You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 449

What is the most expensive thing in the 21st century?
Talent!

The online game market is booming rapidly now, and one wealth-making myth after another is born, making countless capitals eager to move.

However, the online gaming industry is too new and was previously a very unpopular field with few practitioners.

The market is booming now, with a large number of online game players, but production capacity is severely restricted due to talent issues.

Therefore, the first entry point for capital is to find people, to find top talents, and then fill the team, establish projects, develop, launch, make money, go public, and raise money...

As everyone is eager to recruit talents, Penguin is no exception and is also recruiting elites everywhere.

But Qin Shaoyan acted too quickly. When he was developing stand-alone games overseas, he was already buying up stand-alone studios everywhere.

And he was so famous, he was the No. 1 game producer in China and the record holder for single-player sales...

Surrounded by such a huge halo, Qin Shaoyan only needs to make a call and heroes from all walks of life will come to join him.

It is easier to succeed by following him. He is generous with money, has sufficient funds, and has a world-class game engine developed by himself. He is definitely the first choice in the industry.

Now that their online games have become popular, their strength has been further proven, and more people are coming to join them.

When Ren Yuxin visited the game company, he found that they had established four or five online game projects alone, and several stand-alone game projects as well, and they were all very motivated.

Can't compare, can't compare.

His eyes turned red with envy, and he wished he could poach an entire team.

Unfortunately, he thought of many ways but didn't dare to take action.

It’s not because Penguin and Qin Shaoyan are now in a cooperative relationship, but because he is afraid of retaliation from President Qin after poaching people.

This person is not a good person.

A certain senior veteran has failed because he had the will but not the courage.

Liu Kun pretended not to understand Ren Yuxin's hint and he would not leave.

Not to mention that President Qin was very kind to him by redeeming Pixel from Sohu and giving everyone generous treatment.

It's great working for Mr. Qin. I can develop stand-alone games or online games as I like. I don't have to worry about funding and I'm very happy.

Now that "Warring States OL" has made a lot of money, the brothers are all waiting to share the money to buy cars and houses. Only a mentally ill person would change jobs.

Ren Yuxin quickly brought the topic back to the game, "Did you make this "Sword Heroes" because of "Sword Sealing Demon Record"? "

"Sword and Demons" is Pixel's famous work. Although it was well received, it was not a box office hit and did not make any money at all.

Finally, he had no choice but to sell part of the company's shares and cooperated with Sohu to develop the "Sword and Sword OL" online game, which is considered to be the online game version of "Sword and Sword Sealing Demon Record".

Unfortunately, due to technical and conceptual reasons, "Sword OL" ultimately failed.

Pixel has a lot of accumulation and experience in making fighting action games. Ren Yuxin had this guess when he saw "Sword Heroes".

Liu Kun is really stubborn. He can't even forget his sword.

"Oh, that's the reason." Liu Kun smiled slightly, "But the main idea of ​​this online game still comes from President Qin."

"That day, Mr. Qin asked me to play arcade games together, and we started discussing it."

"I thought Mr. Qin wanted me to make a 3D online game, but he told me to make a horizontal fighting game. I was quite surprised."

Ren Yuxin also became curious when he heard this, "Then why did Mr. Qin come up with this idea?"

"I don't know either. I was unsure when I started." Liu Kun said with emotion, "Later I found that President Qin was quite creative. Did you know that last May, South Korea also launched a 2D horizontal fighting game that was very similar to our "Sword Heroes"? "

"Huh?" Ren Yuxin was a little surprised. "There is such a thing. I have to go and take a look."

"Don't bother watching. They use the idea of ​​LAN connection." Liu Kun said disdainfully, "It's hard to form a team if the network is not good, and we often get disconnected. Even if we want to change to online game mode, it's difficult because the foundation is not good. It will definitely be easy to be messed up by cheats."

Ren Yuxin immediately lost interest when he heard this. It was common knowledge in the industry that Korean games had a lot of cheats.

The Korean R&D team was so bad that they didn't even take the most basic technical precautions.

Moreover, they did not respond to the agent's requests, which was basically like begging for food on their knees.

Penguin had been cheated by a Korean online game before, which made Mr. Ma very angry. From then on, he decided to do his own research and development.

Speaking of cheats, Ren Yuxin hesitated, "What about your game "Sword Heroes", are you doing well in anti-cheating?"

"Don't worry about that. After working on the Warring States Online project, we have gained a lot of experience in anti-cheating." Liu Kun assured confidently, "From a technical perspective, we are already at the top level in China."

"The two-pronged approach of online strikes and offline physical strikes has been very effective."

"Yeah." Ren Yuxin couldn't help but get curious when he heard this. "I heard that your CEO Qin is very powerful. He even asked the CIA to fix the cheaters who came to the United States."

"Oh, that's a rumor." Liu Kun immediately clarified, "It's just a hacker in the United States. Mr. Qin has some connections in the United States, so he asked the FBI to arrest him."

"That's impressive too." Ren Yuxin said with emotion, "Boss Qin is very successful both at home and abroad. We can't compare to him."

Liu Kun smiled but said nothing. He often heard President Qin say that Penguin was the "Nanshan Pizza Hut". He didn't know what it meant, but he knew that Penguin was a very impressive company.

The two sides quickly changed the topic and started discussing things related to "Counter-Strike OL".

FPS games were heavily affected by cheats, and the problem could not be solved even after 20 years, so Ren Yuxin paid special attention to this issue.

Liu Kun didn't understand the procedure and couldn't brag to Ren Yuxin. In fact, he was quite worried.

However, Ren Yuxin quickly diverted his attention because Zhou Yuan from the Operations Department came. He immediately followed him up and started to get close to Zhou Yuan.

……

After the signing ceremony, Liu Kun had just returned to the game company when President Qin’s secretary called him.

President Qin summoned me to discuss something.

Liu Kun immediately rushed to Qin Shaoyan's office. As soon as he entered the door, he saw President Qin turned into a signing machine, constantly stamping and signing.

"Boss Qin, I'm here."

"Oh, Brother Kun, please sit down first. I'll finish reviewing the documents in my hand." Qin Shaoyan said casually and continued to study the stamping.

Secretary Xiao Chen immediately brought tea and continued to pass documents to Qin Shaoyan.

Qin Shaoyan saw that the documents were piling up, so he simply stopped reading them. He threw away his pen and official seal, and walked directly to the sofa next to Liu Kun and sat down.

"How was the signing ceremony?"

"It went very smoothly. Penguin did things quickly and without any setbacks." Liu Kun thought for a moment and said, "Boss Qin, isn't this gambling agreement a bit risky?"

"It doesn't matter." Qin Shaoyan said with a relaxed expression, "Even if the penguin wins, so what? I won't lose anything."

"Besides, I have great confidence in your abilities and 'Sword Heroes' will definitely be a hit."

You have confidence in me, but I don't. Liu Kun hesitated for a moment, but didn't dare to say it.

Qin Shaoyan said to himself: "Brother Kun, the "Sword Heroes" project is almost done now. What do you think about it next?"

"Ah?" Liu Kun was stunned. "It's still a long way from the public beta for 'Sword Heroes'. We still have to keep an eye on it after the public beta."

"Just let others take care of it. You need to train them to be able to take charge of things on their own." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "We will have so many projects in the future. You will need to take care of everything. Even if you are Monkey King, you won't be able to keep track of everything."

Liu Kun was a little confused, "Boss Qin, you want me to let go now."

"I'm not asking you to let go, but you should do something of your own." Qin Shaoyan looked at Liu Kun and said, "Do you still remember what I promised you before?"

"Huh?" Liu Kun was completely stunned.

"Game for game." Qin Shaoyan said seriously, "Now that 'Sword Heroes' has been made, what are you going to do next, Brother Kun?"

Liu Kun's blood rushed to his head. When he had joined Qin Shaoyan before, the two sides did have a verbal agreement of "game for game".

He helped Mr. Qin to make an online game, and then Mr. Qin gave them financial support so that they could make the game they liked.

After being busy for almost two years, Liu Kun almost forgot about this matter.

But President Qin didn't forget, and he called him over and brought up the matter again.

Liu Kun suddenly became excited. All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind. They were so chaotic and complicated that he couldn't make sense of them for a while.

To launch a project, it would not take a few million to complete, it could cost tens of millions.

Such a big thing made Liu Kun start to hesitate.

After the failure of "Sword Online", he was unsure whether his project could succeed.

What if it fails?
Then it's not a matter of wasting money and time, and it's impossible for President Qin to support me forever.

Even if I can continue to help Mr. Qin as an executive producer and work for him, will he still give myself a chance in the future?
Seeing that Liu Kun didn't say anything, Qin Shaoyan continued to ask, "Standalone or online game?"

"Mr. Qin, I..." Liu Kun's lips trembled.

"It's okay, Brother Kun. If you haven't made up your mind, you can go back and think about it slowly. Just give me a project proposal later." Qin Shaoyan said casually, "I just want to tell you that what I promised you before is valid. Just go ahead and do it boldly."

"It doesn't matter if you fail, the promise still stands, game for game."

"If you help me make one, I will support you in making one."

Having said that, Liu Kun gritted his teeth and made up his mind, "Actually, I have an idea for an online game."

"Oh, then tell me about it." Qin Shaoyan looked at Liu Kun with encouraging eyes.

"I saw World of Warcraft and got an idea. We still lack an online game with our own characteristics in China." Liu Kun's eyes began to sparkle at this time, and he couldn't suppress his excitement and said, "I want to make a World of Warcraft for us in the East, and I think those Q-version Korean-style games are not good enough. We must have our own unique art style."

“I want to make an online game in the style of a Chinese animation film!”

Liu Kun said while gesturing excitedly, "We all grew up watching Chinese animated films when we were young. The unique style of Chinese animated films is our childhood memory, but now this style has disappeared for a long time."

"I want to recreate it in the online game so that everyone can recall that precious memory..."

"Sentiment." Qin Shaoyan added slowly.

“Yes, yes, it’s sentiment!” Liu Kun nodded excitedly. He felt that President Qin’s words summed it up very well. He came up with this idea just for sentiment.

Qin Shaoyan looked at Liu Kun and suddenly asked, "Have you ever thought that this style of painting might not be popular in the market?"

"Uh..." Liu Kun choked. He looked at Qin Shaoyan's expressionless face and hesitated for a moment. He tried hard to say, "There may be this problem. I want to try my best to make up for it in the gameplay."

"The market may change. After all, no one can predict this, and it is difficult to figure out the preferences of players..."

Liu Kun tried hard to convince Mr. Qin, and he racked his brains to think of the advantages of his idea.

"Brother Kun." Qin Shaoyan interrupted him, "Have you really considered doing this?"

Liu Kun was silent for a moment, and said honestly: "I want to do it"

Qin Shaoyan nodded, "Then do it."

"Huh?" Liu Kun was stunned and looked at Qin Shaoyan with some disbelief.

You know, the boss hates risks, but Mr. Qin knows that this project has risks, but he is willing to do it.

"Chinese animation style, online games." Qin Shaoyan repeated, "Then let's do this. Brother Kun, go write a plan, and we can discuss it. Just give me a budget."

Liu Kun's brain was still confused at this time. President Qin agreed so readily that it made him feel unreal.

Did he really agree?

Qin Shaoyan didn't look at Liu Kun's expression, but continued to ask: "Is it free or paid?"

Liu Kun hesitated for a moment, "Mr. Qin, what do you suggest?"

"If you really want to do it well, then charge for it. It's unreasonable to sell attributes with such sentiment." Qin Shaoyan made the final decision, "Paid online games are at least fair, and they can operate for a longer time."

Liu Kun is now finally sure that President Qin's support is genuine.

Free online games are so profitable now, but he also supports online games that charge game cards. Mr. Qin is truly the boss of our gaming industry!
"Don't worry and try boldly. Just treat it as a way to accumulate technology." Qin Shaoyan urged, "After we finish this online game, we will make a subversive online game."

"Okay, Mr. Qin!" Liu Kun patted his chest excitedly and promised, "We will do a good job."

"Well, I believe you." Qin Shaoyan looked at Liu Kun with a smile.

He knew what Liu Kun wanted to do, which was the "Xunxian" with a very alternative style.

In his previous life, the game "Xunxian" could be considered conscientious in terms of production. In order to adhere to the art film style, Liu Kun had a fierce argument with the Penguin operation, and the two sides almost fought.

But in the end Liu Kun still persisted, which shows how stubborn he is.

In "Xun Xian", there are more than a dozen images to choose from when creating a character, from big-headed dolls to old men and women, from foreigners to monkeys, all of which are classic images of Chinese animated films.

You have to know that this kind of thing is a thankless task, because one image represents a whole set of actions, and the art action team has to do more than a dozen sets of actions, which is a lot of work.

Qin Shaoyan feels that whether for sentimental reasons or for technical accumulation, "Xunxian" must be made.

He didn't expect to make money from this game, but it was still necessary to train the team.

He started seven stand-alone projects at one time, ranging from "Minecraft" to "Mount & Blade". Some of them made money and some lost money, but technology and experience must always be accumulated.

"Black Myth: Wukong" was not created out of thin air.

It's always good to take advantage of the low labor costs in China and hone your skills.

When Qin Shaoyan was thinking about his future game blueprint, his secretary Xiao Chen came in again to report, "Director Xia Lian is here."

(End of this chapter)