Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Page 35

Many people who make games don't have outstanding social skills.

This kind of buffet can also make people who are not very comfortable with social situations feel more at ease.

For example, Lin Li is currently standing by the window.

It's not that he has social anxiety, but rather that he doesn't know most of the people at the dinner party.

But that's okay. If we don't know each other yet, we can get to know each other gradually.

After Su Shanshan finished eating, she went back to the hotel first, while he stayed behind to find out the current industry trends.

After all, he hadn't taken this path in his previous life, so he was still somewhat unfamiliar with these things.

He had just met with many gaming industry leaders, including Huanmeng, the developer of Azur Lane; Kuro, the developer of Battlefield Twin Tails; and some traditional gaming giants such as Tencent, NetEase, and Seasun Games.

I even saw the game operations manager from Bilibili.

He was a young man wearing glasses, who seemed quite quiet.

Everyone was very enthusiastic and praised the achievements of "Girls' Frontline" and were willing to share their own experiences.

However, most of it is just empty talk and has no nutritional value.

At this moment, Dawei from miHoYo circled around and ended up next to Lin Li.

"I was very inspired by your speech today." Dawei looked out the window, half-closing his eyes as he recalled Lin Li's speech.

"Emotional value is indeed the core of ACG games. Putting more time into the plot and character performance is the key to enhancing core competitiveness."

In fact, when it comes to developing characters, the focus is on the plot, even if Lin Li doesn't say it.

miHoYo will follow this path in the future.

However, the two are actually different.

Linli builds relationships based on emotional value, allowing players to freely fall in love with their characters; if you like it, you pay.

miHoYo, on the other hand, is somewhat like a matchmaker, preferring to use strength, XP, and numerical values to get players to pay.

After creating a character, they will try various methods to get players to take the character home, even if it means using deception.

For example, after a certain character is updated, there will definitely be a lot of comments saying, "This character is a must-pull!!!" and then a whole bunch of reasons will be given.

However, miHoYo does one thing quite well.

That means that even after players pay the bill, they are still willing to invest resources in developing content.

Later on, in an attempt to expand revenue, miHoYo gradually began to experiment with male characters, but sometimes they would make mistakes, such as creating the bunny girl incident.

There are also other scattered soldiers, three intertwined bonds, and the operation is becoming increasingly utilitarian.

The PR person is also from the same school as Yu Zhong, and the outstanding feature is playing dead. No matter how much you criticize, I will not respond, and if I don't respond, I am not at fault.

Given the current environment, miHoYo, a company like this, actually seems quite conscientious.

It's simply outrageous.

“Dawei, I really think that miHoYo is not suitable for pursuing emotional value and our path of low profit and high volume right now.” “Honkai Impact 2 can be done this way, but how can Honkai Impact 3 do it this way? How can we quickly recoup our costs if we don’t sell the numbers? After all, I think the cost of Honkai Impact 3’s art development alone is not low.”

"Let's make money first. How can we support the company if we don't make money?"

Lin Li's expression was very serious, and it seemed as if he was genuinely offering his advice.

Dawei raised his glass and clinked it with Lin Li's, feeling that Lin Li was a person he could get along with.

"We do have such plans, but the pressure to generate revenue is too great. We can definitely wait and see about the commercialization of large-scale ACG mobile games."

Hearing this, Lin Li felt much more at ease.

"Yeah, indeed."

The two chatted for a while longer, and then Dawei suddenly raised his glass.

"Have you considered moving to a larger platform and using more resources to get things done?"

Lin Li glanced at Brother Dawei in surprise.

"Are you planning to recruit me?"

Upon suddenly hearing the word "recruitment," Dawei couldn't help but laugh, thinking that Lin Li was quite a character.

"It's not about recruiting them, it's just that we share the same interests. If you're willing to come to miHoYo, we can definitely create an even greater game together."

"To be honest, when it comes to mobile games, even though we at miHoYo aren't on the big stage yet, we'll definitely be one of the top players in China in a few years."

"You are the most innovative producer I have ever met in China. We at miHoYo have a lot of authority over our producers, and our R&D team is incredibly strong. I dare say that miHoYo can better showcase your talent than anywhere else."

Lin Li replied with a smile, "But I'm not only a producer, I'm also the boss of Spark Games."

Dawei chuckled: "We just got an investment recently. Name your price, 500 million? 1 billion? We'll buy it all in one go. If you want shares in miHoYo, we can discuss that too."

Just as Lin Li raised his glass to reply, another cheerful voice appeared beside them.

"Dawei, you're going to talk to President Lin about the acquisition, so I have to say a few words."

The person speaking was dressed in a suit and looked very formal.

"Mr. Lin, I'm Zeng Yicheng from NetEase's mobile game division."

"Ah... hello."

Lin Li shook hands with him, but showed no interest.

Zeng Yicheng could clearly sense that Lin Li was not very interested.

He didn't waste any time on pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"If Mr. Lin is planning to move to a larger platform, NetEase is actually a good option. If you join us, we can offer at least a valuation of two billion..."

Compared to Dawei's reserved manner, Zeng Yicheng's voice was noticeably louder.

Upon hearing this voice, everyone around couldn't help but look towards Lin Li.

Two billion!

At first glance, this figure seems exaggerated, but upon closer inspection, it doesn't seem too outrageous for a company that has only been established for a year and has a monthly turnover of over 30 million. However, its sudden appearance still makes one's heart race.

Is NetEase really that optimistic about Spark Games?

At that very moment, the Tencent executive raised a glass from afar.

"Mr. Lin, you have some great ideas. Why don't you come to Tencent and we talk about it?"

Everyone was taken aback by this situation.

I'm speechless.

Well, this guy, even Tencent and NetEase are planning to make an offer.

That's really awesome.

Then many producers started thinking, "If this were me, who would I sell it to?"

Chapter 49 Players Will Grow

Lin Li hadn't expected things to turn out this way.

Now, they've actually got him on their side.

If he doesn't respond well, rumors might circulate in the industry the next day that Lin Li is an arrogant person.

So he took a sip of his drink, sighed deeply, composed himself, and said earnestly, "Well, Mr. Zeng, although Spark Games seems very successful now, I've only been making games for a year..."

When Lin Li spoke, the entire scene became much quieter.

This was mainly because NetEase's announcement of 2 billion yuan had everyone in awe, sparking a surge of gossip and a desire to see how Lin Li would respond.

"Yes, Mr. Lin is young and promising. He would definitely be able to..."

Lin Li waved his hand, signaling not to disturb the emotions he was building up: "What does a game mean to you?"

Zeng Yicheng was taken aback by these words.

It's like a company interviewer being suddenly asked by the interviewee, "What does the company mean to you?"

Zeng Yicheng was surprised by Lin Li's sudden remark and didn't know how to respond.

Lin Li clearly didn't expect him to reply. Seeing that Zeng Yicheng didn't speak, he continued speaking on his own.

"Anyway, for me, games are a way to express my emotions. I still remember the feelings I had when I played The Legend of Sword and Fairy as a child."

"However, over the years, as games have continued to evolve, commercial value and the expressive power of games have gradually become intertwined."

"Making games and starting a company... it's not like we're making indie games, the most important thing is naturally to make money."

"But I think that real games are no different from all artistic creations such as movies, music, and novels, only the medium is different. It's not that you can't look at money, but if you only look at money, you're definitely going in the wrong direction."

"I have great respect for NetEase, but our goals may differ somewhat. I don't want to make games that are too commercially driven..."

Zeng Yicheng smiled and shook his head, not saying anything on the surface, but in his heart he had already lost interest in acquiring Xinghuo Games.

He had seen far too many people like Lin Li.

There was a time when he was just like that.

However, business is business, and any game company that does not pursue business will be eliminated by business.

"President Lin has raised the bar for the gaming industry way too high."

After saying that, Zeng Yicheng felt that Lin Li was being a bit pretentious, so he asked again, "Mr. Lin, are you planning to develop indie games in the future?"

Lin Li shook his head.

"No, it's just that the game market is so big, someone has to try to find a balance between making money and gameplay. Besides, I have a lot of my own ideas that I'm waiting to develop."

"Don't you think it's a great thing to let players feel their own things, feel the story, emotions, joy and sorrow, kindness or malice?"

After saying that, Lin Li chuckled to himself, admitting that his initial motivation for making games was actually quite utilitarian.

It's just that I'm making money now.

Only then do I have the mind to think about these things.

Thinking back to all the mobile games I played in my past life, I realized that I was only truly satisfied with a few, which led to the things I said earlier.

Brother Dawei stroked his chin, thought for a moment, and then spoke.

"So you still want to make indie games, no, you want to make purely personal games, you don't care if you make money, you don't even care if anyone plays them, you just want to make them."

"No, expression is not a personal thing. It needs to be conveyed, it needs to be responded to, and it needs to be felt by someone. I care a lot about whether people play it. If my best work is not liked by many people, I will be very disappointed."

Lin Li said with a smile.

"However, the perfect game in my mind may require an investment of several hundred million. I feel a lot of pressure to use other people's money to do this, so let Spark Games save up money slowly. Otherwise, NetEase can invest several hundred million in me first, and after I develop the game, if it succeeds, we will split the profits. If it fails, I will join NetEase."

Zeng Yicheng shook his head; he was essentially a businessman.

Upon hearing this, the others were basically certain that the gossip acquisition deal was now over.

A producer like Lin Li, who is so emotionally driven, is unlikely to be acquired.

So, while they felt regret, they also breathed a sigh of relief.

If Lin Li really sells 2 billion tonight, they'll probably have some trouble figuring it out when they get back.

As the saying goes.

I am not afraid of my brothers suffering, I am just afraid of them driving a Land Rover.

The principle is the same.

After listening to Lin Li's words, Zeng Yicheng also left with a sigh.

Brother Dawei was still standing next to Lin Li.

He raised his glass to Lin Li.

"That's very well said."