38: Chapter 38 The Second Round of Enrollment Expansion: Jiang Yuan's Goal

Closing Tieba, Zhang Qingquan opened the dedicated forum for Slay the Spire.

Several threads were pinned to the top of the homepage, but surprisingly, they weren't discussing Slay the Spire at all; instead, they were all speculating about the next game from Spark Studio.

"Why is Spark Games making a tower defense game? Can that genre even be fun?"

"Are there any insiders? Is this news actually true or fake?"

"It's written right on the whiteboard inside the studio. Unless they scrapped it, it's probably almost certain, right?"

"No way, I'm still waiting for them to release slay the spire 2. How can they neglect their proper work to make some crappy tower defense game? I'm actually going to cry T_T"

Seeing this, Zhang Qingquan couldn't help but sigh, his emotions becoming exceptionally complex.

As a die-hard fan of Slay the Spire, he naturally hoped, just like everyone else, that Jiang Yuan and Spark Studio wouldn't go off to make some tower defense game, but would instead honestly continue making DLCs for Slay the Spire or slay the spire 2.

After feeling depressed and conflicted for a long while, Zhang Qingquan simply launched Slay the Spire and muttered to himself:

"Forget about all this nonsense. I'd better just start a run! Once that whatever tower defense game comes out, there's no way I'm ever going to play it!"

...

A week after the new project entered the official development phase, Jiang Yuan called everyone into the conference room that afternoon.

Jiang Yuan sat at the head of the table, seemingly deep in thought. Once everyone was seated, she opened the folder in her hand and said in a crisp voice:

"Since everyone is here, I'll get straight to the point. There's no other business; essentially, the studio is about to begin its second round of recruitment."

Zhou Ming, who was in the middle of yawning, was stunned upon hearing this and asked in surprise:

"Recruitment? How many are we hiring?"

The others also looked over with some astonishment, clearly not expecting this news to come so suddenly.

Jiang Yuan didn't answer, instead distributing the printed papers from the folder to everyone before speaking calmly:

"This is the recruitment plan I've listed. Everyone, take a look first."

Hearing this, the group lowered their heads, filled with curiosity.

The document essentially covered every position indispensable to a small or medium-sized studio, with a minimum requirement of at least one person for each. By the time they reached the end, they were shocked to discover that the goal Jiang Yuan had set for this round was actually over twenty people.

Upon seeing this, the conference room fell so silent that one could almost hear their own heartbeat.

Zhou Ming raised his head and said in a tone of amazement:

"Boss, this is... are we really going to hire this many people?"

Jiang Yuan nodded slightly.

Chen Yu asked, puzzled:

"We only have seven people right now. Are we tripling or quadrupling our size all at once?"

Jiang Yuan glanced at him and asked skeptically:

"Do you have any idea how much money our two games have made? We can't keep making games of our current scale forever; sooner or later, we have to get involved in medium to large-scale productions, or even..."

She stopped abruptly. Jiang Yuan thought for a moment before continuing:

"In short, while our cash flow is abundant, my idea is to take advantage of this second round of recruitment to bring the studio's scale up to at least the level required to produce a medium to large-scale game.

It takes time for a team to gel, and technical talent won't just be waiting around for us when we don't have any moves; they won't necessarily be available whenever we want them."

The group pondered Jiang Yuan's words. A moment later, they all nodded in unison, acknowledging that it did indeed make sense. Since they weren't short on money, hiring only three to five people at a time really wasn't suitable for Spark Games anymore.

It wasn't that the team was slow to react; it was just that they didn't have a tangible sense of how deep the studio's pockets really were.

Very few other indie game studios were like their Xinghuo; one game took off instantly, and two games brought in over a hundred million in revenue!

With over a hundred million in funds, while they were still far behind the top-tier major companies, in the circle of indie game studios, if Spark Games claimed to be second, there probably weren't many other indie studios who could claim to be first.

As Su Meng nodded, she looked at Jiang Yuan and said with a gentle expression:

"I know a few people for the technical art position. I can ask around for you."

"Hmm, then I'll leave that to you, thank you."

As she spoke, Jiang Yuan gave the bespectacled girl a faint smile, bright and gentle, to express her gratitude.

She didn't feel anything strange about it herself.

However, to her surprise, after seeing this, Su Meng's eyes flickered, and she hurriedly lowered her head. A faint, distinct flush seemed to spread across her fair, smooth face.

Lin Zhengtao pushed up his glasses and said with a serious expression:

"Back-end developers are hard to hire right now. Those with experience and skill are all locked up by the major companies."

Jiang Yuan looked at him with clear eyes and said sternly:

"Even if they're hard to hire, we must. We will likely be making online games in the future; we can't afford to not have our own people."

Lin Zhengtao's eyes lit up. He wanted to ask Jiang Yuan about her plans in that regard, but upon second thought, he felt it was too early and inappropriate to ask now, so he nodded and said:

"I know a few back-end and client-side programmers. If President Jiang is interested, I'll ask them later."

"Hmm, thank you for your hard work."

Jiang Yuan expressed her gratitude in a gentle manner; she certainly wouldn't just flash smiles at everyone indiscriminately.

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and asked:

"Boss, if we hire all these people, will they even fit in the office?"

Jiang Yuan smiled and said:

"That's a good question. The current office definitely won't be enough. I plan to rent an office building large enough to serve as our long-term workspace in one go.

While everyone is working recently, you can also start packing your things and get ready to move for the second time. If all goes well, we should be spending at least three years or more in the new office building."

Although moving was tiring, considering that the new office space would definitely be much better than the current one, the group nodded in agreement, quite excited, already looking forward to decorating their new workstations.

Zhou Ming gave Jiang Yuan a thumbs up and exclaimed:

"Boss, you're really going big!"

Jiang Yuan ignored him and continued:

"I will personally interview for the technical department. You guys are responsible for the initial screening of programmers and artists, and let Chen Yu and Su Meng handle the first round for design and operations."

She paused and added:

"There is one more thing. I plan to build our own internal Publishing Department within the company."

The conference room fell silent instantly.

Chen Yu was the first to speak, saying in disbelief:

"Boss, build our own distribution?"

Jiang Yuan replied with an 'mm' and nodded.

Chen Yu opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed it back.

Zhou Ming asked in astonishment:

"Boss, we have absolutely no experience in distribution. Previously, it was all Chen Yu handling it, just posting on forums and replying to comments. If we really want to expand into overseas channels and coordinate with media, starting from scratch—won't that be too slow?"

Lin Zhengtao couldn't help but interject:

"Right now, people from Tencent and NetEase have already reached out to us, wanting to discuss distribution partnerships. Their channels are indeed mature. If we hand it over to them, it would save us a lot of trouble."