Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 23 Increase the stakes
Apply pressure first, then offer incentives.

This simple strategy, coupled with the Tencent brand, has proven incredibly successful.

"President Chen, I'm on your side. I really don't want these things to affect Xingchen's development."

This morning's events had been so profoundly impactful for him.

Xiang Lixuan even spoke softly, which was uncharacteristic of him.

However, don't be fooled by Xiang Lixuan's soft tone; the underlying meaning behind his words is anything but.

Xiang Lixuan's attitude also suggested that he had Xingchen completely under his control.

The reason he lowered his stance in front of Chu Chen was precisely because, according to Xiang Lixuan's thinking, as long as Tencent exerted pressure, there was a high probability that Chu Chen would give in.

After all, if Chu Chen doesn't give in, Tencent's big hand will really come down on him.

Relying on Tencent's channels and traffic, these games can quickly absorb the potential audience who like auto chess gameplay as soon as they are launched.

Will the stars be affected then?
In Xiang Lixuan's view, this was a question that didn't need to be asked.

Therefore, in his estimation, Chu Chen might feel some anger upon hearing these words, but more likely, he would feel fear, followed by submission.

However.
After he finished rambling on and on about everything he wanted to say...

The response I received was...

"Really? Do you know the approximate timeline for Tencent's games? When will they be released?"

"."

Xiang Lixuan was completely dumbfounded.

I wasn't talking to you about investments, so how did you steer the conversation here?

Why are they now asking about Tencent's news?

Seeing that Xiang Lixuan remained silent, Chu Chen scratched his head, looking bewildered.

"The main problem is that you suddenly started talking about investment, and I really don't know how to quote a price."

"To be honest, StarCraft is developing so rapidly right now, and the first chapter of my story hasn't even been released yet, and the public beta test in May hasn't started. If I quote too low now, I feel like I'm losing out, and if I quote too high, you'll definitely think I'm asking for an exorbitant price."

"Is that the logic?"

Xiang Lixuan paused for a moment, thought about it, and said, "Hey, you know what, it actually makes sense."

Immediately afterwards, Xiang Lixuan felt a surge of joy.

If Chu Chen can say he's afraid the price is too low, does that mean he's planning to accept the investment?

This is completely different from the last negotiation.

That's fantastic news!

Then, when Xiang Lixuan suddenly became excited, he immediately realized that he was actually excited about this matter and even felt a sense of smugness.

This is a major taboo in negotiations; how could someone make such a low-level mistake?

No, no, I need to adjust it, I need to adjust it.

After a long pause, Xiang Lixuan finally replied.

Instead of answering Chu Chen's question, he steered the conversation back to the progress of Tencent's internal projects, intending to reveal a little information.

It's both a form of pressure and a sign of sincerity.

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with saying this; it's all information that can be found out."

Xiang Lixuan's words are interesting. Can this information be found online? Of course it can be found. The online gossip columnists can make up dozens of such stories for you every day.

However, if something can be investigated, why would there be corporate espionage?

That's because finding the information isn't important; confirming the information is.

Since Xiang Lixuan was willing to speak, Chu Chen was naturally willing to listen.

As they talked, the atmosphere seemed to lighten a bit, although the two sides ultimately failed to reach a cooperation agreement, and Chu Chen didn't even make a bid.

But Xiang Lixuan left with a satisfied expression. The two agreed that next week, Xiang Lixuan would take Chu Chen to visit Tencent's headquarters in Shanghai.

~~~
After seeing Xiang Lixuan off, Chu Chen's smile gradually faded, his honest and simple demeanor completely disappeared, and his expression gradually became serious.

From Xiang Lixuan, Chu Chen confirmed several important things.

Firstly, Tencent placed great importance on the success of Final Frontline, not only in terms of gameplay but also in terms of art, if Xiang Lixuan was not lying to him.

Tencent has already initiated a project to "pay tribute" to the Kantai Collection R-class game "Final Battlefront".

This project involves more than just one studio. Within Tencent alone, Xiang Lixuan knows of two other projects that have applied to be launched.

They will have internal competitions, and only the winners will be pushed forward to compete for the Starry Sky market.

This huge number of projects.

The gameplay tribute-style games will be launched as early as June this year, and at the latest by the end of the year.

For projects that are tributes, it may take until next year, which is much faster than Chu Chen imagined, or rather, much, much faster.

In fact, right now...

Tencent's comprehensive tribute is not a bad thing for Xingchen.

The reason is simple: although Tencent has launched its own advertising campaign, players cannot actually play the game. In fact, "Final Frontline" will be affected by Tencent's advertising.

Gain some traffic.

This isn't just hearsay; it's based on evidence. For example, when Tencent's "Temple Run" was launched in 12, it directly boosted searches for parkour-related content by 376% that month.
Same now.

Once players see these messages, some will inevitably become curious and realize that Tencent is repeating its old mistakes.

Next, this group of people will naturally discover that in the entire gaming world right now, there is only one auto chess game to play.

That's the humanoid auto chess game of the final battlefront.

However, Tencent is not stupid.

They knew that doing this would result in a traffic imbalance, but they did it anyway.

Tencent is well aware that even if this kind of promotion brings traffic overflow, they can recover that traffic as soon as their game is launched.

History has proven this many times.

As an ambitious person, Chu Chen did not want to sell the company to Tencent and become a rich man himself.

However, Chu Chen also knew that going against Tencent was by no means an easy task.

If he hadn't traveled from the future, he might not have been able to hold on at this point. Fortunately, he came from the future, where Tencent was still powerful.

However, in the realm of anime and manga games, it is a complete paper tiger.

For ten years, they didn't produce a single blockbuster product.

Moreover, in the previous life, many companies also took advantage of the wave of ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) to emerge under the pressure of Tencent and various competitors.

If these companies can do it, then Chu Chen certainly can too.

Of course, what he's pursuing is far more than just standing out.

Taking a deep breath, Chu Chen thought of a whole bunch of reasons why he didn't need to be afraid of Tencent, but in the end he still flipped through his notebook.

"Despise the enemy strategically, but take the enemy seriously tactically."

"The current final battlefront isn't enough; we need to intensify it."

After thinking for a while, Chu Chen called out to the outside.

"Su Qing!"

"Hey! What's wrong?"

"Come here for a second..."

(End of this chapter)