Almighty Video Game Designer

On the other side, Xu Xiaojun hesitantly hung up the phone.

In the meeting room, Lin Chaoxu asked, “He declined?”

Xu Xiaojun nodded, “Yeah, and he was pretty firm on that too.”

Lin Chaoxu wasn’t surprised, “It’s expected. A hungry designer like him wouldn’t give up his games so easily.”

In the meeting room, Lin Chaoxu, Xu Xiaojun, and a few other designers from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment were in a meeting. Yan Zhenyuan was also there too.

“I think Chen Mo has big plans for this world. HE probably plans to turn the world into something of the level of Warcraft,” said Yan Zhenyuan.

Lin Chaoxu leaned back on his chair, “Now that we’re here, we can throw the plan of cooperating with Chen Mo into the bin. Let’s think of a plan B.”

Yan Zhenyuan smiled, “What plan B, we can only do it from the ground up.”

Lin Chaoxu looked at him, “How confident are you?”

Yan Zhenyuan replied after a pause, “Seventy percent.”

Lin Chaoxu nodded, “That’s enough. Based on his current abilities, he probably can’t turn Diablo into a VR game. Even the people at Zen Entertainment start at the same time we do, they won’t have much of an advantage either.”

“As long as Chen Mo doesn’t do something weird, there shouldn’t be any big bumps. Although he’s just an A-grade designer, he’s been incredibly successful, he’d always manage to find some weird perspective on games, giving new life to genres that we thought were done for.”

Lin Chaoxu laughed, “Are you afraid of him too, Mr Yan?”

Yan Zhenyuan shook his head, “I’m not. But I’m not some dunce liek Qin Xiao, you still have to give some respect to genius video game designers like him.

“Especially one that can start new genres, they’d always have their own ideas and understanding. It’s easy to get into a rough spot if you’re just copying without understanding.”

Lin Chaoxu asked, “Then do you have plans for the new game?”

Yan Zhenyuan gave it some thought, “Actually, we learnt from Diablo that there’s a huge demand for satisfying games, especially RPGs. There are very few games that are as satisfying as Diablo, so there’s a huge gap in the market.

“If we want to develop a similar game, there are two paths we can take.

“First is a PC game, but what we can do will be incredibly restricted. We really can only make a third person game, so no matter what we do, it’ll be a game that ‘copied’ Diablo.

Lin Chaoxu nodded, “Yeah, that’s not going to work.”

Yan Zhenyuan continued, “So I think it’s best to make a VR game. We can try to create a similar satisfying feeling in a VR setting.

“It probably would turn out quite well as VR games don’t have the same problem with field of view and at the same time, it’ll be even more scary. If we could create the essence of Diablo, it’ll sell really well too.”

Lin Chaoxu nodded, “Then what about the profit model? Do you plan to sell a single player game by copy or make it multiplayer?”

Yan Zhenyuan replied after a few moments, “There are a lot of risks associated with a single player game by copy. Because of how the game it set up, the later stages of the game only consist of killing mobs repeatedly. It’s hard to say if it’ll work if it was on VR.

“An online game would be the safer choice, but because it’s a game that’s mainly about killing mobs, we can’t have groups larger than five. Otherwise, it’ll be a big group against another big group, completely ruining the atmosphere of the game.

“Therefore, I think that we should work with what Diablo has, have a single player mode or up to a group of five. Moreover, we can allow players to interact in towns and allow them to trade. Chasing good equipment will be the driving force for playing long term.”

Lin Chaoxu nodded, “Yep, that’s what I think too. I’ll leave that to you. We’ll direct more funds for this project, so you don’t need to hold back on anything.”

Yan Zhenyuan nodded, “Understood.”

—

So far in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, Qiu Jiang was working on Moon Lord’s Prophecy, Qin Xiao was working on Wolf Soul. These were the best products Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had to offer, so the two of them couldn’t take any time out of their schedule.

Yan Zhenyuan on the VR games Yan Zhenyuan had developed earlier were now more or less stable, and possibly even on the decline. Which was why Lin Chaoxu thought it’d be a good idea to have Yan Zhenyuan to work on a new VR project.

Coincidentally, Diablo provided some inspiration.

Of course, converting a third person PC game like Diablo into a VR game has its challenges. It was more or less making a new game from scratch.

That’s why Lin Chaoxuo wanted to see if Chen Mo was willing to collaborate with Yan Zhenyuan to greatly reduce the risk. Although it was extremely unlikely that Chen Mo would agree, it was worth a ask anyways.

In the end, Chen Mo declined as expected.

So there was nothing Lin Chaoxu could do but entrust all of this onto Yan Zhenyuan.

Lin Chaoxu absolutely trusts Yasn Zhenyuan with his abilities.

Among the most prestigious S-grade video game designers Lin Chaoxu had under him, Qin Xiao always preferred to work alone but always delivered, Qiu Jiang was the most flexible with many great ideas, Yan Zhenyuan on the other hand was well balanced. His worst games would still fetch some profit and big failures were never on his agenda.

Therefore, Lin Chaoxu felt that it would be best for Yan Zhenyuan to handle this.

-Inside the experience store.-

Chen Mo received a message while he was working.

Qiu Jiang: “I heard Yan is working on a VR game similar to Diablo, take care.”

Chen Mo was confused, checking out the message twice to confirm that it was from Qiu Jiang.

What is this insider information?

Chen Mo replied, “Whose side are you on?”

Qiu Jiang replied, “Neither, I’m just reminding you to make some preparations. I wouldn’t want you to have nothing in retaliation as Yan beats you into the ground. That’ll be so lame.”

“So you just want to see us tear at each other’s throats then. What’s wrong with you.”

“I’m just hungry for some drama, what’s wrong with that?”

The corner of Chen Mo’s mouth twitches, “I knew about it when Xu Xiao called me earlier. You guys at Emperor Dynasty wanted to copy it when you saw that the game was doing well. I would’ve known that without you telling me.”

“Alright, I’m just here to remind you. You can play the game however you want, just don’t get stomped into the ground by Yan. He’d probably take a year to develop the game, I’m rooting for you.” replied Qiu Jiang.

Chen Mo was speechless as he put his phone away, What’s Qiu Jiang trying to start!

Though Qiu Jiang’s message wasn’t completely useless. Now he knew that the VR game would take at least a year, meaning that it’d be until August next month before it was even playable.

What could Chen Mo do?

Spend a year making a VR game himself to release it at the same time as Yan Zhenyuan?

That’s not realistic in such a short time frame as Chen Mo had no experience with VR games.

Moreover, Chen Mo already set down his plans and could change it as he does fit.

“Think, what’s my next step?”