Fortunately, the Dragon-Slaying Saber is relatively independent and does not depend on Chief Craftsman Ming's design draft.
This Lunar New Year, although Tu Long Bao Dao Studio did not release any new self-developed games, it did update a series of games such as "Idle Heroes" with new versions.
—Actually, these versions were completed a long time ago; they were just waiting for the right time to be released.
The players, of course, had not yet noticed anything amiss.
However, the deputy chief designer of the Dragon Slayer Sword complained bitterly, saying to Mingyan, "We haven't released a new game in a long time. If this continues, the studio's influence will start to decline. Our main products are already saturated, and we urgently need a new flagship product to expand our potential market."
—That's right. For the Dragon Slayer Sword, if its income doesn't grow exponentially, it's essentially a step backward!
Mingyan immediately flipped through his notebook and said, "I have a concept for a dress-up game that hasn't been scheduled yet. You should inform the marketing department and check the current market situation for female gamers."
Upon hearing this, the deputy chief engineer immediately became excited, patting his chest and saying, "The female gamer market? No problem, I guarantee the report will be out this week!"
After thinking for a moment, Mingyan added, "We can also investigate the current women's fashion trends."
Upon hearing this, the deputy chief designer was shocked: "Ah, women's clothing?! Who?! Is it a maid outfit, a sailor uniform, or cosplay?"
“…” he said clearly, “No one is the protagonist of the new game.”
The deputy chief designer nodded like a chick pecking at rice: "Yes, yes, no problem. Tell the artist to make him look cute!"
— "He" is a male pronoun.
Mingyan corrected him, "It's the female lead." What's wrong with you interstellar people? Your first reaction to "cross-dressing" is a boy??
At this moment, the deputy chief engineer finally realized what was happening and said, "Oh, oh."
Mingyan: "..." What's with that disappointed look on your face?!
In short, a new game based on the Dragon Slayer Sword is in the works.
Now that he was back at the Dragon Slayer Sword workshop, Mingyan spent the entire day sitting in his office, reviewing documents he had neglected for many days.
Incidentally, he saw Yu Bing's application for further studies.
Yu Bing is the college student who was invited by Mingyan to collaborate on the creation of "Idle Hero" at the Star Show competition.
After his internship with the Dragon Slayer Sword ended, he was deeply moved and decided to apply for a master's degree.
Moreover, a three-party agreement was signed in advance, under which Tu Long Bao Dao would sponsor his studies, and after graduation he would return to Tu Long Bao Dao Studio to work as a full-time employee as a game architect.
After reading it, Mingyan didn't forget to send an email to Yu Bing despite his busy schedule.
It was both a congratulatory message for his admission to a prestigious university and an encouragement for him to continue his hard work...
Most young people who enter the gaming industry come with dreams in their hearts. Regardless of their future prospects, I, as a senior, feel obligated to tell them:
Dreams are real, paths exist; let's sing and walk together, never forgetting our original aspirations!
Besides Yu Bing's application, there was another matter that caught Mingyan's attention.
That was an email from a professor of game design at the Royal Academy. He earnestly requested that the Dragon Slayer Studio include some of the game's design ideas and manuscripts in his textbook.
The email was signed, unmistakably, by Hearst Lee.
I was one of Mingyan's advisors during his graduation thesis defense!
Mingyan: "Huh???"
Mingyan called his assistant over, and it took him quite a while to figure out what had happened.
It turns out that his manuscripts for the "I wanna go home" series somehow got leaked and even started a trend in the industry.
Later, this little game became a hit in the online live streaming community, attracting the attention of a large number of players on another level—they didn't really want to play the game, but they just really enjoyed watching others play it.
This novel game mode is something that many industry insiders have never heard of or seen before.
Moreover, Ming Yan later made the entire series' license publicly available, which immediately earned him a lot of goodwill and turned "I wanna" into a phenomenon in the entire gaming community.
Nowadays, "I wanna" has become a recognized label for side-scrolling platform games.
Numerous developers used the official license from the Dragon Slayer Studio to create a series of mini-games, truly turning it into a household name and a major IP.
Professor Hearst Lee, who majors in game design, is dedicated to studying various phenomena and oddities in the gaming industry. He even wrote a short paper on the profit model of the Dragon Slayer Studio.
This time, he wants to include the wonderful combination of "I wanna" games and live streaming in his latest textbook.
To this end, he conducted thorough background research and even found a copy of the manuscript of the "genius" chief designer of the dragon slaying project.
Of course, unlike those businessmen who pursue fame and fortune, he still needed to obtain the genius's consent.
Little did he know that this "genius" was actually Mingyan, who could be considered his former student...
Who would have thought?
The student who produced the highly controversial graduation project back then has now become an industry benchmark—and unfortunately, there are two benchmarks.
After staring at the email for a long time, Mingyan decided to agree to Professor Hearst's request.
Anyway, this isn't the first time his design has been included in a book; many people use it as a teaching case—because those games are so successful.
As for including the manuscript, that would definitely require explicit authorization... oh no, authorization from the "genius".
In order to reply to Professor Hearst, Mingyan had no choice but to pull out his account, which had been gathering dust and almost never been used.
@Chief Designer of the Dragon Slayer Sword