"Boss."
William looked up and saw Chris standing in the doorway.
"What's up?"
Chris walked in with his own laptop. Besides the work computer, he used his personal one to take notes and jot down ideas.
"I've got a few questions."
After placing his laptop on William's desk, he pointed to his notebook and said, "I followed the materials you gave me and got the base version of the engine working."
The engine in question was the one used for The Sims.
It was obvious from the interface that this engine was way more basic than Unity—hell, even cocos2dx looked better. And the whole UI was in English, which made it even more frustrating.
"This engine is unstable. Most of the protocols it uses are outdated. If we build a game with it, first, it won't run on current mobile systems. Second, it'll be full of bugs."
"I know."
"My idea is… if you let me try, I want to modernize it."
Chris was clearly excited. Even the musical staff floating above his head started to move—it was a weird but happy feeling.
William smiled and said, "That's exactly why I need you."
Hearing that, Chris smiled like he was truly satisfied. Just as he was about to leave, William stopped him.
"This will be our first desktop-level game engine. Put some serious effort into it."
That clearly hinted that the studio planned to move into PC games. Chris, who had only just gotten into mobile game development, probably couldn't imagine how amazing desktop games could be.
"I'll do my best."
Chris had just left when Claire showed up at William's office.
"What's up?"
William found it odd. Why was everyone dropping by his office today?
Claire quietly said, "I… I wanted to take a look at the game you're working on."
"Oh." William relaxed. "Perfect timing. Do you know how to make sound effects?"
"Um… a little."
"Great. Come have a seat."
William stood up. The computer in front of him was synced with the one in his private space, meaning whatever he created there could be linked to this one—though the special traits of the private space wouldn't show up here.
"Okay."
Claire was quick to adapt. Even though this wasn't what she originally came here for, she was happy to have something to do instead of just reading or wandering around the studio.
Getting paid without actually doing anything made her feel uncomfortable.
"I want something cheerful, something that won't get annoying no matter how many times you hear it, and maybe a little catchy."
William laid out what he wanted.
Sure, he could've spent some reputation points to just download the audio from Happy Match Mania, but since Claire could do it, maybe she'd come up with something even better. Worst case, he'd just pick the original sound anyway. Nothing to lose.
"Um, I'll give it a shot."
The sound mainly comes in when the blocks disappear, so the key word was "disappear."
The most obvious idea for a disappearing sound? Bubbles.
Pop!
But just that one sound wasn't cheerful enough, and it'd get old fast.
…
Claire kept tweaking her ideas, then started looking up videos online—trying to really capture the feeling of "disappearing."
William knew this wasn't a quick job, so after standing behind her for a bit, he left the office and headed to Cynthia's.
He figured she'd be slacking off or doing something else, but she was actually working.
"Need something?"
She came off kind of cold right away.
William glanced at the thermos on her desk—the lid was off, so she'd already had some.
Hmm. So much for "drink more hot water" being a cure-all.
"I came to look at the resumes," William said, trying to sound casual.
Cynthia gave him a look, didn't say much, just stood up and moved aside.
Just as he was about to sit down, she said, "You could've just told me to email them to you."
William explained, "Claire's using my computer. I asked her to make some audio clips for Happy Match Mania."
"Oh."
Cynthia pointed at a folder on the screen. "All the selected resumes are in there."
"Got it."
He opened the folder—eleven resumes inside. Which meant Cynthia had gone through at least a hundred over the past couple of days.
Just from the submissions, it was clear competition on Blue Star was brutal. The bare minimum was a master's degree, and they'd all worked at top-100 companies in the industry. Some didn't care much about salary, others made it clear they wouldn't accept a pay cut.
That alone showed their mindset. Some genuinely liked the game industry, while others were just looking for a new opportunity.
According to Cynthia, a good number were fresh graduates—most of them fans of Earth Games. Some even offered to work for free, but for various reasons they didn't make it to the second round.
Right now, the studio needed people who could jump straight into animation production. They couldn't afford to hire more trainees like Chris or Claire. While roles like engine engineer or producer were still new and had learning curves, animators did basically the same job no matter where they went. So experience had to come first.
One more thing—Journey's demo had been well-received, but most of the praise was for the visuals and the intriguing, partial story. The two animations during the game's cutscenes, however, were seen as weak points.
William had copied the animations from the original version, but due to his limited skills, the result was just okay at best. Combined with his rather basic drawing abilities, the whole thing didn't come together smoothly. For players used to high-end special effects in their everyday media, Journey's cutscenes were underwhelming.
That's also why Cynthia knew exactly what the studio lacked—a top-tier animator. And that wasn't a role fresh grads could fill.
"This one."
Out of the eleven candidates, William chose Angela, who currently works at Tencent Animation under Tencent. She's a 34-year-old married woman with one child, living in Riverdale. She has nine years of work experience and is now a team leader in charge of content creation.
Seeing his choice, Cynthia said, "You really have a thing for picking people from Tencent."
"Well, it is the best company in the world, isn't it?"
William smiled. Tencent had almost monopolized every industry. Though it was officially private, it had long become state-controlled. Everyone working there was top talent—you couldn't get in without real skills. With such a good employee practically delivered to him, there was no need to look anywhere else.
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