Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

imperial capital.

Just as Xinghuo finalized the game plan.

The last desk in the AnyGame office was also sent to the moving company.

The game, therefore, was disbanded.

Most studios close down because their games aren't profitable; however, the closure of any game studio is an exception.

Because just two months ago.

The studio's "WILL: A Wonderful World" has just been released.

Moreover, sales were quite good. On the Spark platform, "A Wonderful World" was priced at 58 yuan and sold more than 3 copies in the first month.

Moreover, it maintains a positive review rate of around 95%. As a niche game, Wonderful World not only helped Any Game break even, but also actually made money.

However, sometimes the saying goes, "One can share hardships but not grow together."

Because of the Spark platform, "A Wonderful World" sold 2 more copies in its first month than in its previous version, which sold 1 copies.

As word-of-mouth spread, even more were sold.

However, it is precisely because of the high sales volume and high profits that conflicts between any two games have become more intense.

In the very first month of profitability.

Wang Miao, the company's main creator and "boss," had a fierce conflict with the lead programmer, Gigi. As a studio with only 5 people, the two had a conflict.

Forget about doing any work, what's more, in the end, Wang Miao actually disbanded the studio...

After the moving company's truck drove away.

"Xiaoxue, where are you planning to go after the studio closes down? How about coming to my new studio?"

The speaker was none other than Wang Miao, the protagonist of this story.

"Ah, I... I might need to take a break for a while? Sister Miao, how about I reply to you later?"

As the sixth person in the company.

Xia Lianxue has only been with the studio for a year.

She joined the company because, like Wang Miao, she graduated from the School of Software at Tsinghua University.

During her first year of work, she and Wang Miao had a fairly good relationship.

Xia Lianxue originally planned to work with Wang Miao for a few more years, but this sudden studio dissolution has made her somewhat hesitant.

Before a studio releases a new game, no member of the studio receives a salary.

Xia Lianxue is a native of the capital city. Joining this studio can be said to be both because she wanted to understand real game development and because she was working out of love.

When they weren't making money, the studio was quite harmonious, but once they started making money, how to divide the profits became a major problem.

Although the money earned wasn't much, less than two million after deducting costs, it still turned the entire studio into chaos.

Xia Lianxue didn't want to judge right or wrong, but she understood many things.

Fortunately, she learned a lot that year, and even unexpectedly received tens of thousands of yuan in commission.

As I walked out of the studio, although I said I didn't care, I still had some mixed feelings about this company that died because of "dividing the spoils".

Judging from the current momentum of "WILL: A Wonderful World", if things continue as they are, AnyGame may very well become a rising star in the industry.

Unfortunately, just as this star was beginning to shine, it fell rapidly in this way.

Stepping out of the studio, as if to reflect the atmosphere of the day, dark clouds obscured the only bright spot in the sky, plunging the world into gloom and creating a sense of oppression.

Immediately afterwards, the raindrops connected into lines and flowed in all directions.

The sound of pattering rain echoed throughout the land. Xia Lianxue, who hadn't brought an umbrella, found an internet cafe to take shelter from the rain.

This is a relatively unpretentious "ordinary" internet cafe. Posters are everywhere in the cafe, and at a glance, the most common advertisement is actually from Xinghuo.

The platform is using posters to attract new users, and there are also posters for various popular Spark games...

Just as Xia Lianxue was hesitating whether to go in and surf the internet or go to the side to buy an umbrella, she saw a middle-aged man hurriedly enter the internet cafe.

The middle-aged man was clearly familiar with the boss, as he greeted him as soon as he entered.

"Boss, can I change the poster?"

"Hey, you guys go ahead."

After a brief conversation, the man took out a bag from his clothes containing a roll of posters. He pulled out two and began skillfully replacing the posters in the store.

Xia Lianxue noticed an interesting detail: the poster the middle-aged man took down was from Tencent WEGAME, but he replaced it with one from the Spark platform.

It's a truly straightforward and unpretentious business battle.

Thinking of this, Xia Lianxue also glanced at the poster.

"Compete against President Lin, surpass the sparks, and achieve your own success!"

"Spark Games' Second Annual Game Competition: Finding the Next Spark!"

Xia Lianxue glanced at it and then looked away.

However, she had only looked away for a moment before turning her gaze back.

~~~

It's late December now.

Xinghuo Building, photography studio.

After a month of preparation.

The second Spark Games Competition has finally begun.

Xia Lianxue followed the staff into a huge photography studio. There were three other people with her, most of whom were Xia Lianxue's classmates.

Spark Games has spared no expense for the "Beyond Spark - 48-Hour Game Creation Competition" project.

Not only was a film studio set up, but the production team at Xinghuo Huaxia headquarters also assembled its best members.

In the center of the studio was a huge stage.

No, to be precise, it's an open-plan "office," with the studio arranged in a circular shape.

Besides the large central "office," there are two game stages and a variety show stage on either side, and further out are 24 "offices" with completely different styles and decorations.

"Huh? Is this really the venue for a game development competition? It feels more like a variety show."

Xia Lianxue couldn't help but sigh.

"Senior, although I hate to say it, but... this competition does include some variety show content, didn't you read that when you looked at the contract?"

Hearing someone criticize her, Xia Lianxue pouted.

"Of course I saw it, but I didn't expect it to be this big..."

"Yeah, this is way too big."

The group following Xia Lianxue stood in this huge photography studio, clearly somewhat at a loss.

Fortunately, their personal photography team and various assistants arrived at this time.

"Hello, welcome to the Beyond Spark competition. The competition starts this afternoon and will last for two days. We hope you can become number one."

"Then, please follow me. Let's take a set of entrance photos first."

The huge photography studio is like a miniature office building, with not only office areas but also rest areas.

Shortly after Xia Lianxue arrived, the other participating teams also arrived at the photography studio one after another.

Chapter 412 48-Hour Miracle Game Creation Competition

Among them are teams like Xia Lianxue's, who are "casual" players, as well as teams that frequently participate in game development competitions, such as the previous LD champion, American Ace.

There are also some teams that have already created quite successful works, such as Eggplant, which created "The Scroll of Taiwu", Fishball, which created "Azur Lane", Mercury World, My Otherworld, and Chinese Parents, which are already considered successful teams in China.

There are even overseas teams involved, such as Amir Rao, who produced Hades, and Dino Patti, the producer of Inside and Limbo.

There are also some overseas individual production groups.

These overseas visitors have really had a tough time, because since October, overseas arrivals in China have been required to undergo medical testing.

No matter what.

This lineup can be described as quite luxurious.

This is especially extravagant for producers like Xia Lianxue, who just entered the industry through open auditions.

No wonder that after passing the initial review, the production team asked them about their mental resilience and hoped that they would prioritize friendship over competition.

Not only Xia Lianxue, but also several other "casual" teams like them were very excited to be able to spend two days with these big shots.

Not to mention, what kind of competition is this? It's a game development competition.

Putting everything else aside, this experience alone is already a great opportunity.

Xia Lianxue even guessed that if it weren't for the fact that she graduated from Tsinghua University, she might not have been able to stand on this stage in the end.

After a brief exchange, a quick makeup session, and the taking of photos for the program, all the groups quickly arrived at the main stage.

This time, Spark adopted a combination of online and offline gameplay.

There are 4 people in each offline group, making a total of 24 groups, which is 96 people. Adding Lin Li and Su Shanshan, that makes 98 people.

Fortunately, the entire recording site used Huaxia Xinghuo's latest studio, which was large enough; otherwise, it might not have been able to accommodate everyone.

Amidst a burst of drum-like music, the main stage lights gradually illuminated, eventually revealing the entire stage.

Amid applause, the host walked up from backstage.

"Welcome to the 48-Hour Miracle Game Creation Contest!"

"I am your host, Wei Yufeng!"

You can call me Yufeng, or Bee, either is fine.

In today's world, simple game development competitions are hardly able to attract audiences anymore.

This is because game development competitions are like woodworking competitions or other skill competitions; if it's just a simple competition...

So, what the audience actually wants to see more is the final result than the process.

Most of the world's mainstream 48-hour game creation competitions follow a similar process: after the competition, the game is uploaded to the official website for players to download for free, and then awards are given.

No one before us ever thought of using a game development competition to attract users.

However, the real purpose of the Spark competition is not just to play games, so it is not simply about making the game more entertaining. Some fancy tricks have also been added to make it more entertaining.

Lin Li divided the entire project into three phases.

These are the first part, the variety show stage.

At this stage, Spark will take out the Spark Game Maker software, break down its functions, and create some interesting games.

This can also be seen as a subtle advertisement for Spark Game Maker.

Of course, in this place where game producers gather, the so-called variety show effect is definitely not something like touching boxes or tearing name tags, where everyone just plays around and jokes around.

The variety show segment borrowed some elements from competitive programs like "The Brain".

Its core essence is to create a stage for "showing off one's abilities in front of others".

One part of the stage will feature challenging problems that seem difficult to outsiders, which will then be presented to the guests on stage.

For example, for programmers, there is a small step called "reverse engineering".

The competition in this segment generally involves presenting a piece of code and requiring the guests to quickly explain its function.

This would leave ordinary people completely bewildered, but seeing a programmer explain the function of code in a second, or even a fraction of a second, would be seen as impressive.

Moreover, as the difficulty increases, when a long string of code appears and is analyzed by the guests, coupled with editing, it is indeed relatively easy to create a show-off effect in front of others.

In addition to the programming aspects, there are also art-related components, such as "absolute color gamut".

The system will display numerous color blocks on a large screen and announce a color block ID, requiring the artist to find the corresponding color among the many color blocks.

The difficulty of this game is quite straightforward.

For example, the first challenge is to find the red color among a bunch of colored blocks, which is a simple task that anyone can do. But if you have to find the cadmium red color from a screen full of red, that's a field that ordinary people can't understand at all.