At noon the next day, Ma Yang sent the revised requirements document to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian took a look and thought this requirements document was simply perfect.

It was practically the same as not writing anything at all!

Although Pei Qian had never worked in the gaming industry before, this requirements document was based on a template from the resource website, which also briefly mentioned some basic rules for writing requirements documents.

In simple terms, the more detailed, the better.

When designers propose a character concept, it’s often abstract and vague, while artists need to create something concrete and detailed.

In this process, it’s very easy for discrepancies to occur.

For example, if a designer wants an “exceptionally handsome male character,” this is an extremely vague standard that can’t be quantified at all.

What exactly qualifies as “exceptionally handsome”?

If an artist draws a character they think is exceptionally handsome, would the designer be satisfied? Not necessarily.

After all, aesthetics are highly subjective.

Therefore, designers should be as specific as possible when submitting requirements, ideally detailing exactly what clothes the character wears, what hat they have, what weapon they use, and any distinctive features, and so on.

If there are similar reference images, even better.

There’s a joke in the gaming industry:

A designer tells a programmer: “I want a feature that looks like this! The design concept is this, and it should achieve this kind of effect!”

The programmer responds impatiently: “Just tell me which game’s feature you want to copy, and show it to me.”

A designer tells an artist, “I want a character that looks like this! This character should have this appearance, this personality, and should emphasize this feeling!”

The artist responds impatiently: “Just tell me which character you want to copy, and show me the picture.”

It’s not entirely due to laziness; it’s mainly because too much information gets lost when translating from text to visuals.

When creating a requirements document, naturally, the more detailed the description and the richer the reference images, the better. This ensures that what the artist creates doesn’t deviate too much from what the designer originally envisioned.

Looking at the requirements document that Ma Yang provided.

It was completely self-indulgent!

Taking Guan Yu as an example.

“He is a dragon, a humanoid dragon.”

“As the martial saint of the dragon race, he is considered the pinnacle of martial prowess.”

“Living his entire life on the edge of a blade, his understanding of battle and slaughter is completely different from ordinary people.”

That’s it.

Then there’s Ma Chao.

“Half-human, half-horse in appearance, thus called an ‘alien race.'”

“Unlike other centaur princes, Ma Chao has obvious dragon bloodline features, such as dragon horns growing from his head.”

“Perhaps it’s precisely because of his half-dragon bloodline that Ma Chao gained power comparable to the dragons.”

And then Zhuge Liang.

“In his youth, Zhuge Liang was acclaimed as the greatest inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer of the Three Kingdoms period.”

“His research spanned multiple cutting-edge fields including artificial lightning, meteorological weapons, flying devices, automated vehicles, robots, and more.”

“At the same time, he enjoyed multiple titles such as poet, philosopher, music connoisseur, and linguist.”

Zhuge Liang’s description was more extensive than the previous two, clearly showing that Ma Yang got carried away while writing.

Besides these, there were also Dragon Guard Zhou Cang, Phoenix Orphan Pang Tong, Crystal Ice Woman Xu Shu, Mechanical Puppet Huang Yueying, Blood Domain Lord Guo Jia, Dragon Hunter Loli Lu Meng, Night Ranger Taishi Ci, Lone Shadow Swordsman Zhou Yu, and a series of other characters.

Aside from the names and some peripheral features, they no longer matched the Three Kingdoms characters at all!

This content was practically useless to artists.

Moreover, it could have been written much more concisely.

For instance, simply writing “Guan Yu is a humanoid dragon” would have been sufficient; the rest was completely unnecessary.

But for Pei Qian, this was a perfect requirements document!

He was so pleased he even punched himself in celebration.

As expected of Ma Yang, so reliable!

Pei Qian could never have written something like this himself!

Bringing Ma Yang on as his employee was the right decision!

Pei Qian didn’t change a single word and sent the requirements document directly to Ruan Guangjian.

Five minutes later, Ruan Guangjian replied.

“This requirements document is way too simplified???”

“It’s very difficult for me to draw without clear standards.”

Pei Qian was prepared for this and immediately said: “Don’t worry, feel free to design as you like! Even if you think these requirements aren’t reliable and don’t want to follow them completely, that’s fine. I trust your professional abilities!”

Ruan Guangjian: “…No, we signed a contract, so there needs to be a standard. Otherwise, we might end up with disputes later, and that would be troublesome.”

Pei Qian hurriedly said: “Really! I completely trust your artistic ability. Rest assured, whatever you draw is what we’ll go with. I absolutely won’t make you revise repeatedly! You can screenshot my words as evidence. Or if you feel it’s necessary, we can add it to the contract.”

“That won’t be necessary… Alright, I’ll see what I can do,” Ruan Guangjian replied.

Pei Qian felt relieved.

He was genuinely worried that Ruan Guangjian would stubbornly insist on getting a detailed character design document and then draw everything properly.

This way, both parties saved effort, and everyone was happy.

With some money left, Pei Qian didn’t hold onto it. Next came purchasing music and sound effects, buying other art resources, renting cloud servers, and so on.

None of these would cost much. Pei Qian calculated everything perfectly, leaving only about ten thousand yuan for emergencies.

As for the promotional budget after the game was completed…

Of course, not a single cent was allocated.

He had no intention of promoting it at all! It would be better if no one knew about this game!

Pei Qian felt his future was bright and continued to busy himself with spending money.

……

At a financial university in Magic City.

In an art department dormitory.

The living conditions here were much better than at Handong University, where Pei Qian was studying.

Beds above, desks below, air-conditioned rooms that were new and spacious.

Thanks to the resource website established by ESRO, many art students could take on freelance work online during college, slightly improving their lifestyle.

Moreover, these projects would benefit their future job applications after graduation.

Ruan Guangjian put down his mouse and called out, “Old Huang, Old Zhou, hurry up and call everyone over. We finally got a job!”

Soon, five other people gathered around.

“Three weeks, 50 sets of original artwork, 4 drawings per set, 3,000 yuan! How about that? Awesome, right?”

Ruan Guangjian was a very energetic young man with short hair, fair skin, and regular features, looking nothing like an artist.

His roommates were quite different—some had long hair, some had tattoos, each with their own distinctive style.

Old Huang, who had a small goatee, was the first to come over: “3,000 yuan for 4 drawings? Damn, that’s good! Just for this price, I’d even draw Q-version characters! For the sake of making a living.”

Ruan Guangjian shook his head: “No Q-version this time! The client specifically said they don’t want Q-version, other styles are fine!”

Old Huang was shocked: “What? I remember all your portfolio pieces were Q-version, weren’t they? And the client specifically asked not to do the Q-version? Is he out of his mind for hiring you?”

“Nonsense, this shows he has an eye for talent!” Ruan Guangjian rolled his eyes. “I hate drawing Q-version the most, but since mobile games are trending with Q-version characters, I could only take Q-version jobs before. It was out of necessity. Now that I don’t have to draw Q-version, I finally have a chance to show my true abilities!”

“You’re going to draw in your style? That doesn’t seem right…” Old Huang hesitated. “The client is paying money, but you’re using that money to draw what you want to draw. This…”

“The client said he trusts my artistic level and professional ability, and let me design completely on my own!”

“And look at this requirements document, it aligns perfectly with my ideas!”