Almighty Game Designer - Chapter 20
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Chapter 20

Chen Mo took a good rest for a night, the next morning, after was.h.i.+ng up and eating his breakfast, he waited for the most sober moment of his brain and used the Memory Playback Potion and began searching for the memories that he had forgotten in his mind.

The Plants vs Zombies game has been released for a long time, and many memories of it have been blurred, and there are many details in these memories that are directly related to the quality of the game, Chen Mo holds a clear and firm att.i.tude.

The effect of the Memory Playback Potion quickly came into effect, and Chen Mo's thoughts slowly returned to many years ago.

The first thing he remembered was a cla.s.sic botanical image, a Peashooter who looks like Emilia[1], a Squash who looks like a certain musician surnamed Gao[2], a Potato Mine with a joystick on its head, a Sunflower with a mysterious smile, a Wall-nut with eyes that looks like a light bulb……

Then there are various zombies, normal Zombies, Conehead Zombies, Pole Vaulting Zombie, Buckethead Zombie, Football Zombie, Dancing Zombie……

There are also various areas, such as cla.s.sic areas, night areas, swimming pool areas, and so on.

The memory became clearer and clearer, Chen Mo quickly took a drawing tablet and sketched the appearance of these plants and zombies, to mainly restore some of the key features and details of these cla.s.sic images.

After that, Chen Mo began to recall the entire process of the game.

From the moment he entered the game, to the words that Crazy Dave said, to planting the first plant, defeating the first zombie, and then to continue opening new levels, unlocking new plants, beating the new BOSS…

Chen Mo recalled and recorded all the points of each level in detail. For example, which plants are unlocked in the first few levels and what special mode is unlocked in the first few levels, and so on.

After that, he wrote down some of the game data.

For example, how long does a Peashooter takes to shoot a pea projectile? How much damage will the Torchwood provide? The slowdown effect of the Winter Melon, how many times various zombies can bear before they die in the face of different attacks…

Although these data seem inconspicuous, they will directly affect the numerical structure of the entire game. Chen Mo can only use this stupid method with his limited numerical ability.

In the blink of an eye four hours have pa.s.sed.

Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief, his spirits is highly concentrated during these four hours, and when he relaxed he felt really tired.

However, he can't relax yet, taking advantage of the remaining impression that still in his brain, filling in some data and details, for fear of missing any parts.

People's memory will continue to keep declining, using the Memory Playback Potion can only guarantee to freely search memories within four hours, once four hours have pa.s.sed, these memories will slowly disappear again.

After another two hours of working, Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief, and his whole body collapsed in his chair, took a cup of water and drank some.

On the computer desktop, Chen Mo opened a new design doc.u.ment to record some of the details of the game, thousands of entries were recorded, as well as a lot of sketches, plants, zombies, areas and even the UI layout style of the game.

This Memory Playback Potion was finally thoroughly utilized by Chen Mo, and its last trace of value was drained.

"I am exhausted."

Chen Mo wiped the sweat on his head, during these six hours, his spirit was so tense that he couldn't stand any more.

But then again, why is he in such a mess? because there is only one bottle of Memory Playback Potion! If there are two? It can be done with ease. One bottle for today, and the other bottle for tomorrow, eight hours is enough to write down the details of the whole game, he doesn't have to be in such a hurry.

Therefore, Chen Mo is clear that he still has to make money, and then he will need to recharge money for it!

Chen Mo stood up and walked, ate something, chewed a few pieces of chocolate, and a cup of coffee, and continued to work after taking a break.

The next step is to refine the design doc.u.ment and finalize some of the previous design details, record it in the doc.u.ment. 

Chen Mo cannot ignore these details that seems inconspicuous but it will actually affects the gaming experience so much.

It took Chen Mo a whole week perfecting the doc.u.ment.

A week later, the entire game's doc.u.mentation was basically finalized, and the details were refined. The basic rules, interface layout, plant and zombie types of the game were all completed.

After that, Chen Mo put these rules into the editor, the editor will automatically generate a game project according to the rules, and then Chen Mo can directly modify this project.

It takes about 1-3 days to build a project, the more rules, the longer the time it needs.

During this period, Chen Mo intends to finalize the game's numerical system.

Some basic attributes of the plants including: attack power, health, range, attack interval, attack range, preparation time (how long will it take effect after placement), cool-down (time to place again after placement), price (COST), damage point (mainly for damage effects) and so on.

For every kind of plants and zombies, Chen Mo has to list their attributes and keep verifying them.

The game data recorded before has helped a lot and some data details between different plants and zombies can be mutually verified, which made Chen Mo's entire numerical design twice more effective.

In two days, the whole numerical system was finalized. Since Chen Mo has a lot of numerical details for reference, so this numerical system should be very close to the original works of his previous life, even if there is a deviations, it would not be too big.

Next, it's verification and constant adjustment.

During this time, the Fantasy Editor has generated the game project, and Chen Mo temporarily named the project PVZ. The project name is just a code name, when the game is officially released, the real name needs to be finalized.

Opening the project, Chen Mo checked the rules and mechanisms, there wasn't a big problem. There were some minor rule errors and logic loopholes, which Chen Mo quickly filled up.

After that, Chen Mo introduced various numerical values

and added corresponding art resources to the various zombies and plants. In this way, a game demo that can be easily run is ready.

Now, the entire project has no tutorial and no levels.

Chen Mo created a new scene, planting a Peashooter and putting a normal zombie on the opposite side.

“Pew, Pew, Pew…”

Under the constant attack of the Peashooter, the zombie fell to the ground.

The pace is not bad, Chen Mo tried another zombie and plant, basically no problem, except for some minor adjustments that he felt the numerical deviation is relatively large, everything is okay.

After that, Chen Mo began to make the interface and set the level.

Setting the level is also a technical thing, the entire level process must be constantly increasing in difficulty that will make the players feel different but it can't increase too fast or the players will get stuck.

Chen Mo has already recorded a lot of details. How many zombies there are in each level, and what new plants are unlocked in which level, which are all recorded, so it's not a big problem.

After spending five days, Chen Mo completed all the interfaces and the main level process, and also the tutorial is completed. In this way, the adventure mode of 《Plants vs Zombies》 was basically completely restored by Chen Mo.

[1] Emilia Clarke is an English actress, who was famous for her role as Daenerys Targaryen.

[2] Gao Xiaosong is a Chinese-language composer, songwriter, music producer, director, and “Campus Folk” representative.