Chapter 228

Chapter 228: The Path of Game Development

Now, Mei Yue needed time to understand the matters related to starting a company. Xia Yuan had just released her debut album. In the coming days, everyone could focus entirely on the development progress of “The Journey of Clouds.”

Many people might not know what the process of creating a game looks like. Then, let’s have the professional planner, Mei Fang, introduce this to the new members—

Firstly, students from the marketing or operations department conduct market research to understand the most popular genres currently. They write review reports and present these genres’ gameplay introductions, user profiles, market competitiveness, and payment situations to the boss and senior management.

Ultimately, under the brainwashing of professional terms like DAU, MAU, ARPU, they strive to convince the boss and senior management that as long as they choose products in these sectors during the incubation period of new projects, it will definitely make the company thrive and offer enviable year-end bonuses.

Afterwards, the boss and senior management experience the corresponding games based on the research results, estimate the development costs, evaluate their team’s control over the game, and at the same time, give the project team a certain budget to expand and integrate the team around this genre sector. The pressure then falls on the project leader.

The project leader of the R&D team is usually the main planner. Once the main planner determines the game category the boss wants, they let the planning team repeatedly play various games in the same genre while preparing materials for the new game and writing a project proposal. After going back and forth with modifications, the game can start being made.

The main planner first sets up the basic gameplay system framework. The main programmer starts writing the underlying code structure according to the framework. The main artist establishes the art style and norms.

During this process, planners, as intermediaries, continuously output demand documents to programmers and artists based on the version content requirements set by the main planner, gradually improving and optimizing the product content.

This process inevitably involves various adjustments, optimizations, and trials, sometimes even starting over from scratch. Occasionally, the boss will intervene by looking at the current version and adding a few suggestions. If the boss is unsatisfied, the team goes back to optimize and iterate until the product is submitted for review, completing the first phase of development.

This is a relatively standard game development process, and many times, it feels like an ideal process.

In reality, game development is: The boss plays a few rounds of a game ranked in the top 10 or 20 on the bestseller list, feeling that the game is good, so he calls the project leader—let’s also develop one like this, better than him.

The project leader works hard, but the boss occasionally intervenes, “This game is also good, add this gameplay, that picture, yes, I want this theme.”

This is still the behavior of a boss who wants to make games. Those who only aim to make money off games think more simply. He calls the project leader—

“Come, this game is very popular recently, let’s create a copycat. I don’t think it’s too difficult, we should be able to finish it in three months.”

Mei Fang experienced much of the pain and frustration in his previous life due to the project leader lacking firm determination, with the gameplay changing frequently, and everything needing to be redone with just one word from the boss. These were behaviors that greatly demoralized the team.

But since the game hasn’t been tested in the market, no one can guarantee that this approach is wrong, or that my way won’t work. It’s normal for there to be endless debates about this.

However, Similu Studio doesn’t have such problems because everyone unites around Mei Fang when working on projects.

The planners are Mei Fang and Zhang Ming. Now, Zhang Ming’s free time is entirely at Mei Fang’s disposal. Although he is still mainly doing execution work like filling out tables, he does it diligently. Occasionally, he discusses some gameplay with Mei Fang and understands the intentions behind Mei Fang’s designs.

When Mei Fang was the main planner, he often mentored new planners, making this one of his unforgettable skills.

Guo Yun, the artist, listens to and follows Mei Fang’s demands, striving to understand and meet his ideas. Her occasional creative improvisations only make Mei Fang feel pleasantly surprised and do not make him feel she is out of control;

As for programming, the main responsible person is Lin You Xi and Mei Fang himself, but there isn’t much to say about this aspect.

A professional planner who understands programming and doesn’t propose unrealistic demands every day, and who has over ten years of experience working together, how much more understanding and chemistry could there be?

Under Mei Fang’s leadership, Lin You Xi quickly developed a playable demo package, which she sent out early the next morning for everyone to try.

The character design was already completed, mainly testing the completeness of the basic framework functions and the performance of some art resources in the package.

Although the operation was similar, the overall effect was quite different from Mei Fang’s impression of “Gris,” especially in terms of the character’s operational feel and performance.

Lin You Xi also provided feedback, “The movement of this character seems a bit sluggish… The swaying of the skirt when turning is unnatural. Would it help if Guo Yun added more animation frames? But this would increase the additional memory usage.”

Mei Fang continued to utilize his past experiences, “The bone animation effect is about as good as it gets… Recently, there’s a new 2D animation software called Spine online. I think it works well for 2D characters.”

“I’ll take a look at it later.”

“Just get a basic understanding of it. Similu Studio needs to recruit more people now. I’ll have Aunt Yueh Yueh hire some Spine animators and special effects artists for me. This kind of technical artist who understands programming is a key role in determining the product’s strength.”

“Speaking of which, the amount of resources in the art department seems a bit insufficient, but fortunately, the quality is stable…”

Lin You Xi couldn’t help thinking, “Did you find any artists to help Guo Yun with her work?”

“There’s a difficulty in relying on high school students to be interested in this… Plus, Guo Yun herself… doesn’t seem to be very good at communicating with others.”

“Oh…”

Mei Fang had occasionally noticed this when chatting with Guo Yun. Besides her regular classes, Guo Yun spent all her extracurricular time on game development and fitness, so it was natural for her to lack social interaction.

“Sigh… I slept so well.”

Xia Yuan yawned as she came out of the bedroom, seeing Lin You Xi and Mei Fang sitting in front of the computer, typing away. She immediately asked curiously,

“Why are you guys already working so early in the morning… Did you eat breakfast?”

“It’s done. Your portion is on the table, it might be a bit cold, you can heat it up in the microwave.”

“Mm… okay.”

Xia Yuan heated up her breakfast in the microwave, took a bite, and ran over to Mei Fang with a bun. Seeing Mei Fang controlling the character moving left and right, she excitedly leaned against his back to watch.

“Oh oh, is it already playable! Let me try too.”

“It’s just a demo version, it’s still early…”

Mei Fang had experienced Xia Yuan’s heavy pressure in various forms, but experiencing it without barriers was rare, which also made him feel more pressured.

“Hey, Yuan Yuan… Why don’t you change into your pajamas before playing? I’m worried you’ll catch a cold.”

“Hmm… It’s fine, it’s not that cold today, hehe… I feel like summer is coming soon.”

“Do you only react when I speak plainly?”

Mei Fang sighed and supported his forehead, “Baozi, baozi… Pay attention to your bun.”

“Bun?”

Xia Yuan first looked at the bun in her hand, examining its exterior, then realized the meaning behind Mei Fang’s words, blushing slightly.

But she didn’t rush to run away; instead, she teased him by poking his back, “Little Fang, saying so much just for a slight touch, you’re too sensitive, hahaha…”

“…”

Xia Yuan hadn’t played for a few minutes when Lin You Xi suddenly spoke up:

“Yuan Yuan, don’t just slack off. Do we have any finished music for the game yet? There’s no progress on your end in the demo.”

“Oh oh… I’m working on it. I should be able to deliver two songs today.”

Xia Yuan leaned close to Mei Fang, speaking intimately in his ear, “Hmph… Today, I’ll show you my prowess.”

Around 2:30 PM, another chapter will be posted. A friend is coming over to play and we plan to go play mahjong. There might be another update for Silver Bud tonight.

(End of Chapter)