Work Prophet
Chapter 301 - 59: Detailed Settings

Chapter 301: Chapter 59: Detailed Settings

Wang Guowei didn’t even know how to respond to all the feudal superstitions spouted by Sea Dog.

He even regretted getting him involved.

Luckily, after Sea Dog vented for a bit he didn’t linger on the subject, and instead turned to ask Li Yu, "Go on, tell me more about your needs."

"Well, the game is set in a sort of medieval era, plus some fantasy elements."

"Like Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings?"

"Game of Thrones, but with various types of Orcs, um, their appearance is very close to humans, with extra ears and stuff... they can live up to three times the lifespan of humans."

"Kemonomimi? You guys want to make an anime-style game, then you’ll need to keep up with the art resources." Sea Dog showed some interest and rubbed his hands together, "Selling sex appeal, huh? Selling sex appeal is the true way of the mortal world, it’s just that approvals are getting stricter, passing them won’t be easy."

"It’s not anime-style, think more realistic. The biggest feature of the game is its realism."

Upon hearing Li Yu’s remark, Sea Dog burst out laughing.

"What, is there a problem with realism?" Wang Guowei asked, puzzled.

"Games that tout realism? Nine out of ten crash and burn. Success stories like Takov are just outliers, not really indicative of anything."

Sea Dog continued, "At the end of the day, ’hardcore’ is just something a tiny group of gamers rave about, most people play games just to have a blast. Reality is already bad enough, who wants to go through it again in a game?"

"That makes sense." Wang Guowei nodded repeatedly.

"But you’re the boss, what you say goes, I’m just offering some advice," said Sea Dog as he picked up a piece of char siu.

Li Yu continued, "Later, a transmigrator comes to that world and establishes a Church."

"A simulation management game? But establishing a Church is quite rare, so the player is supposed to play as the transmigrator, right...?"

"Actually, no."

"No? Then what does the player play as?"

"A native."

Sea Dog paused, "Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You’re saying you plan to make a game, where there’s a transmigrator, but he’s irrelevant to the player; the player isn’t playing as the transmigrator, but as a native?"

"That’s right."

"That’s pretty unusual." Sea Dog perked up again, stroking his chin, "A traditional Western fantasy RPG, but with a twist of transmigration added... I’ve never thought of it from that angle. As an ordinary villager, experiencing the changes brought by the transmigrator?"

"But why a Church, though? Changing it to a Kingdom would probably be hotter. That’s the classic farming narrative template, likely to be more popular with the market."

"Because I want to do something different, something that hasn’t been done before," Li Yu said.

"One of the common mistakes new producers make is trying to innovate blindly," Sea Dog continued to critique, "In fact, most projects within the industry are a cycle of copying each other, at most making minor adjustments, because capital favors projects that can bring consistent returns.

"Investors, you know, they want to make sure the money they put in can be recouped. You say you want to make an open world in whatever style, these investors don’t really care about that, but if you say you’re benchmarking against ’Genshin Impact,’ then the investors get it, will invest their money because ’Genshin Impact’ is hot, it has proven that this model can succeed.

"As for whether or not they can replicate it, that’s another story, but at least they’ve got the funds."

"So it’s not always that producers or planners want to follow trends blindly and flock to make a certain type of competing product. When you want to do something different, especially something innovative, it’s hard to secure funding. The project gets killed before it even starts... In the end, you have no choice but to come back and grudgingly copy others."

Haidog sighed, his expression somewhat complex.

Li Yu didn’t interrupt his lament until he had finished, then said, "Don’t worry about profitability. This game is customized for a few private needs and isn’t going to be released to the market."

"Is that so?" Haidog was somewhat surprised but said nothing more.

These days, wealthy people have many quirks. One wealthy individual with the surname Ma even gathered all Kung Fu actors to make a movie and fulfill his own martial arts dream.

Someone wanting to make a game just for themselves isn’t too strange.

So Haidog stopped doing market analysis for Li Yu and started seriously discussing the progression curves and rewards with him.

Especially regarding the rewards, Haidog asked Li Yu more about the world’s background and the settings related to the transmigrator.

Haidog had been planning for many years and considered himself quick-witted. He could conceive ideas rapidly. But compared to Li Yu, he felt overwhelmingly outmatched.

The two were clearly discussing fictional settings, and Li Yu hadn’t prepared any documents in advance, but he answered every question without hesitation, even when Haidog intentionally asked some very detailed questions.

Li Yu’s answers were almost instant, and at first, Haidog thought that Li Yu was just making things up. But as he asked more and more, Haidog discovered something that made his scalp tingle.

That was that all of Li Yu’s answers had no logical inconsistencies; instead, they corroborated each other, forming a tightly knit web.

This guy... Could it be that he had written hundreds of thousands of words of background settings? Covering every aspect from clothing and food to housing and transports, even customizing local customs with great detail—it was a massive undertaking.

As a copy planner, no one knew the challenge better than Haidog.

And all of this was for a game that was never intended to hit the market, which shocked Haidog even more, rising to a level of deep respect.

Haidog recorded everything Li Yu said with a voice recorder, then seriously said, "Give me five days. I’ll have the first version of the leveling system ready for you. Afterwards, if you have any feedback, you can let me know, and I’ll make revisions until you’re satisfied."

"That would be great." Li Yu was also very straightforward and immediately transferred three thousand yuan as a deposit.

Haidog paused for a moment before asking Li Yu, "Can I also play the game once it’s finished? I always used to think that focusing too much on realism in games was unnecessary, but the world you’ve described really piqued my interest."

"Brother Dog, even though you’re saying it with such seriousness, you just want to see the Kemonomimi girls, don’t you?" Wang Guowei chided.

"......" Haidog, hit right on the mark, blushed.

But then he heard Li Yu say, "I’m afraid that’s not possible. This game is not open to the public."

"That’s too bad." Haidog felt a bit disappointed.

After finishing their meal, Haidog and Li Yu exchanged WeChat contacts and then went back to work, leaving Wang Guowei full of curiosity, asking Li Yu.

"Aren’t you at a management consulting firm? How come you suddenly want to start making games? And why didn’t you seriously hire a planner, instead coming to look for Haidog?"

"Didn’t you recommend Haidog to me? Is there something wrong with him?" Li Yu frowned.

"There’s nothing wrong with his capabilities, but now that I think about it, he might have a point. Some people are jinxes, and Brother Dog tends to jinx projects; every project he’s involved in eventually falls through."

"That’s not something to worry about this time. It definitely won’t fall through." Li Yu assured him.