My Age of Investment

Peng Haitao took Xia Jingxing into his office. The decoration inside was very simple, without any feeling of luxury at all. It could be seen that he was a minimalist.

Well, to say that minimalism is flattering him, he handed Xia Jingxing a bottle of mineral water, and said in a casual tone, "I don't have anything to drink here, only this."

Xia Jingxing didn't take it seriously, took a sip of mineral water, unscrewed it, and then looked around. It was very empty, and there were only two lonely office chairs in front of the desk. set?"

"What are you doing with that stuff?"

Peng Haitao didn't go to sit in the boss chair, but pulled out two office chairs, sat down on one of them, and pushed the other towards Xia Jingxing.

Xia Jingxing pulled up the chair and sat down, then asked, "I know your material desires are very low, but the sofa should still be set up, there's no need to make it so simple."

Peng Haitao waved his hand, "There's no need to talk about those ostentations, and I don't need to talk about business now."

Xia Jingxing smiled, well, this reason is very strong.

Now Peng Haitao really doesn't need to talk about business anymore. After Jintian Technology was fully acquired by Overseas Games, the two games "Legend Online" and "Fengyun Online" developed by it were handed over to Overseas Games for operation.

With the help of the powerful distribution channels of Hainei.com, the two games are currently operating very well.

Wu Yimin told Xia Jingxing that the two games might be able to earn back the 100 million that they bought Jintian Technology by next year, but it is almost impossible to earn more, and the upper limit of the game quality is stuck there.

Therefore, there is no pressure on Xia Jingxing to add an Internet cafe to Jintian Studio. This business has made a lot of money for Overseas Holdings. Even if the board of directors thinks that he is messing around again, they should not object too much.

"The game "Legend" has many flaws, and the company plans to promote "Fengyun" next.

"Fengyun" performed very well. Before we took over, the number of active users was 1.5 million, the number of concurrent online users was 150,000, and the monthly income was 10 million. Now these three key indicators have almost doubled. "

Xia Jingxing stared at Peng Haitao, wanting to see if there was regret or regret on the latter's face.

Peng Haitao's expression remained unchanged, and he said with a light smile: "It seems that it is right to entrust the game to you. If it is still in the hands of Jintian Technology, we will not be able to achieve this result no matter what."

"However, "Feng Yun" is not polished enough, and it is estimated that it will only be popular for a year or two."

Xia Jingxing knew Peng Haitao's temperament, so he spoke very directly.

Peng Haitao nodded slightly, "I'm mentally prepared for this. Although "Fengyun" is the industry's first 3D oriental fantasy online game and uses our self-developed 3D engine, I know it still has a lot of flaws. A truly boutique game, let alone going to sea."

Xia Jingxing smiled, this situation is not that situation, not that of Hong Kong Manga, but an oriental fantasy online game based on the story of the ancient battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chi You.

The biggest problem with this game is that the plot or the background of the story is too old-fashioned.

The times are developing, there are more and more games on the market, and there are more and more options for players to choose from. At the same time, players themselves are also growing.

"Tell me about the newly approved "Q Version of Dream of Red Mansions". How do you want to develop it?"

Xia Jingxing looked at Peng Haitao with a smile, and said, "The four famous works have no copyright, and the whole world can use them to develop them into games. "Journey to the West", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" have been developed in succession at home and abroad. There are very few people who dare to touch "A Dream of Red Mansions" alone."

"The other three famous books are fighting and killing. The plot can be easily integrated into the game. "Dream of Red Mansions" is different. It can't be Baoyu archer, Daiyu swordsman, and Baochai magician?"

Xia Jingxing smiled lightly,

He remembered that the Chinese did not develop the IP of Red Mansion in his previous life. Instead, the Japanese took it and changed it into a sci-fi game. Daiyu piloted a spaceship and held a lightsaber, and all the twelve beauties turned into female superheroes to protect the order of the universe.

There is also the Three Kingdoms of Nianghua, and the little Japan has harmed famous Chinese books.

Xia Jingxing said: "You don't have to fight and kill, isn't the simulated cultivation gameplay you proposed very good?"

Peng Haitao smiled wryly, "To be honest, I don't think it's that good. This type of game isn't sticky enough, and it's hard to attract male users."

"Tangerine Pictures has reached an agreement with the crew of the new version of "Dream of Red Mansions". They will contribute part of the funds to jointly remake this famous work. After "Dream of Red Mansions" is released, several leading actors will also endorse the game and attend related game promotions. Activity."

Xia Jingxing said indifferently: "This is also the first time our company has tried the "movie-game linkage" model. If we can find a successful path, it will play a vital role in the company's future big entertainment strategy."

"Jing Xing, let me tell you this, no matter how successful "Dream of Red Mansions Q" is, it's just a niche game that won't gain much influence, let alone make much money."

"Influence and making money are secondary. The most important thing is to explore the meaning. How to make a game with Chinese culture as the background and promote it overseas. Neither we nor the industry have much experience. We can only try bit by bit. "

Peng Haitao sighed, "If you really want to promote and disseminate the Red Mansion culture, the simulation game is too simple and superficial, not enough to construct a complex world of Red Mansions, let alone reflect the complicated hearts.

But if it is made into an ARPG or MMORPG game, the novel needs a lot of changes. In the end, the game may just be a skin of a red building with the name of a protagonist on it, and the core of the plot has been completely changed. "

Xia Jingxing nodded, "Glory of the King" included Monkey King and Xiao Qiao, but in the end, except for one name, they had nothing to do with it.

However, skins and activities occasionally engage in Chinese style elements, which can be regarded as cultural export.

He originally intended to promote some traditional Chinese culture through "Q Version of A Dream of Red Mansions", and it would be best to integrate more novel storylines.

But when a novel is adapted into a game, a lot of things need to be changed and an interesting gameplay needs to be given to the players. This creates a situation: it is difficult to create an interesting gameplay without modifying the original novel.

There is also an important issue involved in this-media transformation.

As a written medium, novels can be transformed into visual mediums and made into movies and TV series.

However, in the process of media conversion, the problem of information loss will inevitably occur.

For example, the text can describe Sister Lin's appearance in a few sentences, and the information "she is beautiful" is contained in the description.

The sister Lin in every reader's heart may look completely different, but they must all have graceful beauty.

However, TV movies use a different language: a scene, an image, and a specific human face come out, and the tens of thousands of graceful images of Sister Lin in the readers' minds are instantly wiped out.

This is also an important reason why novels adapted from TV dramas and movies are often scolded, ruining the image of the characters in the minds of readers.

But compared to adapting games from novels, the difficulty of adapting novels to TV series and movies is nothing.

Film and television works can also extract a main story line with climax, trough, and ending from the novel, highlighting the characteristics and contradictions of the characters.

But games want narrative? Players can only say: Then I go?

Games as an interactive medium, the relationship between gameplay and narrative has been discussed for many years.

The representative work of the early text MUD "Xia Ke Xing", the imaginative space provided by the ambiguity of the text combined with the network and role-playing, created a deep and interesting experience.

But with the development of the game, people have gradually discovered that reading a lot of text while playing the game does not seem to be a good experience.

Because letting the player read other people's stories in front of the computer screen, or watching the image created by the designer continue to speak the words written in the original book, it seems that the experience is not as good as letting the player read the book by himself.

The most important thing when playing a game is to allow players to explore through actions in the game and see the changes they make.

All in all, no matter it is a written medium or a visual medium, when it is adapted into a game, it is necessary to add interactive elements.

Xia Jingxing thought about it for a long time. Perhaps under the existing technical conditions, it is difficult to realize the in-depth adaptation he wanted, that is, the kind of adapted game that retains the essence and skeleton of the original novel.

Maybe it's a dream that won't come true until the Metaverse actually becomes a reality.

For example, when the player enters the game world as Jia Baoyu, it is full of NPCs played by artificial intelligence, which can give people a different sensory experience than text and vision.

At that time, it would be wonderful for Baoyu to hug left and right.

Or when the era of AR and VR comes, make "Dream of Red Mansions" into an adult game, but Xia Jingxing is afraid of being drowned by the saliva of red scholars.

What can be achieved right now can only be theme adaptation, that is, put on a layer of skin, and the core must be changed, otherwise the players think I might as well go to watch TV dramas or read novels.

After thinking it through thoroughly, Xia Jingxing didn't struggle anymore, he took it step by step, he couldn't become a fat man in one sitting.

"Cultivating games is a plan. What do you think of the direction of RPG role-playing games?"

Peng Haitao frowned and said, "RPGs are divided into Japanese style and American style.

The style of American RPG games is more realistic, striving for toughness and realism, and emphasizing interaction, players have a high degree of freedom, and the story is only used to provide the world view required by the game;

Japanese-style RPG games use a lot of manga styles, giving players a friendly visual experience, emphasizing the plot, and more like an interactive movie.

If you want to do it, you can only choose Japanese style. "

Xia Jingxing nodded, "The Japanese style is the Japanese style, but can the painting style be made into a Chinese art style? That is, the costumes, props, buildings, etc. are all Chinese characteristics."

Peng Haitao took a deep breath, "The cost would be high, and the domestic area is very backward, and the original painters of Chinese art style may not be recruited enough."

"Then recruit some people to train yourself."

Peng Haitao felt that he was going to be full of cold air today. Is this the true strength of China's richest man? You can develop games without any budget! Remember that one out is one out.

"Don't look at me with that kind of eyes, my business will lose money? There is no original painter of Chinese art style, we cultivated it ourselves, and we will use it to develop games in the future. You don't think that your Jintian Studio only develops one A Dream of Red Mansions, right?"

Xia Jingxing said with a smile: "The direction I set for Jintian Studio is to conduct game research and development based on Chinese local culture. The boutique game studio of "Siyi Come to Dynasty."

Peng Haitao scratched his head with a smile. It sounded quite domineering, but there was a feeling of not being serious.

"Look at you, you are not confident enough, and you are starting to question this direction and goal. How can you make a 3A masterpiece comparable to foreign manufacturers?"

Peng Haitao raised his chest high, "I have no doubts. I am considering whether to take this career as a lifelong goal to fight for? Hundreds or thousands of years later, maybe I can match Li Du, after all, everyone is Cultural people!

Games are also a kind of culture in this era, which is equivalent to Tang poetry. "

Xia Jingxing took a deep look at Peng Haitao. This kid looks far less honest than his face, and he actually fooled me the other way around?

"That's right, think about it, the game you developed has been played by hundreds of millions or billions of people, so where is the spread than Li Du?"

Peng Haitao smiled lightly, and stopped talking nonsense with Xia Jingxing.

"In the future, no matter how large-scale domestic games are, even if it acquires hundreds of game companies around the world and establishes dozens of self-developed studios, Jintian Studio will be unique."

Xia Jingxing looked at Peng Haitao solemnly, and said: "Jingtian Technology has a good research and development foundation, and has also developed the industry's first 3D oriental fantasy online game, why can't it lead the trend and start the era of Chinese art-style online games.

Immortals fly to the sky with swords, Chang'e dances under the moon, Hengjiang cuts off the flow, burns mountains and boils seas...

The beauty, romance, magnificence and magnificence of Chinese culture are not inferior to any culture in the world.

Movies and TV shows fail to live up to expectations and cannot express themselves. Only the game studio led by you will fight for our 1.3 billion Chinese people. "

Peng Haitao was still immersed in the good memories of classical culture, but Xia Jingxing's last sentence directly broke his merits and made him laugh out loud.

But seeing Xia Jingxing's serious face, he quickly stopped talking.

"Don't think it's difficult! Domestic games will provide a lot of funds to Jintian Studio, and go to the country and the world to recruit the top game talents.

The emperor is not short of hungry soldiers. Since you have given such a big task, the logistics support will naturally be done for you. "

Xia Jingxing could predict how much money this business would burn, so he didn't dare to build too many studios, he could only support one Jintian studio.

Other games that should be represented have to be represented, and the bad money that deserves to be represented must be represented by Cha.

The road of main agency and auxiliary self-research may last for a long time.

"If the funds are guaranteed, I think we can really try this, and even cooperate with the animation departments of several universities to jointly cultivate talents."

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. In his previous life, the streets were full of boys and girls dressed in Han costumes, which showed that everyone still loved traditional culture in their hearts, and they were gradually picking up those things that had been lost.

"However, the early stage is definitely a loss of money. You have to be mentally prepared. We are equivalent to pioneers and have to bear more difficulties than latecomers."

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly, "I am aware of this, but we also have the first-mover advantage."

"It's hard to say the first-mover advantage, because there are actually several companies in the industry that have developed this kind of Chinese art-style online game. For example, didn't Perfect launch "Zhu Xian" this year? "Xun Xian" developed by Pixel Software is about to go online."

Xia Jingxing said indifferently: "The goal I set for you is to surpass them and develop products with more realistic painting styles and more competitiveness."

Peng Haitao nodded. He could understand Xia Jingxing's ambition and ambition, because the other party's business was always aimed at the international market.

"Let me tell you another piece of news. In the future, Tangerine Films will cooperate with Jintian Studio to launch several fairy tale and mythological movie projects. The highest-standard large-scale production will use the world's top special effects.

Of course, the plot will learn from the failure of director Tsui Hark. "

Peng Haitao said with a smile: "Let's wait until we first find out a successful model of film and game linkage! To be honest, domestic games have made great progress in recent years, but movies have regressed a lot."

"It's useless to worry, take your time!"

To be honest, Xia Jingxing was more apprehensive to make a fairy tale movie than to develop a Chinese art-style online game. Directors, screenwriters, and actors seemed to be not very good at it.

The quality of the Xianxia dramas filmed later in China is not as good as "The Legend of Shushan". In the words of domestic netizens: I thought "The Legend of Shushan" was the beginning, but the result is already the peak.

"Dream of Red Mansions choose to develop games or RPG?"

Peng Haitao counted with his fingers: "RPG can be divided into several categories, including traditional RPG, action role-playing game ARPG, strategy role-playing game SRPG, and massively multiplayer online role-playing game MMORPG.

The latter two can be eliminated directly. Traditional RPG adopts a turn-based or half-turn-based system, while ARPG adopts real-time combat, and some operational skills must be added. If it is to be used in "Dream of Red Mansions", it must be modified. "

Xia Jingxing waved his hand, "Don't ask me, you can make up your own mind, you can choose whichever is more confident."

"Then I'll do some research."

"Fine."

...