Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo explained, “What I meant was that your thoughts are very conservative. There were basically no new points added in the two design documents, all you did was expand on what I had.”
“Uhh…” Su Jinyu was confused. Chen Mo did emphasise on doing it her way when he handed the design document over to her, but she didn’t think too much of it.
In most cases, video game designer assistants usually performed repetitive tasks. Moreover, most video game designers did not like their assistants making any changes, no matter how small.
Therefore Su Jinyu chose to just expand on what Chen Mo had already done, without adding anything to it.
But that was the exact opposite of what he requested. Chen Mo wanted her to add her own thoughts to it.
Chen Mo said, “Don’t worry, I’ll give you another three days. Remember, I want to see your thoughts.”
Su Jinyu nodded eagerly, “Okay!”
—
As Su Jinyu returned to the first floor, she continued to pick her brain for ideas.
After she left, Chen Mo took another look at the design document.
Her basic skill at writing design documents was solid, and the logic wasn’t bad, either; the biggest problem was the lack of inspiration. As of now, Su Jinyu was only capable of executing; she was still quite a ways away from being a proper video game designer.
Persistent, hardworking, well rounded, but lacked inspiration. That was Chen Mo’s current assessment of Su Jinyu.
Maybe she always lacked her own ideas, or perhaps it was part of her character.
Chen Mo could treat Su Jinyu as an assistant, only involving her in execution, but she wouldn’t be able to grow much in such an environment.
Chen Mo wanted to stimulate her, as she was hardworking, but unable to see the bigger picture. That way, he could train her to become a more well-rounded video game designer in the next few months, which would save Chen Mo some work in the long run.
—
Su Jinyu had been wringing her brain, trying to make adjustments to the design document.
Although the second draft looked better, it still wasn’t good enough.
The third draft had a few good ideas.
Chen Mo finally gave the nod after the fourth draft.
“Mm, although it’s not exactly up to par, you’ve passed,” Chen Mo smiled.
Su Jinyu was pleasantly surprised, “Really? That’s great!”
Chen Mo nodded, “Yep, well done, you can get some rest now. I’ll make some more adjustments tonight, and I’ll send it to you tomorrow when I’m done.”
“Alright, thanks for working so hard, boss!” Su Jinyu left work filled with happiness. The four design documents took her almost two weeks to complete before reaching Chen Mo’s standard.
Chen Mo was looking for some focal points in the design document. Even if the design document got a pass from him, without focal points, the players wouldn’t be happy about it.
He could tell that the ideas she had in the fourth design document used up all her brain juices. Even if she was given more time, there probably wouldn’t be a better version.
Moreover, this had been dragged on for quite a while. Chen Mo planned to finish it in two weeks, and it was now beyond that. If it was dragged on any longer, it would affect the progress of the next game, so Chen Mo didn’t want to spend too much time waiting.
Chen Mo went to his computer and opened his design document.
In reality, when Su Jinyu was writing the design document again and again, Chen Mo was also writing his own copy. In order to not affect her thoughts, Chen Mo decided not to tell her.
When compared against one another, Su Jinyu’s design document was hard to look at. From the UI to the overall functionality, it was clear whose was better.
Chen Mo added the parts from his design document accordingly into Su Jinyu’s version, adding annotations explaining his intentions.
As for the other points that didn’t make a huge difference, Chen Mo left them as they were.
Chen Mo finally managed to finish after working for the majority of the night. After doing some final adjustments and checking it, Chen Mo was happy with the end product.
As the update for Plants vs Zombies was still based on the same framework, there wasn’t a need to generate a new project in the video game engine; it could be done just by making modifications to the existing project.
—
The experience store opened on time early the next day.
Chen Mo yawned and said to Su Jinyu, “I’ve sent you the design document that I edited. Just add the features accordingly, using the game engine.”
“Alright,” Su Jinyu nodded.
Chen Mo went back upstairs to catch up on sleep, as he was still tired.
Su Jinyu turned on her laptop and saw how many changes Chen Mo made.
“… he changed so much!”
Su Jinyu was shocked. Not only was the design document twice the size, but looking through the details, seventy percent of it had been modified.
However, Chen Mo didn’t delete Su Jinyu’s suggestions from before, but inserted the modifications along with some notes.
“A-amazing…” Su Jinyu looked through all of the changes. The UI had all been changed, the features also had a lot of modifications…
As Su Jinyu added them into the game engine while looking through the design document, she couldn’t help but feel that her design document was a sham.
“The boss is amazing; how could he make so many changes in one night? That kind of work efficiency is scary!”
Su Jinyu’s respect for Chen Mo increased after this.
In reality, Chen Mo already had it done beforehand…
—
After a week, the update for Plants vs Zombies was finally done!
Chen Mo installed it onto the computers in the experience store before anything else, so that Wen Lingwei, Jia Peng, and the others could playtest it for a few days, and let him fix any errors that were present.
When Chen Mo felt that there weren’t any more problems, it was submitted onto the official market.
Soon, the players for Plants vs Zombies were downloading one after another when they realized there was now a new 40MB update.
===============
“Hmm? There’s a new update for Plants vs Zombies?!”
“Giving updates for a standalone game, how nice!”
“Insane. What’s being added in this new update? Is there going to be new plants or zombies?”
“Hey take a look at the description. They’ve added developer tools and a versus mode!”
“What the? Is that true? I’ll go take a look!”
================
The players were downloading the update as soon as they could. The player discussion forums for Plants vs Zombies also earned it a lot of attention as they were discussing the completely unexpected update.
In the parallel world, standalone games like this usually wouldn’t receive updates, as the players wouldn’t pay twice, and the game designers didn’t want to do something for free, either.
Video game designers in this world hadn’t figured out DLC yet!
(Editor Note: DLC = Downloadable Content, first done on large scale for MMO’s by Asheron’s Call)
Moreover, Plants vs Zombies had been released for just under two months. Although it was still quite popular, the first bunch of players were already sick of the game, despite the continual influx of new players.
Weren’t they a little bit too enthusiastic for the new update?