign?
"Judging by your confident tone, it seems you've already found a new home. Care to tell me about it?" Liu Lan said with a cold smile.
Xia Shangyu's eyes showed a hint of guilt, and she didn't dare to look Liu Lan directly in the eyes.
It was this insignificant detail that immediately shocked Liu Lan.
Could it be…
Soon, Xia Shangyu's words confirmed her guess.
"I'm sorry, Sister Liu, I've accepted President Lu's offer and will soon be joining Taoyuan Village."