Chapter 14: Ma Yang's Work

Pei Qian had already considered that if they were going to compete with "Q-cute Three Kingdoms," they could only choose the Three Kingdoms theme.

However, the Three Kingdoms theme itself was actually a decent IP, not too good, but not too bad either.

To make players hate these Three Kingdoms characters, the best way was to modify them and completely subvert their traditional image!

In this way, those who love the Three Kingdoms theme would naturally curse and quit the game when they see such a mess, thus lowering the overall reputation of the game.

And the responsibility of this modification was given to Ma Yang.

Pei Qian had full trust in Ma Yang's abilities. As long as Ma Yang did his job seriously, he would surely make it work!

Looking at the names of these characters, Ma Yang showed a troubled expression.

He leaned down from the upper bunk and whispered, "Qian-er, I... I've only watched the Three Kingdoms TV series, and I can't match many people here..."

Pei Qian couldn't help but feel a little delighted, wasn't that perfect!

If you knew the Three Kingdoms characters by heart, I wouldn't feel safe giving you this task!

"It's okay, I trust you. The point is to subvert tradition, so feel free to be creative, the more subversive, the better!"

"And don't worry about what specific image to draw; that still depends on the artist's design. You're just providing a direction."

"Just design freely. Since it's subversive, no one will pick on the inaccuracies."

Pei Qian comforted him repeatedly.

He didn't want Ma Yang to back down and push the work back onto him.

Ma Yang finally nodded, "Alright, I'll try my best."

Pei Qian, still worried, reminded him again, "Remember, it must be subversive! The more outrageous, the better!"

Ma Yang sat on the upper bunk, scratching his head in confusion.

After ten minutes of struggling, he made no progress.

He couldn't help but lean over again and say, "Qian-er, should I buy a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms first?"

Pei Qian immediately stopped him, "No, absolutely not! I value your innovative spirit, understand? You're not influenced by the traditional images of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so you can achieve this kind of subversion!"

"Don't ever consider what their original image was like; just give me your best imaginative effort and modifications!"

Ma Yang reluctantly sighed and continued to scratch his head.

Moments later, he asked Pei Qian again, "Qian-er, can I set Guan Yu as a dragon?"

Pei Qian nodded, "Yes!"

After a while.

"Qian-er, can I set Ma Chao as a centaur?"

"Yes!"

And again after a while.

"Qian-er, can I set Zhou Cang as a dragon lady, Zhuge Liang as a great inventor, Huang Yueying as a mechanical puppet, Xu Chu as a tiger, Cao Pi as a tentacle monster, and Lu Meng as a dragon-slaying loli... is that okay?"

Pei Qian slapped his thigh, "Yes! Perfect! Old Ma, you're a genius, you know that? Keep going down this path!"

Ma Yang was initially doubtful about his own ideas, but seeing Pei Qian's approval, his confidence grew.

Seeing Ma Yang working so earnestly, Pei Qian was overjoyed.

He had chosen the right person!

Designing Zhou Chang as a dragon woman and setting Lv Meng as a dragon slayer loli? Look at how genius this nonsense is! Pei Qian thinks it's absolutely impossible to come up with something like this. It's an unreliable plan that will ultimately result in cheap artwork that players won't enjoy.

Imagine players drawing Cao Pi and finding out it's a monster with tentacles; drawing Ma Chao and finding out it's a centaur; drawing Lv Meng and finding out the great commander has become a dragon slayer loli... won't fans of the Three Kingdoms theme be outraged?

As a famous international actor once said, drama is not nonsense, and changes are not arbitrary. What is being proposed here is nonsense and arbitrary changes. If this game is developed, it will be despised by many people and bring tears to fans of the Three Kingdoms theme.

Pei Qian felt his recent gloom disappear in an instant, and he felt like his life had become bright again. He lost 300,000 yuan but gained 300,000 yuan at the same time! Pei Qian realized that he had a beautiful life ahead of him.

Pei Qian took advantage of Ma Yang's time filling out forms to check the resources station and reviewed the situation of some artists. The ESRO resource station integrates a lot of resources in the domestic gaming industry, including human resources. Designers, artists, and programmers can provide services to buyers with clearly marked prices. Buyers can view their resumes and works on the resource station, and if satisfied, they can negotiate cooperation, such as buying a certain number of original artworks from an artist.

Pei Qian searched for artists who specialize in original artworks and began to quickly eliminate the most famous and well-known ones. He specifically targeted novice artists who sell their artworks for only seven to eight hundred yuan per piece. After searching for some time, Pei Qian locked onto a new artist who had few representative works, and whose works were primarily in the second-dimensional Q-moe style, lacking realism.

Pei Qian planned to hire six to seven artists to ensure that the game artwork was completed on schedule. He sent a message to the selected artist named "Ruan Guangjian" to roughly discuss pricing and duration issues, and then went to find other artists.

Since the artwork for each character had four different star levels and was not entirely different from the previous levels, Pei Qian estimated that he needed approximately six to seven artists to ensure that all the artwork was completed on schedule. Pei Qian planned to discuss pricing with one artist before finding others.

When the artist named Ruan Guangjian didn't reply, Pei Qian wasn't worried and didn't rush. He checked the time and saw that it was already night, and he felt his stomach grumble. He invited Ma Yang to dinner and treated him to a bowl of noodles and a plate of egg fried rice.