I am a Big Player
Chapter 143 - 142, Virus-level Game (First Update)_1

Chapter 143: 142, Virus-level Game (First Update)_1

It was precisely because of these high-quality sketch originals that the artists were on tenterhooks while modeling, terrified they couldn’t replicate the look in the drawings. With such exemplary works before them, the pressure was simply too immense!

However, Ren He himself never actually demanded that the modeling capture the heroes’ essence to such a degree; after all, even the professional team behind Dota 2 hadn’t achieved that in his past life, and the team he had recruited now surely wouldn’t outperform them.

In his past life, he worked in human resources, so he had some ideas on how to win people over. These artists were paid salaries 20% higher than the market standard, and Ren He even hired a cleaner and an aunty to prepare afternoon tea for them.

In Luo City of 2006, who would have imagined a company that provided afternoon tea?

Every day at 3 p.m., the aunty would push a cart into the office filled with fresh fruit and a variety of freshly squeezed drinks, and everyone was allowed not to work for that half-hour.

This work model felt novel to them and instilled an inexplicable sense of pride: their workplace was simply different from the rest!

Yet no one cut corners because the schedule Ren He had set was there for all to see—if they didn’t complete their tasks, they’d all "get the board." But no one felt there was anything wrong; instead, they voluntarily stayed late to finish their modeling tasks.

When Ren He occasionally visited the office in the evening and saw them working overtime, he would treat them to supper and discuss issues related to the originals at the dinner table.

Under his deliberate guidance, the entire company was racing against time. Ren He also promised a hefty reward if they finished ahead of schedule, which made everyone’s eyes light up—an opulent reward from a rich man’s mouth always aroused extra anticipation!

Everything seemed to be on the right track.

Ren He did the math, and if nothing went wrong, the money he had should just about cover the development of Dota, including renting servers. But what if something unexpected happened, or if he decided to buy servers directly?

Buying servers was likely a matter of sooner or later. Purchasing servers meant setting up a data center, and dealing with costs, technical support, procedures, and licenses was no simple matter.

So he was still short on funds!

Fortunately, the royalties from Kunlun and the Celestial Book wouldn’t stop, and he no longer had to worry about punishment tasks in the future. Right now, the most profitable avenue was likely the other rights to the two books!

Kunlun had sold its film and television rights, but the game rights were still in Ren He’s hands!

Right, he was in the gaming business now, so why couldn’t he develop Kunlun himself? Although Dota was the priority, there arose a question: Kunlun could even be turned into a 2D web game! What Dota needed most now was recognition, as well as time to brew and ferment its popularity. If he leveraged Kunlun’s current fame to make a hit game and then promoted Dota on Kunlun’s login screen...

It would simply be killing two birds with one stone—Kunlun’s popularity had already skyrocketed!

In the gaming market of 2006, even in his past life, 2D was still mainstream, and the 3D graphics were nothing impressive either.

And what was the peak masterpiece? It was Fantasy Westward Journey!

The pinnacle of 2D turn-based games!

However, Ren He didn’t even plan to make it that complicated. What are the characteristics of web games? Early web games are all about being boring and brainless; you can’t even manually cast a skill, the map is a single road to the end, and despite being online games, they lack a trading system. What kind of online game, what kind of game is this, huh?!

But the core of it is in its boring and brainless nature; spending money equals winning!

Damn it, Ren He really couldn’t figure out before why such games were so popular, until he started using web games to kill time himself...

It’s really about spending money to win, not spending money means getting thrashed, okay! It’s like opening a new realm for rich players who want to kill time!

Before, would Ren He believe that someone would spend over four hundred thousand RMB on a lousy web game? After he got brutally defeated by those rich players, he believed it...

Ren He used to think he couldn’t devote too much time and energy to games, so he just planned to finish Dota and be done with it, but now he realized he could totally make some simple web games!

It wouldn’t take much, just to create an initial capital flow. With funds, he could establish his own independent machine rooms and server groups. Those who have played Dota and League of Legends understand; laggy servers inevitably lead to the loss of customers...

So Ren He already had a plan in mind; he would create Kunlun’s web game, a game proven to have virus-like spread speed, and bundle it with Dota! Absolutely explosive!

Of course, in the end, Ren He still pinned his hopes on Dota supporting him for life, so these simple web games were only intended as a groundwork for Dota.

Kunlun might take a bit more time, but seriously, how hard could it be to make a 2D web game when you have planners, artists, and technicians? Besides, Ren He thought about just slapping the name of Kunlun into Chinese Paladin, casually change the story, swap the names of characters and sects, and that’s OK. He was determined to make a less refined web game, so he didn’t worry about the details.

Payment details would be modified to match the money-making model of web games from his previous world, truly a gold-sucking artifact.

Some players might feel something’s off while playing, wondering how Kunlun, a martial arts game, suddenly turned into a fantasy... but what does it matter if it feels off, I made it anyway... Ren He shamelessly thought.

By the time everyone is enjoying playing Kunlun, they’ll find out Kunlun is starting to bundle with Dota, with every Dota match giving away Kunlun currency, big gift packs! This crap is what game developers from his previous world had done to death, but no one in this world has ever done it before!

Only then might people realize that Kunlun is just an appetizer for Qinghe Company, and Dota is the main course...

To tell the truth, Ren He never planned to produce a full computer version of Chinese Paladin; he thought money was good as long as it was enough to spend, there was no need for excessive greed, and he just didn’t have that much time to spend on these things while still enjoying life...

After receiving the new information from Ren He, the artists were baffled, wondering how their boss could come up with such ideas one after another, but they didn’t know about Ren He’s plans, nor did they realize how terrifying Qinghe Company would become in the game industry in the future...

With only 2 days left before the middle school exams, Ren He completely relaxed after he finished the original drawings for Kunlun at breakneck speed; those drawings were not even on the same level as Dota, looking like casual doodles, and even the artists felt that the master character designer hardly put any effort into it...

This crap looks like something sketched out while taking a dump, okay?! Can’t you put a little more heart into it?! But for them, who had already been tormented by the modeling work of Dota, this kind of 2D cute and cuddly art style was too simple...

In the 9th month since Ren He traveled to a parallel world, the middle school exams finally arrived.