This sleep, Su Li slept until more than eleven o'clock at noon.

It can be very difficult for freelancers who do not have time constraints to maintain a good schedule.

Su Li has always wanted to keep his routine normal, but at night, when the moon is dark and the wind is high, and in the dead of night, it is the best time for Su Li to be in his state.

If you are in good condition, you will naturally have to code!

Once immersed in development, Su Li naturally lost track of time, so he declared bankruptcy just after formulating a "normal schedule for work and rest".

Soon, Su Li gave up his efforts in this area and decided to follow everything.

According to the normal situation, Su Li, who fell asleep at seven o'clock in the morning, had to sleep until at least two o'clock in the afternoon, but the ringtone of his mobile phone woke Su Li from his sleep.

Su Li took the phone from the bedside, and the caller's name was displayed on the phone screen.

"Lu Qi"

This is Su Li's high school classmate, and the relationship between the two is good. However, Lu Qi's grades in his student days were not as good as Su Li's, and he went to the computer department of a major university, and after graduation, the two chose the game industry in the same way, so they often communicated.

Compared with Su Li, who chose to graduate and go abroad for further study, Lu Qi joined a start-up company that made mobile games after graduating from university.

Su Li remembered that a few days ago, he heard that the first product of Lu Qi's company had a good popularity, which was definitely a burst of luck in today's extremely competitive mobile game field.

"Hey, Ah Li...... Damn, you can't wake up in such a daze, do you? Picking up the phone, Lu Qi's energetic voice came from the phone.

Su Li then remembered that today was May 2, the second day of the May Day holiday. A few days ago, Lu Qi also told himself that because of the good response after the game was launched, the company gave him a few days off on May Day, and he just went home to get together with him.

For developers at startups, vacations are definitely a rare bonus.

Lu Qi works in Huhai, not far from Xinhai City, and because of the need to attract relevant talent, game companies are usually concentrated in a few first-tier cities.

For example, Xinhai City, where Su Li is located, is also located in a developed area, but there is no decent Internet company. If you only look at the game-related fields, there are only a few companies here that are chess and card game platforms for locals.

Fortunately, the transportation is convenient, and it is only a two-hour high-speed rail journey from here to Shanghai.

Lu Qi had already found a place to eat, and urged Su Li on the phone to hurry up.

It took only fifteen minutes to get up from the bed, wash my face and hair, find a clean dress, and shave my beard.

Small cities have the advantages of small cities, such as the place selected by Lu Qi, it only takes ten minutes to take a taxi.

Therefore, in less than half an hour, Su Li's location has moved from his bed at home to a large shopping mall.

On the fifth floor of the square, Lu Qi had already finished ordering food at a hot pot restaurant, he beckoned Su Li to sit down, and said, "I've been queuing for half an hour, and you'll have to punish yourself for a few drinks later." ”

Su Li looked at Lu Qi.

The last time I saw Lu Qi was when Su Li had just returned to China, Lu Qi's face had not changed much in the past year, but this hairline was much higher.

It is said that the higher the hairline, the stronger the level of programmers, and it seems that Lu Qi has become a lot stronger this year......

Speaking of which, Lu Qi can be regarded as one of the few friends in Su Li's hometown. When Su Li was in middle school, he felt that he was a complete dead house, and games and learning filled his life, and this situation did not improve until Su Li went abroad.

However, in the year of returning to China, Su Li returned to the otaku life.

After eating a few bites of food and two glasses of wine, the two chatted completely.

"Ah Li, are you still working on your indie game?" Lu Qi poured Su Li a glass of wine and asked casually.

Su Li nodded, took a large chopstick and sliced mutton from the pot and stuffed it into his mouth. In order to save money, he hadn't eaten a good meal in a long time.

Lu Qi sighed and said to Su Li: "Ah Li, we have been brothers for so many years, I really have to persuade you here." We really don't have this kind of environment here, and now that the game industry is developing so fast, with your skills and education, why bother to keep your own independent games. ”

Su Li looked up at Lu Qi and didn't say anything, just touched a glass with him, and then drank all the wine in the cup.

After all, Lu Qi was telling the truth.

Not only China, but the entire world's game industry is inevitably tilting towards the direction of profit-led past, especially now that the popularity of mobile and the amazing rate of return have made this situation more serious.

In the final analysis, the current game industry has changed from a gamer making games to a businessman making games.

It's not a producer who loves games, it's a businessman who cares about ROI.

No way, the power of capital is too strong.

Huaguo is fortunate to have caught up with the wave of online and mobile games in the gaming industry, which has experienced the collapse of domestic stand-alone games and the discontinuation of consoles caused by the ban on game consoles.

Unfortunately, in the game industry in China, after a number of excellent single-player games were produced in the early days, businessmen and capital dominated the development of games.

Of course, foreign countries have also experienced such times, and the famous Atari collapse is the result of commercially led game development.

Atari, the hegemon of the North American game market, implemented a policy of quantity over quality at that time, and tens of thousands of games appeared in a year, and most of them were homogeneous garbage.

On Christmas Day 1982, Warner's six-week development of the IP masterpiece "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" became the last straw that crushed Atari. More than 2.5 million copies of the game were unsold, and the reputation of players fell to the bottom.

Since then, the North American game market has completely collapsed, the local game market has almost disappeared, and the market size has shrunk by 97%, and some predict that it will take at least two decades for the North American game market to recover.

However, three years later, a company has completely revived the North American gaming market with just one game, allowing it to quickly rebuild beyond its heyday.

That company, it's called Nintendo.

That game is Super Mario Bros.

Su Li feels that the current game market is incomparably similar to the situation at that time.

Homogenization, skinning, and IP garbage games flood the market.

It's just that the foreign console market and PC stand-alone market also give them a certain stand-alone development environment, and there is a little capital to polish their works. In this situation of online games in China, capital will not have such patience.

For producers who love games, such an environment is extremely painful, but there is nothing to be done.

The size of today's mobile games is swelling, and no one would believe that the market would collapse because it is full of junk games.

Seeing that Su Li was silent and didn't answer, Lu Qi put down his chopsticks and wine glass, and said, "I have also played your indie game, to be honest, it is really good, and the subtle level design has been praised by the bosses of our company." ”

"But, your game has only sold thousands of copies so far, right? It's really selling well for an indie game, how much money do you make? After deducting the platform share, it is estimated that it will be more than 100,000. ”

Su Li nodded, this indie game, which took more than a year to develop, has brought him less than 200,000 yuan so far.

Su Li has a house to live in, and he has no loan, so this income can live quite well in his hometown. However, if you want to save some development expenses, this money can only be regarded as a drop in the bucket.

This is also something that has made Su Li quite boring recently, and the reality is too cold and cruel.

Lu Qi said in a low voice at this time: "Ah Li, I didn't say it, your level is so high that you don't know where it is." With your resume, graduating from top universities all the way, and indie game development experience, you can't go to any company, so why bother taking this pitiful money. ”

"As far as our small company is concerned, the boss can be regarded as a person with a bit of feelings, but so what, if you want to start, you can only do this kind of low-risk skin-changing mobile game. That's it, our game has been online for a few months, and the turnover has this amount, and the bonuses I can share are much higher than your income. ”

Lu Qi took out his mobile phone and typed a string of numbers on the screen.

Su Li glanced at it, and probably understood what the situation of his old classmate's product was now, it was definitely not outstanding, but the income figure was really impressive.

Lu Qi continued to persuade bitterly: "The boss of our company heard that you are my old classmate, so he directly said that as long as you are willing to go over, the salary you give will definitely double your current income." ”

"If you don't look down on my small company, I believe that with your qualifications, you can at least find a good position in a first-line factory at home and abroad. When the time comes, accumulate some resources and then go it alone, how can you make a profit. ”

"Now the domestic environment is like this, and it is not much better abroad. Large factories make all kinds of money for internal purchases, assembly line 3A, and an IP repeatedly fried cold rice for the year. Now that the mobile terminal is so popular, those hardcore games have a large development cost and a small audience, and fewer and fewer people are doing it. ”

Speaking of this, Lu Qi also sighed.

"I know you want to be a savior, to be honest, who doesn't want to be a savior like Nintendo when I was a gamer, but you say it's possible, it's really unrealistic."

Su Li also sighed and said, "Actually, I don't want to make any big money, but I still have some feelings and don't want to compromise." ”

Lu Qi shook his head, his old classmate is really an idealist, and sometimes he admires him for insisting on doing what he likes.

Lu Qi graduated from college and mixed in a mobile game company for a few years, and his original feelings have long disappeared, and everything is looking at the money.

Two old classmates, good friends, have entered the same field to work again, and now they are also on different paths.