Huaying's acquisition of Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment went smoothly.
Except for the fact that several key executives of Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment hesitated for a while at the beginning when Mu Suxing explained his purpose to Jiang Yucheng and others, the whole process basically encountered no obstacles.
Both parties spoke frankly. Mu Suxing gave up the independent development rights of Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment on behalf of Huaying. Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment did not bargain greedily. Everyone was very clear about the current situation of their own company. The conditions offered by Huaying were not harsh. Even if they accepted the acquisition, the game development of Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment would not be affected in any way. On the contrary, there would be more investment from Huaying. Why not do it
"Boss, does this company called Thorn Interactive Entertainment really have the potential to be acquired?"
Seeing that Muxuxing easily finalized an acquisition in less than two hours, Du Yutang couldn't help but lower his voice and asked curiously while the people from Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment were still receiving the contract notarization in front.
Mu Suxing smiled slightly and said, "You will know later."
Du Yutang was half-believing and half-doubting.
It's not that he doesn't believe in Muxuxing, but the strength currently demonstrated by Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment has proved their unreliability - considering that this company is entirely composed of young people who have graduated for less than two years, this unreliability and risk have to be multiplied by two.
Can these young people in front of us really match the favorable conditions offered by their bosses
He didn't say this out loud, but it didn't affect Mu Xuxing's ability to see it clearly.
In response to this, Mu Suxing could only smile and shake his head.
He couldn't tell the other party that these young people who were currently being crushed by any game from Yunsu, and that Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment, which was now forced to live in a shabby and small office building, would become the overlord of the Blue Star electronic game industry ten years later, and would repeatedly crush Yunsu Games under its feet, right
After the contract notarization was completed, Jiang Yucheng volunteered to take the new boss around the workplace of Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment and introduce the basic situation of Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment.
"… This is the chief artist of our studio. Recently, she is mainly responsible for the card design of a female-oriented dating mobile game. According to the original plan, we were going to launch a public beta at the end of this year, but the company is facing financial difficulties at the moment, so it has been delayed…" Jiang Yucheng said with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.
He also knew that what he said was just short of saying "seek investment from a sponsor", but at the moment, he really had no other choice. "Expedition Girls" was already a failure, and by comparison, this female-oriented love mobile game had lower costs and was easier to recover. Thorn Entertainment now had a sponsor, but they still owed a lot of debt!
But…
His eyes fell on the new boss who seemed to be listening to him with his eyes downcast but was actually absent-minded. Jiang Yucheng was disappointed to find that his new boss seemed to... have no interest in this game
He was extremely disappointed, but he tried to change the subject tactfully. At this moment, Muxuxing's clear voice reached his ears: "I know."
Coming back to her senses from the memories of her previous life, Mu Xuxing lowered her head and looked at this game plan that every female player in her previous life would be familiar with.
In fact, in his memory, it was this love mobile game that made Jingji Interactive Entertainment popular. It was this mobile game that pulled Jingji Interactive Entertainment back from the brink of bankruptcy and made it soar. Before that, no one would have thought that such a simple and low-cost love mobile game could easily become a hit game with a monthly turnover of over 100 million.
Having said that, Mu Suxing did not make the decision to invest immediately.
He believed in the quality of this game, but Huaying was not just his own Huaying after all, and the necessary procedures had to be followed. For a company with lofty ambitions, there was no reason to make exceptions to the good rules and regulations.
So he thought about it and just said, "Send the game plan to my assistant later, and I will arrange for professionals to do an investment risk assessment."
"No problem! Thank you, Mr. Mu, for giving us this opportunity!" Jiang Yucheng said hurriedly.
He had not originally expected Muxuxing to give special treatment to Jingzhi Interactive Entertainment. For them, even just one opportunity would be enough. As a game producer, he was still very confident in his game.
Mu Suxing nodded imperceptibly and continued walking forward.
Like the exterior of the office building rented by Thorn Interactive Entertainment, the internal facilities of the workplace also appear to be relatively simple - to be more precise, apart from the equipment for game production, everything in the entire office hall is extremely simple, and even the walls are peeling off, revealing white marks.
He stopped in front of a desk with a computer on but no one was using it.
Mu Suxing glanced at the lit computer screen and found that it displayed a neatly arranged table, which showed the daily turnover of "Expedition Girls" since its public beta.
"This is… "
When talking about "Expedition Girls", Jiang Yucheng also became a little sad. He shook his head and said, "It's just a failure. It's been open for more than half a month, and the daily revenue is getting worse day by day. It may not last for a few days before the server is shut down."
Although he said that it was a failure, he still felt a little regretful in his heart. No matter how to say it, this was the first listed mobile game of Thorn Interactive Entertainment. Jiang Yucheng felt bad watching his masterpiece gradually decline and be destroyed. Unfortunately, the fact is the fact. Thorn Interactive Entertainment has now become a part of Huaying. Although Mu Suxing clearly stated that he would not deprive Thorn Interactive Entertainment of its independent development rights, he couldn't really do whatever he wanted and let Mu Suxing lose money, right
Mu Xiuxing looked at the poster of "Expedition Girls" on the wall.
He had some impression of this game.
In his previous life, he would occasionally visit various forums. Apart from animation, the section he read the most was the gaming section.
"Expedition Girls" itself is not famous, but whenever someone asks "Do you know which games started high and ended low, or ruined a good hand?", "Expedition Girls" is always on the list. Many players said that with the ability of Thorn Interactive Entertainment, it might be possible to save the game in a new version. Unfortunately, the economic conditions at the time destined it to be forgotten as a failed experiment of Thorn Interactive Entertainment.
On the wall, the girl in the poster is smiling with her eyes curved, her long white curly hair scattered behind her shoulders like seaweed, and the slim black combat suit perfectly outlines her exquisite figure. Upon closer inspection, it is exactly the style that otakus would like.
Muxuxing asked: "Is this... a two-dimensional strategy card mobile game?"
Although he didn't quite understand why Mu Suxing asked this, Jiang Yucheng still answered honestly: "Yes."
Muxuxing groaned and said, "If it's this type of game, maybe it's not completely unrecoverable."
Jiang Yucheng's heart skipped a beat, and then he quickly shook his head as if realizing the reality: "If there were no competitors, we might still be able to struggle, but Yunsu happens to have a game of the same type and gameplay as ours, and their game voice actor lineup is also more luxurious than ours..."
He didn't say anything else, but the meaning of his words was already very clear.
Although he was reluctant, Jiang Yucheng actually disagreed with Mu Suxing's idea that "there is still hope". In his opinion, even if Mu Suxing had proved his ability, it was only in animation production.
Does he really understand game production
Jiang Yucheng muttered to himself, he didn't really say it out loud, but the suspicion in his expression was obvious.
Muxuxing didn't care either.
He understood Jiang Yucheng's suspicion. In fact, his suspicion was not wrong. Mu Suxing did not understand game production.
—But he understands art.
Muxuxing thought for a moment and said, "What if we start with art?"
Jiang Yucheng was slightly stunned: "What do you mean?"
"If we start from the artistic aspect and increase the sophistication of the card surface and the character's skin, perhaps it will have some unexpected effects," said Mu Suxing.
If it were any other type of game, Muxuxing might not have been so sure and confident. After all, no matter how good the game art is, if the gameplay is not up to standard, players will not buy it. But "Expedition Girls" is a strategy card mobile game after all.
In this type of game, the appearance of the characters on the cards accounts for a considerable proportion.
Because of this, when players later encounter planners who keep testing the players’ tolerance for such games where art plays a relatively important role, they often jokingly complain: When the wise planners start to make their presence felt again, I know that the awesome artists are going to come out to save the world again╮(╯▽╰)╭
Although this statement is somewhat exaggerated, in a sense, it does verify the importance players place on art in this type of game.
What's more, compared with similar cloud-speed games, the gameplay of "Expedition Girls" actually has few flaws. In this case, the excellent art is very likely to have unexpected effects.
Jiang Yucheng disagrees.
In his opinion, the core of the game is the gameplay. Even if the art designer optimizes the card effects, it is difficult to win back lost players. If he has the time and energy, it would be more meaningful to focus on the art of the new game.
What he thought was one thing, but the cooperation between the two parties had just begun. Jiang Yucheng had no intention of refuting his boss on such details, so he smiled and said, "That makes sense. After all, everyone looks at appearance these days."
Knowing that the other party did not believe this in his heart, Mu Suxing smiled and did not explain further.
There have indeed been similar incidents in previous lives, but Mu Suxing is not sure whether this will be effective for "Expedition Girls". He plans to wait until he returns to Huaying to continue directing "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" and has some free time in between, and then try to optimize and improve the art of "Expedition Girls".
The acquisition of Thorn Interactive Entertainment was completed, and the recent work direction and content were determined. Mu Suxing quickly put his energy back into the production of Madoka Magica. It was a week later when he finally found the time to check the various materials of "Expedition Girls".
He opened the art file sent by Jiang Yucheng on his computer.
Muxuxing had never worked as a game artist, but he had the basic aesthetic sense of a painter. During the lunch break, he scanned all the card illustrations of "Expedition Girls" and soon found some incongruous places.
Strictly speaking, this is not a unique inconsistency in "Expedition Girls", but...
Mu Suxing observed the portrait on the computer and quickly understood the source of the disharmony.
For this type of game, most producers will choose to outsource the character illustrations. In other words, the dozens of character illustrations in the game are often the work of different painters. If the studio does not specifically appoint an art director to grasp the overall artistic style and temperament of the game, it is easy for a single character illustration to look pleasing to the eye, but a series of them will make people feel uncomfortable.
It just so happened that he was planning to do something else to adjust his mood for making Madoka Magica. Mu Suxing thought about it and simply pulled out the game characters one by one, looked through them carefully, and made an overall fine-tuning to all of them.
In the following period of time, in addition to focusing on his work as director of Madoka Magica, Mu Suxing began to try to draw portraits for the new characters of "Expedition Girls".
Although he has never worked as a game artist, as an artist, he is very familiar with the style and development trends of later game original paintings. When he draws standing paintings now, he uses the typical future popular painting method.
Mu Xuxing had no intention of concealing or being sneaky about his private slacking off, and because of this, within two days, Fang Lian saw the unfinished drawing of the beautiful girl on Mu Xuxing's computer screen.
The girl in the picture has a smile in her eyes, and her slightly curly chestnut hair falls naturally, slightly messy and rubbing against the hilt of the sword resting on her shoulder. The girl's softness and the hardness of the weapon form a strong visual contrast at this moment. The most amazing thing is that the girl in the painting is clearly wrapped as tightly as possible in her clothes, but she looks even more sexy, which makes people feel itchy.
Fang Lian had only glanced at it casually.
But it was just such a casual glance that made his eyes freeze when they fell on the portrait on the screen. His originally absent-minded expression brightened the moment he saw the portrait.
It is not entirely true to say that this picture reflects the artist's high level. If I must say something, it is that the artist's painting method and composition and other details have a visual effect that is completely different from the current general style, as if... a more novel way of expression has been adopted.
Fang Lian stared closely at the character picture in front of him. For a moment, he felt reluctant to look away.
It’s not that the beautiful girl in the picture is so attractive—well, that does account for a considerable part, but the most important thing is that this way of painting gives him a very strange feeling…
In animation, it is simply an appreciation of the exquisiteness of the characters; in games, it is a style... a sense of fashion
Fang Lian became more and more interested. He turned around and found Mu Suxing, and said excitedly: "Amu, the girl you drew on your computer will not be the character design of the next animation, right?" Thinking of this, Fang Lian felt as if his body, which was tired from work, was healed. He suddenly regained his fighting spirit: "What's her name? What is her specific character design like?"
"The company just acquired a gaming company. Doesn't it have a 2D mobile game?" Mu Suxing said, "I was free anyway, so I took the opportunity to draw a few new character portraits."
After sending Fang Lian away with a few words and shouting that he would definitely support his own mobile game, Mu Suxing modified the last character portrait and sent it to Jiang Yucheng.
Jiang Yucheng was actually a little confused when he suddenly received the art file change package from his boss.
Along with the documents came the issue of the new boss not playing by the rules. Jiang Yucheng had just answered the phone when Mu Suxing asked directly, "Doesn't Thorns Interactive Entertainment have an art director?"
"Art director?"
Jiang Yucheng was stunned for a moment before he realized what Mu Suxing meant.
Generally speaking, in the production of PC games and console games, a dedicated art director will be appointed to ensure the harmony and unity of the game's overall art style. This is not the case with mobile games. Even Thorn Interactive Entertainment currently has no habit of appointing an art director.
“This shouldn’t be a big deal, right?” Jiang Yucheng said, “I haven’t heard of many mobile game studios setting up this position in the current mobile game market.”
That’s because these mobile game studios are small workshops with no money, and they don’t think it’s necessary to set up this position.
Mu Suxing thought to himself, and without wasting time explaining, he directly sent the fine-tuned art file to him on his computer to show him the effect: "In the future, when making games of this type, it is best to appoint an art director, otherwise the styles and temperaments of the characters will be inconsistent, which will easily make players feel out of place. I fine-tuned the characters you sent me, you can take a look at the details."
Jiang Yucheng: “…Ah?”
He blankly accepted the file sent by Mu Suxing. Before he could react, he heard Mu Suxing continue, "In addition, the lighting and shadow dynamics of the battle screen should also be further optimized and adjusted. I used the map of level 2-9 to modify it casually. Don't forget to ask the artist to modify it accordingly. A map that is too monotonous can easily cause players to be bored. Players may not even realize it themselves, but it is best for the artist to consider this in advance."
That’s not all.
Mu Suxing briefly mentioned several important points he had discovered so far, and finally added: "I took a general look at the text of "Expedition Girls". The plot is quite interesting. I tried to draw a few new character portraits and put them separately from other portraits. You can see if they are suitable. If they are suitable, I will put them in the next version update."
Jiang Yucheng looked at the densely packed new files displayed on his computer and suddenly felt complicated.
He himself was also a game developer, so of course he understood what Mu Suxing said. It was undeniable that, at least in terms of art, his new boss was not as ignorant about games as they imagined.
But…
His eyes fell on the collection of files in front of him.
Is it possible for an artist to save the world in the gaming industry
Jiang Yucheng shook his head secretly in his heart. He was not optimistic about Mu Xuxing's idea of attracting players by optimizing art, but the boss was the boss after all. Since the other party had sent the new character portraits and all the changes, of course he still had to take a look.
With such a nonchalant mentality, Jiang Yucheng casually opened the art file of "Expedition Girl".
The author has something to say: Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated me with nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angel who cast [bazooka]: 1 Little Fantasy Cat;
Thanks to the little angels who threw [grenades]: Physics and Advanced Mathematics, Little Fantasy Cat, and Tetsuya 1;
Thanks to the little angels who cast [mines]: Zheye 5; Mingwen, Quexie, Aicai Xicai Ye Wucai, Ye Zhiming, Rushi Shuimo Danqing, Mo Xinjiang, Yeyu, Huanhai Lanshan 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:
120 bottles of Yueyue, 100 bottles of comb, 70 bottles of Ahuatian, 69 bottles of Yuhuaci, 64 bottles of Nifan, 58 bottles of Luoli, 50 bottles of Luojin Hansha and Junzi Buyu, 40 bottles of mung is Mengzhi's Meng, the world's number one Ye Buxiu and Lianling, 38 bottles of Yunji, 33 bottles of Shiman, 30 bottles of Jinmo and the crowd of melon eaters, 29 bottles of Zim, 25 bottles of Jinse, 20 bottles of Qianxi, Anran Xiaohunzhang (*^＠^*), Taitai's little wife, Xiaoma Tuanzi, Xianfu at home, Xiangxuehai, Xia Nao, Mingwen, Su Xuewei and Qianshan Muxue, 16 bottles of when to get rich, dyldylqyl 15 bottles; 13 bottles in January; A Touch of Jiangnan Smile, Youyou, Ye Ran, Hua Xun, Midnight Love Fantasy, Lan, Qiu Qiu, Cooky, Shanhe Biaoli, Daobi Ke, 34173004, Mo Baibai, Yin Nuoyan 85, Fumao Bagua, Yue Ye Jianhuang, A Rong, Caojia 10 bottles; Xuanpin, Nuo Tong 8 bottles; Youlong Xifeng 7 bottles; Yueluo Shuanghua, Fanchen Guhun 6 bottles; Licking Sweet Sugar 365, Xianyun Villa·Zhuxuan, eleanora, Fengqingci, Yeyue Huanhen, Mu Qinghe, Qiongdie Weiwei, Gui Xiaobai 5 bottles; Kumquat Lemon Tea, Yanru 2 bottles; Yisheng, Mengbiyou, Ye Yuye, Yanqiu, Jiangyue Banjiu, Ajiu Will Lose Weight, Yanlai, Momo from Momo's Home 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!