I want to make a game

In August 1998, Plants vs. Zombies was officially released. The game was actually developed by Han Dynasty in less than one month, but it took another two months of testing and perfection in an attitude of striving for excellence.

There is almost no publicity for this game, and many users accidentally discovered it in the Han Dynasty flagship store on Taobao International.

19 US dollars is almost the lowest-priced game in the game industry today, especially since the author of this game is signed by Liu Zhiyuan, it is like picking it up for free.

In just half a month, Plants vs. Zombies sold more than 10 million copies, and looking at the trend, selling 30 million copies is not a problem at all.

After all, given the price, being able to buy a game designed by the God of Games himself for $19 is still very attractive to players.

"How should I put it? This is not Liu Zhiyuan's work. Except for the first few games, it seems that he has not presided over the development of such a simple game for a long time."

The major game rating agencies can now change their name to the Han Dynasty Game Rating Agency. There is no other way. The Han Dynasty released no less than 50 games in 1998 alone.

Although most of them are very average, this output makes it the most productive company in the history of the game field.

"However, I think this game is popular among players precisely because of its simplicity. It has a clear menu and extremely easy to use gameplay. I will give it a 9 points for the time being."

"The image is clear and runs well. I haven't found a bug so far. 9 points."

"Relaxing and interesting background music, cute game characters, and even some plant science. This is a very suitable game for children, 9.5 points"

"Amazing creativity. Zombies are usually a symbol of horror, but the mind of the God of Games is obviously different from ordinary people. This game has nothing to do with horror, 9.5 points."

"With 3 modes, 50 levels, and several mini-games, its playability is far beyond imagination, with a score of 9.5."

"The pinnacle of casual games? If it weren't for Liu Zhiyuan, I would give it this rating, but I'm sorry, God knows what other amazing ideas the god of games has, 9.5 points."

"To tell you the truth, I now have one more task when I go home every day, which is to play Plants vs. Zombies with my little Tony. The Han Dynasty definitely wants this game to be a family-friendly game, 9.5 points."

"..."

9.3 points, this is the score of Plants vs. Zombies half a month later.

Coupled with its sales of more than 10 million, not only the outside world was shocked, but even many people within the Han Dynasty were confused.

In their opinion, Plants vs. Zombies is obviously very average. Why is it rated so highly?

Even if the reviews are high, what is the sales upward trend chart that is almost 90 degrees?

In other words, the Han Dynasty has created too many sales miracles in the past few years, otherwise the sales volume of more than 10 million copies in half a month would definitely be a terrifying record.

"Today we will talk about a few casual 'small' games."

This time, Liu Zhiyuan deliberately emphasized the small game.

"President, please spare us."

"We were wrong, we shouldn't question the God of Games' decision."

"Mr. Liu, what about the expansion of the casual game development team? I want to go there."

"..."

The atmosphere of the meeting was very harmonious. Liu Zhiyuan is famous in the company for his lack of airs. He rarely even wears formal clothes in the company.

This is just for the scene in front of me. The Han Dynasty is neither an insurance company nor a sales company. Why do you wear such formal clothes?

For these brain-intensive employees, we should make them feel as comfortable as possible, so as to minimize the influence of the outside world and allow them to focus more on development.

"Sorry to disappoint you all, this group will not be expanded for the time being."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sound of disappointment below. Now no one dares to underestimate these casual games. For only 19 US dollars, a net profit of 12 US dollars!

In the Han Dynasty buyout system game, this profit can rank in the top 30.

"It seems that everyone has understood the value of these 'small' games, so let's have a summary meeting of Plants vs. Zombies first."

Plants vs. Zombies has historically been rated as high as 9. If EA hadn't turned it into a gold-earning game later due to its popularity, this game would have had even greater influence.

Casual games are very small, regardless of game content or gameplay, this type of game is very small, but it is precisely this smallness that reaches the deepest part of the player's heart.

And with the development of the times, as people's life pace becomes faster and faster, this kind of small games will become more and more popular among players. The reason is very simple, this is the real way to play games.

Why play games?

hapiness?

victory?

glory?

Looking for excitement?

...

No, the essence of games is to make people relax. When a person has worked hard for a day, a game can make you let go of the fatigue of the day for a short time. This is the essence of games.

People are playing games, not games playing people. It’s a simple statement, but how many people understand this truth and still end up being played by games.

Spending all day and night on equipment, spending your hard-earned money, and even falling out with family and friends just to play games, this is not the right way to play.

Of course, it is impossible for you to ask Liu Zhiyuan to give up these games. He is not a savior. Besides, the Han Dynasty did not develop those games, but there were many people who wanted to.

"Okay, that's the end of the Plants vs. Zombies summary meeting. If you have any other insights, you can post them on our communication forum after you go back. There will be bonuses."

"Mr. Liu is grand."

"Long live the president."

"..."

Liu Zhiyuan smiled and pressed his hands, and waited until everyone calmed down before continuing.

"The several games we developed this time are small games to complement our mobile phone business."

It’s time for Hongmeng mobile phones to be updated. The current battery and screen technology of the Han Dynasty is enough to fully create a real touch phone.

And the cost is very low, so many years of investment will pay off.

The key is that Motorola has begun to promote their new mobile phones, and Ericsson is not willing to be left alone. Hongmeng mobile phones are not outdated, but the advantages are no longer so great.

It was not a complete mobile phone from the beginning, but an assembly of a handheld machine and a mobile phone.

Motorola developed the first smartphone in history, the Tiantuo a6188. What was different in history was that it had a true full-color screen.

After all, with Hongmeng in front, developing a black and white phone at this time is simply making yourself uncomfortable.

Ericsson is obviously a little behind, but it has an advantage in terms of price. With such a larger screen and a button mode, the cost is naturally very low.

The mobile phone developed by Ericsson is similar to the historical t68 model, except that it has an extra antenna receiver.

It has to be said that it makes sense for Ericsson to become a giant in the communications industry. It obviously found that it could not compete with Han Dynasty and Motorola in the high-end market, so it directly set its sights on the low-end market.

However, Liu Zhiyuan has already had countermeasures. He will not let Global Communications design and produce low-end mobile phones, which will have a considerable impact on its high-end positioning.

But he still has Lei Jun.

Lei Jun finally established the Xiaomi factory as in history. Of course, the name was given to him by Liu Zhiyuan.

And the first global business of this factory is the mobile phone business!

Nokia 1100, this is Xiaomi’s first product and the single-selling mobile phone with the highest sales volume in the history of mobile phones.

96*65 extremely low resolution black and white screen, built-in 2m storage design that does not support expansion, no camera function, cheap materials, and extremely earthy appearance...

After this series of operations, its cost is astonishingly low, 30 US dollars, yes, 30 US dollars!

A real mobile phone costs only 30 US dollars. This is a real low-end product!

Although the price of Ericsson's mobile phone has not been announced yet, they will never dare to sell it for $99. This price will kill them!

However, the low price does not mean that its quality is poor. On the contrary, after testing, it is many times more durable than the high-end full touch screen Hongmeng 2 with camera function.

This is actually its real selling point. After all, there are still a small number of rich people. For the price of one screen of Hongmeng 2, you can buy several Xiaomi phones.

Liu Zhiyuan positioned it like PHS, which was popular in China back then, and was prepared for student parties and ordinary workers.

It's cheap, durable, and can make normal calls and send and receive text messages. It doesn't need anything like icq or mobile browser. Users in this group can't afford the current sky-high traffic charges for the time being.

Since we are going low-end, we will simply go as low as possible. As for the mid-range market, don’t worry. When Han Dynasty lowers the cost of mobile phones further, Hongmeng Youth Edition and Xiaomi Pro Edition will be released.

Anyway, in the field of mobile phones, he wants Han Dynasty's subsidiary to become the boss. Whether it is the high-end market or the mid-to-low-end market, Liu Zhiyuan's goal is to seize 80% of the global market share.

"The first game, jump..."

How popular was Tiaoyitiao back then?

It took more than a month to sweep across China. Although there was an increase in the WeChat user base, the fundamental reason was not this. It was not until Travel Frog suddenly became popular that many people truly understood the essence of the game.

After explaining the core selling point of Tiaoyitiao, he asked the crowd below.

"Come on, let's think about where this game can make money?"

"For $10 a serving, we make $9!"

"Why not make it a little lower? How about $8? Anyway, this game has no cost at all. I can develop it in a week by myself."

"I can do it in 5 days!"

"3 days!"

".."

As they talked, it turned into a competition meeting. Fortunately, these people did not completely go astray in the end. However, they did not say what they wanted the answer to.

"If we add some brand logos and representative images on each square, do you think those companies will pay?"

"..."

Silence, everyone was silent.

Is this the difference between why Liu Zhiyuan is the god of games, and they are just ordinary game producers?

It's obviously just an ordinary block, but why can Liu Zhiyuan see endless business opportunities in it, and they can only think of selling games at low prices?

As for not being able to recruit sponsors?

Just kidding, this is a game from the Han Dynasty, and this is a game that Liu Zhiyuan, the god of games, is personally responsible for!

The influence of Plants vs. Zombies has just begun. Who dares to underestimate this kind of game anymore?

"President, please be sure to teach us these experiences in the future!"

"Yes, Mr. Liu, please."

"..."

After a brief silence, everyone looked at Liu Zhiyuan on the podium with longing expressions. As long as they learn 70%, no, half, as long as they learn half of Liu Zhiyuan's level, they will definitely become master-level game producers.

!

"Am I not teaching you? In the next few years, my focus will be on games."

Apart from those few major events, he has no plans to engage in business matters anymore. He wants to retire.

Before retiring, he must pass on as much knowledge as possible to the employees of the Han Dynasty. As long as they develop step by step, the Han Dynasty cannot fail without him.

"Okay, okay, after talking about jumping, let's talk about another game, Traveling Frog."

Liu Zhiyuan smiled and lowered his hand. If he didn't skip this topic, the employees below might do something amazing.

"This game is also very simple. It can even be said to be ridiculously simple. Any one of you can develop it in less than a week. It is..."

After 1 hour, Traveling Frog has finished talking. This game really has no substantive content. Even among idle games, it is the simplest one.

But simplicity does not mean that it is unattractive. Traveling Frog is a standard low-cost and high-return game. Countless players are addicted to the world of their own frog sons.

Moreover, during the time when Travel Frog was most popular, the performance of Japan’s tourism industry jumped a lot.

"So everyone, how do we make money from this game?"

These games are all free. Buying a mobile phone will give you the game. The computer version and the console version are also free of charge. Although they cost almost nothing to the Han Dynasty, they still need to make money when they deserve it.

But this money will not be obtained from users.

"For product placement, such as a photo with McDonald's, it's reasonable for us to charge a promotional fee for it, right?"

"Reasonable, very reasonable."

Liu Zhiyuan smiled happily. This is a way of making money that traveling frogs have never seen in history.

In his opinion, hit-point has completely delayed the game, and it still has great potential that can be explored.

Of course, this is all hindsight. Who would have thought that such a frog could become popular all over the world? Perhaps even the founder of Hit-Point frog would not have dared to imagine this in his best fantasies.

"Figure, we can make this frog into an IP!"

"Very good, very good idea."

The traveling frog in history relied on this to make a profit. After Alibaba acquired this frog, it began to vigorously build its IP image. This aspect alone brought Alibaba at least nearly 200 million in profit.

"Linkage, how about we link this frog to the pocket elf?"

At this time, Liu Zhiyuan was moved. He didn't even do this.

"May I have your name?"

"Xu Jiajin."

"Would you be interested in staying with me for a while?"

"Yes...yes! I'm...very honored, very...woo."

Xu Jiajin was very embarrassed, but almost everyone in the audience cast envious glances at him. Who wouldn’t want to learn from the God of Games?

If it were them, they would probably be even more rude, right?

Most definitely...