Time at Riot Games seemed to be on fast-forward.
The seasons outside the window changed quietly, but the scene inside the office remained constant—piles of draft papers, whiteboards covered with complex formulas, monitors that stayed on all night, and the ever-present scent of caffeine and a mix of exhaustion and excitement in the air.
Qin Feng, as the chief designer and soul of the project, practically lived at the company. The blueprint in his mind was gradually deconstructed and refined, injected into this nascent digital world. Hero design documents accumulated at an astonishing speed, rapidly expanding from the initial Tryndamere, Ashe, and Ryze to nearly twenty characters.
After the initial adjustments, the art team led by Chen Ran saw a sharp increase in efficiency. She precisely captured the "soul and temperament" of each hero as described by Qin Feng. The untamed wildness of Tryndamere the Barbarian King, the cold majesty of Ashe the Frost Archer, the wise and weathered demeanor of Ryze the Rune Mage, and newly added characters like Garen's steadfast righteousness as the Might of Demacia, Annie's enchanting innocence as the Dark Child, and Jax's domineering mystery as the Grandmaster at Arms… original artworks, 3D models, and motion capture data were continuously produced, giving these heroes vivid flesh and blood.
However, the real battlefield was with the technical team.
Li Ming, Wang Qi, and Sun Ce, leading the gradually expanding technical team, were engaged in a grueling battle with the "ingenious" yet "devilish" skill mechanics described by Qin Feng.
"Mr. Qin! Ryze's E Skill, Spell Flux, has a problem with its mark spread logic again!" Wang Qi, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, pointed at the screen, "When the server calculates the chained spread of the mark, if the target dies or disappears (like with Zhonya's Hourglass or Teleport) at the moment of spread, it causes the entire skill logic thread to freeze, and can even lead to a localized server crash!"
"Garen's Q Skill, Decisive Strike's silence effect, under certain network latencies, can be 'carried away' by an opponent's movement skill, causing the silence to apply in the wrong location or fail!" Li Ming irritably ran his hands through his already messy hair, "It's a synchronization timing issue; we need more precise timestamps and a state rollback mechanism."
"And Annie's bear!" Sun Ce's voice held a hint of helplessness, "Tibbers' AI logic after being summoned is too stupid! He often gets stuck among minions or stares blankly at the farthest enemy instead of prioritizing the target Annie is currently attacking. Rewriting pet AI is a huge undertaking!"
Problems emerged endlessly; the implementation of each hero's skill was like walking a tightrope, balancing effects, performance, and the limits of network synchronization. Qin Feng's studio had become a large "Bug breeding ground."
Facing these challenges, Qin Feng displayed a composure and technical insight beyond his years. He showed no panic; instead, he was unusually excited. These issues were all within his expectations; in fact, the root cause of some strange bugs he encountered as a player in his previous life stemmed from this.
"For Ryze's problem, add a target validity check before the mark spreads. If the target is invalid, terminate the spread chain."
"For Garen's Q Skill, use server-side pre-judgment with client-side display compensation. The server determines the silence area the moment it receives the command. Even if the client sees the opponent move due to lag, it must obey the server's authoritative judgment. The opponent's movement skill must be cast before the server receives the Q Skill command to be effective."
"For Annie's bear, reset AI priority: Priority, attack enemies hit by Annie's basic attacks or skills; second priority, attack enemies currently attacking Annie; third priority, attack the nearest enemy within Annie's range. The pathfinding algorithm needs optimization to avoid getting stuck in terrain."
His instructions were clear and precise, often going straight to the core of the problem, bringing sudden enlightenment to the frantic technical team. He was not just a "product manager" who raised issues but also a "stabilizing force" who could provide critical technical solutions. This unfathomable technical reserve deepened the admiration of Li Ming and others.
After several weeks of almost non-stop intensive work, the first Alpha version available for internal testing was finally compiled with great difficulty.
On this day, all employees of the company, regardless of their position, were asked to put down their work and participate in this unprecedented "internal first test." Twenty computers were arranged in two rows, symbolizing the red and blue nexus crystals shining on the screens, and twenty heroes of diverse styles awaited their first Summoner.
Qin Feng personally directed the test.
"Everyone, randomly select a hero and enter Summoners Rift. Phase one of testing: free combat, familiarize yourselves with basic controls and skills."
As the command was given, the office instantly turned into a noisy battlefield.
"Oh my god! How did my hero (Alistar) use his W Skill to headbutt me under the tower?"
"Hahaha, look at Li Ming's Ashe, her Ultimate Ability (Enchanted Crystal Arrow) shot backward into her own fountain!"
"Wang Qi, you're cheating! How does your hero (Master Yi) run so fast when he uses his Ultimate Ability? And he's immune to slows? How is this fair?"
"It's lagging! Why can't I move?... Oh, I'm rooted by Chen Ran's Morgana Q Skill (Dark Binding). This control duration is too long!"
"Report! I found a Bug! I used Tristana's (the Yordle Gunner) W Skill (Rocket Jump) and got killed by a tower the moment I landed. Now my corpse is bouncing around in the air and won't stop!"
"The jungle monster (Red Brambleback) isn't respawning after being killed! Our jungler has no monsters to farm!"
Laughter, exclamations, complaints, and Bug reports rose and fell. Chaos was the main theme of this test. Although the employees were flustered, their faces were beaming with novelty and excitement. The world they had personally helped create was presented before them for the first time in such a vivid (albeit buggy) form.
Qin Feng moved among the testing teams, his eyes as sharp as an eagle's, his tablet quickly recording the observed issues.
"Record: Alistar's W Skill (Headbutt) self-collision detection is abnormal, needs fixing."
"Record: Certain skill effects cause frame rate drops on low-spec machines, needs optimization."
"Record: Turret aggro mechanism is chaotic, sometimes ignoring enemies attacking allied heroes."
"Record: Item shop UI overlaps, purchase logic sometimes malfunctions."
"Record: Player death, minimap icon disappearance delayed..."
After the free testing ended, Qin Feng organized targeted tests.
"Now, everyone chooses a specific hero. Blue team selects Tryndamere, Xin Zhao, Ryze, Ashe, and Soraka. Red team selects Garen, Lee Sin, Annie, Ezreal, Blitzcrank. Test server stress and skill interactions under extreme 5v5 team fight conditions."
The moment ten heroes engaged in the first large-scale team fight in mid-lane, skill light and shadow effects instantly covered the entire screen. On the server monitoring software, the CPU and network utilization curves sharply spiked, emitting piercing alarm sounds.
"Server frame rate dropped! It's about to give out!" Sun Ce shouted from the server room.
Indeed, the screen began to stutter, and the heroes' movements were like a slideshow. Finally, after a complex skill chain (Ryze's E Skill spreading followed by Q, Annie's fully stacked passive stun followed by R), the server process was overwhelmed and crashed directly. All testers' screens instantly froze, then went black, displaying the "Disconnected from server" prompt.
The office fell silent for a moment, then erupted into even louder discussions.
"See! I told you it would blow up!"
"That team fight was so flashy, but it lagged so much I couldn't find myself."
"The server still needs optimization..."
Qin Feng looked at the black screen, but there was no hint of frustration on his face; instead, he smiled. He clapped his hands, attracting everyone's attention.
"Comrades!" His voice carried an irrepressible excitement, "Do you see? This is the prototype of the world we are creating! Although it is currently full of chaos, Bugs, and is even fragile. But!"
He emphasized his tone, his gaze sweeping over every face: "We see its potential! We see the splendor of team fight explosions, the possibilities of skill combos, and the budding of strategic gameplay! Today's test was a great success! It successfully exposed all the problems we had previously theorized on paper!"
He walked to the whiteboard and began to write furiously, categorizing the problems he had just recorded:
[Critical Fatal Issues]: Server crashes, skills causing client crashes, hero units freezing and becoming uncontrollable.
[Severe Experience Impact Issues]: Severe network synchronization delay, abnormal skill judgment, turret/jungle monster logic errors, incorrect gold/experience calculation.
[Optimization Required Issues]: Client performance optimization, UI/UX interaction improvements, skill effects and sound effects refinement, and missing new player guidance.
"Next, our mission is clear!" Qin Feng turned around, his voice firm and resonant, "The technical department, prioritize tackling fatal and severe experience impact Bugs, especially server capacity and core skill synchronization issues. The art and audio departments cooperate to optimize resources and reduce performance overhead. The design team works with me to refine hero stats, item attributes, and map mechanics."
"This is our first step, though faltering, it is incredibly solid. Remember all this chaos today, because in the near future, we will bring order to this chaos, and then..."
He paused, his eyes gleaming with confidence.
"Then, we will bring it to players all over the world and ignite an era!"
The office was silent for a moment, then erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheers. Fatigue was dispelled, replaced by stronger conviction and fighting spirit. The nascent Rift completed its first cry in chaos, and its creators were ready to smooth its rough edges, polish its brilliance, and welcome the arrival of the true test.