OGP CH8
Ding Huaian felt that the mental state of this “Little Sailboat” was truly concerning. Snipping necks, peeling skin, burning corpses… was it really necessary to have so many terrifying sound effects for a game?
Was this game being made to take revenge on society?
Or was this person just bored, saw their studio’s email, and sent a random message to mess with them?
Ding Huaian hovered his finger over the “Add to Blacklist” button.
Just as he was about to block the other party, Little Sailboat sent another message: “For one game background music track, a buyout price of 30,000 RMB. Does that work for you?”
Ding Huaian instantly retracted his finger.
That absolutely… worked for him!
He had previously produced singles for internet celebrities, and the composition and lyrics combined didn’t even reach 10,000 RMB. Now, he didn’t even need to write lyrics, and the price for just the composition had tripled?
Their living expenses for the next three months were secured.
This boss was truly generous and flush with cash!
As a working stiff, he didn’t need to question the boss’s mental state. As long as the money was right, he would record whatever the boss wanted.
It was happily decided!
Ding Huaian wiped the worry from his face and replied with a beaming smile: “No problem! However, our studio previously encountered a client who bailed halfway through the project… so, we hope to sign a formal contract and receive a 20% advance deposit. Is this acceptable to you, Boss?”
Xie Yunfan: “Sure, I’ll draft the contract and send it over.”
After ending the conversation, Ding Huaian still felt like he was dreaming.
After the three of them graduated from university, they founded Ding Dong Music Studio, wanting to carve out a career in the Imperial Capital on their own. Unfortunately, they had little fame, and clients almost never sought them out proactively.
But today, their very first deal was a massive one!
Ding Huaian looked at his partners beside him and said excitedly, “It’s a deal! But, the boss is making a horror game and wants a bunch of sound effects like deep-frying, burning, skinning, and neck-snipping. How are we going to do that?”
The three of them looked at each other in dismay.
A moment later, Mu Qing set down her guitar and said, “I have an idea. We can collect a lot of these sound effects in the kitchen. Snip a duck neck, roast a chicken leg, chop some ribs, deep-fry some rice cakes… After some post-production editing, it should meet the boss’s requirements, right?”
Ding Huaian praised, “Sister Qing, that’s a great idea!”
The boss wanted the sounds of burning corpses and snipping necks; they couldn’t exactly go commit a crime…
They would just use a “Horror Kitchen” to make the sound effects!
Time flew by.
Thursday morning, Xie Yunfan happened to have no classes. He went to pick up his business license, ran to the bank to set up an independent corporate account for the studio, and then hurried to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to get the official seals carved.
Once he received the dedicated company seal and financial seal, his studio was officially established.
Currently, the studio had only one person—himself, as both boss and employee—but he believed the team would gradually expand.
He was sure that, just like in his past life, he would find many like-minded companions.
Xie Yunfan printed out all three contracts for the character artist, the environment artist, and the music studio, signed and stamped them, and mailed them out.
The contracts were very clear: the artwork and music were full buyouts. Specifying the delivery deadlines and the rights and obligations of both parties was sufficient.
A direct buyout signed in black and white meant that whether his game sold well or poorly in the future, there wouldn’t be any copyright disputes with these people.
At 2:00 PM, Chu Yue received a call from the courier and hurriedly ran downstairs in his slippers.
Classmates who saw him couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Ah-Yue, what have you been up to lately? Why are your dark circles so heavy?”
Chu Yue scratched his head, “I took on a commission and I’m rushing to get the drawings done.”
Normally, he would tie his hair back in a small ponytail, claiming it looked “more artistic.” These past two days, he had suddenly switched to a “decadent style.” The ponytail was gone, and his messy hair looked like a bird’s nest.
He couldn’t help it. His dreams were filled with all sorts of horror scenes, and he hadn’t slept well for days.
Last night, he even dreamed that his own tongue was ripped out and hung on the wall…
Chu Yue smiled awkwardly at his classmate, grabbed the document from the locker, dashed up to the 4th floor, and pushed open the door to dorm 404.
“Bros, the contract is here! Turns out our sugar daddy client is also in Rongcheng. Same-city delivery, arrived the same day.”
Several guys gathered around to look at the contract.
As college students, receiving a physical contract for a commercial commission for the first time felt very novel.
The contract was formatted very professionally and even had the studio’s official seal.
“Sailboat Studio (Yangfan Studio)?” Chu Yue looked at the stamp in the bottom right corner, puzzled. “Never heard of it.”
“It’s probably a newly established studio,” a roommate guessed. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sought out no-name college students like us to draw environment concept art.”
“Makes sense! Big studios have regular collaborating artists; it’d never be our turn.” Chu Yue sat back down at his computer. “Come on, come on, let’s hurry up and color. This batch of art might very well be this new studio’s first game project. We can’t delay the boss’s schedule!”
“Damn straight. The boss paid so much, we have to show him our real skills.”
The four of them quickly sat back down at their computers and enthusiastically dove into their work.
That very night, Xie Yunfan received a private message on the Artist’s Garden site.
With the help of his three assistants, Chu Yue had worked overtime to finish the final version of the first piece, “Tongue-Ripping Hell,” and sent it to Xie Yunfan for review: “Boss, please take a look. Are there any revisions needed?”
Chu Yue stared at the screen nervously, terrified the boss wouldn’t be satisfied.
Unexpectedly, the boss replied very quickly: “The composition is great. Just add a bit more blood to the tongues, and everything else is fine.”
Chu Yue immediately responded: “Understood, I’ll fix it right now!”
Within half an hour, Chu Yue had swiftly finished adjusting the coloring and sent it back to Xie Yunfan.
Xie Yunfan said: “The first piece is approved and finalized. Keep up this style and standard for the remaining pieces. Good work.”
Chu Yue rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
It was finalized just like that? He had been worried that a high-paying client would be tough to please and make him revise endlessly. He never expected this boss to be so easygoing.
Even though the scenes he was asked to draw were progressively more psychopathic, the boss himself was truly friendly and kind.
He wanted to apologize for secretly complaining about the “psychopath boss” at the beginning.
The boss just had slightly unique tastes. This was clearly an “angel client”!
As the chief designer, Xie Yunfan liked to write up a schedule in advance, having all departments start work simultaneously. He personally monitored each department’s progress, coordinating the overall picture.
Under his supervision and coordination, all departments of the studio operated in sync, making his team the most efficient in the gaming industry.
This time, he had the art and music teams working in tandem. He had already written the maze programming; as soon as the art department made progress, he could immediately begin the 3D environment modeling.
However, environment modeling was time-consuming. Factoring in the character models for the player and NPCs, it would take a month to finish everything. If there were issues with the maze at that point, fixing them would be incredibly troublesome.
He needed to carefully run through the currently completed maze a few times to check for bugs.
He still had classes to attend on weekdays and didn’t have the time to repeatedly test it. Thinking of this, Xie Yunfan found a contact in his phone named “Little Hu” and sent a message: “Power-leveling bro, are you there?”
Inside the New Dream Game Studio, a curly-haired guy with a beard had just carried his client through five ranked matches. Seeing the private message pop up, he instantly replied: “Hello Boss, do you need a gaming companion?”
Xie Yunfan said: “I remember you mentioning before that you’re a hardcore mobile gamer and can play anything, right?”
Hu Fei immediately began eagerly marketing himself: “That’s right! I can play most of the popular mobile games on the market. Shooters, MMORPGs, simulation/management, casual games—if you need power-leveling, Boss, we can provide custom-tailored services.”
Xie Yunfan asked: “Do you know how to play maze games?”
Maze games?? Two years ago, there was a popular, cute-style maze game called Tower of Dreams, but by now most players had beaten it and no one played it anymore.
Hu Fei hesitated for a moment before replying: “Of course. Do you want me to beat it for you, Boss?”
Xie Yunfan replied: “No, I want you to help me test a game Demo.”
Hu Fei was stunned: “Huh? A game Demo?”
A game Demo… meaning, an unreleased beta version? He had been a power-leveler for so long, but he’d never touched a beta version before!
Xie Yunfan explained: “It’s a small game I made myself. Playtest it for two days, walk through every single path in the maze, check every corner, and see if there are any bugs.”
Hu Fei was flattered but hesitant: “Well, I’ve never participated in game testing before. I don’t have any relevant experience.”
Xie Yunfan said: “That doesn’t matter. Since you’re a veteran player, you’ve definitely played a lot of games and will easily spot issues I might have missed. I’ll send you the game installation package; play around with it first. The testing fee is 2,000 RMB, plus a 200 RMB bonus for every bug you find. You’ll need to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Does that work for you?”
Hu Fei: “…”
The boss was paying generously, and signing an NDA made it sound very official.
But this wasn’t exactly within the scope of power-leveling services, was it?
Still, testing a game and finding bugs sounded pretty interesting. Since it was the initial game Demo, he might even be the very first person in the world to play it!
Thinking of this, Hu Fei immediately got excited: “No problem! Boss, I’ll test it for you right now.”
Xie Yunfan sent him an installation package.
As a result, before he could even open it, the file disappeared.
System prompt: Virus file detected. Antivirus software has automatically deleted it.
Could this be any less reliable? Hu Fei was speechless: “Boss, your installer got intercepted by my antivirus~~”
Xie Yunfan: “…”
My bad. The internal test build isn’t configured properly and might be incompatible with common antivirus software. Xie Yunfan quickly modified some code and resent the package.
Hu Fei finally managed to open the installer smoothly.
The package was named “Maze Internal Test v0.1”.
The game was only 40 MB, which completely shocked him. Nowadays, large mobile games were easily over a dozen gigabytes. A 40 MB game? Was it a casual mini-game even simpler than Candy Crush?
Sure enough, after the installation finished, Hu Fei stared at the crude (shabby) graphics and fell silent.
The player avatar was the most basic stick figure from an asset library. The maze consisted of monotonous blocks: black walls and red paths…
What kind of game was this? Even kindergarteners would disdain playing it, right?
Just as Hu Fei was puzzling over it, another WeChat message arrived: “The environment and character models haven’t been loaded in yet. Your main task is just to navigate the maze and look for bugs.”
Hu Fei realized: “Oh, so what you gave me is a raw, unfinished house?”
Xie Yunfan: “Yes, you can understand it like that.”
Hu Fei: “…”
He had played mobile games for over a decade and worked as a power-leveler for five years. This was his first time playing a “raw, unfinished house” version of a beta Demo with no real graphics. It was quite a novel experience.
He remembered this boss. They had met briefly when he went to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to handle some paperwork. He had seen the guy lose four games in a row. To expand his power-leveling business, he shamelessly pitched himself, handed over a business card, and added him as a friend.
He never expected the guy to actually reach out, and for a game testing job, no less! He remembered the guy being quite young, looking like a college student. Could this be a graduation project made by a “Game Design” major?
Fueled by curiosity, Hu Fei loaded the game.
The first floor of the maze consisted of straight lines, with paths branching into three, then nine. It was very easy to find the correct exit.
After finishing it, Hu Fei scratched his head, thinking it was pretty simple.
However, halfway through the second floor, his smile gradually faded as he began frowning and pondering his next move.
By the third floor, he finally couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed a pen and paper, mapping it out as he walked.
This maze is actually kind of legit!
For a hardcore gamer like him with an extremely strong sense of direction, to actually get lost without drawing a map?
The path design on each floor was different.
The first floor was simple, straight lines. The second floor introduced a massive number of curved forks. After that came loop mazes, branching tree mazes, mirror mazes, and even 3D mazes…
The “unfinished house” version he was currently playing had no graphics and no sound, yet just navigating the maze felt pretty good. The design had many unexpected, innovative elements.
If they added cute, cartoonish player models, brightly colored environments, and relaxing, cheerful background music later on, this would definitely become a very popular casual mini-game, right?