All the details for Ocean Fortress were swiftly finalized.
Within a week, design drafts for every feature were completed as scheduled. Huang Sibo reviewed each one, making adjustments wherever he noticed discrepancies with Bao Xu's original vision.
At the same time, the designers began prototyping the game using the editor.
Because many standard templates were being used, initial progress was quick. However, achieving Huang Sibo and Bao Xu's exact vision would still require gradual refinement later.
All art asset requests were already handed to the art team, who then coordinated with external artists from resource platforms for custom work.
This included the common zombie and mercenary character models, and especially the customization of the little girl character, all of which were progressing rapidly.
Taking the little girl character as an example, Tengda's art team members had to repeatedly communicate and confirm details with the external artists, as well as Bao Xu and Huang Sibo.
Three dedicated artists worked on this single character: one for conceptual design and original art, one for modeling, and one for animations—each responsible for their specific task.
After this detailed process, the little girl would become the most resource-intensive character in the game.
Even the actions and facial expressions required for specific story segments were completely customized—no expense spared.
Of course, all spending was still within the allocated budget.
After all, international AAA titles typically applied this level of quality to every character, with seven or eight main characters being commonplace. However, Ocean Fortress applied this top-level standard only to the little girl character, which naturally helped keep costs under control.
Whenever Huang Sibo discovered better art resources, he'd directly approach Pei Qian.
And Pei Qian always waved his hand generously: "Buy it!"
Initially, Huang Sibo felt uneasy. The asset budget kept increasing repeatedly; would this really be okay?
In any other company, the boss would likely explode in anger by now!
The budget climbed from seven or eight hundred thousand yuan to 1.2 million yuan, then to 1.5 million yuan—
Elsewhere, Huang Sibo would've been accused of "poor planning and weak cost control."
But here at Tengda, not only did President Pei not reprimand him—he actually seemed pleased?
Huang Sibo couldn't help but sigh inwardly. This was the difference in vision!
"I'm so incompetent, yet President Pei trusts me unconditionally…"
"I absolutely must repay him!"
"If I don't make this game a success, I'd feel ashamed for letting President Pei down!"
. . . . .
In the blink of an eye, the end of the month had arrived.
Today was Friday, November 29th.
To Huang Sibo, it was just an ordinary day.
Most of his work was already complete. The design tasks had all been finished, details were finalized, and various in-game assets were in production.
As the Lead Executive Designer, it wasn't Huang Sibo's job to personally handle the editor; there were team members dedicated to that.
His role now was just supervising the team's progress, ensuring everything stayed on track.
Compared to working directly on designs, this was significantly less stressful, and Huang Sibo hadn't needed to work overtime in quite some time.
With sufficient personnel and ample budget, the development schedule was well under control—naturally, no overtime was required.
Never had Huang Sibo imagined work could feel this relaxed and enjoyable.
Ding!
His phone chimed.
Picking it up, Huang Sibo saw it was a bank notification: a salary deposit had arrived!
"Huh? Isn't today the 29th?"
Huang Sibo stared at his phone in confusion.
Because typically, companies pay salaries the month after they're earned.
Companies paying by the 5th of the following month are already considered pretty generous.
Many worse companies delay payment until the middle or even the end of the following month—effectively holding employees' wages hostage. When employees resign, these companies often find reasons to deduct wages, essentially making life miserable through various tactics.
Any company that pays salaries before the 5th of the next month is already considered exceptionally decent.
But this was the very first time Huang Sibo had seen a company that paid within the same month!
"Your account XXXX has received a salary deposit of 5,375.8 RMB on November 29 at 11:09 AM. [XX Bank]"
Huang Sibo was stunned.
This salary payment had to be incorrect!
He distinctly remembered joining around November 5th. Therefore, he definitely hadn't worked a full month yet.
With a base salary of 4,000 yuan per month, after deductions for social insurance, housing fund, and income tax, the amount should have been noticeably less than 4,000 yuan!
So how did he receive over 5,000 yuan?
Huang Sibo was baffled. However, such a trivial matter was certainly not appropriate to trouble President Pei with; he decided to ask Assistant Xin directly.
After finding Xin Hailu and expressing his confusion, she replied with a smile, "Yes, that's correct. The amount includes overtime pay."
"Overtime pay???" Huang Sibo was even more bewildered.
Xin Hailu nodded. "Correct. And it's not just you—everyone who works overtime gets paid extra. You probably worked about 50 hours of overtime. Overtime is paid at 1.5 times your regular hourly wage, and after deductions for social insurance, housing funds, and income tax, the final sum is exactly this."
Huang Sibo's mouth fell slightly open, unable to speak for a moment.
It's the mythical overtime pay he'd only ever heard of in legends!
And it was calculated at 1.5 times his personal hourly rate!
Overtime pay was virtually nonexistent in most game companies.
Never mind the present—even ten years later, companies paying overtime in most industries remained exceedingly rare!
Moreover, even when some companies did pay overtime, they calculated it based on the local minimum wage rate, just like how they paid social insurance at the lowest possible level. It was all just a trick!
But Tengda was different—it calculated overtime pay based on each employee's actual hourly wage!
To put it simply, Tengda paid a lot more for overtime!
Take Huang Sibo for example: his base salary was 4,000 yuan per month. With 20 working days per month and 8 hours per day, his hourly wage was 25 yuan, making his overtime pay 37.5 yuan per hour.
The overtime hours were then multiplied by this rate, added to his base salary, and after deductions for social insurance and tax, it came to the exact amount now sitting in his account!
In short, Tengda was extremely generous!
Huang Sibo had never encountered a company this conscientious before—in fact, he'd never even heard of one!
Returning to his desk, Huang Sibo's heart was filled with emotions that took a long time to calm.
So, President Pei knew everything!
He knew that employees were disregarding his orders not to work overtime, yet he never scolded anyone. Instead, he quietly paid out overtime to everyone's bank accounts.
Warmth flooded Huang Sibo's heart, and his eyes grew moist.
He felt deeply touched.
President Pei was truly an incredible boss!
. . . . . . .
As for Pei Qian himself, he had no idea that the employees receiving overtime pay were nearly brought to tears of gratitude.
He was still caught up in frustration.
Why couldn't he spend the system's money faster?!
The main reason he insisted on paying salaries at month's end was because the system settled accounts at the beginning of each month.
Pei Qian had to ensure all salaries were paid out before each settlement. Otherwise, unpaid salaries would accumulate unnecessarily, making it even harder to lose money from the system's account!
<+>
If you want to see more chapter of this story and don't mind spending $5 monthly to see till the latest chapter, please go to my Patreon[1]
Latest Chapter in Patreon: Chapter 92: A Small Lie[2]
Link to the latest chapter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/losing-money-to-129248702[3]
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded[4]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/losing-money-to-129248702
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/losing-money-to-129248702
[4] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded