Started as a comics editor

Chapter 110: Change it just like that?

A cafe two blocks away from Wenxinguan.

The afterglow of the setting sun falls on Tang Yao.

She walked quickly into the cafe and soon found Li Xue, who was sitting by the window, sipping coffee. She was dignified and elegant, with a subtle intellectual temperament. Combined with the sunset glow from the window, she exuded a heart-warming charm.

At the same time, Li Xue also saw Tang Yao, and immediately put down her coffee, straightened her waist slightly, and waved gently.

"...Ms. Li."

Tang Yao ignored the looks from everyone around her and came to Li Xue's side. Instead of going across from her, she sat down next to her and said weakly, "Help."

"Eh?"

Li Xue was stunned for a moment, then immediately held Tang Yao's hand and asked worriedly, "What happened?"

"Forehead……"

Tang Yao looked at Li Xue holding her hand tightly under the table and was slightly startled. Then, seeing the worry on Li Xue's delicate face, she quickly explained, "I was just complaining... It's not really to the point of saving my life..."

"..."

Li Xue immediately rolled her eyes at Tang Yao, but didn't let go of her hand. She just ordered a cup of coffee for Tang Yao and asked, "So what happened?"

"I want to acquire Mingyu Technology."

Tang Yao organized her words and explained, "Currently, Fate/Grand Order is considered a success... The user base is huge now, and we need professional personnel to manage everything from version management, commercialization, event planning, internal collaboration, marketing operations, and channel operations. The studio needs to expand its scale; there's so much to do."

"Then it's up to you to decide."

Li Xue was a little confused when she heard this: "To be honest, I've never made a game before..."

"But I want to ask your opinion."

Tang Yao blinked: "Do you think it is necessary? Let me first tell you what you can get by acquiring Mingyu Technology."

She talked a little about the game from Mingyu Technology.

In fact, Mingyu Technology’s best asset now is that game... Other things such as office space and personnel are not necessarily required to be acquired. I believe that if Tang Yao wants to take over, Si Jinliang will be happy to transfer it to her.

After listening to Tang Yao's story, Li Xue thought about it carefully and said softly, "I understand... Actually, we can give it a try. I've been to your place a few times before and have a little understanding of this company. I roughly know their situation... It's very bad, very bad. In fact, there's no need to mention acquisition, just say to buy the ownership of their game.

If an acquisition were to happen, it seems like there might be some surprises. Unlike Avalon Studios, Mingyu Technology still has investors holding shares, right? While Avalon Studios isn't exactly a big name right now, the investors behind Mingyu Technology are clearly interested in the gaming industry. Would they be tempted to pay exorbitant prices when they learn that Avalon Studios, the recent creators of FGO, is looking to acquire such a shabby company for the sake of gaming?
Mingyu Technology is indeed of no value, but they are all smart people, so the risk in this regard is not big, but it is possible.

So the best solution is to contact Si Jinliang first, deal with the exclusive authorization contract, and then buy the ownership of the game first. The game will be shut down soon, right?

After this matter is settled, it won’t be too late to take over the lease of their external office and invite the remaining people at the same time…”

"..."

Tang Yao looked thoughtful when she heard this. She had indeed made the right decision by contacting Li Xue. She had never considered this question before. "So, does Mingyu Technology own the game?"

Li Xue said directly: "It should be there, just ask."

"Makes sense."

Tang Yao didn't have to have the game from Mingyu Technology. If it really didn't work out, the studio could start over again... But if Mingyu Technology already had the game, it would indeed save a lot of effort.

So I thought of this.

She immediately stood up and pulled Li Xue up at the same time: "Can you go with me?"

……

After half an hour.

Mingyu Technology.

In Si Jinliang's office, he was packing up his things.

Mingyu Technology's game is about to shut down... Forget trying to keep the remaining players, it's considered good enough if they don't ask about his family tree, because the game's operation of squeezing players dry before shutting down is really inhumane.

He had just made up his mind to go out and work.

Then there's no point in staying here any longer.

And most importantly, he had a premonition that the beautiful girl would come to see him soon...

Now the game of Avalon Studio is a huge success. Although Si Jinliang is not sure how successful it is, he is also an old 2D fan and has no prejudice against mobile games. It is easy for him to see the popularity and money-making ability of this game.

Once they have money, their studio will probably expand, and this office floor that he rented with such ambition... can just become their office space.

I can give up this office of mine and make it Tang Yao's independent office...

have to say.

He is actually quite smart. After learning that "Fate/Grand Order" was made by Tang Yao, he immediately realized that his entire company could not be saved.

“It really has replaced it…”

Si Jinliang packed up his things, then looked back at his office. He thought of something, smiled bitterly and shook his head.

When Tang Yao recruited Chu Yuxin and others to Avalon Studio, he wondered whether the other party would replace them.

After all, ever since Avalon Studios moved in, he'd always felt like he was absorbing the blood of Mingyu Technology. First, the office, then the internal servers, then the equipment, and finally the personnel...

So is the next one the entire Mingyu Technology company?
He really thought so at the time, but he didn't expect it to become a reality...

But you say he has resentment... That's not the case. He just feels that it's fate. Who could have thought that when the other party came to rent an office, they didn't dare to take a place that was too big, and they looked like a startup with no money. And he himself also tried his best to persuade her not to get into the game pit.

After more than half a year, hey... Mingyu Technology is finished, but the other party has become a rising star in the gaming industry.

Probably soon.

Mingyu Technology will become a background board, highlighting the existence of Avalon Studio in a certain article.

dong dong——

There was a gentle knock on the door.

Si Jinliang suddenly came back to his senses, looked at the door, and probably guessed who it was.

Said that Cao Cao Cao Cao arrived.

He gave a wry smile, then went to the door and opened it.

Sure enough, Tang Yao and Li Xue were standing at the door.

Si Jinliang looked at the two beautiful women in front of him, each with their own unique charm, and was stunned for a moment, feeling a little strange.

He could understand Tang Yao's presence...but he was a little confused when Li Xue, a beautiful woman he had only met once and rumored to be an investor in Avalon Studio, also showed up.

But...I have to say, it's really good.

A mature, steady, gentle and beautiful workplace lady, and a young girl who is full of youthfulness, smart and pretty.

The two of them standing together looked like a carefully composed painting.

But soon, he no longer had time to sigh.

Li Xue got straight to the point and asked, "Mr. Si, I'd like to ask, is the ownership of your company's 'Fighting Cards' in the hands of Mingyu Technology? Or more precisely, is it in your hands? Or does it belong to the investors?"

"?"

Si Jinliang slowly raised a question mark. "Game ownership? Not an office? Why ask this?"
He was silent for a moment, then replied, "Of course it's in my hands...but why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

Li Xue and Tang Yao looked at each other, then thought for a moment and said, "We want to buy the ownership of your game."

"..."

When Si Jinliang heard this, he was stunned for a moment, then said, "Huh?"

He thought they would ask to rent the entire office floor, and he thought they would ask to buy all the company's equipment. But he never expected that they would even ask for the games.

No?

Isn't it?

There is no need to replace it in this way.

"We do want to buy the rights to the game. Are you willing to sell it?"

Tang Yao knew that this was indeed quite abrupt, but she was not in a hurry to explain.

"...You should know about the situation of "Fighting Cards", right?"

Si Jinliang looked at the serious expression on Tang Yao's charming little face and slowly realized what was happening. He said with a strange expression, "The service will be discontinued soon."

"I know."

"Then why did you purchase the rights to a game like this? If you're hoping to revive it through your company's manipulation, then I advise you to give up. This game's reputation has completely collapsed. There's no room for recovery. Moreover, this game is fundamentally wrong."

"Why do you say that?"

Tang Yao was a little surprised: "Isn't this your hard work?"

“It’s the hard work…”

Si Jinliang pursed his lips and sighed, "But these are also painful memories. I have no idea how to make games, especially after playing your game. I think even if the investors didn't withdraw their investment, the final outcome of this game wouldn't be much better. It would definitely be forgotten among all the other games. I will never make games again."

Tang Yao blinked: "But I think it's quite fun."

Si Jinliang paused, then looked at Tang Yao in surprise: "You..."

Li Xue did not interrupt the topic and quietly looked at Tang Yao's profile.

After a while.

Si Jinliang finally reacted: "You think it's funny?"

"Yes, the rules are a bit complicated. They could be optimized. Online games and offline card games are two different things. Your game should have borrowed a lot of rules from TCG games, right?"

Before Tang Yao went to find Li Xue, she did some research on card games in this world and discovered that there were TCG games similar to Magic: The Gathering, and the rules were very similar. "Even the overall gameplay borrowed from the golden three elements of TCG games: collectible cards, mana system, and... color pie, right?"

Si Jinliang's eyes lit up, and he looked a little excited: "Yes...you can actually play card games?"

Tang Yao smiled. Actually, she didn’t play games in this world...but Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering were too famous in her previous life.

She also had contact for a period of time.

of course.

She definitely wouldn't say anything like that, so she simply nodded and said, "Yes, that's why I want to buy the rights to your game. I want to make it a dual-platform game, meaning it can coexist on PC and mobile... as Avalon Studios' second game."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Si Jinliang's eyes dimmed instantly. "Change? Tang Yao... How can a TCG game be changed? I've done my best with "Dou Pai". The rules are inherently complex, of course. Take the fee mechanism, for example. The best TCG games currently on the market have a variety of fee generation mechanisms. Some have a fixed total per round, while others have a fixed increase per round. What are you going to do?"
Some TCG games are even more outrageous, allowing various infinite loops as long as you can continuously meet the conditions for this wave of operations.

But these are precisely the charm of this type of game."

"Have you ever thought about doing that?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Yao responded directly, "Replace the original TCG's golden three elements—trading cards, mana system, and color pie—with collectible cards, a mana crystal system, and a class system? At the same time, discard out-of-turn interactions to make it quicker to learn, simpler, and more suitable for online games?"

"Collectible cards? Mana crystal system? Classes? Aside from out-of-turn interactions?"

Si Jinliang was confused and looked at Tang Yao with some curiosity.

But Tang Yao didn't say anything else, just smiled.

Because he is not really familiar with Si Jinliang.

There's no need to reveal everything.

And it’s also difficult to say verbally.

"If you're curious..."

Tang Yao hesitated for a moment and replied, "How about selling me the ownership of the game?"

"are you serious."

Si Jinliang was a little surprised when he saw Tang Yao's expression. "Are you really going to... turn my game into the second game from Avalon Studios?"

"Correct."

"you……"

Si Jinliang subconsciously wanted to persuade him.

No.

"Dou Pai" is already in such a mess, you really want to change it? A second mobile game?
Although your first mobile game was successful, it was achieved together with the people from Mingyu Technology.

But there's no need to completely think I'm useless...

Can’t say for other games.

But I'm quite knowledgeable about card games, otherwise there wouldn't be a game like "Dou Pai". I painstakingly simplified and constructed "Dou Pai", and can I just change it? Make it simpler? Make it quicker to play? Don't I know that? But it won't be fun! !

And weren't you working on Fate/Grand Order a while ago? How did you have so much time to play games? Do you know what changes to make after just a few days of playing?
Are you kidding me...you are not a god.

but.

Although there are a lot of psychological dramas.

But Si Jinliang didn't try to persuade him or say anything sarcastic in the end, because the lesson from last time was still fresh in his mind... and he didn't plan to make games anymore, so there was no point in saying anything more.

"If you want to buy the ownership, I can sell it to you. I don't plan to stay in the gaming industry anymore anyway. This game is ruined and a complete negative asset. If you're willing to buy it, I can make some money."

Si Jinliang was silent for a moment, gritted his teeth, and decided to bring it up: "But... there is something I must tell you. I once thought that turning TCG games into online games was very promising. As long as it is simpler and less complicated, it will definitely make a lot of money... and you saw the result.

Many ideas are good at the beginning, but as they progress, you will find many problems. The reason why the rules of TCG games are complicated is that this type of game does not have a development system, only a collection system, and the cards collected with great effort do not have growth potential.

So, if this type of game wants to be interesting, it simply requires working on the rules and mechanics. If they're too simple, the game becomes boring... After all, this isn't Dou Dizhu, where you can't rely on just one trick to conquer everything. There are also issues like revenue to consider. I initially thought I could make changes, but I quickly realized I'd overestimated myself."

"...You don't plan to stay in the gaming industry?"

When Tang Yao heard this, her focus obviously shifted.

"Well, I'm going to go work. I'm not really suited to making games."

Hearing this, Tang Yao stood on tiptoe slightly and glanced at the office behind Si Jinliang, and found that he had packed up his things.

She thought for a moment, then said, "Then why don't you come to Avalon Studios?"

"Ok?"

Si Jinliang was stunned.

"We're all just working anyway, so why not see how your 'Fighting Cards' has transformed?"

Tang Yao smiled brightly and invited, "See how I changed it?"

Si Jinliang: “…”

No.

Avalon Studio is even going to swallow up the boss of Mingyu Technology?