[Main Quest Role-Play Task 3—Paralyzed Patient full of optimism and hope for life has been completed!]
[Reward: Material—"Home" template, Cartoon Thick Painting style template, 400 points!]
Looking at the information that appeared in his field of vision, Lu Zhixing let out a sigh of relief.
The role-play for this period had not been in vain—the reward was worth it!
Lu Zhixing had not expected that the first main quest role-play objective he would complete was that of a paralytic patient.
He accompanied Cheng Ting, the two of them in wheelchairs, touring Jinghai City for three days, doing many things they had never done before in wheelchairs, and even visited an amusement park. All these activities fit perfectly with the keywords "positive and optimistic, full of hope for life," so his role-play progress skyrocketed.
Of course, Lu Zhixing was extremely lucky to have drawn two life skills related to wheelchairs, which made the role-play go even more smoothly.
Moreover, the role-play of these few days was carried out as a "caretaker," which also increased the progress of the "working people" role-play to 28%, a cause for celebration.
It was precisely because he obtained these materials, combined with the experience of spending time with Cheng Ting, that Lu Zhixing thought of creating a game.
This game was not only to make use of the inspiration and materials in Lu Zhixing's mind, but also to encourage Cheng Ting to better emerge from the shadows of the past and bravely embrace reality.
Lu Zhixing began to check the rewards he had received for completing the role-play.
The "Home" template, as the name suggests, is a complete set of materials related to "home." It includes four different types of homes: residential buildings for workers from the eighties and nineties in Huaxia, modern three-bedroom apartments, modern villas, and large Western-style houses with backyards and lawns.
In this game, Lu Zhixing would use at most one or two types, but these general materials could greatly enrich his material library for use in other future games.
The Cartoon Thick Painting style template is akin to a special filter that can convert the existing materials into a different style when applied.
Additionally, materials of different styles could be unified using this filter, making them harmonious and consistent when put together.
This style is particularly suited for games with a strong artistic bent and can also serve to cover up lower quality materials.
Completing this role-play also rewarded him with 400 points, and counting the 200 odd points he obtained during previous role-plays, Lu Zhixing's points had reached 673.
However, Lu Zhixing did not immediately use these points to draw more life skills or literary works.
Because he was gradually shifting his focus to game development, he wanted to save these points to purchase some essential key materials, just in case he hit a snag.
"Alright, time to get to work!"
Lu Zhixing sat down in front of the computer once more and began an intense session of drafting a design document.
The design concept he had previously written for "Ordinary Life" had outlined the general content, but further refinement was needed.
Besides that, he had to design another new game called "The You in My Eyes."
This game was for Cheng Ting, and it could maximize the use of the materials he had recently acquired.
Its scope was small, equivalent to that of an indie game, with the entire playthrough lasting just over an hour. Even if players wanted to explore every detail to stretch their playtime, it would not exceed two hours at most.
The inspiration for this game came from a game Lu Zhixing had played in his past life called "Vividly in Mind," but the two games differed significantly in content.
"The You in My Eyes" would focus more on Huaxia's cultural background and the lives of disabled individuals.
...
After two days of high-intensity work without rest, Lu Zhixing yawned, frantically hit ctrl+S several times, and then downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp.
The design document for "The You in My Eyes" was now completed in one go, including all its detailed storylines.
The manuscript for "Ordinary Life" had also been greatly improved, with the detail design now approximately 60-70% complete. At most, it would take another week to finish it all.
However, for Lu Zhixing, just completing the design document was just the beginning—up next was the production process.
"That being said, getting the material for character movements is a bit tricky," he said.
While sorting through the resources needed for the game, Lu Zhixing suddenly realized this issue.
The game he had made before, "Zen," whether it was simulating a Big Tree or a mountain, did not require complex movements; models were enough.
After all, a tree only needed to sway its branches, and a mountain just kept rotating.
But "Ordinary Life" and "The You in My Eyes" contained many characters that required a variety of movements.
If it were any other gaming company, they would definitely use motion capture, but Lu Zhixing obviously didn't have the means for that.
He could use his accumulated points to directly purchase motions from the game store, but it would be highly cost-ineffective.
The game store's materials acquisition method was straightforward but the prices were significantly higher—often three to five times more than obtaining materials by normal means.
If he saved these points to source real-world scenes, they would last a long time, but if used to buy movements, they'd be gone in a "whoosh."
Although the rate of acquiring materials had greatly increased after the game entered its official release, points were still relatively scarce, and it wasn't the time to be wasteful.
"What should I do with these actions..."
Lu Zhixing was pondering over this when his phone rang.
Picking it up, he saw it was a call from Zhang Yiyang.
"Hello? Senior, what's up?"
From the other end of the phone, Zhang Yiyang's very polite voice came through, "Nothing really important, just that this afternoon we can go check out the Science Hall, so I wanted to let you know. Do you want to come? If you do, let's meet at the entrance of the Science Hall at 3 p.m. If you don't want to come, that's fine too, after all, we're only there to have a look at the venue and won't be able to have a dress rehearsal there."
The Science Hall was the second largest venue in Jinghai University, often used to hold various large-scale evening events. The Game Design Academy's welcome evening would be held there in the future.
As for the largest venue, that would be the Grand Auditorium, which could accommodate even more people but was in higher demand; only a few of the top academies could reserve it for their welcome evenings.
Of course, the Science Hall had its advantages, such as better lighting and sound equipment inside. Not only that, it also had many high-tech stage technologies that could achieve some really cool effects.
Therefore, considering its own characteristics, the Game Design Academy had still decided to set the evening party in the Science Hall.
Lu Zhixing thought about it and said, "Then I'll come for a look, it so happens that I have something for you."
Zhang Yiyang paused, "Something for me? Oh, okay, then I'll see you at the entrance of the Science Hall."
...
At 3 p.m., Lu Zhixing arrived at the Science Hall on time.
Zhang Yiyang and Yan Wei had already been waiting at the entrance, and other students participating in the welcome evening were also arriving successively.
"Now that everyone's here, let's head in.
"This time our main task is to take a tour of the venue, get a general sense of where to enter and exit the stage, and the rough walking paths during the performances. Since other academies' students will be coming later, let's make it quick."
Lu Zhixing followed the crowd and took a walk around the Science Hall, finding it was indeed very spacious, capable of accommodating nearly a thousand people upstairs and downstairs combined.
For many people, it was their first time seeing what the back of the stage looked like. Here, it was divided into many different areas according to function, with a preparation area for those about to go on stage, a makeup area, and a place for storing various stage props.
After making their way to the stage, Lu Zhixing was immediately attracted by all the high-tech equipment there.
Above the ceiling, the various lights and the massive sound equipment were taken for granted, though they looked quite shocking. But Lu Zhixing was already familiar with these.
What caught Lu Zhixing's attention more were the two huge devices above the stage, one of which looked a bit like a projector, while the other was completely unrecognizable.
"Senior, what are these?" Lu Zhixing pointed at the two pieces of equipment overhead.
Zhang Yiyang explained, "Oh, these two, one is a bi-directional ultra-short-throw projector, the other is a holographic projector."
This also attracted the attention of the other students, with Liu Bo asking curiously, "What's the difference between a projector and a holographic projector?"
Zhang Yiyang laughed, "The difference is quite big.
"This ultra-short throw projector can project in two directions at the same time, meaning it can project on the big screen at the back of the stage as well as on the curtain in front of the stage.
"On a normal stage, when we need to change the set, we have to pull the curtain and then the stage crew takes a long time to set up props like sofas and tables. Meanwhile, the audience has nothing to do but stare at the curtain. But with this projector, we can project something on the curtain to facilitate a better transition.
"Of course, it can also project onto the big screen at the back of the stage to better display the scene currently on the stage. For example, if our sketch is happening on the side of the road, then we'll project an image of a roadside, or if it's in a classroom, we'll project an image of a classroom.
"As for the difference between it and holographic projection,
"The short-throw projector projection is flat, only able to project on the big screen or curtain, but the holographic projection is three-dimensional, and can be directly cast onto the stage. Coupled with the real sets we prepared, it can create an effect indistinguishable from reality.
"Of course, to mention the most impressive effect, it would have to be the combination of real sets, holographic projection, and short-throw projection—now that effect is really incredible.
"However, perfectly combining the three is also quite troublesome, and so far no academy has been able to fully utilize the full power of these two devices. Our academy is considered one of the best.
"After all, tuning these things is really troublesome, and creating the virtual scenes needed for the projection is also quite strenuous; it's not simpler than making a game."
After listening to Zhang Yiyang's introduction, many of the students let out exclamations of "wow."
They had indeed never seen such high-tech stage equipment before.
Even with Lu Zhixing's wide-ranging experience in his previous life, he had never come across such things.
Was the technology tree of this world skewed a bit too much?
Yan Wei, leading the dance group, was determining positions on stage, so Zhang Yiyang and the song group members had nothing to do for the moment.
"Oh, by the way, junior, you said you had something for me, what is it?" Zhang Yiyang asked.
Lu Zhixing took out the script for "Undercover Trainee" that he had printed from his bosom, "Previously you mentioned that our academy's weak point was in the language-based programs, so I went back and pondered a bit and wrote a script myself, take a look and see if it's usable."