Chapter 16
The next afternoon, Ma Yang handed the modified requirement form to Pei Qian.
Looking through it, Pei Qian was fully pleased with what Ma Yang had written.
It was as good as writing nothing at all!
Even though Pei Qian hadn’t worked in the games industry before, the requirement form was a template off the resource website and there were basic instructions written at the top of the form.
Basically, the more detailed, the better.
The designer would propose an image, usually imaginary and vague while the artist would draw the image, usually concrete and detailed.
It was easy for something to go wrong during the process.
For example, the designer might want a ‘Extremely handsome male character’. This was a standard that was vague and hard to measure.
How does one define ‘extremely handsome’?
The artist would then draw a character he takes to be extremely handsome, but would that please the designer? Not necessarily.
After all, beauty was subjective.
Therefore, the designer had to be as detailed as possible while stating their requirements. The best would be if they could describe the sort of clothes, caps, weapons or any defining traits et cetera.
If they had a similar image for reference, that would be even better.
There’s always a joke within the games circle.
Designer tells programmer, “I want a function that can do xxx. The design concept of the function is xxx and it should achieve an effect like xxx!”
Programmer replies irritably, “Just tell me the function of a game you want to copy. Let me have a look at it.”
Designer tells artist, “I want a character that looks like xxx. This character must look like xxx and have xxx personality, giving off an xxx feel!”
Artist replies irritably, “Just tell me a character you want to copy. Show me an image of it.”
It wasn’t because they want to slack off. The main point was that too much information gets lost through texts to images.
Therefore, when making similar requirement forms, it’s naturally better to have the descriptions and reference images as detailed as possible. That way, it would ensure that the work produced by the artist doesn’t differ too far from what the designer imagines it to be.
Now, let’s take a look at Ma Yang’s requirement form.
It’s complete self-entertainment!
Take Guan Yu for example.
“He’s a dragon. Human shaped dragon.”
“As the Martial Saint of the Dragon clan, he’s seen as the pinnacle of fighting strength.”
“He spends his life walking on a blade and his comprehension of battles and killing differs from the layman.”
That’s it.
Now, take Ma Chao for example.
“He’s a half human half horse and that’s why he’s called the Other Race.”
“Ma Chao is different from the other centaurs and he bears clear traits the Dragon clan’s bloodline, such as having dragon horns on his head.”
“It’s also precisely because he has half a bloodline from the Dragon clan that Ma Chao possess an incredible strength similar to those of the Dragon clan.”
Now, Zhuge Liang next.
“When he was young, Zhuge Liang was hailed as the greatest inventor, physicist, mechanical and electrical engineer of the three kingdoms period.”
“His research include man-made lightning, environmental weapons, aviation equipment, automobiles, robots and various other cutting edge fields.”
“At the same time, he was known as a poet, philosopher, music connoisseur and linguist amongst many other titles.”
Zhuge Liang’s description was much longer than the previous two – it was clear that Ma Yang must have been lost in his own enjoyment as he wrote on.
Other than that, there was the Dragon Lady Guard Zhou Cang; Phoenix Orphan Pang Tong; Ice Crystal Maiden Xu Shu; Robot Puppet Huang Yueying; Blood Realm Overlord Guo Jia; Lolita Dragon Hunter Lu Meng; Night Ranger Taishi Ci; Shadow Swordsman Zhou Yu so on and so forth.
Basically, other than their names and some vague characteristics, all of these characters did not resemble those of the three kingdoms anymore!
The content would not serve any purpose for the artist’s creative input as well.
Besides, even though he could have written all of this simply such as just stating that Guan Yu is a human shaped dragon, he had to add in all the gibberish at the back!
However, for Pei Qian, this was a perfect requirement form!
In fact, he was so happy that he thumped himself.
Ma Yang was reliable indeed!
There was no way Pei Qian would be able to write all this himself!
He had truly made the right choice by getting Ma Yang to be his employee!
Pei Qian did not change a single word and sent the requirement form to Ruan Guangjian just like that.
After five minutes, Ruan Guangjian replied.
“Isn’t there too many things missing from this requirement form?”
“This is going to be difficult for me to draw. There’s no clear standard to gauge from.”
Pei Qian was prepared for this as he replied right away, “It’s fine, just draw and design as you wish to! In fact, if you think that these requirements aren’t reliable, you can choose not to follow it entirely! I trust in your professional judgment!”
Ruan Guangjian: “… No. Since we signed a contract, there has to a standard. Wouldn’t things be complicated if no one wants to take responsibility for this later on?”
Pei Qian answered hastily, “For real! I’m completely trusting of your capabilities! Don’t worry, no matter what you end up drawing in the end, I won’t make you change it repeatedly! You can take a screenshot of this conversation as evidence. Or if you truly feel the need, we can add this clause into the contract.”
“There’s no need for that… alright then, I’ll see what I can do about it,” Ruan Guangjian said.
Pei Qian was relieved.
He was afraid that Ruan Guangjian might insist that they provide detailed specifications so that he can go about drawing it earnestly.
The way things are right now, it was a win win situation where both sides would have less problems.
Pei Qian had some money left that he did not intend to keep. He proceeded with buying music, sound effects, other art resources and cloud rental service equipment et cetera.
All of those did not cost too much. Pei Qian had planned it perfectly such that there was only around 10,000 yuan left in case of any emergencies.
As for marketing fees for the game… he naturally reserved no money for that!
He had no intention of marketing it at all! It’d be best if no one knew about the game at all!
Pei Qian could foresee his bright future as he continued to get busy at spending money.
…
A certain finance university in Shanghai.
A dormitory in the arts course.
The dormitories here had a much better environment than back at Pei Qian’s Handong University.
There were individual tables at the bottom of every bunk bed and the dormitories were air conditioned as well apart from being new and spacious.
Thanks to the resource website set up by ESRO, many of the arts students are able to take on side jobs online during their university days which helped to improve their lives slightly.
Not only that, these projects would help them in seeking employment post graduation as well.
Ruan Guangjian put his mouse away and yelled, “Old Huang, Old Zhou! Hurry and get the others here! We’ve got work!”
Before long, the other five people in the dormitory scurried over.
“Three weeks, 50 sets of original arts with four pieces each. 3,000 yuan! How’s that? Great, right?”
Ruan Guangjian was an energetic young fella with short hair, fair skin and exquisite features – he did not look like an artist at all.
The same can’t be said for his roommates where some of them kept long hair while others had tattoos – they all had distinctive traits.
Old Huang, a guy with a short beard, was the first to head over. “3,000 yuan for four pieces? Holy shit! That’ll do! For that price, I’ll even do cartoonish designs! Just for the sake of survival!”
Ruan Guangjian shook his head. “Cartoonish? That’s not the case this time round! The client made it clear that he’s fine with any styles as long as it’s not cartoonish!”
Old Huang was stunned. “Huh? But I recall you only uploaded cartoonish art on your portfolio previously? This client came looking for you while insisting that he doesn’t want it to be cartoonish? Is he braindead?”
“F*ck you! This is called being insightful on his part!” Ruan Guangjian rolled his eyes. “I had drawing cartoons. But what can I do when all the mobile games are trending with cartoon characters? Previously, I could only receive jobs for drawing cartoons, so I had no choice. Now that he doesn’t want any cartoons, I can finally show my true worth!”
“You’re going to draw in that style of yours? I don’t think that’ll fit…” Old Huang was hesitant. “Taking the client’s money to draw something that you want, that’s…”
“The client has made it clear that he trusts my artistic skills and professional judgment and he gives me complete autonomy over the design!”
“Besides, look at that requirement form! It’s completely in line with my thoughts!”