128: Chapter 128: Winning at mahjong is a foregone conclusion; the only question is how big the win will be.

In the following days, while busy with work, Jiang Yuan did not stay idle; she used her spare time to meet with the key members of the remaining four studios.

During these four meetings, although the personalities of these individuals varied greatly and differed significantly from Shen Qinghe, whom she had met first, they all gave competent answers when Jiang Yuan asked about studio management and the direction of their future game development, showing no signs of anything "out of the ordinary."

Of course, just asking questions was not enough to put Jiang Yuan completely at ease.

When it came time to sign the contracts, besides the basic clauses, Jiang Yuan made sure to include explicit written provisions, black and white, to prevent these people from messing around or getting carried away during production, or coming up with any bizarre plots or actions.

Although Spark Games was large and successful now, it was not overly concerned about the loss of such a small investment.

Even if the games produced by the five invested studios all hit a Waterloo, the financial impact on the company would be almost zero.

However, Jiang Yuan did not want to be associated with any negative public opinion that might result.

To avoid any scandals with the invested games that would lead players to mock the games and, in turn, ridicule her own investment judgment—asking what kind of bizarre games she had invested in—Jiang Yuan decided it was best to nip this risk in the bud.

With this in mind, when Qin Gong brought the company's legal team to present the drafted contracts for her review, Jiang Yuan went through them meticulously, ensuring there were no obvious loopholes in any part.

It could be seen that the contracts clearly stated Spark Games' specific investment amount and shareholding ratio.

Additionally, terms such as funding disbursement milestones, tiered revenue sharing plans, free licensing clauses for the Aurora Engine, and the rights and obligations of both parties were all clearly defined.

Finishing the contracts at a steady, unhurried pace, when she reached the last page, Jiang Yuan's gaze paused slightly, and she read more carefully.

There was a clause written there that she had previously instructed them to include: an investment rights protection clause.

The general idea was that Spark Games, as the investor, would not interfere with the development team's creative direction, nor would it force modifications to the game's core gameplay, art style, or subject matter.

However, if Spark Games believed that certain content settings of the developer would cause widespread backlash from players, it had the right to veto those settings! If the developer refused to modify them, Spark Games could claw back the full investment amount and hold the development team legally responsible.

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly and said softly, "This clause is a good addition."

Although they didn't understand why Jiang Yuan was so serious about this issue and had specifically asked them to add it to the contract, being praised by their leader was a good thing, so Qin Gong and the other members of the legal department nodded with smiles.

They naturally didn't know how many teams in another parallel world had failed miserably because they had no constraints and let themselves run wild.

Jiang Yuan closed the materials, handed the contracts to Qin Gong, and said in a clear voice, "There are no major issues. Just issue the formal contracts based on this version and start arranging the signings."

Time came to the next day.

After Spark Games completed the signing with those five studios, the official account of the Spark Game Platform took the opportunity to release an announcement.

The title was very short: "Spark Games Domestic Indie Game Support Program—Spark Light Project Officially Launched!"

In the main text, the first five selected games were listed: [Jiuli], [deep sea mystery], [star ocean drift], [Yaoyi Lu], [Xianshan], each accompanied by a detailed screenshot and a brief introduction, along with the names and headcount of the development teams underneath.

The announcement didn't go on at length about sentimentality; it simply explained the support content in the plainest language, along with a clear promise: Spark Games would not interfere with the creative direction of the selected works.

The reaction in the comment section was much livelier than Jiang Yuan had expected.

"Holy crap? What is Spark doing? They haven't even warmed up their own games yet, and they're already investing in others?"

"Took a look at the list, five games, five genres, not bad, not bad, they're all things I'm interested in, meow!"

"There are catgirls? Caught you!"

"Although I don't know what level these games will be at when they come out, just looking at the screenshots, the art seems pretty good."

"For sure, that ink-wash style in [Jiuli] really hits the spot for me; I'll definitely buy it when it comes out! The meticulous brushwork on the monsters in [Yaoyi Lu] also looks top-tier. At the very least, as long as these two aren't scams, I'm definitely buying them."

"Wait, no, did none of you notice the free licensing clause for the Aurora Engine? Is Spark really taking its core technology and letting indie teams use it?"

"Noticed it, and I can only say, Jiang Yuan's vision is quite big!"

"Don't know about the vision, but if you really use the Aurora Engine, it'll be hard to leave the Spark Game Platform in the future."

"You idiot, the Aurora Engine looks awesome right now. Countless manufacturers are probably begging Spark to license it out. Plus, Spark actually invested a lot of money into these studios. Compared to that, what's being tied to a platform?"

"That's right. The Spark Game Platform currently has over a million online players every day, and the daily active users are even more insane. You definitely can't imagine how many game manufacturers are begging Spark to get onto the Spark Platform right now; it's just that their quality is too low, so they've been ruthlessly rejected..."

"The person above has a story? Could it be that you're an industry insider?"

Jiang Yuan scrolled through the comments for a while before putting down her phone.

The players' reactions were within her expectations; there would definitely be both praise and criticism, but as long as the general direction was accepted, that was fine.

The Spark Project was never meant to be charity; investments require returns.

But this return shouldn't be achieved by squeezing the development teams, but rather by the overall growth of the platform's ecosystem. Even if only two of these five games succeeded, the user stickiness and platform reputation they brought would be well worth the price of admission.

What's more, Jiang Yuan was quite confident in her own investment judgment.

At the very least, in her view.

[Jiuli], which she was most optimistic about, goes without saying. As long as there were no major issues later on, given its quality, its success was almost 99% certain; it was just a matter of whether the sales would be a big hit or a massive hit.

As for the others, although their quality varied, they were all above the passing line. Plus, having now made it onto the first list of the Spark Light Project, they had gained praise, popularity, and exposure that other indie games could hardly reach.

It could only be said that for these five games, "a guaranteed win" was already a foregone conclusion; it was just a matter of how much they would win in the end.