anovelconsole Chapter 39 System Level Upgrade
Chapter 39 System Level Upgrade
Tang She eventually gave in to his senior's persistent pleading and returned to the company.
The Legend of Zelda series will definitely still be made.
Tang She knew this better than anyone else.
As the first reward of the system, The Legend of Zelda is a game with a perfect score.
This proves that the game is not only a huge success in terms of sales and reputation, but also a standard answer to "what makes a good game".
During this period, Tang She and Ren Wei also carefully reviewed the project proposal. Zelda represents a grand open world, ingenious puzzle design, and addictive gameplay.
But the problems are also very real.
Even if Tangren Games keeps hiring, it's not enough to run two games simultaneously.
With its current team size, Tangren Games is already struggling to support a AAA-level open-world game, let alone simultaneously pushing forward two projects.
Moreover, the development cycle of The Legend of Zelda is destined to be long. It would be considered fast if the main game Breath of the Wild could be completed within this year.
Ren Wei also took advantage of the Chinese New Year period to recruit a few more people and formed a second group.
Although it's called "Group Two," it's actually quite small, with fewer than ten people at most.
Therefore, Tang She decided to select some small projects first, which would be sufficient for making indie games.
Ren Wei has always had her own methods when it comes to recruitment. She doesn't look at academic qualifications, her experience at big companies, or even her portfolio. What she looks for is a person's understanding of games.
After all, with Tang She's brilliant work as a precedent, she felt it was normal for there to always be some gap between ordinary people and geniuses.
"We really can't find anyone else, so please make do with this for now. I'll contact headhunters to continue recruiting."
Tang She shook his head and said:
"Let's start with something smaller. Didn't the four of us create 'Three Kingdoms Kill' back then?"
Ren Wei is confident in Tang She's choice of direction for games, after all, it has been repeatedly proven in the three games released in the past six months.
Although it is reverse verification.
With the system update in the past few days, Tang She's panel has also changed.
At dawn on February 28th, Tang She opened the system panel. As the clock struck twelve, March 1st arrived. The system prompted that a new date would be opened, and the system light screen dissipated into smoke and dust before closing again.
The interface is completely different from before.
The page, which was originally so simple it was almost rudimentary, now has several additional features:
[Host: Tang She.]
[Current challenge: Pending.]
[Current round: Round 1.]
[Host's current level: LV.2]
[Host level increased. From now on, games with a score higher than 9.5 will no longer appear in challenges.]
The change in this rule was very subtle. Tang She thought about it carefully and understood its meaning.
The game scores in the first round of challenges ranged widely, from high to low, but high-scoring games were essentially "safe" choices, and you were unlikely to make a mistake if you picked them.
The fact that the system now excludes games with a score of 9.5 or higher means that every game has its obvious shortcomings or points of contention, requiring more careful selection.
The second new feature follows:
The feature to view game reviews has been unlocked.
Tang She recalled that in the first round, he could only see the game name and rating, and knew almost nothing about the specifics of the game. He could only guess based on his knowledge of the game.
The system now offers a comment function, which is undoubtedly a huge improvement.
Reviews often reveal the core problems of a game; a negative review is often more informative than a cold, hard rating number.
Of course, what Tang She cared about most was the third update:
Based on the host's previous challenge, three talents have been randomly generated for the host. The host can choose one of them for this round of challenges.
Talent System.
This was something that didn't exist in the first round. Tang She understood that this was probably an auxiliary tool provided by the system to the players.
After all, the difficulty of the challenge increases with the level, and talents are used to balance the difficulty.
He stared intently at the three options that appeared below:
[Dragon King Returns: After selecting the game with the lowest score, the game's reputation will automatically improve by one level one week before the results are announced.]
[Marketing Guru: The initial marketing effect of each game doubles.]
[Childlike Innocence: This round will only feature games with cute art styles, and the overall score of these games will increase.]
Tang She looked at the three options and fell into deep thought.
First, he ruled out the second option.
Although Tangren Games' previous marketing efforts were quite successful and achieved considerable results.
However, it must be acknowledged that marketing is a double-edged sword.
If done well, it can help the game take off; if done poorly, it can provoke resentment and resistance from players.
Take, for example, the initial four versions of Plants vs. Zombies.
The system description is "double the effect".
This means that if the marketing itself is correct and effective, then doubling is a good thing.
However, if the marketing strategy is flawed, doubling the effect will only amplify the problem.
Tang She wasn't afraid to take risks, but he believed that such uncontrollable risks were not worth taking.
When it comes to marketing, he prefers to control the pace himself rather than leave it to the system's probability mechanism.
Next, Tang She must choose between the first and third options.
To be honest, the third option seems much more reliable than the first.
A game with cute graphics will boost its overall rating, which is practically a pure benefit. But Tang She hesitated.
Because he had to admit one fact:
Both Pokémon and Plants vs. Zombies have an art style that is somewhat childish.
Pokémon is certainly cute, and Plants vs. Zombies is certainly adorable, but what percentage of their target audience are adults? If the three games in the second round are still of this type, it will easily create a certain feeling.
"The games produced by Tangren Games are all for children."
Such stereotypes can be fatal to a game company.
If Tangren Games wants to achieve long-term development, it must prove that it has the ability to handle games of different types, styles, and target audiences.
Staying in your comfort zone and creating cute art styles may seem safe in the short term, but it's a slow death in the long run.
Option one, "The Return of the Dragon King," doesn't seem so bad either.
Tang She re-examined the description of this talent:
"If you choose the game with the lowest score, the game's reputation will definitely improve by one level in the week leading up to the results."
First, it does not force Tang She to choose the worst game, but only provides positive compensation under the premise that "he chose the worst game".
This is entirely controllable. Tang She can decide whether or not to trigger this effect based on the actual situation.
Secondly, the three games with the lowest scores in the first round of challenges were not that bad. They were just lower in score compared to other games in the same round, but they were still considered excellent in the overall market.
Finally, and most importantly: the game isn't necessarily canceled after the system's sales period ends.
Even if the game loses money during the sales period and fails in this round of challenges, it will not prevent these games from continuing to be sold in the market and continue to generate revenue and reputation for Tangren Games.
Therefore, the only entry with no negative effects and only positive effects is the first one.
It will not change Tang She's choice strategy, will not limit Tang She's game type, and will not introduce uncontrollable risks.
It simply provided a safety net when Tang She decided to choose the low-score game.
Tang She chose option one without hesitation.
"Are you sure you want to choose 'The Return of the Dragon King'?"
Tang She gave an affirmative answer in his heart.