A tree game.
Tao Zhiyue got off the bus and walked for seven or eight minutes to find the villa community that Guan Yudong mentioned. He registered with the security guard about the company he was going to. After walking around the similarly tall houses for a long time, he finally saw the inconspicuous company sign, which was mostly covered by the lush green ivy.
He took out his cell phone and sent a message to Guan Yudong, then pressed the doorbell.
A few seconds later, he heard the sound of footsteps, and someone came running and opened the door.
"I'm here! Is it Tao Tao?!"
Guan Yudong has very ordinary short hair, wears a pair of very common black-framed glasses, and wears a black T-shirt with the company name and a small tree icon printed on it. He looks ordinary, but he exudes a lively aura.
It was almost the same as Tao Zhiyue had imagined.
He nodded and gave a polite smile, "Yes, it's me."
Guan Yudong was shocked, but pretended not to hear anything. "The film and television company is next door. Did you go to the wrong place? This is the third time this month. I must ask them to put up the sign tomorrow..."
"No, you just said it was me."
"I think I opened the door incorrectly. Wait a minute."
He retracted his foot instantly, closed the door and opened it again, only to see Tao Zhiyue's helpless smile again.
"Oh, damn it!" Guan Yudong accepted the cruel reality in despair, "If you didn't already have a partner, I would never let you set foot in the company!"
"..." Tao Zhiyue kindly reminded, "It's the internal referral bonus."
"Oh, it's okay, come in."
Guan Yudong immediately invited him in, and turned around and shouted into the room, "Newcomers are here!!"
Tao Zhiyue followed him inside and listened to him chattering.
"It really is Sunshine Villa, with a direct subway link at the door. I wasn't kidding you!" Guan Yudong boasted. "It's very convenient to take the subway, right? Is half an hour enough?"
Tao Zhiyue skipped this question and said with a smile: "Well, the transportation is very convenient. It is a real sunny villa."
He looked around the game company located in the villa. As soon as he entered the door, he could see a lot of game and animation elements everywhere, dolls, figurines, posters... a lounge with a super large-screen TV and game consoles, and a bright and clean kitchen and dining room.
The living room is used as an office. There are no partitions between the large long desks. Each person's seat has its own style, showing their distinct personal characteristics.
For example, there was a table full of pink and tender anime girl figures. Tao Zhiyue felt that it must belong to Guan Yudong.
At the very end is an open balcony with excellent lighting. The sunlight pours in freely, illuminating the pots of green fig trees on the small round table, which is full of life.
All in all, the environment is great.
Guan Yudong introduced him enthusiastically: "The second floor is another project team, the third floor is the boss's office, there is a small meeting room for interviews, and there is a bedroom for sleeping when you are too sleepy. Daily necessities are provided as much as possible, and you can ask for other needs."
As they walked in, the others who were originally busy working looked up and invariably looked at Tao Zhiyue with surprised expressions.
Tao Zhiyue suppressed his inner embarrassment and greeted them generously: "Hey guys, my name is Tao Zhiyue."
"You...you...are you Guagua's friend? You look so young."
"Are you really a programmer? Why don't I believe it..."
"Excuse me, what shampoo do you usually use?"
…
Amid the warm and wonderful greetings, there were dragging footsteps on the stairs, and a bearded man in slippers walked down.
Guan Yudong waved at him quickly: "Boss, come quickly, it's time for the interview!"
Then he whispered to Tao Zhiyue: "This is our boss, Jiang Ye."
Tao Zhiyue took a look at the other person's unkempt appearance and the beard that hadn't been shaved for a long time, and couldn't help but agree in his heart that he was indeed very wild.
Jiang Ye nodded to Tao Zhiyue, casually pulled a chair and sat down, leaning back, and said casually: "Just stay in here, I'll listen."
Hearing this, the man with a shaved head stood up and shook hands with Tao Zhiyue with a smile.
"Hey, I'm the chief planner Fang Shiwu. I've already introduced the general situation of the company to you, and also the projects we are working on."
"Yeah, a love-oriented avg."
"Yes, let Xiaoguan and the others ask about the technical matters later. I want to talk about other things first." Fang Shiwu went straight to the point, "Xiaoguan should have said that we are facing a problem now and we can't move forward at all."
"You should know about War of the Roses. It became popular before the public beta, so female-oriented games have been hyped as the next hot spot. This category was originally made by a certain company, but now all companies want to get a piece of the pie."
Fang Shiwu was a little helpless. "MMO development is time-consuming and costly. Small companies can't do it. As a result, love-oriented AVGs became the most economical choice. Design a few protagonists with contrasting personalities, find outsourcing to batch produce plot and card resources, and focus on making a core strategy system. Once the payment system is added, it can be put online for testing in a few months."
Tao Zhiyue quickly understood what he meant, "So there will be a lot of competing products by then, but I can't find the most obvious difference between this product and other competing products at the moment?"
"Yes, that's the question." Fang Shiwu was surprised at his sharpness. "Don't you have any ideas?"
He added: "We don't give away ideas out of thin air. We mainly listen to the junior officials saying that you like this type of thing. We also hope that the people who join us can create sparks of new ideas. The positions and remuneration are all based on the contribution that can be made. The boss is very generous."
Tao Zhiyue liked this simple and straightforward way of communication. His brain instantly became excited and started working rapidly.
He carefully read through the more than ten years of gaming history and the nearly ten years of working experience in his mind, occasionally mixing in the life experiences during this period, and a vague idea gradually began to take shape.
"Degree of freedom." Tao Zhiyue blurted out.
"I played an AVG with a decent degree of freedom, and it was an early stand-alone game."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him intently.
"This game is about vampires. Players can control the male protagonist to choose a target to suck blood from, thus triggering a love line."
"But what impressed me most was that you could choose where to place your character at the beginning of the game. Different locations would trigger different plots. There were several areas in the game, and you could occupy them by sucking blood many times in them. Then you would be attacked by vampire hunters, and the ending would be different depending on how you responded."
"This vivid sense of space shocked me at the time. Entering different maps and making different choices will start a different life."
The surroundings were so quiet that Tao Zhiyue's voice seemed particularly firm.
"If I were to make a love game like this, I would emphasize freedom. The characters are still designated by the strategy, but growth and even randomness would be added. Most plot options would no longer be rigid transitions, and there would be no display of values like kindness +10 and cruelty +10 that actually have no practical meaning in the foreground of the game."
"The order in which the player completes the main and side storylines, and every choice he makes, will have an impact on the target of the strategy. This impact may be fixed or random. All operations combined gradually form the image of the player's character and the target of the strategy that is always growing and changing. The superposition of countless subtle randomness will lead to a unique ending."
Just like everything he experienced after coming to this strange new world.
The prescribed plot and random accidents brought him here.
Fang Shiwu was stunned for a long time before he said, "Is it technically feasible?"
"I believe it is possible." Tao Zhiyue said in a deep voice, "Since Animal Island can intelligently process game interactions in batches, I think this technology can definitely be transplanted horizontally. Moreover, the type of game determines that our data volume is much smaller, so there is not much difficulty in research and development."
Guan Yudong's blood was boiling. "Even if it cannot be realized, we have to realize it. What Animal Island can do, we can also do it!"
Another programmer named Huang immediately joined the discussion: "Do you have a mature programming framework?"
"Yes." Tao Zhiyue's voice was very sure. "I wrote it two years ago. Later, when I was playing Animal Island, a lot of new ideas came up. I have been making modifications. You can use it as the initial framework, so you don't have to start from scratch."
Guan Yudong was shocked again, "But Taotao, you look very young, how old are you?"
Tao Zhiyue found it a little difficult to speak, but he couldn't lie, so he just whispered as quietly as possible: "Twenty-two."
Guan Yudong: !!!!!!
"Oh, from now on you are my dad, Daddy."
Huang Chengxu made the final decision.
Then everyone woke up from the silent atmosphere filled with thought and started laughing.
A scattered voice was heard.
"I like it, do it."
Jiang Yewang listened to the whole thing from the balcony and gave a concise conclusion.
He glanced at Guan Yudong and said, "Bonus will be given tomorrow."
Guan Yudong finally came to his senses and started jumping up and down again: "Thank you, boss! I love you, boss!"
Everyone began to continue discussing the previous topic. Fang Shiwu once again extended his hand to Tao Zhiyue and said sincerely, "Welcome."
Tao Zhiyue breathed a sigh of relief. He liked the environment and open atmosphere of this company, and he also liked himself when he had a burst of inspiration just now.
But before he had time to rest, Huang Chengji pulled him over to discuss technical details.
Guan Yudong listened for a while, nodded frequently, and suddenly thought of something, became excited, and forced his way into their conversation: "Oh, I almost forgot, every time a newcomer comes, we have to do this!"
The other people around immediately cast the same excited glances, and even the excited Huang Chengxu stopped talking on his own initiative.
Tao Zhiyue was a little curious: "What?"
"Guess our boss's sexual orientation!" Guan Yudong said shockingly, "If you guess wrong, you'll have to treat our entire team to dinner tonight!"
"..." Is this company a little too unrestrained
Is this something you can ask in person
Tao Zhiyue was a little dazed, and then he really thought about this question.
The experiences during this period were so dreamy that he almost forgot that this was a world where heterosexual love and marriage were the mainstream.
Answering "I am heterosexual" doesn't seem to be that simple, and answering "I am homosexual" seems to be predicted.
Looking at the indifference that emanated from Jiang Ye's body, he thought for a moment and gave the most likely answer uncertainly: "... Bisexual?"
Guan Yudong immediately shook hands with him enthusiastically, smiling, "Taotao, I want to eat barbecue! Thank you!"
Others immediately joined the battle, "No, we had barbecue at the last gathering, I'm tired of it, I want hot pot."
"Request a vote! I want to eat crayfish! What's summer without crayfish!"
Amidst the noisy sounds, Jiang Ye picked up the fig tree that was placed on the small round table on the balcony, glanced at everyone, and walked up the stairs slowly.
Tao Zhiyue was really curious now, and couldn't help asking Guan Yudong, "What is your sexual orientation?"
"It's tree love!" Guan Yudong blinked innocently, "The boss's object is a potted tree, so we respectfully call him Mr. Rong."
"Just now, Mr. Rong's daily sunbathing time ended, and the boss took his clothes back home."
"Although I paid the price of a meal, Taotao, you have gained a very important piece of knowledge: Don't touch Mr. Rong carelessly. This is the life forbidden zone of the company. The boss is very talkative at other times."
Tao Zhiyue: …
Who could have guessed that
He looked at the five big characters on Guan Yudong's black T-shirt: A Tree Game, and the small tree icon in the center, and suddenly realized something.
"So...?"
"Yes, this is the picture I drew after President Rong, and the name was also chosen because of President Rong!"
“… The boss is quite romantic. It’s worth learning from him.”
Tao Zhiyue couldn't help but sigh.
Everyone has changed the topic and is now discussing what to eat in the evening, creating a very happy scene.
Tao Zhiyue listened for a while, then said, "I'll ask you next time we welcome you."
Guan Yudong generously said: "Yeah! But you have to vote for barbecue first!"
In the end, crayfish won with an absolute advantage of three votes, and the barbecue party and the hot pot party were defeated miserably.
In the evening, sitting in the noisy lobster restaurant, Tao Zhiyue put on transparent disposable gloves and reached for the three large pots of spicy and tempting crayfish on the table.
After half a day of communication, he had become familiar with this group of future people.
Everyone is very unique, quirky and cute.
Add some delicious crayfish.
Tao Zhiyue's mood was particularly good.
This is his new world.
Everyone ate and chatted aimlessly.
"Boss, aren't you bringing Mr. Rong here today?"
Jiang Ye shook his head: "No, the air here is not fresh and the smell is too strong. I will go to the company and bring it home after this is over."
"Woo woo woo, another day of eating fertilizer in silence."
"The fertilizer smells good, I also want to fall in love qaq"
Tao Zhiyue was stunned for a moment when he heard this, but he quickly reacted.
This dog food is used in a very clever way, as it is tailored to the type of tree it is made of.
Even the trees are objects.
Tao Zhiyue couldn't help but feel a little envious.
Guan Yudong, whose face was covered with tears from eating, came over and said, "Taotao, where's your date? When are you going to bring him to the company? We can't let the boss be so arrogant."
"… He's out of town, next time for sure."
After hearing Guan Yudong's words, Tao Zhiyue suddenly remembered that, strictly speaking, Huo Ran was not his partner.
He hadn't even told Huo Ran that he liked him too.
The day they met by chance at the game exhibition, he seemed to have told Huo Ran, who was just an HR at the time, that he had fallen in love with someone...
Tao Zhiyue felt a little worried very slowly.
Will Huo Ran start to have wild thoughts because of these words
Although he did not mention the incident again after a few days, and even became more enthusiastic day by day, he seemed completely unaffected.
But after thinking about this problem, Tao Zhiyue couldn't help but become anxious.
While he was peeling the bright red crayfish, he was seriously examining himself.
In an emotional relationship, security is a very important indicator.
Because of a misunderstanding before, he had accidentally planted a landmine that "belonged to him", and because Huo Ran's offensive was too fierce, he was at a loss and passively accepted it, and never expressed his opinions.
In addition, he had been busy for a whole week since they met because he was going to change jobs, and they could only say good morning, good night, and whether they had eaten every day. Although Huo Ran didn't say anything, Tao Zhiyue, who had recovered, felt that something was wrong.
He hopes to give the other person a sense of security.
But what kind of relationship do they have now
Tao Zhiyue became more and more absorbed in his thoughts when his attention was suddenly attracted by the tree on Guan Yudong's T-shirt. He stared at it in a daze.
…Should he confess his feelings to Huo Ran
Confession needs to be tailored to the individual.
However, the information was insufficient, and his previous imagination of Huo Ran was too far off the track, causing many memories to become a mess in his mind and making no sense.
He didn't know Huo Ran's exact joy, nor did he know what his current mood was.
The only thing Tao Zhiyue could be sure of was that Huo Ran's sudden change of sexual orientation and passionate pursuit was the turning point of that drunken night, and it happened all at once.
The logic is obvious, night is the key code in this program.
So naturally, Tao Zhiyue now really wanted to know what he said to Huo Ran that night when he was drunk, and what Huo Ran told him.
Crayfish shells piled up into red hills on the table. The vertical air conditioner blew out white cold air, but beads of sweat still seeped out of people's foreheads. Laughter and noises were heard everywhere, and the atmosphere was cheerful.
It's another night of dinner together.
Tao Zhiyue, who had not drunk a drop of alcohol today, stared silently at the tilted beer bottles in front of him, and gradually a bold idea came to his mind.
When he is drunk, will he recall what happened the last time he was drunk
Reproduce the bug, then track the logs and analyze the data.
That makes sense.