“Uh... today, I showed him around the project and explained a lot of things to him, but...” Brian Clark deliberately paused, “I just feel like he hasn’t really gotten into the role yet. He left right after work without even saying goodbye. Maybe that’s a common problem among fresh graduates, haha.”

On the surface, Brian Clark was making excuses for William Carter, but that “haha” couldn’t have sounded more fake.

“Oh.” Jason Foster was a little disappointed. “Maybe he just hasn’t adjusted his mindset yet. After all, he just graduated and doesn’t have the same spirit of hard work and dedication as you all. By the way, he’s a very talented person, quite capable. You should give him more tasks to help him grow.”

Eric Turner nodded. “I haven’t really looked into it. Let’s see what tasks Brian Clark assigns him. Brian Clark, don’t you have a lot of written materials for the mech background stories and such? Why not give him some of that? That way you won’t be so tired.”

Suddenly, Brian Clark had an idea.

Hand over these relatively simple tasks to William Carter?

Write background stories for the mechs? Draw concept art for the mechs? Or maybe design a small feature?

For William Carter, these probably wouldn’t be difficult at all!

Brian Clark had already noticed that Jason Foster seemed to value William Carter quite a bit, repeatedly emphasizing how “talented” he was. Combined with today’s interactions, maybe this William Carter really was quite capable.

If he assigned the tasks to him and William Carter did an outstanding job, wouldn’t that put Brian Clark in an awkward position?

He’d already heard that William Carter had interviewed for the position of world architect. If he did better than Brian Clark, how was Brian Clark supposed to save face?

So Brian Clark quickly came up with another idea.

“Manager Foster, here’s what I’m thinking. The work I have on hand for this version is almost done, and the unfinished parts are already halfway through, so I can’t really hand them over.”

“How about this: I think since William Carter just graduated and is still a newcomer, he might not have as many fixed ways of thinking, so maybe he’ll have some good ideas. Why not let him write a version plan for the next release? What do you think?”

Jason Foster was taken aback. “A version plan? Isn’t that a bit too difficult for a newcomer?”

“It’s definitely a bit challenging, but there’s no need to set the bar too high.” Brian Clark continued to persuade, “We don’t necessarily have to use his proposal. I’m just saying let him write one first, and then Eric Turner and I can take a look to see if there are any good ideas. If there are, maybe we can actually include them in the next development plan.”

Jason Foster looked at Eric Turner. “What do you think?”

Eric Turner hesitated a bit. “I still feel like assigning this kind of work to an intern might be a bit too much. But I think Brian Clark has a point—there really isn’t any other suitable work for him right now.”

Jason Foster made the decision. “Alright, then let’s give him this task.”

Brian Clark felt smug. An intern, and I can’t handle you?

Version planning can be simple or difficult.

On the simple side, it’s just a table listing the new features for the next version, estimating the development time and resources for each—basically a work plan.

On the difficult side, it’s not something a newcomer can do.

The prerequisite for planning a version is to have a deep understanding of the game, to know its current shortcomings and what players need.

Otherwise, if you plan a bunch of useless features, aren’t you just adding to everyone else’s workload?

As soon as you show a version plan to the rest of the project team, everyone can immediately tell if there are problems with what you wrote.

Moreover, the deeper content of a version plan isn’t something you can handle with just a table. For example, if you want to develop three new features, you need to have a general concept for each one, right? You even need to consider some of the finer details in advance. Otherwise, when you present the plan and a programmer or another designer asks you a question, you’ll be left speechless and embarrassed.

Jason Foster’s idea was to let William Carter try making a version plan. Even if it wasn’t very formal, it didn’t matter. There wasn’t much other work to assign him anyway, so it could just be practice.

But Brian Clark didn’t see it that way. Once the task was assigned, there would have to be a summary and results. When the results came out and the version plan turned out to be garbage, William Carter would definitely make a fool of himself in front of everyone.

……

The next morning, William Carter arrived at the company on time.

Brian Clark, who sat nearby, hadn’t arrived yet and showed up more than an hour late.

Like many companies, Guangyi Interactive Entertainment had a flexible work schedule. As long as you clocked in for nine hours a day (with one hour for lunch), any extra time counted as overtime, and depending on the project, you might get paid for it.

In reality, Brian Clark didn’t actually work much overtime, but he always left late in the evening. Every time Jason Foster left, Brian Clark was still there, creating the illusion that he was always working hard and putting in extra hours.

William Carter was still reading design documents and playing the game “Mecha Era.” After yesterday’s awkwardness with Brian Clark, he had no intention of talking to Brian Clark unless Brian Clark spoke to him first.