Chapter 60
Chapter 60: Chapter 59: The First Episode of the Animated Series
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Su Jinyu was working hard at the front desk of the experience store.
Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya were whispering to one another, mouth to ear.
“I heard that Senior Jinyu went to see the manager upon seeing the design document. What happened next?” asked Chang Xiuya.
Jia Peng shook his head, “No clue, the two of them talked for about an hour, then senior Xiuya came downstairs and followed his instructions on starting a new project in the game engine.”
Chang Xiuya whispered, “She didn’t say anything?”
Jia Peng shook his head again, “Nothing.”
Xiuya questioned, “Does that mean she agrees with the ideas of the manager? She accepts the game?”
Jia Peng said hesitantly, “I don’t think so. I think her attitude is more like ‘put aside our differences and work together’.”
Chang Xiuya was a bit worried, “Now what?”
Jia Peng said, “What can we do? We on the sideline probably shouldn’t poke our noses into this. The manager must have his own ideas, we’ll probably mess things up if we interfere.”
Chang Xiuya nodded, “True, we should probably just continue drawing the monster cards.”
The atmosphere was a bit thick in the experience store, mostly because nobody had high hopes for this new I Am MT game. Based on the available rules and playstyles, it seemed quite baffling.
-There have never been any game like this previously, is it going to work?-
—
“Hello, is this the Thunderbolt Gaming experience store?”
Su Jinyu was shocked. When she raised her head, she realized it was someone from the delivery service trying to make sure they got the right address.
Su Jinyu stood up, “Yes, do we have a delivery? You can hand it to me.”
The delivery person walked in holding a box, “There’s a Mr. Chen Mo who ordered a projector. Please open the box and check it. If there’s no problems I’ll help install it.”
A projector?
Su Jinyu was shocked. Why did Chen Mo order a projector?
Chen Mo was already downstairs, “Go ahead and open it up. You can install the projector on the ceiling here, and install the screen on that wall.”
—
The delivery guy was quite dextrous, and finished the whole unboxing and installing process in half an hour.
“Please turn it on and test it out,” the delivery guy said as he wiped off his sweat.
The projector was connected to Su Jinyu’s computer. Chen Mo closed the blinds in the experience store and adjusted the image.
It was pretty good.
“Yep, that’s fine. If there’s any problems I’ll contact the sales department,” Chen Mo confirmed.
“Cool beans!” The delivery guy packed up his stuff and took the garbage with him as he left.
Jia Peng was shocked, and asked, “Manager, you bought a projector? What are you going to use it for?”
Chen Mo said to Su Jinyu, “Play the video I sent you.”
“Video?” Su Jinyu looked at her computer screen. Indeed, Chen Mo had sent her a ten-minute video file, titled “I Am MT Season 1 Episode 1″.
Upon playing the video, it started showing on the projector screen.
Chen Mo told them, “You guys have been working hard, let’s watch a little movie to take the edge off.”
Everyone was curious. Was this the animated series Chen Mo had been working so hard on?
Everything from the character development to the scripts of this animated series were done by Chen Mo, nobody else knew anything about it. They thought it would take a long time to produce, so how was the first episode finished so quickly?
The logos for Thunderbolt Entertainment and Dazzling Aurora Studio disappeared after a few moments on the projector screen.
The opening scene was a magnificent long shot, and a narrator began to give the background of the world.
“On the endless plains of Azeroth, there are many different races. Their survival, growth, and war gave birth to this glorious civilization.
“It has been many years since the Alliance and the Horde started fighting side by side, in order to defend against the invasion of the Burning Legion. Although that war managed to save Azeroth, the fragile agreement between the Horde and the Alliance has long since disappeared.
“Today, the thundering war drums sound again, with the humans leading the Alliance, and the Orcs leading the Horde, they face one another yet again…
“Our story starts from the guild of the Tauren…”
Many scenes passed by, There was magnificent Stormwind City, the highly guarded Orgrimmar, the serene Darnassus… Different races and different landscapes, the entirety of Azeroth was fully revealed in those few moments.
The last shot was a pan, focusing on a silly-looking Tauren.
Weng Lingwei and Su Jinyu were sitting together, both of them shocked.
The quality of the animation was quite high!
It was produced by Dazzling Aurora Studio, after all. The animations, sound effects, narration, and some of the smaller details were all done quite well, easily conveying the intent of the creator through the product.
The manager probably spent quite a bit of money…
Moreover, the narration and scenes from the start had fully drawn their attention.
Although it was just a few lines, every side of the animated world was revealed. It seemed to be a Western fantasy world. There were many classical races from Western fantasy worlds, such as orcs and dwarves, and there were also some classic scenes from it.
Moreover, the animation made the world seem very rich, and it could be easily felt through the narration.
The whole world was called Azeroth, with at least seven or eight different races. There was unity and war between different races. So far there were two different factions: one was the Alliance led by Humans, and the other was the Horde led by the Orcs. They were enemies at war.
“This world seems quite big. However, it’s still too early to tell what the story is like,” observed Wen Lingwei.
Everyone had their eyes glued to the screen after seeing the opening scene.
—
That was what Chen Mo was trying to achieve.
Why was Chen Mo so confident with I Am MT? It was because the world was based on World of Warcraft, and there was no question about the cultural impact of World of Warcraft!
Even without World of Warcraft, its world and story were still top notch!
It was just like before the Harry Potter craze. How many people in China understood and liked witch culture? Many of them knew nothing about it, but it didn’t affect the popularity of Harry Potter.
Things that were classic stayed classic no matter where they went. They remained a classic even if the method of conveying them was different.
On the surface, Chen Mo was trying to recreate I Am MT. In reality, he was trying to recreate the combination of I Am MT and World of Warcraft, using the story of I Am MT, and the setting of World of Warcraft to recreate I Am MT to its fullest.
Just like this opening scene had done, the setting of the story was organically conveyed to the audience through the narration and the scenes, teaching them about the setting of Azeroth and the different races.
Chen Mo was akin to a dual-wielding warrior with Titan’s Grip, wielding I Am MT on the left, and World of Warcraft on the right!
The audience in this world didn’t understand World of Warcraft? Not a problem! Using his fully maxed out Level One story-writing skills, Chen Mo could weave the setting of World of Warcraft into I Am MT, slowly feeding the information to the audience.
Of course, if he had the ability to do so, he would bring even more of the gaming culture from his previous world into this one. But making an animation like this was already at Chen Mo’s limit, so he couldn’t make a massive game like World of Warcraft, nor did he have the money to make a blockbuster movie.