Restart life

Chapter 362 0349 [You Ke's Rapid Advance]

"Brother Cong!"

Good morning, Brother Cong!

"..."

Meng Zicong walked into the company with his head held high and chest out, and employees greeted him as he passed by.

He wasn't a key figure at Target Software before; he was just an ordinary member of the "Three Kingdoms: Heroes of the Ages" team.

Because "Three Kingdoms Online 2" was halfway through development, it suddenly changed from a single-player game to an online game, causing a large number of veteran employees to quit in anger. For example, Wang Tao jumped ship to Sohu and created "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils".

Meng Zicong didn't dare to switch jobs because he was worried that he wasn't capable enough and that there was no future for him if he went to another big company. He continued to stay in the "Three Kingdoms Online" project team.

One day, Chen Guiliang, the CEO of Game Science, personally added him on QQ, wanting to poach him.

Because the salary was relatively high, Meng Zicong agreed without much thought.

Afterwards, chatting with former colleagues, Meng Zicong finally learned that Chen Guiliang had poached several people, but only he agreed to switch jobs. Everyone else looked down on Game Science, believing the company could only make card games.

Thus, Meng Zicong became the producer of "Future Era" and also served as the leader of the self-developed engine team.

Become famous in World War I!
During this year's Spring Festival, several major companies, including Tencent, quietly tried to poach him.

Tencent offered an annual salary of 100 million yuan, plus substantial project bonuses, and even bonuses for creating a hit product.

Meng Zicong, of course, would not agree.

His annual salary at Game Science wasn't as high as what Tencent offered, but after the huge success of "Future Era," his boss immediately gave him stock options. These options would take four years to vest; switching jobs midway would forfeit them.

Furthermore, the option agreement stipulates that if Game Science does not go public, the options will also be entitled to dividends. With company approval, the options can also be transferred.

In addition to stock options, there are also project bonuses and game profit sharing!

Tencent did agree to offer these benefits, but he would only receive the full amount if the game became a hit. The uncertainty was too great, so he was unwilling to risk switching jobs.

Meng Zicong is satisfied with his current situation, but he is also gradually becoming dissatisfied.

He wanted to speed up the development of the "Future Era" expansion pack and also wanted to develop more money-making game content, because this would allow him to earn more bonuses and dividends.

However, the operations team said that the boss had been intervening to suppress the game, forbidding excessive monetization and slowing down the update process.

Meng Zicong knew that President Chen wanted to operate the game for the long term, but some of the gameplay wasn't really excessively pay-to-win. He felt it was just right, much better than the exploitative practices of "The Emperor's Reign" and "Conquer Online".

Sigh, Mr. Chen is good in every way, but unfortunately he's too cautious.

There's also the already approved project, "My Own Swordsman," which Meng Zicong wanted to take on, but President Chen chose Feng Ji, a newcomer.

This made Meng Zicong particularly unhappy.

However, he couldn't say anything, since "Future Era" hadn't even officially launched its open beta when Feng Ji started collecting data. It was impossible for him to work on two games simultaneously.

Just two weeks ago, Feng Ji actually selected several key personnel from his studio and took them away. Especially the engine team members, all of whom were Meng Zicong's confidants, which made Meng Zicong extremely unhappy!
"Good morning, Brother Cong." Feng Ji nodded and smiled.

"Ah."

Meng Zicong didn't give him a friendly look, but he couldn't lose his temper either, after all, you can't hit someone who's smiling at you.

Feng Ji was actually quite embarrassed, but he forced a smile and said, "I'd like to borrow one of the system planners from Future Studio. President Chen has already agreed..."

Meng Zicong, not being very shrewd, immediately turned even uglier: "Borrow from whom?"

Feng Ji said, "Li Haichuan."

Meng Zicong's facial muscles twitched with anger: "Can't you hire people yourself? Why do you have to poach from me? You've almost emptied my team!"

Feng Ji quickly explained, "We are hiring. But the newly hired ones can't be used yet; the veterans have to train them. Once I've trained the new people, I'll definitely return Li Haichuan to you."

Meng Zicong said sarcastically, "President Chen has already agreed, so you can just take the person away directly. There's no need to come all the way here."

After saying that, he went into his office and slammed the door shut behind him.

Feng Ji hesitated, standing there for a long time before turning away to do his own thing.

The larger the company, the more internal conflicts it will have; this is perfectly normal.

But Meng Zicong is indeed a bit petty. "Future Era" is already on the right track, and his team has not taken on any new projects. They only need to be responsible for the subsequent updates and maintenance of the game.

In this situation, there's really no need for so many people; "lending" a few to Feng Ji wouldn't be a big deal. It could even be considered a more rational use of human resources.

"Feng Ji, the boss wants to see you!"

"Coming."

Feng Ji hurriedly ran to Chen Guiliang to report on the progress of his work.

Chen Guiliang asked, "How's 'My Own Swordsman' coming along?"

Feng Ji said, "The initial team is almost complete, with a total of 20 people. In the next 6 to 8 months, we will conduct game pre-research and build core technologies. The budget for this stage is about 260 million to 280 million yuan."

"The next phase is full-scale development, which is expected to take one and a half to two years. The team will need at least 80 people, and may even need 100. The budget for this phase is approximately 2500 million to 3000 million yuan."

Feng Ji didn't elaborate on the situation in the third stage, because he himself was unclear about it.

Currently, Game Science has only about 300 employees.

Feng Ji, however, said that when he was fully developing "Wulin Gaiden", he would need a team of about 100 people... Chen Guiliang felt that this was unreliable: "The second phase requires a team of 100 people. You can do it with a budget of 20 to 30 million?"

Feng Ji said, "I will try to spend money sparingly and will definitely not exceed 3500 million."

Well, another 500 million has been added to the budget in the blink of an eye, so this stage will probably cost more than 4000 million.

The total cost of the game before its official launch is very likely to be around 60 to 70 million.

In the current domestic game industry, this is definitely one of the top super projects.

But Chen Guiliang didn't think it was too expensive. His bottom line was 1 million yuan, because Feng Ji was doing this project.

Who doesn't know that Feng Ji likes to spend money?
Currently, Pixel Software has completed the development of "Seeking Immortals" and handed it over to Tencent for distribution.

In another timeline, Feng Ji is about to be poached by Tencent. He's going from a small game operations company to being directly recruited by Tencent to manage the game "Seeking Immortals".

As a result, the release date of "Seeking Immortals" was postponed.

Because Feng Ji was causing too much trouble, constantly giving suggestions to the developers. One minute he'd ask for more plot, the next for more special effects, and then he'd want to change this and that.

Pixel Software was driven almost crazy by Feng Ji. They believed that they had finished making the game, handed it over to Tencent for distribution, and that was it. They could simply fix bugs and update content step by step later.

But when it came into Feng Ji's hands, "Seeking Immortals" was considered a half-finished product and needed to be revised repeatedly...

Chen Guiliang liked this work attitude.

Moreover, Feng Ji, like the director of "The Wandering Earth," possesses succubus-like qualities.

When he resigned from Tencent, six of his colleagues stayed with him and never broke up no matter what happened.

They made a disastrous game midway through their project, losing all their money and running out of funds. The industry generally didn't have high hopes for them. But Wu Dan only talked to him for half an hour before Feng Ji persuaded him to invest tens of millions of yuan, and in return, he only took 20% of Game Science's shares.

"I plan to make the game as realistic as possible, including the combat system," Feng Ji said.

Chen Guiliang's eyelids twitched.

What kind of trouble are they up to now?

Feng Ji said, "Including the light-footwork system, it needs to truly give you the feeling of flying over rooftops and scaling walls. I've been studying the movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' these past few days. Imagine, in very realistic Ming Dynasty streets and alleys, players leap up from walls and gracefully land on rooftops. Players chase and fight each other on the rooftops, with the clear blue sky and bright moon above and the lights of thousands of homes below. That kind of scene is truly a treat!"

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: I just hope you don't make it so that even 1 million isn't enough.

Feng Ji continued, "The combat system needs to balance casual and advanced players. Most of the skills must be targeted, allowing casual players to fight smoothly. But a few killer moves should be non-targeting, so that advanced players can also enjoy the game and raise the combat ceiling."

Chen Guiliang nodded: "That's a good idea."

Feng Ji added, "I want to make a pay-to-play game, selling only prepaid cards and monthly subscriptions, without selling any other items. It will be comparable to World of Warcraft!"

Chen Guiliang said, "You decide what to do."

"Huh?" Feng Ji was stunned.

Is Mr. Chen really that easy to talk to?

It's the era of free-to-play games now, so why would Mr. Chen, who's invested so much money, agree to let me make a paid game?
Chen Guiliang said, "You handle it as you see fit. You don't need to report the progress to me before we enter the full-scale research and development phase."

"Thank you for your trust, boss!"

Feng Ji was instantly filled with ambition and wanted to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

Watching Feng Ji leave, Chen Guiliang thought of Tencent.

What would "Seeking Immortals" be like without Feng Ji's nitpicking?
The initial idea for "Dou Zhan Shen" should already be in Liu Dan's mind. Without Feng Ji's involvement, what kind of game would Tencent's "Dou Zhan Shen" become?

If Feng Ji hadn't participated in "Dou Zhan Shen," he wouldn't have met those friends. Would he still be able to create "Black Myth: Wukong" later? Or would he even have the idea of ​​making a black monkey?
It's all chaos!
Soon, Qu Guohao was summoned again.

Chen Guiliang said, "I plan to start another project, a game similar to Dota. But the way we connect to the internet will be different. The client will connect to the official server, and we'll make money by selling skins and such."

"No... Mr. Chen," Qu Guohao jumped up, "we're already working on 'Wulin Gaiden,' and I heard from Feng Ji that the costs are extremely high. The company is also working on some other small games. Why are you launching another project? You're in such a rush!"

Chen Guiliang, however, brought up something else: "Founder Group has completely moved out, leaving only an import and export business department. The office space they vacated has been rented by Youke and ByteDance, with each company taking half. The company is already quite cramped, and we still need to hire a lot of people, so we'll do some simple renovations in the newly rented office space."

Qu Guohao said, "I mean, could we postpone the new project?"

Chen Guiliang said, "This new project has the potential to make us the largest game company in China!"

Qu Guohao could no longer object. He called himself the general manager, but in reality, he was just an employee. The boss was determined to do things his own way, and no one could persuade him otherwise.

Qu Guohao simply reminded them, "Youke is about to inject capital into ByteDance to fulfill ByteDance's stock repurchase agreement. We need to keep some funds in reserve."

“I know,” Chen Guiliang reminded him, “You and ByteDance should put on a show with the other shareholders to postpone the investment as much as possible.”

Wait until the subprime crisis erupts before repurchasing!
This is a normal operation; repurchasing shares requires raising funds.

When Tencent was forced to repurchase its shares, it took three months to raise the initial funds. Moreover, the entire repurchase plan was carried out in several phases, taking a full year in total.

Chen Guiliang strolled over to Xu Fengyin's workstation, where the beautiful woman was officially revising Yasuo's original artwork.

"Have you made arrangements with the art department yet?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Xu Fengyin said, "Two people are willing to come. One is my senior classmate, and the other is a master I met in the anime community."

(End of this chapter)