Reboot the age of gaming

Chapter 204 The World Architect Runs Away (two chapters in one)

the next day.

Zhong Ming spent a whole day writing out the complete design draft of "Ink and Cloud".

Of course, it's not particularly complete, mainly the basic framework, gameplay, etc., let Dahui and Zhou Sen do it first, and some follow-up things have to be gradually improved.

Zhou Sen was still brooding over the fact that he didn't see Tang Ying yesterday, and insisted that Zhong Ming did it on purpose.

In the afternoon, Zhong Ming withdrew early, and he was going to the studio to check the situation.

According to the address sent by Tang Ying, this studio called "Fantasy Time" is located in the northeast of Ming'an City, about ten minutes' drive away.

Zhong Ming hailed an air taxi, which arrived soon.

"...The conditions in our studio are a little bit better."

Zhong Ming took a look. This studio should be in an office building, unlike the Shimmer Studio, which has not yet left the stage of private housing.

11th floor, 1107.

Zhong Ming took the elevator up and followed the house number to find Fantasy Time Studio.

Looking in through the glass door, it turned out to be pretty good.

There are a total of ten people in the room, which is not too small.

However, without a front desk, it is not necessary to recruit a front desk for a small studio of this size, which is a waste of money.

Just as Zhong Ming was about to knock on the door, a brother who sat closest to the door stood up and opened the door: "Hi, may I ask who you are looking for?"

"Oh, I'm looking for Mr. Wu."

Mr. Wu is the owner of this fantasy time studio and the producer of the game. Tang Ying gave Zhong Ming the contact information before.

Just as the younger brother was about to turn around and call Mr. Wu, he heard a female voice in the studio exclaim in surprise, "Hey, is my sister the rescuer here?"

Zhong Ming looked inside, and a red-haired girl stood up on one of the workstations. She looked like she was only in her twenties, she looked a bit like Tang Ying, probably Tang Ying's cousin.

But if you look closely, this girl is one size smaller than Tang Ying, a little shorter and thinner, and some parts have shrunk a little.

Zhong Ming remembered that Tang Ying had told him that this cousin seemed to be named Tian Yuan.

"Boss! This is what I said earlier, come and greet me." Tian Yuan waved to the distant work station.

A man with medium-length curly hair stood up and had a little mustache. He looked like he was in his early thirties and came to greet him.

"Zhong Ming, right? Hey, don't say anything when you come, I should go downstairs to pick you up." The boss came over and shook hands with Zhong Ming, "Let me introduce myself, my name is Wu Minghao, the producer of this game Oda, hurry up and pour some tea."

"Hey." Tian Yuan agreed, went to the water dispenser to get paper cups and tea leaves, and poured tea for Zhong Ming.

Wu Minghao welcomed Zhong Ming to the small conference room next to him, and Tian Yuan also brought over the tea.

When passing by the work station, Zhong Ming took a casual look and found that the state of the studio was okay.

This state, of course, refers to the working state.

The working status of a project is mainly reflected in the expressions and working atmosphere of all employees. In some studios or projects, all employees are lifeless and dare not communicate too loudly, or employees seem to be staring at the screen with serious expressions. In fact, I was fishing, and I didn’t see any progress for a long time; there are also some projects, the program and design are so tired that they are full of dark circles, and I feel that I will be tired and collapse at the work station in the next second...

These are all unhealthy working conditions.

But in this studio, Zhong Ming has not seen it for the time being.

According to Tang Ying, her cousin, Tian Yuan, quite likes this studio, otherwise she wouldn't be so interested in the studio's projects, which shows that this studio is not the kind that only knows how to squeeze employees sweatshop.

In the conference room, Zhong Ming drank two sips of tea and began to talk about this game with Wu Minghao.

"I didn't expect you to come here in person. I've played both "The Lurking Red Path" and "The Working Dog Survival Manual" you made, and I admire them all! Especially "The Lurking Red Path", the plot is simply amazing Already!" Wu Minghao said with emotion, "If you are willing to help, then the plot will definitely be fine."

Zhong Ming smiled: "That's too polite, we both make independent games, and we all know each other's difficulties, so it's appropriate to push it."

"Okay, then let me briefly introduce the situation of our game."

Previously, Tang Ying only briefly talked about the situation of this studio with Zhong Ming, and she didn't know much about the game itself.

Therefore, Wu Minghao briefly introduced the situation of the game.

This is a horizontal version of the action game, the name is "Fantasy Realm".

The basic rules, style of painting, gameplay, etc. of the game are basically a standard independent game, with no obvious shortcomings or obvious outliers.

This is actually not easy, because the most common mistake most producers of independent games make is to misjudge their own strength.

Independent games themselves belong to the type of games with relatively low requirements in all aspects.

The screen does not need to be compared with 3A masterpieces, just enough to see.

The gameplay doesn't need to be complicated.

However, it has to be met.

If you can't even meet this relatively low standard, then the game has irreparable shortcomings, and it definitely won't work.

Conversely, if a part of the content is designed to be too complicated, which exceeds the limit that the team can bear, it may greatly prolong the development time, break the capital chain, and drag yourself down.

Therefore, after talking with Wu Minghao for a while, Zhong Ming probably understood that the studio is actually in good condition, and Wu Minghao can be regarded as a thoughtful and capable producer.

But the problem now is that the plot is missing a piece!
Speaking of this, Wu Minghao was also very helpless.

"It's like this. Our former world architect was originally one of the partners. In our original plan, the plot was originally a major selling point of "Fantasy Realm."

"When players travel to various areas and challenge different bosses, each area has a branch plot, and there will also be some small puzzle parts, which are the driving force for the player to keep moving forward. That is to say, the With a little bit of puzzle-solving elements, you should be able to understand what I mean, right?"

Zhong Ming nodded: "Understood."

Wu Minghao continued: "It was originally a huge project, but as a result, our world architect resigned midway."

"Speaking of which, it's my fault. The progress was very fast before, and the two of us had some quarrels about the gameplay design of the game. I didn't adopt some of his designs. Moreover, there was originally a plan to use it for a phased release. The reward money did not arrive as scheduled, which caused my promise not to be fulfilled..."

Wu Minghao didn't hide anything, and roughly explained the reason why the previous world architect left.

It stands to reason that the world architect of this project has assumed such important responsibilities in the project and is also one of the partners of this studio, so it makes no sense to leave halfway through the work.

Therefore, Wu Minghao also had to explain clearly to Zhong Ming, to dispel Zhong Ming's doubts, so that he would not feel that there was any pitfall in it.

To put it simply, the departure of the world architect is similar to the nature of a couple breaking up. After some small conflicts accumulated to the extreme, they broke out in a concentrated manner.

Originally, starting a business was all due to a salary cut.

The previous monthly salary of this world architect reached about 6000, and he jumped out to open a studio, and several partners voluntarily lowered their salary to [-].

In Wu Minghao's words, the money is just to guarantee the basic life, and the big part is the bonus and shares after the game is completed.

However, in the following work, some friction occurred.

Small studios are no better than large companies, with sufficient resources.

In a big company, if you want something, you can directly report it. If the leader approves it, you can do it openly. If the leader doesn’t approve it, you can secretly scold the leader and change the plan.

Generally speaking, the resources of large companies are concentrated on the leader. Although it is not easy to get, as long as the leader can be fooled, many things will be much easier.

Just like when Zhong Ming was working on "The Boundless Learning Sea", he was able to bluff millions of publicity funds. If this was in a small studio, it would be unimaginable.

After the world architect came to the studio, he was still working on functions and raising requirements according to the previous ideas. In Wu Minghao's view, many proposals were seriously beyond the budget.

After all, if you are not in charge, you don’t know how expensive it is. Wu Minghao is in charge of money, and he can’t wait to break a dollar into two halves, but this world architect can’t see the long-term. Bend.

Moreover, it seems that a certain big company has been in contact with this world architect, trying to poach him away.

The fuse of the conflict was Wu Minghao's promise.

So far, apart from the plot, the completion rate of "Fantasy Realm" is about 70%. Wu Minghao once took the unfinished version of "Fantasy Realm" to contact the channel provider in advance to pave the way for the game to go online in the future.

There is a distributor who has taken a fancy to it and intends to sign an exclusive agency agreement. Once the agreement is signed, a sum of money will be directly credited to the account.

Naturally, Wu Minghao shared this news with the project owner as soon as possible, and promised that after the money arrived, he would use part of it as a bonus.

After all, everyone has been in business for so long and has been receiving low wages. Wu Minghao really wants to compensate everyone materially.

Unexpectedly, the channel provider changed his mind, and the sole agent agreement was not signed.

In this way, Wu Minghao was made very passive. He promised to pay bonuses before, but the premise was that he had to sign an exclusive generation agreement, and the bonus would only be given out if he had money!Now the studio's funds are already stretched, so it's impossible to bite the bullet and force the money, right?
All kinds of factors superimposed, and the world architect ran away.

It is said that in order to recruit him, the big company offered a monthly salary of more than 3 yuan.

Of course, the high salary is one aspect. This world architect’s job-hopping is not all for money, but more because of the accumulation of conflicts in the entrepreneurial stage, which made him lose confidence in this project.

Many gameplays have been cut and castrated, funds are stretched, and everything has to be done, and the sole generation agreement has not been signed, and the prospect of the game's launch is not optimistic...

These are the reasons for this world architect to go.

Zhong Ming nodded, expressing his understanding.

Before starting a business, many people only saw the bright future, but did not see the risks behind it.

Obviously, these people who followed Wu Minghao to start a business, especially the few backbones, are capable, at least they can get along like ducks in water in large companies.

However, it may not be suitable for him to do it alone, at least the plot designer seriously underestimated the risks.

Wu Minghao sighed, and said: "That's the situation. In fact, there is nothing to hide. I, the producer, should bear the main responsibility for this kind of thing. In short, there is a mess left now, which is difficult to clean up. If If you are willing to help, I must be grateful."

Zhong Ming thought for a while: "I can help, but there are two conditions."

Wu Minghao nodded: "You say."

"First, all the plot is left to me, and no one can interfere. If I want to make some changes to the basic gameplay of the game, I must listen to it."

"Second, I don't want a basic salary, but in the first three months after the game goes live, I want [-]% of the game's net profit."

"Uh……"

Wu Minghao got into some small entanglements.

It is certain that the plot is fully handed in, because other people in the studio do not have the ability to change the plot of the game.

However, if the modification of the basic gameplay of the game diverges from Wu Minghao's own design, what should we do?
Money is also an issue.

If it was paid according to the basic salary, then Wu Minghao might not be able to afford it.

What level is the bell?Certainly not based on the market price of general world architects.Because Zhong Ming has two successful games, and he opened his own studio to make games, with a monthly turnover of several million easily, how much money should this kind of person work for you?
However, 10% of the net profit, that is, [-]%, is quite a lot.

If the net income of the project can reach 500 million, then Zhong Ming will take 50 by himself.

Of course, if the project hits the market and fails to earn a penny, then Zhong Ming will not get a penny.

Wu Minghao thought for a few minutes before making a decision: "Okay, I agree! However, regarding the basic gameplay, I still hope that changes can be made carefully..."

Zhong Ming smiled: "Don't worry, I'm also a producer, can I make random changes to your game? Only small changes are required for the content related to the plot, and I won't change other parts. Besides, let me redo it The gameplay is very expensive, do you think I am willing to change your function?"

Wu Minghao laughed: "That's right, that's fine, thank you very much!"

Wu Minghao is not stupid, and he didn't hesitate for long. He can still make things clear when it comes to money.

Moreover, Wu Minghao knew in his heart that Zhong Ming's asking price was because he was very confident in himself, and felt that he could make up the plot and take this project to the next level!This asking price is not only full of sincerity, but also full of confidence.

Strictly speaking, Wu Minghao still had to thank Zhong Ming, which was actually a favor, to accept Zhong Ming's favor.

"Then, I'll send you all the documents related to the plot later, and study it first? Will you work there in the future?" Wu Minghao said.

Zhong Ming said: "Today, I will take the plot file back first and study it. From now on, every Wednesday and Saturday, I will come here to work with you. If you have any questions about the plot, please communicate face to face."

Wu Minghao was very happy: "That's good. Let's sign an agreement first, and then I will turn on the computer for you, and you can copy all the plot files and take them away."

(End of this chapter)