After finalizing the art team, Luo Ming turned his attention to preparing for the technical interview the next morning.
The art team only had three spots, but for the tech team, Luo Ming was planning to hire six to eight people.
Meanwhile, Lin Shuwen wrapped up her recording session for the day and stepped out of the studio.
She was in much better shape today than yesterday. Lao Huang’s five songs took three hours to record in the morning, then she took a two-hour break for lunch, and from 2 PM to 5:30 PM, she finished the rest. Done and dusted.
“Teacher Huang, sorry for putting you out again today.”
Lao Huang waved his hand, signaling her not to worry about it.
“Um, Teacher Huang, since I’m already troubling you—I have another song here. Would you mind taking a look?”
Lao Huang paused for a moment, then nodded.
Lin Shuwen pulled out the sheet music and lyrics and handed them over.
Lao Huang hummed a couple of lines, and his eyes lit up. “This is a great song! High quality, great message—it’s got breakout potential. Did you write it?”
“More or less.”
“What do you mean ‘more or less’? Either you did or you didn’t.”
“Teacher Huang, you could think of it as something I wrote in a dream.”
“Oh, so you dreamt up the melody? That happens—I’ve had that before too. Are you planning to make this the lead single for your album?”
“Yes. What do you think, Teacher Huang?”
“Works for me! It’s really good. I’ll find some time to put together the arrangement for you.”
“Thank you, Teacher Huang.”
“No need to keep thanking me—I’m not a fan of all that. Speaking of which, you’ve got seven out of ten songs for your album now. What are you planning to do for the other three?”
“Do you have any—”
“Don’t ask. The answer’s no. Tell you what, those two songs you wrote are pretty solid. Why not try writing the remaining three yourself?”
Lin Shuwen blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected Lao Huang to say that.
“Alright, head on back now. I’ll reach out when the arrangement’s done.”
Lin Shuwen nodded and left.
Back home, she glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Almost 7—no wonder there was so much traffic earlier,” she murmured to herself.
“Wenjie, what do you want for dinner?”
“Barbecue.”
“Huh? Wenjie, what did you say?” Chen Sichu wondered if she’d misheard.
“I said barbecue.”
“But—”
“I’m still under 105 pounds, aren’t I?”
“You won’t be after this meal.”
“Fine, fine. Whatever you think is best.”
Seeing that Lin Shuwen was a bit put out, Chen Sichu gritted her teeth and went out to buy barbecue for her anyway.
Ten skewers of lamb, ten of beef, five potato slices, one grilled eggplant, and one foil-wrapped lettuce—no carbs.
After finishing, Lin Shuwen dabbed her mouth gracefully and sighed, “Too bad there’s no grilled pork belly.”
“Wenjie, please don’t make this harder for me. Pork is absolutely off the table.”
“Alright, alright! I was just saying. Clean this up and you can head home.”
As soon as Chen Sichu left, Lin Shuwen dialed Luo Ming’s number.
As luck would have it, Luo Ming had just gotten home and was in the middle of making instant noodles.
“Have you eaten yet?”
Luo Ming chuckled at her choice of greeting. “Not yet. Just having some instant noodles.”
“That’s all you’re having for dinner?”
“What else should I have?”
“You don’t have to watch your figure—there’s so much good food out there. Why not just eat whatever you want?”
“I’m broke. I’ve only got 1,750 left in my account.”
“Yikes. Well, when I get back over there, I’ll eat for you.”
Luo Ming sensed something off. “Miss Lin, it kind of sounds like you’re looking forward to swapping back.”
“Ahem. You’re imagining things. Anyway, Luo Ming, we’ve known each other long enough—stop calling me ‘Miss Lin.’ Just call me Wenwen.”
Luo Ming paused. Were they really that close already?
“Hey! Why the sudden silence? Aren’t we close?”
“Yeah, I guess we are.”
Luo Ming could honestly say that aside from Lin Shuwen herself, no one knew her body better than he did.
“Alright then—Wenwen it is.”
“There you go. Anyway, how did the recruitment go today?”
“Pretty smoothly. We wrapped up the art team today. Tomorrow’s the tech team.”
“Glad to hear it! I also finished recording those five songs today and handed The Original Dream over to Teacher Huang for the arrangement.”
“I gave you two songs, and Teacher Huang gave you five. That makes seven for your album, right? What about the other three?”
“No idea yet. Still figuring that out.”
“Need any help?”
“No, I want to try on my own first. If I really can’t manage, I’ll come to you.”
Luo Ming hummed in acknowledgment and didn’t press further.
The next morning, the tech candidates gathered in the meeting room.
Making a game requires knowledge across multiple domains.
First, you need to learn programming languages like C++ or JavaScript.
You also need to be familiar with game development engines—Unity3D and Cocos2dx are the most widely used in the industry.
Plants vs. Zombies doesn’t require game special effects design.
Otherwise, they’d also need to hire people skilled in Photoshop and 3ds Max.
Of course, understanding game rules, mechanics, visual art, and scene design is also crucial.
That’s part of the fundamentals too.
Drawing from his own experience, Luo Ming began interviewing tech candidates based on these criteria.
The results weren’t great. Out of the 16 applicants, ten were fresh graduates with no work experience.
Only one of them had solid professional knowledge and was worth developing. The other nine were about on par with Rong Mu—not worth keeping.
As for the six with work experience, only two knew both Unity3D and Cocos2dx. Of the remaining four, two mainly worked in C++, one only knew front-end development, and the last knew a bit of both front-end and back-end but wasn’t particularly skilled at either.
After much deliberation, Luo Ming decided to keep the promising fresh grad, the two who knew Unity3D and Cocos2dx, and one who was proficient in C++. As for front-end and back-end, they weren’t needed at the moment, and Luo Ming was already pretty skilled in both areas himself, so he let them go.
Overall, the tech team’s composition was decent—they had all the bases covered.
But there was still one critical missing piece: a team leader. Luo Ming had a gut feeling that he and Lin Shuwen would swap bodies again, and there needed to be someone who could take charge of game development in his absence.
Just as he was stressing over this, Rong Mu offered a suggestion: “Er Ming, why don’t you try reaching out to Professor Li? I remember you two get along well. He’s been teaching for years and has mentored countless students—maybe he can recommend someone suitable.”
Luo Ming’s eyes lit up at the idea.
Professor Li was his Data Structures and Algorithms teacher back in college. He’d always held Luo Ming in high regard and even tried to recruit him as a graduate student.
As Rong Mu said, Professor Li had produced quite a number of talented computer science professionals over the years. It was definitely worth a shot to ask him.
