At noon the next day, Ma Yang sent Pei Qian the revised requirements document.
Pei Qian took a glance and found it fantastic.
It was as if nothing had been written at all!
Although he had never worked in the gaming industry, the requirement template provided by the resource site had clearly outlined some basic rules for writing design requirements.
Simply put, the more detailed, the better.
Designers usually come up with abstract and vague concepts, whereas artists need concrete, detailed imagery.
This transition often leads to misunderstandings.
For instance, a designer might request a "very handsome male character." This description would be far too vague and impossible to quantify.
What exactly constitutes "very handsome"?
Even if an artist drew a character they considered extremely handsome, would the designer be satisfied? Probably not, since aesthetic standards vary greatly from person to person.
Therefore, when submitting requirements, designers should provide detailed instructions, ideally specifying clothing, headwear, weapons, and distinctive features.
Providing reference images would be even better.
There's a joke circulating in game development circles:
A designer approaches a programmer and says, "I want a feature like this! Its design philosophy is XYZ, and it should achieve a certain effect!"
The programmer impatiently responds, "Just tell me which game's feature you want to copy. Show me directly."
The designer then approaches an artist and says, "I want a character with a specific appearance and personality, highlighting certain emotions!"
The artist impatiently replies, "Just tell me which character you want to copy. Show me the pictures."
This isn't merely due to laziness; it's mostly because converting words into visuals results in substantial information loss.
Thus, when creating requirement documents, the more detailed the description and richer the reference images provided, the better the artist's output matches the designer's original vision.
Now, looking back at Ma Yang's requirement document:
It was purely written for his own amusement!
Take Guan Yu as an example:
"He is a dragon. A humanoid dragon."
"As the Martial Sage of the Dragon Clan, he's considered the pinnacle of martial prowess."
"Living his entire life on the edge of the blade, his understanding of combat and killing vastly differs from ordinary people."
That's it.
Then, Ma Chao:
"He appears half-human, half-horse, thus called the 'Hybrid.'"
"Unlike other centaur princes, Ma Chao possesses obvious draconic bloodline characteristics, such as horns."
"Perhaps due to this half-dragon lineage, Ma Chao gained strength rivaling dragons."
Then there was Zhuge Liang:
"In his youth, Zhuge Liang was known as the greatest inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer of the Three Kingdoms era."
"His research spanned artificial lightning, meteorological weaponry, aircraft, autonomous vehicles, robotics, and other cutting-edge fields."
"At the same time, he enjoyed recognition as a poet, philosopher, music critic, and linguist."
Zhuge Liang's description was even lengthier than the previous two, evidently because Ma Yang got carried away while writing it.
Besides these, there were characters such as Zhou Cang the Dragon Guard, Pang Tong the Phoenix Orphan, Xu Shu the Crystal Ice Maiden, Huang Yueying the Mechanical Puppet, Guo Jia the Blood Lord, Lü Meng the Dragon-Hunter Loli, Tai Shi Ci the Night Ranger, Zhou Yu the Lone-Blade Swordsman, and many others.
Essentially, besides their names and some minor characteristics, they no longer had anything to do with the original Three Kingdoms historical figures!
These descriptions provided almost no helpful information for the artist's creative process.
Moreover, they could have easily been expressed with simpler words.
For example, simply stating "Guan Yu is a humanoid dragon" would have been enough. Everything else was just unnecessary fluff.
But for Pei Qian, this was exactly the kind of perfect requirement document he needed!
He was so delighted he even punched himself excitedly.
Ma Yang really was dependable!
If Pei Qian had been asked to write such a document himself, he absolutely wouldn't have managed anything nearly as perfect!
Bringing Ma Yang on as an employee was undoubtedly the right choice!
Pei Qian didn't alter a single word and directly forwarded the requirements document to Ruan Guangjian.
Five minutes later, Ruan Guangjian replied.
"Isn't this requirements document way too brief???"
"This makes it really difficult to draw anything—there's no clear standard."
Pei Qian was already prepared for this and quickly replied: "No problem at all! Just draw freely and design however you like. In fact, even if you find the document unreliable, you don't have to strictly follow it. I trust your professional judgment completely!"
Ruan Guangjian: "…That won't work. We've signed a contract, so we need some standards. Otherwise, it'll lead to issues if disagreements arise."
Pei Qian hurriedly responded: "Seriously, I completely trust your artistic talent. Whatever you come up with, I'll accept it without revisions. You can take a screenshot of this message as evidence. If you think it's necessary, we can even add this clause into our contract."
"No, that's not necessary... Alright then, I'll just do my best," Ruan Guangjian replied.
Pei Qian was relieved.
He'd genuinely feared Ruan Guangjian might stubbornly insist on a detailed art requirement, forcing Pei Qian to produce one and resulting in high-quality, serious artwork.
This way, things were easier for both sides—everyone would be happy.
Pei Qian didn't hold onto the remaining funds. Next would be expenses like buying music, sound effects, additional art resources, renting cloud servers, and so on.
These costs wouldn't consume much money. he calculated carefully and reserved around ten thousand yuan as backup, just in case.
As for promotional expenses…
Naturally, not a single yuan was allocated.
He had no intention of promoting the game!
It would be best if no one discovered it at all!
Pei Qian felt his future was extremely bright and happily continued his spending spree.
. . .
At a certain financial university in Shanghai.
Art Department dormitory.
The accommodation conditions here were far better than Pei Qian's at Handong University.
Beds above desks, air-conditioned rooms—spacious and brand new.
Thanks to ESRO's resource marketplace, many art students could now take on freelance projects online during their university years, slightly improving their quality of life.
Additionally, having completed projects during this period would benefit them when job hunting after graduation.
Ruan Guangjian put down his mouse and shouted excitedly, "Hey, Huang! Zhou! Hurry up and call the others. We finally got a job!"
Soon, five roommates gathered around.
"Three weeks, 50 sets of illustrations, four illustrations per set, 3.000 yuan per set! Awesome, right?"
Ruan Guangjian was an energetic young man, short-haired, fair-skinned, and clean-cut, lacking any stereotypical "artist" vibe.
His roommates, however, were more distinctive—some had long hair, some tattoos—each with their own style.
Huang, sporting a small mustache, was the first to come over. "3.000 yuan for four illustrations? Damn, that's great! With that price, I'll even draw chibi style if needed, gotta earn a living."
Ruan Guangjian shook his head, "It's not chibi. The client specifically said no chibi style. All other styles are open."
Huang was shocked, "Huh? But all the representative works you uploaded are chibi-styled! If this client specifically said no chibi, is he out of his mind picking you?"
"Bullshit! He simply has an eye for real talent!" Ruan Guangjian rolled his eyes, "I've always hated drawing chibi-style illustrations. Unfortunately, they're popular in mobile games these days, so I've had no choice but to accept those projects. Now that someone specifically wants non-chibi style, I can finally show what I'm truly capable of!"
"You mean your personal art style? Is that appropriate…?" Huang hesitated, "The client's paying you, yet you're using their money to draw whatever you like… Isn't that a bit…?"
"The client explicitly said they trust my artistic skills and professional judgment, allowing me complete creative freedom!"
"Besides, look at this requirements document! It matches my vision perfectly!"