Chapter 31: A real estate company disguised as a game studio
Lying down is a kind of wisdom!
Only those who truly see through the secular world can understand the true meaning of lying down and letting others laugh at them.
That’s right, Chen Ba has started.
He really doesn't care about the negative reviews from players or the refund threats...
Because compared to this, Tianba Studio has long been "famous" in the gaming industry.
Almost everyone in the domestic independent game circle has heard that there is a Tianba Studio in Jiangning. This studio is amazing! Why is it amazing? The games they made have more than a dozen patches in a row... more than a dozen patches, all of which are "regulating housing prices"! "In a sense, we are also famous!" Yang Dong consoled himself.
"Yes, but this reputation..."
Xiao Lu covered his forehead with his hands, feeling like crying but unable to cry: "People say that we are a real estate company disguised as a game studio."
"To be honest, this is just a joke!"
"Real estate companies are not that diligent! Which real estate company would change the property prices 12 times in two months like we did?" Yang Dong retorted.
Chen Ba glanced at him and couldn't help but complain: "No, you don't feel proud, do you?"
Check out other people’s update announcements.
Either it is to fix a certain bug, or to introduce a new gameplay, or to optimize the gaming experience... In short, they are all serious.
Take another look at the update announcement for Living With Other People Simulator.
My goodness, there are more than a dozen update announcements with repetitive texts. Apart from notifying players that "house prices have risen", there is no real optimization at all!
Don’t blame your colleagues for thinking it’s weird.
Chen Ba himself found it outrageous. Two months after the official version was released, he witnessed the entire process of a simulation RPG plot-based game turning into a "house speculation simulator".
I can only say that game developers can never guess what players are thinking! During the early access stage, everyone played the game normally. Except for a few weird players who stayed in Internet cafes overnight, most players were seriously pushing the main story, completing tasks, and searching through trash cans.
But ever since a certain anchor, the source of all evil, said in public, "This is my home, you are the ones who should get out," the nature of the game has changed.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
If we judge purely by the results, then it is definitely a good thing. After all, the most important thing for a stand-alone game is sales.
Thanks to these waves of sudden popularity, the sales of "Living with Others Simulator" successfully reached 200,000 copies in two months, breaking the record of its predecessor.
But in terms of the game itself, this result deviated from the original route.
According to producer Chen Ba, he wants players to feel the grievance and unwillingness of living under someone else's roof through this game, and arouse emotional resonance among players.
The result...
There is emotional resonance.
However, the emotion that resonates with players is not the grievance and resentment of living under someone else's roof, but the refreshing feeling of the emancipated serfs singing "The Dragon King Returns to His Throne".
Selling this game to them for 25 bucks is a huge loss!
"I knew it. With the increased freedom of the game, players will definitely not be so loyal to the plot and the main storyline."
As the only woman in the team, Zhang Xiaojuan put forward a unique view: "As a game with a strong plot, giving players a lot of freedom is a wrong choice."
Who are the players?
The Fourth Disaster is not just a name!
It is naive to expect these people to follow the process and push the main line honestly! High degree of freedom and strong plot, this is a combination full of contradictions.
If you really value the plot so much and think that the game can win the love of players with the plot alone, then make an interactive narrative visual novel game like "The Invisible Guardian".
If you value freedom more, then try the open world approach, with the goal of creating a "colorful, vivid and realistic" game world.
I want everything, but I end up doing nothing! "You have a point, but not all of it."
Chen Ba shook his head and said, "It's not that high degrees of freedom and strong plots can't be combined together. It's just that our attempts in "Living with Others Simulator" were not successful."
Just learn from the lesson.
The first game became a cattle-herding simulator, the second game became a house-flipping simulator…
After these two incidents, Chen Ba now has a deep sense of awe for the word "simulator".
"I won't force the plot next time."
"That's right, why do we need a plot? As long as the gameplay is strong enough, we can play it without a plot!" Yang Dong agreed.
Does Snake have a plot? Even if there is a plot, it is not important. Few players care about the plot behind Snake. They just want to make it thicker and longer...
Everyone is really speechless.
These two games are mainly produced by Tianba Studio, which have put a lot of thought into the plot, but the result is that they can always be played in new ways.
In that case, why bother with the game plot? Just focus on tinkering with the gameplay.
After reviewing the specific reasons why "Living Under Someone Else's House Simulator" became a "House Speculation Simulator", Chen Ba announced another good news.
Due to the hot sales of the game, the studio has some money in its pocket and will move to a bigger and more spacious office after Christmas.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
This is the right place that Chen Ba had been searching for for a long time.
The location is closer to the city center, making life more convenient. At the same time, the venue is several hundred square meters. Although the rent is a bit more expensive, it is acceptable.
More importantly, there is a food court 200 meters away from the new office, which is really great !
Everyone was excited when they heard that the studio was moving to the food court.
In addition to the news of the move, Chen Ba also announced another thing, that is, after the New Year's Day holiday, the studio may undergo a round of expansion.
Now, including Chen Ba himself, there are only four people in the studio, and it may be expanded to ten people in a while.
The specific number of people is to be determined.
The main reason is that Jiangning is not a first-tier city, nor is it a popular city where Internet companies gather, so it is difficult to recruit enough game practitioners.
The sales of "Living With Others Simulator" are very stable. Even without discounts or promotions, it can still sell 80,000 to 100,000 copies every month.
Therefore, Tianba Studio is not short of money at the moment. It has millions of surplus funds coming in every month, so there will be no problem in recruiting people.
"We also need to hire a finance officer!"
Chen Ba thought about it and decided that the studio really needed a professional financial accountant. After all, as the studio grew in size, someone must be in charge of tax filing and bookkeeping.
However, these are secondary.
Whether it is moving or expanding enrollment, there will be no impact if you delay it for a while, but there is one thing that cannot be delayed and must be resolved as soon as possible.
The studio's logo!
Up to now, Tianba Studio still uses Chen Ba’s handwritten “Tianba” art word as its logo.
How can this be possible?
After all, we are considered a regular army. If we don’t find someone to design a formal trademark logo, we will be embarrassed to say hello to our colleagues when we go out.
In addition to the logo, you can also think of a slogan.
Tencent is "creating happiness with heart", QQ is "game lovers", and miHoYo is "tech geeks saving the world"...
Regardless of the size of the manufacturer, at least everyone has a slogan that they can shout out for players to hear and remember.
What should be the slogan of Tianba Studio?
No cavities?!
(End of this chapter)