157: Chapter 157 My friends, you are the true heroes!

The small conference room, usually used for high-level meetings, was less than twenty square meters and was also used to receive visitors.

When Qin Gong took the lead and pushed open the door, three young men who looked like university students instantly turned their heads toward the sound in unison.

The Producer leading the trio wore glasses, a plaid shirt, and casual trousers. Although his hair looked a bit messy, it wasn't greasy; he had likely stayed up all night and hadn't had time to wash it this morning. The other two didn't look much different.

In front of them were coffee, various fruit platters, and pastries sent by Spark staff, lined up at the corner of the table.

However, none of the three had touched them; instead, they were all engrossed in the laptops they had brought with them.

Jiang Yuan caught a glimpse as she entered and noticed that all three laptops had the same page open: the backend of the comment section for star ocean drift on the Spark Game Platform.

Just by looking at the radiant smiles on their faces as she walked in, one could tell exactly how excited and happy these three were feeling right now.

Seeing Jiang Yuan enter, the three of them stood up almost simultaneously, their expressions as stiff and formal as if they were attending their first interview.

The Producer wearing glasses spoke first, his voice sounding a bit dry:

"President Jiang, we just wanted to come in person to thank you for your kindness. I hope we aren't disturbing you..."

Waving her hand to signal the three to sit, Jiang Yuan sat down opposite them. With a gentle smile on her exquisite, flawless face, she said:

"There's no need to call it 'kindness.' While Spark Games did indeed put in some effort to help you, the game's success is primarily due to the quality you produced."

"And you, my friends, you are the real heroes!"

As soon as those words were spoken, the conference room fell into silence.

The Producer took off his glasses, wiped the lenses, put them back on, and his lips moved a few times. Finally, his voice sounded slightly choked with emotion as he said:

"President Jiang, you are too kind! To be honest, we worked on this game for sixteen months. Besides the fear of not having enough funds to finish it, our biggest fear was that no one would understand it.

For example, the details in the spaceship construction system, the logic of the module connections, and the coupling method for life support values... we put a lot of heart into these things, but we didn't know if ordinary players would even notice them."

"And you? Not only did you provide help at our most dangerous and critical moment, but you also had Spark Games handle our publishing and qualified our game for the Spark Light Project. Even before release, it received a massive amount of attention from players. This kindness, I don't even know how to..."

Reaching out to take a cup of hot tea from a young girl and placing it on the table, Jiang Yuan pursed her lips and smiled lightly:

"I understand your emotions, but I'll say it again: to achieve your current success, the quality you put into the game was the most indispensable part—the cornerstone."

"I don't necessarily agree with you coming here in person to thank me, but considering your studio is also in Shanghai, it's not a big deal. I'll have Qin Gong take you out for a meal later and then send you back in a company car. By the way, what are your plans for Floating Boat Studio moving forward?"

Hearing this, the Producer's already reserved emotions seemed to fluctuate significantly again because of Jiang Yuan's words.

He managed to control his excitement with difficulty, glanced at the other two—who also seemed overcome with emotion and looked as if they were ready to go through fire and water for Spark Games—and hesitated before speaking:

"Actually, we wrote a concept for a complete Space Trilogy in our design documents, but we previously thought that might just be a daydream we were having at home, so we were too embarrassed to bring it up!

For instance, we left a cliffhanger in the ending of star ocean drift. We never revealed the source of that final set of signals received by the deep space detection system."

Nodding slightly, Jiang Yuan waved her small hand and made a decision nonchalantly:

"Having a plan is a good thing! Once star ocean drift is on the right track, write up the design document for the new work and interface directly with Qin Gong's side to apply for the second phase of the Spark Light Project. I'm very optimistic about your studio's future!"

They chatted simply for a few more minutes.

Jiang Yuan signaled Qin Gong with her eyes to take over and lead them down for a big meal and some rest.

She then stood up with light steps and walked out of the conference room. Her slender and tall, beautiful figure appeared brilliantly radiant and boundlessly dazzling in the eyes of the three from Floating Boat Studio at that moment!

...

When Qin Gong returned after arranging for someone to send the three from Floating Boat Studio back, his face still bore a look of intense emotion that hadn't faded.

He walked briskly all the way to Jiang Yuan's office to report back. Just as he was about to comment on how emotional those guys were during the meal, he heard Jiang Yuan ask in a crisp voice without looking up:

"Have they been sent off?"

Qin Gong sat down opposite the desk and nodded:

"Yes, everything is arranged, President Jiang. First, I took them to that restaurant downstairs we often go to for a feast, and then I had a company car take them back! Every one of them was incredibly excited! Also, there's a data point I think is worth noting!"

Jiang Yuan said calmly, her words clear:

"Speak."

"When star ocean drift was released, didn't deep sea mystery also open for pre-orders? Although the sales are currently only around eleven thousand, Song Siming did a cross-analysis. In the pre-order user profiles for deep sea mystery, nearly forty percent are newly registered users on the platform.

This shows that our big platform strategy is very effective. Even 'small but beautiful' games like star ocean drift and deep sea mystery can successfully attract a large portion of new users who haven't registered yet!"

Although Spark Games' obsession with acquiring new users was far from as extreme or exaggerated as other game companies.

One had to admit.

If they could attract new users who had never been in contact with Spark Games before, even if star ocean drift and deep sea mystery failed one after another, Jiang Yuan and Spark could actually accept it.

Of course.

Being successful was certainly for the best.

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly upon hearing this and said:

"Although the vibes of the two games don't overlap, there is a bit of intersection in the audience. People who come for the space exploration theme will most likely also be interested in deep-sea exploration."

Qin Gong continued:

"Last week when you asked me to stagger the release schedules, I was actually a bit uncertain. After all, there's a six-day gap. What if the hype for star ocean drift couldn't last until deep sea mystery unlocked?

It seems I overthought it... throughout the day, not only has the word-of-mouth for star ocean drift not dropped, but the peak concurrent players have been steadily climbing. There are more strategy guides and gameplay videos in the community than we anticipated."

While looking at the data on her computer, Jiang Yuan multi-tasked and replied:

"The lifeblood of a management sim isn't the first day; it's about the word-of-mouth. What you're seeing now is the effect of excellent word-of-mouth! Once the first wave of core players has fully explored it and starts producing content, that content in turn pulls in new players. That's how the snowball starts rolling."

Qin Gong nodded in agreement, chatted with Jiang Yuan for a while longer about deep sea mystery, and then stood up to take his leave and return to his work.

Jiang Yuan glanced up at him, her expression calm on her exquisite face as she said:

"After finishing the publishing for deep sea mystery, take advantage of the ten or so days before dave the diver goes live and take a good holiday to rest. Those dark circles under your eyes are almost enough to play a national treasure; don't end up dropping dead in the office."

Qin Gong responded with a smile. Although Jiang Yuan's tone was crisp and highly aggressive, his heart felt warm. He deeply felt the massive difference between being at Spark Games versus the NetEase.