Rebirth 08: Can a mobile game company also build a tech empire?

At 2 PM, a well-known gaming blogger reposted a video of Jiangnan Dream Garden on Tudou.com.

The caption read:

"This is the kind of architecture Chinese gamers should be creating! Supporting traditional Chinese style!"

This video has been shared thousands of times.

This brought Li Hao a large number of new votes.

At 5 PM, Jiangnan Dream Garden overtook the Colosseum in Rome to take the top spot!

However, the competition is not over.

The author of the Roman Colosseum launched a campaign to garner votes on Tieba, and the number of votes began to catch up again.

Between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., the votes for the two works rose alternately, with the difference remaining within a few hundred votes.

Li Hao's palms were sweating with nervousness.

At 11:50 p.m., there were only ten minutes left before the voting deadline.

Jiangnan Dream Garden leads with 427 votes.

"Stay calm! Stay calm!"

In the dormitory, four boys were huddled around the computer, their eyes glued to the screen.

On Baidu Tieba, real-time battle updates are being posted at a rate of more than a dozen per second.

"Jiangnan Dream Garden leads by 412 votes!"

"The Colosseum is catching up a bit, only four hundred votes behind!"

"Brothers, charge!"

"I'm a classmate of the author of 'Jiangnan Dream Garden,' and our whole class is helping to vote!"

In the final five minutes, the vote changes began to slow down.

With two minutes remaining, Jiangnan Dream Garden led by 409 votes.

In the last minute, the Colosseum suddenly received fifty more votes!

The gap has narrowed to 359 votes!

"What happened?"

Zhang Wei exclaimed in surprise.

"It might be their final sprint."

Wang Lei analyzed from the side.

"But it's probably too late."

Ten seconds left!

9, 8, 7, ... 3, 2, 1!

The voting channel closed on time.

The page refresh takes a few seconds.

Those few seconds felt like hours to Li Hao.

at last,

The final leaderboard is displayed:

First place: Jiangnan Mengyuan, total votes: 124387.

Second place: The Colosseum in Rome, with 124028 votes.

Third place, Future Eco Dome, 112543 votes.

Fourth place, Sky City, 110350 votes.

……

"We won!"

A cheer erupted in the dormitory.

Li Hao stared blankly at the screen.

For a moment, I couldn't believe I had actually won first place.

That's 100,000 yuan!

At least I have my tuition and living expenses covered for the next few years.

There is also a game called Journey 1.

Although we don't know what it is yet.

But it was worth it to have supported the game before.

However, the prizes are no longer important.

What truly excites him is that his work is recognized and loved by so many people.

"Brother Hao is awesome!"

Wang Lei patted Li Hao's shoulder forcefully.

"Treat us to a meal! You absolutely have to treat us!"

That night

Countless players stayed glued to their screens, witnessing the outcome of this creative extravaganza.

The top ten entries from the competition are featured on the homepage of Z-Dimension.

It was watched repeatedly over the next few days.

The entire competition has become a long-standing topic of discussion in the Minecraft player community.

Z Dimension passed this competition.

It successfully attracted more than 1.5 million registered users.

Daily active users exceeded 400,000.

It quickly became the most active gaming and ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) community in China.

……

The day after Z-Dimensional achieved success.

On the other side of the ZhengTu Technology office.

A more important battle is about to reach a key milestone.

4 month 25 day.

Saturday, 7:30 a.m.

However, the staff at ZhengTu Technology did not take a break at all.

Inside the hardware lab of Journey Technology.

The air seemed to freeze.

Lu Chen, Lin Bing, Hong Feng, Zhao Yongqiang, Wu Zhixuan and other core members were all present.

More than twenty pairs of eyes were fixed on the worktable in the center of the laboratory.

On the worktable, two pieces of equipment, one black and one white, lay quietly.

Those were two engineering prototypes that had just been airlifted from a factory in Shenzhen—the Journey 1!

Lu Chen stood in front of the worktable and took a deep breath.

Even with his mindset as a reborn person.

At this moment, my heart couldn't help but be stirred.

From a design drawing to the actual product before your eyes.

It involved countless sleepless nights, numerous heated debates, and countless revisions of the plan.

And now, the result is right in front of us!

"Turn it on."

Lu Chen's voice was very soft.

But everyone in the lab could hear it clearly.

Lin Bing carefully picked up the black prototype.

The machine body gleamed with a deep luster under the white lights of the laboratory.

The deep space gray aluminum alloy frame is polished through seven processes.

There are almost no visible gaps at the junction with the front and back Corning Gorilla Glass.

Lin Bing gently pressed the power button on top.

"Buzz—"

A slight vibration emanated from the fuselage.

The screen then lit up.

The startup animation of the ZUI system plays smoothly.

A simple "Z" logo appears from afar, transforming into scattered starlight.

At that moment,

A collective gasp filled the laboratory.

The 3.5-inch capacitive screen delivers a delicate visual experience.

The screen resolution is 800×480 pixels, with a pixel density of 233ppi.

Although it can't match the resolution of future screens.

But in 2009, this was already top-notch.

With a thickness of 9.3 mm, it weighs only 137 grams.

It truly deserves the title of the thinnest smartphone currently available.

"Perfect, absolutely perfect!"

"That's right, this is the most beautiful phone in the world."

"There really isn't anything better than this."

A group of engineers exclaimed in admiration.

However, what truly made everyone hold their breath was...

This is the screen that appears after entering the system.

That's not the rough interface of the stock Android system.

This was the result of several months of arduous development.

The ZUI system embodies countless hours of hard work from the Hongfeng team.

The lock screen interface is extremely simple.

The top displays the date and time.

In the center is a logo with a "Z" shape outlined in thin red lines.

Below is only one line of small text: "Slide up to unlock".

There are no fancy patterns, no redundant information, only a minimalist clean and tidy style.

Lin Bing gently swiped upwards from the bottom of the screen with her index finger.

The animation is smooth and fluid.

The icons rise gracefully from the bottom of the screen, like bubbles rising from the bottom of the water.

The main interface appeared.

"this……"

Zhao Yongqiang opened his mouth, unable to speak for a long time.

The main interface features sixteen application icons arranged neatly in four rows and four columns.

Each icon has been carefully designed.

It maintains a consistent rounded rectangle outline.

It also showcases its unique features in the details.

The phone icon is a green gradient in the shape of a handset.

The message icon is a blue, bubble-shaped icon.

The camera icon is a skeuomorphic representation of a lens aperture.

More importantly, the colors of all the icons have been uniformly adjusted.

Thanks to the screen's excellent color performance.

It appears harmonious and layered.

Hong Feng stepped forward and took the prototype from Lin Bing's hand.

His finger slid across the screen.

The interface smoothly flips through pages following the movement of your finger.

There was absolutely no lag or delay.

"We have optimized the rendering mode in Android 1.5."

Hong Feng's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"Prioritize touch response to the highest level."

At the same time, the animation engine was rewritten.

The frame rate can now be stabilized at 55 to 60 frames per second.

He opened the messaging app.

The interface transition animation is a smooth fade-in/fade-out.

Open the contacts again, and the list of hundreds of test contacts loads instantly.

Hong Feng typed "Wang" into the search box at the top.

All contacts with the surname Wang were immediately identified.

"Quick Contact Search".

Hong Feng looked up at the crowd.

"We not only achieved features that native security software doesn't have, but we also implemented intelligent filtering."

He then demonstrated the application of classification.

Long press one icon and drag it onto another icon.

The two icons have been merged into one folder.

It can be renamed to tools, social, games, etc.

Open the notification center again.

The drop-down menu includes not only unread notifications.

There are also a series of quick switches such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, flashlight, screen brightness adjustment, etc.

Each feature demonstration drew a murmur of admiration.