This Chinese New Year, Xie Yunfan’s Weibo account, @LittleSailboat, received quite a few private messages from players.

There were well-wishes from female players: “《Millennium Love》 is super fun! This was the happiest Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had. Also, wishing Little Sailboat finds a partner soon~”

There were also messages from male players: “Little Sailboat, could you make a game that guys can play too?”

The recent explosion in popularity of 《Millennium Love》 filled a gap in the female-oriented gaming market. The official management was generous, gifting players plenty of benefits; even just buying a monthly card was enough to collect all the resources. The girls were having a great time, but the boys, while acting like they didn’t want to play, were secretly green with envy.

Just look at how well the female players are treated over there! And the card drop rates are so high!

Then look at the games we play… they’re absolute dogsht.*

If it weren’t for the fact that 《Millennium Love》 had “raising a husband” as its core gameplay, many male players would have jumped ship already. Unfortunately, raising a husband in-game really didn’t align with their tastes.

The games produced by Yangfan Studio were of high quality, and Qihang, responsible for operations, was very conscientious. They didn’t force microtransactions, and you could play very comfortably with just a little spending. Compared to the trashy operations of their peers, Yangfan and Qihang had become a breath of fresh air in the industry.

Players were all looking forward to the next game launched by the combined forces of Yangfan and Qihang.

Many peers believed that since Yangfan Studio had fully capitalized on the dividends this time, they might strike while the iron was hot and continue making similar otome games. For one, it would consolidate their status among female players. For another, now that 《Millennium Love》 had opened up the female market, continuing in that vein would be the safe bet.

If it were most other companies, they would definitely do that.

But Xie Yunfan didn’t think so.

The promotional positioning of his previous game was very clear—18+, female-oriented. This significantly limited the player base; boys felt embarrassed to play it openly, and it was impossible for minors to date in the game anyway.

Although the revenue and reputation of 《Millennium Love》 were excellent, he wasn’t content with the status quo. In making games, he was always seeking breakthroughs, and his ultimate goal was actually aligned with Luo Hang’s.

—They wanted to expand the holographic gaming market.

Currently, there were only tens of millions of holographic game pods in China, but there were hundreds of millions of mobile game users; they weren’t even in the same order of magnitude. There was still a long road ahead before the era where “every household has a game pod.”

Luo Hang had invested so much money into developing cloud servers to solve the issue of data synchronization between mobile and holographic games, and he didn’t do it just for the sake of these immediate gains.

Luo Hang’s vision was always long-term; he wanted to achieve “global holographization.”

Xie Yunfan wouldn’t just think about making money either.

To further broaden the holographic gaming market and get more mobile players accustomed to using holographic pods, the next thing he had to do was, naturally, a “national game” without any player restrictions.

Boys, girls, children, and the elderly could all play it; it would be accessible on both phones and holographic pods. Only then could they expand the target audience and satisfy the needs of different players.

February 16th happened to be a Sunday, and Xie Yunfan invited Luo Hang out for a meal. The two returned to the private kitchen restaurant they had visited before.

The environment was quiet and undisturbed, perfect for discussing matters.

Luo Hang ordered the dishes and asked casually, “Did you go out to play over the weekend?”

Xie Yunfan replied, “No, I stayed home and read for two days.”

Luo Hang put down the menu and teased, “Players were dating in the game on Valentine’s Day, and on the Lantern Festival, they could solve riddles and release lanterns with the person they liked. Yet here you are, spending Valentine’s Day and the Lantern Festival holed up at home reading?”

Xie Yunfan smiled helplessly, “A single man’s Valentine’s Day is just that boring.” He paused and countered, “What about you? Didn’t you go out on a date?”

Luo Hang shrugged, “I’m a single man too, staying at home just like you.”

So, he and Luo Hang were “fellow sufferers.” Although they had made a romance game that satisfied the emotional needs of players wanting to fall in love, the two bosses themselves had never been in a relationship.

Busy with work, they had no time to consider romance.

Xie Yunfan wasn’t really sure what kind of person he would like, so he just let things take their course. Anyway, they were both still young and in no rush to date or marry.

Xie Yunfan changed the subject and got straight to the point, “I asked you out today because there’s something I want to discuss.”

“About the next game?” Luo Hang’s eyes held a smile.

“Yeah, you guessed it?”

“Since you asked me out privately, you must have a new idea.” Luo Hang knew Xie Yunfan well; Yunfan wasn’t the type to ask a friend out just because he was bored—his time was too precious.

Xie Yunfan gathered his thoughts and said, “The data synchronization method for 《Millennium Love》 is that the player logs in on the mobile end, and after logging off, the game progress is stored on the cloud server, then automatically synced when logging in from the holographic end, right?”

Luo Hang nodded, “That’s correct. Our cloud server acts as a relay station. Since the code for the mobile end and the holographic end is different, it needs to be modified and migrated through the cloud server.”

Xie Yunfan asked, “Can you achieve real-time synchronization?”

Luo Hang paused, “Real-time synchronization?”

Xie Yunfan said, “Meaning players on the mobile end and the holographic end can enter the same dungeon, play the game together, and fight together, achieving true ‘dual-end synchronized online’ play.”

Luo Hang fell silent and didn’t answer immediately.

Because 《Millennium Love》 was a single-player game, there was no need to consider the issue of dual-end players being in the same dungeon simultaneously. The cloud server acted as a “data relay station,” recording progress and migrating data only when the player logged off.

The “networked real-time synchronization” Yunfan mentioned required much greater computational power than such a single-player game.

For example, if players from both ports were online simultaneously, Player A on the mobile end would see Player B from the holographic end as a 3D model; while Player B on the holographic end would see Player A as a holographic model.

Holographic players had a real sensory system. Mobile players used their phones to operate, so they could only “hear” and “see,” but they couldn’t have tactile, olfactory, or environmental temperature sensations.

Furthermore, mobile players could overlap; a map could hold thousands or tens of thousands of people. Holographic players couldn’t; if they stacked on top of each other, physical collision conflicts would occur.

For multi-player online synchronization, processing this data would be very complicated. Modeling and sensory systems were different, plus issues with combat effects, environmental rendering, skill data, and so on… The technology to achieve “dual-end real-time synchronization” would require a longer development cycle and more financial investment.

Luo Hang didn’t refuse immediately.

Because, in theory, this technology could be achieved.

Qihang had already solved the problem of dual-end data processing; the current handling was “single-player delayed migration.” To achieve “networked real-time synchronization,” they just needed to develop more powerful servers.

In any case, Luo Hang’s ultimate goal was to realize the “globally networked” holographic era; the technical bottleneck of large-scale networking had to be overcome sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Luo Hang said decisively, “It can be achieved, but give me some time.”

Xie Yunfan looked at Luo Hang in confusion, “You seem to never question the strange requests I make? Nor are you curious about what kind of game I’m making?”

Luo Hang’s gaze was gentle, and he smiled, “Because our direction is always consistent. I guess your next game definitely won’t be female-oriented.”

“You should be making a game suitable for all ages to draw in mobile players and further expand the holographic market. Networking is always more popular than single-player, which is why you want me to overcome this technical difficulty.”

Luo Hang paused, looked at Xie Yunfan, and asked, “Did I guess right?”

Xie Yunfan: “…”

He guessed very accurately.

They were indeed the best partners—kindred spirits who understood each other.

Xie Yunfan provided good game ideas and created high-quality games; Luo Hang provided the best holographic game console platform and maintained stable operations.

They had always been complementary.

Looking at Xie Yunfan’s expression, Luo Hang knew he had guessed correctly.

The man’s eyes deepened with a smile, and he said in a low voice, “Yunfan, just go ahead and do it. You know I will always support you—just as you have always supported me.”

Xie Yunfan felt a warmth in his heart and nodded, “Okay.”

Luo Hang said, “The Qihang data department did a recent count. Within just half a year of 《Millennium Love》 being on the market, the market share of Qihang game pods increased by several million units, and it is currently on par with Cool Play.”

This news made Xie Yunfan very happy.

If the two of them teamed up to make another hit, surpassing Cool Play was just around the corner.

Xie Yunfan said earnestly, “The next game is a strategy-battle game that I personally find quite fun, and it will involve drawing character cards.”

Luo Hang asked curiously, “Drawing cards? Similar to 《Millennium Love》?”

Xie Yunfan shook his head, “Not the same. 《Millennium Love》 is an otome game; the core gameplay lies in romantic development. The focus of the cards is on art and plot, not stats and skills. It’s essentially a plot-driven, collection-based casual game.”

“But what I’m going to do next is a strategy-battle game. Each card’s skills and stats are critical, and the combination of different characters allows players to spend a lot of time and energy researching.”

“In a strategy-battle game, the methods for cultivating character cards are also much more complex than in a romance game.”

“For example, each character has three skills, each lineup needs six characters that can be arranged into a formation, and the player, acting as the main controller, can carry strategy military manuals.”

“The characters that can be cultivated in this game should number in the hundreds.”

“Players use different lineup combinations to clear storylines, play through dungeons, and PK with others in the arena. In the later stages, players will cultivate more and more characters, and the variations in lineup combinations will become even more interesting.”

Listening to Xie Yunfan’s description, Luo Hang also felt it was quite interesting. There were no such “strategy-battle” games on the market currently; most manufacturers were making shooting or fighting games.

Cultivating card characters to go and fight? It sounded a bit strange.

But what if these card characters could “come to life” on the holographic end?

When that time came, the character models for each card could be made better-looking, allowing players to talk to and interact with these characters in the holographic game. Players would have both the sense of accomplishment from “collecting cards” in a cultivation game and the fun of “matching lineups and studying PK” in a combat game.

Players could raise cards based on their preferences—raising them for looks or for stats—it was very free. If the card pool was deep enough, there would be at least dozens of different combinations of lineups.

The more Luo Hang thought about it, the more he felt this game would have “high playability.”

Just the combinations of characters alone were numerous, and Xie Yunfan also mentioned “formations” and “military manuals,” making this game combine the strengths of both “casual cultivation” and “combat PK.”

And those players who were “obsessed” with the card characters would naturally be willing to go to the holographic end to see the “babies” they had raised. If the game blew up, would there be any worry about the number of holographic players?

Watching Xie Yunfan speak with ease and confidence, Luo Hang couldn’t help but ask, “I more or less understand your vision for the game. But how exactly are the card characters set up? Do you need to build a complete worldview and invent hundreds of characters yourself?”

This was also something Xie Yunfan was worried about.

After thinking about it carefully for some time, he decided to have players enter the game as a “Lord,” recruiting historically renowned generals and military strategists, and incorporating The Art of War and The Thirty-Six Stratagems to make it a strategy game, as if the players were leading these characters to fight in an alternate world.

For the character settings, he planned to use military generals and strategists from the Spring and Autumn period, the Qin and Han dynasties, the Three Kingdoms period, and the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties, assisting the monarch in pacifying the world.

These famous figures left behind legendary stories in history, and many of their tales were touching. The alternate world lacked historical culture, so he could take this opportunity to tell the stories of these historical figures.

Xie Yunfan said, “I plan to divide the characters into three types: strategists, generals, and talented individuals. There are a lot of characters, so I can’t explain them all to you right now. I’ll set up a project team on my end and start development. How about I show you once the initial settings are done?”

Luo Hang said straightforwardly, “No problem. Then I will continue having the engineers overcome the real-time synchronization and range networking technologies to get ready for game testing.”

Xie Yunfan voluntarily raised his glass, “I hope this game can also be launched smoothly.”

Luo Hang clinked his glass against his, “Yes, let’s work hard together.”

The two looked at each other and smiled, finishing the red wine in their glasses.

After the meal, Xie Yunfan and Luo Hang walked nearby to aid digestion.

Today was the 17th day of the first lunar month, and the Lantern Festival in Rong City had just ended. Many lanterns were hung on the nearby streets, and many decorations hadn’t been taken down yet.

The two strolled slowly along the street, chatting and admiring the scenery.

Although it wasn’t as romantic as when players dated in the game, having someone with the same goal walking side by side with you… that feeling was also pretty good.

This year, they would work together to overcome the technical challenges and produce a brand-new strategy-battle game.

Of course, since the core gameplay involved “combat,” numerical balance was crucial. The skill data of every character needed to be carefully tested and refined, and the development time would likely be quite long.

But that didn’t matter. As a scouting stone to draw mobile players toward holographic pods, if it could eventually double the number of holographic game players—no matter how much time it took, it would be worth it.

On the morning of Tuesday, February 18th, Xie Yunfan called some employees together for a meeting.

The current three project teams—《Di Renjie’s Investigation》, 《Holographic Script Killing》, and 《Millennium Love》—were independent, and Xie Yunfan wouldn’t easily change the personnel in these three groups.

There weren’t many people left in the company, so he gathered them together to form a new project team. This time, the project team was named 《Turbulent Spring and Autumn》.

In a turbulent world, who could be the final winner?

Strategy combat involving a large number of civil and military officials was also the core philosophy of this game.

When the employees heard the name 《Turbulent Spring and Autumn》, they were all dumbfounded—what kind of game was that? Turbulent, sounds like there’s going to be a lot of fighting?

At the project launch meeting, Xie Yunfan detailed the game’s design philosophy.

He opened the PPT he had prepared and said loudly, “This game is a turn-based strategy combat game. Unlike real-time combat, in turn-based games, both sides take turns acting, giving players ample time to think, which is very suitable for strategy combat.”

The employees below looked at each other.

Turn-based?! Oh my god, boss, are you regressing several years?

Ever since mobile games first appeared, some turn-based games had emerged, most of which were shoddily made. When two players fought, you had to stop and stare when it was the other person’s turn to hit you, and when you hit them, they had to stand there obediently and take it.

Ever since fast-paced games like fighting and shooting games came out, players liked to get their thrill in one go and detested those “turn-based” games where you stood around waiting to be beaten.

Turn-based games where you take a turn, I take a turn had long been eliminated by the era.

What was the boss thinking, suddenly deciding to make a turn-based game?

Although the employees were doubtful, the games the boss came up with on a whim had always been huge hits, so no one was embarrassed to question him now. They could only perk up their ears and hear his design philosophy first.

Xie Yunfan introduced in detail, “Our game consists of three systems.”

“The first is the character cultivation system. Character cultivation includes leveling up and crafting equipment. Leveling up is simple; just farm dungeons for materials, and the main storyline can also give plenty of leveling materials. You don’t have to ‘grind’ too hard to reach the max level, giving players a certain margin for error, and there’s no pressure when switching lineups in the late game.”

“Materials for equipment crafting are made into separate resource dungeons, divided into four parts: weapons, upper armor, lower armor, and shoes.”

“Once a player cultivates a character, they will feel a sense of achievement. This game, for casual players, can be played entirely as a ‘cultivation game’.”

The employees below nodded frequently—if it could be played purely as a cultivation game, it would indeed be relaxing and casual. The target audience for this kind of game was very broad, and even children could play it.

Xie Yunfan continued, “The second core system is the formation system. There are ten types of formations in the game to choose from, such as the ‘One-Line Long Snake Formation,’ ‘Double Dragons Emerging from Water,’ ‘Heaven and Earth Three Talents Formation’… the ‘Eight-Gate Golden Lock Formation,’ and the ‘Nine-Curve Interlocking Formation,’ etc.”

“Formations are the positioning methods during each battle. The character positioning corresponding to each formation is different, and the bonuses given to the team are naturally different.”

“The third core system is the military manual system. The military manual, controlled by us as the players, can be deployed at critical moments in battle to affect the battlefield situation.”

“The military manual system is the strategic gameplay of the 《Thirty-Six Stratagems》.”

“For example, ‘Borrowing a Knife’: I predict you are going to kill my key character, so I use this stratagem in advance to use your own strength against you. In the next turn, you might end up killing your own person.”

“‘Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao’: When one of my characters is threatened, I can use this strategy to transfer the threat to one of your characters. If you want him to survive, you must abandon the attack on my side.”

“If I use the ‘Empty City Strategy,’ all your skills will miss.”

“‘Sound East, Attack West’: On the surface, I am aiming at your Character A, but in reality, I am going to kill Character B.”

“‘Lead Away a Goat in Passing’: I can steal one of your skills and use it myself.”

“‘Turn Host into Guest’: Originally it should be your turn to attack, but I use ‘Turn Host into Guest’ to steal your turn and attack first…”

“The use of these stratagems will make the battle ever-changing. Until the very last moment, no one knows who will be the winner of this battle.”

The employees: “…”

Holy sh*t?? Turn-based can be played like this?!

The employees present were stunned.

There had indeed been turn-based combat games before, but those games were just you releasing a skill, then I release a skill—both sides taking turns—and whoever had higher attack power would kill the other.

There was nothing as complex as military manuals, formations, and character cultivation.

Hearing the boss talk about it, they suddenly felt it was quite interesting!

‘Lead Away a Goat in Passing’? Steal the opponent’s skill for yourself? The opponent would probably be pissed.

You use a bunch of ultimate moves, only for the opponent to use the ‘Empty City Strategy’? You’d be hitting empty air!

If all thirty-six stratagems were done, plus different formation bonuses and character lineup combinations, how rich would the combat mode be?

It was unimaginable.

The employees present were still thinking about how turn-based games could be fun just moments ago.

Now they wanted to slap themselves—turn-based games could also be done exceptionally well!

It was just that the competitors hadn’t bothered to research these gameplay elements.

After Xie Yunfan finished explaining the three core systems of the game, he concluded, “We players will travel to an alternate world and become a Lord. Here, we can recruit brilliant strategists, brave generals, and various talented individuals from among the people, leading them to conquer the battlefield.”

“The battlefield is ever-changing. Often, a change of a general, a different formation, or the use of a military manual strategy in one turn can affect the final outcome.”

“Therefore, I call it—a strategy-battle game.”

“Of course, the entry barrier for this kind of game’s combat will be a bit difficult, but as long as we make the beginner guidance well and players experience the fun of the game, someone will definitely be unable to stop because of the rich playability.”

Never mind the players being unable to stop…

After hearing the boss’s description, the game production team employees present all wanted to fast-forward to the day the game launched so they could experience the fun of strategy combat.

The gameplay was indeed very innovative.

Which of the ten formations should be chosen? How should each formation be broken?

For the thirty-six stratagems, what should the Lord bring this time?

Among the various strategists and generals, who would you cultivate and who would you rely on?

Compared to some real-time combat games that rely on “one-key sweep” and “brainless skill casting,” this kind of strategy game that requires using your brain is really interesting.

Players have a bias against turn-based games because the turn-based games on the market are too poorly made.

They believed that the birth of this new game would completely change the players’ perception.