A Special "Alarm Clock"

Chapter 87 A Special "Alarm Clock"

The next day, Yang Yi stayed in her office scrolling through her phone, and the more she scrolled, the more her head ached.

Online predictions and analyses from netizens flooded the internet, but the conclusions were remarkably consistent, almost as if they had been pre-arranged.

The two S-tier games are a "unconventional ocean-themed FPS" and a "highly customizable FPS where you can freely modify your weapons".

Yang Yi put her phone on the table and rubbed her temples.

"These netizens really can't live without FPS games."

Shen Xiao leaned out from the sofa, still holding the novel he'd somehow acquired, without even lifting his eyelids: "That just means your FPS is too good; you've tamed the players."

"Is it my fault?" Yang Yi's lips twitched. "Didn't I also release Stardew Valley and Plants vs. Zombies?"

He picked up his phone, glanced at it again, and sighed.

Forget it, I won't argue anymore.

Whatever the players guess is what will happen; the real surprise will be revealed on the day of the Direct, and the effect will be even more explosive.

He doesn't have time to dwell on this right now.

The biohazard mode for Rainbow Six Siege is still waiting for his approval.

Yang Yi had never played this mode before. In his previous life, he was rushing to meet the deadline for a game project and practically lived at the company. He didn't even have time to read novels, let alone games.

Yang Yi has personally experienced the hardships faced by game developers in China, who often work overtime and don't earn much money.

The main problem is the lack of future prospects; most developers work on online and mobile games.

It's not that developing online and mobile games is bad, but compared to developing single-player games, they simply have no future.

Just like the relationship between online novels and published works, no matter how well an ordinary online novel is written, it can never compare to the public's perception of Yu Hua and Mo Yan.

Even the most amazing novel, "Battle Through the Heavens," can't compare to "To Live."

There is a natural hierarchy of contempt between professions.

This is one of the reasons why Yang Yi treats her employees so well.

In short, Yang Yi had never played this mode before and could only study it on his own.

Fortunately, he has played many similar games, the most famous of which is Left 4 Dead 2.

Yang Yi plans to make Left 4 Dead 2 one of his main games next year.

It just so happens that we're going to create a crossover mode in Rainbow Six Siege this year, so players can have a taste of something new.

It can be said that the initial popularity led to subsequent popularity.

Thinking of this, Yang Yi put her phone in her pocket, got up and walked out. As she passed the sofa, she casually snatched the novel from Shen Xiao's hand, flipped through the cover—"I'm Pregnant with Lord Zhan Ying's Child," twitched her lips, and then stuffed it back into Shen Xiao's hand.

"This rubbish can actually be published?! Which publishing house is this? I'll buy it out!!!"

"Also, didn't you finish watching it?"

"The physical version has been changed, with added plot details." Shen Xiao rolled her eyes at him, snatched the book back, huddled under the air-conditioned blanket, and continued reading.

Planner Xiao Zhou was already waiting in the conference room, with a thick stack of proposals spread out in front of him. When Yang Yi pushed the door open, he was looking down and flipping through the pages. Hearing the noise, he suddenly stood up.

"Mr. Yang."

"Sit down, sit down." Yang Yi waved his hand and sat down opposite him.

"I have read your proposal. The overall design is acceptable, but there are still quite a few flaws."

Xiao Zhou immediately sat up straight, his pen already pressed against the notebook.

"Who says the defending side can't fight zombies?"

"Remove operators like Medics and Armored One who don't have specific defensive gear and temporarily assign them to Rainbow Six Biological Team."

Xiao Zhou quickly jotted down a couple of notes, then looked up, his brow slightly furrowed: "President Yang, what about the ammunition? Are we using the same ammunition supply mechanism as in the counter-terrorism mode?"

"That's right." Yang Yi nodded. "The operators' ammunition remains the same. After they run out of ammunition, they find a supply point, just like in Counter-Terrorism mode."

Xiao Zhou was a little puzzled by the boss's request: "Mr. Yang, isn't this game quite difficult? Won't it affect the players' enthusiasm for playing?"

Yang Yi actually thought of this: "Why not just design better rewards? A biohazard-themed limited-edition skin pack, one for every four games, up to a maximum of five."

"The other skin packs sell for 20 yuan each."

"Being able to get a skin pack worth 100 yuan for free, this reward should be enough."

Xiao Zhou nodded and said, "That's enough."

"There's more if that's not enough." Yang Yi took a bottle of ice water from the refrigerator and took a sip. "The increased difficulty rewards pendants. You get a pendant for every number of kills you get, and you get a pendant for a flawless completion."

"If the challenge and rewards become the players' intrinsic motivation, how can we worry about a lack of players?"

Xiao Zhou bent down to finish writing down the last few notes, closed the notebook, took a deep breath, and stood up.

"Understood, Mr. Yang. I'll go revise the plan right away."

"Wait, remember the core of this event is that everything is limited edition! All items, skins, and achievements are limited edition."

Yang Yi reminded him, "Also, when making a story animation and a promotional PV, we need to maintain our consistently exquisite art style."

Xiao Zhou nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Alright, go ahead!"

Yang Yi watched Xiao Zhou's departing figure and fell into deep thought.

Left 4 Dead, a zombie shooting game that has been popular for a long time, is really fun.

The experience of four people fighting their way out, their adrenaline surging when the zombie horde surges up, rushing back to revive fallen teammates, and then running together towards the safe house – that kind of experience would never be outdated, no matter the era.

The problem is that the bee colony's first two operations were not passive either.

After the onslaught of Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch, players' expectations for the Swarm have been raised to a very high level.

If you just serve up a pot of leftover rice, even if the pot is made of gold, the players won't be satisfied.

But if he made too many changes, he was afraid of damaging the essence of the work.

Yang Yi recalled the two games from his previous life that "borrowed" from Left 4 Dead—Bloody Vengeance and Counter-Strike Online.

The result was obvious; compared to the original, it became two lumps.

Bloodshed is actually not bad in its foundation. The picture quality has been improved and the gun handling is also decent. It's a popcorn-level entertainment.

However, the out-of-game progression system messed up the stats, making the game feel weak in the early game and easy to mow down later, which made it less fun as the game progressed.

Not to mention "Counter-Strike Online," it's fallen into every trap that online games have to fall into—pay-to-win weapons, inflated stats, and gameplay that's all mixed together. Before Yang Yi transmigrated here, he heard that it had become a "cultivation" game, where you'd suddenly pull out a flying sword while fighting zombies—it's ridiculously absurd.

With these two games serving as excellent precedents, Yang Yi really didn't dare to mess around with them.

Or maybe we should play it safe?

Upgrade the graphics, add more weapons, and rewrite the storyline.

The framework and core remain the same; just give it a makeover to make it more refined and visually appealing.

The solid foundation of Left 4 Dead is enough to attract players; it doesn't need any fancy new gameplay.

Yang Yi had a plan in mind, so she picked up the notebook on the table and began to design a simple proposal.

Hordes of zombies, special agents, fragmented storylines, detailed scene design, safe houses, and dynamic game difficulty.

The creation of various post-apocalyptic scenes, accompanied by music that matches the locations where the scenes were based.

Through continuous development, the number of employees at Beehive Technology's headquarters has long exceeded 1500.

This doesn't even include some informal employees.

CaiLiu and ShouWang have always maintained an operation and maintenance team of more than 200 people.

Aside from the developers of Minecraft, Subnautica, Famine, For the King, Nine Parchments, Adventure Village Story, and Pyramid Story, there aren't many people left.

The composition of the bee colony is rather unbalanced, with a severe shortage of various artistic personnel.

Because most of the games Yang Yi is currently developing have a unique art style.

This art style is difficult for outsourced employees to master.

For example, the project "Famine" which was launched last month really gave Huang Yan, the head of the art department, a real headache.

It's not difficult, but the unique art style makes it very time-consuming.

This led her to constantly complain about Yang Yi in the art department.

Just now, Yang Yi could hear Huang Yan going crazy inside the art department director's office.

"Ugh, why does Mr. Yang always use such a weird style?"

"With so few pixels, and yet requiring such exquisite texture, why didn't he send Shen Xiao to draw it!"

"I think you can stand up to draw, that way the melanin deposition will be much slower." Yang Yi pushed open the door and walked in, interrupting Huang Yan's thunderous speech, letting her continue, who knows what other shocking things she might say.

Huang Yan wasn't intimidated when she saw Yang Yi enter: "I'm telling the truth. I'm an amazing doujinshi artist. When I was studying in Japan, my pen name was the idol of countless otaku."

Yang Yi was speechless, his face darkening. "No wonder he speaks such vulgar and offensive language right from the start."

"Teacher Huang, I have a new proposal here. Could you please decide whether to outsource it or have the art department draw it themselves?"

Upon hearing about the new task, Huang Yan put away her playful demeanor and took the proposal for a quick glance.

Seeing that Huang Yan was focused on her work, Yang Yi stopped bothering her and wandered around her office.

Although Huang Yan is a bit abstract in personality, her office is nicely decorated, with a pink and tender color scheme.

Various dolls and figurines.

There's also a huge amount of merchandise related to the company's internal IP.

They even have the rare Black Lily mousepad.

These peripheral expenses are not reimbursed by the company; she bought them all herself, which is not a burden for her with her salary.

Yang Yi looked at them one by one, and soon her eyes were drawn to a small yellow and pink alarm clock on the table.

The alarm clock is yellow and white, which is quite cute.

Yang Yi held it in her hand and played with it, only to find that the alarm clock was missing an ear.

While adjusting the time, Yang Yi asked Huang Yan, "Huang Yan, your alarm clock is quite cute. Where did you buy it? Why is it missing an ear?"

While intently analyzing the proposal, Huang Yan replied absentmindedly, "Alarm clock? What alarm clock? I don't have one—wait, don't move! That's not—"

Yang Yi was startled by Huang Yan's sudden scream and pressed the third button on the alarm clock.

"Ouch! Don't press those buttons!"

Huang Yan's face suddenly flushed red, and she made a soft sound.

Yang Yi looked at Huang Yan, who suddenly blushed, with suspicion. It took her a moment to realize what the alarm clock was from her reaction and words.

He was immediately at a loss, and stammered, "N-no, I'm sorry, I've never seen this before."

"You read the proposal yourself first. I'm going back to my office. Come back and report to me when you're done."

After saying this, Yang Yi hurriedly left Huang Yan's office.

Huang Yan leaned on her desk, watching Yang Yi's helpless figure, her face growing increasingly flushed.

"Wait, boss! Don't take the alarm clock with you!"

She reached out to call out to Yang Yi, but Yang Yi was in a hurry and didn't hear her call.

She was too embarrassed to chase after him and retrieve the alarm clock.

All I could do was hold my head and continue to enjoy the experience, but this time I had one more goal in mind.

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