In the dim, somewhat cramped conference room, Evan and several others watched the screen intently. This was the fruit of their labor over the past month. For Evan, this was his first commercial game in this world. For Owen, this represented their entire team's first major transitional project into a completely new genre. So for everyone present in that room, this simple demo version held extraordinary significance.
Owen carefully clicked on the basic Kun Beast page, bringing up its fundamental attribute breakdown and stats display, then navigated over to the shop interface. Since this was an internal test account, in-game purchases could be made freely without any actual payment.
He bought two hundred gacha tickets directly in one go. Then Owen, with an almost theatrical flourish, clicked on the Shan Hai Scroll section again.
The page that opened for the Shan Hai Scroll was completely shrouded in thick, mysterious mist. A single swipe of the mouse could clear away all the clouds and fog, revealing the true form of whatever creature was hidden behind them. Clearing the mist, of course, cost one ticket per reveal.
On the screen in front of them, Owen was playing this type of game for the very first time. He carefully pressed down the left mouse button and swiped across the interface. The giant beast image on screen transformed instantly from a dark silhouette into a crystal-clear, detailed visual—a Kun Beast covered head to tail in dense, vibrantly colorful whiskers and fur. In the next moment, the static Kun Beast image became beautifully animated. The camera angle zoomed out dramatically, and the Kun Beast was sealed within an absolutely dazzling card frame with light effects. Two letters—"SR"—appeared in the upper left corner of the card, and below that, delicate small text indicated the Kun Beast's identity and characteristics:
Feeds on plants, swallows clouds and exhales mist: the Colorful Whiskered Kun Beast.
Watching Owen pull his very first card, Sasha smiled and turned her head toward Evan, saying, "I remember this particular Kun Beast's design was your decision, wasn't it, Evan? I'm curious where you got the inspiration from."
Evan shook his head with a slight smile. "It's not really inspiration, honestly. After all, our card pool is going to be absolutely massive later on as we expand. This was just something I thought up casually, simply to help fill out the initial card pool with variety."
Owen up at the computer was still going strong. In the brief span of those two sentences being exchanged, he'd already drawn seven or eight more times, cards flashing across the screen one after another.
Abyssal Giant Kun Beast
Seven-Colored Cloud Kun Beast
Sand Earth Kun Beast
Shadowy Specter Kun Beast
Broken Army Ferocious Kun Beast
Dao Realm Shark Kun Beast
...
After the demo version playthrough was finally finished, a visibly flushed and excited Owen practically ran over to Evan, saying enthusiastically, "Evan, I genuinely think this game is definitely going to be a massive hit! This gacha draw system you came up with really does have some kind of mysterious, almost magical charm to it. Once you start pulling cards, you absolutely cannot stop yourself. I mean, theoretically speaking, most of the cards I drew just now won't even be useful to me in the short term at all. But I just kept wanting to gamble on whether the next draw would give me a top-tier card directly!"
Evan glanced over Owen's shoulder at the computer screen, which now showed that all two hundred draws purchased by the test account had been completely used up. Evan nodded with a touch of surprise, genuinely impressed by the young man's determination and stamina. "Every gacha player out there is eternally waiting for their one-shot miracle pull. That's the fundamental charm of gacha games right there. After the game goes through several major version updates and expansions, players will eventually discover something interesting—that compared to the immediate excitement and rush of drawing new cards, the long-term satisfaction of collecting and completing sets becomes even harder to give up."
Moreover, Evan thought to himself privately, the current build they were looking at was just a bare-bones demo version. Gacha pull animations, gorgeous cover art displays, server-wide announcement notifications when someone pulls something rare, and most importantly, carefully selected background music to enhance the emotional experience—none of these crucial elements were implemented yet! Once the full release version has all of those features properly integrated, Owen and players like him would truly understand the complete charm of gacha game design.
However, Owen might become increasingly frustrated and desperate as time goes on, Evan thought with mild amusement. He'd just casually glanced at the results and noticed that out of the two hundred cards Owen had pulled, the vast majority were R-rank and N-rank commons, with just a small handful of SR super-rares scattered in. Not a single UR ultra-rare—the absolute rarest tier in the system. And this was even with the demo version having significantly higher drop rates than what the official release version would have. Evan could almost see a faint, ominous aura of terrible gacha luck swirling around Owen's face like a dark cloud.
However, there would probably be quite a few players just like Owen out there in the real world. It seemed like implementing some kind of pity timer guarantee system was still going to be necessary after all. The monetization strategy shouldn't be too aggressively predatory, Evan noted to himself silently. After all, Redbird Studios needed sustainable long-term development and growth, and maintaining a good reputation with players was absolutely essential for that.
After Owen finished his enthusiastic presentation and stepped away from the computer, the atmosphere in the small conference room became significantly more lively and energized. Many other people clearly wanted to try their own luck at the gacha system, and a small queue had already formed in front of the demo computer.
Seeing this natural enthusiasm, Evan stood up from his seat and clapped his hands together with a smile, drawing everyone's attention over to him. Then he announced:
"After a full month of what I'm sure felt like not-so-arduous struggle and hard work, our demo version is finally complete and functional."
Hearing Evan phrase it that way, many people in the room smiled knowingly—they all knew exactly how much work had actually gone into this past month.
Evan continued, "So today, we're going to have ourselves a simple celebration. Everyone here gets ten free gacha draws to try out later, and I'll be giving out a small cash bonus based on your pull results. One hundred dollars for each SR you manage to get, three hundred dollars for any UR pulls. Sasha, please compile all the results for me when everyone's done. This afternoon, all departments can finish their work early and head out, and I'll be treating the entire company to dinner tonight on me."
"Oh hell yeah! Evan's the best!" The small conference room instantly erupted into an atmosphere of pure joy and celebration.
Looking at his genuinely excited and lively employees, Evan felt a real sense of satisfaction and relief wash over him. He reached over and patted Owen's shoulder, signaling for them to step outside and have a private conversation.
Because Redbird had rented the entire top floor—the sixth floor—of this particular office building, there was a nice small terrace area at the end of the main corridor. Many employees often chose to come out here to get some fresh air or have a smoke break when they'd been sitting at their desks for too long.
Evan and Owen stood there together on the terrace, looking down at the somewhat bleak scenery spread out below them. Time had already moved well into November by now, and Northfield City, being located in the northern part of the region, was deep into late autumn at this point.
Evan pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket, offered one to Owen, and gestured for him to help himself if he wanted.
Evan himself didn't actually smoke, but he knew from experience that employees often dealt with significant stress, so he usually kept a pack on him just in case. In situations exactly like this one, it was a small social trick his father had taught him years ago for building rapport and winning people over.
"Can the company we previously outsourced our music work to handle the soundtrack for this project?" Evan took a deep breath of the crisp, cool autumn air and asked directly.
"Riverside Sound Studio has collaborated with us quite a few times over the years. They're honestly one of the rare truly reliable outsourcing partners we've found. Evan, you honestly wouldn't believe how many incredibly talented but completely unreliable freelance composers and sound studios are out there in this industry."
Evan nodded—he had a general understanding of that particular industry problem from his previous life.
"The soundtrack we need this time around is going to be a completely different style and tone from our previous romance game projects. I genuinely don't know if they can handle something this different. However, Riverside is an established relationship we've built over time. My personal suggestion would be that I arrange a specific time for you to visit them in person and have them create a sample piece for us to evaluate. Then we'll know for certain whether they can deliver, because you're the person who understands this game's vision and needs better than anyone else." Owen was being quite cautious and thoughtful in his recommendation.
Evan nodded in agreement. Northfield City, after all, couldn't really compare to the much larger Harborview City in terms of industry resources and options, so having a reliable, proven partner located nearby was definitely preferable.
"Alright, Owen. Go ahead and help me set up a meeting time with them as soon as possible, please. The sooner the better on this."
Owen nodded. "Understood. I'll get that scheduled."
As they were returning to the main office area from the terrace, they happened to pass by Emily's exclusive office space—the room that used to be the planning department before everyone resigned. Evan poked his head through the doorway to look inside and coincidentally caught Emily in the middle of stretching at her desk. Seeing her full figure and posture in that brief moment, Evan couldn't help but glance for just a second longer than he probably should have—and immediately received an absolutely fierce glare from Emily in return.
Evan rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and held up both hands. "Misunderstanding, total misunderstanding. Don't read too much into it, seriously. I just happened to be walking past and remembered I needed to tell you something—finish up your work early this afternoon if you can. I'm treating everyone to dinner tonight."
Emily nodded coldly, her expression not softening in the slightest. "I'll be there on time. Just leave the restaurant location and time details, and you can go now."
Evan couldn't help but feel genuinely helpless about this whole dynamic. This woman had somehow become the company's unofficial goddess figure at this point—warm, approachable, and pleasant to absolutely everyone else in the office. Yet with him specifically, she was like a solid block of ice. When would she finally thaw out even a little bit? Evan couldn't help but want to dramatically sigh his frustration to the heavens themselves.