Chapter 7 This Project Is About to Flop

Not long after, a sloppy, carefree young man who looked about twenty-seven or twenty-eight walked into Jason Foster’s office.

“Manager Foster, you wanted to see me.” The young man nodded and bowed as he spoke.

Jason Foster nodded. “Yes. Let me introduce you—this is the new intern on our project, William Carter. And this is our project’s world architect, Brian Clark.”

“Hello.” William Carter extended his hand.

Brian Clark shook hands perfunctorily. “You’re the newcomer who’s really good at drawing? Welcome.”

Jason Foster said, “Brian Clark, show William Carter around the project and introduce him to the others. As for work... just assign him some tasks as you see fit. He doesn’t have experience, so help him out more.”

Brian Clark nodded. “Alright, Manager Foster, don’t worry.”

Brian Clark led William Carter out and began introducing the project.

“That’s the programming team over there. They’re all big shots—you have to beg them to get your requirements implemented. See the one in the plaid shirt... never mind, they all wear plaid shirts. I mean the one drinking water right now, that’s the lead programmer. Whatever you do, don’t call them ‘techies’—if they beat you up, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“That’s the art team over there, also big shots, but they’re a bit easier to deal with than the programmers. My main job is to work with them, and you probably will too. But our project’s art team is a bit understaffed—a bunch of people have been reassigned to other teams. I heard you’re good at drawing, so that’s perfect.”

“This is the design team. You can take the empty seat next to me for now. You’ll get to know the others gradually—just focus on the tasks I give you first…”

“As for other departments, like finance, HR, and other project teams, most of them are on other floors. If you need anything, just ask.”

Brian Clark gave William Carter a quick tour and a general introduction to the project staff.

Although he covered all the basics, William Carter could clearly sense that Brian Clark’s attitude was extremely perfunctory, with no enthusiasm at all.

This was a bit of a headache. William Carter was just an intern now, so he wouldn’t have many chances to get tasks directly from the lead designer, let alone the supervisor Jason Foster. Most of his time would probably be spent dealing with Brian Clark, but this guy was already giving him the cold shoulder.

But after this tour, William Carter confirmed one thing: the state of this project really wasn’t good.

He’d heard of “Mecha Era” before—it was a game for smart wristbands, basically this world’s version of a mobile game. It had been online for half a year, but its numbers were bad from the start, with monthly revenue just over seven million. Now it was probably even lower—maybe not even a million.

Looking at the project team confirmed this even more. Several programmers were slacking off, and in the design team, people were playing with their wristbands, secretly reading novels, or watching videos. The lead designer didn’t seem to care at all.

The most outrageous part was the art team—there were only four people left: two concept artists and two modelers. Everyone else had been reassigned to other projects.

No wonder they were short-staffed.

William Carter sat down at his workstation and turned on his computer. Brian Clark impatiently guided him to log in with his employee account, download some relevant design documents and game assets from the internal network, and then download “Mecha Era” onto his wristband to get familiar with the game.

All these design documents and game assets were encrypted—there was no way to copy or take them out. Reading and editing had to be done on the work computer, and every step was logged in detail.

After all, William Carter was just an intern now, with very limited permissions.

It was only his first day, and William Carter hadn’t even played “Mecha Era” properly yet, so he definitely couldn’t start working right away.

The whole morning was uneventful. William Carter just skimmed through the design documents and played “Mecha Era” for a bit.

Actually, it only took William Carter two hours to completely figure out the game.

The gameplay was pretty simple: collect mechas, battle with mechas—a turn-based strategy game. The monetization was all about drawing for mecha parts and assembling new mecha lineups.

In every way, it wasn’t much different from the mobile games William Carter had played in his previous life. The biggest difference was the presentation: the game used the wristband’s holographic display, so all the mechas were 3D images, and the battle effects were very flashy.

But it was obvious the game was pretty dead. William Carter even picked a new server, but once he got in, the chat channel was full of ads, with hardly any real players.

Looks like this game is on its last legs. No marketing budget, no new blood coming in, and as the old players quit en masse, the optimistic estimate is that the game will soon stop getting updates. In three to five months, it’ll probably shut down for good.

At noon, Brian Clark took William Carter to the Guangyi Interactive Entertainment building’s staff cafeteria for lunch. Some people snuck out, some brought their own food, and some ate in the cafeteria with Brian Clark and William Carter, but nobody talked about the project during lunch.

It was obvious that everyone had already lost interest in this project.