Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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But for Spark, this tool is useful.

Although China has many game developers, most of them work for large companies and their projects are almost exclusively online games.

This is evident from the fact that although Xinghuo platform is a domestic platform, most of the single-player games on it are overseas games. If you take out all the single-player best-selling games on Xinghuo platform from 1 to 100 and look at them...

So, aside from a few familiar faces like "The Scroll of Taiwu" and "The Wandering Earth".

Most of the games are still Western games.

This is very disadvantageous for Spark, because with very few exceptions, it is virtually impossible for these European and American game developers to sign exclusive agreements with Spark.

They can partner with Spark, but they will definitely partner with Steam as well; this is a problem that competition cannot solve.

To enhance its competitiveness, Spark needs more Chinese game developers. While Spark's influence in Europe and America isn't as high, in China, Spark can easily outperform Steam.

However, objectively speaking, although Spark currently has various training programs, its scale is clearly not yet at its limit for the entire country of China.

What Spark needs is a diverse and vibrant game market, much like the secondary game market.

For the Spark platform, the future goal is not only to attract more players, but also to attract more authors.

Therefore, at the beginning of this year, Spark separated a group of people from the Spark Engine to work on the editors for "Star River Paradise: Exploration" and "Eastern Fantasy World".

After optimization and rectification, "Spark Game Maker" was released.

This is a software program, or you could say an editor. Its core has several built-in modules, such as an RPG module, a roguelike module, as well as a terrain editor and a mission editor.

All functions are visualized.

Taking the terrain editor as an example, the entire scene editor of "Spark Game Maker" is more like a simulation building game than an editor.

Players can add various materials to build the scenes they want.

The scene editor is somewhat similar to a currently popular game called Zoo Tycoon. With various buildings and terrains, if you really focus on the details, you can make it look very beautiful.

In addition to scene creation, this game also features a complete task editor, dialogue editor, and more.

Even someone with absolutely no experience in game development can create a game using this editor tool, as long as they are willing to follow the tutorials.

Moreover, the image quality isn't too bad, even though it uses all the system's default materials.

No matter how simple it is, this thing is more of a tool than a game.

So when it was launched, even though Spark paid for the promotion, it was still done according to the game's promotion, on Douyin, Bilibili, YouTube, and even invited content creators to try it out.

Ultimately, it didn't cause much of a stir.

It had hundreds of thousands of downloads in the early stages of its release, but the retention rate, calculated according to the game's metrics, was less than one in a thousand.

Chapter 408 Let President Lin be a contestant!

Furthermore, "Spark Game Maker" has an awkward positioning problem. On the one hand, established studios and development teams certainly don't need to use this thing.

For individuals, while tools are useful, learning how to use them can be a hassle.

The promotional campaign didn't go very well, and in fact, it made Xinghuo (the company) lose its edge.

Of course, the previous failures were not entirely without merit, because at least they showed He Ruiyang that the conventional methods of promoting games were not effective in disseminating this tool.

After that, Lin Li suggested that when promoting the second Spark Game Competition, this "tool" type of software should be included.

Since the goals of this year's Spark Games Competition have changed, the format has naturally changed as well.

However, how exactly to do it is a big problem.

After He Ruiyang rejected the idea of ​​continuing last year's approach at the beginning of the meeting, the meeting room quickly fell silent.

As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. A lot of people have been picking at their hair for a long time, but they still can't find where to start.

"When our operations department was working with General Manager Lin, we didn't feel that anything was difficult. We always felt that we could come up with a solution just by saying one sentence from General Manager Lin, and we thought we were pretty awesome."

"Now that we have to start from scratch, I realize how strong Mr. Lin's thinking is."

After a long silence, perhaps feeling that the atmosphere in the meeting room was somewhat oppressive, someone sighed.

His remark was met with nods of agreement from the others in the office.

"How about we call everyone in the operations department over for a big meeting to brainstorm ideas?"

He Ruiyang pondered for a moment.

nodded.

There are many large meetings held internally at Xinghuo, usually when a project is initiated.

This project is not just about creating a new game; it also includes major version updates and even additional DLC, so it can still be considered a project initiation.

Whenever this happens, the creative team will try to gather as many people as possible, first explaining the project's background, then posing questions that all attendees can answer.

Even if you are from the logistics department, you can speak freely.

However, on the other hand, in such a large setting, not many people dare to stand up and speak, but it gives those who have a flash of brilliance an opportunity to present themselves in a more accessible way.

Furthermore, those whose ideas are adopted will receive a fixed bonus.

Therefore, the core creative team of Spark always likes to hold large meetings when collecting ideas, and then hold smaller meetings after the ideas are decided.

The Spark operations department rarely holds such meetings, but He Ruiyang is still very familiar with this process.

Soon, the office of the Spark Platform Operations Department became lively.

You know, when there are a lot of people, there are definitely a lot of ideas.

“I think promotion is all about finding gimmicks. Since it’s a promotion for game development software, why don’t we invite Mr. Lin over? Let him be a guest.”

He Ruiyang did not object to the suggestion.

"It's certainly possible to approach General Manager Lin, but we need to think carefully about what we'd like him for. To be a judge? Wouldn't that be the same as last year?"

The person who spoke clearly had their own thoughts.

As mentioned before, those who dare to stand up are at least very confident about this issue.

"Actually, since I joined the company, many people have had the same question: how exactly does President Lin create so many great games?"

Do you have this question?

Everyone in the conference room nodded in agreement.

"Everyone has this question, and the players naturally have this question too. Since it's about promoting game creation tools, why don't we invite Mr. Lin to be a contestant?"

"Huh!? Let President Lin be a contestant?"

Upon hearing this suggestion, He Ruiyang instinctively wanted to object.

as same as him.

Several veteran members of the Spark Foundation immediately expressed their opposition.

What are you thinking? Can this really work?

"If Mr. Lin is the player, who will be the referee?"

What level is President Lin at now? How many producers in the world are better than President Lin? Let him be a contestant? That's impossible.

However, as soon as he finished speaking, he thought about it again and it seemed that if he really let President Lin be a contestant...

Thinking of this, He Ruiyang waved his hand, signaling the others not to rush to object.

"Please continue..."

The young man nodded.

"We could organize a 24-hour or 48-hour game development competition, inviting groups from within the industry..."

The so-called 24/48-hour production competition is actually quite famous in the game development field.

There are actually quite a few competitions of this type, both domestically and internationally.

For example, Ludum Dare, a competition founded in April 2002, is held twice a year: in April and October.

In this game competition, game developers have only 72 hours to create a playable game that fits the theme, and many well-known game developers are happy to participate in this competition.

"However, this kind of production competition won't actually get a lot of attention. There's another problem: if we really let President Lin be a contestant, then who will be the judges? And who would dare to be a judge?"

While this statement may sound a bit arrogant, it does reflect a very real problem.

The young people had clearly given this issue careful consideration and provided a solution directly.

"Then let's turn this event into a variety show."

"variety show?"

He Ruiyang thought for a moment and felt that he had grasped the young man's way of thinking, so he casually continued to push forward.

"What's your name?"

"Hey, it's called the 48-Hour Game Creation Competition?"

"No, no, no, it should be called '48 Hours Beyond Miracles.' We'll call President Lin's team the Legendary Team, and our goal is for other production teams to challenge them..."

"That's enough hype, and it will attract production teams from all over the world to participate."

"Huh? Playing it like this? Isn't that a bit too much? What if someone actually makes a game that's on par with CEO Lin's?"

"What do you mean, 'what to do'? Who do you think President Lin is? If he really shows up, I reckon President Lin will be the most excited person."

With everyone contributing their ideas, the project quickly evolved from a single sentence into a seemingly intriguing scheme.

Ultimately, He Ruiyang made the decision.

“Okay, I’ll take this plan and talk to President Lin about it.”

"Really? Is it feasible? Isn't this a bit hasty?"

He Ruiyang shook his head and pointed to the young man from before.

"What's your name?"

"Zhang Yifei! Mr. He, my name is Zhang Yifei..."

"Okay, you go back and write this plan carefully. Once the document is finished, we'll proofread it, then we'll talk to General Manager Su first, and then we'll talk to General Manager Lin."

Chapter 409 Two Suns

As is well known, Xinghuo has two suns.

One is Lin Li, and the other is Su Shanshan.

Mr. Lin appears to be very approachable, but those who dare to consult him on proposals are truly exceptional individuals.

It's not that General Manager Lin has a bad temper; on the contrary, he has a good temper. It's just that he has high requirements for every detail of the plan.

If you're not fully prepared when submitting your proposal, it's best not to go, otherwise you might easily be stumped by Mr. Lin's questions.

In contrast, Su Shanshan is relatively more gentle.

Although Su Shanshan might not know which direction to change it in, she could roughly judge what the problems were in the document from Lin Li's perspective.

Therefore, in Xinghuo, if you want Lin Li to make a decision, and the matter is not urgent, then...

It's almost become a common practice to contact Su Shanshan first and then Lin Li.

~~~

Time flies, and a week has passed in the blink of an eye.

When Zhang Yifei and He Ruiyang entered Lin Li's office full of confidence, they did receive the praise they expected, but at the same time, they also felt Lin Li's completely different way of thinking, which came from his broad vision.

"Your plan is great, but why limit it to offline variety shows?"

"?"

"What I mean is, since we want to broaden the scope of our publicity, we should get more people involved in this activity."

Lin Li was quite satisfied with He Ruiyang's plan, but the proposal was still not enough to spark a fire.

"Since it's a challenge to the legendary, why limit the number of participants? Let players from all over the world participate..."

"Global participation?"

He Ruiyang was somewhat puzzled.

This is a game development competition, not a speedrun or a PVP game competition. How can this get global players involved?