Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 349: It Was Fine Before Coming
December 7th, Tuesday.
Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd.
Yesterday, the written exam had ended, and they had now entered the intense paper-grading phase.
Considering the massive workload involved in grading, a full week had been set aside.
Interviews would be conducted the following Monday, after which the admission list could be finalized fairly quickly, determining which group of people would be able to join Tengda as interns and obtain the opportunity to take the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test.
Pei Qian was very satisfied with this schedule.
On one hand, stretching the entire recruitment process—written exam, interviews, and admissions—across nearly two weeks created a certain deterrent effect;
On the other hand, requiring two Mondays off in such a short period of time made most currently employed candidates feel despair, effectively discouraging a large number of experienced applicants.
In short, finding every possible way to scare off more people was the right approach!
For the time being, the grading work had been fully handed over to the HR and Administration departments.
Given Tengda's current scale, there was probably no need to worry about favoritism or cheating yet.
In the future, once the recruitment scale grew larger, grading could be done strictly according to the standards of major examinations. At that point, purchasing specialized equipment and hiring dedicated graders would likely be another excellent opportunity to spend a large sum of money.
As Pei Qian was thinking this over, someone knocked on the door.
Pei Qian looked up—it was Ye Zhizhou.
Development on BE QUIET had started earlier than GOG, and by now it was about time for a first demo version to be ready.
At this stage, the game's level of completion couldn't really be called high. At best, it had only implemented some of the most basic functions, such as character movement within a scene and the use of items.
The art assets were still far from complete as well. There was only a single scene so far, and many elements—props, characters, effects, and so on—still needed significant refinement.
Even so, this initial version was already enough to reveal some things.
Standing outside President Pei's office, Ye Zhizhou took a deep breath, steadying his nerves.
In the past, President Pei had always gone to Shangyang Games to check on development progress. This time, Ye Zhizhou himself had come to Tengda to "audience with the emperor," so it was inevitable that he felt a little nervous.
'Calm down, calm down.'
'A demo is inherently an incomplete version. It's perfectly normal for all kinds of bugs to appear, President Pei won't be overly harsh about that.'
'As long as we can properly showcase some of the basic functions, that should be enough.'
'Unless… there are so many bugs that it's completely unplayable.'
'That shouldn't be possible. Before coming, we had the testing team do a quick pass and fixed all the more serious bugs.'
'Some minor bugs definitely remain, but it can't be that unlucky, surely they won't all show up at once.'
After reassuring himself like this, Ye Zhizhou finally knocked and entered.
"President Pei, here's the game build. Please install it."
Ye Zhizhou handed over a portable hard drive.
Pei Qian reached out to take it, installed the demo on his computer, then handed the controller to Ye Zhizhou to operate.
In truth, Pei Qian himself still didn't know exactly what kind of game this was.
Back then, he had only given Shangyang Games a few broad directional constraints before getting busy with other matters.
So now, Pei Qian actually felt a trace of anticipation for this demo presentation, curious to see what kind of game Shangyang Games would produce by following the dead-end paths he had pointed out.
However…
With Tang Yishu's halo in effect, would he even be able to see the demo's true state?
Pei Qian was highly skeptical.
After a brief black screen, the game started up normally.
Pei Qian felt a slight sense of surprise.
It actually launched! No error messages, no crashes!
It looked like this demo was made pretty well.
Ye Zhizhou, completely unaware of the danger about to descend, simply pushed the analog stick, operating the game while explaining.
"At the moment, the demo mainly completes some very basic features, such as character movement and the use of environmental props."
"We mainly wanted you to take a look at whether the current horror atmosphere and overall style meet your expectations."
"This is the first character we've made, a standard-build adult male. The information shown on the interface includes his health, stamina, sanity, and so on."
"We're planning to create many character models of different body types, allowing players to customize their appearances."
As Ye Zhizhou spoke, he carefully observed President Pei's expression.
President Pei appeared completely focused on the screen, as if anticipating something.
At the same time, hidden within that anticipation was a trace of… slight surprise?
Ye Zhizhou couldn't help feeling a bit proud.
It seemed President Pei really valued their game project, this look of expectation definitely wasn't an act!
And that hint of surprise suggested that the current level of completion had exceeded his expectations.
Everything seemed to be going great!
Ye Zhizhou grew even more enthusiastic in his explanation.
Meanwhile, there were only two thoughts in Pei Qian's mind.
'When is a bug going to appear? I'm really looking forward to it.'
'It still hasn't shown up yet? The people at Shangyang Games must have poured quite a lot of effort into this demo.'
As for the game itself, Pei Qian didn't feel much about it.
All he could say was that it was done decently. Judging from this demo alone, there were no signs that it would become a smash hit.
The game's foundational systems, details, and art style were all handled fairly well.
After all, modern games were made using engines and editors, so long as you were willing to throw money at it, the art would never be bad.
But the horror atmosphere was still far from adequate.
Of course, that might also be because there were no monsters or other players yet, and no genuinely dangerous scenarios. No matter how dark or creepy things looked, the level of fright was limited.
In any case, this demo hadn't left a particularly deep impression on Pei Qian for the time being.
"President Pei, this here is a special tape recorder. After using it, it will play a very harsh and terrifying piece of music, drastically reducing the sanity of nearby characters. Take a look—"
As Ye Zhizhou said this, he guided the character forward and interacted with the environmental prop.
However, nothing happened.
Ye Zhizhou: "?"
Confused, he tried clicking it again.
Still nothing.
"Uh, President Pei, this might be a small bug. But it's fine, we've prepared other props as well."
Pei Qian smiled. "It's alright. It's a demo version, bugs are perfectly normal."
Ye Zhizhou let out a long breath and moved over to the second interactive prop.
"This is an axe. After picking it up, you can attack enemies, like this."
Under Ye Zhizhou's control, the character continuously swung the axe, smashing nearby breakable clutter—rotten wooden crates, old tables, and the like—into pieces.
Ye Zhizhou finally relaxed. Thankfully, the weapon system wasn't broken.
However, he hadn't even enjoyed that relief for two minutes when the character he was controlling, axe in hand, suddenly fell into a gap in the map.
Ye Zhizhou: "..."
He hurriedly pressed a pre-assigned hotkey with lightning speed, and the character was instantly returned to the map's starting point.
"Ahem, what just happened was a small accident. I accidentally fell into a map seam."
"But don't worry, President Pei. All of these gaps will definitely be sealed up later."
Pei Qian nodded. "Mm, of course."
Ye Zhizhou didn't dare explain any further, afraid of leaving President Pei with the bad impression of "being incompetent and shifting blame." He continued controlling the character toward the next prearranged prop.
But this time, he hadn't even taken a few steps before the entire screen suddenly froze.
Thunk!
Thunk-thunk-thunk!
The program terminated and dumped back to the desktop. Layer upon layer of error message windows popped up, stacked on top of each other with almost ceremonial flair.
Ye Zhizhou didn't even try to explain anymore. He silently took the mouse, closed the error windows, and relaunched the game.
This time, however, the game wouldn't even start.
Ye Zhizhou: "..."
Blank.
Confused.
What on earth was going on?!
Before coming here, Ye Zhizhou had tested the build on several different computers at Shangyang Games. Although there were occasional minor bugs, a complete demonstration had never been a problem.
And now… the game wouldn't even launch.
Ye Zhizhou looked at President Pei with shame written all over his face. "President Pei, I don't know why either. It was perfectly fine before coming…"
"I'm sorry. There are too many bugs in the game. I'll go back and have them fix it, then come back to demonstrate it after some time…"
He almost couldn't bring himself to meet President Pei's gaze.
President Pei had placed so much importance on this game, had such high expectations, and in the end, it was a total disaster!
Right now, Ye Zhizhou felt only one thing: he had no face left to show anyone back home.
How was he supposed to explain this to Director Lin once he got back to Shangyang Games…?
Yet President Pei merely smiled and said, "It's fine. It's a demo version, this is all perfectly normal. No need to blame yourself."
"Although we didn't get to see a full content showcase, I've already felt the sincerity in your development. Just continue along the current path!"
"There's no need to present this version again. Once the game's core gameplay is fully implemented, come back for a second presentation."
President Pei… didn't blame me at all?
Ye Zhizhou tried hard to find even a trace of reproach in President Pei's expression—but failed.
President Pei's face was calm, tinged with kindness; within that kindness was even a hint of gratification…
Wait—gratification?
What exactly did President Pei have to feel gratified about?
Ye Zhizhou was a little puzzled.
It definitely wasn't because there were so many bugs.
Could it be that President Pei had truly grasped their design philosophy in such a short demo—and even foreseen that it was the right direction?
Yes, that had to be it!
After all, the overall direction of the game had been set by President Pei himself. President Pei surely understood the game's final form better than any of them.
Seen in that light, President Pei's expression was no longer strange at all.
Ye Zhizhou knew very well that everyone at Shangyang Games had been working seriously during this period. The demo's level of completion wasn't the issue, it was just that today, for some unknown reason, their luck had been bad and bugs kept appearing.
Fortunately, President Pei hadn't pursued the matter and had shown ample understanding toward such a low-probability incident.
"Please rest assured, President Pei. When I go back, I'll make sure all the bugs are fixed. The next time I come, I'll definitely show you an initial version with a sufficiently high level of completion!"
Ye Zhizhou turned and left.
Earlier, he had been feeling a bit complacent, thinking that development was progressing quickly and smoothly, and subconsciously allowing a sense of laziness to creep in.
But now, that feeling has been completely wiped away.
There was still a long way to go! He had to keep pushing forward!
Watching Ye Zhizhou leave in a sudden surge of motivation, Pei Qian felt a bit baffled.
I didn't even say anything, why is he so fired up…?
Still, this incident allowed Pei Qian to confirm one thing.
Tang Yishu's halo was indeed real, and its effect was outstanding!
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