Meanwhile, at Tenda Games.
Min Jingchao was browsing the forums as usual, freely harvesting the players’ creativity.
Undeniably, the wisdom of players was infinite.
Take the Traveler Bao Xu concept, for example—Min Jingchao found it excellent at first glance, with rich hero mechanics, fitting image, and most importantly, perfectly matching Bao Xu’s character.
So he adopted it on the spot.
However, such good ideas weren’t common.
After all, players who were proficient in game mechanics and understood design were a minority; most creative ideas had various issues.
Min Jingchao’s recent daily work was screening the massive amount of creative ideas provided by players, finding suitable ones, and handing them to the design team for refinement before entering the production process.
During the screening process, Min Jingchao also had some unwritten rules.
Designers from the gaming department didn’t participate in this activity.
Min Jingchao himself had designed several heroes, but he didn’t take these benefits. He felt that Mr. Pei had paid enough salary for his work and would issue bonuses based on the game’s reputation, investment, and other factors, so there was no reason to earn money twice.
He didn’t feel comfortable competing with players for the 5% revenue.
Secondly, when selecting heroes, Min Jingchao tried to choose different creators.
Only if a hero was superior to others by a large margin, and the creativity must be utilized, would Min Jingchao consider adopting two hero proposals from the same designer.
Because this activity itself was for mass participation, GOG had a limited total number of heroes, and there were only so many rewards. If too many rewards were taken by the same account, other people’s motivation to participate would be greatly reduced, which would not be conducive to maintaining a healthy ecology in the entire community.
Of course, factors such as whether the hero mechanism matched the game mechanism, whether the hero characteristics were distinct, whether the positioning overlapped with existing heroes, and whether there were conflicts also needed to be comprehensively considered.
As Min Jingchao was browsing, he suddenly noticed a post with decent likes.
He instinctively clicked in and found this was a pure hero mechanism design post.
This hero’s first skill was a short-range damage skill that could knock enemies airborne after being used three times, the second skill was…
“Hmm? This game mechanism looks quite interesting.”
Min Jingchao pondered carefully and felt that this hero had a clear positioning, and the mechanism itself had good entertainment value. As long as it was paired with suitable packaging, it should be quite popular.
But the problem was, what packaging to give it?
If this enthusiastic player had revealed a bit about the hero’s general story background, there would at least be a general direction, but now, aside from the fact that he was more of a warrior, more of an assassin-type hero, there was no entry point at all.
Min Jingchao casually checked this player’s profile, hoping to find some inspiration.
After all, the creative idea for this hero came from this player, so if the image design could be somewhat related to this player, that would be even better.
“Hmm? Does it have all of Tenda’s games? This is a hardcore Tenda game fan.”
“Oh? ‘Lonely Desert Highway’ was purchased so early? This is a super hardcore fan.”
“…”
“This is Mr. Pei himself?!”
Min Jingchao was shocked to discover this was Mr. Pei’s account!
He triple-checked, and yes, it was Mr. Pei!
But then, Min Jingchao became confused.
If Mr. Pei wanted to make a new hero, couldn’t he just tell me directly?
Why post it on the forum, going to such lengths?
What if players didn’t recognize its value and didn’t upvote it? Wouldn’t the design be wasted?
Could it be that Mr. Pei was so confident in his design that he believed it would stand out even among the many proposals from players?
Well, looking at the result, that was the case.
But it seemed that this reason alone wasn’t sufficient.
Min Jingchao began to think more broadly, after all, “thinking more” was an essential quality for every Tenda employee.
Why didn’t this hero have a specific image design?
Was Mr. Pei unable to design a specific image?
Definitely not!
So it was intentional on Mr. Pei’s part.
After repeated consideration, Min Jingchao finally summarized two intentions behind Mr. Pei’s actions.
First, Mr. Pei left the hero’s packaging empty, seemingly testing the GOG development team’s ability, letting them guess his intentions and complete the hero’s appearance and story background.
Second, given the fierce competition between GOG and IOI, with both sides being important, Mr. Pei didn’t want to take sides. So he didn’t provide clear instructions but used this subtle approach.
In other words, Mr. Pei didn’t want others to know he participated in GOG’s design; he just helped secretly.
This warmed Min Jingchao’s heart—indeed, the GOG project was truly Mr. Pei’s favorite child!
As for that 5% revenue, Mr. Pei obviously wouldn’t care about it. What Mr. Pei valued more should be the title of “Designer of XXX.”
“So, I should hide the fact that this hero was designed by Mr. Pei and consider it completely as a design from an ordinary player.”
“Then the next question is, what kind of packaging should be made for this hero?”
“There’s already a hero based on Mr. Pei, so this hero should be designed based on someone else.”
“Based on whom?”
“Mr. Pei must have someone in mind, but is just too shy to write it out.”
Min Jingchao thought seriously and found that this hero seemed to work well with Modistek.
Because Modistek’s second skill had a road-blocking + knockback effect, and this knockback itself was a floating + displacement state, which theoretically should be able to connect with this new hero’s ultimate.
That is to say, Modistek could directly flank and use his second skill to block the road + knock back enemy key heroes, the new hero would connect with his ultimate, then Modistek would use his ultimate to absorb damage, and the new hero would work with him to begin crazy output.
Yes, a perfect partnership!
And who was Mr. Pei’s perfect partner in reality?
Master Ruan Guangjian!
Moreover, this hero’s skills also matched Master Ruan Guangjian’s characteristics.
An artist’s abstract image should be light and elegant. At the same time, although Ruan Guangjian looked like an ordinary person externally, years of artistic influence gave his every move the quality of ancient scholars and literati.
With this in mind, Min Jingchao had an idea.
Hero name: Wind Scholar Ruan.
Ruan was an ancient Chinese calligrapher and painter, wielding an oversized brush as his weapon.
His first skill was using the brush to write wild cursive script; after three times, he could summon a gale through the vigor of the wild cursive, causing an airborne effect on enemies along the path.
His second skill was quickly drawing a landscape painting with swirling clouds and mist in front, blocking flying-type skills.
His third skill was riding the wind, allowing him to quickly shuttle between enemies.
His ultimate skill was illusion, casting an illusion on enemies in an airborne state. Simultaneously, Ruan would ride the wind, coming directly to the target’s side from thousands of miles away, completely suppressing the target and causing damage.
After matching the hero’s packaging and skills, Min Jingchao carefully checked again and found they mysteriously fit perfectly.
“Could it be that this hero was originally custom-made for Master Ruan?”
“But Mr. Pei was too shy to make it so obvious?”
“Yes, this possibility is very high. After all, Mr. Pei previously deliberately increased the payment to outsourcing companies to care for Master Ruan’s studio, just to help Master Ruan quickly overcome difficulties after coming to Jingzhou.”
“Ah, is the friendship between big shots always so subtle?”
Min Jingchao couldn’t help but imagine the scene of Modistek and Ruan fighting side by side in the future Valley of the Gods.
Just thinking about it made his blood boil!
Min Jingchao immediately began preparing the concept art requirements for the Ruan hero, ready to send them to Ruan Guangjian at the first opportunity.
Since it was Master Ruan’s hero, of course, the hero’s appearance should be personally designed by Master Ruan.
After Traveler Bao Xu went online, the next hero would be Wind Scholar Ruan!
Min Jingchao worked very efficiently; in less than two hours, a hero requirement sheet for Wind Scholar was ready.
He immediately sent this requirement sheet to Ruan Guangjian.
…
In the Halo Studio, Ruan Guangjian was drinking coffee while continuing to work busily.
Suddenly, the chat software icon in the lower right corner of his computer began flashing, and a file acceptance window popped up: Wind Scholar Ruan-Hero Requirement Sheet.xlsx.
“Hmm?”
Ruan Guangjian was stunned; the hero design came out so quickly.
Last Thursday or Friday, the requirements for Traveler Bao Xu had just been scheduled, and now there was a new hero so soon?
Ruan Guangjian accepted the requirement sheet, opened it, and was stunned.
Surname Ruan likes calligraphy and painting…
He somewhat suspected this hero was based on himself, but also felt this thought might be a bit narcissistic.
Just then, Min Jingchao sent a message.
“Master Ruan, yes, this is a hero designed by Mr. Pei based on you, with a few more details added by me.”
“However, Mr. Pei seems quite low-key and doesn’t want others to know this is his work, so don’t make it too obvious either; just keep it in mind.”
Ruan Guangjian was stunned; I just met Mr. Pei when I went to buy coffee.
That means, before that, Mr. Pei had already designed a hero based on me?
But at Slackin’ Internet Café, Mr. Pei showed no intention of mentioning it…
Well, this matches Mr. Pei’s consistently subtle character.
Last time, when Halo Studio moved to Jingzhou, Mr. Pei was also cold on the outside but warm inside; he didn’t say much verbally, but quietly raised the pricing for outsourcing to help Halo Studio overcome difficulties.
This time, he was even more subtle, quietly making a dedicated hero for me in the game.
Ruan Guangjian couldn’t help but smile, replying: “Don’t worry, I’ll design the concept art to be very cool!”
Min Jingchao then said, “So, release a joint skin with Modistek for the first skin, and set the two heroes’ story backgrounds as best friends, okay?”
Ruan Guangjian smiled knowingly: “Of course, I couldn’t ask for more.”