Chapter 14 I hope we don’t make the same mistake again!
"This game looks amazing! It's very artistic!"
Su Tong has finished reading the design draft of the game, but he is still not satisfied with it, and even wants to read it again.
Obviously in her eyes, this game innovatively combines the myth of Sisyphus with the setting of purgatory in "The Divine Comedy". It also perfects many details and makes it into a game. It is the game that serves as the "first The concentrated expression of "Nine Arts".
Su Tong has also gone to some game companies for interviews before and learned about the games produced by these companies.
But most of these games are simple and crude mobile games with little technical content. Even if there are a few PC games, most of them rely on numerical values to win. There are few that focus mainly on artistry like this.
Therefore, Su Tong felt even more lucky, feeling that she was so lucky to have landed in such a unique company.
Gu Fan was silent for a moment: "So, what do you think of the basic gameplay of this game?"
"Basic gameplay?" Su Tong was a little confused. She looked at the design draft again, "Basic gameplay, I think...it seems pretty good?"
Gu Fan nodded and said nothing.
Well, it fits the character...
Obviously, as a newcomer who has never played a few games, Su Tong basically knows nothing about the game's basic gameplay design, difficulty design, and the emotional experience the game brings to players.
This game looks really good just from the packaging. After all, Lilith uses local materials. For the devil, this is a natural advantage.
Moreover, the art resources of this game are still very explosive.
For Gu Fan, this is a Western fantasy style, but for the art team in hell, this is probably the simplest realistic style. The materials are everywhere, so just follow the painting.
In short, four words, professional counterpart!
Gu Fan had previously suggested to Lilith that art resources did not need to be so good, but it was obvious that Lilith did not adopt this suggestion.
So why is Lilith so confident that "Sisyphus" can persuade more players and create more negative emotions than "Hell Tracks"?
Obviously, she plans to start from the basic gameplay of the game!
The success of "Hell Tracks" is due to the bullet turning bug, and the reason why this bug exists is ultimately because the underlying mechanism of FPS games is relatively complex.
But the underlying mechanism of "Sisyphus" is very simple.
Only basic operations such as moving and jumping.
Not only that, Lilith also deliberately lowered the mobility of the character Sisyphus.
Obviously, "Hell Tracks" made her realize that instead of strengthening the enemy, it is better to weaken herself!
And this weakening is very reasonable. Although Sisyphus is a mythical character and very strong, it is normal for him to walk slowly and unable to jump when he is pushing such a big stone.
In this case, the player controls Sisyphus and every step he takes can be said to be torture.
And this game is no fun at all.
At any time, a weak self will bring greater frustration to the player than a powerful enemy.
If this game wants to become a normal, fun, and popular game, it still lacks something very crucial.
What is it?
Gu Fan fell into deep thought.
…
…
In the next month, Gu Fan carried out the development of the game "Sisyphus" step by step.
In comparison, the development difficulty of "Sisyphus" is slightly higher than that of "Hell Tracks", because "Hell Tracks" is an FPS game with relatively simple functions and can apply more templates.
As for the operation of the character "Rolling Stone" in "Sisyphus", there is no ready-made template that can be directly applied. All detailed rules and mechanisms have to be completed by Gu Fan himself.
Fortunately, the gameplay of "Sisyphus" is very simple. The only content of the game is "pushing a stone up a mountain", so it can still be developed within a month.
As for Su Tong, she is also very busy at work every day.
This top student almost memorized the design documents of "Sisyphus" by heart in just one day, and then she followed Zhao Fan's request and started playing "Hell Tracks".
As for how the game was going... I can only describe it in four words: "Participation is the most important thing."
Gu Fan decided to conduct a simple test on Su Tong to determine whether recruiting her as the leader of the test team was the right choice. Therefore, Gu Fan deliberately did not tell her about the "bullet turning" in this game.
They just assigned her a task to clear the single-player mode of "Hell Tracks" first, and she was not allowed to look up the guide online.
Then Gu Fan saw Su Tong dying tirelessly for more than two hours in front of the first monster.
This is enough to illustrate two points.
First, Su Tong's gaming skills are indeed very poor. When playing games, she can't even use the keyboard and mouse very well. Her marksmanship in FPS games is even more shoddy, and she feels like using a keyboard and mouse to create a controller.
Second, Su Tong's ability to detect bugs is not very strong. If she were allowed to test it, it is estimated that this "bullet turning" bug would not be discovered for another week of testing.
Gu Fan was very satisfied with this.
If these two points are met, it means that the tester is the right one!
…
…
Soon, one month and two weeks passed by unconsciously.
It took Gu Fan a month to develop the game "Sisyphus" and another two weeks to conduct a comprehensive test of the game with Su Tong.
Testing is mainly done through the testing tool "AI-debug", and those superficial bugs are quickly found and fixed.
In addition, two testers, Gu Fan and Su Tong, also conducted "artificially assisted testing."
To put it bluntly, I mean to experience the entire game process as a player and find those deep-seated bugs in a "lucky" way.
Not to mention, there are still quite a lot of "found" bugs.
This time, Gu Fan directly recorded his bug fixes in detail in the background, highlighting the great contribution he and the test team have made to the Nitiantian game.
All in all, the game is polished enough to fully meet Lilith's original expectations.
Everything is ready, ready for sale!
So far, Nitian Game Company has a considerable amount of funds in its account.
The game "Hell Tracks" has been on sale for one month and three weeks, bringing Nitian Game Company a net income of approximately 7 million.
70% of these revenues will be used to fund the development and promotion of new games, which is approximately 5 million.
In the process of making the game "Sisyphus", Gu Fan purchased some expensive game templates and functional plug-ins, and also outsourced the development of some simple functions. Including miscellaneous expenses, it cost about 200. Ten thousand.
With Lilith providing art resources, this cost is already considerable for an independent game.
5% is Gu Fan's personal bonus, which is 350,000. Of course, the money was transferred to his personal account by Gu Fan immediately and he was safe.
The remaining 25%, or 1.75 million, will be used for other operating expenses, such as paying wages, renting space, purchasing office computers, etc.
Gu Fan spent this money very economically and kept everything simple. So far, he has only spent more than 30,000 yuan, and there is still 1.7 million.
All in all, there are currently about 4.7 million lying in the company's account.
1.7 million of this is a very wide-ranging operating fund, which Gu Fan does not plan to use for the time being; while the remaining 3 million is a game promotion fund.
Lilith is currently directly responsible for the promotion of the game, and Gu Fan doesn't know how she will spend the 3 million.
However, Gu Fan still hopes that Lilith will spend all the money. After all, it is useless to keep it. It can only be used for the development and promotion of the game. And if the money is not enough, Lilith will replenish it. It will not be spent until it is in vain.
…
6pm.
Gu Fan finished dinner outside and just returned to his rental house when he saw Lilith sitting on the lazy sofa in the living room, eating potato chips and trying out the game "Sisyphus" on the computer. .
She seemed to be in a good mood.
"The game is well completed," Lilith said.
Gu Fan nodded: "Of course, I am an ethical programmer. No matter what outrageous functional requirements the product manager and designer put forward, I will do my best to complete them."
Lilith glanced at him, her eyes full of suspicion.
"Hey, why are you looking at me like this? I feel like I'm more wronged than Dou E." Gu Fan said as he took out a can of Coke from the refrigerator, opened it, and sat on his newly bought single sofa.
Lilith was a little speechless: "You have such a big problem with "Hell Tracks", how dare you say this?"
Gu Fan said confidently: "Why are you embarrassed? Just ask whether all the functional requirements have been completed."
Lilith was speechless for a moment. Well, all the functional requirements were indeed completed, and some additional functional requirements were even completed because of bugs. It seems that there is nothing wrong with that...
She thought for a long time and could only say: "Okay, I hope the same problem won't happen again in "Sisyphus" this time!
"Just in time, before the game is officially approved for release, I will arrange the marketing plan for this game. You must implement it seriously!"