Chapter 102 - RTS Masterpiece

Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Chen Mo felt that the 1.6GB he was given before was more than enough, especially for mobile games.

There were only two uses for this quota, one of which was downloading public artworks and music.

Of course, entry-level video game designers would tap into that resource, but would only use it as a placeholder. In order to increase the quality of the game, most designers would opt to make their own resources from scratch.

Another was using the engine to generate a framework from rules for the game, taking up system resources.

Games like I Am MT were really simple and would take at most 30MB to generate, so little you could basically neglect it.

Chen Mo didn’t worry about this at all while making his previous mobile games.

However, more complicated games such as RTS or MOBA games that had more complicated rulesets would take up much more system resources from the game engine.

Chen Mo would be a little bit apprehensive if he was to make an RTS game using the 1.6GB quota, but he could be more liberal now that he had 5GB to work with.

Moving onto the special equipment.

Chen Mo wouldn’t complain about the extra Memory Playback Potions and would be happy to receive more.

As for the Reaction Speed Serums and Hand Speed Boost Potions… They seemed kinda useless, but may as well use them both as their effect lasts forever.

At least it could be useful in games in the future.

Chen Mo didn’t feel any different after consuming all of it.

“Alright, that’s it for now.”

Chen Mo decided to work on a new design document for his next game.

—

Now that Chen Mo had users and money, Chen Mo wanted to work on his brand.

Just like how he entered the mobile gaming industry with a fury using Plants vs Zombies, Chen Mo wanted to have the same effect with the PC gaming industry with a classic game.

Chen Mo was a tossing between RTS and MOBAs, unable to decide which one he wanted to make.

From a long term perspective, MOBAs would be the best choice. Recreating League of Legends would be more than enough for Chen Mo to do nothing for six to seven years.

Based on his previous world, RTS games would start declining once MOBAs were introduced.

However, Chen Mo still decided to make an RTS game after doing market research, settling on a Blizzard product: Warcraft

First, in terms of difficulty, MOBAs are much more difficult than RTS games as MOBAs need a lot of attention to the numerics side of things to properly balance things. Moreover, one small problem could lead to a huge chain reaction of balance changes, and one bad patch could kill the game.

Although RTS games required balancing as well, it was easier and wasn’t as complicated as MOBAs.

Second, from a promotional point of view, players of this world had never seen MOBAs, but were plenty familiar with RTS games. It would probably take long for a MOBA to get off its feet compared to RTS games.

Moreover, Chen Mo wanted to incorporate the World of Azeroth into a game as soon as possible. The sooner the world becomes a game, the more players would recognise the story, making the game spread even faster.

Therefore, Chen Mo decided to make Warcraft first as there wouldn’t be any point making an RTS game after making a MOBA.

—

Next up was planning the foundations of the game.

Warcraft technically was a series of games. ‘Orcs & Humans’, ‘Tides of Darkness’, ‘Beyond the Dark Portal’, ‘Reign of Chaos’, ‘The Frozen Throne’, were all technically Warcraft, but the differences between them were huge.

Setting aside the story, there was still a substantial difference between games in terms of gameplay.

For example in Warcraft 2, Blizzard had discovered their style, pioneering left click to select, and right click for attack and movement. Moreover, the “Fog of War” concept had also spread to many other RTS games.

In Warcraft 3, the concept of Heroes becomes key in the design of the game, striking a balance between teamwork and individuality, allowing the world of an RTS game to feel much richer.

And when Wrath of the Lich King came along, Warcraft 3 continued to get balance patches, and the story of the game reached its peak, which allowed Warcraft to become a classic game.

Chen Mo felt that he didn’t need to go through all the trouble that Blizzard went through, and decided to skip right to Warcraft 3.

In The Frozen Throne, the two most popular heroes, Illidan and Arthas dueled it out for the Frozen Throne, and pushed the story of the world of Azeroth to its limits. There were many players who started playing the game or spent more time looking into the lore because of these two heros.

Chen Mo decided to condense all the main parts of the story from Reign of Chaos, resulting in a combination of both Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne.

The other versions such as Tides of Darkness or Beyond the Dark Portal could be done as DLCs if the players were enthusiastic about getting more.

—

Chen Mo split the designing process of Warcraft into six different parts, namely rules and specifications, battle mechanics, races and units, story, level and map design, and multiplayer.

As there was so much to do, Chen Mo wasn’t in a rush to finish it. After writing down some concepts and key points, Chen Mo went downstairs.

Qian Kun started working yesterday, and sat next to Zheng Hongxi.

Zheng Hongxi and Su Jinyu were playing League Conquest while working hard to finish their research report on RTS games.

“Are the reports done?” asked Chen Mo.

Chen Hongxi saiid, “Almost done.”

Su Jinyu said unconfidently, “I’m… done.”

Chen Mo nodded, “Alright, you guys can keep it. I won’t be looking at it.”

Zheng Hongxi and Su Jinyu were visibly confused.

Su Jinyu was dumbfounded, “Manager, if you weren’t going to look at it, why make us put so much effort into it?”

Chen Mo replied, “If I didn’t ask you to write reports, would you play the game so seriously? Moreover, the reports are probably garbage, and I don’t even need to look at it to know that.”

Zheng Hongxi and Su Jinyu were both speechless.

“Alright, I’ve got the plans for the next game, I’ll talk more in the meeting room.” said Chen Mo.

Chen Mo handed out the design concept to the rest of them around the meeting table.

Zheng Hongxi was shocked, “Wow, you’re finally working on Azeroth?”

“RTS! Huh, seems like it’s going to be a big project! Are we able to do it…?” said Su Jinyu.

Qian Kun rubbed his chin, “Not a scammy game huh. Disappointing…”

Chen Mo was speechless, Is that the only thing this kid thinks about?