Chapter 172: Make a New Game?
This year’s YouPlay convention was held in New World Expo in Magic City. It was split into three major areas of N, W and E, which was split into fourteen different exhibition halls. The larger companies congregated in N1 to N3.
This included Chinese video game companies and operations, as well as video game companies from overseas. There were themed areas related to video game entrepreneurship. Anyone who could join would try and join this convention.
The Game Committee gave Chen Mo a spot in hall N2, which was more or less the best area, in the same grounds as Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
As Thunderbolt Entertainment was a smaller company and had fewer games, the booth they got was also smaller. However, it was still positioned quite well, all thanks to Mr Qiao.
A member of staff sent a picture of the location of the booth and a floor plan to Chen Mo.
“It’s right over here, think about how you’ll decorate this.”
Chen Mo looked at the floorplan and replied, “Alright, I have some things in mind. I’ll send you an overview later and you can handle the rest.”
“Alright, but I can only help you with the more essential stuff. I can get you in contact with showgirls if that’s what you want. But things like sculptures and the costumes of the showgirls you’d have to settle that yourself if you want them to suit your games.”
“Yep, of course,” replied Chen Mo.
He then pointed out a large booth in the same hall, “Is this Emperor Dynasty Entertainment’s booth?”
“Yes, Emperor Dynasty Emperor is the largest company in this hall and is the one who has the most games, which is why their booth is so big. Zen Entertainment also took up the majority of another hall.”
Chen Mo nodded. These companies took up a lot of area because of how many games they had. They even split their own booth into smaller sections, one for mobile games, one for PC games, and one for VR games.
Moreover, from the picture there were many working on setting up the booth and putting up posters.
Chen Mo replied, “Alright, I understand what I’m dealing with now. I’ll send you the idea I have in mind later.”
“Alright. B the way, do you have a new game you’re going to showcase?”
Chen Mo was shocked, “New game?”
“Yeah, most of the developers have a new game for the fans to try out in order to attract their attention. Players probably wouldn’t care much if it was an old game.
“Although you could release a rare character or card or what have you. But a new game would be best.”
“Oh. Alright, I’ll think about it.”
The staff replied with a sweating emote. Think? You haven’t planned on a new game yet? The convention is just a month out, you probably don’t have the time to develop one. It’s probably difficult just to come up with a demo!
Chen Mo laughed, “Don’t worry.”
“Alright, I’ll leave you with your preparations. And if you have the time, you should come to Magic City and have a look yourself, there are some things that just aren’t clear over the phone.”
“Alright, I’ll visit when I have the time.”
—
After wrapping his head around the booth, Chen Mo did some planning around the decoration of the booth, and ordered some sculptures and cosplays.
Conventions had always been about the same thing. Although Chen Mo didn’t have many games, all of them were extremely high quality.
Warcraft and Onmyoji in particular suited conventions really well. Chen Mo split his booth into two areas for Warcraft and Onmyojim respectively. He also planned cosplays around these games.
But it also made sense to have new games for these conventions, otherwise the fans would just be there to look at the showgirls.
However, Chen Mo didn’t have a new game on hand, and with Su Jinyu and the others working on hiring with just a month’s time left, he couldn’t even afford to make a mobile game, not to mention a large noteworthy game.
But after some considerations, Chen Mo decided to make a more casual mobile game for the players to try out.
Chen Mo worked on the design doc.u.ment as he did the planning for the booth. As it was a simpler puzzle game where most of the developing process was on the level design, Chen Mo didn’t plan to bother Su Jinyu and the others and chose to work on it alone.
—
A month pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye.
Su Jinyu and the others had been working on the hiring process this whole time. It was more or less done, with just a few of the more important employees that are at its last stages.
Although the picks have been made, the timing was quite awkward as most wanted to wait until Chinese New Year before leaving their companies in order to get their year end bonuses.
Luckily Chen Mo didn’t plan on working too hard anyways, and asked them to start after Chinese New Year.
The new location of the office was also ready, as only slight modifications were needed to make the cafe office-ready.
-In the experience store.-
Su Jinyu said stretching, “We’re about to welcome many more people. I’m still not quite used to the fact, are we a big company soon?”
“Yeah, the manager is rich now. And it took quite a lot out of us working on the previous games. It’s nice that we’re getting more help, it’ll be easier to work on larger games in the future,” added Qian Kun.
Wen Lingwei asked, “Huh, I don’t think I’ve seen him in a long time, where is he?”
Su Jinyu shook her head, “I don’t know. I think he went to Magic City, not sure what he’s there for.”
Chang Xiuya asked, “Speaking of Magic City, I think the YouPlay video game convention in the magic city is in a few days. Are you guys going? I have a few friends who got tickets.”
“That depends if the manager is going to let us have days off!” said Su Jinyu.
“Of course he would,” said Wen Lingwei, “You guys aren’t working on anything now anyways, wouldn’t it be a good time to visit a convention?”
Qian Kun waved his hand, “Don’t even bother, I checked a few days ago, and the tickets were all gone. It’s too late now.”
Chang Xiuya nodded, “Yeah, my friends grabbed the tickets as soon as it was released. This convention is really popular after all, there are many reselling tickets too. I think it’s too late to try and buy tickets.”
Qian Kun said, “Oh well, guess we aren’t going. It’s the same thing every time anyways.”
Su Jinyu received a phone call amidst their conversation.
“h.e.l.lo? Huh? Get a train ticket to Magic City? Join the YouPlay convention?”
This caught everyone’s attention. They were just talking about going, but Chen Mo was straight up inviting them to join?
“But we can’t even buy the tickets if we wanted to. Huh, you have tickets? A lot of them? Why didn’t you say earlier! Alright, I’ll book train tickets for everyone!
Su Jinyu said enthusiastically after hanging up, “The manager said that he has many tickets for the YouPlay gaming convention and asked us to grab a train there. He’s covering all the costs!”