"It's strange, Zhou Sen, are you a programmer who is also so fanatical about chasing stars, seeing that you are happy is like eating bee feces, I don't know that I think this virtual idol was made by you." Brother Dahui teased a couple of sentences and continued to write his own code.

Zhou Sen was in no mood to explain this to him, so he hurriedly opened the three-person chat group: "Zhong Ming, wake me up quickly!" We got the first prize, and we got 2 million, right? Is this true!! ”

He also deliberately stood up a little and looked at Zhong Ming on the side of the design team, only to see Zhong Ming sitting calmly on the seat, and he couldn't see how excited he was at all.

Zhong Ming replied: "It's not true for the time being, and the final award will be confirmed by the jury, and many factors can be determined." However, judging from the current situation, Chanel is basically the first prize this time. ”

Zhou Sen was even more excited: "Let's hurry up and plan how to spend the 2 million!" No, it's 4 million, as long as we hand over the copyright of Xia Nell to Xinghua Interactive Entertainment for development, the follow-up income will definitely be more! ”

"That's a lot of money! Zhong Ming, what do you think, how do we use this money? You are the main creator, you have the final say. ”

Jiang Wanna is in the "Mecha Era" project and is not on the same floor, so Zhou Sen and Zhong Ming can't see her expression, but judging from her reply, she should be very happy.

After all, the image of Xia Nell was created by the joint efforts of the three people, although Zhong Ming contributed the most, but Jiang Wanna and Zhou Sen's work is also indispensable.

Zhou Sen happily fantasized about the future: "If the copyright is handed over to Xinghua Interactive Entertainment for development, it will be 4 million, in this way, Zhong Ming, you can take the lion's head of 2 million, or 2.5 million, I and Wanna's sister will share the rest, I can take less, take six or seven hundred thousand, with this money, I can resign and go out to play for a while." ”

Jiang Wanna also agreed: "I have no opinion, the two of us actually don't contribute much, mainly because of Zhong Ming's design and creativity, and the music is also done by Zhong Ming." ”

Zhong Ming didn't say anything immediately, but replied after a while: "My idea is not to sell copyrights, and don't spend the 2 million bonus, let's do something meaningful." ”

Zhou Sen didn't understand too much: "Huh? Something meaningful? Study? That's fine. ”

Zhong Ming: "It's not a further study, I want to use the money to develop indie games." Indeed, 2 million for the three of us can each get 6 or 700,000, and it can take several years to spend 6,000 a month, but think about it another way, such a large sum of money is not easy to come by, and I want to use it as start-up capital to make more money. ”

Zhou Sen was surprised: "Do indie games? Zhong Ming, you have thought about it, your behavior is basically equivalent to putting a big bag of money on the edge of the cliff, and it will be all gone as soon as you let go! You're a designer, and you know better than me the risks of making indie games, right? ”

"Of course I know, but if you think about it, are you willing to continue working for others?" Zhong Ming asked rhetorically, "Do you want to be forced to work overtime every day, scolded by the leader who came in the air, and make a lot of money by doing a project, but you can only get a bonus of two or three percent?" ”

“…… I know, uh, I'll think about it. ”

Zhou Sen stopped talking, probably doing an inner struggle.

Jiang Wanna said: "To be honest, I feel very risky. However, if Zhong Ming insists on you, I will not resolutely oppose it. I'm worried about whether our ability is enough, and the 2 million fund is indeed almost enough to develop an indie game, but only if the cost of the whole project is controlled enough, if the budget is exceeded, we may drag ourselves down. ”

Zhou Sen and Jiang Wanna were both a little hesitant.

It's normal to hesitate, because everyone knows that indie games sound beautiful, but they are actually stepping on a single-plank bridge, and a few successful examples are indeed glamorous, but the abyss under the single-plank bridge is full of white bones.

There are many studios with ambitions to make good indie games, but many of them have been dragged to death by themselves.

To put it simply, there are three thresholds for a good indie game.

The first is project management and cost control.

The second is the promotion of the game.

The third is the profitability of the game, and the development of the next game.

Every threshold can make a whole bunch of studios bleed.

To make an independent game, the main creative members basically have to be full-time, after all, making games is not cooking, it's very hard, the development cycle of a game is as short as a few weeks, as long as a few months, and the studio is not full of manpower in the early days, and the main creative members are all busy like dogs, and it is impossible to get a high salary, after all, this is also a part-time job for themselves.

In the case of limited funds, all kinds of places have to spend money, and how to do a good job in cost control is a big problem.

For example, is the workplace renting an office building or just a private house? How to solve water and electricity bills, meals, etc.? If you don't have enough people, can you recruit people? If you can't recruit people, increase your salary and find headhunters, it's all money. What should I do if the art resources of the project are not up to standard, should I spend money to hire a better artist to do the design, or directly find an outsourcing company to buy art resources?

The cost of any link beyond the plan may cause the capital chain to break, and the game is only half done, and it will not be profitable at all, at this time, you will either continue to throw money into it, or you can only give up, no matter which path you choose, it will be very difficult.

Even if there is no problem with cost control, and the game is successfully made, how to promote it is also a problem. There is no special publicity channel, so you can only put some ordinary game platforms on the shelves, and you can't afford to buy recommended seats, let alone hot searches...... There are few people who play, the game cannot be profitable, and the cost cannot be recovered, which is still equal to blood loss.

Even if the game is promoted, it is a question of whether it can be profitable. This game is profitable and pays for itself, but what about the next game? I really don't have such good luck.

Therefore, there are many independent studios in this world, but there are very few that really come out, it can be said that there is no one in ten, most of the studios are either annexed by large companies, or they are bankrupt and dissolved, when it comes to developing independent games, many people's first reaction is to be hard.

However, indie games are already the ones with the lowest barrier to entry.

Zhong Ming wanted to have some more secure options, such as making a bracelet game similar to "Mecha Era", but that would be a much bigger investment than an indie game. Not to mention anything else, it's just the number of employees in "Mecha Era", based on the average salary of 10,000 yuan, more than 300,000 yuan will be burned in a month, not to mention various expenses such as office location and other expenses.

If Zhong Ming is allowed to explode his liver and do the work of three people by himself, it should be able to be developed, but there will be no money for publicity and promotion in the future, and once some situations occur halfway, there are too many uncontrollable factors.

What's more, with Zhong Ming's current qualifications, even if he hangs the head of a XX studio, he won't be able to recruit anyone at all.

So Zhong Ming is not in a hurry, and there is no need to take such a big step, and take indie games as his first small goal.

The group was silent for more than half an hour.

Zhou Sen seemed to have made up his mind: "Okay, I've also decided, Zhong Ming, if you think you have a good idea and think it's feasible to make an independent game, then I believe in you!" It's possible to lose money when making an indie game, but I'm willing to give it a try, it's better than moving from project to project and looking at people's faces! ”

Zhou Sen is indeed displaced, and every project is embarrassing.

The first was Project 52, which worked overtime all the time, and then it was disbanded and laid off in large numbers.

Then came "Mecha Era", which just got a little better and was made yellow by Liu Yuxin.

Now it's "Learning the Sea", although it is still hot, but it is very bad from the next trend......

Moreover, although Zhou Sen and Zhong Ming have not cooperated for a long time, they have learned a lot about each other.

From the Xinghai battlefield, to the millions of coins, and then to the virtual idol Xia Nell, Zhong Ming's personal ability is undoubted, he is definitely the best designer Zhou Sen has ever seen, and he is all-rounder, no problem with regular games, no problem with answering games, and even virtual idols can do it!

So although Zhou Sen was full of worries about indie games, he was finally moved by Zhong Ming's statement and agreed.