Not long after Wu Zhicheng received his milk tea, a young man wearing glasses with slightly curly hair found him.

“Hello, my name is Xi Hao. I’m the head of the administrative department here, and I also help designers with development planning, budgeting, progress reminders, and so on. In short, you can think of me as your ‘housekeeper’ for work-related matters. Feel free to come to me with any issues.”

“Let me first take you to your workstation and help you get a bit familiar with the entire incubation base.”

Wu Zhicheng quickly stood up to shake hands with Xi Hao: “Great, pleased to meet you. I’ll be in your care from now on.”

Xi Hao smiled and patted his shoulder: “No need to be so formal. We’re all family from now on. My colleagues and I in the administrative department also just joined recently—we’re all newcomers.”

“Besides, the administrative department here isn’t about management but service. You focus on creativity, we focus on service. Your work is much more important than ours.”

The two chatted while walking toward the office area.

To ensure the normal operation of the incubation base, besides finding office space, another important task for Qiu Hong during this period was recruitment.

If he had directly posted job listings and gone through standard recruitment channels, the efficiency would have been too low. So Qiu Hong leveraged some of his connections in the capital’s gaming circle and screened a batch of candidates through internal referrals.

Xi Hao had over four years of game development experience and had served as an executive designer at a small company. While his abilities weren’t top-tier in all aspects, they were more than sufficient for ordinary projects.

Moreover, although Xi Hao lacked intuition in game design, he had the outstanding qualities of being meticulous, careful, and very responsible in his work.

So after consideration, Qiu Hong thought Xi Hao was a good candidate and decided to have him be responsible for maintaining the normal operation of the entire incubation base.

The administrative department of the incubation base wasn’t just about administration but more like a hodgepodge.

It included dedicated finance, legal, and art requirement teams, as well as personnel specifically responsible for development progress planning and supervision.

In short, all the supporting departments that Qiu Hong believed independent game developers lacked were provided.

Although the administrative department of the entire incubation base wasn’t large, with just over ten people, it was small but complete, with dedicated staff for specific roles, all being professionals with certain experience in their respective fields.

Xi Hao led Wu Zhicheng to a window-facing workstation in the office area: “This will be your workstation from now on. Your staff badge is still being made and should be ready soon.”

“Here’s your work card. In the future, you can directly swipe it to enter the first floor without having to register.”

“Our administrative department is over there by the windows. If you encounter any problems at work in the future, you can contact us at any time.”

“This morning, you can first import all your data and resources from your computer to the office computer here, and meanwhile, activate the internal communication account and project management permissions according to this paper.”

“In the afternoon, we’ll have a small meeting to briefly discuss the game you’re working on. This will help us estimate the development timeframe, formulate a development plan, and find suitable artists.”

Xi Hao quickly introduced all the matters needing attention at the incubation space.

It was similar to formally joining a company, except that the work content and workflow were different.

After Xi Hao left, Wu Zhicheng turned on the office computer in front of him.

These office computers were still provided by ROF Installation, directly shipped in bulk from Jingzhou to the capital, though they didn’t use ROF’s custom cases or have ROF logos on the cases.

Wu Zhicheng had never used ROF Installation before, so he didn’t think much about it, assuming these were high-end assembled computers purchased by the incubation base itself.

After booting up, Wu Zhicheng copied the relevant data for “Ink and Mist” to this office computer, logged into the official development backend, and activated the internal communication account and project management permissions as Xi Hao had instructed.

Wu Zhicheng had never worked in a game company before and wasn’t familiar with these standard procedures for game companies, so he found it all fresh and interesting.

“Wow, this computer has such high specs!”

Wu Zhicheng was a bit surprised. His previous computer also had decent specifications—he had spent all his savings on it—but due to budget constraints, he had focused more on cost-effectiveness.

This computer, however, was the epitome of pursuing ultimate high-end specifications. After taking a glance at the configuration, Wu Zhicheng was practically drooling with envy.

The ergonomic office desk and chair, along with supporting facilities like the bar counter providing unlimited drinks and milk tea, all satisfied him greatly. The working environment was incomparably better.

In this relaxed working atmosphere, Wu Zhicheng began to organize various content for “Ink and Mist,” including the expected number of levels, boss battle designs, art style, and so on, to avoid being clueless during the afternoon meeting and embarrassing himself in front of everyone.

—

The lunch was all provided by nearby Slackin’ Delivery.

Currently, Slackin’ Delivery has expanded beyond Handong Province, opening some stores in first-tier cities like the capital and Magic City.

One very important reason Qiu Hong chose this location for the incubation base was that there was a Slackin’ Delivery store nearby, which could conveniently solve the dining issue.

Wu Zhicheng ate and drank to his heart’s content, burping while sipping milk tea, thinking what a divine working environment this was!

Previously, he had been hesitant about whether to come work here, partly because he found the daily four subway stops troublesome, and partly because he was worried about losing his freedom.

But now seeing this working environment, Wu Zhicheng had only one thought: Is this heaven?

In the afternoon, Xi Hao, Wu Zhicheng, and three other employees from the administrative department had a meeting.

Xi Hao briefly introduced the roles of these three people: one was responsible for resource volume statistics, progress planning, and development node reminders; another was responsible for proposing and communicating art resource needs; and the third was responsible for financial reimbursement, information collection, printing, and various other miscellaneous tasks.

This was the team framework Qiu Hong had prepared for the incubation base after careful consideration.

The entire incubation base had three such teams, each capable of handling 4-6 independent game projects.

In other words, at maximum efficiency, the entire incubation base could simultaneously incubate 12-18 independent game projects, ensuring that all these game projects received the most comprehensive support.

The three people in the team had clear divisions of labor, basically taking care of all aspects of independent games except for gameplay design and specific production.

As the person in charge, Xi Hao needed to understand all independent game projects and also plan and supervise the work tasks of all teams.

Wu Zhicheng was a bit nervous.

Since he started making independent games, he had always stayed at home, with very little interaction with others, almost non-existent, and especially work-related communication.

Now, facing four people with pens and paper who were seriously taking notes, he felt a bit of stage fright.

However, Wu Zhicheng quickly adjusted his mindset and began to introduce the basic situation of “Ink and Mist.”

‘Ink and Mist’ is a side-scrolling action game. I’m currently planning a total of 10 levels, each with distinctive bosses and minions…”

Wu Zhicheng roughly went through what he had previously presented to Qiu Hong.

The four people across from him nodded while silently taking notes.

Although they already had some basic information about “Ink and Mist,” it was clearer to hear it directly from the designer.

Xi Hao didn’t interrupt Wu Zhicheng but waited until he had finished speaking before raising his questions.

“Have you planned the approximate game duration?” Xi Hao asked.

Wu Zhicheng was taken aback: “Uh… I haven’t considered this question yet.”

Xi Hao nodded and explained: “Although you mentioned there would be ten levels in the game, this is a relatively vague concept. A level that takes 10 minutes to complete counts as one level, and a level that takes 2 hours to complete can also count as one level.”

“To ensure game content and fully cater to the player’s gaming experience, we should first plan the game time, then adjust the specific level planning based on the game time.”

“Generally speaking, for this kind of independent side-scrolling game, a good first playthrough duration is 8-12 hours, neither too long nor too short.”

“My suggestion is that the standard gameplay duration could be set at around 10 hours, and the levels should follow the principle of progressing from easy to difficult, so later levels should take a bit longer.”