"Shen, is your student really here to learn game development? Or did they take a wrong turn at model class?"
It was not the first time Mr. Shen from Tianxiong Game Training College had to answer this question.
But it couldn't be helped, for the student in question was indeed very handsome, at first glance striking enough to be an award-winning actor.
Graduated from a top university, well-proportioned physique, anyone would think he should be making a living off his looks, yet he inexplicably chose to make games, baffling everyone as to why.
Don't they know that games can ruin generations and planning one could be regretted for a lifetime?
Forsaking a bright future to learn game development here must mean a deep love for games, one would assume.
Right now, Fang Cheng, who drew a crowd's curious eyes, was flipping through the training college's textbooks, looking over each game design case and thinking to himself:
What's so fun about games?
Fang Cheng, twenty-two years old, was a Cultivator, as well as a Reincarnator.
A millennium ago, his cultivation was complete, at the pinnacle among Practitioners, able to move mountains and seize the moon, almost omnipotent.
However, just as he was on the brink of ascending to immortality, he suddenly calculated that his almost perfect Taoist Heart was missing a piece.
He did not know what entertainment was.
From the moment he was sensible, he had been heading towards ascension, rolling up countless lives in his wake, eventually reaching the end of the Immortal Way.
But unexpectedly, the saying goes 'tension and relaxation are both elements of the Tao'; his lack of understanding in play led to a gap in his Taoist Heart, thus he faced the only path left—failure to ascend.
Thus, he calculated that his opportunity would arise a thousand years later, through something called "electronic games," and promptly made arrangements for his rebirth by self-dissolution, awakening in the modern world.
All he needed to do was to create a game that he found fun, and that many others found fun as well, to succeed in his pursuit and fill the gap in his Taoist Heart.
However, after his rebirth, even after half a year of study at the training college, he discovered an unfortunate truth.
He still didn't understand why electronic games were fun.
What's the point of stacking blocks in "Your World"?
What's the point of stacking blocks in "Terraria"?
What's the point of stacking blocks in "The Princess was captured, but I am going to find the Master Sword first"?
Aren't they all just stacking blocks?
While Fang Cheng was puzzled, Mr. Shen, with his teaching plan in hand, carefully combing through his thinning hair, entered the classroom.
Glancing at all the students, especially at Fang Cheng, he spoke from the lectern, "Everyone, today is your last class as students."
"We've analyzed the history of games, explained the basics of game development and various categories, so now it's time for practice."
"Games are honored as The Ninth Art, and they aren't really that complicated. There are no taboos in game development, the only criterion is that it must be fun."
"For the final week, I'd like everyone to design a game based on the concept of fun."
"Of course, I know you might lack direction, even choosing a topic might take a lot of time, so I'll give you a theme: survival. I'll send some reference games later. You can spend a day playing them, and then make a simple playable version. Those who do well, I will submit to a competition platform with the chance to win and be recommended to work at a major game company."
At the mention of this reward, an excited student raised his hand and asked, "Mr. Shen, is Tianyi an option?"
Mr. Shen smiled and nodded.
The classroom immediately buzzed with excitement; after all, Tianyi was currently the best game company in the country, with seventeen studios of various sizes, covering everything from mobile games to console platforms.
Fang Cheng wasn't interested in joining Tianyi, but there might be some talented people within Tianyi who could solve his problem, so he placed some importance on this opportunity.
After class, he returned to his dormitory, turned on his computer, downloaded the games Mr. Shen recommended, and while installing them, continued to refine his Mana.
Although his Mana was completely depleted at the start of his rebirth, being a powerful figure in the cultivation world, after twenty-three years his Mana had almost fully recovered. All that was left was to fill in the final piece of his Taoist Heart, and then he could ascend.
Having organized his mana, he immediately opened the sample game Mr. Shen had sent and began playing.
The game was called "Son of the Forest," and it generally revolved around the story of a protagonist who, along with a father and son, went to an island resort that was having problems to investigate the situation.
On the island, players needed to craft various tools, defeat savages and mutants full of arms or legs, and ultimately uncover the island's secrets.
After playing for an hour, Fang Cheng temporarily closed the game and fell into contemplation.
In this era, the gaming industry was highly developed, and AI technology had improved accordingly, significantly reducing both the time and learning cost of game development, but one week was still a bit tight.
Therefore, Mr. Shen didn't require a complete game, just indicating that a rough version was enough as long as it basically displayed one's ideas.
It wasn't necessary to play the game through to the end, just to understand the basic gameplay.
However, Fang Cheng completed it anyway.
For a nearly immortal being about to ascend, completing a game was far too easy, even with his eyes closed he could pass through the game without trouble, yet he still didn't understand where the fun was in this game.
Was chopping down trees in the forest actually fun?
Was playing with a three-legged female savage truly enjoyable?
Mr. Shen said this game had great realism. So, was realism equivalent to fun?
With a thought, his body transcended Blue Star and floated in the boundless space.
His divine sense swept across thousands of light years, encompassing countless planets, before he locked onto one that was full of towering ancient trees.
The next moment, his body appeared in the forest, standing on this piece of land.
The climate here was similar to Blue Star's, but the high oxygen content led to the plants and animals being much larger and everything being more dangerous.
This place had once had a civilization, but that was a thousand years ago; that civilization had either left or perished, with only lost relics remaining.
After using divine sense to inspect the planet and ensuring there were no other civilizations, Fang Cheng began his action: tree felling.
He felled gigantic trees with his bare hands, cut timber to build a cabin, and in just an hour, established a small base here. Fang Cheng sat inside the base drinking flower tea made with snow water, looking out at the snowy mountains and couldn't help saying, "This is so boring."
It would be better to go back home and meditate.
The greatest authenticity was personally striving for survival in the wilderness. But altogether, Fang Cheng didn't feel it was fun.
Perhaps Mr. Shen could provide some guidance?
Thus, he employed his mana to tidy up the place a bit, encapsulated everything with an Immortal Spell into a program copied onto a USB drive, and then took the drive and entered Mr. Shen's office.
Seeing Fang Cheng enter, Mr. Shen, who was drinking goji berry tea, smiled and asked, "Fang Cheng, what's up? Have you run into a problem?"
"No, I've completed the trial version of my game and would like you to take a look," Fang Cheng replied.
Mr. Shen looked at his phone with a puzzled expression and realized that only three hours had passed from assigning the task to Fang Cheng bringing in his project.
With a wry smile, Mr. Shen said, "Fang Cheng, I thought you were quite honest normally. Why have you started to cut corners now? It's not possible to make a good game in such a short time. Forget it, leave the game here, and I'll have a look."
"Oh, I understand now."
Leaving the USB drive behind, Fang Cheng accepted the lesson humbly.
There is a sequence to learning, and every craft requires focus. A teacher is indeed a teacher; he could tell from the timeframe that he hadn't grasped anything at all.
So, according to what Mr. Shen said, was the so-called development time synonymous with gameplay?
Back at the dormitory, just as Fang Cheng was about to do some useless things to stretch the time, he saw a call from Mr. Shen come in.
"Fang Cheng, come back quickly!"