After hearing Min Jingchao’s explanation, everyone nodded in agreement.

Obviously, these words carried particular weight coming from Min Jingchao’s mouth.

Because Min Jingchao himself was a designer for GOG, constantly responsible for balancing data and game mechanics, his understanding in this area was absolutely beyond what ordinary people could grasp.

In many cases, a person’s abilities weren’t entirely determined by their innate talent or effort, but also depended on the platform they were in.

When someone found themselves on a suitable platform, even if their talent wasn’t exceptional, their abilities could grow by leaps and bounds.

And if someone had great talent but lacked a suitable platform, their talent would be difficult to activate.

It was like in history, why did all those famous figures from the early Han dynasty appear clustered in one small area?

Not because that small place had some magical ability to nurture talent, but because they followed Liu Bang and had a sufficiently elevated platform that allowed them to continuously improve.

Similarly, great generals emerged in chaotic times because they grew faster during frequent warfare.

GOG was an excellent platform, and Min Jingchao had been honing his skills here for so long that he had witnessed the rise and prosperity of this game. He had different thoughts at different stages, and over time, his understanding in this area had become exceptionally profound.

Of course, GOG’s balance wasn’t without issues, and it was often criticized by players.

This was normal—strong heroes needed nerfs, but if the nerf was too small, it would be ineffective; if too severe, it might completely ruin the hero. Meanwhile, weak heroes, if buffed too little, wouldn’t experience any qualitative change, but if buffed too much, might suddenly become unstoppable.

Additionally, there were already huge differences between player groups. A hero might be completely different in low-tier matches, high-end games, and professional competitions, making balance issues even more challenging.

But overall, during Min Jingchao’s tenure managing GOG, he had done quite well with game balance, partly because he could get advice from DGE Club’s professional players and tactical analysts, and also listen to feedback from the player community.

When deeply considering the question of professional balance in FPS games, Min Jingchao discovered that FPS game professional settings should not simply copy MOBA or MMORPG games, which led to the current design solution.

With this, the entire design plan for “Bullet Hole 2” had been fully explained.

There was certainly much more work ahead, such as determining the specific layout of the large map, how to distribute strongpoints, the scale of resources refreshing at each strongpoint, how many special items would be available to players…

However, these tasks would be handled by other designers, like the level designers for the large map.

As lead designer, Min Jingchao only needed to ensure the general direction didn’t go off track.

A brief silence fell over the meeting room. After a while, Sun Xi said, “I have no further questions.”

The other designers didn’t say anything either.

Zhou Muyan looked around and nodded, “Good, then it’s settled.”

If it had been someone else’s design proposal, these designers might have raised more questions for discussion.

But Min Jingchao’s plan truly had no flaws to pick at, given his impressive track record.

While some innovative gameplay features had no precedent, no one could guarantee whether they would succeed or fail.

Under these circumstances, it was better to fully trust Min Jingchao and Mr. Pei.

What if they kept raising objections and the game failed anyway? Who would take responsibility then?

Min Jingchao looked at Sun Xi, “Then I’ll continue refining the plan. Please distribute the design documents to the designers in the group, keep track of progress, and we’ll start writing the design document on Monday.”

Sun Xi nodded, “Of course, that’s my responsibility.”

He paused, then asked, “Monday? Uh… what about Saturday?”

According to Tianhua Studio’s default workflow, designers would definitely be working 996 hours when a game was just launched.

Some designers were responsible for multiple design documents and had to work overnight before meetings to ensure their designs were completed on time.

Although this situation only indicated poor workload planning, everyone had been through it, so most designers had become accustomed to it and didn’t complain.

So Sun Xi assumed they would definitely be working overtime on Saturday to write design documents, but Min Jingchao hadn’t mentioned it at all.

Min Jingchao replied matter-of-factly, “We’ll have normal rest on weekends.”

“This…” Sun Xi instinctively glanced at Zhou Muyan.

Zhou Muyan cleared his throat, “Brother Min, I’ve heard about Tenda’s work model, but… every company has its own situation, and we can’t blindly copy others, right?”

“The designers in our studio aren’t as capable as those at Tenda, and they’re used to producing quality work slowly. Sometimes spending more time polishing results in better details.”

“How about this—you follow Tenda’s work schedule, while the rest of the project team follows our studio’s original process. What do you think?”

Zhou Muyan clearly didn’t want to open this door.

On one hand, he was concerned about the game’s quality.

In his view, Tenda could maximize holidays because their employees were highly efficient, but the people at Tianhua Studio weren’t as efficient.

With normal holidays and without the pressure of the development period, what would happen if development milestones couldn’t be completed?

On the other hand, he was worried about affecting others’ morale.

If everyone else came to work overtime on Saturday while no one from the “Bullet Hole 2” project team showed up, wouldn’t others feel it was unfair? Would they also stop wanting to work overtime?

Time was money, and game development was no exception. Zhou Muyan felt it was wasteful to give back time that had been squeezed out.

Of course, he didn’t feel he was mistreating these people, because when it came to distributing bonuses from game profits, he had always been generous compared to other veteran partners.

Min Jingchao shook his head, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“I believe the designers at Tianhua Studio are also all very strong designers, including the artists, programmers, and other project personnel—they’re all industry leaders.”

“The reason progress is sometimes slow might simply be because frequent overtime leads to low mental states and bodies not performing optimally, which invisibly drags down efficiency.”

“I hope we can follow Tenda’s development model—overtime is strictly prohibited outside normal working hours.”

“Work plans should be based on normal workloads. If tasks can’t be completed, add more people. If they still can’t be completed, then extend the deadline.”

“Mr. Pei once said that there are many ways to solve problems, but overtime is definitely not one of them. Overtime only superficially solves temporary problems, but in the long run, it creates many new ones.”

Zhou Muyan hesitated, but finally nodded, “Alright, we’ll do it that way.”

The game plan had already been finalized, so there was no point arguing with Min Jingchao over such a minor issue.

Although not working overtime would certainly slow down development progress, as long as the game could be successfully made and earn money, this wouldn’t be a problem.

Zhou Muyan looked at Sun Xi, “Then today’s meeting ends here. Go back and re-screen to select the most suitable designers for the ‘Bullet Hole 2’ project team. Once you’ve made your selections, bring the plan to my office.”

Sun Xi nodded, “No problem, Mr. Zhou.”

The meeting was considered over, and everyone left the conference room.

The workspace for the “Bullet Hole 2” project team had already been cleared out, and Min Jingchao had his own workstation where his daily work involved organizing design documents and preparing preliminary work.

The selection of lower-level project team members was nearly complete, but there were still some vacancies in middle management.

This was mainly because the gameplay hadn’t been fully finalized yet, making it difficult to determine which designers would be most suitable, so the decision had been postponed for a couple of days.

Zhou Muyan attached great importance to this project, so he was being very selective about personnel.

Sun Xi had just sat down at his workstation when he heard someone beside him say, “Brother Sun, I’d like to volunteer to handle the numerical design for ‘Bullet Hole 2.’ What do you think?”

Sun Xi looked up and quickly stood, “Brother Han, that doesn’t seem appropriate. Your current position is Lead Game Designer.”

This “Brother Han” had joined Tianhua Studio even earlier than Sun Xi and was currently leading his own project team, which had launched recently with decent results.

He had attended both meetings, but Zhou Muyan, considering that his own project was running well and that he didn’t have particular advantages in FPS games, had chosen Sun Xi instead of him.

Logically, the personnel list that Sun Xi needed to finalize was for middle management positions—people who would work under him.

Brother Han’s seniority and position were both higher than Sun Xi’s, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to work under Sun Xi on “Bullet Hole 2.”

Brother Han shook his head, “What’s inappropriate about it? My project is already on the right track, and I can give the position to younger colleagues, giving them more opportunities to grow.”

“Besides, my son was just born recently, and my time is quite tight as the person in charge over there, but if I move here…”

“Ahem, of course I’m absolutely not trying to take advantage of the holidays here! I just think Brother Min’s plan is especially good, and this project is very special—I could probably gain some insights from it.”

With things put so clearly, Sun Xi naturally understood.

“Alright, Brother Han, I’ll add you to the list for now, but whether this list can be approved… depends on whether Mr. Zhou agrees.”

Brother Han nodded, “Thank you, Brother Sun! When you submit the list, if Mr. Zhou asks, I hope you can put in a good word for me. I really value this opportunity!”

Sun Xi replied, “Of course, Brother Han, I understand.”

According to Tianhua Studio’s regulations, once someone left their original project team, they could receive bonuses for at most three more months, after which they would no longer be eligible.

After all, if someone was no longer on a project, what reason would there be to continue sharing bonuses?

A game’s lifespan was at least six months to a year, and as lead designer, Brother Han would be forfeiting a considerable amount of bonus money.

But clearly, he valued three factors about joining “Bullet Hole 2”: first, no overtime; second, working with Min Jingchao on this new project would provide insights and growth opportunities; and third, if “Bullet Hole 2” succeeded, wouldn’t there be bonuses for that too?

If he stayed with his original project, even if “Bullet Hole 2” succeeded, it would have nothing to do with him.

So after comprehensive consideration, he decided to volunteer for the “Bullet Hole 2” project team.

After Brother Han left, Sun Xi wrote his name in the numerical designer column as an alternate.

As soon as he finished writing, he saw several messages pop up on the company’s internal chat software.

“Brother Xi! I heard the ‘Bullet Hole 2’ project team doesn’t work overtime? Is that true?”

“Brother, when will the list be finalized?”

“You must include me! I’m one of the top level designers in the company, there’s no reason not to include me!”

“Brother Sun, can I join the ‘Bullet Hole 2’ project team?”

Looking at this string of messages, Sun Xi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Well, well! As soon as they heard there would be no overtime, everyone showed up!