As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 216 Hyena
"Let's welcome IG team!"

When the IG team came on the field, the thunderous cheers and shouts made players from other countries realize that the Chinese audience was only cheering and applauding out of courtesy.

For VR games, purely from a visual perspective, the on-site visual effects are not as strong as wearing a helmet at home.

To be honest, in terms of the visual effects of ordinary games, as long as the finals are watched offline, the effect is not as good as lying at home watching a tablet or computer.

Why do so many people still go to watch the games? Do they need to grab tickets for popular matches?

Because of the atmosphere on site, you are surrounded by game enthusiasts like you, and everyone is happy and sad because of the same things. The sense of identity and excitement it brings is far greater than offline.

Although the offline visual effects are not as good as those online, they are incomparable to offline in other aspects.

Chen Ran and Chen Chi also contributed to this game, and some of the game designs were created by them.

Looking at the enthusiastic audience, Chen Ran felt both proud and fearful.

I am proud of my contribution to this game, but I am also wary of Tencent's strong operational capabilities.

The first competition was able to create such a momentum, and the quality of the game itself and the powerful operation of Tencent complement each other.

Chen Chi glanced at Chen Ran, who was standing beside him with a serious expression and tense body, and consoled him:
"Brother Ran, today we are here just to watch the game and relax. Don't think too much. We usually work hard enough."

“No matter how successful Hero’s Doom is, the overlap between our project and Hero’s Doom’s target customer base is very low.”

"Besides, we already have a large number of fans now, so we don't need to worry too much."

Chen Ran and his team named their project "Feather of Breaking the Law", which tells the story of the revival of spiritual energy in the late Ming Dynasty. Against this backdrop, players need to experience all kinds of strange events during the bizarre years of apocalypse.

The main plot is to solve the Wanggongchang explosion that occurred in the southwest corner of Yanjing City in the sixth year of Tianqi and save the lives of more than 20,000 citizens.

The game's setting is mediocre and is not even novel in today's booming entertainment industry.

Just looking at the project, most investors will judge that the investment is large and the risk is high.

However, when the Red Fox Studio founded by Chen Ran and his team released its first promotional video, it quickly sparked heated discussions in the console game circle.

The promotional CG effects are so well done that their realism is among the best in the world.

Players have expectations, but they dare not expect too much, as they have been badly cheated by domestic game manufacturers for so many years.

There are many companies that make CG with their heart and games with their feet.

Judging from the CG animation alone, Red Fox Studio is undoubtedly powerful.

However, there is not a strong correlation between having the ability and whether the game produced is a good one.

Moreover, most players are skeptical about a startup game studio they have never heard of.

The entrepreneurial team of Black Myth Wukong had worked on Red Tide, and the core team had worked on Fighting God before.

The red fox is a mystery to the outside world.

Chen Ran and his team played a CG animation and managed the company's Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili and other accounts. They posted a few renderings from time to time to stimulate players, and then there was no further follow-up.

Until recently, after half a year of polishing, Red Fox Studio released a real-machine demonstration video on Weibo and Bilibili, which quickly set off a wave in the gaming circle.

Players don’t believe in the so-called real-machine demonstration animations of mobile games, but the real-machine demonstration animations of console games are still very credible.

After all, in China's console game circle, word of mouth among players is very important. If you don't sell the product as advertised, you will get a lot of one-star bad reviews when the game is released.

"Feather of the Blade" is a console game that was first released on VR, so the actual game demonstration animation is only available in VR.

The actual demo graphics, which are ahead of all current VR games, have raised players’ expectations to the maximum.

"Just this picture alone will make me buy it."

“This effect is even better than Black Mythology. The immersiveness of Cthulhu is too strong.”

“The most important thing is that the art style has both Chinese architectural style, but the natural scenery in the demonstration screen can clearly feel the weird flavor of Western fantasy.

The combination of these two does not feel abrupt, but rather gives people a feeling that it is meant to be this way.

The main artist of Red Fox is definitely a big shot among big shots. I wonder which big shot in the industry they found.”

“The game mechanics seem a bit similar to the points added in Diablo, and the fighting scenes are relatively conventional. With such excellent graphics, as long as the plot is done with more care, it will definitely be a masterpiece.”

After the actual gameplay demonstration animation came out, Red Fox Studio still maintained its mysterious style and did not accept any media interviews.

Hunger marketing taken to the extreme.

The media can’t figure out who’s behind Red Fox Studios, so can’t the big companies find out either?

Tencent quickly dug out the founding team behind Red Fox Studio.

After all, most of their team members came from Tencent and they still keep in touch with their former colleagues.

"I'm going to send you something good. Check it out on VR's B site. It's absolutely amazing."

"Hey, I thought it was something else, but it turns out to be this."

"This is the most popular console game in the industry recently. The number of views on Bilibili has exceeded one million. A certain uploader converted the video into a flat format and uploaded it to the regular version of Bilibili. The number of views on mobile terminals has exceeded ten million.

This main artist is amazing, and the visual effects are really strong. "

"Oh, the main artist is Tracy."

"Tracy from your group? Right, you two went to the same company. Is this the product your company made?"

"Yeah, we're in the group of me and Tracy, we're in Red Fox now."

“You are really lucky, you are involved in the production of this project, and you might be a veteran of a major gaming company.

Tracy didn't have that ability back then. From what I know about her, she's at least a step away from the artistic level in your actual gameplay demo video.

If she has this level, Tencent will definitely not let her go easily."

"Won't they make progress?"

"Don't give me that. It's not that easy to make progress in the field of art. We are all veterans, so don't fool me.

"She has been working at Tencent for more than three years. If she had this potential, she would have been developed by Old Wu long ago."

"Okay, okay. We have external help in art. We have invited some great artists from Europe and America to do the selection and style integration."

"I said, you still want to fool me! Are you still short of people? I'll come and join you."

“Yes, we are always looking for people. You have seen the CG animation and actual gameplay video of Feather of the Spellbreaker. The investment in this game is comparable to that of a 3A masterpiece, so we are definitely short of people.

Moreover, we want to make VR platform games, but there are very few people in China who have experience in VR development, and most of them are in large companies.

The treatment we offer is no less than that of Tencent, and the job location is in Dongguan City. If you want to come and join us, I can help you with the internal recommendation.

Our current boss is Lao Chen, Chen Ran, you should know him. "

The reason why employees in large companies are keen on recommending others is not because they want to form cliques, but because if the people they recommend successfully pass the interview and get the job, they can get a per capita fee.

The amount of money depends on the position of the referral, and the maximum amount can be more than 100,000 yuan. The reward is still very generous, and some people in large companies earn more than their normal salary by doing this.

Chen Ran was an employee who left Tencent, and since Chihu Studio was indeed short of staff, they also learned this mechanism.

“I know him. We’ve talked a few times before. Chen Ran has a broad vision and his own unique understanding of games.

It’s no surprise that he leads the team. I always thought that Chen Ran just lacked an opportunity.

Please help me push myself, I really want to move a little bit."

Some people wanted to go to Chihu, but some people were unwilling to move, so they told their superiors after hearing the news.

That's how the news got out.

Tencent soon found out that the production team of "Feather of the Lawbreakers" was basically made up of Tencent people.

Originally, Tencent's investment department had sufficient budget every year to deploy all of this ammunition.

Even in today's stagflation, as the de facto monopolist in China's social field, Tencent has less funds available for investment, but it is still huge.

Moreover, with its success in scientific and technological innovation, Tencent's investment department has more authority to invest in companies that truly have core values.

This time, Chen Ran and Chen Chi came to Pengcheng and were able to obtain tickets to the finals so smoothly, thanks to the instructions of Tencent executives.

They wanted to take the opportunity to talk to Chen Ran and achieve their goal of acquiring shares.

"Kid survived. With the Apollo Bow and the terrain advantage in the Fra Cave, Kid killed the two remaining members of FAZE!"

"Yes, Kid survived to the end, and IG became the winner of the last game. They fought to the end."

"After a month of competition, IG won the first place in the total score and won the first "Heroes of Doom" global finals daily cup!"

"It was really not easy. The strength of the four teams in the final was very close. IG's victory was due to luck, but the decisive factor must be their own strong strength."

"FAZE's performance in the final round was a bit abnormal. Why did they run to the Vla Cave? They could have dealt with Kid outside."

"Maybe he wants to find the sacred fire. After all, Kid is holding a sacred weapon, so even if it's two against one, there's no guarantee of victory."

"But they didn't expect Kid's last two arrows to be so accurate, leaving them no chance of survival."

"I think it was when Ze Yuan was commentating on the last game that he said FAZE had the best chance of winning the championship. Later in the final round, when they had only two players left, their keyboards started to bleed milk."

"You can't blame me for this. In the first three rounds, including this year's FAZE's performance in the European League, it was indeed the best.

All I can say is that winning in e-sports requires a combination of strength and luck.”

"The principal smiled very proudly."

"Of course. After all, IG not only won the first championship trophy of China's finals, but also the first championship trophy of the global hero doomsday project."

"Yes, and it was witnessed by 30,000 spectators on site and tens of millions of viewers in front of the screen."

A competition of this level of attention is much more valuable than the championship of League of Legends S1.

When League of Legends S1 was launched, there were only dozens of spectators. It is estimated that no one at the scene at that time could have imagined that just five years later, the same game would be watched by tens of thousands of people.

Chen Ran couldn't help but sigh: "This is the fun of e-sports. No wonder it is said that competing with others is endless fun."

"Our next game will also be a PVP game, and I also want to create a similar ecosystem."

Chen Chi said: "In fact, we can create a series of games around Feather of the Breaker."

“We can create different types of games around world view and plot.”

"Blizzard's World of Warcraft has created a series of classic works, and DOTA2 is derived from Blizzard's world view."

“We could definitely take a similar approach.”

"The revival of spiritual energy in the late Ming Dynasty can become a very rich worldview. We can slowly fill in its details."

"The resurrection of spiritual energy leads to a different historical trend and a different collision between the East and the West."

"If you take one of these aspects, it would be enough to make a PVP game."

Not only Blizzard builds games around the same world view, but Riot does the same, and has been making different types of games around League of Legends.

Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls, etc.

It’s just that the series of games built around the Warcraft world view is the most successful.

After watching the game, the friend who helped them get tickets to the finals invited Chen Ran and Chen Chi to dinner.

Chen Ran's friend complained to him that there would be uninvited guests this time.

"Brother Ran, Levi, the executive director of Tencent's investment department, will also attend the dinner tonight."

"Who is Levi? The name sounds familiar, but I don't think I've seen him before."

"Levi is an executive in the investment department who is responsible for gaming investments. He heard that you and I know each other and that we're going to have dinner together tonight, so he specifically asked to invite him along.

I really can't refuse.

As for the purpose of his attending this dinner, I think you should be very clear about it.

Red Fox Studio has been very popular recently and is a hot commodity. Tencent, as a well-known hyena in the gaming industry, will definitely not miss this opportunity.

I really couldn't refuse, after all, he was my boss's boss.

When he comes to our dinner party, just treat whatever he says as nonsense and we will just eat our food.

I will treat you guys to another meal tomorrow."

Tencent’s own employees do not shy away from criticizing their own company.

After all, employees who can enter Tencent to make games have all gone through layers of interviews, and most of them have a passion for games.

If you are passionate about games, you will naturally be dissatisfied with the series of operations carried out by Tencent.

At the dinner, Hao Rui did not mention the investment in Red Fox Studio at all. Instead, he shared interesting stories from his career.

Another thing is to share with Chen Ran the experiences of success or failure of some of the projects he has invested in, because Chen Ran is also in the entrepreneurial stage.

Those who can become senior executives of Tencent, especially those in the investment department, are all smart people.

After the meal, Chen Ran felt refreshed. He had a very enjoyable chat and a very satisfying meal.

After the meal, the four of them went to the tea room to drink tea before getting down to business.

After Chen Ran's friend called Chen Chi away, Hao Rui went straight to the point:
“Ryan, your project has great potential. Feather of the Blade is the most promising VR blockbuster I have ever seen.

But there is still a long way to go from potential to success.”

(End of this chapter)