After the opening animation ended, the large screen cut to the PPT speech manuscript on the computer. It featured an ink-wash style background, an instrument icon in the upper right corner, and a very fresh and elegant color palette.

Xie Yunfan picked up the microphone, looked at the audience, and said loudly: “Hello everyone, I am Xie Yunfan from Rong City University. Our participating work is the rhythm game Soul of Music. The reason we designed this game is hoping that players can learn more about traditional ethnic instruments through the game.”

“Instruments like the pipa and guzheng were passed down by our ancestors and have experienced thousands of years of changing eras. If they had souls, then perhaps we could travel through time and space through these instruments to see the moving stories behind many of them.”

“Therefore, our game implemented an ‘instrument anthropomorphism’ design, letting all the instruments appear before the players in the form of ‘Music Souls’.”

“Next, our team’s Zhang Zizheng will demonstrate the basic gameplay for everyone.”

The screen cut to the rhythm game interface.

Zhang Zizheng logged into the game and opened a beginner-difficulty level.

“For our levels, every song is divided into two operation modes: Simple and Hard. The difficulty of the songs is ranked from lowest to highest into five tiers: Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, and Yu. As the song’s difficulty tier increases, the operations will become increasingly complex.”

“First, we will demonstrate a Gong-tier Simple level, a 4K track with a relatively clear rhythm, Dance of the Yao People. Please watch the large screen.”

A familiar piece of music rang out in the venue. Four notes slowly dropped in time with the music’s rhythm. At the exact moment they landed on the strings, the player needed to strike them matching the rhythm.

Different evaluations like “Perfect,” “Excellent,” “Good,” and “Poor” would appear on the screen. Among them, the golden “Perfect” had the most accurate rhythm, slightly off was “Excellent,” and anything worse wasn’t counted in the combo statistics.

To demonstrate the different special effects, Zhang Zizheng intentionally tapped slowly and missed a few notes.

The demonstration track was only played for half a minute.

As soon as the music stopped, Xie Yunfan continued introducing: “The basic levels of the game are music rhythm games in 4K, 6K, and 8K modes. Tapping along with the rhythm will yield Music Soul Fragments. A full combo will grant special achievements and extra Music Soul Fragment rewards.”

“For every song, different amounts of ‘Music Soul Fragments’ can be collected—this is also the key item in the game, used to redeem instrument codex entries.”

“Next, we will demonstrate the codex system.”

Zhang Zizheng opened the [Instrument Codex] in the system menu. 10 extremely beautiful pieces of concept art appeared before the audience. Every single one had a different conception, and the imagery was incredibly delicate.

All the concept art had a unified style and distinct characteristics, all dressed in long robes and long dresses. The various jewelry on the female characters were exquisite and beautiful. The male characters also had sharp long ponytails or waist-length hair, possessing a unique charm.

The bullet comment area in the live broadcast room began flooding the screen.
[The concept art is so beautiful, codex completionists love this!]
[I want to collect all the codex entries, I like the bamboo flute little brother the most!]
[Inherently, there isn’t anything novel about the gameplay of this rhythm game, right?]
[The style is quite novel though. Combined with traditional music, it feels very atmospheric.]

Xie Yunfan immediately followed up: “When redeeming a codex entry, the instrument’s character portrait can be unlocked.”

Zhang Zizheng brought up the system menu and used fragments to redeem a codex entry—he redeemed the pipa.

The portrait of the pipa beauty appeared on the screen.

The woman’s clothes fluttered gently, and she even made some simple movements—blinking her eyes, stroking the hair by her ear, or gently plucking the strings. The lifelike beauty was even prettier than the static image in the concept art, as if she had truly come to life.

This was the Music Soul? The soul of the instrument?

[Wow, the dynamic portraits look even better!]
[This portrait indeed has great texture, they put effort into it.]
[It’s not on the same level as those games with pixel textures from before.]

Xie Yunfan continued: “After unlocking a Music Soul codex entry, players can upgrade the instrument’s proficiency by continuously clearing levels. Every day, a small amount of proficiency can also be gained by talking to the Music Soul.”

“We’ll use the pipa as an example. For a newly redeemed instrument, the proficiency is 0. As the player clears song after song, the proficiency will continuously upgrade. When the proficiency reaches a certain level, the story behind the Music Soul can be unlocked.”

“Such a design is actually to give players motivation to keep playing.”

“Most rhythm game gameplay involves tapping notes according to the music’s rhythm. The innovative points of this game, aside from instrument anthropomorphism and redeeming codex entries, also include a massive amount of instrument-related plots.”

“Next, please enjoy a segment of the plot accompanying the music.”

Zhang Zizheng opened a high-difficulty level—the pipa solo House of Flying Daggers (Ambush from Ten Sides).

Passionate music suddenly rang out in the venue. Right from the start, this piece featured consecutive notes with an increasingly fast rhythm. The notes on the large screen also descended rapidly like a torrential downpour!

The densely descending notes made the audience’s eyes blur.

Zhang Zizheng’s hands tapped rapidly on the phone screen.

Combo ×20!
Combo ×100!
Combo ×800!

The constantly soaring combo numbers, paired with the thrilling music melody, created the majestic momentum of a massive army forming ranks and war breaking out at any moment, making the audience throughout the entire venue feel their blood boil!

The audience members all sat up straight, staring intently at the large screen.

Everyone seemed to be worrying whether this classmate’s combo would be interrupted.

Zhang Zizheng performed stably, keeping the combo going all the way to the end.

Combo ×3989!
System: Unlocked full combo achievement for House of Flying Daggers
System: Extra reward Music Soul Fragments ×15

Zhang Zizheng’s fingers were almost cramping. He had practiced this piece countless times in private, precisely to use it as the representative high-difficulty track for the live demonstration.

Fortunately, it was a close call but no disaster.

The audience in the bullet comment area was also infected by the music and started flooding the screen like snowflakes.
[The classmate operating the game is so awesome!]
[Are his hands an octopus? He can actually keep up with pressing all that?]
[So many notes, my eyes are blurry!]
[Damn, this suddenly sparked my interest in playing rhythm games.]
[The levels look really hard. As a clumsy player, can I just watch the story directly?]

Xie Yunfan said: “To accommodate clumsy players, the plots in the game are not directly linked to high-difficulty levels, but rather to the instrument’s proficiency. With the combo rewards from House of Flying Daggers just now, our pipa proficiency has finally reached Level 2, unlocking the first plot.”

Zhang Zizheng opened the codex and conversed with the pipa beauty.

The pipa’s Music Soul fell into reminiscence, and the plot animation began playing on the screen.

The background music was still House of Flying Daggers. The opening featured an increasingly passionate melody—the Chu-Han Contention. Hundreds of thousands of Han army troops formed ranks in unison, beating drums that shook the heavens, besieging the Chu army at Gaixia.

In the besieged Chu army camp, Xiang Yu sat alone before his desk. Listening to the heaven-shaking drumbeats and battle cries outside, his fingers trembled, and the cup in his hand fell to the ground. The crisp sound of shattering seemed to signify that the tide had turned and all was lost.

A beauty walked into the tent, her voice soft: “My King.”

The Han army’s battle intent boiled, advancing with irresistible force.
The Chu army was in despair and fear, entirely lacking the will to fight.

The beauty, Consort Yu, danced a routine following the music’s rhythm. To let Xiang Yu have nothing tying him down, after finishing the dance, she drew a sword and slit her throat right before him.

The pipa melody reached its lyrical section, the music’s melody moving people to tears.

Xiang Yu was ultimately defeated in battle and committed suicide at the Wu River. The deep, mournful music formed a sharp contrast with the impassioned and vehement tune from earlier.

In war, there are winners and losers. Xiang Yu, undoubtedly, was a tragic hero.

The moment the music ended, the entire venue was infected by the desolate atmosphere. In the player jury seats, some people even had slightly reddened eyes.

Music, paired with a fitting story, truly resonated deeply in people’s hearts!

Viewers who hadn’t heard House of Flying Daggers before were all left with an extremely profound impression of this song after this experience.

Many viewers in the bullet comment area flooded the screen one after another.
[Damn, one story almost made me cry T_T]
[Both committing suicide, it’s a bit tragic.]
[The music combined with the plot truly alternates between hot-blooded and desolate!]

Xie Yunfan said: “This is the story behind House of Flying Daggers, narrating a war and a tragic hero. These ancient stories are etched into the instruments, forming the memories of the Music Souls.”

“There are still many stories in our game—some joyful, some sorrowful. Different instruments followed different masters, recording many splendid legends.”

“Instruments are actually also witnesses to history!”

“We hope that when players play this rhythm game, not only can they feel the exhilaration brought by the music’s rhythm, but at the same time, they can learn more about these instruments and come to like them.”

“Next, we will demonstrate the ensemble gameplay for the instruments. Please welcome our team’s Classmate Yan Ke to the stage.”

As a professional traditional music player, although Yan Ke was rather clumsy when playing other games, rhythm games were what she excelled at most; she could perfectly nail the rhythm of the notes.

After being called upon, the girl with her hair in a bun took a deep breath to calm her nervous mood, walked gracefully onto the stage, sat next to Zhang Zizheng, and quickly opened her phone to connect to the network.

Xie Yunfan said: “Playing single-player alone might get a bit boring after a while. Therefore, we added ensemble gameplay. Players can share the game with their friends, share levels, and activate the ensemble mode.”

“Most of the ensemble tracks are two-person ensembles. It supports traditional music suite ensembles with a maximum of 4 people playing together. Players who haven’t learned instruments can also experience the joy of ‘forming a band’ with friends through this mode.”

The judges below the stage were all somewhat surprised, and the people in the jury also revealed expressions of disbelief.

The game’s introduction up to this point had already deeply shocked them—the game’s art style, system, gameplay, and plot had absolutely nothing to do with words like “green” or “immature”—rather, it was an extremely exquisite, very mature work!

As a result, they actually even made ensembles?

Ensemble gameplay was equivalent to small-scale multiplayer online, and the difficulty wasn’t on the same level as a single-player game. It was several times more complex to handle in the game code.

It was already very difficult for university students to make online multiplayer games.

Rhythm game ensembles had to process a massive amount of notes, match the rhythm perfectly, and distribute them to different players. If one player’s rhythm was off, the music would sound very weird.

How was the fluidity of the ensemble mode they made? Was it playable?

Everyone looked at the large screen with anticipation.

Ensemble mode activated. On Yan Ke and Zhang Zizheng’s phone screens, different operation interfaces and notes respectively appeared. Zhang Zizheng played the guqin, and Yan Ke played the dongxiao.

The two started the game together.

Zhang Zizheng continuously kept his combo, and Yan Ke’s combo numbers were also continuously climbing.

In a rhythm game, the note only sounds if you tap it; if you don’t tap accurately, the music will be missing pieces. Because both of them could perfectly complete the parts assigned to them in each measure, the presentation of the music was also exceptionally fluid.

There wasn’t the slightest bit of stuttering.

It was as if they were listening to a pre-recorded track?

What they demonstrated was an adapted guqin and xiao ensemble of High Mountains and Flowing Water. The two cooperated to jointly complete a piece of music… this was indeed very novel! Much more interesting than most single-player rhythm games.

According to Xie Yunfan’s introduction, it supported up to 4-person ensembles. Wasn’t this perfect for playing a song together with brothers, besties, and roommates? Whoever broke the rhythm would have to treat the others to a meal; it was highly suitable for playing together at gatherings!

Moreover, the ensemble tracks weren’t very difficult. The notes fell at a medium speed, which was relatively friendly to clumsy players, and the tunes were also extremely beautiful.

The emotions of the on-site jury had already been completely mobilized at this point.

Sore waist, backache, hungry stomach? Non-existent!

Encountering a fun game, everyone’s eyes lit up, wishing they could download it to play right away.

Even people who normally had no interest in rhythm games felt the urge to download and try it when seeing this rhythm game with a unique art style and rich gameplay.

The ensemble ended, and a burst of enthusiastic applause rang out in the venue.

Xie Yunfan smiled and said: “Thank you everyone. Behind this tune, there is actually also a story, narrating the friendship of finding a soulmate amidst high mountains and flowing water.”

The plot began playing on the screen.

Boya was a master lute player, and Zhong Ziqi loved listening to the lute; the two became the closest of friends.

When Boya played the lute thinking of high mountains, Zhong Ziqi would say: “Well played, I seem to see the great mountains!” When Boya played the lute thinking of flowing water, Zhong Ziqi could also discern his musical intent and said happily: “I seem to see rivers and seas.”

Every time Boya played the lute, Zhong Ziqi could discern the artistic mood he was imagining. Later, Zhong Ziqi passed away. Boya sealed his lute and never played it again.

A soulmate is hard to find.

Since there were no more soulmates in the world, who would he play his lute for?

Compared to the impassioned and solemn tone of House of Flying Daggers, the musical style of High Mountains and Flowing Water was completely different. Listening to the tune, one seemed to be able to see towering high mountains and gurgling flowing water.

Coupled with the rendering of the story behind it, the atmosphere was instantly pulled to the max.

The audience in the live broadcast room plastered the screen with bullet comments once again.
[Making friends through music, I also want to find a like-minded friend!]
[Let alone understanding my meaning, when I talk to my bestie it’s simply like playing the lute to a cow (preaching to deaf ears)!]
[Is this truly a university student’s work? Isn’t the quality way too high?]
[Where can I download the game, open the download for me quick!]
[Begging for the download link, right now, immediately!]
[To be honest, even someone like me who has absolutely zero interest in rhythm games wants to play it and see.]

The audience had watched the competition for a whole day. Although other game designs had innovative aspects, they always had various flaws. But for the game Soul of Music, there were almost no flaws in any aspect!

This was undoubtedly a rhythm game with a unique style, novel gameplay, and plot designs that were full of sincerity.

Combining traditional music with historical stories, the beautiful codex redemptions gave players the motivation to keep playing. The rich and colorful stories allowed players to empathize and even want to understand these instruments more deeply.

Save up fragments, redeem codex entries.
Grind proficiency, unlock more stories!

The main objective of the game was very clear.

As long as you downloaded this game, you would know what to do next.

If a game could retain players and keep them interested in playing, it had already succeeded halfway.

If it could make players feel touched or gain something, and even make them willing to recommend and share it with friends and family, then it succeeded the other half!

As a university student’s design work, Soul of Music truly somewhat exceeded the standards!

---

【Famous in One Battle (4)】

Everyone on-site was earnestly listening to Xie Yunfan explain his game.

This classmate wasn’t nervous at all. His entire speech process was clear in logic and reasonably arranged. He provided detailed introductions when explanation was needed, and let his teammate handle operations when it was time to demonstrate the game.

His teammate’s cooperation with him was also extremely tacit.

Next, he demonstrated some more high-difficulty tracks.

For example, the blood-boiling erhu tune Horse Racing. Zhang Zizheng flawlessly hit a combo of several thousand notes, making the on-site audience grow excited along with it, as if they were witnessing the spectacle of ten thousand horses galloping.

There was also a track primarily featuring the bianzhong (chime bells). As large-scale percussion instruments, the game utilized 65 chime bells, divided into upper, middle, and lower tiers, and the operation interface was also made into three tiers of small bells. The notes continuously flashed among the three tiers of chime bells, making one’s hands too busy to keep up!

Finally, the moment the suona track appeared, the scalps of the on-site audience and the netizens in the live broadcast room were almost blown off—this sound effect, the brainwashing effect was top-notch!

[A thousand years for the pipa, ten thousand for the guzheng, but once the suona sounds, the whole play ends (it outshines everything)]
[This sound almost sent me away (to the afterlife)~~]
[What was the planning team thinking? Adding the suona to a rhythm game, you guys are truly 6 (awesome)]
[Hahaha, this is truly a grand stew of different styles of traditional music!]
[Awesome, this track selection is very rich!]

Although the game’s overall art style was fresh and exquisite, for rhythm games, the emphasis lay in the sense of rhythm and the exhilarating feeling of combos. If they always chose tunes that were too soft, it would become boring after playing for a long time.

Therefore, for the selection of high-difficulty tracks, Xie Yunfan had Yan Ke choose many intensely styled music pieces to mobilize players’ exhilarating sense of combos, also providing a certain level of challenge for experts to entertain themselves.

The suona track ended, and the speech segment also ended.

Xie Yunfan picked up the microphone and concluded: “Our original intention in making this game was to promote traditional music. Different styles of traditional music will bring everyone completely different feelings. Here, I want to specially thank the classmates from the Rong City University Traditional Music Club for their massive support of our graduation project work.”

At this time, the classmates from the Traditional Music Club who were camping in the live broadcast room watching the competition were already so excited their eyes were brimming with tears! The feeling of being carried to victory was simply too exhilarating. They had never expected that their initial thought of “giving it a try” to help out would ultimately yield such great results.

Xie Yunfan was way too awesome!

A rhythm game based on traditional music could actually reach such a level!

Xie Yunfan looked at the audience and said sincerely: “Regardless of what results Soul of Music ultimately achieves, we hope that more people will be willing to understand traditional music and come to like it.”

“Traditional music is a unique culture that belongs to our Hua Xia.”

“Thank you everyone.”

He bowed deeply to the audience.

Thunderous applause rang out in the venue.

Weibo big-Vs, gaming streamers, forum moderators, website journalists—the big shots of the 100-person player jury were all clapping excitedly, and even the few professors below the stage nodded repeatedly in approval.

The applause lasted for quite a while. The host had no choice but to step forward and interrupt: “Thank you for the wonderful work brought by Rong City University’s Xie Yunfan team! Next, is the free Q&A time.”

As soon as the words fell, swish—over a dozen hands were raised simultaneously.

The host: “…”

You guys weren’t this active for the other games!

Below the stage, the president of Hua Xia Games, old Mr. Zhu Yuan, also smiled and raised his right hand.

The host: “Please, President Zhu, ask your question.”

Old Mr. Zhu asked very directly: “This game’s production is indeed excellent; it doesn’t seem like the level of university students. Did you have a master guiding you behind the scenes?”

Xie Yunfan smiled: “This is our original game. The game’s design and production were independently completed by our team from beginning to end.”

Old Mr. Zhu nodded and said with a smile: “Promoting the traditional culture of ethnic music, the thematic conception of your game is indeed very high. I am very happy to be able to see a work full of such sincerity among university students’ designs.”

Applause rang out in the venue once again.

—That’s right, a work of sincerity!

As long as one had watched Xie Yunfan’s speech today, they could all say one thing: this game was made with great sincerity, the details were extremely exquisite, and not the slightest trace of perfunctoriness could be seen!

Someone in the jury stood up and said: “The production level of your game is indeed very high. The degree of exquisiteness is comparable to commercial games produced by professional studios. I want to ask, how much money did you spend making this game? Was this effect achieved by throwing money at it?”

Some contestants were feeling sour in their hearts—maybe this game really was made by throwing money at it! Otherwise, how could the degree of completion be so high?

Xie Yunfan brought up the game design budget spreadsheet on the spot and answered: “The game cost a total of 45,000 yuan. Most of it was used to purchase concept art with a special style. Additionally, renting the recording studio cost some money.”

“The animation special effects and plot transitions were synthesized and modified using assets from the public asset library. We didn’t have the budget to make 3D animations; everything we made are 2D texture transitions. For example, in the scene of the massive army forming ranks for House of Flying Daggers, those soldiers were copy-pasted. If you look closely, it’s still somewhat crude.”

Isn’t that too modest… calling that crude?! How are you going to let the other contestant teams live!

“The core gameplay content such as the game framework, levels, and operation system were all written by ourselves. This is the list of all our source files and asset library special effects. The game’s production process complies with the competition standards.”

Everyone on-site was shocked.

In other words, this game only cost 45,000?!

There was a rule for university students’ graduation project works that the expenditure could not exceed 100,000 yuan. This was to prevent certain wealthy second-generation kids from using money to buy effects, leading to an unhealthy trend of toxic competition among university students nationwide.

Every year, the game majors of major universities nationwide received hundreds of thousands in support funding, and key universities had design funds reaching over a million or even exceeding ten million. For good works, if the school recommended them to participate in the competition, they would provide certain financial support. Getting 100,000 in support funding wasn’t difficult.

At the time, Xie Yunfan gave up the recommendation quota, yielding the support funding to Liao Meng and his team, because he didn’t lack this bit of money, and the early-stage investments came entirely out of his own pocket.

A game costing less than 50,000 actually managed to reach this level…

Those large companies that dumped millions or even tens of millions to make games that turned out like shit, aren’t you ashamed of yourselves!

Many classmates on-site couldn’t believe it.

The expenditure for this game ranked even at the very bottom among the teams participating today. Imperial Capital University’s Happy Child, with its chibi cute pet art style, had hit the regulation limit, spending 99,000 yuan.

Spending the least amount of money to make the most awesome game!

Just what kind of miraculous figure was Xie Yunfan?

Below the stage, Professor Lin’s eyes curved into a smile, his face full of the proud and boastful expression of “this is my student.”

Many people from Liao Meng’s team hadn’t closed their wide-open mouths even now.

Back when the school said they would recommend them for the competition, they received 80,000 in support funding, polished their game anew, and were brimming with confidence.

As a result… at the competition venue, they were instantly turned to dust by a terrible student from their own class?

Liao Meng was even doubting whether he was truly made out of the right material to make games. They were obviously classmates from the same class, wasn’t this gap a bit too huge? He had suffered continuous blows today, and the confidence he had built up since childhood was tottering on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, the design department classmates of Rong City University watching the live broadcast also dropped their eyeballs all over the floor. Some classmates who were eating even sprayed rice all over their screens.

Was this still that Xie Yunfan? Were they sure it was their classmate Xie Yunfan?

Damn, so much regret!

When Xie Yunfan openly recruited in the class back then, why didn’t they join?

Why on earth!

…

The Q&A segment was originally stipulated for 5 minutes. As a result, the people in the jury were too enthusiastic, standing up one after another to ask questions, simply having endless questions to ask.

It was evident that this game had indeed hooked the curiosity of the big shots.

Xie Yunfan’s attitude was neither servile nor overbearing, and he answered fluently.

The questioning had severely exceeded the time limit, and the host found it hard to interrupt. It wasn’t until they were 15 minutes overtime that the host was forced to stand forward and say: “Thank you to the jury for your enthusiastic questions, our time is up. Next, please ask the expert judges and the jury to give their scores!”

The few professors huddled together and discussed in low voices.

The discussion time was somewhat long. Many contestants on-site nervously clenched their fingers, while the netizens in front of their screens watching the live broadcast flooded the screen in anticipation of the score.

Two minutes later, the professors discussed and produced a result, and the player jury’s votes also came out.

The host took the envelope and announced: “Rong City University Xie Yunfan team Soul of Music, Judges’ score: removing one highest score of 98 points, removing one lowest score of 94 points, Average Score—96 points!”

“Player Jury Votes—95 votes!”

“The final score for the game Soul of Music is—95.5 points!”

Xie Yunfan bowed to the audience once again, and deafening applause erupted throughout the venue.

Countless passersby in the live broadcast room were also scattering flowers to celebrate.
[I am thoroughly convinced by this work taking the championship]
[Is it okay to list it for sale tomorrow! I can’t wait to download it]
[I’ll leave the handsome guys and beautiful girls to you guys, I want to redeem the erhu old grandfather and watch the erhu’s story~]
[I want to see the konghou’s story, grinding konghou proficiency first!]
[Rong City University? The biggest dark horse of this year!]
[Indeed, this school has never won an award before, yet they actually took the championship]
[Probably the school leaders are going crazy with joy]

Dean Qi of the Design School was indeed grinning from ear to ear. He had been camping in the live broadcast room watching the competition. The moment the score came out, he hurriedly called the teacher of the propaganda department.

He truly couldn’t wait a single second!

The school’s propaganda department impatiently issued a campus announcement.

[Good News!]
[Our school’s Xie Yunfan team’s graduation project work Soul of Music has won the National Grand Championship in the 10th National College Student Game Design Competition!]
[Congratulations to all excellent classmates for winning honor for the school!]

Dean Qi had known that Xie Yunfan was the head of Yangfan Studio back when he took his leave of absence. He had great confidence in Xie Yunfan and had people write the press release in advance.

Xie Yunfan’s performance was stable. The final competition result, as expected, did not disappoint him.

95.5 points, the well-deserved national champion.

The most awesome student since the founding of Rong City University’s Design School had appeared. Dean Qi suddenly had a premonition that the school’s design department was going to be carried to flight by Classmate Xie!