You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 365: Unified Understanding
The three giants of programmers, artists, and planners were all present in the conference room, along with the testing group director Lin Xiaohe.

This Lin Xiaohe is white and plump, wearing glasses, like Maitreya Buddha, with a smiling face.

He is a new backbone who was recently promoted and is responsible for managing the twelve employees in the testing group.

Because he is hardworking, has a strong learning ability, is smart, and can quickly master various testing tools, he was elected as the leader of the testing team because of his outstanding performance.

Lin Xiaohe had been in the company for less than a year, and this was his first time attending an executive meeting held by his boss. He found a chair and sat back.

Art director Hong Fei and planning director Liu Kun sat on chairs without speaking to each other.

Soon the door of the conference room was pushed open, and Qin Shaoyan and Fan Xiaoqian walked in, talking and laughing.

Qin Shaoyan casually pulled a chair and sat in front of Hong Fei and Liu Kun, and called Lin Xiaohe, "Come and sit, come closer."

"Let's hold a meeting today to unify our understanding and sort out the current situation."

"Don't be shy, everyone, speak freely and tell us about your own situation."

"Teacher Hong, you come first."

Hong Fei has become much more haggard recently, with white hair appearing on his shaved head. He said in a muffled voice: "The fighting capacity of the art department is all right, but the workload is too heavy, the time is tight and the task is heavy. I am afraid I won't be able to make it in time."

Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "Teacher Hong, please tell me the amount of art resources first, how many maps, how many professional suits, how many NPCs, how many monsters, how many BOSSes there are."

Hong Fei thought for a moment and counted on his fingers, "Six professions, each profession needs twelve sets of equipment, a total of seventy-two sets. We have already made eight sets."

"The map requires twenty-four outdoor scenes, four in the main city, thirty-six dungeons, and twelve activity maps."

"The required number of monsters is 70, the number of BOSSes is 80, and the number of NPCs is 30."

"Also, we need more than a thousand prop icons."

Qin Shaoyan interrupted Hong Fei's report with his hand, "How much have you completed?"

Hong Fei said: "The map is about 70% to 80% complete, and the monsters are almost the same. The main problem is that there are too many bosses, and there is still half of the NPCs to be completed."

"The planners keep coming up with new requirements. This month, they asked for more than a dozen bosses, eight NPCs, and three map scenes."

"You can't raise requirements like this. If you don't make it clear beforehand, every time a critical moment comes, a bunch of requirements will be thrown at us. We can't finish them even if we don't sleep."

Qin Shaoyan listened to Hong Fei's complaints and smiled, "It's okay, Mr. Hong, from today on you can reject the requests from the planners. You don't have to worry about them. Just finish what's required in the schedule first."

Hong Fei sat up straight, his face full of shock and disbelief, and asked again: "Really?"

"It's true." Qin Shaoyan patted Hong Fei on the shoulder, "Just say it was me who said it. No matter who comes to make a request, it won't work. The art team will not serve you starting today."

Hong Fei was overjoyed, and he slumped down in his chair, "Boss Qin's words are still effective. Now that Boss Qin is here, someone will make the decision for us."

"Boss Qin is here, we will have peace!"

"Boss Qin is here, and Qingtian will be here!"

Liu Kun next to him wanted to say something but stopped. Looking at Hong Fei's happy expression, he was anxious to say something, but he glanced at Qin Shaoyan again and finally did not dare to speak.

Qin Shaoyan looked at Fan Xiaoqian again, "Teacher Fan, what about you?"

"I'm fine here." Fan Xiaoqian took a bite of the pancake and said calmly, "The basic system has been completed before, and now we are adding various activities and gameplay. The planners keep changing the rules. Each activity has to be changed at least four or five times."

Qin Shaoyan was shocked when he heard this. Teacher Fan is really generous.

He could accept changing the gameplay of an activity four or five times, he is truly a Gendu person. If he were someone with a bad temper, he would have killed people long ago.

"Then what is your biggest difficulty?" Qin Shaoyan asked.

"The biggest difficulty is that the combat system is too complicated." Fan Xiaoqian frowned and thought, "There are some problems when synchronizing with the server. Some combat mechanisms are not easy to implement. There are still many bugs. We are trying to find a way to solve them."

Qin Shaoyan finally looked at Liu Kun, "Brother Kun."

Seeing that the art director and CTO had finished complaining, Liu Kun could no longer sit still and said sincerely, "Boss Qin, the planners didn't mean to increase the workload for the artists."

"This project is now a free game, which is different from the paid games on the market. There is no specific reference for how to make it. We are exploring as we go along, so modifications are inevitable."

"But don't worry, Mr. Qin. I will teach them well and discuss with the art department how to reduce unnecessary workload."

"Brother Kun," Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "I have great confidence in your ability, so I'm leaving the planning to you."

"What you just said is correct. Our online game project is different from other products on the market. There is no reference. We need to explore it on our own."

"But the process of exploration also requires careful methods and approaches. Was it an unintentional mistake or a lack of necessary management procedures, or was it a lack of responsibility?"

“Did the planner follow the company’s prescribed procedures, or did he omit them to save trouble?”

"After the requirements are put forward, are there any follow-ups throughout the process? Is there any timely verification and communication from the submission of the requirements document to the production of the art program?"

“Did the planner handle the feedback from the test team in a timely manner?”

"This..." Liu Kun was speechless for a moment.

Qin Shaoyan turned to look at Fan Xiaoqian, "Teacher Fan, have you ever calculated how long it takes from the completion of a function to its modification?"

Fan Xiaoqian shook her head. "I haven't counted this, but I do remember one thing. Two weeks ago, a planner suddenly pointed out that there were problems with an event that needed to be modified."

"Oh, so it takes two weeks to get feedback?" Qin Shaoyan smiled, "What were you doing in the two weeks in between? Did you forget? Or was there some other reason?"

Liu Kun wiped off his sweat and explained, "The gameplay design of the entire game is constantly being tested and modified. Maybe it didn't need to be modified two weeks ago, but later it was necessary to modify this function because other functions needed to be modified."

"Brother Kun, I'm not looking for responsibility." Qin Shaoyan said calmly, "Today everyone can speak freely and talk about the problems in the project."

"The sooner the problem is exposed, the better. The more thoroughly it is exposed, the better. I am here to solve the problem today."

"We strive to make the whole project clear, find the lesion accurately and cure it."

Liu Kun quickly said, "Boss Qin is right. We are all still confused about the whole project and urgently need your guidance."

Liu Kun also felt very sad.

This free online game was not a project led by him at all. It was originally Mr. Qin's own project.

As a result, Mr. Qin was nowhere to be found. He only raised a bunch of requirements when the project was established, and then he just left it alone. In the game company, there is a director in charge of both art and programming, and the management is in good order.

The planning side was completely left alone, and Liu Kun usually helped manage it.

This includes reviewing planning proposals, deciding on new gameplay and systems, and pushing forward production progress.

The horizontal fighting game he was managing was still under development, and he couldn't manage both.

In order to fill the big hole in this free online game, he transferred half of his core subordinates to fill the hole.

The various problems that arise in free online games are caused by the lack of a primary person in charge.

But this cannot be said openly.

Liu Kun can't say that the person who bears the greatest responsibility is you, Mr. Qin.

President Qin was very kind to him. Not only did he help him redeem his shares in Sohu, he also gave his studio a lot of money.

What's more, he is the person in charge of planning, and managing the planning here is also within his scope of responsibility.

Now that President Qin wanted to solve the problem, he was the first to raise his hand in agreement.

Finally free!

At this moment, he also wanted to shout along with Hong Fei, "Boss Qin is here, and we have a bright future!"
Qin Shaoyan said seriously: "Now let the planner stop the work at hand, sort out all the systems and gameplay in the game, and draw a mind map for me."

“List everything in it, including the basic system, combat system, activity gameplay, growth system, dungeons, and quest system.”

"Okay." Liu Kun immediately wrote it down in his notebook.

"There is one more important thing." Qin Shaoyan said solemnly, "Who is responsible for the combat system?"

"It's me." Liu Kun was a little surprised. "I personally watched this piece. Is there any problem?"

"Did you borrow skills from World of Warcraft?" Qin Shaoyan asked.

"Yes." Liu Kun explained immediately, "The skill design of World of Warcraft is very clever and very meaningful. I have studied it for a long time."

"World of Warcraft's combat system is indeed good." Qin Shaoyan agreed, "But good things are not necessarily suitable."

"Our free online game doesn't need such a complicated combat system."

"This..." Liu Kun was very puzzled. He said hurriedly, "Boss Qin, I think the combat system is a very important part in measuring the quality of a game."

"I understand." Qin Shaoyan explained patiently, "Brother Kun, I agree with what you said."

"But a complex combat system is really not suitable."

"On the one hand, it increases the cost of understanding and the difficulty of getting started for players. On the other hand, the combat system is too complicated and not conducive to development and maintenance. There is also the problem of class balance."

“Most players don’t really care how complex the skills are or how sophisticated the combat system is.”

"We are not engaged in fighting e-sports. The battles in our online games are not mainly 1v1 individual PK, but mainly group PK."

“Players only care about how many skills they have, how cool the special effects are, and how much damage they deal.”

"From now on, the battle system needs to be revised and unnecessary things need to be streamlined." Qin Shaoyan looked at Fan Xiaoqian, "The skills should be simple and practical. Teacher Fan, please assign some people to sort out the battle system and cooperate with Brother Kun to make the revisions."

Fan Xiaoqian nodded, "No problem."

Qin Shaoyan looked at Liu Kun again, "Brother Kun, what do you think?"

"Okay." Liu Kun hesitated for a moment, then quickly replied, "Since this is Mr. Qin's opinion, I will carry it out."

"Focus on damage skills, use control and control-free skills carefully, and use BUFF skills." Qin Shaoyan added, "Let players understand the skill descriptions at a glance, reducing the cost of learning and understanding for players."

"We who work in online games are actually in the service industry. We need to consider the players' feelings as much as possible, serve the players as much as possible, and let them have fun playing."

“How can people spend money if they are not having fun?”

"Teacher Hong." Qin Shaoyan looked at Hong Fei again, "The art team, please make a list of the art resources you have and give it to me. I think what you have now is enough."

"The next step is to make good use of the resources at hand, focusing on refinement and optimization."

"Our main goal is to focus on the content of the online version, and everything else can be put on the back burner."

"The art team should not be so stubborn. Just make the map's surface good, and use the same models as needed. A map with different building models and ornaments is a new map."

"As for those small monsters, just change the color of the clothes of the humanoid monsters. Each color represents a different monster."

Hong Fei was stunned. He used to think about how to be lazy, but he never expected that one day he would hear his boss personally teach him how to be lazy.

"We are going to let players play the game for half a year," Qin Shaoyan said seriously. "Then we will use three months as a major update node, and update some small gameplay every month."

Liu Kun was a little puzzled. "Boss Qin, you just said that you would prepare half a year of content for players. Will the players feel that half a year is too long and that they will get bored if there is nothing new?"

"The half year I mentioned is only based on normal non-paying players." Qin Shaoyan replied, "In reality, the operation will constantly launch promotional activities to squeeze the life of the game."

"For example, it normally takes a month for a weapon to drop from monsters, but if you pay for it, it will be given to you for free. This allows paying players to skip a month and experience the weapon in advance."

"I estimate that operations will consume all the content we have prepared within three months, so I proposed a three-month version update node."

"Three months from the time it goes online." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "We have to update some content every month."

"Ah?!" Liu Kun was stunned. It was the first time he had come into contact with an online game of this mode.

"This... This spending model destroys the balance, so what about the lifespan of the game?"

Qin Shaoyan didn't care. Many online games in this era are very long-lived. As long as the operation is not reckless and there are no major bugs, they can at least operate for several years.

So what if they squeeze the lifespan of a game? It will just consume a game that has been operating for a few years one or two years earlier.

At worst, we can just change the skin and it will be another game.

"This is a free online game." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "You can do whatever you want by spending money."

(End of this chapter)