Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 158 Concept Sketches (Second Update)

Chapter 158: Chapter 158 Concept Sketches (Second Update)

Gu Fan continued, "Returning to the previous question, why do I think the high school stage is generally a less free and more painful period?"

"Because students are actually the least powerful in resisting."

"Adults have their own pain, and in most cases, the problems they encounter after becoming adults are much harder to solve than those they faced during their school years. But adults have one difference—they are relatively free."

"In this society, once they are determined to give up and lie down, it’s actually quite hard for the outside world to interfere with them."

"But it’s different for students; they are minors and don’t have the ability to act autonomously, they must be under the control of their parents. They lack social experience and are not mentally prepared to truly give up."

"That’s why you often see electronics factories going directly to vocational colleges to pull students into internships, offering much lower wages than ordinary workers, and then they threaten not to issue diplomas unless the students give up school..."

Lilith seemed to understand, "I see... It looks like Azazel did do his research by choosing this theme."

"This ’Henggang Middle School Simulation’ is indeed a formidable rival to our Nitiandang!"

Gu Fan nodded. This game was also quite a challenge for him.

In his memory, there had been a similar game before, but it tanked with an "avalanche of poor reviews" after launching, and the production team had fled.

Whether it was from the perspective of collecting negative emotions, or from the standpoint of losing money, it was a big success.

If Azazel really made such a game, it might well turn the tables.

"What should we do now, Gu Fan?" Lilith was also quite nervous.

Gu Fan spoke calmly, "President Li, don’t worry, we still have time. Let me think of a strategy."

"Also, I need you to figure out one thing for me, is this game a story-driven game experienced from the student’s first-person perspective? Or is it a simulation management game where you play as a principal?"

"This will directly determine our next approach."

"And one more thing, we must try our best to keep the overall budget for the ’Henggang Middle School Simulation’ under one million."

"Considering the retail price of this game, if the budget exceeds this number, we may find it tough to recover."

The so-called overall budget includes all the money spent on development, operations, purchasing art resources, etc.

The game only costs six yuan per sale, and the gaming company can only profit four yuan or even less from each sale, so a cost of one million would require sales of over two hundred thousand units just to start profiting, which is obviously too difficult.

Lilith nodded, "That’s doable; I will try to keep the budget as low as possible!"

"I’ll continue to gather intelligence on Azazel’s side. You hurry up with the development of ’Ascension’!"

After saying this, Lilith left, full of fighting spirit.

...

...

On October 30th, Wednesday.

"Ascension" had officially entered the development process.

Despite Wei Chengjie’s many questions about the game, considering the existence of "Nitiandang Urban Tales", he decided not to ask Gu Fan. Instead, he followed Zhou Yang’s suggestion, diligently planning the development process and distributing work tasks according to the design plans.

Gu Fan glanced at the development plan and found it to be largely satisfactory.

After all, Wei Chengjie was a seasoned game producer, and his ability in this area was beyond doubt.

Gu Fan simply shortened the timeline for his own part of the work and made slight adjustments to the tasks assigned to the programmers, shifting some of the more important functions to himself.

The task assignments were clear, and everyone started getting busy with their work.

Compared to the original editor, the Myriad Editor test version’s preset templates were not so abundant, so there was even more development work needed on the programming side.

Fortunately, after enlarging the team, Nitiandang Games had gained a few more experienced programmers, so the development was expected to be completed in just over two months.

In reality, the scale of "Ascension" was not very big; although it was an action game, its main scene Chapters amounted to only about five or six, with some scenes that could be reused.

The pressure from the two sets of worldviews was mainly focused on the art resources.

"President Gu, I finished a drawing. Do you think this works?" asked Xia Shiqing timidly, raising her hand.

Gu Fan came to her computer, "Mm, let me take a look."

At this moment, Gu Fan still felt some trepidation towards Xia Shiqing, after all, he didn’t know when she would suddenly and without warning transform into Xiamiel.

However, fortunately, there was a significant difference in how the two personas felt, so as long as it wasn’t Xiamiel causing trouble on purpose, it was unlikely that he would mistake one for the other.

Gu Fan looked at the drawing Xia Shiqing had made.

It depicted a scene that was a combination of two in one, half of it picturesque and teeming with ferocious beasts from the Immortal Cultivation World, and the other half dark and gloomy, filled with all sorts of machinery from a science-fiction world.

On the canvas, virtually all kinds of elements were painted, such as landscapes, architectures, character clothing, transportation vehicles, monsters, and so on.

And many elements from both sides corresponded one-to-one.

For example, in the Immortal Cultivation World side, there were floating pavilions and towers, while in the science fiction world, there were various mechanical floating cities;

The graceful immortals of the Immortal Cultivation World turned into robots in the science fiction world;

The Immortal Cultivation World had numerous floating ships, which sailed under the propulsion of magic formations, their sails billowing, oars gliding through the air naturally; in the science fiction world, these became large mechanical airships, with flames shooting from their hulls and blue light emanating from them.

And the various beasts and Flesh Monsters in the Immortal Cultivation World were transformed into large mechanical creatures in the science fiction world.

It had to be said, this drawing was quite technically proficient.

This wasn’t just about producing two different styles; to meet Gu Fan’s requirements, at least two things needed to be ensured:

Firstly, both styles had to be spiritually unified, which means both had to have a touch of "madness," giving the viewer the feeling that their sanity points were dropping just by looking at it.

It couldn’t be that the Immortal Cultivation World appeared ethereal and the science fiction world seemed highly developed in technology; that would not align with the game’s conceptual essence.

Secondly, the various elements of both worlds needed to correspond strictly and also look natural and harmonious when viewed individually.

Because these two worlds would be seamlessly switching, the terrain in the same location would be fundamentally identical, and the collision volumes would also be the same.

If they were not, it might lead to situations where players switched worlds only to get stuck inside walls or fall to their deaths.

Moreover, if the differences between the two worlds were too great, players would only feel as though they are two distinct worlds, rather than suspecting they were experiencing a mental breakdown, thus greatly diminishing the psychological impact on players.

However, there was a substantial difference in the architectural styles between the Immortal Cultivation World and the science fiction world.

Buildings in the Immortal Cultivation World were traditional Huaxia-style structures, with archways and temples, and rooftops adorned with flying eaves—it was quite normal in an Immortal Cultivation World, but if in the science fiction world a mechanical skyscraper had flying eaves, it would look quite out of place.

It would naturally make people feel that the Immortal Cultivation World was real, while the science fiction world was false.

Gu Fan wished to achieve an effect that would make it difficult for players to distinguish between reality and illusion.

So both worlds had to strictly correspond and yet have their own distinct characteristics, both looking as though they were real.

This indeed wasn’t something an average artist could handle.

But from the current situation, Xia Shiqing seemed quite adept at this style.

"Hmm, this looks good. However, I think it’s missing something," Gu Fan earnestly said.

Xia Shiqing was somewhat puzzled, "Missing something?"

"Right," Gu Fan nodded, "It’s missing some BUGs!"

He pointed at the image on the display, "You see, although one can vaguely feel a sense of ’madness’ from the style of the painting, this feeling is not intense enough.

"I think we can add some elements to these two worlds that look like they’re BUGs.

"For example, a floating island undergoing disorder, with textures appearing problematic; scene elements that clip through each other, with chairs embedded in trees; in the distance, someone dragging their intestines along the road pondering how to reconnect them; an individual dressed in ancient garb is downing a bottle of gasoline...

"By incorporating more of these elements, we will be more in line with the theme of our game."

Xia Shiqing nodded, "Alright, President Gu, I’ve got it, I’ll make the revisions."

She picked up the digital pen and began to make changes once again.

Gu Fan watched her for a while longer and couldn’t help but feel emotional inside; how could such a nice girl be possessed by an Angel? It truly was a misfortune.

It was still unclear what conditions were required for Angelic possession, perhaps this girl’s unique artistic style and somewhat introverted personality were also related? However, Gu Fan didn’t currently have the inclination to delve into these matters; the game development came first!