"Boss!" Xu Fang said in shock. "Think thrice before acting!"
"What's wrong?" Xu Meng did not expect him to react so strongly.
"The clothes on some of our characters are already very skimpy. If they take more damage and tear, there won't be anything left!" Xu Fang thought the boss had been too busy lately to remember the new designs for all the characters.
But he was wrong. Xu Meng had personally looked at and remembered every single character's design.
"Don't worry, I know. It's not a big problem." Xu Meng offered a few words of comfort before telling him to call people over.
The ones who truly needed to wail were not artists like them, but the subsequent animators and modelers.
The complexity of their work far exceeded that of the 2D artists.
Of course, the artists' work focused on inspiration and creation—one group burned out their livers while the other lost hair, so the two could not be lumped together.
In less than five minutes, the artists all crammed into the office.
Standing and sitting, they all gazed collectively at Xu Meng, waiting for him to speak.
Xu Meng did not rush to issue tasks. Instead, he first fully affirmed everyone's work results over the past half-month and promised generous bonuses before beginning to explain the new tasks—
"Two new tasks."
"First, I plan to add the Battle Damage Clothing System to Frost Snow Project."
"However, our Frost Snow Project is a proper game. It definitely can't be like those eroge where you get stripped completely bare upon defeat."
"At the same time, because many characters actually only wear one or two layers of clothing to begin with, while some items can be torn away, many others cannot."
"So I need everyone to unleash a bit of creativity."
"For example, a sleeve can fall off, silk stockings can be stripped away, shoes can come off, or clothes can split open, skirts can become shorter, or hair can come undone, sweat stains can appear, and so on."
"Don't let your thoughts be constrained. Fully unleash your imaginations. I completely trust your abilities!"
After all, he was not a professional art staff member, so he could only provide a general direction.
Yet having this direction was already enough for the artists present.
The moment his voice trailed off, quite a few people were already bowing their heads, brushing and sketching drafts in their notebooks, hurriedly recording the inspiration that had bubbled up in their minds at first instance.
Seeing this scene, Xu Meng did not rush to mention the second task. Instead, he stood in place and quietly waited for a few minutes.
Once most people stopped their pens, he spoke again: "Next is the second task."
"I need you to cooperate with the level design team to design a new map. It doesn't need to be too large, but it must have distinct marine elements, along with some octopus-tentacle-style monsters and traps."
"The spatial structure and competitive balance of this map will be overseen by the level design team. You will primarily assist them with the map's exterior design."
"That still sounds a bit vague, it seems..."
"Here, let me be more precise—the Dragon Palace."
"Use this word as the theme for the map design."
As his voice fell, the scratching sound of pencils instantly grew much denser! However, Xu Meng did not wait any longer. Leaving behind a sentence of "Keep it up, everyone," he left the office.
The subsequent personnel grouping and task distribution could simply be left to Ding Nian and Xu Fang to handle.
He made another trip to the level design team to brief them on-site.
The level design team used to be highly valued, but ever since Xu Meng arrived and issued that announcement, they had suddenly been left out in the cold.
The entire company was bustling with excitement amid this massive transformation, yet they were the only ones who hadn't received any important tasks.
--Not that there were no tasks at all, as their previous work was still ongoing, but the new task merely required them to adjust the difficulty of earlier stages.
Xu Meng wanted to lower the players' progression cycle and stop choking player resources.
Only by doing this could players have enough energy to raise more characters, and characters who were not strong enough would also gain opportunities to take the stage.
--When it came down to it, it was still to make it convenient for players to cultivate bonds with more characters.
Yet with things this way, stage difficulty, drops, and character progression curves all needed adjustment.
The level design and numerical balance teams had both taken on these tasks.
And then they were left unattended.
This transition from the core to the periphery undoubtedly dealt a huge blow to their morale.
Yet now, after Xu Meng finished describing his requirements, every single employee in the entire level design department—
Ignited!
They were far more sensitive than the 2D artists in the art department. The moment they heard Xu Meng's description, they knew what he wanted to do—
The Dragon Palace was a PVP battle map!
This was a multiplayer online mode that players had complained about for a long time, only for the previous leadership team to drop it during meetings! They did not understand why the boss had suddenly decided to make this, nor were they unaware that with Dream Builder's accumulated technical expertise, creating this kind of multiplayer online competitive mode would likely face heavy difficulties.
Still, they did not care. They only felt excited!
This was a chance to return to the center stage at Dream Builder, and once successful, it would become a prominent entry on their resumes.
This carried far too much weight than walking down a single path in an ACG Game, at most adding one or two forks to a "stage"!
As a level designer, this was simply a temptation one could not refuse.
One by one, they patted their chests to pledge their resolve, starting to brainstorm with burning enthusiasm.
After observing quietly for a short while, Xu Meng silently walked away.
This PVP map was a gameplay supplement he had devised after careful thought.
Because he always believed that the foundational footing of a game was its gameplay.
Without gameplay to support it, relying solely on pandering to otaku culture and sexiness would make it hard for a game to last long-term—perhaps revenue would skyrocket for a month or two, only to quickly plummet and slide into an irrecoverable slump.
He had the art staff draw in their own style as much as possible, made the animation and modeling departments grind frantically for character precision, had the design team continuously lower progression difficulty, and urged operations to listen to players' voices, all to make the long board of Frost Snow Project even longer.
--Ideally, making it long enough to let players overlook its shortcomings, thereby extending the game's life cycle as much as possible.
The new gameplay mode similarly served this goal.
Furthermore, players had always assumed that after the rework of Frost Snow Project, only sexiness remained as a selling point, and they no longer held any expectations for the multiplayer online mode.
If he suddenly brought out the PVP mode at this time, it would definitely give players a surprise! However, manufacturing this secret weapon was no easy feat.
Without sufficient technical accumulation, Dream Builder's ragtag level design team trying to design a mature PVP map on the first try was completely unrealistic.
Still, Xu Meng was willing to give them a chance.
He knew no one was good at everything from the start, nor was any development team top-tier from day one, but as long as they had the chance to hone their skills, they would eventually reach an elite level.
As for how to get players to accept this PVP map—aimed at an 80-point standard with a 70-point baseline—and even have fun playing it, that was the task of him, the Dream Builder boss and chief designer of Frost Snow Project.
The good news was that he had thought of a way right from the start.
That was creativity.
In the gaming circle, creativity was forever the most precious thing.
As long as they could experience fresh and interesting ideas, players would show enough tolerance for flaws, giving you room for improvement and progress.
As for what this creativity was...
Since they were 2D anime girls, having a 2D form and being able to turn into a paper character was also quite reasonable, right?
Before you continue