Chapter 77 I Want to Try
Espoo is the second largest city in Finland after the capital Helsinki.
The headquarters of the world-famous Nokia is in Espoo. Microsoft and Google have also established their headquarters, research centers and data centers in Espoo.
Taking advantage of this trend, Espoo has also become a gathering place for countless European high-tech talents.
Lars Leppinen is one of them. He is now the head of the game production team at Finnish company Remedy Entertainment.
Speaking of Green Media Entertainment, veteran game players will definitely be familiar with it. The famous "Max Payne" series of games comes from this game developer, and the famous system rating software 3DMark is also the work of this company.
Lars Lepinin was involved in the production of the Max Payne series, which has been adapted into an action movie by Hollywood, starring Mark Wahlberg. Recently, the latest game product of him and his team is Alan Wake.
There is no doubt that LuMeddy is already a well-known developer in the game industry, but Las Lepinin is not proud of it at all. He even finds that his enthusiasm for work is fading away bit by bit.
The reason is simple, Lu Medi is subject to too many restrictions.
Before developing the successful Max Payne series, Remedy had been in deep financial crisis. But after the success, they still couldn't be completely independent. For example, to develop "Alan Wake", they needed to cooperate with Microsoft's game studio and were required to launch it first on Microsoft's Xbox platform.
All these restrictions tell Lars Lepinin that the prospects of this path may not be bright.
In recent years, with the rise of smart phones, mobile games have received unprecedented attention.
The previous release of Plants vs. Zombies and the recently popular Angry Birds have made the world aware of the huge market for mobile games, and also made Lars Leppinen begin to shift his attention to the field of mobile games.
Not long ago, he received an invitation from a startup company, but the founder was a well-known figure in the Finnish industry. He valued Lars Leppinen's rich experience in game development and invited him to join their team.
But Lars Lepinin was still hesitant, because the other team had only three people, and their idea was to first build a strong creative team, then go to the City of London to attract venture capital, and then use the venture capital to develop games.
He didn't know whether he could play this capital game, but the risk was too great.
Therefore, after receiving the invitation, he was still hesitant, even though the prospects outlined by the other party were very promising.
But who knows?
The two people sitting in front of him were also somewhat hesitant and tempted like him: Petri Sterman, a well-known senior artist and animator in the gaming industry, and Temur Hausla, a famous analyst with a master's degree in business administration.
The three of them sat in a cafe in downtown Espoo, discussing their options for the future.
But who can promise a future for himself or others?
"Have you ever heard of cutting the rope?" asked Petteri Sterman.
Lars Lepinin hummed. "It seems to have been launched only a few days ago? It has been reported in the media before."
After WeChat held a competition at the University of Southampton, which attracted media attention, it quickly took advantage of the opportunity and launched this game on both Apple's IOS and Facebook platforms, and it has been loved by more and more players.
"I heard that the game has been downloaded more than two million times worldwide on the Apple App Store."
"Two million?" Lars Lepinin was a little surprised and speechless.
The Wake Alan, which he personally supervised and produced, was currently aiming for a sales volume of one million, but this other mobile game had easily exceeded two million downloads. How embarrassing it made him feel.
"It seems like it's only been out for a week." Lars Lepinin said in amazement.
"Yeah, just one week." Petri Sterman smiled. "This number is actually not surprising at all, because there are people who have performed better than them. The key is to see how well they perform."
Temur Hausla, a former famous analyst who switched to the field of game development and is good at establishing and improving the entire game economic structure, nodded continuously, "I have also paid attention to this game and downloaded it to play. As a free game, the key is to see their player retention rate and how to guide players to spend money to buy paid props."
"I heard that their player retention rate on the second day is around 65%, the three-day retention rate is 55%, and the seven-day retention rate is 50%." Petri Sterman said with envy. This is already quite high.
Temur Hausla was a little shocked. He was also very good at game analysis and naturally knew the meaning behind this data. He just didn't understand, "How did they do this?"
I believe this is also the common question of all mobile game manufacturers.
"Quests!" Petri Sterman answered. "They provide players with different types of daily tasks and rewards to encourage them to log in every day. They even reward them with gems that can be used to purchase paid items."
"This is indeed a very creative idea!" Temur Hausla said with admiration.
Little did people know that when Yang Huan designed this idea, he was actually plagiarizing and borrowing from the Tiantian series of WeChat in his previous life.
“From an art perspective, this game is beautifully designed, and its logic and game feedback are almost impeccable. Every move of the player will receive the most realistic and natural feedback, which is quite attractive.”
Petri Stroman had obviously put a lot of effort into rope cutting.
"This is not just a mobile game, it also integrates rich social elements and can be linked to Facebook and WeChat friends. Through the leaderboard, players can see the scores and game progress of their friends and relatives. Even after each level is passed, they can see their friends' performance at that level and compare with each other. They can even leave messages to friends for guidance on game tips."
Everyone wants to be the most awesome person around them. This kind of social method can naturally bring players a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Even for some players with a strong competitive spirit, they will try their best to improve their ranking on the leaderboard and the progress of the game.
The fastest and most effective way is to purchase some paid props that are very practical but will not disrupt the balance of the game.
For example, when you encounter a difficult level that you can't figure out, you can use paid props to skip this level and enter the next level.
Because the difficulty of game levels is usually set in a combination of several levels with a more difficult level, skipping difficult levels is still very helpful for the progress of the game.
But when the game reaches a certain stage, players must go back and solve the difficulties they skipped before before they can continue.
If you want to overcome those difficulties, you may need to purchase paid props.
It is obvious that from the very beginning, WeChat company was trying hard to guide players to purchase paid props.
It’s just that they chose a smarter way that would not be resisted by players.
"Recently, on Facebook and Twitter, many people are talking about the cute cartoon dragon, which is very popular with female players. The gorgeous graphics of the whole game are also very pleasing. In addition, they are diligent in updating and adding levels. Currently, there are seven level boxes. It is said that there will be more updates in the future."
At this point, Petteri Sterman smiled with admiration, "This is a mobile game promotion that has been prepared for a long time. From game production, to test release, to holding a competition, and finally global simultaneous release, everything has been carefully prepared."
"So, they became an overnight success!" Lars Lepinin praised with admiration.
"In the future, the Apple App Store will probably put a lot of effort into promoting this beautifully made game that can well demonstrate the performance of Apple phones. This is also Apple's usual style."
An important requirement for Apple App Store to recommend a game is that the game must be beautifully produced and able to reflect the performance and features of Apple mobile phones and iPads. This type of game is generally highly recommended.
When Temur Hausla heard this, another idea suddenly came to his mind.
He took the laptop from beside him, turned it on, and quickly went to Google to search for the company that developed Cut the Rope.
"In fact, we may have all overlooked one thing." Temur Haosla shook his head and sighed.
"What was overlooked?" Petri Sterman asked curiously.
I've given it such a high rating, why are you ignoring it?
Temur Hausla turned the laptop around. "Look, this company is the one that developed WeChat. They released it on both iOS and Facebook. Don't you think that they are intentionally bringing Facebook's users and social circles to WeChat?"
The most important thing about social networks is interpersonal relationships. If a game can be used to attract a large number of users from Facebook to WeChat, it will undoubtedly lead to explosive growth in the number of WeChat users in a short period of time.
"It seems that we have underestimated their ambition!" Temur Hausla suddenly became very interested in this company.
If this was a company in Silicon Valley, his interest might not be so strong, but it is a British startup, which makes people curious.
"They are recruiting game production talents, and the salaries offered are very high." Petri Sterman noticed the job advertisements in Google search results.
"A senior artist with more than six years of game development experience is offered an annual salary of £150,000."
You know, Petteri Sterman's current annual salary is only about 70,000 pounds, and that's because he is senior enough and has been in the company for many years. Otherwise, according to the general trend of a sharp decline in salaries in the entire European and American game industry in 2010, he would be lucky to get 50,000 pounds.
But the annual salary offered by WeChat was so high that he was really tempted.
Is this an attempt to take advantage of the low point in the gaming and film industries to engage in a massive talent hunt?
"Is it really that high?" Lars Lepinin was also tempted. If the salary of a senior artist was so high, then his salary would definitely not be low, at least it should be the same.
Temur Hausla was not too surprised. "I have a few friends who used to work for game developers in Sweden and now work in the UK. I heard that the salary and benefits are very good, and the company benefits are also quite generous. I heard that the boss is a very rich second-generation who knows a lot about games, and I heard that he recently bought a football team."
"Southampton!" Petter Sterman immediately thought of this team.
The main reason is that it is too dazzling. As a League One team, it has won the world's number one center forward Ibrahimovic and the super genius Neymar recognized by everyone.
It is hard to forget such a team.
Now that they knew this, the three of them were also clear that, at least, although this company was a startup, it was very strong, especially in terms of financial strength, and the conditions offered were so generous that they made them excited.
"I want to try it." Petri Sterman was the first to speak out.
Lars Lepinin looked at Temur Hausla and nodded, "Then I'll go too."
Temur Hausla smiled and said, "Let's go together!"
Football Giants