Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Suddenly I understood why so many people wanted to go it alone and join Spark.

Mr. Lin is truly an oddball in the industry. He has real achievements, is good at bragging, and most importantly, he doesn't keep anything to himself. He's incredibly persuasive.

This incident further heightened everyone's interest.

The contestants on stage were noticeably more nervous.

Lin Li's state of mind was thus greatly relaxed.

More importantly, he suddenly realized at this moment the core selling point of the show "Rising Star": what do the audience want to see?

Besides the development team's empty promises, there were also the judges' sharp and accurate evaluations. Once Lin Li understood this, he relaxed.

In the following time, he spoke frankly and directly about his thoughts on the contestants' projects.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth? Your theme isn't bad, but judging from your art style, concept, and gameplay, isn't this just a reskinned Warship R? Since you've already used this name, I suggest you revisit the gameplay around the theme, instead of just reskinning for the sake of reskinning."

Chapter 490 My Great America Has Its Own National Conditions

"Doomsday Frontline is similar to Battlefront Girls in gameplay, which is fine. I'm quite familiar with all the systems. But if you just put it on the table like this, why wouldn't players play Battlefront Girls? I think you need to think about this question carefully."

"This... Xiao Li, right? Putting your project aside for now, based on my personal experience, as a producer, you need to be more confident. If you're not confident in yourself, it'll be hard to get the team going. You need to step up your game!"

If Lin Li was a little inexperienced at the beginning...

Now that he's very familiar with the job, he understands why some people enjoy being a judge—it's so satisfying to be in charge.

Of course, everything he said was based on careful consideration.

This is, after all, a program by Spark. While we offer suggestions, we never make baseless ones; they are all well-reasoned and supported by evidence.

The program was recorded all day long, except for a short break at noon.

Besides Lin Li, the judges from Sony, Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Capcom, who were originally there to watch the show, gradually began to demonstrate their true abilities under Lin Li's influence.

They must have some skills to be in this position, especially the head of Capcom, who came up from a technical role.

Previously, it was the main creative team behind Monster Hunter.

He was able to ask some very insightful questions, and also revealed a lot of interesting anecdotes about the development of Monster Hunter to support his statements.

Not to mention the contestants in the audience, even Lin Li listened with great interest.

While Sony's judges lacked creative experience, they were quite knowledgeable in game publishing, while Ubisoft China had a strong voice on the differences between Chinese and foreign development teams.

As a result, the judges gradually got into the zone under Lin Li's guidance.

The contestants offstage were a stark contrast, experiencing both extremes.

It's refreshing when a big shot shares their valuable insights; it's truly like listening to a wise man's words is worth more than ten years of study.

Ice, on the other hand, makes it easy for one's Dao heart to shatter after taking the stage.

Some contestants were even brought to tears by the verbal abuse on stage...

However, overall...

The results on the first day were quite good, even exceeding Lin Li's own expectations.

~~~

a few days later

北美

MAX, a YouTube gaming blogger, sat down at his computer with a cup of espresso in his hand.

He's been having headaches lately.

The headache is that the number of views for my channel's videos has been steadily declining recently.

The number of followers on the channel has also almost stagnated.

This is not a good trend for a YouTuber.

In particular, MAX recently bought his own house and renovated it into a filming studio, intending to expand his blogging career.

Of course, MAX is also aware of why the video views are declining.

On the one hand, there aren't many interesting games on the market recently, and developers have been keeping all news about new games under wraps in preparation for E3.

This is undoubtedly bad news for MAX.

After all, for a YouTuber who specializes in professional game reviews, his videos, in addition to reviews, also have a certain news value.

Therefore, without a source of material, he struggled to make videos, and the video quality suffered as a result.

Secondly, he has been streaming on YouTube for several years now, and the video format has remained largely unchanged. As time goes on, some viewers have commented that the channel is becoming increasingly bland.

He knows all this.

He has also been trying to innovate, but he has not been successful yet.

"Let me see if there's anything new we can do today..."

As a blogger, my daily task is to make videos.

To make videos, you need to gather source material.

In the past, MAX would just browse Steam, IGN, and some North American news websites. However, ever since his casual interpretation of the Spark Carnival trailer unexpectedly went viral on YouTube.

He also followed various official accounts of Xinghuo and incorporated Xinghuo's content into his own reference materials.

Before this, MAX himself really liked Starfire, especially Starpark: Discovery, which he would watch whenever he had free time to relax.

Are there any new maps appearing?

Although he plays a lot, he almost never posts related videos because they don't get much traffic.

As a professional blogger, he could clearly sense that after 17, YouTube officially limited the streaming of anything related to China, whether it was a game or a product.

Once the number of views reached about half that of other videos, it stopped growing.

He's not a politician, so naturally he doesn't care why this situation occurred; MAX simply chooses not to create related content.

However, starting in 18.

It seems that content posted on YouTube is no longer subject to traffic restrictions; in fact, it appears there's even traffic redirection.

That's quite an amazing thing.

Of course, MAX doesn't actually know.

This is actually not surprising at all; it's just that Spark America is throwing money at YouTube.

Since the end of last year, Spark has established a global strategic partnership with Google.

Even for Google, this partnership has generated considerable revenue.

On the one hand, Xinghuo Mobile Games is self-published in China, and overseas, it mostly uses Google's distribution channels, generating a huge revenue stream every year just from revenue sharing.

Secondly, in addition to revenue sharing, Spark also offered a global advertising partnership.

Google is showing great sincerity by offering long-term advertising and promotion through its channels, especially for such a large client.

However, at the beginning.

This collaboration did not yield significant results.

YouTube may display ads, but it still limits bandwidth.

Later, it was during a report from Spark's US executives that Lin Licai discovered the core of the problem.

Yes, the above indicates that a cooperation agreement has been reached.

But those who actually carry out the orders are always people.

After discovering the problem, Lin Li, on the advice of Spark America's senior executives, launched a special public relations campaign.

In early 18, an American Internet Video Club was established.

This club has invited executives from dozens of mainstream and gaming-related companies, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and IGN.

This club operates under the guise of communication and exchange.

But in reality, it was just a bribery channel that wasn't really concealed.

Club members receive an extra club allowance and participate in regular club salons. Executives at Spark America are involved in this area and are quite powerful in it.

When Lin Li first saw the report from Spark America, he asked with some concern.

"Isn't this going too far?"

However, the executives at Spark America responded with a smile.

“Boss, you can rest assured about how we handle things. We even make political donations when we run for president, so this is nothing. Besides, we have strategic partnerships with most of their companies.”

Lin Li nodded.

Suddenly another question came to mind, so I asked it in return.

"...Do you guys also join similar clubs?"

Chapter 491 Spark Material Library

This rhetorical question left the Spark America executives somewhat embarrassed.

“Boss, you know we don’t get paid a salary, we get a share of the profits, so we would never do anything to harm the company’s interests.”

Lin Li understood.

I didn't ask any more questions; all I can say is that the Americans are really playing dirty tricks.

But only after hanging up the phone.

They also called the CFO of Spark America, requesting that they establish a separate financial audit department for the club.

Hang up the phone.

Lin Li sighed with a touch of regret at his decision to establish a separate US subsidiary and distribute profits among executives.

Back then, it was a last resort due to insufficient management capabilities.

Unexpectedly, it actually caused a chemical reaction.

Sometimes, it's necessary to fight fire with fire.

If you're not part of that circle, you'll never understand its problem-solving style.

The only problem is whether the US branch will be too independent. Well, it's not too bad, after all, Spark America is an operating company.

The most crucial lifeline is in Lin Li's own hands.

They're not afraid of senior executives undermining the headquarters.

The only area that needs improvement is the financial audit.

It is still very necessary for a Spark Global Audit Team, which is subordinate to the headquarters, to conduct regular inspections.

Harmfulness is not allowed, and defensiveness is indispensable.

Of course, at present.

With their interests highly aligned, Spark America's executives were willing to get things done, and the club was quickly established. Spark then relied on the club throughout the American video industry.

They've finally started to exert their influence, including the Spark Carnival in April and the Summer Spark last month. The fact that these things can spread and radiate in North America is also related to these unseen "hands".

As a video blogger, MAX naturally doesn't understand these frameworks.

He only understood.

During this period, there has been a significant increase in the number of Spark-related videos being streamed on YouTube.

So naturally, I started paying attention to Spark-related content. After all, without traffic restrictions, Spark is a company with a lot of new things to offer worldwide.

"Huh? What is this?"

MAX randomly clicked on one of Spark's official YouTube channels. It was just a random click, but who knew it would be over an hour long!

What?

"A game entrepreneurship variety show?"

At first, MAX was still absent-minded, holding his coffee in one hand and dragging the progress bar with the other.