Restart life

Chapter 165 0162 [Follow Tencent's path, leaving Tengzi with nowhere to go]

Since you're the boss, you need a secretary.

Chen Guiliang currently has an administrative secretary.

The secretary's name is Hu Yuexia, 28 years old, and she graduated from Beijing Finance and Trade Management Cadre College (junior college). This school was renamed Beijing Finance and Trade Vocational College two years ago.

She was recruited directly from Sohu by Wei Xiaokang, a newly hired HR employee, and was responsible for handling emails, screening phone calls, archiving documents, taking meeting minutes, receiving visitors, and so on.

Chen Guiliang has not yet hired an executive assistant, so Hu Yuexia will also have to take on some of the assistant's responsibilities.

"Mr. Chen, Mr. Liu from Pixel Software has returned to Beijing and said you can go see him anytime," Hu Yuexia said.

Chen Guiliang said, "Arrange a car, I'll go over this afternoon. Please let them know as well."

The company recently bought two cars.

A domestically produced Audi A4; whichever senior executive in the company goes out in it. It's not anyone's personal vehicle.

A large Jinbei van can be used for both carrying people and goods.

Before leaving Beijing, Chen Guiliang had to go to Changping to talk with Pixel Software Studio.

This is one of the four major game studios in China, and its representative work is "Blade & Soul".

At that time, Pixel Software's office was located in Zhongguancun Changping Park. The location was quite remote, more than 20 kilometers away from Peking University, but the air quality was decent.

They agreed to meet at 3 p.m., but Chen Guiliang went alone in an Audi, without bringing anyone with him.

"Mr. Liu, I've arrived."

"Please wait a moment, I'll come down to get you."

Not long after, a man in his late twenties came downstairs wearing a wrinkled T-shirt.

He is Liu Kun, the owner of Pixel Software.

"I apologize for disturbing you," Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Liu Kun explained, "It's not that I'm arrogant. I received a call from your company a few days ago, but I wasn't in Beijing at the time; I was busy discussing cooperation with our agents in Taiwan."

"Has Swordsman Online been sold to Taiwan?" Chen Guiliang asked.

"Sold." Liu Kun was too embarrassed to say that the agency fee wasn't much.

Chen Guiliang smiled and said, "Congratulations, congratulations."

Liu Kun invited Chen Guiliang to visit the company, which was quite shabby to be honest.

The studio had only 11 core members and did not outsource anything. They created "Blade & Soul" in 8 months and then spent another two years developing the online version.

Even though they currently operate "Swordsman Online" themselves, the total number of full-time employees is less than 25.

No wonder the game's operation hasn't been very successful.

Liu Kun led Chen Guiliang on a tour of the company and asked, "Mr. Chen, would you like to become the distributor of 'Swordsman Online'?"

"Is that alright?" Chen Guiliang asked in return.

Liu Kun shook his head repeatedly: "We operate our own games."

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: Then the operation couldn't continue, and he was forced to let Sohu act as his agent. It turned out that Sohu was also a terrible company.

Chen Guiliang wasn't interested in "Swordsman Online"; he had his eye on Liu Kun's studio.

There are not many teams in China that have developed their own game engines.

Moreover, the other companies couldn't poach him either.

Seasun is backed by Kingsoft Corporation.

The owner of Perfect World is himself a wealthy man.

The Pixel Software Studio in front of us is like a guerrilla group without any backing.

Chen Guiliang said, "I greatly admire Pixel Software's team spirit and your passion for the game industry. I also really like 'Blade & Soul.' Is there any possibility of collaboration?"

Liu Kun flatly refused: "We want to maintain our independence and not be disturbed by any external factors."

Chen Guiliang likes people who are so pure, but only if they don't talk business.

"I also want to develop my own game engine. Could I borrow two people from your team?" Chen Guiliang asked as a second choice.

With the involvement of two experienced professionals, Chen Guiliang's game engine development time could be shortened by at least six months!
The Pixel Software team, in particular, excels at delivering the impactful feel of fighting games.

Liu Kun shook his head and said, "We are busy optimizing the engine, and no one can leave."

Sigh, they won't sell it, and they won't lend it to anyone.

Chen Guiliang said, "We can cooperate. I'll lend you two people, and you lend me five, for a year and a half. I'll pay all seven of their salaries!"

"Isn't that unnecessary?" Liu Kun still refused.

Chen Guiliang said, "The five people I'm giving you are all top students from prestigious universities. They learn things very quickly. They can get the hang of things in just one month, which will greatly improve the efficiency of your studio."

Liu Kun was both amused and exasperated: "I lent you two people to help you develop the engine and lead the team. And you sent five more people to steal my technology? You've taken all the benefits."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Do you really think you can succeed in the long run by going it alone? Your R&D capabilities are strong, but your business management is terrible. The single-player version of 'Blade & Soul' was so popular, how many copies did it sell?"

"Sales are pretty good," Liu Kun said.

Sales of tens of thousands of units were indeed quite good in 2002.

Chen Guiliang said, "Make a downloadable and installable version of 'Blade & Sword: The Demon' and I'll put it on the Youke Interactive Games platform for you to sell. I don't know how many copies it will sell, but at least it will generate some sales."

Liu Kun was intrigued: "How will we split the profits?"

“The platform only takes 25%,” Chen Guiliang said. Game platforms usually take 30%, but Chen Guiliang was willing to take less. The main reason was that the domestic single-player game market was in such a dire state; platforms and developers should work together to expand the market.

Liu Kun readily agreed: "Sure."

He added, "But other collaborations still need to be considered."

"Does Pixel Software accept investment?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Without even thinking, Liu Kun said, "I won't accept it."

So outdated and inflexible!
Chen Guiliang said, "We'll still do the same exchange and cooperation, swapping 2 and 5 employees, and I'll cover all seven salaries. But the timeframe will be shortened to six months. We'll also offer a 50% discount on banner ads for 'Swordsman Online' on Renren.com for half a month."

ByteDance and Game Science have already separated, so Game Science will have to make up for the 50% discount.

The company that develops game engines is, of course, Game Science!

Instead of directly refusing, Liu Kun said, "I can license the engine of the sword to you for a fee. That way, you won't have to develop it yourself."

“I want to develop an engine for a side-scrolling game with graphics similar to those in old arcade games,” Chen Guiliang said. “Currently, there are no suitable commercial engines on the market, so I have to develop one myself. Your engine is not suitable either, but it is similar and can shorten my development cycle.”

Liu Kun's eyes lit up: "An arcade-like game? Single-player or online?"

"Online games," Chen Guiliang said.

“Okay, I agree. I’ll lend you two partners who are in charge of physics collision and rendering optimization!” Liu Kun found this to be a novel idea.

Chen Guiliang uses his people to lead the team, and his people can also gain relevant experience.

Moreover, Liu Kun has high expectations for this kind of side-scrolling arcade-style online game.

What is Chen Guiliang trying to do?
Of course, we'll make a game similar to "Dungeon Fighter Online".

Dungeon Fighter Online has been developed by Koreans and will be released for public beta in two months.

But it's still a long way off before it can enter China.

In another timeline, due to the large number of Chinese companies wanting to distribute the game, the developers of "Dungeon & Fighter" took the opportunity to raise prices.

One Chinese agent after another negotiated with the Koreans, going through more than a year of back-and-forth, but all were scared off by the high prices demanded by the Koreans.

And so it dragged on, a game that was in open beta in 2005 was finally acquired by Tencent in December 2007, and then it was delayed until March 2008 before it finally entered closed beta in China.

As for the public beta test date, it will have to wait until June 2008.

That means it's been a full three years!
Three years is enough time for Chen Guiliang to develop his own game, including a self-developed game engine.

Chen Guiliang could even try to sabotage the deal by deliberately offering a higher price to compete with Tencent. Given the money-grubbing nature of South Koreans, Chen Guiliang's interference could likely delay the sale to Tencent for another six months.

Three and a half years have passed, and the opportunity is gone.

After finalizing the cooperation agreement, Chen Guiliang returned to Game Science Company.

Xu Fengyin was happily drawing hero cards. This time, she drew Zhu Rong's chest to be particularly large, and her thighs were also exposed, making them look particularly strong and attractive.

It wasn't Chen Guiliang's request; it was purely Xu Fengyin's own perverse sense of humor.

Because Xun Yu and Yuan Shao were sold separately in advance, the upcoming "Three Kingdoms Kill" game will use Meng Huo and Zhu Rong as substitutes for the fire pack generals.

The new version of Fire Pack will be available during the summer vacation.

"Xu Fengyin, the boss wants to see you!"

"Oh."

Several months have passed since the embarrassing incident when she first joined the company, and Xu Fengyin is no longer afraid of her boss.

Because the boss didn't seem to have seen what the comic book was.

Chen Guiliang asked, "Do you have any senior students majoring in animation who are not only technically very skilled, but also familiar with comics and arcade games?"

"I need to ask about that," Xu Fengyin said.

Chen Guiliang said, "The mission is urgent, we only have three days. If you can't find a suitable candidate, I'll have to find a headhunting firm."

Xu Fengyin said, "I'll ask right now."

"Go ahead and get busy, thank you for your help," Chen Guiliang said.

"Goodbye boss."

Xu Fengyin walked away lightly, but then a voice came from behind her: "Tentacles are disgusting, I prefer pure love."

Upon hearing this, Xu Fengyin almost tripped and fell.

She turned around and explained, "I don't like it either. I borrowed that comic book from someone else. Otherwise, why would I bring it to the capital? I was just afraid someone would lose it."

“I believe you,” Chen Guiliang said with a smile.

Once things were out in the open, it wasn't so awkward anymore. Xu Fengyin retorted, "Do you think fans of 'Ranma 1/2' would like that kind of tentacle thing? I like pure love too, okay!"

Chen Guiliang asked, "Is Ranma 1/2 also an H-manga?"

"It's a legitimate comic! My online name is Tendou Akane, which is the female protagonist of that comic," Xu Fengyin emphasized.

"Oh, I'll take a look when I have time." Chen Guiliang had never actually seen this thing before.

Xu Fengyin returned to her workstation and contacted her classmates and teachers via mobile phone and QQ. That very evening, she found a very suitable senior.

That senior has already started working and earns a monthly salary of 9000 yuan.

Xu Fengyin had Chen Guiliang's phone number and immediately called to report the situation.

“Tell your senior that I’ll give him a monthly salary of 1 yuan, plus a housing allowance, and all the social insurances and housing fund contributions will be covered,” Chen Guiliang added, revealing a powerful weapon: “If he does well in the future, I can help him get a Beijing residency permit!”

(End of this chapter)