They wanted to make a trashy game, but how come it sold like hotcakes again?

Chapter 61: Construction Begins

Looking at the "pink devil" on the paper, which seemed to be drawn with just two or three circles, Tang She couldn't help but smile.

"This amount of art work is practically tailor-made for rushing to meet deadlines."

He leaned back in his chair with satisfaction. Compared to Link's realistically proportioned character, which requires detailed modeling and complex motion capture, Kirby's design was simply "lazy" to the extreme.

But behind this seemingly minimalist design lies an extremely profound and ingenious level design skill. The so-called "inhale" and "copy" enemy abilities are not only a stroke of genius in action games, but also make the code logic exceptionally clear and highly modular.

He quickly organized the documents in his hands and began planning for the Monday morning meeting overnight.

On Monday, Ren Wei, Tang She, Wu Yu, and all the other members of Group Two at Tangren Games were in the office watching Tang She talk incessantly about the project proposal in his hand.

"...So, this is our second project, Kirby's Dream Land."

Tang She pointed to the "pink devil" on the projection screen, which was almost entirely composed of a few simple circles and pink blocks, his tone full of confidence.

There was a moment of silence in the conference room. Then, the lead artist, Wu Yu, pushed up her black-rimmed glasses and stared intently at the pink sphere on the screen, which didn't even require complex polygon modeling.

"Boss, this amount of art work..." Wu Yu, usually so taciturn, rarely spoke up, but his voice, as always, carried a hint of insecurity. "Are you serious? It's practically a three-year-old's scribbles. Do you really think anyone will like it?"

"What? Isn't it cute?" Tang She asked with a smile. "That's precisely the biggest advantage of Kirby in terms of art and development. Minimalist, yet extremely captivating."

He opened the proposal in his hand and showed it to the programmers and planners in Group Two.

"Don't let its simple appearance fool you. Its rounded, pinkish visual appeal naturally lowers players' defenses. The contrast between its cuteness and its ability to inhale everything is incredibly appealing. Furthermore, for Wu Yu's art team, this style doesn't require nitpicking over lighting and textures. As long as the colors are vibrant and the animation is smooth, their artistic productivity can be maximized, minimizing any impact on their work on Zelda!"

Upon hearing this, the programmers in Group Two did not feel relieved; instead, they frowned slightly.

Generally speaking, when the art style is simplified, the designers often go to great lengths to "poison" the underlying logic and gameplay.

"Boss, are we programmers going to have to work ourselves to death to fill in the time saved by the art team?"

The lead programmer from Group Two raised his hand and asked somewhat nervously.

"Is this game going to have some kind of extremely complex collision physics?"

"Quite the opposite!"

Tang She snapped his fingers, bringing up the next slide.

"This is the second major advantage I want to talk about today: an extremely clean and modular underlying logic."

On the screen, there was an animated sketch of Kirby opening his mouth wide and sucking in an enemy wearing a swordsman's hat, before putting on the hat himself and wielding a longsword.

"The core mechanism can be summed up in just two words: inhalation and replication."

Tang She glanced around the conference room, observing the programmers' increasingly enlightened expressions, and continued to explain.

"Kirby is a classic side-scrolling platformer without any complex 3D physics engine. Kirby absorbs different enemies and gains their abilities, such as breathing fire, generating electricity, turning into stone, and wielding a sword."

"From a player's perspective, this is called ever-changing gameplay, maximizing novelty; but from a programmer's perspective, what is it called?"

Tang She tapped the whiteboard.

The lead programmer gasped, his eyes instantly turning fervent.

"These are essentially individual, completely independent capability modules! Once we've built the underlying framework, adding any new capabilities is simply a matter of inserting new status codes and attack detections into the framework; there's absolutely no need to drastically alter the underlying structure!"

"That's right, highly modular!"

Tang She nodded in satisfaction.

"This means that the nine of you can polish this game to perfection within the system's given timeframe, or even earlier, without a single major bug!"

Ren Wei, who had been sitting quietly listening, had finished flipping through the photocopy of the proposal in her hand. As the company's boss and de facto head manager, her primary concern was always market feedback.

"Tang She, I can understand that the development is easy and the construction period is short, but this is, after all, a commercial project."

Ren Wei tapped her slender fingers lightly on the table, raising the most crucial question.

"What was your sales target for this game again? Can a simple game that seems geared towards younger players really have such a good sales prospect? We already have Pokémon and Fall Guys, won't making an all-ages game like this lead to audience fatigue?"

Upon hearing Ren Wei's question, Tang She not only remained calm but also revealed a confident smile.

"Senior, you've underestimated the money-making power of this pink sphere."

Tang She placed his hands on the conference table, his gaze fixed intently on everyone:

"First, we need to clarify the target audience of Kirby: The Star Trek. It's not meant to challenge hardcore gamers; it's meant to 'heal' them."

"Look at the games on the market, everyone is desperately trying to make them more difficult, more challenging, more grueling, and more PvP. Players are working in the game every day, which is more tiring than going to a regular job. The design philosophy of Kirby is 'low barrier to entry and high feedback'."

Kirby can inhale infinitely and float in the air, meaning players who are bad at jumping will never fall into a pit and die. This almost "foolproof" margin for error, coupled with its cute art style, not only seamlessly captures the entire younger market but also precisely targets the huge female player base and casual gamers who want to relax on the sofa after get off work!

As for sales prospects...

Tang She pulled up the last data analysis chart.

"We now have the huge traffic and casual player base brought by Fall Guys, as well as the family-friendly reputation established by Pokémon. Moreover, thanks to the news from official media and our gameplay demo of Zelda, Tangren Games is currently riding high. This is our biggest moat. We just need to make good games, and players will pay for them."

"The scale of 'The Legend of Zelda' is too large. Even if we work our hardest, there will still be a long gap before its release. During this period, the company needs healthy cash flow, and the market needs us to maintain exposure. 'Kirby' perfectly fills this gap."

Tang She straightened up and delivered his final concluding remarks:

"With a development cost of six million, a short and fast development cycle, and Tangren Games' current golden brand, as long as this pink ball is cute enough and the controls are smooth enough, I guarantee it will not only sell like hotcakes but also attract a large number of new fans who have never played action games before. This is a highly profitable business. Are you all confident?"

There was a two-second silence in the meeting room, and then the lead programmer of Group Two was the first to slam his hand on the table and stand up.

"Let's get this done, guys! Hurry up and finish it so we can get back to Zelda!"

"The art department is fine too."

Wu Yu let out a long sigh of relief, a rare smile of relaxation appearing on her face.

"Drawing this pink sphere was so easy."

Seeing the second group of employees whose fighting spirit was instantly ignited, Ren Wei couldn't help but smile and shake her head.

Looking at Tang She, who stood in the main seat with a radiant expression, her blind trust in him surged up once again.