I just want players to save money, but I was made the richest man - Chapter 200

c194 It’s so generous! What is an open world?

When I first heard about it, Mr. Ke said it would take two months to complete.

All top players at Ready Player One, including Oasis, agreed that this might indeed be a small game.

It may be the same as “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds”.

Perhaps it is even less difficult to make than “BioShock”.

This idea lasted until they got the copy of the plan.

Everyone has a thick design concept draft with nearly a thousand pages.

Everyone is stupid!

What the hell!

Are you telling me this is a mini game? ? ?

No, Mr. Ke…

Do you have some misunderstanding about mini games, or do we have some misunderstandings about mini games…

Among them, the one in the art department was the most exaggerated. Three large piles of concept design sketches were piled on the table, almost taller than Keyu himself.

“What a cheating girl, this is…” Keyu opened his mouth in shock.

He reached out and flipped through the most detailed large concept draft among the first drafts of the design.

Spread flat on the table, it almost covers the entire small conference room table in the art department.

This concept draft does include a sketch of an open world map called The Junction.

But more of it is like an outline-like illustration, with enlarged bubbles in its design style at various important locations on the map.

There are buildings with castles as the main body located everywhere, supplemented by some scattered villages, dungeons and other architectural structures.

The style is a hybrid style that gradually changes from medieval European Roman style to Gothic style. Regarding the architectural features of this style, Ke Jin had previously told Ke Yu to take the time to study it during her junior semester.

“That is to say, I already started laying out these things a year ago…”

“Did he gradually perfect these first drafts of designs using a computer a year ago?”

Thinking of this, Keyu, who was so familiar with his brother day and night, couldn’t help but show a bit of surprise.

Although these first drafts are still far from the actual finished product, they have described the core of every building, every NPC, and every BOSS as much as possible.

At least it saved about 80% of the time for my department.

After all, you must know that the biggest difficulty in the art design department of a game company is not the process of painting and modeling, but the difficulty in the beginning when inspiration is born.

Anyone can copy a gourd, but if Keyu was asked to copy the smile of Mona Lisa, it would only take her a few hours to complete it.

If she could use a computer to assist with processing, she could make one in half an hour.

But if you want to create an original Mona Lisa from scratch, let alone future generations.

Even if Leonardo da Vinci were to do it himself, it would still take ten years.

“What Mr. Ke means is that the progress of “Extinguishment” can be slowly followed by the construction progress of Dongzhi’s offline panoramic park. First, departmental resources will be allocated to develop “Elden’s Ring”, but…” Some artists are not sure. He looked at Ke Yu and said, “Mr. Xiao Ke, two months have passed. Isn’t it still too late?”

When Keyu is in working mode, he has a straight face, is serious, responsible and very reliable.

After thinking about it, she said immediately.

“There are still about 100 people in the Oasis Art Department, I remember. We’ll transfer them here to cooperate online.”

“Then part of the drawing of the large map was outsourced to senior art artists we had worked with before.”

“We are mainly responsible for the construction of these scenes.” His eyes glanced at the sketch of the interface between the tiled desktops, and his green-white fingers crossed over several key information points.

“Stonewell City, Rhea Lucalia Magic Academy, Royal City Rodel, Michaela Sacred Tree, and Volcano Residence.”

“These five castles with a small garden structure are also the core content of the entire game. They are always highlighted and marked, and they must be the best.”

“Yes!” The art designers in the department replied in unison.

…

With the official establishment of the “Elden Ring” project, the entire Ready Player One has also entered an unprecedented and arduous battle.

Even though this team has been along the way, it already has quite mature game design experience and has a tacit understanding of cooperation with the team.

There is also Mr. Ke’s divine plan that other game manufacturers can’t even dream of getting.

But when faced with the tough nut to crack in “Elden”, every employee still spent 120,000 energy and began unrestricted game design.

Many employees simply brought sleeping bags and started laying beds directly in the company.

I fought hard until early in the morning and didn’t go to bed until 6 or 7 o’clock the next day. After washing up, I got up and started racing straight away.

This practice is also quite common in the gaming industry.

It’s just that compared to other game company employees who are semi-forced to complete tasks, Ready Player One’s employees are all very motivated and voluntary.

joke.

The boss of his own company is willing to spend tens of millions as bonuses. Even if averaged, each person can receive a bonus of tens of thousands.

And this does not include performance commissions.

At the end of the game, there will be a generous year-end bonus, which will be a percentage based on the sales of new games throughout the year.

It can be said that even the most basic employee in Player One can basically make an annual income of 300,000, as long as the job is not cleaning and doing chores.

If you are a little more aggressive, you will be heading towards an annual salary of 500,000 or even a million.

The boss is willing to give out money, and the benefits are far superior to those of his peers.

Needless to say, the motivation of our employees goes without saying.

The week flew by.

During this week, employees were very busy, and Kejin was not idle either.

He made several trips to the Jianglin government, including on-site inspections of development sites.

Finally, we negotiated for a piece of wasteland outside Jianglin North City at a very favorable price.

This made Ke Jin sigh.

This is the policy of Jianglin City to promote e-sports game city, especially giving the green light to outstanding contributors such as the number one player, in order to obtain such favorable cooperation conditions.

After the ground negotiation is completed, directly contact Dong Zhi.

Although I have had a detailed discussion with the chief engineer sent by Dongzhi for a long time about the overall layout of the offline panorama of “Extinction”.

But Kejin felt that he still had to keep an eye on the development progress every now and then.

After all, operations like ‘offline panoramic demo’ are not possible in Blue Star.

Even the earth where hundreds of schools of thought contended in the game industry in the previous life has never happened.

But similarly, the development progress of “Elden’s Ring” also worries Kejin all the time.

With this game, Ke Jin intends to use it to knock down the monopoly door of OMI Capital, and there is no room for error.

Among them, the one that worried Ke Jin the most was the art department.

For Ready Player One’s previous games, the art department accounted for about 30%.

In the game Lao Tou Huan, the proportion of art should even reach 70%.

There are various interactive huge buildings, and the towering golden tree can be directly observed no matter where you are.

Or Stonewell standing on a cliff.

The beautiful Rodel looks like an eternal city built under the stars.

These magnificent and epic buildings play an indispensable role in attracting players to explore, just like beacons in the dark night.

Players will be amazed from the bottom of their hearts just by looking at it.

But speaking of it, it is very different from the actual production.

Players all think it’s good and awesome.

So what is it good about and why is it good? This is the core key.

Therefore, after Ke Jin completed the offline matters related to “Extinction” and returned to Ready Player One, he went to the art department.

Coincidentally, Keyu was summarizing the art department’s achievements during the week.

Ke Jin also listened for a while.

In the first week, the art department conducted an in-depth production of Stonewell City.

In the PPT pictures that are constantly displayed, as well as the all-round preview of the modeling without rendering.

Kejin’s expectations have been initially met.

Stonewell City is built on a cliff, which gives people a sense of oppression as it is above the mountains.

The towering city wall made of large square rough-cut stones stands almost perfectly against the top of the mountain.

The stone itself appears off-white, and the use of cold colors further implants the hint of “inaccessibility” into the viewer’s heart.

But the entire castle building does not emphasize the coldness.

On the contrary, the angular edges of the castle are outlined by soft gold edges, various reliefs and hollow sculptures are decorated on each octagonal tower, and flags can be seen everywhere fluttering in the wind.

It adds a bit of authenticity to the whole castle.

The perspective of observing the castle is always from bottom to top, just like a pilgrim slowly going up the wide steps.

Let outsiders who go to Stonewell City always keep an attitude of looking up and climb up.

“A castle that needs to be looked up to” is also a very strong psychological suggestion, which will invisibly raise the profile of Stonewell City.

Look inside again.

The Ready Player One art department added many details to the interior of the entire castle according to the first draft of the plan.

For example, there is a large canteen that can accommodate many soldiers eating at the same time. The wooden tables, chairs and benches are neatly arranged, and candlesticks with weak light are scattered here and there.

There was also a faint glow from the fireplace.

There is also a huge oil painting of armored cavalry hanging in front of the canteen.

Obviously, the art department of Ready Player One follows the ‘intuitive beauty’ that Ke Jin mentioned before.

Although this scene is part of the building, why is it a canteen? Rather than any other room where anything can be done?

After all, players can still play even if they don’t have to deliberately design the internal building use, just design a room with some patterns, put some decorations, and put some monsters here.

Why do we have to set up a canteen?

Because a castle as big as Stonewell City, and as an important passage connecting the two areas of “Nimgofu” and “Lienia of the Lake”, is destined to be a military location.

A strategic military location means there will be a lot of soldiers here.

Well, according to realistic logic.

These soldiers also need food, clothing, housing and transportation.

When players pass by the canteen, they will realize that this may be the place where soldiers usually eat.

This kind of intuition that is very close to reality will not only bring more immersion to players.

Similarly, a huge restaurant = a large number of dining soldiers. This is also an intuitive application. It will bring invisible psychological hints to the players who come here, warning them that there are probably not a few soldiers in this castle, and they should be careful next.

It is precisely these subtle architectural details that moisten things and make them more subtle and cleverly blended together.

Only then will players slowly develop a sense of awe at the various huge buildings in “Elden”.

“Not bad.” After previewing the preliminary model of Stonewell City, Ke Jin nodded with satisfaction and felt relieved.

According to the current understanding of Ready Player One’s art department, there is no problem at all if they are responsible for the major cities in “Elden”.

But before leaving, Ke Jin still brought up a small detail that even the art department employees ignored.

“The flower carvings carved on the stone bricks of the towers are the decorative patterns affixed to the outside of the city wall. It would be better to change them from metal texture to wood texture.”

“Mr. Ke, the metal texture looks more distant. Generally speaking, when describing metal, it is ‘glowing with cold light’, which further highlights the design concept of the castle as ‘magnificent and solemn, no strangers allowed to enter’.” “Keyu put forward his ideas seriously.

Don’t look at Keyu who is usually lively and playful. He is a master and a stinky guy.

But when it comes to formal work, she can still distinguish between occasions and priorities.

The other employees in the art department also nodded in agreement after hearing their boss’s kind words.

In fact, the entire art department had held a discussion meeting before to render the major tower decorations on the outside of the building with a metallic texture.

At that time, the vote was unanimously approved, but the president said that it would be replaced…

And it is replaced by wooden rendering that does not refract light at all…

Didn’t that force fall instantly?

On this point, no matter how you look at it, this is what Xiao Ke always said, right…

However, Ke Jin’s next words came.

Completely conquered everyone in the art department including Ke Yu.

And make everyone deeply aware of it.

You are still the one who always cared.

No one can be the soul of the number one player, only Ke Zong can do it!

“The core of the soul that connects everything in the entire junction is the golden tree, and the laws followed by most forces are also the golden laws. Under such a general premise, from a logical perspective, if you and I are put into the world view, if We live here, so we have an innate admiration for the strong towards the golden tree. Therefore, we will use golden wood carvings to decorate the castle.”

These words seemed to directly wake up everyone in the art department. Some employees’ eyes couldn’t help but widen, and exclamations suddenly broke out.

“I’ll go! I really didn’t expect this detail!”

“Indeed, if you think about it carefully according to the setting of the text of “Elden”, the status of the golden tree in the borderland is almost above everything else. As a sacred thing that directly intervenes in the local culture, it is even more meaningful to us than the sun in reality. All are taller. So as thousands of ordinary people and even heroes in the border area, it is logical to have the complex of ‘golden tree worship’.”

“This is the idea that truly integrates into the worldview… What we have seen before is still too superficial.”

“Mr. Ke is too cruel! He just woke up the dreamer with just one word!”

“If you want players to play without any drama, then when designing, try to treat yourself as a real resident who lives here, and simulate the mood of the residents living here.”

“But I have never lived in a place like this, and I can’t figure out what to do…”

“Next, intuitive thinking is important!”

————

Weiwangdi Headquarters.

Monthly summary meeting for company executives.

After a summary report on the relevant data of the DFgame platform.

The secretary gave up his position, and Alex Connor, the general manager of DFgame, slowly walked forward and stood in the center of the round table.

He put his hands on the table and looked around at the senior executives before he spoke.

“The 3D masterpiece “Shadowland”, led by our company’s Design Department 1 Director, George, is now at the end of production and is expected to be released in early February of next year.”

“As an ARPG masterpiece that has been polished for three years, we have invested nearly 200 million in “Shadowland”. The purpose is to compete for the Hugo Award at the beginning of the year, and preferably the E3 Best Game Award awarded in the middle of the year. And won the prize.” (E3 was discontinued in reality, but because it was relatively well-known and the time coincided, it continued to be used in the book.)

In the past year, all the major awards in the gaming industry have been divided between Electronic Arts and Blizzard. Vivanti continued to accompany it and could only receive a series of nominations.

Although the three companies are all affiliated with Blue Ocean Paradise, the competition between them is still very fierce.

In the past, the focus of development was not on game development, and Weiwangdi had no desire to win awards.

However, in recent years, under the increasingly higher share requirements of Electronic Arts and Blizzard, otherwise they would have to set up their own business to build their own platform.

And Microsoft next door is also starting to make moves. You must know that this is a force that is almost as powerful as Blue Ocean Paradise.

After many considerations, Connor decided to spend a few years building a design team of his own.

After all, no matter how successful the channel is, if there is no say in game resources, sooner or later the two big brothers, Electronic Arts and Blizzard, will drain them out and annex them.

So Connor is targeting the start of the new year.

During this period, Electronic Arts and Blizzard just released their annual works on Christmas Eve and won a series of awards such as Golden Joystick, TGA, GDC, and BAF.

Therefore, there will be a vacuum period between Hugo at the beginning of the year and E3 in the middle of the year.

Even if it wins again, the quality of the winning works will be weaker than the wave of awards at the end of the year.

This is also the best time for Connor to take advantage of the situation.

And, if I can win the award successfully this time.

It can also smooth out all the unpleasant negative rhythms that occurred last month.

“I think Shadowlands is well-deserved for winning the Hugo Award and E3.”

“Whether it’s picture quality, modeling, action effects, or impact, we have done our best. In terms of plot, we have a good grasp of the balance of linear design. I can’t think of anything in “Shadowland” that won’t win the award. reasons.”

“After receiving this award, not only can we avenge our shame, but we can also use it as an exclusive work of DFgame to show our strength to Electronic Arts and Blizzard, and completely dispel their thoughts of building their own platform.”

Seeing that everyone was talking about what would happen to “Shadowland” after winning the award, Kate from Game Design Department 3 frowned.

“No, doesn’t anyone pay attention to Ready Player One? What if they also release games during this period?”

“If you want to enter our market, winning awards is the fastest way to increase your reputation, right?”

As soon as he finished speaking, all the senior officials in the room looked at Kate with frivolous and sympathetic eyes.

“Bro, have you been fooled by the number one player?”

“Come, Kate, don’t be like this. Are we going to be bitten by a kitten when we go out one day, so we have to carry shotguns on the streets for the rest of our lives?”

When everyone laughed, George, who designed one, also sarcastically said.

“Of course a sissy who can only make toy car games will be scared when she sees the number one player. I think the ‘ke yi er’ that is being spread everywhere on the Internet is not talking about Weiwangdi, but you, a sissy.”

“For single-handedly stigmatizing Weiwangdi, he truly deserves to be the ‘Best Outstanding Employee’ last year.”

Obviously, George, who has long dominated the Best Staff Award, is extremely dissatisfied with Kate, who won this award last year for the third film.

And Kate happened to be in a big mood recently, so she took the opportunity to add insult to injury and ridicule her to death.

“Fuck you!” Kate suddenly became red and warm, stood up and cursed angrily.

“You little son of a bitch!” George raised his middle finger not to be outdone.

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly became tense.

“That’s enough!” Connor slapped the table hard to force everyone to be quiet, and then said: “Your personal grudges will be resolved after the work is over. The news I heard here is that Ready Player One is indeed designing a new game recently. game.”

“Moreover, I heard that it is a brand new ‘open world’ game. It roughly means that in a huge map, players can freely explore the world at will. What do you think of this new type of concept?”

The words just fell.

All the designers in the roundtable conference room looked at each other.

Then, a burst of laughter broke out.

“Hahahahaha! I’m about to die! What kind of setting can only a genius come up with? Could it be that Ready Player One’s creativity is just to make up a new genre and then make it into a game?”

“There is no guidance, allowing players to explore freely at will? I bet that for such a game, the player’s patience will not even exceed half an hour.”

“Oh my god, Kate, how did you lose to such a game company?” George almost burst into tears and laughed: “Listen, it’s an open world game! Players can explore freely! What an interesting gimmick! It’s so profound attracted me.”

After the words fell, George turned to look at Connor again, and said casually: “Sir, don’t worry, leave it to me. If the number one player dares to bring such an unfeasible game to the competition, our ” “Shadowland” will definitely fuck him so hard that he will cry and run back to find his mother.”

“This is not a joke. I can say it very responsibly and seriously. A $200 million masterpiece is really not something they can do just by making a gimmick.”