Chapter 2 Next Day

The next day at noon, Ma Yang sent the revised requirements document to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian looked it over, and this requirements document was simply superb.

It was practically as if nothing had been written at all!

Although Pei Qian hadn't worked in the game industry, this requirements document was a template from a resource website, which briefly mentioned some basic rules for writing requirements documents.

In a nutshell, the more detailed, the better.

When a designer proposes an image, it's often illusory and vague, while the image that the artist has to draw is often concrete and detailed.

It's easy for deviations to occur in this process.

For example, if a designer wants a "particularly handsome male character," that's a rather vague and unquantifiable standard.

What exactly counts as "particularly handsome"?

Would the designer be satisfied if the artist drew a character that they found particularly handsome? Not necessarily.

After all, aesthetics are very subjective.

Therefore, designers should be as detailed as possible when making requests, preferably specifying exactly what clothes the character wears, what hat they wear, what weapon they use, what distinct features they have, and so on.

It would be even better to have similar reference images.

There's a joke in the gaming industry:

The designer goes to the programmer and says, "I want such-and-such a function! The design concept behind this function is such-and-such, and it should achieve such-and-such an effect!"

The programmer says impatiently, "Just tell me which game's function to copy and show it to me."

The designer goes to the artist and says, "I want such-and-such a character! This character should have such-and-such an appearance, such-and-such a personality, and should emphasize such-and-such a feeling!"

The artist says impatiently, "Just tell me which character to copy and show me the picture."

It's not entirely because they want to be lazy; it's mainly because too much information is lost in the translation from text to image.

When creating similar requirements documents, the more detailed the description and the richer the reference images, the better, to ensure that what the artist draws doesn't deviate too much from the image originally in the designer's mind.

Now, looking at the requirements document that Ma Yang had provided.

It was completely self-indulgent!

Take Guan Yu as an example.

"He is a dragon, a humanoid dragon."

"As the Dragon Race's Martial Saint, he is considered the pinnacle of martial power."

"He lives on the edge of a blade his entire life, and his understanding of combat and slaughter is completely different from that of ordinary people."

That was it.

Or Ma Chao.

"His appearance is half-human, half-horse, so he is called a 'foreigner.'"

"Ma Chao is different from other centaur princes, with obvious Dragon Race bloodline characteristics, such as dragon horns on his head."

"Perhaps it is precisely because of half of the Dragon Race bloodline that Ma Chao has obtained power as strong as that of the Dragon Race."

Or Zhuge Liang.

"In his youth, Zhuge Liang was known as the greatest inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer of the Three Kingdoms period."

"His research spans many cutting-edge fields such as artificial lightning, weather weapons, aircraft, automated vehicles, and robots."

"At the same time, he enjoys titles such as poet, philosopher, music connoisseur, and linguist."

Zhuge Liang's description was longer than the previous two, obviously because Ma Yang got carried away while writing.

In addition, there were a series of characters such as the dragon girl bodyguard Zhou Cang, the phoenix orphan Pang Tong, the crystal ice maiden Xu Shu, the mechanical puppet Huang Yueying, the blood domain lord Guo Jia, the dragon-hunting loli Lü Meng, the dark night ranger Taishi Ci, and the solitary shadow swordsman Zhou Yu.

Basically, apart from the names and some peripheral characteristics, they were completely unrelated to the figures from the Three Kingdoms period!

This content was of basically no help to the artist's creation.

Moreover, it could clearly be written with more concise text.

For example, just write "Guan Yu is a humanoid dragon," and the words that followed were completely nonsense.

But for Pei Qian, this was a perfect requirements document!

He even happily punched himself.

As expected of Ma Yang, reliable!

Pei Qian would never be able to write something like this himself!

Sure enough, bringing Ma Yang on as his employee was a very correct choice!

Pei Qian didn't change a single word and directly sent this requirements document to Ruan Guangjian.

Five minutes later, Ruan Guangjian replied.

"Isn't this requirements document too abbreviated???"

"It's hard for me to draw this way; there's no clear standard."

Pei Qian was prepared and immediately said, "It's okay, just draw freely, design whatever you want! You can even deviate from the requirements if you think they're not reliable; I trust your professional abilities!"

Ruan Guangjian: "...No, we signed a contract, so there has to be a standard, or there might be trouble later."

Pei Qian quickly said, "Really! I completely trust your artistic level, so don't worry, whatever you draw is what we'll get, and I definitely won't make you revise it repeatedly! You can take a screenshot of what I said as evidence. Or, if you think it's necessary, we can write it into the contract."

"That won't be necessary... Okay, then I'll see what I can do," Ruan Guangjian replied.

Pei Qian was relieved.

He was really afraid that Ruan Guangjian would stubbornly insist on having a particularly detailed original art requirement and then draw it seriously.

Now, both parties saved trouble, and everyone was happy.

With the remaining money, Pei Qian didn't hold back. Next, he would buy music and sound effects, other art resources, rent cloud servers, and so on.

These wouldn't cost too much money. Pei Qian calculated it perfectly, leaving only about ten thousand yuan for emergencies.

As for the promotion budget for the finished game...

Of course, he didn't leave a single cent.

He didn't plan to promote it at all! It would be best if no one knew about this game!

Pei Qian felt that his future was bright and continued to busy himself with spending money.

...

A certain university of finance and economics in Shanghai.

Art department dormitory.

The living environment here was much better than that of Handong University, where Pei Qian was.

Beds above desks, air conditioning in the dormitory, very new, and very spacious.

Thanks to the resource website established by ESRO, many art students could take on some freelance work online during their university years to slightly improve their lives.

Moreover, these works would be beneficial for job hunting after graduation.

Ruan Guangjian put down the mouse and shouted, "Old Huang, Old Zhou, hurry up, call the others, finally there's work!"

Soon, the other five people in the dormitory gathered around.

"Three weeks, 50 sets of original art, 4 images per set, 3,000 yuan! How about it, awesome, right?"

Ruan Guangjian was a very energetic young man with short hair, fair skin, and well-defined features, without any artistic flair.

His roommates were different, with some having long hair and some having tattoos, each with their own characteristics.

Old Huang, with a small goatee, was the first to come over: "3,000 yuan for 4 images? Damn, that's good! For that price, I'd even draw chibi versions! Gotta make a living."

Ruan Guangjian shook his head: "What chibi, this time it's not chibi! The client specifically said no chibi, any other style is fine!"

Old Huang was shocked: "Huh? I remember the representative works you uploaded were all chibi? And the client specifically said no chibi, did they lose their mind finding you?"

"Pfft, they have an eye for talent!" Ruan Guangjian rolled his eyes, "I hate drawing chibi the most, but now chibi characters are popular in mobile games, so I could only get chibi jobs before, it was forced. Now that I don't have to draw chibi, I finally have a chance to show off my skills!"

"You're going to draw your own style? Isn't that inappropriate..." Old Huang hesitated, "The client paid money, but you're using the money to draw what you want to draw, that..."

"The client said they trust my artistic level and professional abilities and told me to design it completely independently!"

"And look at this requirements document, it's simply in line with my ideas!"