October 2015
Huaxia
The border area between Suzhou-Hangzhou and the Demon Capital
Yu Feng Youth Entrepreneurship Industrial Park
Chu Chen stood in the corridor on the fourth floor of the industrial park building, staring blankly at the giant red GG outside the window commemorating the "70th Anniversary of the Victory in the Anti-Fascist War Parade."
At this time, the glass windows of the corridor were wide open, and a gentle breeze carried the lingering summer warmth.
It was around 4 PM. Looking out the window, various small stalls and vendors were already out in full force on the street outside the park, lining the road.
This area was far from the city, had no urban management, and was crowded, with expensive restaurants, so the appearance of such a "snack street" was perfectly normal.
However, looking at the scene before him,
Chu Chen's mind was blank, and his heart pounded like a drum.
"Red Sister's Braised Pig Trotters..."
He softly murmured the name of the stall directly below the window, his eyes filled with bewilderment and shock.
Because he clearly remembered.
It was this very shop's illegally stacked foam boxes and tents downstairs that saved his life, allowing him to jump from the fourth floor and only break a leg instead of dying...
Although after Chu Chen's jump, this snack street was affected and subsequently rectified by the relevant departments.
So....
The snack street was still there, which meant....
Thinking of this, Chu Chen's hand, placed on his chest to confirm his heartbeat, felt his heart accelerate again.
He suddenly realized what point in time he had traveled back to.
For a moment, excitement, disbelief, fear, panic, delusion, and doubt—thousands of emotions flooded into his chest.
However, these emotions did not affect what he was about to do next.
Turning around, running, passing through the circular corridor, and descending two floors, Chu Chen arrived on the second floor, panting.
Then, with trembling hands, he pushed open that large door.
The door with "Stellar Games Studio" taped on it with A4 paper.
Pushing the door open.
A familiar yet unfamiliar company appeared before his eyes. Familiar, because this company had lingered in his mind for the next ten years.
Unfamiliar, because it was, after all, an imagination in his mind.
This was an office of about a hundred square meters, with about twenty workstations, but at this moment, there was no one at any of them.
"Still... too late?"
Chu Chen sighed...
However... just as Chu Chen sighed.
A girl in a white Lolita dress emerged from the restroom and happened to see Chu Chen.
The girl's eyes were a bit red, clearly from crying, and her voice even had a tearful quality.
"Brother Chen?"
Hearing the voice, Chu Chen quickly turned around.
It was Su Qing, the company's copywriter. In his previous life, when Chu Chen was in the hospital, this girl had even visited him alone, and quietly put money in the fruit basket she gave him...
Chu Chen naturally remembered her, but now was not the time to think about these things.
"Are we having a meeting!?!"
Su Qing was a bit confused as to why Chu Chen was so surprised, as this meeting was called by Chu Chen himself, but she still nodded...
"Yes, Sister Song is talking to everyone... I didn't expect you to be back so soon. I, I'll go tell them..."
"I'll go with you!"
~~~
A few minutes later, in the conference room.
The afternoon sun was still bright, but the heavy curtains in the conference room completely blocked it out.
Only the stark white incandescent lights and the chilling air conditioning remained.
The conference room was full of people, yet completely silent. An unspeakable silence permeated the air, like a bunker in a furious dictator's lair.
When Chu Chen walked into the conference room, this was the scene he saw.
"Chen Zong!?"
"Brother Chen!!!?"
As the boss of the company and one of the co-founders, Chu Chen's prestige in the company was not bad.
So, as soon as he entered, almost everyone stood up simultaneously. Hearing the voices, Chu Chen suddenly felt a sense of unreality, even a bit of unfamiliarity.
But he could still, by memory, match everyone to their names.
For example, the three burly men sitting on the left were the three programmers known as the Stellar Three Bears.
Or the beautiful woman sitting at the head of the table.
The company's lead artist.
Song Yueying.
Like him, the girl was also in her early twenties.
Her face was delicate and refined, with fair and exquisite features, and long black hair draped over her shoulders. What was even rarer was that not only was the girl beautiful, but her temperament was also exceptional.
"Sorry, I just went to calm down. Sit, sit..."
Chu Chen took a deep breath, shifting his gaze away from Song Yueying.
"Where were you discussing?"
After greeting them, Chu Chen found a seat in the conference room and sat down. As soon as he settled, he saw the row of messy handwriting on the whiteboard.
"Xingchen Games Resignation Compensation Negotiation Meeting..."
Looking at this line of words, Chu Chen suddenly remembered something.
That's right, that's right, this was the last meeting before the company dissolved. In his previous life, he had completely broken down at this meeting.
"Chu Chen, you've come at a good time."
Song Yueying looked up. Her eyes were also a bit red, but her tone had already returned to calm.
"This matter, you should coordinate the company's final arrangements."
After Song Yueying said this, the slight bit of life that Chu Chen's return had brought to the conference room once again fell silent.
Everyone's expressions were somber.
However, Chu Chen's face was smiling.
Actually, even now, he hadn't figured out why he had traveled back from the future to 2015. After all, he hadn't hit the jackpot; he had just slept and woken up here.
He wasn't even sure.
If he had traveled back from the future, or if he was having an extremely long lucid dream.
But this did not prevent his heart from gradually warming up.
Because everything before him was telling him.
He really had a chance to salvage the biggest regret of his life, whether it was his career or his love. Thinking of this, Chu Chen actually felt tears welling up in his eyes.
He got up, picked up the whiteboard eraser, and wiped away the writing on the whiteboard.
"Today's meeting agenda has changed. We won't discuss this. I'll figure out the money. The company isn't dissolving. If Qin Lie wants to leave, let him leave. We're moving forward!"
Chu Chen spoke these words, which he had held back for over a decade, in as lighthearted a tone as possible.
However... the imagined cheers and applause did not appear.
Although Chu Chen's words did cause some commotion in the conference room.
But reality is not a novel.
A company on the verge of bankruptcy cannot suddenly become invigorated and charge forward just because its boss says so.
Everyone's expressions were more of bewilderment...
Song Yueying, however, frowned slightly.
"Chu Chen, we've already discussed it. Qin Lie's divestment is a full divestment. After he divests, the company account will have less than ten thousand yuan left. We won't even be able to pay next month's salaries..."
As a veteran of the company and Chu Chen's university classmate, Song Yueying had an emotional attachment to the company, both professionally and personally.
Therefore, she really didn't want to stand up and oppose Chu Chen at this time.
But she also didn't want Chu Chen to stand up and act tough at this moment.
Because she knew very well.
The company's current situation was a complete mess, far from something that could be solved by Chu Chen simply saying "move forward."
Xingchen Games was co-founded by Chu Chen and Qin Lie.
The two were university roommates and former "good brothers."
However, just as the saying goes, no matter how good brothers are, don't start a business together. Chu Chen once treated this saying as a joke, but reality slapped him hard.
After less than a year and a half of running the company, their four years of university friendship quickly crumbled.
Even though it was initially agreed that Chu Chen would handle game production and Qin Lie would manage finance and operations.
Yet, the 50/50 shareholding structure still led to the company lacking an absolute core.
For a year, from the office decoration to the game development roadmap, the entire company progressed through constant arguments. At the same time, the money in the company's account flowed away like water.
Two million yuan only lasted a year and a half.
The money was gone, but the game studio's project had only just built a framework.
To continue, they could only invest more money.
After arguing for half a day, they decided to each invest another one million yuan.
Compared to Qin Lie, a rich second generation, Chu Chen's own family was not particularly wealthy.
Chu Chen exerted tremendous effort, submitting at least a dozen "market research reports" to his father, with the determination that "it will definitely succeed this year, or I'll die outside," to secure this investment from his family.
This one million yuan could be said to have used up all of his family's savings, and he also borrowed over a hundred thousand yuan from relatives.
However, just as he was planning to use this momentum to build up Xingchen.
Qin Lie, however, used "company development" as an excuse, saying that he wanted to change the shareholding ratio, from 50/50 to Chu Chen 51% and him 49%.
Of course, Chu Chen was overjoyed by this.
At that time, he still thought Qin Lie was a person of great understanding, so much so that he completely disregarded the share transfer procedures and entrusted everything to Qin Lie.
However, what Chu Chen didn't know was.
At this time, Qin Lie had already lost confidence in this project. He had originally planned to withdraw at the beginning of the year.
But he didn't expect Chu Chen to still want to throw money into it.
This made Qin Lie consider something. They say you can know a person's face but not their heart. Qin Lie's family became rich not by doing business with a conscience.
Qin Lie, who had received a good upbringing from his father since childhood, outwardly called Chu Chen his brother.
But at this point, it was a matter of sacrificing a friend to save oneself.
The shares were transferred, but not 51% and 49%, but Qin Lie transferred all his shares to Chu Chen.
After confirming that the share transfer agreement was effective, Qin Lie, using his convenience as the finance manager, transferred the one million yuan from the company's account to his own bank card without informing anyone.
Chu Chen reported it to the police immediately after discovering it, and the police also filed a case. But the problem was that the signature on the share transfer agreement was indeed Chu Chen's.
Even though Chu Chen insisted that he was signing the document while discussing game development in a meeting, and that the other party had specifically chosen such a time to have him sign.
But... this claim was difficult to become evidence, and the existence of these signed documents made the possibility of him recovering the money very slim.
To pursue it, he would need to hire a lawyer, and hiring a lawyer would cost money.
But where did Chu Chen have money at this point?
He called Qin Lie, but Qin Lie only said his family urgently needed money, gave a perfunctory reply, and then blocked Chu Chen.
This years-long brotherhood from university was thus broken.
Perhaps there was no brotherhood from the start, but merely Qin Lie seeing Chu Chen's ability and wanting to make a profit from him, never expecting Chu Chen, this good-for-nothing, to be so unpromising.
On the other hand, by this time, Chu Chen also realized that he had been deceived.
One can only say that Qin Lie's family was able to become rich probably because they were ruthless enough to cut their losses in time. This was the first lesson that real society taught Chu Chen.
However, it was clear that the price of this lesson was a bit too high.
Chu Chen in his previous life was devastated by this, because after Qin Lie's whole ordeal, it was equivalent to Chu Chen solely bearing the two million yuan loss of the company's first year.
You know, that wasn't his own money; it was his family's money!
Moreover, Qin Lie's departure not only cheated Chu Chen out of his money, but more importantly, his actions directly killed the future of Xingchen Games.
Unless Chu Chen could secure investments.
But... who would invest in a company like this?
If it were that easy to get investments, he wouldn't have spent so long badgering his father.
And so.
The current situation was that Xingchen's capital chain had completely broken.
The company had lost the possibility of continued operation.
As the company's art director, Song Yueying had a very clear understanding of the entire situation.
As a friend, she also knew about Chu Chen's family situation.
Even though she was also very upset and unwilling to accept the demise of Xingchen, she knew very well that the best solution at the moment was to dissolve the company and cut losses in time.
However, Chu Chen interrupted her at this moment.
“I know you’re worried about me, but it’s okay; give me some time, and I’ll solve the funding problem.”
“Chu Chen, don’t force yourself. I… I know… your, your family’s situation. You really don’t need to blame yourself. We all understand whose fault this problem was, and no one blames you. You did very well; this past year, we…”
Song Yueying wasn't lying.
In her eyes, Chu Chen at this moment looked truly heartbreaking. Putting herself in his shoes, if she had encountered such a thing, her emotions would probably have completely collapsed.
But Chu Chen had only been out for an hour or two, and upon returning, he was already able to pull himself together and talk about starting anew, which truly filled her with immense admiration.
Precisely because of this, she felt even more that she couldn't let Chu Chen continue to sink.
“No, we haven’t done well enough.”
Chu Chen took a deep breath.
He glanced at Song Yueying, then at the others seated in the conference room.
With the meeting having progressed to this point, Chu Chen had managed to calm down a bit.
He knew that if he didn't first lift the company's spirits today, things wouldn't be able to move forward at all.
Thinking of this.
Chu Chen simply pulled out his phone from his pocket.
He found a random unfamiliar call record, tapped it open, and placed it on the table.
“I’ve already sold my old house, so now our company isn’t short on money.”
“Ah!?”
“Really sold it?”
“No!!!”
“Chen Ge! You’re serious!?”
“Don’t! House prices are rising right now…”
In all startup companies, when the boss sells a house to continue operations, it's like Xiang Yu breaking the cauldrons and sinking the boats—nothing can inspire morale or express commitment more effectively.
So, when Chu Chen took out his phone and announced that he had already sold his house and the money would arrive soon.
The atmosphere in the entire conference room was instantly ignited.
So much so that Chu Chen had to stand up and press his hand down in the air to quiet everyone.
“Over the past year or so, we’ve built a game DEMO of our own from scratch. I’ve seen everyone’s performance.”
“Although Qin Lie left, and although he emptied the company’s accounts, we’re not entirely without benefits.”
“At least I have shares now. When the company succeeds, I’ll distribute shares to you.”
“Of course, the premise is that our company’s shares can make money… hahaha…”
Chu Chen finished speaking with two dry laughs.
Although the joke was dry, it put everyone in the conference room at ease. It seemed the boss wasn't just faking composure, but had truly recovered from the blow.
Although this fact was still very shocking, they truly didn't understand how Chu Chen had managed to adjust his mindset, but no matter how surprised they were, Chu Chen's state was as it appeared.
It was somewhat like Cao Cao entering Huarong Pass after the Battle of Red Cliffs...
Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, saying it like that sounds a bit unlucky.
Nevertheless, Chu Chen's declaration of selling his house ultimately settled the scene. Even Song Yueying stopped talking, though the astonishment and doubt in that little girl's eyes.
Still made Chu Chen feel a bit guilty.
One could only say that subordinates being too smart wasn't always a good thing.
After initially calming the situation, Chu Chen quickly steered the conversation to serious matters.
Although...
At this very moment, he also knew that the others in the conference room were still adjusting their mindsets, and it wasn't really suitable to discuss serious matters at this time.
However, Chu Chen had a certain “spirit” within him at this moment.
In his previous life, ever since the company was forced to disband, even though he always told his parents and friends that he had come to terms with it and wouldn't do anything foolish anymore.
But on countless nights of overtime, he couldn't help but wonder if his younger self had been mentally stronger, perhaps everything would have been different.
After all, even with Qin Lie's withdrawal, he was far from being at his wit's end.
It was precisely because of this that Chu Chen couldn't help but reflect; he had truly chosen the most inappropriate path among many.
So much so that for many years after the company went bankrupt, he even taught himself programming and art, trying to realize that dream by himself.
Unfortunately, he ultimately didn't succeed; the strength of one person was simply too small.
But the game's framework and ideas had always remained in his mind.
The game currently under development at Xingchen Games was called “Final Battlefront.” Its project initiation date was late 2013. In the original draft, it was a top-down sci-fi shooting game.
However, halfway through development, China's game market experienced a huge boom in 2014.
Two-dimensional mobile games.
The starting point of this storm was “Fleet Collection,” a web game that sold on the anthropomorphism of warships, with unique cultivation modes and character designs.
It quickly achieved astonishing success in 2013.
Immediately following, Tianfu Huanmeng Network's “Warship Girls,” with an almost 1:1 replication, became the first domestic work to capitalize on this trend.
Its development team, with a cost of less than one million yuan, created a return rate that shocked the entire game industry after its launch in September 2014.
In the second month of its launch, the game's peak single-day revenue exceeded 800,000 yuan.
This number.
It meant that its development cost could be recovered within just three days. Besides this, Mihoyo's “Honkai Impact 2” showed another path to success.
After this side-scrolling shooter game launched in early 2014, it achieved over ten million in monthly revenue in its first month, thanks to its refined Japanese art style and otaku-oriented content, with annual revenue approaching the 100-million-yuan mark.
Its terrifying 180% growth rate in 2015 further revealed the frightening payment potential of two-dimensional users.
Only then did the market realize that there really were so many players willing to pay for “paper figures.”
“They can do it! Then I can too! Drawing a paper figure can trick… ah, no, can make money! Isn’t that something anyone with hands can do!?”
When Chinese manufacturers realized the potential of this niche market, a frantic race began.
And so...
The entire period from 2014 to 2015 was complete chaos.
A large number of small workshops began to lean towards two-dimensional games, a large number of fan game communities easily obtained investments, and major game companies' recruitment sections suddenly added “two-dimensional original artist” positions.
Salaries for related positions surged by 300% within half a year.
And Xingchen Games, caught in this historical current, was naturally affected. Thus, by the end of 2014, after several arguments, “Final Battlefront” began to fully embrace the two-dimensional direction.
The character designs changed from conventional to Japanese-style, and the game framework shifted from a top-down 3D shooter to a character design paper-doll clash.
The original gun-wielding girls transformed into anthropomorphic firearms, and various character designs began to lean towards the style of Kantai Collection.
As for the previous gameplay, it was completely overturned.
Actually, if they had continued to push in that direction, Chu Chen felt that even if the project had many issues, it should still have been able to make a profit upon launch.
After all, the two-dimensional game market at that time was truly “people are foolish, money is abundant, come quickly.”
In his previous life, countless two-dimensional manufacturers rose directly by relying on a single game. Even if they couldn't become top-tier, making a living was effortless.
Unfortunately...
In his previous life, “Final Battlefront” did not survive to the day the game was born.
But at this moment.
Everything was different.
This time, Chu Chen would definitely pull his game company back from the brink!
~~~
To pull the company back from the brink.
Chu Chen had two major problems to solve.
First, the funding issue.
Although he said he would sell the house, selling a house is not that simple. Not to mention communicating with his parents, even if he sold it, he would still have to solve the problem of where his parents would live.
So, a more practical approach was actually to mortgage the house for a loan.
If all went well, Chu Chen felt he should be able to get a loan of about 500,000 to 1 million yuan. In his previous life, after he broke his leg, his parents took out a loan to pay for his medical expenses.
This money could roughly support the company for half a year to a year.
And so, a second problem arose.
Considering that the game would still need a Japanese Server and minimal promotion upon launch, he only had a maximum of six months to complete the game's production.
That is, the game must be launched before March of next year.
And currently, the completion of “Final Battlefront” could only be described as having a framework; it didn't even have a story. Even with another six months, its completion would inevitably be quite low.
But this problem was not without a solution.
“We need to use five months to leverage the current framework and launch Xingchen’s first game. This game will not include a story; it will be a pure gameplay game…”
“Pure gameplay!?”
“Five months? That’s too tight…”
“Yeah, and pure gameplay… it’s, it’s hard to make money, right?”
As soon as Chu Chen said this, the conference room, which had just calmed down, buzzed with discussion again.
For a low-cost game to make money.
The “simplest” method is “gameplay.” Most successful indie games, those that achieve great success with small investments, rely on innovation, or rather, creativity.
Like Minecraft, Fez, Braid, Machinarium, The Swindle, Balatro, etc., etc.
These games either feature innovative gameplay or have made new adjustments based on existing gameplay.
Each of these games almost allowed the development team to achieve financial freedom.
However, although everyone knows that gameplay innovation can generate more money, gameplay innovation is also the most difficult thing in the entire game industry.
Therefore, when they heard Chu Chen say he wanted to build a game primarily focused on pure gameplay, everyone present was somewhat surprised.