Almighty Video Game Designer

Wulin Legend’s playtime depended on their players. Higher skilled players playing through the game just for the story might take thirty odd hours, but a less skilled player wanting to get either the good or evil endings would probably require over thirty hours.

If the players wanted to experience all the endings and the different branches in the quests, or even wanting to complete all the quests in Luoyang city before meeting their master, the number of hours would be a whole different story.

For someone completely new like Lin Xue who didn’t have any strategy in mind would probably take a few tries before they got an ending relating to being the head of the league.

Of course she didn’t know that was going to happen, she was just highly focused on the game, completely forgetting to gank Chen Mo.

-Zen Entertainment-

Yao Yu Was still preparing an advertising document for Tale of the Sword.

“Yes, include a few more exciting shots into this cinematic. And the combat system as well, put more emphasis on the cooler spells. The colors are too dark for this one, redo it or increase saturation or brightness. And this one…”

The advertising was just to make the players feel excited about the game through posters or videos. Yao Yu had done this many times and had a good idea of what to do.

At this moment, one of his assistants informed him, “There’s news on Chen Mo’s new game, it’s a Wuxia game!”

Yao Yu was shocked, “Wuxia? That means he’s joining the competition too?”

The assistant nodded, “Must be, why would he go through the effort of making a game with such a weak theme otherwise?”

“Is there a video?” asked Yao Yu.

Yao Yu was actually quite nervous upon hearing that Chen Mo was also participating.

Yao Yu wouldn’t bat an eye if it was any other B-grade videogame designer. You do you. It’s a Wuxia theme too, where many see it as a theme destined to fail, you’d be digging your own grave.

But Chen Mo was different, that guy seemed to have some mystical powers. He dabbles with games others wouldn’t even think of doing, and succeeds at that, Yao Yu didn’t dare underestimate him.

The assistant handed over the phone that had a few clips of Wulin Legend that were posted by fans.

Chen Mo didn’t try and hide it either as it didn’t matter if the other designers saw it. The cutoff was coming and the game was mostly complete. There was no time for the other designers to copy it even if they wanted too.

Yao Yu didn’t feel the need to want to copy it as Tale of the Sword was also at its last stages, it wouldn’t make sense to make big changes to it now. He just wanted to understand Chen Mo’s new game by watching the video.

Yao Yu scowled as he spent nearly ten minutes watching over all the clips.

“A huge map with a development mode? What is this? It’s so weird,” Yao Yu was a bit shocked.

Wulin Legend was very content rich, the players might not even understand the extent of it by playing it themselves, even less so by watching a few short clips. Yao Yu watched it one more time and decided that Wulin Legend’s competitiveness must come from its playstyle. Other than that, there wasn’t much else he could make out.

“What do you think we should do?” asked the assistant.

Yao Yu replied after some thought, “Apply for more money for advertising, I want the whole world to know! His game is probably heavily reliant on the game mechanics. The new players will find it difficult to get into because of how much content there is. We’ll play the advertising game this time, as long as the players are on our side, there’s no way his game will get popular.”

The assistant nodded, “Understood!””

Although the results were decided by the judges, sales and the reviews of the players are also taken into the consideration. If there was a game that the judges felt alright but it had terrible sales, it would more likely than not affect their decision.

Yao Yu’s thought process was correct. Players would find it difficult to learn Wulin Legend because of all its innovations, and the game lacked advertising compared to Tale of the Sword. If they overwhelmed Wulin Legend in terms of advertising, they would be more than likely to take first place.

Yao Yu also had an idea of Chen Mo’s plans. He didn’t like to spend too much money on advertising, therefore Yao Yu was confident that as long as he can secure good reviews from the fans early on to drive up the sales, he’d win for sure.

Even if Wulin Legend gains popularity later? The judging would be over!

—

Chen Mo wasn’t in the experience store today.

He was chatting with Guo Feng in Dazzling Aurora Studio.

“How is it? Did you find the singer? I’m not paying if I’m not happy with it,” said Chen Mo.

Guo Feng laughed, “Don’t worry, you still don’t trust me after working together for so long? But the cinematics you’re making this time are so simple, when are you going to make more big works like Warcraft?”

Chen Mo rolled his eyes, “You wish! Are you depending on me to keep your huge studio alive? Furthermore, there are still some cinematics for Warcraft that aren’t done yet!”

“Don’t worry, they are working hard on it,” assured Guo Feng.

Chen Mo waved his hand, “That’s fine. Since we’ve been working together for so long, there’s no need to speak in a roundabout manner. I’m telling you that this song is very important to my new game, you have to understand that.”

Guo Feng patted his own chest reassuring Chen Mo, “Of course. The recording studio, orchestra, singer are all the best of the best. Of course it might be a stretch to get a big star like you asked, but right now all the singers I’m looking at are the best in their field. Singing shouldn’t be a problem.”

Chen Mo nodded, “Alright. The lyrics and melody are done. If the singer is terrible, all I can do is ask some huge star.”

“Sure, it’s your song, you make the call! You aren’t lacking money anyways, hiring a huge star shouldn’t be a problem,” jested Guo Feng.

Chen Mo waved his hand, “What’s going on, I feel like you’ve been speaking sweeter and sweeter lately. Alright, that’s it for now, update me whenever there’s something new.”

Guo Feng urged Chen Mo to stay, “They are recording right now. Just sit still for a bit and it should be sent over soon.”

Guo Feng received a music file after fifteen or so minutes.

“Alright, it’s done. Have a listen and see if you’re happy with it. If you aren’t we’ll just get him to do it again,” said Guo Feng as he handed headphones over to Chen Mo.

Chen Mo gave it a few listens.

Chen Mo shook his head as he took off the headphones, “It’s no good.”

Guo Feng was shocked, “No good? What’s no good?”

“Everything, get someone else.”

Guo Feng was confused, was there a need to change the singer?

Guo Feng had listened to it a few times. Although his main focus was animations and didn’t have much knowledge in music, he had listened to many starting and ending themes of many animations in his many years in the industry, and could tell the difference between good and bad.

Guo Feng would’ve rated this song at the top. The lyrics and melody was provided by Chen Mo, there was also a professional composer involved, so none of this should be a problem.

That means Chen Mo wasn’t happy with the singing.

But the singers Guo Feng reached out too were the best of the best, so their skills weren’t a problem. Any better than that, they would have to resort to stars.

Was there a need for so much effort just for a theme song of a game?

“You think this guy isn’t good enough of a singer?” asked Guo Feng.

Chen Mo nodded, “Yeah, far from my expectations.”

Guo Feng wiped the seat off his forehead, “But.. If you keep going higher, we’ll be looking at A ranked singers. But from the looks of it, you need the best of that too?”

“Yes, can you do that?”

Guo Feng cleared his throat, “I could, but just the managers of those singers, and we’ll probably pay market rate. But you have to know that it’s going to be a huge sum of money, do you really need to invest that much into the theme of a videogame?

“Of course. Alright, just help me look for one. Ideally it would be someone that has done songs of similar themes like Wuxia or Xianxia. Someone who sounds authentically Chinese, someone that sounds really elegant. I don’t want someone who is popular in their niche, I want a singing juggernaut.”

Guo Feng nodded, “Alright, you’re paying after all. I’ll see what I can do.”

—

Recording studio, Huaxiang Recording Company, Hong Kong.

Zhou Yifeng had been dealing with some problems.

He had been doing quite well recently as the most popular male singer under Huaxiang Records.

But had been troubled by his new album.

He had done most of his songs for his album, but his main song for his album hadn’t surfaced.

Zhou Yifeng was one of the better singers. He looked pretty average but was a good singer, a singer-songwriter at that, helping propel his popularity in China.

But singer-songwriters would often encounter inspiration droughts. He hadn’t released anything amazing in the past two years. He could still stay afloat through his previous songs, but it wasn’t a long term plan.

Because of how saturated the market was, the spotlight comes and goes. They might be replaced after a year of not releasing albums, and he might be nearing retirement if he maintained two years without one.

The manager walked up to him, “Hey Yifeng, there’s someone from China who asked you to sing a song, a high price.”

Zhou Yifeng scowled, “I thought I told you, I’m not doing anything before the album is released. You don’t need to tell me about performances like these in the future.”

The manager shook their head, “It’s not a performance. A gaming company is making a theme song and already wrote the lyrics. They just want you to sing.”

Zhou Yifeng was a bit angered, “I don’t have time for that either. I’m still preparing for the new album, reject it.”

The manager said with some hesitation, “But I’ve heard the song, I recommend you to make that decision after you listen to it.”