The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 239: Monster Hunter and Sky Arena! (Two in One)

"No...Hasn't the money already been distributed?"

"You're giving me face by re-holding the award ceremony?"

"Virtual City! You finally remembered this! Do you know how long I've been waiting?!"

"Don't just spread the city, what about our Silver City?"

……

Following Xu Meng's announcement, players flocked to the game.

In addition to looking forward to the opening of the virtual city, many players also reminded Xu Meng——

Don't forget Silver City!

Meeting the characters of "Project Frost" by chance in the Silver City has always been the dream of "Project Frost" players.

Although it can be seen in interactive scenes and the Dragon Palace treasure hunt battle now, the feeling is very different from encountering it on the street.

It would be more like encountering a real character, not just an imaginary paper figure.

Well, except for players like Huanyue.

"It's only natural for my wife to dress sexy for me."

"But walking down the street in just a bikini..."

"How shameful! How shameful!!"

Huanyue was already worried about this matter which hadn't even shown any signs of happening yet.

The media and peers are more agitated than the players themselves.

Players only consider what fun places there are in the virtual city and don’t care much about anything else.

But the media and colleagues can't help but think of -

How much impact will such a city have on the entire gaming industry, and even the entire Internet industry? !

Its potential and commercial value are almost impossible to estimate.

All those who are engaged in Internet-related work and have a keen sense of smell, from programmers, self-media, and individual creators to the management of Internet companies and even giants, all set their sights on building dreams.

In fact, as early as after Huodao’s interview, Internet giants had already set their sights on Zhumeng.

Some are looking for cooperation, some intend to acquire, and some want to invest money.

Dream Building will not respond to any request.

After a delay of several days, several giants had to reveal the news one after another -

Long before DreamZhu was founded, they had already been exploring the technology in this area, and the project work had already begun last year/the year before/five years ago.

Now the project team has achieved phased results and is only a few steps away from product launch.

……

Of course this is nonsense.

The work of recruiting people has just begun, not to mention product project establishment.

But for the sake of the stock price, they have to say it.

But they really didn't expect that dreams would be realized so quickly!

It was so fast that they were caught off guard!
On this day, countless companies convened emergency management meetings.

The more I drive, the more worried I become, and the more uneasy I become.

……

Building dreams is much easier. We can discuss them directly in the office group. If we have any questions, just @Boss Xu Meng.

Xu Meng rarely appears because she is busy preparing for a new project.

But if everyone's talk is too outrageous, he will jump out and help eliminate the wrong answers.

After waiting like this, the rest period ended and all the employees came back to work.

Before convening the new project launch meeting, Xu Meng first held a meeting with the "Lord of War" project team.

It was in the office where the project meeting was held a few months ago.

This meeting was very brief.

Xu Meng stood at the front of the conference room and said happily to everyone:
"Everyone, welcome back!"

“Hope you guys have a great holiday!”

"Then let's get right to the point—"

"Many of us have our own gaming ideals."

“Thank you for your contribution to Lord of War over the past few months! In return, if anyone wants to make their own dream game, now is the best opportunity!”

The conference room was packed with people, all feeling relaxed after their recent vacations and excited about new projects; the atmosphere was extremely lively.

No one expected that the boss would suddenly make such an opening.

The bustling conference room suddenly became quiet.

Everyone looked at each other.

After a moment of silence, Xue Liang slowly raised his hand and asked, "Boss, do you mean internal incubation or expulsion?"

"Either is fine." Xu Meng's answer was unexpected again.

"Of course I hope everyone can stay in Dreambuilding, but if someone would rather complete their own game independently, I can fully understand and will also provide help."

"If you want to invest, I'll invest!"

"If you don't want to invest, DreamBuild can provide an interest-free loan."

"The game is really outstanding. If it gets my approval, I can give you money unconditionally!"

"In a word, feel free to pursue your dreams!"

Xue Liang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he immediately said, "Then Boss! I want to finish "Storm Fire"!"

His original purpose in coming to Zhumeng was to work to earn money, improve his skills, and then perfect his highly acclaimed "Storm Fire" Demo into a formal version for sale.

"No problem!" Xu Meng agreed readily.

"Do you plan to do it yourself, or continue to stay at Dream Building?"

"Of course I'll stay!" Xue Liang answered quickly, "And I want to participate in the new project!"

"Can you handle it?" Xu Meng asked.

"Boss, don't underestimate my hard work! I can work on "Storm Fire" in my spare time! With Bill's help, it's not a problem at all!" Xue Liang is full of energy and confidence.

[Bill] is his intelligent partner, a squirrel cowboy with two guns on his waist and a cowboy hat on his head.

"You decide on this matter yourself, just don't get sick from working yourself into trouble." Xu Meng nodded, "Anyone else?"

Ge Ming then raised his hand as well: "Boss, I want to try again too."

Ge Ming had previously produced independent games that received excellent reviews, but they were never commercially successful.

Now he feels that if he can get on the Dream Building Game Platform, sales will be guaranteed.

And after working on the "Lord of War" project, he had a vague feeling and understood some techniques to make a game a best-seller.

All in all, this is a great opportunity to avenge our previous shame!

……

After Xue Liang and Ge Ming, three more employees expressed their desire to give it a try.

They all hope to stay in DreamCraft and carry out the process through internal incubation.

Xu Meng agreed to all of them.

The only requirement is: the game must be made seriously!

If it is not done well, it will be revised until Xu Meng is satisfied, and then it can be released on the Dream Building Game Platform.

……

It took Xu Meng 10 minutes to help five people realize their dream of making their own games - and at the same time, they also took a few steps towards the extra reward of the next task [Laying the Foundation].

After that, it was time for today’s main course—

new project!
The employees of the original "Lord of War" project team were divided into two parts, one part went back to continue developing and maintaining "Lord of War", and the other part joined the project establishment meeting of the new project together with a large number of new employees.

Xu Meng looked at the familiar and unfamiliar faces in the office, and the same expectations in their eyes, and started the meeting with a question -

"How many of you have read the player questionnaire for Age of Madness?"

Half the people in the room raised their hands.

——All members of the “Lord of War” development team raised their hands.

"Very good." Xu Meng said as he opened the data analysis chart of the questionnaire on the projector.

"Many players and netizens thought that I posted this questionnaire just to disgust Duhuo Studio."

"But no."

After a pause, he couldn't help but laugh, "Well, at least not all of it."

The employees attending the meeting burst into laughter.

Amid everyone's laughter, Xu Meng said frankly: "I really want to disgust them."

“But at the same time, I really want to investigate what elements of [Age of Madness] players are most interested in.”

"From the 377 million questionnaires collected, we can find a very prominent tendency——"

“Players are mostly obsessed with behemoths.”

"Although players have given positive reviews for the survival construction, cold weapon combat, hot weapon shooting and other parts, the emotional intensity is far lower than that of Behemoth." "Until now, the player online rate of the [Age of Madness] mode is also very amazing - not inferior to [Hell on Earth] and [Warzone] at all."

“There are increasing calls for DreamCraft to update more behemoths quickly and strengthen the combat interactions between players and behemoths.”

Hearing Xu Meng's words, many people had some guesses in their minds and subconsciously sat up straight.

Xu Meng opened another picture.

This is the data Xiao Meng compiled by grabbing keywords from Mengjin’s massive posts.

"It's only been half a month since the launch of [Age of Madness], and on the Mengjin platform alone, the discussion volume of the behemoth keyword has exceeded 3000 million times. The discussion volume on the entire network will only be more exaggerated."

"Another situation that cannot be ignored is that as time goes by, the amount of discussion has not only not decreased, but has shown a slowly increasing trend."

“So…it’s already clear what the new project is going to do.”

Under everyone's expectant gaze, the picture on the projector changed again.

Four large ink-splashed characters popped out.

Xu Meng clapped his hands and concluded:
“DreamBuild will do whatever the players want!”

"So, the new project is tentatively named——"

"Monster Hunter!"

“We want to create a wild world with a complete ecosystem for global players, where behemoths and civilizations compete with each other!”

“To give players stronger physical qualities and combat capabilities, we designed armor and weapon systems with consistent styles and coordinated aesthetics.”

“Let players get the craziest and wildest hunting experience on a brand new planet!”

Every time Xu Meng said something, a corresponding animation would appear on the projector behind him.

When he was talking about hunting, a nine-foot-tall muscular man with almost naked upper body and only shoulder armor appeared on the screen, waving a steam-mechanical giant blade that was bigger than him, and jumping down from a great height!

His body was almost stretched like a bow. He gathered all his strength and slashed at the beast below.

——The head of this beast alone is bigger than the body of the macho man!

At this moment, the beast raised its head and roared and growled at the hunter in the sky!
In the conference room, everyone stared at this visually impactful scene with their mouths wide open and their minds blank.

What shocked them wasn't how well the animation was done.

But -

Boss, did you finish the game by yourself?
As a project initiation meeting, the maturity of this project is too high! !

This is not even a "concept" picture!
"Boss..." Chief Programmer Li Xingyun couldn't help but ask everyone's question, "You didn't make the demo by yourself, did you?"

"What?" Xu Meng was stunned for a moment, then immediately shook his head to deny it, "Of course not!"

"I'm busy buying a house, working on hardware, and writing algorithms. I don't have the time for this!"

"That's good, that's good." Li Xingyun breathed a sigh of relief.

The members of the original "Lord of War" project team also breathed a sigh of relief.

Only the new employees who did not understand Xu Meng's incredible efficiency looked at their colleagues' strange reactions in confusion.

"But I have made the trailer for the game," Xu Meng added.

“???” A question mark popped up on Li Xingyun’s head.

Others had similar reactions.

For a moment, the entire conference room was filled with question marks.

Who would make a game trailer before the project meeting?

Xu Meng felt a little embarrassed when she saw everyone’s expressions.

"I know some of you may not understand."

"But I plan to announce the new project to the players at the Global Survival Competition awards ceremony on the 1st of next month. Time is tight, so I just did it myself."

"But..." Li Xingyun was still a little confused, "What if there are changes in the game production later, and the game content in the trailer is changed?"

"It's changed if it's changed." Xu Meng spread his hands a bit shamelessly, "Then just treat it as a preview scam, it's no big deal."

Li Xingyun opened his mouth, speechless.

Laughter was heard again from the crowd.

As the laughter faded, Xue Liang asked, "I saw in the previous scene that all the fights were about cold weapons. Have hot weapons been ruled out?"

"That's right." Xu Meng confirmed, "Many things in [Age of Madness] are the reuse of discarded resources during the development process, which leads to obvious conflicts between many elements."

“As a free update, this is fine.”

“But not new games.”

“All elements of the new game must be fully coordinated, whether in terms of art, combat, or gameplay.”

Xue Liang nodded, realizing that it would be difficult for him to excel in this project.

What he is best at is hot weapons combat.

Xu Meng added, "Speaking of gameplay, I need to add something."

“The core gameplay of Monster Hunter is what I mentioned above, hunting various large beasts, even extraordinary beasts with elemental powers, in an open, wild, and vibrant world.”

"But after successfully hunting a monster, I hope to obtain not only weapons, armor, and cooking materials, but also an important additional item - the monster's [Soul], which is a non-materialized image of the monster."

“In the main game, [Spirit] is mainly used to display the results of hunting and add gorgeous special effects to the attack actions of weapons.”

“We must do this in a cool way!”

“At the same time, we also need to widen the gap.”

“We need to ensure that the bigger the monsters players hunt, the cooler their spirits will be, and the more gorgeous the special effects will be during battle!”

"When players compete with each other, the gap between spirits of different levels must be widened."

"Will the new game also have PVP content?" someone couldn't help but ask.

"The main gameplay of the game does not involve PVP, it only involves hunting monsters. But in the supplementary gameplay, there will definitely be player-versus-player content." Xu Meng answered clearly.

"What additional gameplay?" someone else asked.

Xu Meng clapped his hands, and the scene behind him changed again.

This time, dozens of hunters armed with various large weapons are confronting each other on the same map.

"There are three ways to supplement the gameplay, but I'll talk about two of them here first."

"A game similar to [Wild Age], where dozens or hundreds of players are thrown into the same hunting ground for a killing competition. The person or team that survives to the end wins."

"The other is: the tower climbing challenge."

The scene behind me switched again.

A huge tower that almost reaches the sky and the earth stands among the buildings in the city.

Even though Xu Meng was still speaking, the employees couldn't help but make surprised noises.

Xu Meng was not disturbed and continued:
"This part of the gameplay will take place in a virtual city - I built this [Sky Arena] in the Sprawling City."

"There are 251 floors in total, with 10 floors as each level."

"Players start from the first level and challenge each level. The winners go up and the losers go down."

“Here, spirits are no longer just decorations and special effects, but can also provide combat assistance and attribute gains to players.”

"This will greatly enhance the viewing experience of the duel."

"For this reason, this giant tower will also be open to all ordinary users, and they are welcome to come in and watch the game."

"Of course, challenges are welcome."

"It's just that facing players with spirits, they have little power to resist."

"In addition, I also plan to provide some rewards for players who reach the 100th and 200th floors."

“Players watching the game can also participate and bet on the outcome.”

"But I haven't decided what the rewards and bets will be."

"After all, you can't really gamble for money—that would be illegal."

At this point, Xu Meng sighed regretfully:
"What a shame! If gambling were legal, it would be super profitable!"

Colosseum + gambling, it would be strange if you don’t make money!

If we can bring into play the core competitiveness of the "Frost and Snow Project" project team and add a sexy host similar to the sign girl...

That would make crazy money.

Unfortunately, this money cannot be earned.

——These thoughts just flashed through his mind.

In fact, what Xu Meng really regretted was not that he could not make this money - even if gambling was really legal, he would not be willing to make this immoral money.

He's not short of money.

What he really regretted was that he couldn't do this great job!

While he was sighing with regret, the employees sitting opposite him, no matter they were leaders or ordinary employees, all stared stupidly with their eyes wide open and their mouths open, just like a bunch of stupid geese.

They never expected that while Xu Meng was talking about adding new gameplay to the new game, he was actually planning to make such an exaggerated and outrageous thing!

Do not!
He had even done it without making a sound!
After coming to their senses, everyone was quite excited:
"Boss! Can this be made into a new game on its own? Just use it as a supplementary gameplay?"

“Is this really a project launch meeting, not a mid-term summary meeting???”

"And you still say you didn't secretly make games by yourself?!"

(End of this chapter)