Interstellar Travel: Becoming a Dress-Up Game Designer

Chapter 6

Xia Chunqi was carrying her quilt back to her room when Lin Shuying, who had just entered, remembered that she hadn't sent the quilt and clothes to the original owner's parents. She quickly opened the door and said, "Chunqi, remember to call a courier to send your aunt and uncle's quilt and clothes tomorrow morning."

The clothes made for the couple were simple in style, slightly more formal than those made for the other two. The father's was a Tang suit, with nine decorative knots specially made for him, and the trousers were very thin and loose, the kind you could wear to the park to do some Tai Chi. Although it looked a bit old-fashioned, it was still acceptable for a man in his forties.

My mother wore a loose-fitting cheongsam, plain linen with a silk lining, and an embroidered plum blossom at the hem. The color was a light gray, giving her an artistic air.

As far as I can remember, my parents had hair, so their clothing wasn't unusual.

Xia Chunqi said "Oh," and rubbed her head under the covers before going into the room. She'd completely forgotten to ask why she had to deliver the package; couldn't her sister go by herself?

Lin Shuying returned to her room, preparing to enter the holographic pod and continue designing the game she hadn't finished yesterday. The interstellar technology era is truly amazing; back then, for an independent game developer to create a game was practically a pipe dream.

Any one of the following—equipment, funding, effort, territory, or manpower—could crush their dreams, let alone having a dedicated gaming platform to sell and publish their games.

It's already quite good that it hasn't been copied, monopolized, or suppressed.

The basic garden design is complete; now it's time to design the seeds, flowers, and how they grow after being planted. Because it's holographic, every step needs to be extremely detailed, such as the growth process, how the flowers bloom, how they bear fruit, and how they wither and decay. Only after meticulous detail can the motion programming be implemented without errors. Because live-action operation is different from creating animation, who knows what strange things those people might do? If the modeling isn't detailed enough, clipping issues will occur.

Clipping issues aren't a big deal on Earth, since some games' fun is built on them. But it's a different story in StarCraft; if it gets out of hand, people will demand a refund from the designers.

This is why many designers create shooting and stationary shooting games, because it's easier to find images for these types of content. With a little on-site research and imagination, there won't be any clipping issues.

Unless you go and try to woo the queen insect, or do something against the rules...

Lin Shuying designed five levels of flower planting here.

The first category includes rapeseed flowers, five-colored flowers, wild chrysanthemums, hibiscus, and lucky clover.

The second category includes tulips, irises, daffodils, zinnias, and single orchids.

The third category includes hydrangeas, roses, rose bushes, Chinese roses, and dahlias.

The fourth category includes peony, camellia, orchid, chrysanthemum, and epiphyllum.

The fifth category includes plum blossoms, osmanthus, magnolia, peach blossoms, and hibiscus.

Five types of flowers are listed for each level, roughly arranged according to a certain hierarchy, though her personal preferences also play a role. These are all relatively common varieties; I'll add more later when I have time.

For example, osmanthus flowers can be categorized into white osmanthus, yellow osmanthus, golden osmanthus, large-flowered osmanthus, ever-blooming osmanthus, small osmanthus, and so on. The design here is based on the golden osmanthus that Lin Shuying likes. This type of osmanthus has large flowers, a strong fragrance, and importantly, it can be harvested to make osmanthus tea, osmanthus honey, osmanthus cake, and so on.

Drooling...

When we have time to expand the game later, we can create some food-themed dungeons or events, and that will give us a new gameplay element.

Speaking of which, Lin Shuying is first-rate in handicrafts and also good at painting, but unfortunately she is a kitchen disaster.

My culinary dreams for this lifetime can probably only be realized in games.

Thinking of Xia Chunqi, I can't give up. If my master won't do, surely my sister can become a chef...

After designing the flowers, there's also the silver coin system. Since it's free, it can't be too easy for players to obtain; otherwise, what would happen to the big spenders? Their main source of revenue for the game is them.

I've spent nearly two million on fabric these past two days, and my finances are starting to tighten. I have to stick close to the big spenders and never let go.

She also wants to make traditional Hanfu, phoenix crowns, and hairpins, but the materials for these are incredibly expensive. Especially gemstones, pearls, and natural stones, because they're interstellar energy materials, they're even more expensive than fabric. Making hairpins will cost millions per pair; if that doesn't work, she'll use plastic, fabric, or velvet flowers.

Don't overthink it, take it slow. What if you become a tycoon later and squander it all?

Flowers can only be unlocked at the next level after completing one level, and the price and growth time of these flowers increase with each level. Lin Shuying is neither a game designer nor an agricultural major, so she has absolutely no concept of plant growth time.

After setting the growth period based on intuition, it also thoughtfully designed concepts for pests and watering. When you think of watering, you think of rainy days, snowy days, and all four seasons. The plant doesn't grow in winter, grows exceptionally fast in spring, flowers wither in summer, and bears fruit in autumn.

If you water the plants incorrectly, they will drown or die from drought. If you don't catch the insects, they will eat everything, and you will end up with no harvest at all.

That increases the difficulty.

"Oh my god, I'm simply a genius and the pinnacle of game design!"

I tried it out myself, and it worked fine; it ran without any problems.

But I always feel like something's missing, what's missing?

Looking at the flowers blooming throughout the garden, each with its own unique characteristics, many were variations of the first flower conceived by Lin Shuying, making them somewhat unique. The scientist who originally designed this rule certainly never imagined that after so long without anyone using it, Lin Shuying would discover and utilize it.

Lin Shuying clapped her hands suddenly; she knew something was wrong.

These flowers can't be taken to the player's house. The play space for big spenders is limited, so it's hard to keep them around.

They have money, so who would want to waste time planting flowers here? Besides, she didn't set out many flowers, so everyone got bored after a while.

Games must be fun; only with fun places to play can people stay engaged.

Lin Shuying quickly exited and designed another mutated flower setting. The mutated flower could be picked and taken back to her house, made into dried flowers and kept, or left there to rot and then discarded.

Speaking of discarding, due to the special settings of holography, discarded items require a special program to handle them, and this program actually costs money!

If Lin Shuying were to bear this cost herself, she would definitely lose money. Therefore, these players need to pay silver to destroy the trash.

But silver can be obtained by growing flowers, so isn't there a missing element of monetary balance in this process?

Therefore, some things can only be obtained by whales (players who spend a lot of money), and those who don't spend money must log in to the Heavenly Realm to get them.

After much deliberation, Lin Shuying added pearls as a currency to the game system. Purchasing pearls with real money is cheap, but exchanging them for in-game gold is extremely expensive. It's meant to balance the currency system; one pearl costs 10,000 gold, but one interstellar coin can buy 10 pearls.

The currency balance will continue to be adjusted, because it's unrealistic to expect a layman like Lin Shuying to understand it; we'll need player feedback later.

Now she can only design based on her daily consumption and her experience playing games in her previous life.

Pearls can be used to purchase Qingfengyi's physical clothing and jewelry, just like Star Coins; this is Lin Shuying's goal. Her ultimate aim has never been to create a game, but to build a luxury brand of ancient-style clothing.

Having transmigrated to interstellar space, with such a wonderful environment and no competitive pressure, wouldn't she do even better than in her previous life?

In her past life, she single-handedly established a personal studio, specializing in taking on customized blogger jobs.

Back then, we had to consider our own copyright issues, but StarCraft is different; it has very strict protection for design copyrights.

Not long ago, Lin Shuying applied for copyright for everything in Qingfengyi, including the design of the player's room and some of the decorations. The only thing that failed to pass copyright certification was the flower and plant design. The copyright association apparently believes that flowers, plants, and trees belong to all humankind and therefore copyright applications are not permitted.

Lin Shuying was furious; the number of plants preserved in the interstellar space was far greater than what she had envisioned!

Forget about that.

Even after the flower design is completed, there is still the issue of mutation probability. The higher the grade of the flower, the lower the mutation probability. If you want to pick them and take them home, you must plant a large number of flowers.

Without any fertilizers or growth promoters, the beautiful flowers are worth the wait, aren't they?

Once everything is ready, upload the update.

This update came so quickly; it's only been three days since the last one. She's such a workaholic.

.......

In the dead of night, not many people were still playing the game; only a handful remained, including the streamer Lele, who didn't like colorful outfits. She still hadn't grown tired of the beautiful game, spending her days decorating her three player-owned rooms. She constantly changed the decorations, furniture, and furnishings, feeling a completely new experience with each change.

As a result, she owns three sets of each type of furniture and furnishings, making her a true spendthrift.

Fortunately, Lin Shuying knew that the game she designed had a lot of items, so she bought players backpacks with up to a thousand slots, each slot holding 99 of the same item. She couldn't afford any more; yes, these backpacks actually cost money!

And it's incredibly expensive.

She won't buy any more in the future. Anyway, the player houses are constantly increasing, and there will be storage cabinets for sale later. The things she designs are either for home or for wearing. A thousand slots are more than enough.

"Lele, aren't you going to sleep yet?"

"Lele usually takes a nap in the afternoon, and she just woke up now."

"The streamer really loves this game; I've seen her playing it a lot these past few days."

"The streamer has amazing taste; every house she sets up looks beautiful. Could you come to my house and design it for me? I'll pay you."

Lele perked up the moment she saw this comment. Was this some kind of alternative way to make money?

Live streaming doesn't actually make much money, especially when you have very few fans.

"Okay, buy the decorations yourself, buy whatever you like, and add me as a friend."

"Wow, the streamer is really willing to help? I want one too!"

"I bought so many decorative items that I like, but they don't look good no matter how I arrange them. I don't like to arrange things according to reference templates. I didn't buy the ones that didn't look good."

"Me too. I only bought one house and didn't buy the others. But I like the decorative items from different houses. Putting them together makes it look cluttered and out of harmony."

........

Lele had several invitation messages in her private message panel, and she planned to click on one of them to accept the task.

At that moment, a flash of golden light appeared, and countless flower petals fluttered down onto her dressing table, transforming into a letter that landed on the table. The stunning letter effect amazed the viewers in the live stream!

"What is that? My mecha Grand Marshal! It's so beautiful!"

"Ahhh, ladies, log in! This special effect is only available for half an hour after the update! If you miss it, you'll really miss it!"

"Remember to record a video! Record a video!"

"Streamer, streamer, quickly log back in and try again! Your special effects are being blocked!"

Lele, who doesn't like the rainbow outfit, saw it too, so she quickly logged off and came back in, only to find that the special effects were gone!

She was extremely anxious, "It's gone, the special effects are gone!"

"Don't worry, streamer. There are videos in the chat channel. Go check out other people's videos. This effect only happens once, it's amazing!"

This was a little surprise designed by Lin Shuying, and it was a wonderful surprise.

Each person only gets one chance, and they also need to be lucky enough to enter the game within half an hour of her uploading the update, otherwise they won't see it.

Lele clicked on the video in the chat channel, and people kept uploading the special effects moment from earlier.

A golden petal flew in through the window, transformed into a letter, and was placed on the table. The petals were different colors for each house: golden for the traditional house, pink for the princess's dream house, and rainbow-colored for the glass house.

And it will only appear in the room where the player is, and only once!!!

Everyone was stunned; it was absolutely beautiful.

"My goodness, it even cooperates when you pose with flower petals! (Video)"

In the video, a beautiful woman dressed in in-game clothing gazes out the window at a string of gold petals that come into view. The player reaches out to greet them, and petals circle her hand. She spins along, and the petals multiply, surrounding her and swirling with her. Finally, as if flung away by the player, the petals flow onto a table and transform into a letter.

The letter's cover had a brown window frame, with the words "A letter to you" written in the center of the frame.

Below the window frame, a plum blossom branch adorns the space.

"Even the envelopes are designed so beautifully, I absolutely love them."

"It's so beautiful, so beautiful. I just missed dancing with the flowers."

"I missed it too, boohoo!"

Players who only discovered it half an hour later were even more annoyed and regretful.

"The designers are inhuman! They updated the game in the middle of the night! That's outrageous!"

"That's outrageous!"

"I'm going to file a complaint!"

"Why complain? It's a free game. If you're not satisfied, they can refund you."

The players were immediately dumbfounded.

"I missed a truly beautiful moment."

"I missed a truly beautiful moment."

"I missed a truly beautiful moment."

This phrase went viral.

When Lele saw this comment, she felt lucky because her special effect was only affected by the private message interface that was opened, but she still saw it.

I rushed to edit the video; this stunning moment had to be captured.

She didn't even care about the private message task anymore and just slipped away.

"Dear viewers, I'm going offline to edit the video. The most beautiful moment will be uploaded tomorrow morning. If anyone wants to edit this video together with mine, please submit it. I will credit you."

He logged off immediately after saying that, without noticing the numerous attempts to persuade him to stay in the chat.

"Hey anchor, at least read the contents of the letter!"

"The anchor will definitely regret forgetting to watch the more detailed content tomorrow morning."

Wow, this update is amazing!

.......

Whether Lele regrets it or not is unknown, but many of the streamers who broadcast Qingfengyi's videos are extremely regretful, having completely missed this stunning moment.

When I opened the live stream after finishing up, I was stunned by the flood of comments.

"Wow, everyone is so enthusiastic this time, I'm flattered."

"By finishing up, you missed out on a fortune."

"By finishing up, you missed the chance to become a viral sensation."

"You can't even keep up with the cleanup and picking up the money, what else can you do?"

"Host, host, you've lost money, a lot of money."

I'm completely confused by what these guys are saying.