Almighty Video Game Designer

“Ah, I’m so tired after finishing one story branch and the background story of two characters,” said Zheng Hongxi as he streched

“Really? Did you write the story for Warcraft?” asked Jia Peng.

Zheng Hongxi shook his head, “That’s different, although Warcraft has a much more incredible story, it’s only one branch, I just had to go along the flow of the story. This game is different, there are so many story branches that affect one another. This is so much more complicated than Lifeline and it’s making my brain hurt.”

“You better hurry up, I have a bunch more Wugong and equipment descriptions waiting for you,” asid Qian Kun as he was working.

Zheng Hongxi had his hand on his forehead, “Oh my goodness!”

“Could you show me the script? I could look through it for you,” offered Wen Lingwei.

Zheng Hongxi shook his head vigorously, “I can’t do that, wouldn’t I be leaking? Moreover, I don’t need you to look over it, the manager has already seen it.”

Wen Lingwei was speechless, “Selfish, why are you the same as the manager.”

“This isn’t selfish, its professionalism alright?” asserted Zheng Hongxi.

Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes with a ‘yeah yeah, you’re right’ expression.

“Oh right, remember to give a few special Wugong and equipment their own story. The manager specifically asked for story special Wugong and equipment like Six Meridian Swords that can only be obtained after completing the quest from Wuliang Cave”

Zheng Hongxi nodded, “I remember, I’m planning to give it an extra long questline.”

“From the sounds of it, although it is a Wuxia theme, the manager gave it many Wugong. The names also sound awesome, like Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms, Six Meridian Swords, energy drain, Dugu Nine Swords. They feel so fitting!” expressed Jia Peng.

Wen Ling said, “Do you really need to question the story that the stingy manager comes up with? He has so many of these ideas.”

Jia Peng said, “But I’m still kind of surprised. I thought the manager would never leave the world of Western Fantasy since Warcraft got so popular that he could probably live off sequels of it. Why did he want to make a Chinese style game all of a sudden?”

“You didn’t know? It’s because of the Game Committee. That means the department related to video games sent out a notice, asking for the designers to make a Chinese themed game. There’s even judging for it,” explained Su Jinyu.

Jia Peng was shocked, “Is that so. I thought the manager wouldn’t’ care about things like this.”

Su Jinyu said, “He was actually already planning to make a Chinese themed game, but this came up at the right time.”

“Can the manager get first place?” asked Jia Peng.

Wen Lingwei replied, “Has the stingy manager ever lost?”

Su Jinyu quickly interjected, “Don’t be so full of yourself this time. It’s hard to tell because Zen Entertainment is also making a standalone Xianxia themed game. They’ve also started a month or so earlier than we did, so it should be further in development.”

“Huh? Zen Entertainment is joining too?” asked Jia Peng.

Su Jinyu nodded, “Of course, Zen Entertainment and Emperor Dynasty Entertainment are both competing. There are way more competitors that you guys think. That’s why I said we can’t be sure.”

Jia Peng seemed to understand, “That’s true. If there is judging, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment stands no chance, but Zen Entertainment excels at Xianxia games. Legend of the Sword was a very successful RPG game, so they must have good knowledge on that matter.”

Zheng Hongxi said, “You can’t be sure about that either, the advantage Zen Entertainment has isn’t that big.

“I’ve looked up the games that won before, and most of them just fit the Game Committee’s liking. In short, they don’t like online games, although online games are more profitable, it isn’t easy to tell a story.

“The judges put extra emphasis on the story and innovative playstles. That means the best type of game are standalone games, and the high quality the better, the richer the story the better.”

“Even so, Zen Entertainment still has an advantage. There are many quest lines in Legend of the Sword, meaning that Zen Entertainment has plenty of experience in that. It probably wouldn’t be that bad if they converted that into a standalone game,” argued Su Jinyu.

Zheng Hongxi said, “It won’t be bad, but our story will be much better.”

Everyone was speechless as he praised himself.

Zheng Hongxi nodded in agreement, “Yep.”

They were once again speechless at his honesty.

Qian Kun waved his hand, “Alright, that’s enough free time. Let’s get back to work as we have a lot to do in very little time.”

—

At the same time, in the experience store under Zen Entertainment, there was an A-grade video game designer working hard.

Yao Yu, A-grade video game designer and one of the main designers of Legend of the Sword. They were responsible for the story and was a well known story writer and Xianxia novelist.

“A few of the character artworks from earlier this morning aren’t good enough, redo it.”

“I’ve made a small change to the Nether Crypt, remember to carry that into the game. Changes need to be made to the corresponding dialogues and cinematics.”

“Pay more attention to the combat system. It’s going to affect future development otherwise.”

“The level is too hard, please make some changes. It can’t be too easy either, take the feelings of the players into consideration.”

“Remember that this game isn’t for the players, but for the judges. Our goal is to allow the judges to feel immediately that this game is a very traditional Xianxia themed game, and allow them to feel our feelings and sincerity, understood?”

“Yes, it can feel close to Legend of the Sword, but it mustn’t be too similar. Otherwise the judges are going to think that we weren’t innovative enough.”

Yao Yu was giving orders left and right to their four assistants as they worked hard for the Xianxia themed standalone game.

In truth, an A-grade videogame designer might’ve been overkill for this.

An S-grade videogame designer could work on a VR game by themselves, and an A-grade designer could work on a large online PC game or take a large role in a VR game.

Making a standalone game was completely underutilizing them.

However, Yao Yu understood the reason why the higher ups of Zen Entertainment assigned the job to him. It was because of his experience from developing Legend of the Sword and his excellent story writing skills.

In other words, this was a political move. Getting a good placement in this competition would mean improving Zen Entertainment’s position in the Chinese gaming industry as well as improving his name.

Therefore Yao Yu didn’t dare take this lightly, giving his all to develop a standalone Xianxia game to win first place!