novelraw Chapter 151: A Game Ready to Go Global
Chapter 151: A Game Ready to Go Global
From that point on,
Tang Yao focused all her energy on the design document for Dou Pai.
Li Xue, meanwhile, poured her attention into setting up the HR and Finance departments. Each was busy with their own tasks.
Still, the two of them would occasionally sit down together for a drink and a chat.
Li Xue mostly asked for Tang Yao’s thoughts on the applicants…
While Tang Yao mostly asked whether they were handsome… I mean, if the card concepts were handsome.
Everything was progressing in an orderly fashion.
Tang Yao’s design document was gradually taking shape. A massive amount of card descriptions and mechanic explanations were being turned into words and diagrams.
Avalon was also steadily filling with people. Over time, the atmosphere at Avalon Studio became increasingly lively… Things were buzzing at ANF too—lots of long-time anime fans had been drawn in by reputation. Avalon had also picked up quite a few FGO players.
Some seemed to be joining because they believed in Tang Yao’s company and its future—they were ready to go through thick and thin. But regardless of their motives… thanks to Li Xue’s screening, most of the people who came in were actually pretty capable.
At the same time,
Tang Yao’s move was still ongoing.
Finally,
On the day she finished moving,
The design document was complete.
A thick stack, filled to the brim.
Every single card, every single mechanic—she had written them all out in detail, striving for perfection.
She even used her experience to point out some potential combo effects certain cards could produce—like the Emperor, a must-have component in early OTK decks in Hearthstone, and the possible consequences of cost-reduction cards.
She spent the whole morning giving it a once-over. Once she confirmed there were no issues,
Tang Yao finally picked up the design doc and went to find Si Jinliang.
These past few days, Si Jinliang had been working on modifying the core mechanics of Dou Pai based on Tang Yao’s first version of the design doc.
After all, Dou Pai already had an overall framework. Repurposing some basic functions saved a lot of effort.
When Tang Yao arrived, he was in the middle of discussing something with Shi Wanglin.
Noticing her approach,
He immediately looked up and said, “Tang Yao, I still think five hundred cards is way too much. And that many classes? How about this: we pick just five classes first, and limit it to around two hundred cards. Otherwise, we’ll never finish…”
But before he could finish,
He saw the thick stack of paper Tang Yao was carrying.
?
No way.
Si Jinliang slowly raised a mental question mark, his eyes going wide.
“Don’t worry, it’s done.”
Tang Yao confirmed his suspicion aloud, then placed the still-warm, freshly printed stack on his desk.
Si Jinliang and Shi Wanglin heard that and both parted their lips in shock.
Wait.
Huh?
Si Jinliang couldn’t believe it. “This is…”
“The class system and card set you were just talking about. Take a look.”
Tang Yao explained, “There are a lot of cards, and they’re pretty complex. But the two of you have played the game before, so it shouldn’t be hard to understand why the cards are designed this way… Familiarize yourselves with them first, then go through and flag any issues or cards that need changes.”
“……”
Si Jinliang was silent for a while, then immediately stood up and reached for the stack.
No.
Impossible!
It’s only been a few days?!
But,
As soon as he opened to the first page, he saw the Legendary dragons.
One added Spell Damage. One set a hero’s HP to 15. One auto-burned the rope. One placed a Dream card in the player’s hand at the end of the turn.
The descriptions were simple and direct.
The mechanic explanations were clear and easy to understand.
Even Ysera’s Dream card tokens came with detailed notes.
Stats, mechanics, mana cost…
Si Jinliang kept flipping pages.
Leeroy’s Charge.
Tirion’s Divine Shield, Taunt, and Deathrattle.
Velen’s double damage and healing.
Loatheb increasing enemy spell cost.
Emperor reducing card costs.
Bolvar’s unique mechanic—while in hand, gaining 1 Attack each time a friendly minion dies.
Whimsical, imaginative designs.
Si Jinliang’s fingers trembled slightly. With every page he turned, his throat bobbed.
Seven or eight pages in, he couldn’t take it anymore. He looked up sharply at Tang Yao standing in front of him, utterly stunned. “All of these… You designed them yourself!?”
Designing a card game was incredibly hard… it demanded a lot from the game designer.
Because card design had to balance strategic depth, fairness, player experience, scalability, and more.
Each card’s power had to match its cost, effect, and rarity—too strong and it’s broken, too weak and it’s useless.
Card combinations could lead to unintended synergies, so you had to control the card pool and game rules to keep the meta stable.
And with different factions or classes having unique mechanics, overall class balance had to be maintained.
Under those circumstances, the cards needed to be internally consistent, strategically rich, thematically coherent, and not mentally exhausting to learn.
Honestly?
It was too damn hard!
Si Jinliang knew this all too well from working on Dou Pai!
The current 300+ cards in Dou Pai were the product of an entire design team’s endless sleepless nights and stress-induced hair loss.
Mind you, his original team included people who’d spent tens of thousands on TCGs…
Some had even worked on other card games before, and all of them dreamed of creating their own TCG—that’s why they joined Mingyu Tech. Many of them were hardcore TCG veterans.
They all gave Si Jinliang advice.
And even then, designing cards gave him migraines.
But now?
This girl, in under a week, dropped… this massive pile.
Sure, maybe the balance wasn’t fully tested yet, maybe the synergies needed polishing.
But the creativity was wild, the mechanics were fun, and the descriptions were easy to grasp!
That alone was enough to make Si Jinliang question his existence.
No!
This couldn’t be real!
“It wasn’t just me.”
Tang Yao thought about it. Since she couldn’t explain her past life, she simply said, “It’s the result of many TCG fans’ ideas.”
“……”
Si Jinliang looked around the room, then at Dou Pai’s only game designer—Tang Yao—and went silent.
You lying fox.
Tang Yao saw his expression, figured there was no point explaining further, and said, “Get familiar with it first. If you’ve got questions, ask me later… Oh, right.”
She paused.
Then added, “I wrote all the card names casually. The worldbuilding isn’t finalized yet, so don’t get too hung up on the names. But there’s one thing I need to be clear about—the game’s setting will definitely be Western fantasy. That won’t change. As for the reason… My goal isn’t just the domestic market. This game is going global.
You get what I mean.”
Since there was no Warcraft here, the story had to be built from scratch.
But Tang Yao still wanted a Western fantasy setting.
Because TCG fans weren’t limited to China… there were even more abroad.
In her past life, card games had a global following—compared to other game genres, the audience was broad and not bound by region.
Otherwise, Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! wouldn’t have gone global.
It was the same here.
There were fans of this genre everywhere.
But most players couldn’t afford physical cards.
And most physical TCG companies weren’t eager to go digital, mainly because they had to protect their lucrative physical card markets and pricing systems.
If you digitize the game, what happens to physical cards?
But the trend toward digital card games… was irreversible.
Otherwise, Hearthstone wouldn’t have happened in her last life.
And in this world, there still wasn’t a single excellent PVP card game.
That meant this niche market was completely untapped.
At this moment… releasing a quality product,
Tang Yao believed there was a high chance of success.
And one more thing… If this world was like her previous life, and mobile games became more prevalent, then the new genre would eventually face regulation.
Chances were, restrictions would be relaxed later, but if a license freeze hit in the meantime, that window of opportunity could become very painful.
But if they already had a foothold overseas—
There’d be no fear at all.
Because they’d be earning foreign currency!
Which gave them far more freedom!
“O-overseas?”
Si Jinliang was even more stunned.
“Mm, just get familiar with it first.”
Tang Yao nodded, knowing it was too soon to talk about this, and simply left that parting comment before turning to go.
She still had Chainsaw Man to draw.
After all, she couldn’t neglect her online work.
Tang Yao left in a hurry.
Si Jinliang watched her go. Only when she sat down again did he slowly turn to Shi Wanglin, who was eagerly reading the card descriptions. He whispered, “I feel like a piece of trash…”
Seriously.
He was devastated.
If he had never worked on a card game before, maybe it wouldn’t hit so hard.
But he had worked on Dou Pai!
This was brutal.
“It’s fine. When we did FGO, we all felt the same way.”
Shi Wanglin patted his shoulder with a heavy sigh: “Everyone goes through it.”
He was a lot more composed than Si Jinliang.
Probably because he’d already been numbed by the FGO experience…
Seeing that look on his face, Si Jinliang was numb too.
It was his first time working with Tang Yao on a game. His first time doubting his entire life.
But identity crisis aside, the design doc still had to be read.
About ten minutes later,
Si Jinliang had finally calmed himself enough to study the cards.
Shi Wanglin didn’t say anything more either, just kept reading.
Very soon,
They were completely absorbed.
The two of them kept reading from noon… all the way to dusk.
By 6 p.m.,
Most people had already gone for dinner.
The two of them were still reading.
Until someone bumped a chair on the way out, making a loud, screeching noise.
Only then did they snap out of it.
“Holy sh*t…”
“Holy sh*t…”
And the first words out of both their mouths were the exact same.
Then,
Si Jinliang didn’t even bother eating. He stared blankly at the wild yet coherent cards on the paper, then suddenly shot up: “I need to make a call!”
There were too many cards!
He couldn’t handle them all alone!
He had to call back the old Dou Pai team!
Those hardcore TCG veterans—he needed them all back!
Because he had a feeling—
They’d love this game!
And this game—if it really came to life—would become the most beloved card game out there!
Meanwhile,
Tang Yao and Li Xue were out hunting for food.
They’d never have guessed—
After acquiring Mingyu Tech,
She’d end up draining them for even more.