Almighty Video Game Designer

Chen Mo continued, “Of course, I’m not a dictator, I’m open to any suggestions or opinions, but be ready to be rejected.

“Alright, that’s about it. You guys don’t have to be anxious, my aim is to make everyone here money after all. You will realise that joining Thunderbolt Entertainment will be the best choice you made.

There were varying reactions, some excited, some calm.

It was normal to doubt a company one just joined, especially one with such a young boss.

This ‘hyping up the employees’ sessions were commonplace in every single company, and most new hires would most definitely go through this at least once.

‘Make everyone money’ are just words coming out of their mouths 99% of the time.

Chen Mo continued, “I focus on efficiency. Warcraft took around half a year of work to complete. There might be some communication issues now that our team is bigger, but I still hope that our efficiency can be higher.

“Next, is the game we’ll be working on. Here’s the concept document, please take a look.”

Chen Mo turned on the projector in the meeting room to reveal the title: Diablo Design Concept Document.

The new hires signed non-disclosure agreements and non-compete clauses so there was no need to worry about leaks. They wouldn’t be so dumb as to give up such a good job in exchange for short term benefits.

Many were shocked to see the name just as Chen Mo predicted.

The name Diablo was a bit weird, but within realms of reasoning. Diablo wasn’t a god[1] they were familiar with, no matter ancient or modern times.

However nobody dared question him as Chen Mo was known to have weird names for his games.

Chen Mo started explaining the game.

Artstyle.

Core gameplay.

Background story of the setting.

Storylines.

Controlling the player’s emotions.

Classes and combat system.

Improving on gameplay and multiplayer features.

Equipment system and long-term goals.

Chen Mo didn’t go into too much detail as it was just a concept document. It was up to his assistants to fill those gaps.

However, Chen Mo went through the most important parts of the game, going over the good and bad of the game, target audience, and profit model. As a result, everyone understood what kind of game Chen Mo was going for.

Su Jinyu, Zheng Hongxi and Qian Kun didn’t say much as it wasn’t their first rodeo.

Even if the concept of the game seemed really weird now, the final product would most certainly be a classic that was well polished.

However, the new employees were confused.

And Chen Mo could tell they were confused, “Please bring out any questions you have, I’ll try my best to answer them. In particular, the few who are playing bigger roles should ask any questions they have, I wouldn’t want you guys to start work confused as it would affect the efficiency.”

There were seven playing the bigger roles, Su Jinyu who was responsible for the videogame project, Zheng Hongxi in story related matters, Qian Kun in numbers, balancing and level design, Zhou Hanyu in art/graphics, Fu Guangnan in sound effects/music, Zhao Yunting in promotion/operations, and Lin Xiao in pay, bonuses, and allowance.

Although Lin Xiao was an assistant, she was unlikely to participate in game development, but rather worked on keeping the company rolling.

Zhou Hanyu, Fu Guangnan, and Zhao Yunting looked at one another.

Zhou Hanyu and Fu Guangnan were industry professionals in their thirties with plenty of skills and experience behind them. These were hand-picked by Chen Mo from large companies.

Zhao Yunting had only been in the industry for around three years, but she had been a part of three successful projects.

Zhou Hanyu asked, “Mr Chen, I have a question.”

“Please don’t call me Mr Chen, just call me by my name, or manager. Go ahead.”

“Manager, my main confusion stems from the artstyle. The keywords you gave for the artstyle were cult, dark, scary, ominous, bloody. I understand where you’re coming from, but as far as I know, that isn’t common in or outside of the country. Even if there was a small audience outside of China, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in China do something like this.

“Sure it is a unique style, it matches the theme of the game too. But I’m not entirely sure if the players of China would accept this.”

Chen Mo nodded, “I understand what you mean. It’s true that many companies will consider the taste of the average gamer when making games. Even if they were working on a game with a depressing theme such as this, they’d usually increase brightness and saturation to make the players feel more comfortable.”

Zhou Hanyu nodded, “Yeah.”

“But this isn’t a game that was meant to please the majority of players. The idea lies in originality, I’m doing it because there is a gap in the market for games like these.”

Zhou Hanyu still wasn’t sold, “But will the players accept it?”

Chen Mo explained. “What’s the most important part of the game? Consistency. Those games are giving up their identity by changing up the artstyle. This is a singleplayer adventure, hack and slash game. The tense and anxious themes will allow the players to better immerse into the game. As to if the players are accepting of it…

“That’s going to depend on the quality of the game.”

Zhou Hanyu nodded, still confused but now understood Chen Mo’s idea clearly: Make a single player RPG hack and slash game with a fantasy theme and use its artstyle.

The art style was the last thing to be decided, but there was no other way given the type of game, playstyle, and theme.

However, will the players accept it? Zhou Hanyu didn’t fully buy it.

Chen Mo looked at Fu Guangnan, “Are there any problems in terms of music and audio effects?”

“No problems. My questions are similar to that of Hanyu, I’m just worried that the music will drive the players away. But if the manager already had that in mind, I’ll just follow the orders. The music and audio effects will surely be to your liking.”

TL note[1]: The literal translation of the chinese name is a god that destroys darkness. Diablo is from a spanish work meaning devil.