My game, you have no right to award

Chapter 179 Big Dog
This sounds unbelievable. Zhou Kuang thinks that having his employees play Texas Hold'em more will improve the quality of the game?

Although the game "Clown Cards" is disguised as Texas Hold'em, its actual gameplay has little to do with Texas Hold'em.

The fun of "Joker" is basically built entirely on the traditional game loop of rogue-like games.

In other words, if you replace Texas Hold'em with Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, or even other card and board games, although it may be more difficult to directly apply it to the game than Texas Hold'em, it is not impossible.

There are plenty of alternatives to Texas Hold'em.

Can an element that can be replaced truly be called the soul of a game?
Otherwise, why would countless developers immediately create their own "Clown Mahjong" or "Clown Poker" using other card and board game variations after "Clown Cards" became popular?

Some people might ask, how exactly does playing Texas Hold'em help in the development of "Joker"?

Hey! You're wrong!

Zhou Kuang had them play Texas Hold'em not so that they would conduct research on the game! Rather, he wanted them to constantly brainstorm ideas while playing.

Explore how to leverage the medium of Texas Hold'em to create more cards, items, game genres, and even game modes.

This is the key to improving the quality of the game.

For rogue-like games, diversity is the lifeblood of the game; the more variety there is, the more time players are willing to spend in the game.

Therefore, studying poker skills is a minor matter; what's truly crucial is the employees' thought process.

Many bosses might think this is a complete waste of time, since whether they're playing around or brainstorming, they're not actually producing anything.

However, Zhou Kuang believed this was a huge mistake!

Making games is definitely not about hammering screws on an assembly line!
If it's true that every nail a working person hammers after a long day's work earns them a meal and supports their family, then indeed, hammering more nails is a good thing!

However, game development doesn't follow this logic.

As a creative endeavor, he had to give his employees time to think, even if most of the time those thoughts wouldn't actually generate any value.

The gold is hidden on the seabed, and thinking is a process of seeking.

As someone who also needs his own creativity to make money, Zhou Kuang understood this perfectly well.

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Since completing "The Lost Mountains and Seas", Black Cat has been feeling somewhat anxious and uncertain.

This wasn't because he felt frustrated that he couldn't play games like "The Lost Tomb," but because "The Lost Tomb" was excluded from the TGA's Game of the Year award.

Black Cat has been following the "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" awards with great interest. Although the media scores weren't great at the time, they weren't so bad as to fail, were they?

Furthermore, after the game's release, it received rave reviews from players, especially in Europe and America, where these game awards are held. Players' evaluation of "The Lost Tomb" was even higher than in China!

After the game became popular in China, a large group of strange people emerged.

Moreover, there are indeed quite a few trolls stirring up trouble for "Youming Shanhai" everywhere, which is extremely annoying to people.

However, players in Europe and America do not have "stakeholders," and their numbers are far smaller than those of Chinese players.

A small base means fewer exceptional individuals.

A large base means a large number of exceptional individuals.

A very simple truth.

Black Cat just doesn't understand why TGA doesn't buy into the game's success and popularity among players!

Moreover, not only TGA didn't appreciate it, but a host of European and American game awards also refused to include "Youming Shanhai".

There was one award, for which the organizers, all wearing red and white checkered headscarves and white headscarves, nominated "The Lost Tomb: The Sea of ​​the Underworld" for Game of the Year.

It left him both amused and exasperated.

Apart from that, only domestic game awards are willing to include "Youming Shanhai" in the list of best games of the year.

However, this gave the critics an opportunity to angrily denounce the domestic game awards: they don't care whether the game is good or not, they only care about how close the relationship is!

The fact that it didn't receive any awards from overseas speaks volumes; it's practically saying outright: this game doesn't deserve to be Game of the Year.

But you insist on doing the opposite!
Is it to prove they're special? Or is it simply to protect their own people, disregarding the truth?

Online discussions about "The Lost Tomb" and Kuangshi Games instantly turned into a chaotic mess.

Black Cat alone is not strong enough; besides calling for rationality, there's not much else she can do.

Even if he makes a video to angrily denounce these people, what's the point?
At most, it will just cause trouble for the production company of "The Netherworld Mountains and Seas".

That day, he was watching videos in a live stream.

He has recently become obsessed with watching "food shows," especially those videos of big eaters exploring restaurants, which look very appetizing.

The black cat could eat an extra half bowl of rice just by watching.

"Black Dog! Black Dog! Megvii Games has released a new game!"

Ok? !

The black cat's eyes sharpened.

A new game from Kuangshi Games? Is this not a rumor? If it's fake news, I'll beat this messenger to death when I get back!

Anyway, let's search for it first.

When Black Cat searched for new games from Kuangshi Games, the results were still old videos, almost all of which he had already watched.

He can even recite what happened in some of the videos with high viewership.

Sure enough, it was just a lie!
He was about to start criticizing when he saw the comments section flooding in with corrections to that person.

"It's not a groundbreaking game, it's Light Swallow Studio!"

"Light Swallow Studio is the epitome of gaming!"

"Qingyan is Qingyan, and Kuangshi is Kuangshi. How can you confuse the two!"

Seeing the arguments in the comments, Black Cat finally understood.

It turns out to be a new game from Light Swallow Studio, which belongs to Kuangshi Games!

This explains why he couldn't find the relevant information.

So he turned his attention to searching for Qingyan Studio.

Sure enough, Qingyan Studio released a new video.

Black Cat was overjoyed and quickly clicked the mouse to open the video and immediately selected to play it!

"I am your enemy."

"You are my friend."

With two nonsensical sentences, a person wearing a clown mask emerged from the darkness.

It looked like a temporary worker who had escaped from a circus, with no other distinctive features except for a slightly small clown mask.

Furthermore, because the clown mask was the wrong size, a lot of skin on his face was exposed, completely defeating the purpose of the mask.

"Born to catch up with me".

“Abandon me and die.”

The clown took a step back, his body disappearing into the darkness.

"The cards are in your hand, but the victory is in your mind."

"Only you have a choice."

Next, the clown continued to utter his incomprehensible remarks until the video ended, at which point it once again vanished into complete darkness.

After watching the video for less than two minutes, Black Cat was stunned, and those in the live stream who hadn't seen the video before were also stunned.

Black Cat looked at the video title: Light Swallow Studio's latest masterpiece is coming soon, stay tuned!

Damn it! It's not even online yet, what kind of video are you posting?!
Moreover, they haven't revealed any information at all. Would it kill them to reveal more?

Black Cat truly had a love-hate relationship with them. Moreover, he felt that this was somewhat different from the previous publicity style of Qingyan Studio.

Although their marketing and promotion had a unique style in the past, it had never reached the level of being so enigmatic.

Black Cat completely failed to understand today's "riddle short film".

The Joker? Is the game related to the Joker?
Although no information was yet available, the black cat still felt a sense of excitement.

After all, this is the game company that created Vampire Survivor and Potato Bros.!
The games we develop are all absolutely top-notch!

The main selling point is that it's delicious!
With his interest in the game in mind, Black Cat completed the allotted live stream, then went offline to eat and sleep.

The day passed like this.

However, when he woke up the next day, his obsession with this mysterious game had not diminished at all after a night's sleep; on the contrary, it had grown even stronger.

It made him scratch his head, eager to play the game immediately.

It's a pity, the game was only revealed yesterday, how could it be released so soon?

He sighed.

Just as he was sighing, he discovered an email in his inbox.

Black Cat opened it absentmindedly, but his eyes widened immediately when he saw the title!

……

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……

"Hello, I am Super Black Cat."

The black cat leaned forward humbly, its face radiating composure.

He got a new haircut today, wore a very formal suit, and even polished his shoes so clean they were almost reflective.

"Hello, Black Cat, I've watched your live stream!"

Hearing the man say that, Black Cat's face instantly turned red, and joy almost burst forth from his heart.

"Oh dear, that's really... really..."

Black Cat, who usually chats freely with his viewers in the live stream, was speechless upon hearing these words.

Fortunately, the man opposite him came to his rescue.

"Let's go to the company first and have a seat. I'll have someone show you the contract later."

"Hey!"

The two quickly got up and left.

The email Black Cat received that day was actually an invitation from Qingyan Studio to some KOLs to come to the company for a closed-door experience of their latest work.

KOLs, or opinion leaders, can also be referred to as internet celebrities.

This latest work, of course, features the protagonist of the riddle-solving video that the black cat saw.

As a brand new game that hasn't been released yet, and not even a single piece of information has been revealed, it's obviously impossible for video bloggers to experience it casually.

They must sign a confidentiality agreement, prohibiting them from disclosing any information about the game to unrelated individuals.

Moreover, such commercial-level terms, if signed but not followed, can have very serious consequences.

Even if they lose money, these KOLs may not be able to afford it.

These KOLs aren't small bloggers anymore; which one hasn't had similar experiences a few times?
Any blogger with a brain who has studied these terms or even has the most basic understanding of them would not dare to violate the contract they signed.

On the other hand, Black Cat doesn't really have much experience in this area.

As a seasoned otaku, Black Cat is not used to this kind of collaboration.

Even when companies invited him before, or even paid him to go, he rarely agreed.

But this time, he had a compelling reason to come.

This is Qingyan Studio!

That alone is enough!
He absolutely loved the games the other party had made; they were exactly to his liking.

And you can also meet the creators who made this content!

This is an even bigger reward for the black cat!

So when he heard that Qingyan Studio had invited him to join the closed-door demo session, he was already determined to come.

The two of them took the elevator together.

“Not only have I seen your video, our boss has too.”

For some reason, the black cat instinctively asked a question in return.

"Which boss?"

The other party smiled, not annoyed, and said, "It's Zhou Kuang, the boss of Kuangshi Games. Not from our Qingyan Studio."

Upon hearing this answer, the black cat felt a surge of excitement once again.

The boss of the game company that developed "Youming Shan Hai" has heard of me. Am I really that amazing?

He was actually a little doubtful whether this was just a compliment.

After all, what are the chances that the owner of the company that created "The Netherworld Mountains and Seas" and manages Qingyan Studio has heard of his own name? Or seen his own videos?
The other person was probably just talking nonsense to make themselves happy.

Thinking about it this way, the black cat actually relaxed.

Since it's a compliment, it's part of the social process.

There's no need to cause trouble if you're not good at it.

However, he soon changed his mind.

Aside from the elevator, once inside the office, he hadn't walked far when he saw a large group of people.

From among them emerged a young man.

Although he was young, the people around him immediately made way for him, showing great respect.

"Hello, I'm Zhou Kuang, the boss of Kuangshi Games."

Looking at the handsome young man with a smile on his lips, the black cat was shocked as he recalled the face he remembered.

The two gradually began to overlap.

This is really the boss of the groundbreaking game that developed "The Lost Tomb"!

The character "旷" in "旷世" (kuàngshì, meaning unparalleled or extraordinary) was taken from his name!

The black cat quickly reached out and grasped it, its eyes gleaming.

"Hello, Mr. Zhou!"

"Just call me Brother Kuang."

Zhou Kuang smiled and waved his hand, still hoping to avoid too much distance between them.

No matter who calls him President Zhou, he will always seem cold and distant.

Aside from very formal business meetings, one rarely wants the other party to use such a form of address.

"Kuang, Brother Kuang!" the black cat exclaimed excitedly. "You know me?"

"You? Of course."

Zhou Kuang nodded. He was also good at searching himself, and no video or trending topic about "Youming Shan Hai" could escape his eyes.

How could I not remember Black Cat's video when it was so popular?

Even if he didn't remember this person at the time, he would have to remember him later.

(End of this chapter)