Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 270 Starry Sky Peripherals
Beijing Capital International Airport, Terminal 3.

A black Buick minivan smoothly drove out of the parking lot and merged into the continuous flow of traffic.

Outside the car window, the sky over the capital city had a slightly hazy quality, and the steel forest composed of skyscrapers and overpasses rushed past.

Inside the car, Yue Xiuyuan, the person in charge of Xingchen Games' peripheral business, sat by the window. He felt that the collar of his suit was a little tight, and he subconsciously reached out and tugged at it, but to no avail.

Logically speaking, he is older than Chu Chen and has been in the industry longer.

However, being alone with the "boss" still made him inexplicably nervous, while Chu Chen, sitting next to him, seemed much more relaxed.

As the vehicle merged onto the airport expressway, the ride became increasingly smooth.

How many of the collaboration phone gift boxes have been produced?

Chu Chen spoke as he flipped through the documents; his voice was soft, but it clearly reached Yue Xiuyuan's ears.

Yue Xiuyuan jolted awake and immediately sat up straight.

"The first batch of 100,000 sets has been basically completed. The phones provided by Xiaomi were also delivered to our factory in batches the day before yesterday. The assembly work has been mostly completed and will definitely be ready for the official launch."

"Ah."

Chu Chen responded with a sound of agreement, and then said nothing more.

He simply said "hmm," and then his gaze fell on the report in his hand. It was a neatly bound report with the name "Azur Lane" printed on the cover.

Yue Xiuyuan was somewhat unfamiliar with the name, but judging from Chu Chen's occasional relaxed and slightly furrowed brows, the person who wrote this report was probably in for trouble.

As expected, after reading for a while, Chu Chen closed the report and then sent a voice message to his secretary. It seemed that he was adjusting his schedule and would be going to the Azur Lane development team after finishing his business in the capital.

Just when I was thinking that the person who wrote this report would not only "suffer" but also be quite valued.

"By the way," Chu Chen looked up from the document and suddenly asked, "What's the yield rate for the deluxe version's back cover?"

"It has stabilized at over 95%."

Yue Xiuyuan answered immediately.

"The OEM factory in Xiaomi's supply chain has relatively mature technology, but the price is a bit high. The etching and electroplating cost of a single back cover accounts for more than half of the gift box cost."

"It's alright, cost isn't an issue."

Chu Chen closed the report, tossed it back into his bag, and leaned back in his chair, relaxing once more.

How are the surrounding shopping malls doing lately?

The topic shifted quickly, and Yue Xiuyuan swiftly adjusted his demeanor, switching from a "spectator" back to the role of department head.

"The mall is growing very well."

He pulled a briefing from his briefcase. Although he knew that Chu Chen had most likely already seen the electronic report he sent, he still wanted to maintain the proper formality of the presentation in person.

This is what makes veterans who have been in the workforce for over a decade "different" from younger employees.

"This quarter, our total sales increased by 15% compared to last month, and the monthly repurchase rate of users remained stable at around 20%, which is already a very good figure in the vertical e-commerce field." "Okay, continue."

Chu Chen nodded, signaling him to continue.

"The category expansion is also going smoothly. In addition to the daily necessities you previously set, such as water cups, tissues, and garbage bags, we have recently tried to launch a few products that are more closely related to the game content."

When Yue Xiuyuan talked about his professional field, his nervousness subsided considerably, replaced by a sense of confidence.

As someone who could become the head of a separate department within Xingchen, Yue Xiuyuan was certainly no ordinary person.

He is currently in his early 30s. He graduated in his early 20s and worked as a channel manager at Taobao. He then switched to JD.com and resigned from JD.com in 14 to join Dimension Warehouse.

By the end of 16, when Chu Chen recruited them, Dimengcang, as one of the first companies in China to attempt vertical e-commerce for ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) products, had already secured 3000 million yuan in funding.

However, Yue Xiuyuan still jumped to Chu Chen's side.

On the one hand, it's because by the end of 16, Xingchen was already a "large enterprise".

Secondly, there is Starry Sky's profit-sharing model. In addition to the base salary and KPI bonus, the studio will conduct "studio financial accounting" every year and distribute profits to the Starry Sky peripheral operations team.

This is a unique feature of Starry Night. Basically, all the studios receive 10%+10%. In short, if Starry Night's merchandise earns 100 million this year, the Starry Night merchandise team can get at least 10 million in bonuses, and he personally can also get 10 million.

This profit-sharing mechanism has an unparalleled impact on individuals.

At Dimension Warehouse, although Yue Xiuyuan is the main person in charge of operations, he doesn't actually own any shares and is essentially still a "high-level employee."

Under these circumstances, the proposal Xingchen offered was simply an offer that was impossible to refuse.

Therefore, since Yue Xiuyuan joined the Xingchen Peripheral team at the end of 16, he has been working extremely hard, wishing he could stretch 24 hours into 48 hours, and spending more than half of his time on the Xingchen Peripheral Mall.

At Xingchen, you don't need to worry about work enthusiasm. The only thing you need to worry about is whether Chu Chen will be dissatisfied with your work and replace you with a new person in charge.

Therefore, after taking office, Yue Xiuyuan's first priority was to prove himself, starting with establishing the Starry Night Peripheral Studio, recruiting operations staff, selecting products, managing inventory, and cooperating with logistics partners.
Sleep? Not a chance. My dreams are filled with how to optimize product pages and improve conversion rates.

Eating? Just a quick bite will do; my mind is full of product selection, supply chain, logistics, warehousing...

These days, how many bosses are as generous as Chu Chen, directly giving away 10% of their annual profits? More importantly, you have to understand that this profit sharing is based on the fact that Xingchen has already "started to snowball".

Furthermore, before Yue Xiuyuan joined the company, Xingchen had already created some star products, so Yue Xiuyuan was essentially "standardizing" the process.

He first went through all the suppliers for each product category from beginning to end, squeezing out some of the "excess" suppliers.

As someone who deals with suppliers year-round, Yue Xiuyuan has his own standards for quality and cost, things that Chu Chen was unaware of before.

After all, Chu Chen doesn't work in the supply chain, and he never did related work in his previous life.

As Yue Xiuyuan began to streamline the supply chain, starting in February of this year, there were more discounts on Xingchen merchandise, and prices were actually decreasing.

However, the revenue from Starry Night merchandise and the quality control of Starry Night merchandise have improved significantly.

The variety of related merchandise has also increased. In addition to the usual merchandise such as pillows and acrylic signs, laser tickets and star sand stationery have also entered the mass production stage.

(End of this chapter)