Shanghai, Fengxian District, an apartment less than 50 square meters.
In the crowded living room, in addition to computers and paper documents, there are also various miscellaneous items such as handicrafts and snacks placed on the two long desks.
It was just dawn, and Liu Wei, who had finished washing, sat in his seat, made a bucket of instant noodles, and started today's work.
Like many young people of his generation, he did not choose a stable job after graduating from graduate school. Instead, he co-founded a game company called MiHoYo with two like-minded roommates in college in 2011. "two-dimensional" game company.
In this era, "Second Dimension" is still a small circle. What is popular in the domestic market are games such as Legend, Dota, and CS that have nothing to do with the Second Dimension. Therefore, this company founded out of love for animation has grown from its early days. It didn't attract much attention. Its start-up capital is only an interest-free loan of 100,000 yuan provided by the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Center and an office that is free for half a year.
Although their first independently produced game "Fly Me 2 The Moon" attracted 1 million yuan in angel investment, in the high-consumption level of Shanghai, even if they moved the company to the so-called "suburbs", the money would be barely enough Keep this team of less than 10 people running.
However, after getting angel investment, the reality is still skinny. At the end of 2012, their second game "Honkai Academy" was released for 6 yuan, but it did not receive the expected market response.
As a buy-out mobile game, although there are some in-app purchases, almost all paid weapons in the game can be purchased with gold coins obtained by completing levels.
The game released at the end of last year has only made less than 200,000 yuan so far.
The picture of recovering blood or even making a small profit did not appear. While burning investors' money, the games they developed were neither profitable nor widely recognized by players. The three partners fell into confusion and anxiety.
What supports them now is only their love for this work and the support of a small number of players.
Liu Wei, who holds several positions including program development, numerical design, copywriting, marketing, and customer service, turned on his computer and, as usual, was chatting and checking his emails.
"Big Viagra, you got up so early!" Facing the bedroom door of the living room, Cai Haoyu, one of the three partners, stretched out.
"I didn't sleep well last night, so I might as well get up early and do more work." Liu Wei moved his thick black-rimmed glasses, smiled, moved the mouse, and clicked on one email after another.
Although he contacted many websites and platforms in the hope of business cooperation and sought various channels to attract investment, he received very few responses, most of which were formulaic and perfunctory. After all, there are too many small companies like them, and without sufficiently attractive plans, they cannot impress investors.
Cai Haoyu went to the bathroom wearing slippers and pajamas. The three partners now live in the company, just like they lived in the same dormitory when they were undergraduates. The small apartment does not make them feel any inconvenience.
Liu Wei slid the mouse wheel and found a different email titled "Honkai Academy Playing Experience and Suggestions".
Player? Or a game review agency? The first time he saw such an email title, Liu Wei started to murmur.
This is a very rare situation. Domestic players will usually call customer service directly if they have any questions, and rarely use the more formal method of email, and their company has not grown to the point where game review agencies can proactively contact them.
Curious, Liu Wei clicked on the email and found that, as the title stated, it was an email evaluating the playing experience, advantages and disadvantages of "Honkai Academy" from a player's perspective. The sender introduced himself when he came up. He was a player from Japan. He accidentally discovered this mobile game and liked the game style and characters of "Honkai Academy" very much.
Players from Japan? Liu Wei looked at the simplified Chinese characters in the email. The sentences were smooth and fluent, without any awkwardness or errors caused by the translation software. This made him wonder if domestic players were playing a prank, but there was no need to pretend to be a foreigner?
Curiosity prompted him to continue reading. The email expressed the sender's feelings about the game's settings, operating feel, level difficulty settings, etc., expressed his love for the character of the game's protagonist Kiana, and his appreciation for the quality of the game. In addition, the game's charging method was also discussed. Some comments were made.
The sender believes that this game should not have a buyout system, but should become a free game, and at the same time add in-app purchases to make money.
For example, changing the weapons unlocked by gold coins to Gacha cards similar to "Diffusive Millions of King Arthur", setting up a limited-time rotating prize pool to release powerful weapons, increasing the intensity of PVP and PVE, and subtly increasing players' willingness to spend money to become stronger. At the same time, we constantly update the version, expand the content, eliminate past equipment, and introduce more powerful props to ensure that core players continue to consume.
As we all know, free games are the most expensive, and the buyout system naturally sets a threshold and screens out some potential players who are willing to spend. Although 6 yuan may not seem like much, some people's consumption habits are that they would rather spend a lot of money on online games than spend hundreds of yuan to experience high-quality stand-alone games.
The sender hopes that the development company of this game can change its thinking and choose a suitable path to survive. He felt their love for their works from the game and wished them to go further.
After receiving such a long email from a player, Liu Wei was moved and carefully considered the suggestions in the email.
In fact, the next project they confirmed at the beginning of this year is going to be a free game. It will be the sequel to "Honkai Academy", the same 2D side-scrolling shooting game. But this player seemed to think more than them, and even came up with many ideas on how the game could continue to stimulate player consumption.
The strange thing is that these suggestions from the sender do not look like they are considered from the player's perspective, but more like ideas thought up by a project manager in a large gaming company who was pressured by his boss with KPIs.
The email was signed "Amamiya". Liu Wei searched it and found that it was indeed a Japanese surname.
A Japanese player who is proficient in Chinese? MiHoYo, which has not yet established a foothold in China, now has foreign fans? A feeling that is both gratifying and slightly absurd came to my mind. Maybe this is not a real Japanese player, but a Chinese who pretends to be Japanese, but he has the thought to write such a long email, no matter who he is.
Liu Wei, who had not been able to sleep well in recent months, felt some relief.
"Lao Cai! Come here, come here quickly."
He shouted, eager to share this rare joy with his companions, and at the same time thinking about how to reply.
