Chapter 15 Utterly Subversive Modifications

Pei Qian had already considered it. Since he was going to clash with *Q Meng San Guo* (Cute Three Kingdoms), he could only choose the Three Kingdoms theme.

However, the Three Kingdoms theme itself was actually a decent IP. Not to say it was too good, but it wasn't too bad either.

The best way to make players hate these Three Kingdoms characters was to make drastic modifications, completely subverting their traditional images!

That way, players who loved the Three Kingdoms, upon seeing these messy changes, would naturally curse and rage quit, thereby lowering the overall reputation of the game.

And this important task of drastic modification was entrusted to Ma Yang.

Pei Qian had full confidence in Ma Yang's abilities. As long as Ma Yang worked seriously, he was sure to mess things up!

Looking at the names of these characters, Ma Yang looked troubled.

He leaned his head down from the upper bunk and whispered, "Brother Qian, I… I've only watched the Three Kingdoms TV series. I don't recognize many of these people…"

Pei Qian couldn't help but feel delighted. Wasn't that perfect!

If you were familiar with all the Three Kingdoms characters, he wouldn't have felt comfortable entrusting this task to you!

"It's okay, I believe in you. The point is to subvert tradition, so feel free to open your mind and brainstorm. The more subversive, the better!"

"And you don't have to worry. The specific image that's drawn will depend on the artist's design. You're just providing a direction."

"Just design as much as you want. Anyway, it's subversive, so no one will pick on factual errors."

Pei Qian repeatedly reassured him.

He didn't want Ma Yang to give up and push the job back to him.

Ma Yang finally nodded. "Alright, I'll try my best."

Pei Qian, still not reassured, added, "Remember, it must be subversive! The more outrageous, the better!"

Ma Yang sat on the upper bunk, scratching his head.

Ten minutes passed with no progress.

He couldn't help but poke his head out again. "Brother Qian, should I buy a Romance of the Three Kingdoms first…"

Pei Qian immediately stopped him. "No, absolutely not! I value your innovative spirit, understand? You're not influenced by the traditional images from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so you can achieve this kind of subversion!"

"Don't even think about what their original images are. Just give me free rein to your imagination and drastically modify them!"

Ma Yang reluctantly sighed and withdrew his head, continuing to scratch his head.

After a while, he poked his head out again and asked Pei Qian, "Brother Qian, is it okay if I set Guan Yu as a dragon?"

Pei Qian nodded. "Okay!"

After a while.

"Brother Qian, is it okay if I set Ma Chao as a centaur?"

"Okay!"

After another while.

"Brother Qian, is it okay if I set Zhou Cang as a Dragon Girl, Zhuge Liang as a great inventor, Huang Yueying as a mechanical puppet, Xu Chu as a tiger, Cao Pi as a tentacle monster, and Lü Meng as a Dragon-Slaying Lolita…?"

Pei Qian slapped his thigh. "Okay! That's great! Old Ma, you're a genius, you know? Keep going in that direction!"

Ma Yang had been full of doubts about his own designs, but seeing Pei Qian's approval, he also felt more confident.

Watching Ma Yang work so earnestly, Pei Qian was overjoyed.

He hadn't picked the wrong person!

Designing Zhou Cang as a Dragon Girl and Lü Meng as a Dragon-Slaying Lolita?

See, what a genius nonsense!

Pei Qian would never have come up with that himself!

It sounded like a completely unreliable plan. And if he hired a cheaper artist to draw it messily, could the game's splash art even be seen?

Imagine, players drawing Cao Pi and finding a tentacle monster;

Drawing Ma Chao and finding a centaur;

Drawing Lü Meng and finding that the Grand Commandant has become a Dragon-Slaying Lolita…

Wouldn't that be cursed to death by the fans who love the Three Kingdoms theme?

A famous international movie star once said that parody isn't nonsense, and change isn't random fabrication.

Now this was nonsense and random fabrication. When this game came out, it would definitely be condemned by everyone, causing the Three Kingdoms fans to cry bitter tears!

The gloom of the past few days had vanished, and Pei Qian instantly felt that his life had become bright again!

Losing 300,000, earning 300,000!

Pei Qian felt that a good life was waving to him!

While Ma Yang was filling out the form, Pei Qian went to the resource station and took a look at the artists' profiles.

ESRO's resource station integrated a large number of resources in the domestic game field, including human resources.

Whether they were designers, artists, or programmers, they could all provide services to buyers on the resource station with clearly marked prices.

Buyers could see the resumes and works of these people on the resource station, and if they were satisfied, they could discuss cooperation.

For example, buying a certain number of splash arts from an artist.

Pei Qian searched for artists who were good at splash art and began to quickly eliminate them one by one.

Famous big shots were all eliminated.

Industry-elite artists with good reputations were all eliminated.

He specifically looked for novice artists who sold a splash art for only seven or eight hundred yuan!

After searching around and looking at the works of many people, Pei Qian found that they all seemed to be about the same.

This resource station had a threshold; it wasn't like any art student could get certified.

ESRO's staff would conduct reviews. Basically, all the novice artists who could be listed on it had good painting skills.

Pei Qian searched and searched, and finally locked on a new artist with very few representative works.

All of this artist's representative works were in a two-dimensional Q Meng (cute) style, and there were no realistic works.

This meant that he was probably not very good at realistic styles!

And the game Pei Qian was making required realistic splash art.

"It's him!"

Pei Qian immediately decided.

Of course, Pei Qian couldn't just find one artist because he needed too many splash arts.

Some card games made the card splash art as detailed as posters, so even a senior artist would have to work for a week to complete it.

The splash art that Pei Qian was asking for was just a card on the phone screen, so the level of detail could be greatly reduced. However, even if the artist was capable and worked hard, it would still take about two days.

In other words, an artist could only produce about 15 splash arts per month if they worked like crazy and didn't consider quality.

Of course, Pei Qian's 200 splash arts weren't 200 completely different ones.

There were only 50 characters, and each character had 4 splash arts, which were different star ratings.

For example, Zhuge Liang, from one star to four stars, only had changes in some details and special effects, not completely redesigned.

Therefore, each character's four splash arts could be produced as a set.

Even so, to be on the safe side, Pei Qian would have to find six or seven artists to ensure that all these things were completed on schedule.

Pei Qian planned to talk to an artist about the price first, and then look for other people.

"Hello, our company is preparing a card mobile game and needs to customize a batch of splash arts. I'd like to discuss the pricing and schedule. Please reply if you're interested."

Pei Qian left a message for the artist named Ruan Guangjian, but after waiting for a few minutes, there was no reply. He must be offline.

Pei Qian wasn't in a hurry anyway. It would take at least until tomorrow for Ma Yang to finish the request form.

Looking at the time, it was already evening, and Pei Qian felt his stomach growling.

"Old Ma, let's go eat?"

Pei Qian got out of bed and looked at Ma Yang in the upper bunk.

Ma Yang was still racking his brains and typing on the keyboard. The request form already had large chunks of text.

"…You don't have to be so serious. Let's go eat first," Pei Qian said.

Ma Yang was still somewhat immersed in his work, but he was indeed hungry, so he turned over and got out of bed.

"Canteen?" Ma Yang asked.

Pei Qian shook his head and patted his chest. "No, we're eating out today. My treat!"

Ten minutes later.

The waiter brought over a bowl of ramen and a plate of fried rice, placing them in front of the two.