Chapter 514 - Boss Pei and Big Boss Ruan’s Hidden Friendship (1/2)

At the same time, at Tengda Games…

Min Jingchao browsed through the forums as usual, freeloading off the gamers’ creativity. He had to admit that the gamers’ wisdom was limitless.

Take the idea of the Traveler Bao Xu, for example. Just one glance convinced Min Jingchao that the hero would be excellent. It would have a wide range of skills, a warm image, and-most importantly-it fit Bao Xu’s character.

Thus, he accepted the idea on the spot.

However, not many ideas were as good as that. After all, few gamers understood the mechanics of the game and design inside and out. Most designs were problematic to a certain extent.

Now, Min Jingchao was shortlisting ideas from the vast sea of suggestions that gamers were making daily. Whenever he found suitable ideas, he would send them to the design team to be improved on. Then, the development process would be kickstarted.

Min Jingchao kept to a few unspoken rules when shortlisting ideas.

For instance, the designers of the games department were not to participate in this event.

Min Jingchao had designed a couple of heroes himself, but he had not received any compensation. That was because Boss Pei was already paying him enough for doing his job.

What’s more, he could earn rewards based on the game’s reputation and initial investment. There was no reason for him to be doubly remunerated. It would be shameful to fight with gamers for a five-percent share of profits.

On top of that, Min Jingchao tried his best to choose hero ideas from different designers. Min Jingchao would only consider accepting two hero ideas from a single designer if a certain hero was obviously much better than the others, and Min Jingchao had to make use of the ideas.

That was because the event was meant for everyone to participate in. The number of heroes GOG could have was limited, as was the amount of money to be distributed.

If one person was rewarded too much, the others would feel less motivated to participate in the event. That would not keep the community healthy.

Of course, one also had to consider if each hero’s mechanisms could fit into the overall game mechanism, whether each hero’s defining characteristics would be obvious or not and whether they would repeat or clash with the existing heroes in the game or not.

Min Jingchao kept browsing the posts and suddenly spotted a post with a good number of likes. He subconsciously clicked on it and discovered that the idea was purely for the hero’s skill mechanism.

The character’s first skill was a short-range attack. After using it three times, it could cause enemies to fly back. The second skill was…

“Eh? These game mechanisms look quite interesting.”

Min Jingchao thought hard about it. He decided that the hero’s characterization was clear, and the mechanisms would be entertaining. The design team would just have to package the skills in the right hero, and it would likely be quite popular.

Yet, the problem was what kind of packaging they should give it.

If the enthusiastic gamer had written more about the hero’s brief background story, perhaps they would have had a general direction. However, apart from the fact that he was a part-assassin and part-fighter, Min Jingchao had no other information about this hero.

Min Jingchao accessed the gamer’s information, attempting to look for some inspiration.

After all, the idea was coming from this gamer. It would be perfect if the hero’s appearance could have some sort of connection with him as well.

“Eh? He has all of Tengda’s games? He’s a veteran gamer of Tengda.

“Huh? He bought The Lonely Desert Road that early? He’s an extremely old customer.

“Isn’t this freaking Boss Pei himself?!”

If Min Jingchao had not looked into it, he would not have known a thing. However, after conducting a brief search, he now knew that this was Boss Pei’s personal account! He checked multiple times and confirmed that it was indeed Boss Pei!

After that, Min Jingchao became deeply confused. If Boss Pei had wanted to create a new hero, he could have just told me, right?

Why did he go to so much trouble and create a post on the forum? What if the gamers didn’t appreciate his idea and like his post? Wouldn’t the idea have gone to waste?

Could it be that Boss Pei was so confident in his own design that he knew it would stand out even if he posted it among the other gamers’ ideas?

Yes, judging from the outcome, that was true. Yet, if that had been the only reason, it still seemed lacking.

Once again, Min Jingchao fell into deep thought. After all, ‘thinking more’ was a habit that every employee of Tengda needed to cultivate.

Why didn’t Boss Pei design the hero’s outer appearance? Couldn’t he do it? Of course, he could!

That means he had left it out on purpose!

After much thought, Min Jingchao finally came up with two reasons that could explain Boss Pei’s actions.

First, Boss Pei had left out the hero’s outer appearance to test the abilities of GOG’s development team. He had wanted the development team to guess his intentions and supplement his idea with the hero’s outer appearance and story background.

Second, Boss Pei was trying to remain impartial. GOG and IOI were competing intensely, and Boss Pei did not want to pick a side. That was probably why he did not offer any guidance to GOG and instead chose this subtle method.

In other words, Boss Pei did not want anyone else to know that he was helping with GOG’s design in secret, and so he had to help them sneakily. This made Min Jingchao’s heart feel warm. Indeed, GOG was Boss Pei’s own flesh and blood!

Min Jingchao was sure that the five-percent share of profits would not mean anything to Boss Pei. Instead, the title as the designer of a hero would probably mean much more to him.

“I have to hide the fact that Boss Pei had designed the skill mechanisms for this hero and treat it as a design from an ordinary gamer.

“The next question to ask would be what kind of outer appearance we should give this hero. We already have a hero that’s based on Boss Pei. Obviously, we have to base this character on someone else.

“Who should it be?

“Boss Pei must have someone in mind, but it was probably inconvenient for him to write it