Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 561 - 544: Starting to Scratch Heads

Chapter 561: Chapter 544: Starting to Scratch Heads

Sitting at his workstation, Gan Di began scratching his head.

His first day at work had made him quite uncomfortable, but the urgent matter was that he must come up with an internally coherent system for these basic settings.

The basic settings President Li had given him weren’t actually very connected.

If Gan Di analyzed them from the traditional gaming perspective, he even felt that some aspects contradicted each other.

But how could he come up with a system that looked decent, included all these elements, and still convinced himself that the game could make money?

Gan Di felt this task was infinitely harder than making a mod.

He looked up and saw that everyone seemed busy with their work, which made him even more anxious.

Zhao Haiquan, sitting beside him, leaned over, "How’s the progress?"

Gan Di felt helpless, "No progress at all! What do I do, the other designers are waiting for my design details.

"How am I supposed to proceed?

"Can I just randomly grab a designer to take over for me?"

Zhao Haiquan shook his head, "You’re the lead designer, don’t worry about those things. Just start designing.

"Anyway, President Li’s basic requirements are absolutely non-negotiable, so first strictly follow President Li’s demands, assign each planning case, and let the other designers start writing their proposals.

"When they’ve all finished their proposals, then you can look at the specific issues when you’re summarizing everything.

"Doesn’t that give you more time to work with?"

Gan Di thought about it and it seemed right.

Although he couldn’t figure out how to incorporate all these requirements into one big framework, he was certain of one thing: the specifications were unchangeable.

With this iron rule, the functional planning for each part was manageable.

Take the gacha system, for instance.

President Li’s basic plan had already set the core principle of "the more you draw, the more exclusive it gets," including the arrangement of the card pool and the cycle of 1000 draws, and more.

Just refine these requirements a bit and hand it over to any professional functional planner under you, and they could design the feature well.

Any issues could be addressed during the summary!

That’s the good part about being a leader. Whatever problems arise that could make one bald, you can simply hand them down to your subordinates.

If you’re unsure, let your subordinates come up with several versions and choose the most reliable one. Nothing can go wrong that way.

With this in mind, Gan Di stopped pondering and started to take action.

He followed the previous project charts and quickly decomposed "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" into dozens of different systems.

Then, according to President Li’s requirements, he established a basic framework for the corresponding systems.

Finally, he assigned these tasks to the design team, setting a deadline for them.

These designers were all experienced hands, quick at developing proposals. Based on previous cases, a week was usually enough.

So, Gan Di gave them a week’s time as well.

After a week, the proposals would be summarized, and any contradictions between them or any irrational aspects of the overall game framework would be revised.

The clock was ticking and there was a heavy workload, but the designers didn’t say anything; they were already used to this fast-paced work.

After receiving the tasks, they immediately went about their business without a word.

Gan Di relaxed a little; it had to be said, being a leader was good indeed.

Given Gan Di’s abilities, working at Nitiandang as an ordinary functional planner might not cut it, but as a lead designer, he was more than sufficient.

But even after distributing the tasks, the problem remained unsolved.

How to bring all these elements together?

If they truly developed according to the specifications, it would surely result in a game that didn’t make money and was criticized.

How could he turn the tide?

"Eh, hold on.

"I just thought of something... maybe I could use this opportunity to resolve a personal curiosity? A mystery?

"That is... are the bugs in Nitiandang really bugs, or are they hidden features?"

Gan Di’s mind suddenly flashed with inspiration, recalling this long-standing confusion.

He had always been eager to know the answer but was never Nitiandang’s insider, so no matter how curious he was, there was no way to verify it.

But now, he himself was an insider!

Although he hadn’t been granted complete access to all internal permissions, as the lead planner, he couldn’t directly view or modify internal code, but he could look at the planning documents.

After all, Gan Di had to refer to the previous formats when writing his own planning documents.

So, just by looking at Nitiandang’s original planning documents, wouldn’t it be obvious whether it was a bug or not?

If it was written in the plan, it was a hidden feature; if not, it was a bug!

Regardless of whether this conclusion would help with his current troubles, it would at least answer his long-time question.

Thinking this, Gan Di immediately turned to review the previous game’s planning documents carefully.

He did so with full justification, as he could claim he was studying previous designs to improve his own work.

Again, isn’t it only natural for the main planner to review planning documents? It’s not like I’m stealing trade secrets; there’s no need to act like a thief.

One.

Two.

Three.

The more Gan Di read, the more shocked he became, and his brows furrowed tighter with each document.

Those bugs... not a single word about them had been written in the planning documents!

It was nearly certain that these plans hadn’t been modified afterward since the date on the files was clear, and it seemed that once the project entered the development phase, the planning documents would be locked into read-only mode, preventing any casual revisions.

Thus, this was essentially irrefutable proof.

But this made Gan Di feel like the sky had fallen: They were indeed bugs!

Before coming to Nitiandang, Gan Di had been quite the die-hard mechanics enthusiast. While he always said he didn’t completely discount the possibility that some hidden mechanics might be bugs, he also firmly believed that not all mechanics could be bugs.

There had to be some that were well-designed, right?

But now, upon close inspection, lo and behold, those infamous bugs, each and every one of them, were never mentioned in the planning documents!

Gan Di felt as if he had stepped into a horror movie.

Everything around him seemed completely normal; the environment was pleasant, and the people were friendly, with smiles on their faces.

But amidst such a beautiful life, there were always some strange, eerie, common-sense defying details.

It was like having a thorn stuck in you, the more you thought about it, the more something seemed off.

And following the typical horror movie plot, perhaps what would come next would be some incredibly bizarre events, and the poor protagonist would find no escape...

"Hey, that’s enough, what am I thinking? The more I think, the more absurd it gets!"

Gan Di hurriedly interrupted his own train of thought, forcing himself to stop considering such outrageous possibilities.

But how did these bugs actually come about?

Could it be that one would simply design a game, then write the code methodically, and after the game’s launch, bugs that improved the player’s experience would just magically appear?

Don’t kid yourself, that was absolutely impossible!

These bugs must have been added secretively by someone, buried deep and cleverly, so much so that even examining the code wouldn’t necessarily reveal whether they were intentional or unintentional.

But for some reason, this person or group of people deliberately hid the bugs, not disclosing them publicly, nor mentioning them in the planning documents.

"Maybe... this is my glimmer of hope?"

Gan Di suddenly entertained this speculation.

To the intelligent, a lesson from a person may not teach you after ten tries, but a lesson from experience teaches you the first time.

His work computer was a new one and didn’t contain any data from Zhou Yang’s computer, naturally excluding any ghost stories about Nitiandang rules.

If those files were there, maybe the atmosphere would be even more bizarre.

President Li wanted an outsider parachuted in to take control of the entire design team, so she did a clean sweep in advance, allowing Gan Di access only to the most basic planning documents.

Beyond that, she didn’t let him delve too deep.

But the thing was, just by reading the planning documents, Gan Di had been able to draw some useful conclusions.

In a profound sense, Gan Di felt as if someone was in sync with his own thoughts; that person seemed to be sitting right where he was now, flashing through the same ideas.

Turn the rotten into the miraculous!

Turn the impossible into the possible!

Use a mere bug to completely transform the game!

Could this... be possible?

Gan Di wasn’t sure, but he felt like he was vaguely grasping the threshold of something.

Should he tell others about this?

Gan Di hesitated, instinctively feeling that piercing through something that everyone knows but no one speaks of could be dangerous, but he couldn’t articulate exactly why.

What to do?

Suddenly, Gan Di had a burst of inspiration.

If these bugs were indeed intentionally inserted by someone, then Zhao Haiquan and Feng Hui were likely in the know.

But their knowledge didn’t necessarily mean they would tell him the truth.

So, the next step was simple.

If he came up with a bug or hidden mechanism on his own and asked Zhao Haiquan or Feng Hui to implement it in secret, would they do it?

If they went ahead quietly, without making a fuss, perhaps that was some unwritten rule established within Nitiandang?

Gan Di felt it was worth a shot.

He reopened the document given to him by President Li and read it carefully.

"Strange, am I imagining things?

"It feels as if the meaning between the lines has changed slightly?"

This time, Gan Di seemed to really find some details he hadn’t noticed before hidden between the lines.