Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

After this system is implemented, the main storyline content that was previously saved but not yet released can last for about 10 more days.

However, insufficient production capacity is still a major concern for Lin Li. Without making any changes, "Girls' Frontline" will experience frequent updates that will leave players in a long, unproductive period.

For Spark Games as a whole, the main storyline and game production are not just about making them; they also need to be reviewed and polished.

To accomplish this, a large development team is essential.

Therefore, throughout the latter half of February, Spark Games began a frantic recruitment drive.

Once the team was in place, he divided the entire team into five development groups, each with about 40 people, consisting of art, copywriting, and programming teams, as planned.

It can be understood as a separate development team.

These development teams will develop synchronously and launch sequentially based on the main framework provided by Lin Li.

The five groups take turns going online, which means that each group only needs one week to create one hour of the main story chapter.

This greatly reduced the workload for the development team.

Lin Li even occasionally manages to set aside a small team to develop large-scale events.

However, this model also has several obvious problems.

First, there's the increase in labor costs. With nearly 300 people, the monthly salary is not a small amount.

This is one of the reasons why many small companies are unwilling to expand rapidly after a game becomes a hit.

In addition, Lin Li adopted a strategy of attracting people with high salaries and moving quickly.

The overall salary is generally 10% to 20% higher than that of the same level in Shanghai.

High costs led to fast running.

They recruit people very quickly.

However, this is not actually a good thing for a company.

From an operational perspective, what Lin Li did was essentially a gamble, betting that the company would continue to improve.

Otherwise, if business declines, the company could collapse.

Many people in the industry have told Lin Li that there is no need to rush at the moment.

Making money from anime-style games now doesn't mean you can keep making money.

Lin Li simply smiled at all of this.

Making money with a monthly revenue of 30 million? When Genshin Impact comes out, the monthly revenue of hundreds of millions will scare you to death.

Now is the time to seize the opportunity before the trend fully takes hold and quickly strengthen your own capabilities.

What are you waiting for?

What troubled Lin Li more than the investment was the size of the team.

Increased management requirements.

The collaborative development of five teams cannot be accomplished with just a few words.

Even if there are many, it is now very difficult to manage them.

He spends a lot of time every day communicating with various groups.

The current situation is that the groups have a relatively complete workforce, but the quality of their output varies.

Apart from Groups 1 and 2, which have a higher proportion of veteran employees from Spark Games, the content produced by the remaining groups in the past few days has had various problems.

Either the copywriting is off-target, or the quality or the program is mismatched.

Fortunately, Lin Li personally oversaw the process, and substandard content was sent back for rework.

Coupled with the backdrop of Lin Li's salary increase, being sent back to redo his work has made many people worry about losing their jobs.

After several attempts, the groups finally started producing content normally in early March.

The only problem is that Lin Li has been working from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. during this period.

I sleep right at the company.

Only in this way can we guarantee the current high output.

However, this situation could not last long. Therefore, during this period, as the five groups took turns developing the project, it gradually got on track.

Lin Li has begun to delegate authority and train five project managers.

It's good to let yourself go.

Lin Lixuan selected Su Shanshan as the leader of the second group.

"Shanshan, perfect timing, you write out an art requirement for her."

Su Shanshan only took over Group Two a few days ago and has encountered many problems.

That's why he sought out Lin Li to confide in him and also to resolve some of his confusion.

However, when she entered the conference room, Lin Li suddenly asked her a question.

After finding out, I realized it was an interview.

Su Shanshan thought for a moment and then came up with a character based on her own ideas.

"Okay, that's perfect. I just gave the art team an art requirements document. You can choose one from it. Do you prefer hand-drawing, or..."

"Either is fine, but it would be more convenient if you had a computer."

As the interviewee, Yan naturally did whatever was most convenient for her.

Su Shanshan nodded and led her directly to the second group's office area.

Lin Li followed him.

After entering the office area, Chen Yanqin looked around and felt it was alright.

The entire office area consists of three long tables and a meeting room.

The office area wasn't as cramped as I had imagined; in fact, it was quite spacious.

The ceiling-mounted air ventilator makes the office area very fresh, and there are also rest corners and snack areas nearby.

The overall environment was better than she had imagined.

Some members of the second development team have been transferred to the third team in the past two days, so there are still some vacancies.

Sitting at the computer, Yan's first impression was that the company's equipment was really new and had high configurations, and the graphics tablet was the latest model.

It's even better than the one she uses herself.

After picking up the pen, she quickly found a copywriter and drew a simple first draft of the character illustration.

After finishing the drawing, Su Shanshan frowned.

"Doesn't something feel a little off? Doesn't it feel like what she's drawing isn't quite what you're looking for?"

Lin Li watched the entire interaction between the two before speaking at this moment.

"how do you know?"

Su Shanshan said curiously.

She did sense this, but she also felt that Chen Yanqin had a very good foundation and her line drawings were very lively. She felt that if she said something wrong, it might affect her interview results.

That's when he hesitated whether or not to speak.

"The reason for this situation is not because her drawing is bad, but because your requirements document is incorrect."

Chapter Twenty-Two: Artistic Needs

If you want Su Shanshan to be able to handle things independently, you can't just let her be in charge of copywriting.

Communication and coordination with various departments are also very important.

From a simple copywriter to the head of a team.

The most important change is actually in communication.

Although Su Shanshan is still responsible for some copywriting-related matters, her focus has now shifted to leading the entire Spark Team 2 to complete the planned game development schedule.

Therefore, communication between superiors and subordinates became the most basic requirement.

Lin Li wasn't worried about uploading.

After all, he was in the company and would proactively communicate with the team leaders of various groups on a regular basis.

However, the order was issued.

Not necessarily.

In game development management, the most important task is communication.

Communication can be complex, but it can also be as simple as two sentences.

Make demands, collect outputs.

Don't underestimate these six short words; in actual use, many producers often fail to even achieve these two points.

When making requests, they don't even know what their requests are.

When receiving output, it's unclear whether the other party's output—copywriting, art, programming—meets the standards or is usable.

Developing a game is like sleepwalking; the final product depends entirely on luck.

Yu Zhong is a typical example.

Because I didn't even know what I wanted, I had to completely overturn and redo the first two parts of the story several times.

Because there are no outputs, there are various bugs in the game, and even a lot of landmines.

Of course, bug fixes are a matter of ability, but a bunch of personal biases might not be...

After delegating power, Lin Li naturally didn't want his subordinates to become useless like Yu Zhong, so he would teach them step by step whenever he had the chance.

"Art requirements are not system documents. Their only function is to allow artists to directly imagine what the scene or character you provide will look like after seeing this document."

"For example, this NPC requirement is for an old man in a rural wasteland. In your requirements document, you wrote a lot about the character's background, such as that he came to this settlement 5 years ago, his wife and son died in a disaster, and he only has a granddaughter left."

"The problem is, your description only mentions his background, but have you considered how the artist should depict it?"

Su Shanshan touched her chin, as if she had thought of something, but she was not quite sure.

On the other hand, Chen Yanqin was also very interested in this topic.

Because the art requirements documents at her previous company were similar to those at Su Shanshan's company, she didn't think anything of it and was already used to it.

But judging from Lin Li's words, is this kind of art requirement, which is common in the industry, actually wrong?

Both girls looked puzzled.

Lin Li snapped his fingers: "Shanshan, put yourself in the role of an artist. Now you are an artist, imagine where you would start when you get this document."

"Should we draw an old man first?"

Lin Li smiled and said, "Alright, let me ask you, how old is this old man? Does he have a beard?"

Su Shanshan "should be in her sixties."

Lin Li continued, "So what do people in their sixties look like in the wasteland? Are they wrinkled? Or have a full white beard? Are they European? Or Asian? Having experienced so many crises, are their limbs intact? Are their eyes still clear?"

"Yes, a European. Although sixty-something isn't considered old in modern times, in that world, he would have looked quite old, but he was still mobile and had all four limbs intact; otherwise, he couldn't have survived..."

"Okay, let's continue. Since you said this old man has been in the village for five years, what is his occupation? How does he make a living? How does he support his granddaughter?"

"They relied on scavenging and hunting..."

"What should he wear? What should his physical condition be like?"

Su Shanshan gradually understood Lin Li's meaning: "The clothes should be made by yourself, from animal fur or waste materials!"

"What about your accessories?"

"A bow and arrow made from wasteland parts, and maybe some small animal pelts!"

Lin Li nodded: "So why not write these elements down? Only when the artists see these things can they have a complete outline of the character you imagine, and only then will they know how to recreate the character."

Su Shanshan exclaimed in realization, "Lin Li! You're amazing!"

Lin Li smiled slightly upon hearing Su Shanshan's praise, then dragged the mouse to the scene requirements: "Let's look at your scene again. It's an abandoned village. Since it's a village, what should the background be?"