Three days later, Shi Xiaoyu brought the first draft of Sun Wukong to Xie Yunfan.

This girl truly had some talent; the Sun Wukong she drew was lifelike. Although it didn’t quite match Xie Yunfan’s imagination, the body’s similarity had already reached 60%.

Pointing at the draft, Xie Yunfan said: “The body portion of the Sun Wukong you drew is quite good. The facial area needs to be redrawn. The brow, eye, nose, and lip regions should retain human characteristics, while the other areas should be covered in yellow monkey hair. Make the ears slightly pointier, these ears are too realistic…”

He pointed out many details that needed modification.

Holding a notebook, Shi Xiaoyu listened while taking notes. Fortunately, the boss’s tone was gentle and he didn’t criticize her directly, so Shi Xiaoyu’s originally apprehensive mood calmed down significantly.

Xie Yunfan said: “Don’t be anxious; this is the game’s protagonist; the details must be polished repeatedly.”

Shi Xiaoyu nodded: “Okay, I will go back and redraw it right now!”

After coming out of the boss’s office, she took a deep breath and returned to the Art Group. As soon as everyone saw her expression, they knew the draft had been rejected.

Ning Sha patted her shoulder: “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Our boss is always striving for excellence when making games. During the finalization stage, there are particularly many revisions, but it goes quickly after it’s finalized. He will never have us do a plan, finish it, and then overturn it to redo from scratch.”

What the Art Group hated most was overturning and redoing. Modifying during the draft stage was relatively convenient. If, after you finished drawing and coloring everything, the boss said “the art style doesn’t meet expectations” and overturned it all for a redo, that would be truly mentally collapsing.

At her previous company, Ning Sha frequently did this kind of “useless work.” For one NPC, she even drew seven versions… and ultimately, they used the first version again.

Ever since she started making games following Xie Yunfan, the number of reworks had drastically reduced.

Xie Yunfan never deliberately made things difficult for the art team. During the initial character design stage, as long as everyone revised according to his requirements until he was satisfied, the subsequent progress would be extremely smooth.

Shi Xiaoyu had no work experience. Hearing Sister Sha say this, her heart finally dropped back into her stomach. Mustering her spirits, she sat in front of the computer, exerted her imagination, and began sketching Sun Wukong’s facial features.

…

In the 18th-floor production group workspace, all the offices were bustling.

The Data Group was making numerical settings for Sun Wukong’s attack, defense, and health; the Programming Group began writing the game framework; the Copywriting Group’s plot had only progressed to the dialogue stage for the Mount Huaguo monkey troupes; the Level Design Group’s mountain climbing model for the first level was also in production.

Finding that everyone was working earnestly, Xie Yunfan didn’t go in to disturb them. With the boss inspecting every day, the employees’ pressure would be very high. It was better to explain the requirements clearly, let them do it first, and then modify it according to the situation.

He took the elevator to the 19th floor and walked into the Network Department office.

Yu Baichuan was the Network Group Leader he had selected. Having made five websites himself, his experience was rich. At the time, Xie Yunfan had HR find a professional background check company to carefully investigate his background.

He hadn’t expected to have an unexpected discovery.

During his interview, he said, “My parents run a shop.” Actually, his father was the boss of a renowned domestic car enterprise, with billions in family assets, and the 4S dealerships they opened were spread all over the country.

Yu Baichuan made five websites himself that all went bankrupt, so he came running to seek refuge with Xie Yunfan. Even though his family was that rich, he didn’t flaunt his wealth at work; the car he drove cost just over a hundred thousand. His personality was just extremely socially extroverted, and in a few short days, he had mingled seamlessly with the colleagues in the Network Group.

When Xie Yunfan walked into the Network Group office, Yu Baichuan was currently chatting with his colleagues. Seeing him, he immediately greeted: “Boss, I made a framework template for the website. Would you like to take a look?”

Xie Yunfan leaned closer to take a look and said: “Add official websites and forums for every game. From Yangfan Studio’s homepage, one can directly reach the exclusive sections for all the games we produce in the future. Place the download links in prominent locations on the homepage, and categorize the merchandise mall by game as well.”

Yu Baichuan was stunned for a moment—the boss’s ambitions were quite big, huh? The official website he spoke of was almost on par with those of major manufacturers with many games, like Wings of Dream and Cool Play.

In the future, when players clicked into Yangfan Studio’s official website, they could directly reach the official websites for all games like Underworld Maze, Soul of Music, and Journey to the West. They could also directly download the games on the official website.

The official website would be operated by themselves, so players downloading games from the official website wouldn’t require giving a revenue split fee to “Mobile Games Home.” Later on, as the studio’s fame grew, the games could even mutually direct traffic to each other… and even allow players to directly recharge, consume, and purchase merchandise on the official website.

If so, the money players recharged could 100% enter Yangfan Studio’s pockets.

He hadn’t expected the boss wasn’t making a small studio website, but was benchmarking against tier-one manufacturers, directly establishing a large comprehensive game official website!

Yu Baichuan, who loved making websites, instantly felt his blood boil with passion.

With more and more games in the future, wouldn’t the websites he had to make also increase accordingly?

Yu Baichuan said excitedly: “Understood, put all the games up there, using the homepage as a hub, with links directly reaching every game’s official website. When the time comes, game materials, background settings, etc., will also all be placed on the official websites, right?”

Xie Yunfan: “Yes. The next game, Journey to the West, will open its download channels on the official website. Designing these websites before June, no problem, right?”

Yu Baichuan nodded hurriedly: “I’ll hurry up! I’ll do a closed beta version for the boss to see first.”

Xie Yunfan spoke in detail with Yu Baichuan about the website’s style. He didn’t want flashy or overly ornate designs; he wanted a simple and clear navigation bar. The subsequent official website for each game would then be designed according to the game’s characteristics.

For example, Underworld Maze‘s official website would be a horror style with red and black tones; Soul of Music‘s official website would be a fresh and elegant style of high mountains and flowing water; Journey to the West‘s official website would be a hot-blooded, high-ignition domestic anime style, where clicking in would reveal the majestic and awe-inspiring Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

With Yangfan Studio’s games becoming more and more numerous in the future, making the official websites was imminent.

Next door in the Marketing Department, since the Marketing Manager would arrive in June, the current few employees also had some experience in developing merchandise and doing market analysis.

Xie Yunfan had them design the merchandise for Soul of Music first, making things like card sleeves and bookmarks of the musical instrument illustrations. Once Journey to the West launched, his older brother Xie Xinghe would return from Qihang to officially take charge of these departments, and they would earnestly make the Great Sage Equal to Heaven figures then.

…

Xie Yunfan returned to his own office.

In the afternoon, Ling Xiao brought two reports for him to look at: “Boss, these are the budgets produced for us by two anime companies. Among them, ‘Octopus Animation’ is a well-known company in the industry that has done many game CGs; the other one, ‘Color Picture,’ has been established for two years, and their only representative work is Happy Zoo. Please take a look.”

Both of these companies were local to Rong City.

Octopus Animation had a great reputation and had produced explosive hits, frequently cooperating with game companies in the industry to produce various CG animations. But aside from game CGs, this company also bought IPs themselves to make animated series. They were currently serializing a large-scale weekly animated series, which was said to be broadcasted in 3 seasons.

If they cooperated with them, the other party definitely wouldn’t be able to put all their energy into Journey to the West, and there might even be issues with schedule delays.

The other anime company wasn’t very famous and lacked experience producing game animations. However, Xie Yunfan had seen their work, and the quality was very good. A small company just starting out evidently didn’t have many resources, so their budget quote was also relatively low, clearly showing more sincerity to cooperate with Xie Yunfan.

Xie Yunfan thought for a moment and said: “Make an appointment with the boss of Color Picture, let’s find some time to meet this week.”

…

The following afternoon, Xie Yunfan brought Ling Xiao and Liu Muyao along to a well-known restaurant in Rong City to meet with Liang Anwei, the boss of Color Picture.

Liang Anwei was 27 years old, wore a pair of glasses, and looked very gentle and handsome.

After graduating with an animation production major, he had started his own business. The company had only been established for two years and didn’t have much fame in the industry. The animation they made last year was pretty good and had very high ratings on video websites; Xie Yunfan had also taken a liking to their potential.

The two shook hands. Xie Yunfan smiled slightly: “President Liang, our Yangfan Studio is very sincere in cooperating with you. I’ve looked at the budget. Regarding the price…”

Liang Anwei assumed he found the price too expensive, and immediately said: “It’s also our company’s first time stepping into game animations. The price can still be negotiated, we will definitely work until you are satisfied.”

Xie Yunfan said: “I mean, your quote is a bit low. I can still increase the budget on my end.”

Liang Anwei: “??”

Aren’t you here to bargain? As the Client, why are you raising the price instead?

Xie Yunfan said: “Our animation isn’t just game openings and transition animations, but a complete animated series. Do it according to the standards of paid animations, and bring out your company’s highest production level.”

Game animations having such high requirements? You guys are way too willing to smash money, huh.

Liang Anwei felt somewhat surprised inside.

But as the contractor, he didn’t need to interfere too much with the Client’s requirements. He immediately nodded and said: “Understood. However, if we do it according to paid animation standards, the price will have to double, right?”

Xie Yunfan said: “As long as the production is excellent and meets my requirements, money is not a problem.”

Hearing this, Liang Anwei felt very happy inside. He hadn’t expected to meet a tyrannical (wealthy and generous) boss today who said—money is not a problem.

His startup company was lacking money the most!

They had the strength to produce premium animations, but they didn’t have the money to buy big IPs for development. Although an original animation they made had a very good reputation, because not many people watched it, it hadn’t managed to earn much money.

Being able to cooperate with Yangfan Studio to produce game animations, perhaps they could seize the opportunity to build their reputation?

Liang Anwei asked: “Every time the game clears some dungeons or completes some tasks, it will broadcast a segment of animated plot, which connects into a complete story… Have I understood correctly?”

Xie Yunfan laughed: “That’s right. The game is still in R&D, so just treat it as a serialized animation. Doing the plot following the progress of my game, it might take half a year before the serialization concludes.”

Serializing an animation following the game’s progress?

This was his first time hearing of such a model, very novel!

The games Yangfan Studio previously made had all become popular. In case this game also became popular, wouldn’t it also bring popularity to the anime? For a startup animation company like theirs, this was a rare opportunity.

Liang Anwei pondered for a moment, and said straightforwardly: “How about this: you provide the plot script, and we will first make a few minutes of opening animation for you to see if it meets the requirements. An animation with a half-year serialization period is a massive project after all. After finalizing the style, we will then carefully check the budget and sign the contract.”

He paused, and emphasized: “I can guarantee that our company, for the next half year, will devote all our energy into the production of your game’s animations, striving for perfection!”

Xie Yunfan smiled slightly: “Okay, I will pay a deposit first for your side to do the opening animation, and we will sign the formal contract subsequently. Hoping for a pleasant cooperation.”

…

On the way back, Ling Xiao couldn’t help but say: “Boss, making game animations according to paid animation standards doubles the costs. For this game of yours… how will the pricing standards for the later stages be determined?”

The alternate world placed great importance on copyright protection, and paid animations had long since formed a scale. Aside from some educational free cartoons on children’s televisions at home, other plot-driven animations all required payment to watch.

Logically speaking, Journey to the West was a game + animation, the content was richer, so the pricing should also be higher. But it was essentially still a game; if the pricing for a single-player game was too outrageous, it would be scolded by players.

Xie Yunfan considered for a moment, and said: “For our first chapter, there are 7 levels for a free trial. We’ll see the download volume then, and then decide on the subsequent pricing.”

If the download volume was high and the player base was large, lower pricing would be beneficial for promoting the game. If there were too few players, this game would have a high probability of losing money…

Actually, the risk of this move by Xie Yunfan was still very large. But his goal in making games wasn’t to earn money. Even if this game lost money, there was still Ghost Realm covering the bottom line; his company wouldn’t collapse.

Ling Xiao very much disapproved of the boss’s approach. She always felt that for game animations, ‘good enough’ was fine; there was truly no need to make it into a serialized animated series… Who would watch it?

When playing games, many players would just “one-click skip” when encountering animated plots!

The boss was truly working hard without getting any appreciation. It was probably for the so-called “sentiment,” right? She couldn’t understand how a boss could do this kind of money-losing business.

…

The people of this world truly couldn’t understand Xie Yunfan’s sentiment.

If he just casually glossed over the plot, then he couldn’t showcase the essence of the Journey to the West story to everyone, which was also the reason he made up his mind to make premium animations.

He wanted to give the children of the alternate world a complete childhood male god.

No one watches animated plots? Perhaps for the animations of most games, players would choose to one-click skip. But Journey to the West was different; as long as it was done well, there would be large batches of people who specifically came just to watch it.

In the future, compilation videos like “Journey to the West Plot Cuts” might even appear on video sharing sites.

This was also a type of promotion for the game.

After returning that night, Xie Yunfan sent a message to Luo Hang: “President Luo, I’m here to inquire, how was the revenue for Ghost Realm‘s last wave of Ghost Marriage events~”

Luo Hang asked: “Short on money for game R&D?”

Xie Yunfan: “…”

Just casually asking, how was he instantly seen through?

Xie Yunfan usually rarely proactively cared about revenue. Therefore, seeing this message from him, Luo Hang guessed his investment in the next game would definitely require smashing quite a bit of money.

Luo Hang said: “I’ll have Finance settle it with you as soon as possible. The Ghost Marriage event in February had a revenue of 200 million, plus tens of millions in merchandise profits, as well as the overseas first-quarter profits. I’ll transfer it all to you together.”

Xie Yunfan sighed in relief inside: “Thank you, President Luo!”

Luo Hang asked: “When is the new game planned to launch?”

Xie Yunfan: “When is Fighting Master on your side launching?”

The two had a tacit understanding, sending this message almost simultaneously.

Luo Hang smiled slightly—evidently, Yunfan also wanted to stagger the times with him to avoid the two games clashing in the same period. Although one was holographic and the other was a mobile game, there was a lot of overlap in the games’ player demographics. If the two games crashed schedules, it wouldn’t be beneficial to either of them.

Luo Hang said straightforwardly: “The R&D for Fighting Master is already nearing its end, launching on May 1st. When the time comes, I’ll release your brother back to help you.”

Xie Yunfan: “That’s great! I’m still doing the settings on my end, the fastest launch will also be at the end of June.”

Luo Hang smiled: “Alright, then looking forward to June, meeting your new game.”