Chapter 1279 No Overtime?

After listening to Min Jingchao's explanation, everyone nodded in agreement.

Clearly, coming from Min Jingchao's mouth, these words carried particular weight.

After all, Min Jingchao himself was a designer for *GOG*, and had been responsible for balancing data and game mechanics. His understanding in this area was unmatched.

Often, a person's ability doesn't depend entirely on their talent or effort, but also on the platform they're on.

When a person is on the right platform, even if they don't have much talent, their abilities will grow by leaps and bounds.

Conversely, if a person is very talented but doesn't have the right platform, their talent will be difficult to activate.

For example, why did so many famous figures in the early Han dynasty all appear in one small area?

It wasn't because this small place was blessed with extraordinary people, but because they followed Liu Bang and had a high enough platform to continuously improve themselves.

Similarly, chaotic times produce great generals because they grow faster in frequent wars.

*GOG* was an excellent platform. Min Jingchao had been honing his skills here for so long, and could be said to have witnessed the rise and prosperity of this game. He had different thoughts at different stages, and over time, his understanding in this area had become very deep.

Of course, the balance of *GOG* wasn't without its problems, and was often criticized by players.

This was normal. After all, strong heroes had to be nerfed, but nerfing them too little was ineffective, and nerfing them too much could ruin them entirely. Weak heroes, on the other hand, wouldn't change qualitatively if strengthened too little, but could suddenly become uncontrollably strong if strengthened too much.

In addition, there were huge differences between different player groups. A hero could be completely different in the noob pool, high-end games, and professional competitions, which made balancing even more difficult.

But overall, Min Jingchao had done a good job in terms of game balance during his time in charge of *GOG*. This was partly because he could get advice from professional players and professional tactical analysts from DGE Club, and also because he could listen to opinions from the player community.

When thinking deeply about the professional balance of FPS games, Min Jingchao realized that the professional settings of FPS games should not be copied from MOBA games or MMORPG games, which was why he came up with the current design方案.

At this point, the entire design方案 for *Bullet Marks 2* had been explained.

There would definitely be a lot of work to follow, such as what the specific layout of this large map would be, how the strongholds would be distributed, what the approximate amount of resources refreshed at each stronghold would be, and how many special props would be available to players...

However, other designers would help with these tasks. For example, the large map was the job of the level designers.

As the chief designer, Min Jingchao only needed to ensure that the overall direction didn't go astray.

The conference room fell into a brief silence. After a while, Sun Xi said, "I have no problem with it."

The other designers didn't say anything more.

Zhou Muyan looked around and nodded, "Okay, let's finalize it then."

If it were someone else's design方案, these designers might have raised some more questions and had some discussions.

But Min Jingchao's方案 was indeed impeccable, after all, his resume spoke for itself.

Although some innovative gameplays had no precedent, no one dared to guarantee whether they would be successful or not.

In that case, it was better to completely trust Min Jingchao and President Pei.

What if they kept raising opinions and the game failed? Who would be responsible then?

Min Jingchao looked at Sun Xi, "Then I'll continue to refine the方案. Please distribute the design drafts to the designers in the group, keep an eye on the progress, and start writing the design方案 on Monday."

Sun Xi nodded, "Okay, that's my job."

He paused for a moment, and then asked, "Monday? Uh... what about Saturday?"

According to the default process of Sky Fire Studio, designers would definitely be expected to work 996 when a game was first launched. (9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week)

Some designers were even responsible for so many design方案 that they had to work all night to revise them the day before the meeting to ensure that they could be completed on schedule.

Although this situation only showed that the workload was arranged unreasonably, everyone had come this way, so most designers had become accustomed to it and had no complaints.

So Sun Xi thought that he would definitely have to work overtime to write the design方案 tomorrow, Saturday, but Min Jingchao didn't mention it at all.

Min Jingchao said as a matter of course, "Normal rest on weekends."

"This..." Sun Xi subconsciously looked at Zhou Muyan.

Zhou Muyan coughed lightly, "Brother Min, I've heard about the working mode of Tengda, but... every company has its own situation, and we can't blindly copy it, right?"

"The designers in our studio are not as capable as those in Tengda, and they are used to working slowly and carefully. Sometimes, spending more time polishing the方案 will result in better details."

"Why don't we do this? Brother Min, you still follow the working schedule of Tengda, and the other members of the project team follow the original process of our studio. What do you think?"

Zhou Muyan obviously didn't want to open this precedent.

One aspect was his concern about the quality of the game.

After all, in his opinion, Tengda could have full holidays because their employees were very efficient, but the people at Sky Fire Studio were not that efficient.

If they had normal holidays and didn't have the tension of the development period, what if the development milestones couldn't be completed?

Another aspect was that he was afraid of affecting the mentality of others.

Everyone came to work overtime on Saturday, but no one from the *Bullet Marks 2* project team came. Wouldn't others think it was unfair? And wouldn't they want to work overtime anymore?

Time is money, and so is game development. Zhou Muyan felt very sorry to give back the time that he had worked so hard to squeeze out.

Of course, he didn't think he was mistreating these people. After all, when the game made money and he distributed bonuses, he was always generous compared to other bosses.

Min Jingchao shook his head, "I don't think it's necessary."

"I believe that the designers at Sky Fire Studio are also very strong, including the art, programming, and other project staff, who are all top-notch in the industry."

"The reason why the progress is sometimes slow may just be because frequent overtime leads to a low mental state and the body is not in perfect condition, which invisibly slows down efficiency."

"I hope that we can still follow the development mode of Tengda, and strictly prohibit overtime outside of normal working hours."

"When setting work plans, set them according to the normal workload. If it can't be completed, add people. If it still can't be completed, then postpone it."

"President Pei once said that there are many ways to solve problems, but overtime is definitely not one of them. Overtime only solves temporary problems on the surface, but in the long run, it will cause many new problems."

Zhou Muyan hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded, "Okay, let's do that then."

The game方案 had already been finalized, so it wasn't worth arguing with Min Jingchao over such a trivial matter.

Although not working overtime would definitely slow down the development progress, as long as the game could be successfully made and make money, then it wouldn't be a problem.

Zhou Muyan looked at Sun Xi, "Then today's meeting will end here. Later, you can go back and re-screen the candidates, and select a few of the most suitable designers for the *Bullet Marks 2* project team. After you've selected them, bring the方案 to my office."

Sun Xi nodded, "No problem, President Zhou."

The meeting was considered over, and everyone left the conference room one after another.

Currently, the positions for the *Bullet Marks 2* project team had all been cleared out, and Min Jingchao already had his own workstation. His daily work was to sort out the design稿 and carry out preliminary preparations.

The selection of the project team's lower-level personnel had almost been completed, but there were still some vacancies in the middle level.

This was mainly because the gameplay had not been completely finalized before, and it was impossible to determine which designer would be better at it, so it had been postponed for two days.

Zhou Muyan attached great importance to this project, so the selection of personnel was also very careful.

Sun Xi had just sat down at his workstation when he heard someone next to him say, "Brother Sun, I want to actively apply to do the numerical values for the *Bullet Marks 2* project. Do you think that's okay?"

Sun Xi looked up and quickly stood up, "Brother Han, that's not very appropriate, is it? Your current position is chief planner."

This Brother Han joined Sky Fire Studio earlier than Sun Xi, and was now independently leading a project team. It had been launched some time ago, and the results were pretty good.

He had also attended these two meetings, but Zhou Muyan considered that his own project was running well, and he didn't have any particular advantages in FPS games, so he didn't choose him, but chose Sun Xi.

Logically speaking, the list of personnel that Sun Xi was going to finalize this time was a mid-level list, to help him out.

Whether in terms of seniority or position, Brother Han was higher than Sun Xi. It wouldn't be appropriate for him to go to *Bullet Marks 2* to assist him.

Brother Han shook his head, "What's inappropriate? The project on my side has already gotten on the right track, and I can just give the position to young people and give them more opportunities to grow."

"And my son was just born recently, and I'm also very busy being in charge there. If I switch to this side..."

"Ahem, of course I'm definitely not trying to freeload on the holidays here! I just think that Brother Min's方案 is particularly good, and this project is very special, and I should be able to get some inspiration from it."

Now that he had said this, Sun Xi naturally understood.

"Okay, Brother Han, then I'll add you to the list first, but whether this list can be approved... depends on whether President Zhou agrees."

Brother Han nodded, "Thank you, Brother Sun! When you send the list, if President Zhou asks, I hope you can say a few good words for me. I really value this opportunity!"

Sun Xi: "Okay, Brother Han, I understand."

According to the regulations of Sky Fire Studio, once you leave the original project team, you can only receive bonuses for a maximum of three more months, and you won't be able to receive them after that.

After all, people are no longer on this project, so what reason is there to continue to share the bonuses?

The lifespan of a game is at least half a year to a year. As the chief designer, Brother Han was giving up a lot of bonuses.

But it was clear that he valued three things on the *Bullet Marks 2* side more: first, no overtime; second, following Min Jingchao to do this new project could give him some inspiration and growth; and third, if *Bullet Marks 2* was successful, wouldn't there also be bonuses?

And if he stayed in the original project, even if *Bullet Marks 2* was successful, it would have nothing to do with him.

So after considering it all, he decided to actively sign up to join the *Bullet Marks 2* project team.

After sending Brother Han away, Sun Xi wrote his name in the numerical value designer column as an alternative.

But as soon as he finished writing, he saw several messages popping up on the company's internal chat software.

"Brother Xi! I heard that the *Bullet Marks 2* project team doesn't work overtime? Is that true or false?"

"Brother, when will the list come out?"

"You must take me with you. I'm one of the best level designers in the company. There's no reason not to take me!"

"Brother Sun, can I go to the *Bullet Marks 2* project team?"

Looking at the series of messages from these people, Sun Xi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Good lord, as soon as they heard there was no overtime, they all came!