Zhang Lexing doesn't have much ambition in the integration of the motherboard, and he doesn't think about how much market share he wants to occupy, but he just hopes to take the integration of the motherboard as an opportunity, coupled with the cooperation of the operating system, the evolution of the PC can be slightly faster, so that it is good to use the dream combination of dual-core buckle meat + GeForce8800GTX in Zhang Lexing's mind as soon as possible, and there will be fewer technical constraints on game development.

After the matter in Hong Kong was settled, Zhang Lexing returned to Beijing, and soon after getting off the plane, he received news from the United States. The final budget for "Jedi Men" was set at $23 million, of which half was invested by DreamWorks, and the other half came from the East Star Fund, which was spun off from the Red River Fund to specialize in film and television investment. Zhang Lexing has no idea about this, anyway, there are professionals operating it, and the director has not changed, so the result should not deviate too much.

It didn't take long for the news from Blue Information Market Research and Russell to come back. In the investigation report of the two of them, it is written:

Founded in March 1994 in San Jose, California, 3DFX was founded by three founders: Scott Sellers from SGI (Silicon Image) and Gary Tarotli and Ross Smith from MediaVision. 3DFX, which has received $5.5 million in venture capital since its inception, is being researched to be developing a 3D accelerator card for both game consoles and PCs, which is said to be codenamed 'Voodoo'......

Founded in January 1993 by Jensen Huang, Curtis Prim and Chris Malaccharsgay in Santa Clara, Calif., NVIDIA was founded with venture capital from the Red River Fund for a $2.2 million investment in a 25 percent stake. According to the survey, the company is working on multimedia acceleration chips, which are likely to include 2D/3D graphics cards, sound cards, and game controller interfaces......

Considering the demand for hard drive-related technology, two suitable R&D teams were selected, one is Cornys in Silicon Valley, which specializes in miniaturization and energy consumption control, and the other is a San Jose-based microdrive company, which specializes in recording density and data transfer rates. Both companies are smaller, more technologically strong, and are less difficult to acquire.

There are many R&D companies related to PC and server power supply, which will be listed in a table below, and companies with acquisition value will be marked with an asterisk in the table......

……

At present, there are no companies engaged in the research and development of force feedback technology in Japan, and two companies are currently engaged in related technology research in the United States, one is the research institute of VisualSystem Group, and the other is Immersion, which is located in Silicon Valley...... Founded in 1992, Immersion is engaged in the research of new technologies for human-computer interaction, including 3D digital inputs, medical simulations and game controls, and one of the company's researches, codenamed 'I-Force', is closely related to force feedback technology. Immersion is currently small and difficult to acquire. ”

After reading the investigation report from Blue Information and Russell, Zhang Lexing knew that 3DFX, the pioneer of the 3D era, and NVIDIA, the future graphics card overlord, had just started at this time, and the current ATI company could not be compared, and no one could imagine that the future changes would be so big. 3DFX company Zhang Lexing is not worried, but it is just the fate of being acquired, but NVIDIA (Nvidia) company can not be underestimated at all, as soon as he thinks that ATI was forced to merge with AMD to survive, Zhang Lexing can't help but be frightened. But what I didn't expect now is that NVIDIA's first venture capital came from the Red River Fund, and it seems that this company can be slowly incorporated into its own control in the future, so that there is no need to worry about the outcome of the two-power competition in the future.

The hard disk and power supply required by the blade server Zhang Lexing did not plan to produce it himself in the future, after all, the scale of the production plant is not so easy to go up, and everything is invested in production by himself, one is that the effect is too slow, and the other is that it occupies too much capital. Zhang Lexing's goal is actually just to develop relevant interfaces and standards or something, so there is no need to play some ideas of future hard disk manufacturers, according to the survey report, it is enough to select one or two R&D teams, of course, this matter can be handed over to the future blade server R&D team to choose.

Zhang Lexing was a little surprised by the force feedback technology, but he didn't expect that his company's research institute was already researching, and it seemed that the usual attention was still too little, and maybe a lot of good things were missing. The future force feedback technology is quite widely used, and it is no longer a simple application like the early steering wheel, even the mouse and LCD touch screen can be used. Mouse with Force Feedback technology can give the user a different feeling through vibration feedback, which can be felt from the mouse when the mouse pointer passes over an object on the screen. The LCD touch screen with force feedback technology allows users to feel the feel of buttons being pressed and released, instead of the cold screen and tactile feeling of the past. When Zhang Lexing is most interested in the application of force feedback technology in the game, although it is still relatively primitive, but I believe that with the future force feedback technology more and more refined, it will be able to bring players a real sense of touch in the game, and then there may be some game scenes that need to rely on the sense of touch to pass the level. Zhang Lexing did not intend to let go of the Immersion company, which was also doing research on force feedback technology, although Zhang Lexing did not mind having competitors, but he did not like competitors from outside the system, because this would bring a feeling of insecurity, so Immersion must be acquired, at least the controlling stake must be mastered.

Putting down the investigation report, Zhang Lexing thought about it, and it seemed that the only thing he wanted to arrange at present was related to Immersion. So he picked up the phone and dialed the 24-hour exclusive phone opened by Red River Fund for himself, and assigned the task of acquiring or controlling Immersion, and reminded him by the way to gradually expand his stake in NVIDIA through additional investment at the appropriate time.

……

After a day off, on August 9, Zhang Lexing returned to the creative workshop again. The "Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Obsidian" project teams are still adrift in Shenzhen, but they sent back a CD containing some of the game's cutscenes, and Zhang Lexing felt that it was really much more beautiful than the original after reading it. Domestic games have the same common problem as domestic movies - the production is rough, the details are not fine enough, which has reached a peak in a game under the banner of patriotism in the future, a semi-finished product like garbage is actually put out for sale in a high-sounding manner, Zhang Lexing doesn't want this situation to happen again, at least the game produced by his own company should become a benchmark for quality, no matter which part of the game must be as good as possible.

Since the "Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Obsidian" project team set off to Shenzhen, the creative workshop has nothing to put on the table except for the 3D engine project, and before Zhang Lexing came back, the newcomer-based development team did some similar development work for casual games, and did not expect to make anything, basically to accumulate some preliminary experience. The reason why this is the case is also due to the lack of confidence of the project manager in the newcomer, and even the project manager himself is still a junior brother. However, it has never been a big project, and newcomers have grown up relatively slowly, so Zhang Lexing also has the idea of a new project when he comes back this time, anyway, he didn't think that he could make money from this in the first few years, just like burning money to practice skills in some online games, hoping to smash out more excellent development teams.

So on the first day Zhang Lexing returned to the creative workshop, he gathered Zhao Yuanhuan and several project managers Chu Ge to discuss the opening of a new game project.

When he came to the conference room, after everyone arrived, Zhang Lexing spoke first: "Wang Mengyao, you make a meeting record, Zhao Yuanhuan, you tell me about the current situation of the development team." ”

Wang Mengyao spread out her notebook, picked up the pen and sat down to prepare for the record. Zhao Yuanhuan thought about it for a while, and then said: "Well, boss, the total number of developers in the company has reached 210, including 42 planners, 98 programmers, 36 artists, 24 QAs, and 10 musicians. After deducting the "Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Obsidian" project teams and the 3D engine research and development team, after deducting QA and music, there are 102 people who can still be mobilized, and most of these people are currently working on the development of small practice projects, which are expected to be completed in five days. ”

"Well, how many project managers are there in the company at present?" Zhang Lexing asked again.

"Boss, plus me, there are seven more people in total, but the others only have experience in small projects, and they all need to be honed. ”

"Well, it's really going to be a bit more honed and honed. Zhang Lexing nodded: "So I plan to take a few formal projects to give everyone a chance to exercise, since there are still seven project managers, then let's go to six projects, Zhao Yuanhuan, you will be the general coordinator." ”

As soon as several other project managers heard that there were seven people and six projects, Zhao Yuanhuan still had to do the general coordination, wouldn't that mean that everyone had a project to open, and it was not the small project of the practice nature that it used to be, and they immediately became excited.

Zhao Yuanhuan was very calm, and could even be said to be a little worried: "But boss, everyone's experience is not very sufficient, isn't it a bit rash to go to the formal project now, so it is easy for the project to fail." ”

"It doesn't matter, even the experience of failure is very valuable, and if you don't have the opportunity to accumulate experience, it will never be possible to achieve great growth. Seeing that Zhao Yuanhuan wanted to open his mouth again, Zhang Lexing waved his hand and said: "No need to persuade again, I have already thought about it carefully, and the current investment is also for future development." ”

Seeing that everyone's interest was very high, Zhao Yuanhuan no longer insisted, in fact, he was also very envious when he saw Zhan Jun and others doing projects alone, and he also hoped that he would have a chance, but Zhao Yuanhuan knew that he was different from Zhan Jun, Zhan Jun was good at leading the team to fight, and he was better at personnel scheduling, so it didn't make him feel strange to do this general coordination.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in the next period of time, each of you will master a project, and it is up to you to decide what game to develop, but in order to maximize the training of everyone, everything will follow the regular process. You find your own ideas, make budgets, and after approval, Zhao Yuanhuan will arrange the manpower. But I have one request, you can't make the same type of game, if that happens I'll only approve one, except for the compound type of game, of course. Okay, do you guys have any questions?"

Everyone, you look at me, I look at you, but no one stood up to reply, and waited for a while, just as Zhang Lexing was about to announce the end of the meeting, a relatively thin man stood up: "Boss, my name is Ren Haoqiang." Well, I'd like to ask, but if there's a cap on the budget. ”

"Ren Haoqiang, there is no limit to the budget this time, but please note that no limit does not mean that you can report the budget at will, your project budget must be reviewed for reasonableness, for example, a project only needs one million to complete, but you report five million, and you can't put forward a reasonable reason, then the budget of this project will not be passed. Of course, because it is the first time for everyone to do a formal project, I will give you a more relaxed environment, it does not matter if there is a certain deviation when reporting the budget, you can be allowed to make certain corrections in the progress of the project, and you will not be assessed because of this deviation after the project is completed. If the project is successfully issued and earns revenue, the development team of the project can also receive corresponding dividends according to the company's regulations. ”

"Boss, my name is An Xintong, may I ask if there are really no restrictions on the subject matter this time?" someone stood up again, but this time it was a woman, and she was the only woman in the group of project managers.

"Well, that's right, you can do anything you can think of, and I'm not going to limit it, except that you don't have to choose the same genre. Hmm, do you still have any questions?" Zhang Lexing waited for two minutes, and seeing that everyone didn't mean to speak again, he announced: "Since there is no problem, then I will give you two weeks to come up with the subject matter, manpower needs, and preliminary budget that you each want to do as soon as possible." After your documents are submitted, they will be reviewed publicly, and the progress will be posted on the company's internal BBS (electronic bulletin board). Okay, let's adjourn. ”

……

In less than a week, everyone submitted the project application reports one after another. For example, Ren Haoqiang submitted an application for a Three Kingdoms game, but it is not a traditional strategy game, but intends to make a real-time strategy game like "Dune II". In his report it is written: "...... Set in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The number of people required is 15, including 4 planners, 6 programmers, and 5 artists. The preliminary estimate of the project budget is 1.8 million yuan, of which the equipment cost is xxxxx yuan and the art production cost is xxxxx yuan...... The game cutscene is intended to be taken from a part of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" TV series that is currently being broadcast, and the copyright purchase fee involved is xxxxx yuan......

The game is divided into the plots of Wei and Shu, starting from the rise of Cao Cao and Liu Bei and ending with the three-point world, and in the course of this plot, it is planned to arrange fifteen to twenty battles......"

And An Xintong's submission is indeed a different subject as she said, writing in her report: "...... Game Name: Happy Farm...... The required manpower is 12 people, including 3 planners, 5 programmers, and 4 artists. The project budget is initially estimated at 800,000 ......"

At first glance, Zhang Lexing thought that what she planned to do was the future flash game "Happy Farm", but after a closer look, it was not.

The back of An Xintong's report reads: "...... Andy's (the protagonist) family lives in Tianxiang Town, there is a farm on the edge of the town, and one day Andy's parents go on a trip, so the responsibility of taking care of the farm falls on Andy......

In the game, the player can raise several kinds of livestock (sheep, cows) and poultry (chickens, ducks), as well as some crops (rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes), and of course some troublemakers (marmots that destroy crops, wild dogs that steal poultry), and the player can reduce the occurrence of these events after obtaining dogs......"

Looking at it carefully, Zhang Lexing feels that if he adds a part of chasing girls, it is very similar to the game "Ranch Story" that he once played, which is an interesting game.

Several other people submitted project applications that were also interesting, such as one named Yan Dali who submitted an application for an FPS game, and his inspiration came from the 3D engine development team's Build engine verification game, which he named "Blood Battle on the Beach". The most special is Zhou Zhehan, who proposed a card battle game "Myth" (based on the Classic of Mountains and Seas), similar to the "Yu-Gi-Oh" that Zhang Lexing saw, but I don't know how Zhou Zhehan came up with it. The two project applications are Chen Shunde's "C+ Detective" (a puzzle game set in an urban detective) and Zheng Hongwen's "Rage Tank" (a bullet hell shooter).

Although several project managers have little experience, they have done a lot of work in their applications, and the budget is not exaggerated, so after careful review, Zhang Lexing waved his pen and approved all of them. Under Zhao Yuanhuan's scheduling, the six projects began to start in an orderly manner, of course, the ten people in charge of the music were not idle, and the soundtrack and sound effects of these six projects in the future can be obtained from their hands, which is also a good training opportunity for them.

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