Chapter 77 I Want to Try

Espoo is the second largest city in Finland after the capital Helsinki.

The world-famous Nokia has its headquarters in Espoo, and both Microsoft and Google have established headquarters, research centers and data centers in Espoo.

Taking advantage of this trend, Espoo is also a gathering place for countless European high-tech talents.

One of them is Lars Lepinin, who is now the head of the game production team at Remedy Entertainment in Finland.

Speaking of Remedy Entertainment, senior gamers will not be unfamiliar with it. The famous [Max Payne] series of games is from this game developer, and the famous system rating software 3DMark is also written by this company.

Lars Lepinin was involved in the production of the Max Payne series, which has been transformed by Hollywood into an action movie starring Mark Wahlberg, and more recently, he and his team's latest game The product is 【Mind Killer】.

There is no doubt that Remedy is already a well-known developer in the game industry, but Kelas Lepining is not proud of it at all. He even finds that his enthusiasm for work is fading bit by bit. .

The reason is simple, Remedy is too restricted.

Before developing the successful Max Payne series, Remedy had been in deep financial crisis, but after the success, they still could not achieve complete independence, as if to develop [Mind Killer], they needed to Cooperated with Microsoft's game studio, and was asked to launch on Microsoft's Xbox platform.

All kinds of restrictions are telling Lars Lepinin that the future of this road may not be bright.

In recent years, with the rise of smartphones, mobile games have received unprecedented attention.

Plants vs. Zombies and the recently famous Angry Birds made the whole world see the huge market of mobile games, and Las Lepining began to turn his attention to the field of mobile games.

Not long ago, he received an invitation from a start-up company, but the founder was a well-known figure in the Finnish industry. He valued Lars Lepinin's rich experience in the field of game development and invited him to join them team.

But Lars Lepining is still hesitant, because the other team has only three people, and their idea is to first build a powerful creative team, then go to the City of London to pull venture capital, and then use venture capital to develop games.

He doesn't know if this set of capital games can be played, but the risk is too great.

Therefore, after receiving the invitation, he has been hesitating, even though the prospects outlined by the other party are very gratifying.

But who knows?

He was equally hesitant and tempted by the two people sitting in front of him, a well-known senior artist and animator in the game industry, Petrie Sterman, and a well-known analyst with a master's degree in business administration, Temur? Hausla.

The three were sitting in a cafe in downtown Espoo, discussing their options for the future.

But who can promise a future for themselves or for others?

"Have you heard of cutting the rope?" asked Petrie Sterman.

Lass Lepining hummed, "It seems that it has just been launched a few days ago, right? There have been reports in the media before."

Since the WeChat company held such a competition at the University of Southampton and attracted the attention of the media,

It quickly struck while the iron was hot, and launched this game on Apple's IOS and Facebook platforms at the same time, and it has been loved by more and more players.

"I heard that the game has over two million downloads worldwide on the Apple App Store."

"Two million?" Lass Lepinin lost his voice in surprise.

The Mind Killer, which he personally supervised and produced, is currently rushing to sell one million, but this mobile game has so easily surpassed two million downloads, which makes him feel bad.

"It seems that it has only been launched for a week." Lars Lepining said in surprise.

"Well, just one week." Petrie Sterman smiled slightly, "This number is not surprising at all, because the results are better than them, it is not that there is no, the key is to see the stamina."

As a famous analyst in the past, after switching to the field of game development, Temur Hausla, who is good at the establishment and improvement of the entire game economic structure, also nodded, "I have also paid attention to this game and downloaded it to play it. However, as a free-to-play game, the key is to see their retention rate for players and how to guide players to spend money on paid items.”

"I heard that their players have a retention rate of about 65% the next day, 55% three days, and 50% seven days." Petrie Sterman said with envy, this is quite a bit. Taller.

Temur Hausla was a little shocked. He was also very good at game analysis. Naturally, he knew the meaning behind the data, but he didn't understand, "How did they do this?"

I believe that this is also the common doubt of all mobile game manufacturers.

"Mission!" Petrie Sterman replied, "They provide players with different types of daily tasks and rewards, encourage them to go online every day, and they even reward gems that can be used to buy paid items."

"This is indeed a very creative idea!" Temur Hausla said with admiration.

As everyone knows, when Yang Huan designed this idea, he was actually plagiarizing and borrowing from the WeChat series of his previous life.

"From an artistic point of view, the design of this game is very beautiful, and the logic and game feedback are almost impeccable. Every move of the player will get the most realistic and natural feedback, which is quite attractive."

Petrie Sterman apparently worked hard on cutting the rope.

"This is not just a mobile game, it also has access to a wealth of social elements, which can be linked to Facebook and WeChat friends. Through the leaderboard, players can see the scores and game progress of their relatives and friends, and even after every passing day. You can see the performance of your friends in this level, compare with each other, and even leave a message to your friends for guidance on game tricks.”

Everyone hopes that they are the most powerful people around. Through this kind of social interaction, players can naturally bring a sense of achievement and satisfaction. Even for some players with strong competitive spirit, they will try their best to Improve your ranking on the leaderboards and progress in the game.

The quickest and most effective way is to buy some charging props that are very practical but will not disrupt the balance of the game.

For example, when encountering a difficult difficulty, you can directly skip this level and enter the next level through the charging props.

Because the game level difficulty setting is usually a combination of a more difficult level in several levels, skipping the difficulty is very helpful for the progress of the game.

But when the game reaches a certain stage, the player must go back and solve the difficulties that have been skipped before in order to continue.

If you want to solve those difficulties, you may need to buy paid props.

Obviously, from the very beginning, WeChat company is trying desperately to guide players to buy paid items.

It's just that they chose a way more intelligently that would not be resisted by players.

"Recently, on Facebook and Twitter, many people are talking about the cute cartoon dragon, which is very popular with female players, and the gorgeous graphics of the whole game are also very pleasing, plus they are diligent in updating and adding more levels. , It has reached seven level boxes, and it is said that it will continue to be updated in the future."

Having said this, Petrie Sterman smiled admiringly, "This is a long-prepared mobile game promotion, from game production, to test release, to holding a competition, and finally to simultaneous global release, It was all carefully prepared.”

"So, they became a hit!" Lass Lepining also praised with admiration.

"Next, the Apple App Store may make great efforts to promote this beautifully crafted game that can well reflect the performance of Apple's mobile phones, and this is also Apple's consistent style."

Recommended by the Apple App Store, a very important requirement is that the production should be exquisite, and it should be able to reflect the performance and characteristics of Apple mobile phones and iPads. This type of game is generally highly recommended.

When Temur Hausla heard this, another thought suddenly popped up in his heart.

I took the laptop from my side, opened it, and quickly went to Google to search for the development company that cut the rope.

"Actually, we may have overlooked a point." Temur Hausla shook his head and smiled.

"Ignored what?" Petrie Sterman was a little strange.

They have given such a high evaluation, yet ignore it?

Temur Hausla turned to the laptop, "Look, this company is the one that developed WeChat, and they release it on IOS and Facebook platforms at the same time, don't you think that this is a conscious effort by Facebook users to and social circles, introduced to WeChat?"

The most important thing in social networking is interpersonal relationships. If a game can be used to guide a large number of users from Facebook to WeChat, it will undoubtedly allow WeChat users to achieve explosive growth in a short period of time.

"It seems that we still underestimated their ambitions!" Temur Hausla was suddenly very interested in this company.

If this were a Silicon Valley company, his interest might not have been so strong, but he is a British start-up, which makes it curious.

"They're looking for game-making talent, and they're paying very well." Petrie Sterman noticed the job ads in Google's search results.

"Senior artists with more than six years of game development experience are paid an annual salary of 150,000 pounds."

You know, Petrie Sterman's current annual salary is about 70,000 pounds. This is because he is senior enough and has been in the company for many years. Otherwise, according to 2010, the entire European and American game The general trend of salaries in the industry is falling sharply, and he can get 50,000 pounds even if it is not bad.

But the annual salary given by WeChat company is so high, which really makes him very tempted.

Is this a plan to take advantage of the low tide of the game and film industries to carry out a lot of talent hunting?

"Is it really that high?" Lars Lepining was also a little moved. If a senior artist has such a high salary, his salary will definitely not be low, at least it will be the same.

Temur Hausla was not too surprised, "I have a few friends who used to work for game developers in Sweden, and now they have also moved to the UK. I heard that the salary package is very good, and the company benefits are also very good. Quite rich, it is said that the boss is a very rich second-generation rich who knows the game very well, and I heard that he has recently acquired a football team.”

"Southampton!" Petrie Sterman immediately thought of the team.

The main reason is that it is too dazzling. As a League One team, it has won the world's number one center Ibrahimovic, and the super genius Neymar recognized by everyone.

Such a team is hard to forget.

Now that they know this, the three of them also know that at least this company is a start-up, but its strength is very strong, especially its financial strength, and the conditions for opening it are also rich enough to make them excited.

"I want to try." Petrie Sterman took the lead.

Ras Lepining looked at Temur Hausla and nodded, "Then I'll go too."

Temur Hausla laughed, "Let's go together!"