The neon lights of the commercial district blurred into streaks of color as Zhong Ming hurried back from the street vendor. In his hand, he clutched a bag of steaming "nutrient buns"—a cheap, synthetic street food that was mostly starch and flavored water, but it was hot and filling.
He re-entered the basement office, the heavy door clanging shut behind him. The atmosphere had shifted. The apathy was gone, replaced by a tense, focused energy. Li Wei was typing furiously, his brow furrowed. Su Qing was zoomed in on her monitor, pixelating a sword animation with surgical precision.
"I brought food," Zhong Ming announced, placing the bag on the central table.
Chen Hao, the UI designer, looked up, his stomach growling audibly. "Oh, thank the stars. I haven't eaten since breakfast."
"Eat while you work," Zhong Ming said, though his tone was softer. He walked over to Li Wei's station. "Status report."
Li Wei paused, grabbing a bun with one hand while keeping the other on the mouse. He chewed quickly and swallowed. "The swarm logic is implemented. Enemies spawn at the edges and pathfind towards the player. But..."
"But?"
"It's boring," Li Wei admitted, frustration creeping into his voice. "They just walk in a straight line. It's too predictable. Even with the auto-attack, it feels like shooting fish in a barrel. Where's the challenge?"
Zhong Ming nodded. This was exactly the problem he had anticipated. In *Vampire Survivors* and similar games of the 21st century, the "challenge" didn't come from smart AI; it came from the sheer volume and the chaotic movement patterns of the enemies.
"We don't need smart enemies; we need overwhelming odds," Zhong Ming explained. "We need to vary their speeds, their health pools, and their movement patterns. Some should rush the player, some should float, some should tank the damage."
He pulled up a chair next to Li Wei. "I'm going to dictate some parameters. I need you to create a variable system for enemy types."
Zhong Ming closed his eyes for a moment. He needed to access the *Universal Search Tool*. He had 15 minutes of usage time left from the interview preparation.
**[Activating Universal Search Tool...]**
**[Query: Enemy Scaling Algorithms for Rogue-lite Games / Damage Formula Balancing.]**
Information flooded his mind. It wasn't just code; it was a philosophy of balance. The concept of "Time-to-Kill" (TTK), the curve of difficulty scaling, and the interaction between player damage and enemy health.
His eyes snapped open.
"Li Wei, create three base classes," Zhong commanded, his voice steady. "Class A: 'Swarmer'. Low health, high speed. They die in one hit. Their purpose is to create visual noise and force the player to move. Class B: 'Tank'. High health, slow speed. They block the player's path. Class C: 'Elite'. Ranged attacks or special abilities."
Li Wei nodded, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "Okay... creating the structs now. But how do we balance the damage? If I have to tune every enemy manually..."
"We use procedural scaling," Zhong said. He grabbed a stylus and sketched a graph on Li Wei's note-taking app. "As the timer on the level increases, the spawn rate and enemy health multiplier increase exponentially. Every minute, the 'Danger Level' goes up by 0.5."
He wrote out a formula:
`Enemy_HP = Base_HP * (1 + (Game_Time * Scaling_Factor))`
"Use this," Zhong said. "Don't worry about perfect balance right now. Let the math do the work. We just need to tune the 'Scaling_Factor'."
Li Wei looked at the formula. It was elegant in its simplicity. "This... this is basic algebra. But applied this way..."
"It works," Zhong finished. "Trust the math."
...
For the next four hours, the basement became a forge.
Zhong Ming moved between stations. With Su Qing, he worked on the visual "Juice."
"Make the screen shake when the player levels up," Zhong Ming instructed, standing behind her. "Not a lot, just a few pixels of vibration. It gives a sense of impact."
"Screen shake? That might induce motion sickness," Su Qing argued, though she was already adding the code.
"Keep it under 0.1 seconds," Zhong said. "It's subliminal. It tricks the brain into feeling power. Also, when the player takes damage, flash the screen red briefly. We need to communicate danger instantly."
He turned to Chen Hao. "The UI needs to be invisible. The player shouldn't be looking at the health bar; they should be looking at the swarm. Make the health bar a small, curved bar at the bottom left. Minimalist."
Around 2:00 AM, the first "Alpha Build" was ready.
It was crude. The main character was a poorly drawn knight. The enemies were red blobs (zombies) and green blobs (bats). The map was just a grey grid.
"Alright," Zhong Ming said, his voice raspy from exhaustion. "Let's playtest."
He handed the controller to Li Wei. The programmer took a deep breath and started the game.
The first wave of red blobs appeared. Li Wei's character auto-fired small arrows. *Pew. Pew. Pew.*
The blobs popped with satisfying, 8-bit sound effects.
Then, a green text box appeared: **[Level Up!]**
The game paused. A selection screen appeared:
**1. Fire Rate +10%**
**2. Extra Arrow +1**
**3. Movement Speed +10%**
Li Wei chose "Extra Arrow."
Suddenly, the character was shooting two arrows at once.
"Oh," Li Wei muttered. "That's cool."
The swarm grew. The timer hit the 5-minute mark. Suddenly, the music—which Zhong Ming had hastily composed using a basic synthesizer loop—intensified.
The "Swarmers" appeared. Dozens of them. They rushed Li Wei from all sides.
"Ah! They're too fast!" Li Wei shouted, frantically moving the joystick.
"Just keep moving!" Zhong Ming urged, leaning in. "Circle them! Don't get cornered!"
Li Wei strafed in a wide circle. The arrows flew out in a 360-degree arc (he had picked up a multi-shot upgrade). Enemies popped like popcorn. Gold coins and experience gems flew towards the player magnetically.
*Ding! Level Up!*
*Damage +20%*
Li Wei was sweating. "I'm winning! I'm actually winning against... nothing but blobs!"
Suddenly, a massive, purple blob appeared on the screen. An Elite.
"What is that?!"
"That's the boss," Zhong Ming grinned. "It shoots projectiles."
Li Wei dodged, weaving through the bullet patterns. The screen was a chaotic mess of explosions, numbers, and pixels. It was visual noise, but strangely, it was readable. His health dropped to a sliver of red.
"Health potion!" Chen Hao shouted from the side, pointing at the screen. "Walk over the green bottle!"
Li Wei grabbed the potion. His health restored. He unleashed a barrage of arrows, destroying the boss.
**[VICTORY!]**
The game over screen flashed, accompanied by a triumphant, chiptune fanfare.
Silence filled the room. Li Wei put down the controller. His hands were trembling slightly.
"Again," Li Wei said, his voice quiet.
"What?"
"Let me play again," Li Wei said, turning to Zhong Ming. His eyes were bloodshot, but for the first time that night, they were alive. "I died at 12 minutes. I want to beat that record. I want to try the 'Fire Rate' build this time."
Su Qing leaned over. "Can I try after?"
Zhong Ming leaned back in his chair, a wave of exhaustion hitting him. The "Game Juice" was working. The addiction loop was active.
"Tomorrow," Zhong said, standing up slowly. He felt dizzy, his vision swimming for a second. He gripped the table to steady himself. "It's 2:30 AM. We need sleep. We have 26 days left."
He looked at his team. They weren't rejects anymore. They were the core of something new.
"Good work today," Zhong Ming said. "We have a game."
...
As his team packed up, chatting excitedly about "build synergies" and "bullet hell mechanics," Zhong Ming lingered behind.
He checked his bracelet.
**[System Update]**
**[Prototype Phase 1 Complete: Core Loop Established.]**
**[Team Morale: Neutral -> High.]**
**[Reward: 20 Culture Points.]**
**[Bonus Reward: Basic Physics Engine Optimization Blueprint.]**
A blueprint file downloaded into his bracelet's storage. It was a schematic for optimizing collision detection, something that would save Li Wei days of work.
Zhong Ming let out a long breath. He walked to the window of the basement, looking up at the small slit of night sky visible above the ground level.
He was exhausted. His body ached, and the hunger pangs were back. But for the first time since waking up in this world, he felt grounded.
"Step one," he whispered to the empty room. "We have a game that's actually fun."
He thought about the next steps. The art needed polish. The sound effects were placeholder. And they needed more weapons. But the foundation was solid.
He thought about the "World Architect" title. He wasn't just drawing a picture anymore. He was coding a heartbeat.
He picked up his bag and headed for the door. He needed to go home, eat another compressed biscuit, and sleep. But he knew he wouldn't sleep immediately. His mind was already racing with the next update.
*The 'Library' of weapons,* he thought. *Magic Wand... King Bible... Lightning Ring...*
He smiled. The road to the top of the industry started in this dusty basement, one pixel at a time.