Almighty Video Game Designer - Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Chapter 56: Mobile Game Planning

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

After escorting Guo Feng out of the experience store, Chen Mo retreated into his office once again.

So far Chen Mo hadn’t made any progress on the design document. However, he was not worried, as the ruleset for a mobile card game was extremely simple. Only the combat system, coding, and level designs were a little bit more troublesome.

He prioritized finishing the scripts and storyboards for the animated series.

It was only through the popularity from the series that the mobile game was able to make money, therefore the series had to be live much earlier than the game itself, as it would take time for the series to gain momentum.

The game would spend four months in development, which Chen Mo had planned out.

First week: finish everything related to the animated series, such as character design, scene concept drawings, script, and storyboards, and organize the production of it.

It would likely take a week to finish an episode, each being ten minutes long.

As each episode was about half the duration of other animations, Chen Mo was worried that it wasn’t going to attract enough viewers, therefore he decided to release the first three episodes together, meaning they would be released a month into the plan.

After that, there would be an episode released a week, and the first season would be wrapped up in three months. It would be decided when the time came if the second season would be continued seamlessly.

As the animated series was produced, the game would also be under development. However that schedule was a bit more lenient, as adjustments would need to be made on the code.

If everything happened accordingly, the art for the cards and the other graphical resources should go pretty smoothly.

Chen Mo was aiming to finish the game in three months, leaving the rest of the time for testing and adjustments.

In short, the first step was still to work out everything for the animated series in a week.

Chen Mo would be taking up the role of an artist for the next couple days, jotting down notes on scripts and scenes while under the effects of the Memory Playback Potion.

Other than that, Chen Mo had also drawn concept art for the settings of the scene, as references for the production.

Chen Mo didn’t plan to use the Super Accelerator, as he still felt bad from the side effects the last time he used it.

—

A week later…

Guo Feng made another trip to the experience store. This time Chen Mo was able to show him the finished scripts, shots, and storyboard.

Guo Feng gave it a quick flip through, and was shocked to see that what Chen Mo had provided was very complete and up to par. He was able to get the gist of the story just from the storyboard!

Moreover, the character design was very new and fresh, and apparently the main character was a cow!

“Umm…” Guo Feng scratched his chin. He initially thought that this was just fooling around like a rich person, and Chen Mo was just doing it for the fun of it. But after looking through the storyboard and the script, although it wasn’t perfect, the story was a good idea and had great potential!

If this was a personal project of their studio, Guo Feng would assign their best resources to it!

Moreover, the script and storyboard provided by Chen Mo were extremely detailed! There were even remarks on the design intent for some of the dialogue, and areas that needed to be paid attention to during dubbing.

What Guo Feng didn’t know was that Chen Mo had already made a few minor changes to the original script and removed a few of the more obscure gags, which would help the audience in this world better understand its contents.

As Chen Mo had his first level of plot writing skills maxed out, making changes like that were quite simple.

“If you have any professional thoughts on the script of the storyboard, feel free to mention it to me. It’s not entirely concrete.”

Guo Feng noded, “Alright, we’ll let you know if we have any better ideas. However, I’m quite surprised at how well done the script is. In my opinion this series definitely has the potential to gain some popularity.

Chen Mo snickered to himself. -Some popularity? You’re underestimating this animated series!-

However, this was normal. In his previous life, even though I Am MT was praised when it came out, who would’ve thought it would get that popular?

There were many who thought that whoever made the decision to buy the rights to I Am MT with three million RMB was nuts.

Looking back, a huge number of people underestimated the potential for the animation and the game.

Chen Mo was initially worried that Chen Mo’s scripts and storyboard would be unorthodox, but his doubts were cleared upon seeing the script.

—

The negotiation went pretty smoothly, and both parties decided to sign contracts at the start of next month, then officially start work.

Zhao Zihao also assigned one of the employees from his law department to come over and take a look at Chen Mo’s contact. After making sure it was alright, Chen Mo signed the contact and paid them.

Plants vs Zombies managed to rake in 2.6 million RMB in the second month. 1.8 million of that was spent on the production of the animated series, the rest would be spent paying for the artwork for the cards and other graphical resources.

—

With matters related to the animated series settled, all Chen Mo could do was to wait and see what the results would be.

Next, Chen Mo had to start planning the rules for the mobile game.

The early stages of I Am MT the video game, its playstyle and various systems were quite simple. However, after subsequent updates, its functionalities continued to grow, and even became bloated.

Chen Mo didn’t plan to migrate everything over from that system. As updating mobile games and adding new playstyles was a last resort, many times developers were forced into adding on in order to make the game feel fresh. It was a ploy to ensure that the playerbase didn’t trickle away as the players got bored.

Chen Mo had to cut out some extra parts of the game in the early stages. If he started off with too much, it might make it difficult for players to start!

—

After brainstorming the final state of the game, Chen Mo started working on the foundation for the design document.

This design document included the main interface, basic combat system, card growth system, dungeon plans, special combat, account types (level, title, strength, etc.), shop and VIP perks, friends, guilds, backpack, chatting, mail, daily content, and other related content.

With the aid of Memory Playback Potions, the foundations for the design document were done in no time at all. They didn’t need much consideration, as these systems were the standards for other subsequent Chinese mobile games with similar playstyles, and was a mature design that had withstood many tests.

Chen Mo had to focus on two different aspects: the card growth and combat system, and the level design and balance of the cards.

Chen Mo was going to leave some parts of the design document for functionalities to Su Jinyu, but he decided against it, as functions like these would be completely new to her. If he left it to her, he’d likely have to spend a bunch of time correcting and rewriting it, which was a huge waste of time.

Moreover, it would be very difficult to explain the design concept of the game to her. He’d rather use that time for Su Jinyu to produce more artwork for the characters.

He’d let her enter it into the game engine once he was done, though.

After he finished working on the foundations, he took a ten minute rest, and then went on to work on the most important combat system document.