Crossover: 2014

Huang Jing on the other end of the phone thought that Lin Hui was interested in the game Pgue Inc after hearing Lin Hui's words.

Huang Jing then briefly introduced the game to Lin Hui.

Listening to Huang Jing's description, Lin Hui recalled the content related to this game.

Lin Hui remembered playing this game in his spare time in his previous life.

At that time, it cost 18 yuan to buy the game Pgue Inc.

Let's not talk about it from the player's point of view.

From the perspective of game developers, the game Pgue Inc in the previous life was quite successful.

Although the revenue of Pgue Inc is comparable to SUPERCELL's ability to attract money from several games.

But the total income of Pgue Inc in the previous life also exceeded [-] million US dollars.

For a work made at a cost of 1 US dollars, the game's revenue has exceeded [-] million US dollars.

This return on investment is simply overwhelming all kinds of movies.

The results of this game of Pgue Inc in the previous life.

Even the revenue achieved by some of the previous games carried by Lin Hui, a reborn person, is not far behind.

The game of Pgue Inc in the previous life was not unsuccessful.

Lin Hui remembered that in his previous life, in 2017, the number of global players of Pgue Inc exceeded 1 million.

Even according to some media in previous lives, 1.3% of the world's population are players of this game.

If this is true, if Pgue Inc players counted as a country, it would be the 14th most populous country in the world."

As for why Pgue Inc was able to achieve such results in its previous life?
Lin Hui remembered that some media analysts in his previous life believed that most of the success of the game was due to the spread of the game community.

During the game testing period, the word-of-mouth of the players has brought very good results.

In addition, because there were few mobile games with the same theme as Pgue Inc at that time, Pgue Inc was a victory of the sword.

However, Lin Hui felt that the popularity of games like Pgue Inc was relatively new.

The key is because this game has no combat mechanism, it is easier for players to operate.

At the same time, some special immersive designs are adopted in the game to give players a stronger sense of substitution.

Perhaps Lin Hui's summary is not in place, but many things remain the same.

There are different reasons for the game of fluttering.

Successful games basically have a similar core:
- Can attract players.

Players are the root cause of a game's success.

Only games that can make players unconsciously addicted to it have the possibility of success.

However, although Pgue Inc was relatively successful in the previous life, and its revenue exceeded [-] million US dollars.

But Lin Hui remembered that this was all in the next few years.

But now, although the game Pgue Inc has a certain number of fans in a small area.

But these players contributed millions of dollars at best.

That is to say, from the perspective of the previous life.

The game Pgue Inc still has considerable market potential.

From an investment point of view, it is indeed a good investment choice if you can start with the studio ions or the game Pgue Inc.

Having said that, if Lin Hui really wants to acquire an overseas studio, it will not be without trouble.

Lin Hui is not too worried about matters related to the operation level.

Even if the steps of foreign-related operations are cumbersome, as long as the money is not bad, the actual operation will not be too troublesome in many cases, after all, money can make ghosts go round.

Moreover, Huang Jing mentioned overseas studios when making suggestions.

...

It must have fully considered the feasibility of implementing this proposal.

Compared with worrying about operational troubles, Lin Hui is more concerned about some troubles that may arise in the follow-up impact of the acquisition of an overseas studio.

As for the troubles that Lin Hui is worried about, there are two aspects:
On the one hand, Lin Hui, a domestic game studio, was worried that such a studio would be in the shape of a major domestic company.

So wouldn't overseas game studios be in the shape of major overseas companies?

If there is a legitimate and open cooperation with a large overseas factory, Lin Hui will not refuse.

But Lin Hui didn't want to get involved with big overseas factories somehow.

It is easy to step into pitfalls (including but not limited to legal traps, debt traps, and personnel crises, etc.) if you are inexplicably associated with a big factory.

On the other hand, it has a certain relationship with the game Pgue Inc.

This Pgue Inc game is nothing in terms of genre.

It's just a 2D stand-alone strategy mobile game.

But the specific game content is a bit...

Well, according to Huang Jing, the content of the game is relatively "anti/human/kind".

Will Lin Hui still want to start such a game?
This is a problem, but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

The big deal is to only go online overseas, and not to go online domestically.

As long as it doesn't poison the country, even "dross" doesn't seem to be a big problem.

Having said that, it seems a bit early to think about this now.

Why are ions willing to make a move?

Don't people at this studio know anything about the game's potential?

Lin Hui decided to listen to what Huang Jing had to say first.

I only heard Huang Jing say to Lin Hui: "You don't know, the current size of the ions studio is very small.

At its heart is developer James Vaughan.

Although the development has such a passable game.

But James Vaughan is not a practitioner in the computer field. "

Lin Hui was thoughtful when he heard this, isn't the core creator of this game a practitioner in the computer field?
That's good news.

In this way, it is unlikely that ions studio will have too close a relationship with overseas major manufacturers.

Lin Hui doesn't have to worry about accidentally acquiring dark or illegitimate children from some big overseas factories.

While Lin Hui was thinking, Huang Jing continued: "According to some information I collected, James Vaughan graduated from the University of Nottingham with a major in economics.

Before I came into contact with game development, I was just a strategic consultant for a financial company in China, doing regular and boring work every day.

Isn't it reasonable to want to cash in on a game made by a financial consultant? "

After saying this, Huang Jing immediately felt that it was not good to say that.

After all, strictly speaking, Lin Hui doesn't seem to specialize in game development as his main business.

It seems that even if he became a monk halfway, it would not affect the performance of the game that Lin Hui made.

Although Lin Hui still has a lot of room for growth, in any case, now Lin Hui has been able to make many workers who specialize in game development feel ashamed.

With the precedent of Lin Hui, it is not surprising even if there is a cross-border game player who makes a name for himself.

Huang Jing hurriedly continued: "As far as I know, the reason why the core developer James Vaughan makes games.

...

Because in 2011 he came into contact with a strategy game (released in 2008) by accident
After putting in a long time, Vaughan wanted a deeper strategy gaming experience.

At that time, there was no similar and better strategy mobile game of the same kind.

So he decided to use his spare time to make an iOS game with in-depth gameplay..."

According to Huang Jing, this James Vaughan chose to become a monk and engage in game development out of his love for strategy games.

James Vaughan spent several months learning development knowledge online, hoping to make the game more realistic.

With no experience in game development, Vaughan had to borrow game elements from it at first.

The original full-time developer of the game was James Vaughan alone.

Due to the need to go to work, James Vaughan can only study and develop on weekends and evenings.

Although it is passionate, it is undoubtedly very difficult for a beginner with no foundation to make an iOS game.

So the development process of James Vaughan is actually very bad. A person's ability is limited and he can only ask others for help.

In the process of developing this game, James Vaughan had to cooperate with three freelancers, namely programmer Mario, artist Sofia and audio engineer Johshua.

Although there are collaborators, the problems of remote collaboration and time difference make the development of this game not smooth.

Since everyone has daily work, the project was stopped for 2 months at the busiest time.

It can be said that the birth of this game is ill-fated.

Now that the game has finally become more formalized, everyone in the ions game studio has the intention to either "defeat" to a game company with deep pockets or sell the game directly...

Huang Jing said that this kind of thing is theoretically possible.

But Lin Hui still asked: "You said about selling the studio/game, is this the idea of ​​James Vaughan's partner or James Vaughan's own idea? And you also said just now that Vaughan hopes to obtain a deeper strategy game At that time, there was no good strategy mobile game, so he decided to use his spare time to make an iOS game with in-depth gameplay.

As a layman, James Vaughan must have paid a lot to make this game, and even what he paid is hard to imagine for us senior practitioners. Are you sure he is willing to give up in this case? "

The idea of ​​James Vaughan's partners or James Vaughan's own?

Does it matter who thinks?
Of course it matters.

Huang Jing also knew why Lin Hui asked such a question.

Many times when start-up companies/studios report that they want to seek cash, in many cases, unnecessary troubles will be caused by the project sponsors and partners arguing.

"Heaven Comes"

Huang Jing said: "Both James Vaughan himself and his partners have the idea of ​​selling, and according to my feeling, James Vaughan himself may have a stronger idea in this regard."

Lin Hui wondered, "Oh, how do you say that?"

Huang Jing said: "It is undeniable that James Vaughan has devoted a lot of effort to this game.

But it is precisely because of this that James Vaughan's idea of ​​​​selling the game will be stronger. "

Lin Hui: "Oh? How do you say that?"

Huang Jing: "James Vaughan initially wanted to make an iOS game, maybe it was just out of interest, but when he was working on the standardized launch of this game.

...

A hobby becomes a job, not a hobby anymore.

Not only is it not an interest, but it may be a kind of distress. "

There is quite a bit of truth in this statement.

Take typing codes as an example. If you really want to write codes every day, it is fun to code a few pieces of code.

But it is really necessary to stipulate that every day should be done as work, and there are special tasks to be completed every day, and after each task is completed, there will be a special person to check and accept according to the corresponding node.

Even if you can get money, I'm afraid it's not comfortable to type code every day.

People in related industries can't help complaining from time to time.

What's more, for a cross-border player?
Not everyone is successful across borders.

Even success is hardly smooth sailing.

If James Vaughan is really what Huang Jing said.

It is indeed possible that this person is tired of the challenges of working in the unfamiliar field of game operations.

Then it is understandable that it will have the idea of ​​selling Pgue Inc.

If this is the case, you can make contact with the people in the ions game studio.

If the price is right and the operation is not troublesome, you might as well win the game studio ions.

Or it would be nice to just take down the game Pgue Inc.

Of course, why Lin Hui thought of buying this game has something to do with the game's implicit intention.

Perhaps some things that Lin Hui wants to do can use the operation of this game to "clearly repair the plank road and secretly cross the old warehouse".

Of course, Lin Hui hopes that this time and space does not require Lin Hui to make a fuss about ***.

Crossover: 2014