Otherworldly Architect

The outcome of the out-of-court settlement speaks for itself.

When he walked out of the court, Mingyan smiled, and gave the programmer comrades a Chinese New Year bonus.

Behind him, Li Sheng with a pale face stumbled out.

When the two met at the gate of the court, Li Sheng's eyes were no longer the contempt of the previous few days, but full of jealousy and fear.

Mingyan smiled and said to him, "Have a good year."

— Have a good year?

Li Sheng's face turned red with anger in an instant, but soon became depressed because of his incompetence.

"The cruise ship will not let you go easily." Li Sheng said.

A vicious dog whose spine has been broken by someone often has only the last resort—barking.

It clearly said: "Means outside the law will naturally be punished by law; means within the law, you can try it as you like, that's it."

Li Sheng seemed to have punched the cotton, full of powerlessness.

Over the years, many people have been targeted by cruise capital, but no one has ever been as calm as a statement.

Li Sheng couldn't imagine what this young man was thinking. He said, "Don't you know the power of money? They don't need to cooperate with you! You are just playing games, but they are playing with capital!"

Say plainly, "I know."

Li Sheng said again: "You can't go very far with the best-selling of one or two games. But as long as they have money, they can carry on this model forever! Do you know that "Minecraft" has appeared a lot The imitators of these are all on the cruise line's consideration list!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he suddenly regretted it.

He was so eager to see Mingyan lose his composure that he actually said something he shouldn't have said.

But Mingyan smiled again and said, "This is inevitable, I know it all."

The law can only guarantee that a game will not be reproduced on a large scale, but it cannot prevent others from making new games with the same idea.

After "Minecraft", similar survival and construction games have emerged one after another, but none of them can be said to be plagiarism.

Could it be that after the first time-travel novel was born, no one can write time-travel anymore?

This is impossible.

Imitation is inevitable.

The real definition of plagiarism, for literary works, is to adapt "a series of original plot contents" and then recognize it as one's own originality, or directly copy and paste a piece of original text without citing it;

For music, about 15% of the melodic fragments completely overlap;

For games, it is a large-scale copying of a certain system, a certain professional design, or directly stealing other people's materials.

The reuse of a simple stalk or an idea is generally not considered plagiarism unless there is definite evidence of active plagiarism.

Because there are so many people in the world, as long as one person can think of an idea, there is basically another person who can think of it.

There are also many instances in the scientific world where the same thing was invented at the same time.

There is also the necessity of the original idea for the game, is it really that high?

People who don't understand game design can easily mistakenly think that making a game is just a brainstorm-"Oh, I want to do a hundred-player battle royale".

Then there was a phenomenon-level game that became popular all over the world?

No, it's not like that.

The reason why an idea can become popular is that it itself accounts for 1% of the elements, and the remaining 99% is the contribution and cooperation of all members of the production team.

That 1% is of course crucial, but the remaining 99% is what makes it work.

Just like a card-drawing game that Bluestar had back then, its idea came from another mobile game, which had long been popular in another country, and had already had countless imitators.

Yet most people have never even heard of these copycats.

Because a game can be successful, its core creativity is only one of the necessary but not sufficient conditions, but it must not be said to be all.

It's not that creativity supported the production team, it should be said that the production team made this theme popular.

For example, the first book about time travel became popular, and time travel is indeed its core stalk.

But will all the books about time travel be popular in the future?

If it doesn't exist, it still depends on the creator's own strength.

The author who was the first to think of this idea is amazing. He started from scratch and created a hot new theme with his own hands.

Mingyan said: "They can develop this category more perfectly in the future, which is very good."

Li Sheng's lips trembled slightly, he was speechless looking at Mingyan.

He actually saw the demeanor of a king from this young man!

By saying this clearly, he is not putting himself on an equal footing at all, he is overlooking the entire game industry——

With a condescending attitude, he is watching the successors stumble and learn their own way.

—but why?Who does he think he is?

——Are you a god?

……

After this matter was over, it was finally the New Year's Eve holiday.

This is a unique custom in the Sixth Star Province, and the entire Chaoyang Alliance only has a long holiday here.

Because of interstellar immigration and other factors, not everyone will celebrate the festival.

But Mingyan comes from Blue Star, and there are very similar customs there.

Now Blue Star doesn't distinguish between the cold and the heat, and has no idea what day the Chinese New Year is, so it clearly regards the New Year's Eve here as a festival of the hometown.

In the past few New Year's Eve, he was at his adoptive parents' house and had a casual meal.

This is the first holiday alone, and he spends the New Year alone in his bachelor apartment.

Mingyan made the dumplings by himself and handed them over to the intelligent robot for cooking.

It was warm inside and the glass was foggy.

Mingyan wiped the glass with his hands, and suddenly noticed a black sports car parked downstairs.

At this moment, he suddenly felt something in his heart, and gave birth to an inexplicable impulse——

Mingyan wiped his hands, went to the door and opened it.

Outside the door, the well-dressed Xia Cheng straightened his collar, smiled all over his face, and was about to raise his hand to ring the doorbell.

Unexpectedly, Mingyan just opened the door.

Xia Cheng blinked twice, and stopped in mid-air.

The two looked at each other for a second, and suddenly they both laughed.

"Did you see me?" Xia Cheng asked.

Ming Yan said with a smile: "In my poor place, a sports car suddenly stopped, who else could it be? I guessed it was you."

"It's time to eat." Xia Cheng cheekily poked his head in, "It smells so good!"

Mingyan hurriedly took Xia Cheng in and said, "The dumplings are still cooking, you have to wait for a while."

He saw Xia Cheng was carrying a big box in his hand.

Before he had time to ask, Xia Cheng said, "I brought you a cake, let's celebrate the festival together."

It was a strawberry cream cake, not too big, but it was equipped with candles.

Look at this year, the combination of Chinese and Western.

Xia Cheng shyly said: "I don't know how you celebrate the festival, I went shopping all the way, and finally bought a cake."

Mingyan is not happy.

Because there were suddenly more Xia Cheng, he made it clear that the dumplings he ordered before were not enough.

He rolled up his sleeves, ready to go to the kitchen to see what ingredients were left.

Xia Cheng came in after him, looking around with sparkling eyes: "It smells so good, what are you doing?"

Ming Yan smiled and said, "Dumplings. You came here suddenly. I don't have anything else here, but I have made too much filling. You sit outside for a while, and I'll make some more."

Mingyan rolled up his sleeves, put on his kneading gloves, and was about to make another dumpling wrapper.

Xia Cheng's eyes were wide open, he stared at him for a long time, and suddenly said: "Good wife and mother!"

"Who are you talking about! If you don't know how to use idioms, don't use them indiscriminately!" Mingyan laughed dumbfounded, stretched out his hand and pinched Xia Cheng's nose.

Two white marks suddenly appeared on the tip of the man's nose.

Xia Cheng touched his nose, and said excitedly: "Come on, I want to learn too, how do I do this?"

Master Xia put on the gloves and helped Mingyan and the dough.

He has great strength, and when kneading, there are smooth muscle lines on his exposed arms, and he beats the dough hard in a few strokes.

Mingyan put meat stuffing beside him, and said with a smile: "Good wife and mother, you can marry now."

"Who are you talking about!"

Taking advantage of his inattention, Xia Cheng suddenly hugged him from behind, and gestured with both hands——

There were also two white marks on Mingyan's casual sweater.

He looked down, a bit like a careful heart.

I couldn't laugh or cry, and I couldn't get angry, so I had to say in distaste: "Roll the noodles! Go make the dough!"

Xia Cheng's strength is still too strong, and rolling the noodles can break a small hole in the dough.

Mingyan had to dip some water to make up for him.

This was a delicate job, Xia Cheng could only squat by the counter and wave the flag for him, his eyes were shining, and he almost put up a lion's tail behind his back and shook it.

In the end, the dumpling skin was so thin that it was almost impossible to hold it.

Mingyan put it into the pot with fear.

Fortunately, the white flour of the Interstellar Era is fine and thin, and such a thin skin can barely cover it. Each of them looks like a pregnant woman who has been pregnant for three years, lying in two bowls with sad faces.

Xia Cheng handed out a dozen or so dumplings, happily took out his mobile phone to take pictures: "I'm pretty good at cooking."

Ming Yan laughed and said: "Hurry up yours! Don't wait for it to disperse!"

He took a bite out of his bowl, and just as he took the first bite, he suddenly frowned.

A toffee filling came out of it? !

Mingyan widened his eyes and looked at Xia Cheng.

Xia Cheng wagged his tail and said, "I've heard that glutinous rice balls can be salty or sweet. I found that today's fillings are all salty, so I secretly put a few pieces of toffee in it—what? So, are you surprised? Isn’t it delicious?”

His face was full of complacent expressions asking for praise.

Mingyan didn't say a word, he stirred the bowl twice, and picked out two dumplings with strange shapes and colors.

He raised it in front of Xia Cheng.

Xia Cheng's face flushed, he hurriedly stretched his head over, and bit down.

Ming Yan said with a pleasant face: "How about it, is it a surprise? Is it a surprise? Is it a thrill?"

Xia Cheng: "..."

Two seconds later, Xia Cheng swallowed the dumpling, lowered his head with aggrieved face: "I'm sorry, I was wrong, I won't dare next time."

Mingyan stared at his golden curly hair.

There was a curly hair in the middle of the dimple, and he really wanted to rub it...

After eating, he took off his coat and hung it on the shelf.

Looking at it this way, the two white marks on his chest really look like a small heart.

Mingyan looked at it for two seconds.

Xia Cheng suddenly said from behind: "Happy New Year's Eve!"

His train of thought was interrupted, he turned around clearly and said, "Happy New Year's Eve."

There is also a steaming bowl of dumplings in the kitchen.

Mingyan picked it up and put it on the windowsill.

There is also a custom-made Blue Star model in front of it. The ocean and land are clearly drawn, which is the data from the Blue Star Research Institute.

Mingyan put the dumplings in front of Blue Star, closed his eyes, and said in his heart: "Happy New Year, my dear hometown."

Xia Cheng looked at him quietly, and suddenly put his hands together.

Mingyan opened his eyes, but seeing Xia Cheng's pious face, he immediately smiled and said, "What are you thinking?"

Xia Cheng said: "Aren't you making a wish with your eyes closed?"

Ming Yan shook his head and said, "No. Did you just make a wish?"

"Yes, I made a wish on this beautiful planet." Xia Cheng said, "I hope I can catch up with my sweetheart in the New Year."

Mingyan was a little surprised, and teased him: "Is there anyone who Young Master Xia can't catch up to? I thought you had a special move."

Xia Cheng looked down at him, a little nervous, with a small dimple on the left side of his face looming: "What trick?"

Mingyan said: "You say 'I am the eldest son of the Xia family', and the success rate of striking up a conversation is guaranteed to be [-]%."

Back then on Blue Star, a national husband had such a joke.

He picks up girls, doesn't he? Just say "I'm Wang Shicong" and that's it!

Xia Cheng licked his lips, opened his mouth to say something, and then swallowed it back.

"When I was in front of him, I became very timid." Xia Cheng said, "If he thinks that I am bullying... it will be over."

Mingyan patted him on the shoulder pityingly, and said, "One thing is one thing. Brother, I can only support and encourage you spiritually."

Xia Cheng nodded, looked at him twice, became very happy for no reason, and said, "Okay, then I can rest assured."

……

After the new year, the first thing Mingyan did was to visit the Blue Star Research Institute.

In the past year, the research institute with sufficient funds has once again explored a continent of Blue Star and left a mechanical base on it.

After continuous exploration and recovery, they found dozens of remains of Blue Stars again.

After Mingyan learned of the news, he also paid close attention to the next progress.

However, the result was unsatisfactory: all these remains were confirmed to be brain-dead and could not be recovered.

In addition to the Blue Stars, the research institute has found two more genes from the Blue Stars.

One is a lake fish with tenacious vitality, and the other is a mutated daisy, both of which have entered the stage of biological cultivation.

Mingyan bought the models of two lives and placed them by his bedside, occasionally recalling the difficult years he spent on Blue Star.

That daisy was the only beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, like a clean and delicate umbrella.

But it survived, just like Mingyan.

Mingyan sometimes sits on the bedside looking at them in a daze, and sometimes gets out of bed and turns on his desk lamp.

Taking advantage of this short vacation, he opened a new document.

Facing a blank space, he imagined a picture:

The sky collapsed, the ground bulged, the stars condensed into ice in the eternal night, and a shriveled corpse curled up into a ball, protecting the book in its arms.

——That is a book of Tagore's Poems.

Mingyan has seen this scene with his own eyes.

It has to be the first poster for the new game.

This new game is clearly decided to be called "Blue Star Doom: The Last of Us".

The creative impulse is like a flame, making his blood rush and his fingers warm.

A series of realistic pictures unfolded in his mind, and every inch of the vivid performance once brought great shock.

He knew he had an obligation to...

No, he has this mission.

Blue Star is already a dead giant whale drifting in the universe, its life has ended.

But its soul still lives on in Mingyan.

He must replace it, and cry out to the unfair fate of the universe!

This impulse drove Mingyan to sit blankly for a day and two nights.

During the 40-hour creation time, he was like a puppet of inspiration and thoughts, moving his arms mechanically.

A steady stream of images poured into his pen, turning into blurred but vivid faces.

Many scenes that he has been to, seen, and heard, appear in front of his eyes as if the world had opened up.

Blue Star has too many stories buried and too many heroic souls forgotten.

Mingyan finally fell asleep in extreme exhaustion.

It seems that what he wants to do is not a game, but a documentary, which faithfully conveys Blue Star's last words.

It is the pioneering work of interactive movie-type games!

People in the StarCraft era have never seen such a unique type of game, but it is clear that it must be done.

Because art would be meaningless if the creation itself could not speak directly from the heart!

……

The first working day after the year.

Mingyan had a slight cold, and came to his office wearing a full set of warm clothes.

After greeting everyone along the way, he put a thick stack of documents on his desk.

Two proposals.

One is the "My World" module plan, and the other is the "Blue Star Doomsday" project planning.

At this time, there are about 80 regular employees working in the studio.

Mingyan personally brought about ten designers.

With a major version update of "League of Legends" years ago, the tasks at hand were almost over.

It is enough to leave a few non-main R&D personnel, continue to operate and maintain existing games, and make regular updates to "League of Legends".

Mingyan called all the designers, as well as the leaders of the art group, sound effect group, program group, testing group, and marketing group. A total of twenty people held a meeting.

"Next, our studio has two goals. The first is the "Minecraft" module plan. Here, I must introduce a MOD concept."

Mingyan turned on the 3D projection and introduced it to everyone.

"MOD is modification, which means an additional modification to the game body, also known as a module. It can make comprehensive changes to "Minecraft", including maps, characters, props, enemies, and even game modes!"

"My plan for the "Minecraft" mod is divided into three parts. The first stage is 'forerunner', we will make two flagship mods as demonstration programs, which are free for all players. The second The first stage is 'successor', we pay to encourage players to make their own mods and share them with all players on our community for free. The third and final stage, 'explorers', players spontaneously form an ecosystem, including Upstream mod makers, downstream mod experiencers and traffic disseminators—”

"At this stage, "Minecraft" will have an infinite number of module routes from technology to magic, among which there are infinitely many modules, and each module is allowed to produce infinitely many versions. This allows players to participate in the process of the game. Every process - from the producer of the mod, to the consumer of the mod! And we are the decomposers who manage the game body and mod version -"

"This entire closed loop is the 'My World Ecosystem'."

Next, the participants raised questions one by one, and Mingyan gave clear and clear answers.

He put his hands on the table and said seriously: "This is not only the ecosystem of "Minecraft", but also the definition of 'open games' in a broad sense in the future! Everyone, we are making history."

The meeting room immediately burst into applause, and everyone was amazed by the new "ecosystem".

Mingyan said: "In the next two months, I will participate in the first phase of the period module production. The flagship modules currently arranged are these two."

On the 3D projection, two squares are clicked.

From the screens displayed, the names of "Middle Age Technology" and "Dharma-Ending Era" jumped out respectively.

"The former will be the first technology module. We allow players to start from the simplest steam machine and climb up the technology along the historical track. Enter electronic technology, information technology, quantum and biological technology in turn...every time of productivity Ascension provides them with new machines, materials, and tools. It is equivalent to implanting a 'Technology Tree' system, which is prepared for players with the farming label."

"As for the latter 'Apocalypse' module, we will position it as an adventure label. We will allow players to level up by gaining experience and gain personal ability enhancement; gain new magical abilities by exploring the world; and obtain Experience, and then be able to create, fuse magic, and gain new magical abilities. This mod will add difficulty to the battle, because we will make a batch of special monsters from low to high level, and more magical terrain - these will be It will bring greater challenges to players."

Having said that, Mingyan smiled happily.

"Of course, I'm not saying I want players to suffer, I just have high expectations for our players."

Everyone: "..."

——Stop pretending to be the boss!We all know you just want to watch players suffer! ! !

Mingyan pressed the projection again, and said solemnly: "The module is equivalent to an optional, hot-swappable game update. When the player wants to play, he can install it to play; if he does not want to play, unplug it. You can experience the original game. Mods are likely to affect each other, have a butterfly effect, and even have a huge change that even we didn't expect."

"So these two months are not only the manufacture of flagship modules, but also the establishment of the initial production framework. This is a particularly critical first step, which requires the close cooperation of various departments, and I will participate in the whole process."

Just over an hour.

Finally finished speaking about the "Minecraft" mod project, sat down and took a sip of water.

He looked at the second plan. The title said "Project Code: Last", but in fact the game was tentatively named "Blue Star Doom: The Last of Us".

He pondered for a while, but called out the names of several people.

Then he said clearly: "Two months later, except for the few students I just named, the rest of the people will follow me temporarily into another project, code-named 'last'. We may conduct closed development in the early stage, and then verify If you feel that the ALPHA model is inappropriate, you can withdraw now."

He looked and no one had opted out.

Almost everyone staying in Blue Star Studio is an admirer of Mingyan.

They all look forward to Mingyan being able to create two god-level IP games with their own efforts, and they are still completely different in style.

Looking at Mingyan since his debut, every time he acts like a powerful and unconstrained style, all employees and players can strongly feel the unique personal style.

Everyone present has been looking forward to Mingyan's new game for a long time!

They believe that Mingyan can create new classics and allow them to see scenery they have never seen before.

And Mingyan nodded, and said in a flat but firm tone: "Okay, I will prepare the necessary resources within these two months. The 'last' project was officially established today."

There was applause again in the meeting room.

Soon, several people left the arena one after another.

The remaining team leaders were flipping through the proposal for the new project, making clicks from time to time.

Clearly said to go out and pour water.

Varian followed, watching him the whole time.

Without raising his head, he said with a smile, "Lao Wa, what's the matter? You can tell me directly."

Varian hesitated and said, "Boss, I feel that you are a little different today."

"Has he become handsome again?" Ming Yan said.

"No, I feel...you seem to have a bigger goal." Varian said, "The proposal for a new project is like a work of art."

"Happy New Year's Eve." Mingyan looked at him and said with a smile, "everything is renewed, and it's time for us to look to the farther horizon."