16: Chapter 16: 300 megabytes of pixelation—can this really be called a world?

Fourth floor, Hot Pot City.

Inside a huge private room, two large round tables that could seat ten people each were packed.

Steam billowed, the scent of beef tallow mixed with the smell of alcohol and the fizzing sound of soda, permeating the air wantonly.

"Zzzzt—"

The sound of the money counter spitting out banknotes became the most wonderful accompaniment at this moment.

Several employees gathered around the money counter borrowed from the hot pot restaurant's cashier, watching the stacks of red banknotes pass inspection, their eyes shining.

"Holy crap, they're actually real banknotes..."

"I had prepared myself for them to be fakes, and then I was going to report him to the Labor Bureau tomorrow..."

"Boss Lu is truly rich! I had prepared myself to enter a pyramid scheme den, but instead, I entered a golden nest!"

"Hahaha, me too! Fifteen thousand a month—is this the salary for a senior programmer at a top-tier tech company?"

After a few rounds of drinks, everyone's chatter opened up.

Someone raised their glass and slurred, "But seriously, what kind of game did Boss Lu have us make? That pile of mosaics is practically an insult to my degree from the Magic City Academy of Fine Arts!"

The guy in charge of sound effects next to him picked up a piece of tripe with his chopsticks and chuckled, "Be content! I just recorded a few splashing sounds, archery sounds, and those various 'uh' noises that sound like an idiot, and I got fifteen thousand for it? This money burns my hands!"

"Who cares! We're just tools getting paid to do a job."

"But to be fair, Boss Lu's speed in assigning tasks and his coordination of everyone's division of labor is indeed very strong!"

A programmer with two huge dark circles under his eyes gulped down a large mouthful of beer, "I've slept less than thirty hours in the past few days; I almost died from exhaustion. But looking at this money, I feel like I can pull through for another three days and nights! This isn't a boss; this is my second parent!"

"Right! This god-tier job, I love it, I love it!"

Just as they were talking, the private room door was pushed open.

Lu Li walked in.

A sweet-looking artist, a social butterfly, immediately sprang up, raised her glass with a flushed face, and shouted, "Hello Boss Lu! Boss Lu, I'd like to toast you! You are the electricity, you are the light!"

The atmosphere was instantly ignited.

"Boss Lu, you're so handsome and rich, do you need a pendant?"

"Don't even think about it, Boss Lu must have married young. My dream of marrying into a wealthy family is shattered, wuwuwu..."

Lu Li smiled and responded to everyone's enthusiasm, not putting on any airs, but also maintaining an appropriate distance.

The drinking session lasted until 11:00 PM.

The crowd dispersed.

Lu Li stood at the restaurant entrance; the night breeze was cool, blowing away some of the tipsiness.

He didn't act like a nanny and memorize license plate numbers; he just instructed the head waiter beside him, "Help my employees arrange cars, put the expenses on my tab."

After speaking, he hailed a taxi and climbed into the back seat.

Exhaustion surged like a tide.

This nearly week-long crazy development had not only drained the employees but also exhausted his own energy.

Leaning against the seat back, Lu Li closed his eyes.

Meanwhile.

Steam China Review Department.

It was late at night, and only the pitter-patter of keyboard typing remained in the office area.

Reviewer Wang Wei gulped down a large mouthful of strong coffee, forcing his eyelids to stay open, staring at the long list of pending reviews on the screen.

"Starframe 3, capacity 25GB, good graphics, approved."

"Doomsday Glow, capacity 10GB, icon is too risqué, rejected."

They were all "3A masterpieces" pursuing ultimate graphics and ray tracing effects.

In this era of excessive graphics card computing power, game manufacturers wish they could render characters' pores in 2K; if a game's capacity is lower than 10G, they are too embarrassed to say hello to anyone.

"Next..."

Wang Wei clicked the mouse mechanically.

Suddenly, his fingers froze.

A new application box popped up on the screen.

[Game Title: minecraft]

[Game Size: 340MB.]

Wang Wei was stunned for a moment, thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him.

He rubbed his eyes and leaned closer to the screen to look carefully.

That's right.

The unit is MB, not GB.

"What the hell?"

Wang Wei frowned, a look of absurd amusement curling his lips, "What era is this antique from? Or did the uploader make a mistake and only upload a launcher?"

Such low-level errors were not uncommon in indie game contests.

Out of professional integrity, he didn't reject it directly but opened the backend communication software and contacted the developer named "Lu Li."

[Steam Review - 007]: Hello, I am the preliminary reviewer for this competition. It shows here that your entry "minecraft" has an installation package size of only 340MB. May I ask if there was an error in the upload? The average size of current mainstream entries is around 15GB.

The message was sent, and Wang Wei expected to wait a long time.

Unexpectedly, the other side replied instantly.

[Lu Li]: No error, it is this size.

Wang Wei looked at the reply on the screen and laughed in frustration.

No mistake?

What can you do with 340MB?

A single high-definition map texture is larger than that!

He clicked on the game icon image again.

The next second, Wang Wei almost spat out the coffee in his mouth.

It was a grass icon composed of rough pixel blocks, where you could even see obvious jagged edges, with the four characters "minecraft" written on it.

Did he draw this with the "Paint" tool?

Can he not even afford a graphic designer?

Wang Wei took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to click "Reject" directly, and typed on the keyboard again.

[Steam Review - 007]: Sir, I must remind you. Although the evaluation criteria for this competition are in the hands of the players, there are basic requirements for graphics and gameplay. Your icon... isn't it a bit too abstract?

This mosaic art style has no competitiveness in the current market.

In the taxi.

Lu Li looked at the phone screen, the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

Mosaic?

No competitiveness?

In this parallel world that pursues graphics to an absurd degree, they simply don't understand that gameplay is king.

His slender fingers tapped quickly on the screen.

[Lu Li]: This is the one I chose, the most perfect icon.

Wang Wei looked at this line and thought this person was simply unreasonable.

A trash game of a few hundred megabytes, paired with a mosaic icon, and he dares to call it "perfect"?

Is he here to cause trouble?

[Steam Review - 007]: Since you insist. But I need to inform you that according to past data, works with such rough graphics and tiny size usually have very low ratings and may even be unable to be listed because they are judged as "inferior applications." Are you sure you want to enter the competition with this version?

[Lu Li]: It doesn't matter, let the players decide!

"..." Wang Wei was speechless.

What did this person take his well-intentioned reminder for?

He had reviewed too many games in the annual competition; he could recognize this kind of trash game at a glance.

Forget it, let's consider it a stark lesson for this newcomer.

Once his game is labeled an inferior game by the judging panel, he will know how important his advice was.

Good words are hard to persuade the damned!

After the review side approved the game minecraft, the game could be paid for and listed.

Lu Li clicked confirm directly and paid 100 USD with his own account.

Gu'an Electronic Engineering University, Men's Dormitory 304.

The night curtain shrouded the entire dormitory, the light flickering on Zhang Qizhi's face, but his eyes were fixed on the laptop screen.

"Outside B door, outside B door, I told you, why the hell are you watching B connector!"

As the C4 was defused, he exited the game irritably.

This stupid matchmaking mechanism and stupid teammates, he was absolutely fed up.

It was almost graduation for his senior year; the other three in the dormitory were all working, leaving only him in the dorm.

A bit confused, a bit anxious, a bit sentimental, he could only immerse himself in games to find happiness.

He opened Steam, wanting to see if there were any fun single-player games.

Recently, the platform held an "Indie Game Design Competition," and there were many entries.

Zhang Qizhi had been "tasting poison" for several days, and they were all skin-swapped monsters.

Either RPGs with beautiful graphics but terrible plots, or card battles with old-fashioned gameplay.

"This year's batch is no good."

Zhang Qizhi was getting a bit sleepy. He refreshed the page skillfully, his mouse wheel scrolling aimlessly downwards.

Suddenly, an extremely eye-catching cover made his fingers pause.

Among the covers pursuing light and shadow effects and beautiful character portraits, this icon was simply a mudslide—a blurry image composed of green and brown blocks, looking like a product of the NES era.

minecraft

Price: 10 USD.

"Ten bucks?" Zhang Qizhi widened his eyes, thinking he had misread it, "This mosaic graphics quality dares to sell for ten bucks? Are you robbing people?"

He clicked on the details page, wanting to see if the comment section was swearing.

As a result, because it had just been listed, the comment section was blank.

Looking at the game introduction, it was even more extreme.

No grand worldview introduction, only a line of wildly arrogant words: [There is no game here, only a world.]

"Playing mysterious." Zhang Qizhi scoffed.

He glanced at the game size again.

[326MB]

"Pfft—" The cold water Zhang Qizhi had just taken into his mouth almost sprayed onto the screen.

Modern PC games, which one doesn't start at tens of GBs?

Even CS1.6 from over a decade ago was more than this number.

What can you do with 300MB?

Putting a few high-definition textures would fill it up, right?

"Modern indie game developers don't even want their faces anymore just to scam money."

Zhang Qizhi shook his head, moving the mouse to the X in the upper right corner.

But just as he was about to close it, that "10 USD" price tag and that arrogant introduction hooked his curiosity like a hook.

Anyway, Steam has a refund policy; if not satisfied within two hours of playing, he gets a full refund.

"Fine, I want to see how 300MB can fit a world."

Click to buy, pay.

The download progress bar had just popped up, and Zhang Qizhi had just prepared to go to the bathroom when a prompt box popped up: [Download Complete].

"..."

Too fast, so fast it made one uneasy.

Of course, there was also the reason that most people in the dormitory had gone their separate ways.

Zhang Qizhi put on his headphones and clicked "Start Game."