Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

By the time Randall got the opportunity to discuss his plan of poaching talent with Lincoln, it was already the next morning.

Lincoln had gone with Henry to witness heavy weapons yesterday and only returned home after dinner.

With a reminder from Mavis, Lincoln noticed that Randall and Little Chun were still busy in the world of “Assassins’ Alliance”.

He rushed into the virtual world and immediately instructed them to log off and rest.

Despite Randall and Little Chun having a lot of ideas about the game they wanted to communicate with him as soon as possible, he drove them off, citing “overtime is a bad civilization” as the reason.

Jokingly, even I, a capitalist, don’t work overtime, and you people actually intend to do so!

Lincoln was so quick to chase them off that Randall didn’t get a chance to speak, hence, it was put off until the next day’s work hours.

Incidentally, the work hours Lincoln set were from 9 to 5, with a two-hour break in the middle, and the standard work time for the day would be six hours.

This left Randall rather helpless. He felt that Dream Cloud Studio was at a key point in its startup phase, and it was perfectly normal to be working round the clock.

However, Lincoln was not only prohibiting overtime but also shortening work hours which was hard for him to understand.

Back at NetDragon, there were even people living in the company when they were rushing to meet deadlines.

But Lincoln was determined to maintain a work-life balance, “We’re all humans, not tools. Especially at the best time of our lives, life should not be completely occupied by work. On the contrary, the shorter the work time is, the longer the time left for personal life. This is a person’s dignity and it should be protected. I know that society is highly competitive and everyone leads a tough life, but at the very least, my employees should have a complete life.”

After listening to Lincoln’s explanation, Randall admired him even more and now wanted to bring his old friends from NetDragon on-board even more.

So he shared his thoughts with Lincoln.

Lincoln, of course, was very supportive.

He had already altered his thinking. His previous notion to “not use any

NetDragon employees” was clearly immature. A mature approach would be to, “Energetically dig out all of NetDragon’s elite talents so NetDragon has no one to use!”

“No problem, go ahead with it! The studio can be rented today. However, you understand your subordinates better, be careful with the selection.”

“Of course, don’t worry about that. I’m just concerned if whether we’ll be able to persuade them. If we can’t persuade them for now, we might have to wait until after “Blaze 3″ is launched.”

“What do you mean?” Lincoln was curious, “After the launch of “Blaze 3″? Will it be easier to persuade them after they get their project bonuses?”

“No, quite the opposite.” Randall sighed thinking about it, “The new boss of NetDragon is a young man who doesn’t play games much and doesn’t understand the gaming industry well. The newly parachuted Chief Planner for the “Blaze” project is profit-oriented. They are planning to launch ‘Blaze 3’ before it’s even completed. They even plan to make the end part a DLC, which can only be completed a few months after the game is launched.”

“What?” Lincoln was astonished, “Is there such an operation? Are they not

afraid of being criticized by players?”

“It’s almost destined to be criticized.”

Lincoln thought for a moment, then asked: “Hmm, what if I want to target ‘Blaze 3’? What do you think?”

Randall thought for a while, “I don’t feel anything particular. When we first started making ‘Blaze’, we indeed invested a lot of passion and emotion. There was similar enthusiasm when we made the second part, and I devoted almost all of my energy to Little Chun. Making games has simply become a job for me. Now that I have left NetDragon and joined Dream Cloud, since we are competitors now, there’s no need to be concerned.”

He then smiled and glanced at Little Chun beside him. Little Chun turned her head a little shyly.

If it were right after he had left, he might have cared a little, after all, it was a year’s worth of hard work.

But over the past few days, it was clear to see that Little Chun seemed more relaxed and happy. She was no longer putting on a brave face while secretly harboring fear for the future. She had regained her passion for life and had begun to enjoy the present.

This brought immense comfort to Randall.

Now, it wouldn’t just be a matter of Lincoln taking a shot at “Blaze 3”, if he was asked to directly smear NetDragon, he wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest.

“OK.” Lincoln saw that Randall didn’t mind, and set the plan, “So, first, make a

trailer for “Assassins’ Alliance”, and release the trailer at the right time.”

What was the right time? Of course, it was after “Blaze 3” was released, when players realized there were no grand endings and the reputation plummeted.

By then, the trailer would come out, labelled with epoch-making phrases like “revolutionary gunfight action game,” “created by the Father of Flames Quentin”, and “uncut, the real deal”.

Take a hard stab at NetDragon to relieve the hatred!

After this matter was settled, Lincoln, Randall, and Little Chun began discussing the production of the “Assassins’ Alliance” game.

The consensus to modify the plot was quickly reached. The content involving the affair between the protagonist’s girlfriend and friend at the beginning of the story would be hidden, but clues left behind for careful players to discover.

Excessively violent and gruesome content that crossed the line would undeniably need to be removed, otherwise, players could be left with psychological trauma.

As for the problem of ordinary shooting causing damage to enemies, Randall’s extensive experience ensured that violence could be expressed without depicting blood.

Little Chun already had a certain design draft for the characters, after confirming that it wasn’t off track, Lincoln let her take the reins.

Finally, regarding the crucial numerical system setting, Lincoln negated Randall’s design.

In Randall’s view, players’ abilities were integrated.

After leveling up, capabilities were upgraded in all aspects, including health, stamina, defense, lineage strength, and even shooting power.

This is also the mainstream method adopted by the market, only that here Randall added lineage strength.

Lincoln disagreed with this setting. While it did ensure comprehensive improvements, players’ perception of what they gained at each stage was weak, and in a way, it also wasted the authenticity advantage of virtual reality.

“Split the abilities. When the player’s level is raised, only health, stamina, and recovery abilities are upgraded.

Separate assassin lineage and make it an independent talent skill, each activation consumes a certain amount of stamina. With the increase of activation times, proficiency increases, and with level upgrades, stamina consumption decreases and performance effects get better.

Skills such as brawling, cold weapon fighting, and driving, all taken out as separate skills, can either be practiced to increase proficiency levels or added

experience to speed up level upgrades.

The key shooting skills are the same, but the curve shooting skills can only be unlocked after the shooting level reaches a certain level, and with the shooting level upgrade, range, accuracy, and even curve improve.

Then the power of firearms should remain constant and can only be changed by modifying firearms or using special bullets. This point should adhere to reality as much as possible.

In this way, the player’s combat power would become a comprehensive ability, not only more realistic, but players would also have a strong sense of acquisition every time a skill is improved, which will encourage them to keep playing. ”

Randall was amazed, this was a path he had never thought of. If anyone ever told him again that Lincoln was talented only in research and lacked talent in game production, he would spit on them on the spot!

“However…” The only problem Randall could think of was, “Can player skill levels really improve in skill?”

It should be noted that it is easiest to increase player damage by simply modifying the numerical value.

But if players want to improve a certain skill, they often need to keep practicing tirelessly in order to make progress.

Can virtual reality technology truly directly enhance the player’s skills?

Lincoln looked at Randall and grinned, “Do you remember how you learned to fly in the “Traveler of the Wind”?”