Chapter 16: Unreliable Requirements Document!

On the afternoon of the second day, Ma Yang sent the revised requirement form to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian looked at it and thought it was great. It was like nothing was written on it!

Although Pei Qian had never worked in the game industry, the requirement form was a template from a resource website, which briefly mentioned some basic rules for writing requirement forms.

In short, the more detailed the better.

When a designer proposes a character concept, it is often vague and elusive, while the artist's goal is to create a concrete and detailed image. It is easy for deviations to occur during this process.

For example, if a designer wants a "very handsome male character", this is a relatively vague and unquantifiable standard. How can "very handsome" be defined?

If an artist draws a character they think is very handsome, will the designer be satisfied? Not necessarily, because aesthetics are highly subjective.

Therefore, when a designer proposes requirements, they should be as detailed as possible, preferably down to what clothes the character wears, what hat they wear, what weapon they use, and what distinctive features they have.

If there are reference images available, that's even better.

There is a joke in the game industry:

When a designer goes to a programmer and says, "I want a certain type of functionality! What is the design concept behind this feature, and what kind of effect should it achieve?"

The programmer impatiently responds, "Just tell me which game's feature to copy, and show me the picture."

Similarly, when a designer goes to an artist and says, "I want a certain type of character! They should have a certain appearance, personality, and convey a certain feeling!"

The artist impatiently responds, "Just tell me which character to copy, and show me the picture."

This is not just because they want to be lazy, but also because a lot of information is lost when going from text to visuals.

Therefore, when creating a requirement form, it is important to provide as much detail as possible and include rich reference images to ensure that the artist's work matches the designer's original vision as closely as possible.

Looking at the requirement form that Ma Yang provided, it was like he was indulging in his own fantasy.

Take Guan Yu as an example.

"He is a dragon, a humanoid dragon."

"As a dragon martial saint, he is considered the peak of physical strength."

"He spent his whole life walking on the edge of a knife, his understanding of battle and killing is completely different from ordinary people."

That's it.

For example, Ma Chao:

"He has a half-human, half-horse appearance and is therefore called an 'alien'."

"Ma Chao is different from other horse princes, with obvious dragon bloodline features such as dragon horns on his head."

"Perhaps it is because of his half-dragon bloodline that Ma Chao has obtained powerful strength similar to that of a dragon."

Or Zhuge Liang:

"In his youth, Zhuge Liang was hailed as the greatest inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and more in the Three Kingdoms period."

"His research covered multiple cutting-edge fields such as artificial lightning, meteorological weapons, aircraft, automatic vehicles, robots, and more."

"At the same time, he also enjoyed titles such as poet, philosopher, music critic, linguist, and more."

Zhuge Liang's description was longer than the previous two characters, showing that Ma Yang was getting carried away with his writing.

In addition, there are a series of other characters such as the dragon guard Zhou Cang, the phoenix orphan Pang Tong, the crystal ice woman Xu Shu, the mechanical puppet Huang Yueying, the Blood Domain Lord Guo Jia, the dragon hunter loli Lu Meng, the dark night ranger Taishi Ci, the lonely shadow sword hero Zhou Yu, and so on.

Basically, apart from their names and some minor features, they have nothing to do with the characters from the Three Kingdoms period!

These details are basically of no help to the artist's creativity.

Moreover, they could have been written in simpler language.

For example, just writing "Guan Yu is a humanoid dragon" would have been enough. The rest of the words were completely unnecessary.

But for Pei Qian, this was a perfect requirement form!

He was so happy that he even hit himself.

Ma Yang is really reliable!

Pei Qian would never be able to write something like this on his own!

It was indeed a wise decision to have Ma Yang as an employee!

Pei Qian didn't change a single word and directly sent the requirement document to Ruan Guangjian.

Five minutes later, Ruan Guangjian replied.

"Your requirement document is too brief, isn't it???"

"It's difficult for me to draw without a clear standard."

Pei Qian was well-prepared and immediately said, "No problem, just draw freely and design as you wish! Even if you think the requirements are not reliable, you don't have to follow them completely, I believe in your professional ability!"

Ruan Guangjian: "… No, we have signed a contract, there must be a standard, otherwise, it will be troublesome in case of disputes, right?"

Pei Qian quickly replied, "Really! I fully trust your artistic level. Don't worry, whatever you draw will be final, I won't ask you to revise it repeatedly! You can take a screenshot of this conversation as evidence, or if you think it's necessary, we can include it in the contract."

"No need for that… Alright, I'll do my best," Ruan Guangjian replied.

Pei Qian was relieved.

He was really afraid that Ruan Guangjian would insist on having a detailed original painting requirement, and then draw it seriously.

Now, both parties save time and effort, and everyone is happy.

With the remaining money, Pei Qian didn't hold back, continuing to buy music and sound effects, other art resources, rent cloud servers, etc.

These expenses wouldn't cost too much, and Pei Qian had calculated it just right, leaving about 10,000 yuan for emergencies.

As for the promotional expenses of the game...

Of course, not a single penny was reserved.

There were no plans for promotion! It would be better if no one knew about the game!

Pei Qian felt that his future was bright and continued to spend money.

...

At a finance university in Magic City.

Art department dormitory.

The living conditions here were much better than those at Pei Qian's East Han University.

With a bed on top and a desk underneath, the dormitory was air-conditioned, new, and spacious.

Thanks to the resource station established by ESRO, many art students could find freelance work online during their university years, improving their living conditions.

Moreover, the work during this period would also benefit their job search after graduation.

Ruan Guangjian put down his mouse and shouted, "Old Huang, Old Zhou, come on, call everyone else over, we've finally got some work!"

Soon, the other five people in the dormitory gathered around.

"Three weeks, 50 sets of original paintings, 4 paintings per set, 3,000 yuan! How about that, awesome, right?"

Ruan Guangjian was a spirited young man with short hair, fair skin, and well-defined features, without any artistic temperament.

His roommates, on the other hand, were quite different, with long hair, tattoos, and various distinctive styles.

Old Huang, with a small mustache, came over first: "3,000 yuan for 4 paintings? Wow, that's good! I'd even draw q-version for that price! For a better life."

Ruan Guangjian shook his head: "Not q-version , this time it's not q-version! The client specifically said no q-version , other styles are up to us!"

Lao Huang was shocked: "Huh? I remember all the representative works you uploaded were chibi style, right? The client specifically asked for no chibi style, so are they out of their mind to come to you?"

"Pfft, they just have a discerning eye!" Ruan Guangjian rolled his eyes, "I hate drawing q-version style the most, but since mobile games are popular with chibi characters, I could only take q-version orders before. It was out of necessity. Now that I don't have to draw q-version style, I finally have a chance to show my skills!"

"You're going to use your own style? Isn't that inappropriate...?" Lao Huang hesitated, "The client paid for it, but you're using their money to draw what you want, isn't that...?"

"The client said they trust my artistic skills and professionalism, allowing me to have full autonomy in design!"

"Besides, look at this requirement sheet, it's as if it's perfectly in line with my own ideas!"