Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 381: I'm Very Timid — Ruan Guangjian
January 7th, Friday.
Shangyang Games.
"Welcome, boss! Thanks for coming to guide us!"
The moment Ruan Guangjian stepped into the office area, employees from Shangyang Games lined up on both sides, applauding enthusiastically to welcome him.
Lin Wan stood at the front together with Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin, their faces practically spelling out the words "eager for talent."
Ruan Guangjian was a bit overwhelmed by the attention and quickly said, "No, no, please don't be so formal."
"I just finished my work over there and came by to drop in. You don't need to mind me, don't let me interrupt your work."
Lin Wan smiled. "No, no, you're being far too modest, Boss Ruan."
"As President Pei's most trusted concept artist, it's fair to say that your art gives the soul to Tengda Group's games. The high sales of Tengda Group's games owe a big part of the credit to you!"
"You and President Pei are the perfect duo. Now that you've come to Shangyang Games, even if you just give us a few casual pointers, we'll benefit enormously!"
"Come, please sit here, this workstation was specially reserved for you. Shangyang Games will always welcome you!"
They led Ruan Guangjian to a separate workstation that had just been cleared out, right next to Ye Zhizhou and diagonally across from Wang Xiaobin.
Ruan Guangjian sat down, took out the drawing tablet he carried with him, and said, "Your workstations here… standard Tengda Group setup?"
Coming to Shangyang Games felt like returning to Tengda Group.
The office environment was way too similar!
Whether it was the spacious office area, wide desks, comfortable ergonomic chairs, high-spec computers, or dual monitors—it was exactly the same standard as Tengda Group.
Lin Wan nodded. "Yes. Although Shangyang Games is a subsidiary of Tengda Group's game division, in practice there's no distinction. President Pei has always treated all employees equally, never making class distinctions."
"We only moved into this office a few months ago, and it was rearranged according to Tengda Group's game department standards."
"This kind of setup seems to stimulate employees' enthusiasm for work."
Stimulate employees' enthusiasm?
Yeah, fair enough, working in such a comfortable place really does feel very different from working in cramped, oppressive cubicles…
While listening to Lin Wan introduce Shangyang Games, Ruan Guangjian turned on the office computer.
Nice, moving from Tengda Group's game department to Shangyang Games felt seamless. The work environment was so familiar that there was no need for any extra time to adapt.
"This is the game we're currently developing, BE QUIET. It's a horror-themed game. Boss Ruan, feel free to play it and give us some feedback," Lin Wan said, pointing at the game icon on the desktop.
So far, BE QUIET had already reached its second major version, and development was well past the halfway mark.
There was still some distance to go before the actual release, though.
Pure feature development was fast, but for a game to make it to an official launch, the team still had to repeatedly fine-tune gameplay and details and fix a large number of bugs. This kind of meticulous late-stage work was just as important and couldn't be overlooked.
The moment he heard "horror-themed," Ruan Guangjian's face changed. He waved his hands frantically. "A horror game? No, no, no—I'm terrified of horror stuff!"
"If I'd known you were working on a horror project, I wouldn't have come at all!"
"Things like The Midnight Call, Alien Bugs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Haunted Shadows, Night of the Living Dead, Pulse, Paranormal Activity, The Grudge… I was scared to death after watching all of them!"
Lin Wan froze on the spot, a giant question mark practically floating over his head.
"Huh?
You're the most afraid of horror stuff, yet you've watched every single one of those classic horror movies without missing a single one?
For a moment, Lin Wan didn't know how to respond.
After thinking it over, she said, "It's fine, our game is still in development right now. It's not scary at all."
"Not scary at all?" Ruan Guangjian said as he reluctantly clicked on the icon for BE QUIET. "Then I'll force myself to play a little."
Lin Wan nodded. "Alright, take your time. If you have any feedback, you can tell me or Ye Zhizhou."
Ruan Guangjian put on his headphones and soon entered the game.
Lin Wan quietly pulled Ye Zhizhou aside and whispered, "Keep an eye on the boss. He says he's timid, so don't let him get scared too badly. Watch him at all times, okay?"
Ye Zhizhou nodded. "Don't worry, leave it to me."
Before the two of them had even finished talking, they heard Ruan Guangjian let out a startled "Ah!" from the side—not too loud, but sharp enough.
When the game loaded, the screen showed an animated scene:
In a madmen's village under the cover of night, pale-blue eerie flames burned, illuminating a deranged villager whose teeth and eyes were shot through with blood vessels. He stood by the bluish flames, swinging a cleaver at something.
The lighting was dim, and you could vaguely see dark-red blood splashing from whatever he was hacking at.
As the loading finished, the whole scene suddenly darkened a bit. The mad villager who had been chopping beside the blue flames abruptly stood up and walked off-screen.
Then, before the player could even react, the villager's face suddenly popped out from the right side of the screen, appearing extremely close to the player's view. He let out a sick, manic laugh, and then slashed the blood-stained cleaver straight toward the camera!
Accompanied by a shriek, the screen was instantly splattered with blood. The game's title appeared, and only then did the actual gameplay begin.
That was what had just scared Ruan Guangjian so badly that he had almost jumped out of his chair.
Ye Zhizhou hurriedly asked, "Are you okay?"
Ruan Guangjian nodded. "I'm fine, I'm fine— Ah!"
Not long after entering the game, he got startled again by a small rat that suddenly darted across the scene.
Ye Zhizhou: "..."
Suddenly, Ye Zhizhou began to doubt whether Boss Ruan could make it through the full gameplay experience and still offer useful art-direction feedback.
After thinking for a moment, he suggested, "Boss, why don't you just look directly at the art assets—concept art, models, that kind of stuff? The scare factor should be a lot lower if you only look at those."
Ruan Guangjian shook his head. "That won't do."
"From concept to concept art to 3D models and environments, the idea changes at every step. For example, when going from concept art to modeling, part of the original artist's intent gets distorted, and the modeler adds some of their own ideas."
"No matter how hard we try, this kind of thing is almost impossible to completely avoid."
"So I need to see the actual in-game scenes to feel where the overall art atmosphere isn't harmonious, and then make targeted adjustments."
"Don't worry, I can handle it."
Seeing Boss Ruan get scared twice in a row yet still insist on experiencing the game, Ye Zhizhou couldn't help but feel moved.
This is what professionalism looks like!
The boss was clearly extremely sensitive to horror themes, yet he was forcing himself to overcome his fear just to make the game better. That kind of dedication was genuinely touching.
…
Before long, Ruan Guangjian's startled gasps and yelps echoed through the Shangyang Games office area. Even Lin Wan, in the director's office, could faintly hear them.
But no one felt like laughing at him. Instead, their respect for Ruan Guangjian only grew stronger.
He was getting scared out of his wits and still pushing on—this was true love for the craft!
You could only say that the boss's success wasn't accidental but inevitable. Just this level of perseverance was something most people simply didn't have.
Meanwhile, Ye Zhizhou, sitting next to Ruan Guangjian, inexplicably felt a bit proud.
Wow… our game's horror effects are actually this good?
To be honest, before this, Ye Zhizhou hadn't really had any confidence in how scary the game actually was.
This was Shangyang Games' first time making a horror game. Although the design team had crammed a lot of horror games and Lin Wan and the others had even gone to haunted houses for research, they were still lacking in experience.
Moreover, the game's core gameplay was meant to be online multiplayer, relying on "players scaring players," rather than preset sequences and traps to create scares.
But the game hadn't entered testing yet. There were no real players—only AI—so the scare factor was definitely discounted.
On top of that, the art assets weren't fully in place yet, the gameplay systems weren't completely polished, and there were still some small bugs. Ye Zhizhou felt the game's overall level of completion was still far from satisfactory.
Yet now, seeing Ruan Guangjian get scared like that—didn't that mean the game's horror effect was actually pretty decent for ordinary players?
As Ye Zhizhou was thinking this, Ruan Guangjian exited the game and took off his headphones.
Ye Zhizhou was just about to offer some comforting words when he noticed that Ruan Guangjian looked flushed, in great spirits, and even a bit pumped up.
Ye Zhizhou: "?"
This was not what he expected at all.
Was this really the same person who had just yelped in fear because of a mouse?
Ruan Guangjian said sincerely, "Director Lin didn't lie to me, this game really isn't scary at all."
Ye Zhizhou: "?"
What's going on here? Weren't you the one screaming just now?!
Ye Zhizhou vaguely felt that something was off. Boss Ruan's definition of "scary" and his reactions to it didn't seem to line up…
Before playing: No way, I'm really scared of horror stuff.
While playing: Screams in panic.
After playing: Yeah, it's actually not that scary.
And the vibe was that he wasn't just putting on a brave face—he genuinely believed it.
Ye Zhizhou hurriedly took out his notebook. "Then, Boss Ruan, tell me what you think."
Ruan Guangjian looked mentally energized, nothing like someone who had just been frightened. If anything, he seemed a little excited.
"I think the core gameplay is basically in place, but it's missing that careful build-up of details and atmosphere."
"It's these little details that heighten the sense of horror and make it easier for players to immerse themselves. How do you do horror well? The key is in the details!"
"For example, I really liked the opening scene of the game!"
"I usually judge how good a horror experience is by the volume and frequency of my own screams. Clearly, the opening scene was pretty good."
"But just having that kind of content isn't enough, some of the smaller aspects aren't being taken care of."
"For instance, you could add a mechanic where, when something scary approaches, the player hears their own heartbeat sound effect, and the closer it gets, the faster the heartbeat."
"This kind of seemingly simple sound effect is extremely effective at building atmosphere!"
"And another thing: darker visuals aren't always better. Low visibility does increase tension, but if players are always stuck in environments with extremely low visibility, they'll feel oppressed. They won't be able to stick with it for long before wanting to quit and take a break."
"So there needs to be a balance when limiting the player's field of view, it shouldn't be too bright or too dark… It's hard to explain in words. Let me find you an image to show the effect I mean."
"And also, the small details. Although the game already has some scary mechanics, they're mostly big, obvious ones, and it lacks smaller, subtler ones. What do I mean by small mechanics? Things like strange rustling sounds in the wind, objects on a table slowly shifting, or a bloody handprint appearing on a piece of glass when you're not paying attention."
"These small scare mechanics might go unnoticed by some players, but in a highly tense state, when players do notice them, the effect can be even more terrifying than monsters suddenly jumping out at you."
"And these aren't hard to implement. The key is patience."
Ruan Guangjian kept talking non-stop, while Ye Zhizhou scribbled furiously in his notebook.
As Ye Zhizhou wrote, only one thought filled his mind:
'This is what you call 'being afraid of horror'?'
'Is Boss Ruan's self-perception… kind of broken???'
'He just screams a lot when experiencing horror content, but in reality, his tolerance for horror is way stronger than that of most people…'
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