OGP CH63
On Tuesday morning at Wings of Dream headquarters, CEO Tang Tonghai called a few trusted aides into his office and asked whether they all knew about Yafan Studio’s new game’s data.
The “download count” on Mobile Game House was visible on the front end, so it was completely public. Yafan Studio’s own website download data could not yet be checked.
The operations manager, Fang Jiming, estimated, “Tang, combined across the two platforms, it should be over ten million.”
Tang Tonghai’s face darkened. “Ten million in three days?”
No one had expected that a sudden release, with no professional marketing and not even any promotion, could become this hot in just three days.
Wings of Dream’s games had always relied on overwhelming marketing to attract players. They were used to spending money in an orderly way to promote games, buy trending topics, and pay media outlets for press releases.
They did not understand the power of organic word-of-mouth.
Fang Jiming had been closely watching Journey to the West all this time. He had also seen the past few days’ trending topics, and explained, “This game became popular because the animated story is really good, and many people are urging for updates. Also, the game’s art style is very distinctive, and the models are very polished.”
Tang Tonghai raised an eyebrow and sneered. “Since you can’t find a way to deal with Xie Yunfan directly, why not start with the people around him?”
The others exchanged glances, and a chill rose in their backs.
Tang Tonghai was the current CEO of Wings of Dream.
He had a famously ruthless style. During Wings of Dream’s rise, many studios had been crushed by his methods. He often bought small companies’ games at low prices and then heavily modified them into money-making machines.
It could be said that Wings of Dream had climbed to the top by stepping on countless collapsed small companies in the industry.
If Xie Yunfan were willing to cooperate with Wings of Dream then everyone could make money and be happy. But now, Xie Yunfan clearly wanted to develop independently. He only partnered with Qihang on one information game, while everything else was produced and promoted by his own studio.
Tang Tonghai had come out this time to make one thing clear: he did not intend to sit back and watch Xie Yunfan grow stronger and carve up the already limited pie in the game industry.
There are only so many players in the market. Everyone was used to Wings of Dream’s pay-to-win mobile games, used to spending thousands to roll gear and buy VIP diamond cards.
In most people’s minds in this world, playing games meant spending money.
Xie Yunfan’s decision to let people download the first chapter for free had already badly broken the market balance.
If he kept growing like this and players realized that such a conscientious game studio existed, who would still play Wings of Dream’s money-hungry games?
In a world full of crows, the swan is the one that looks wrong.
A universally accessible mobile game, released for free, with over ten million downloads in only three days — it clearly had the potential to explode. If Xie Yunfan got this first card played well, and more and more people downloaded it, the game could become a breakout national hit.
Tang Tonghai would not allow such a powerful competitor to appear.
He handed a business card to the PR manager. “The art lead at Yafan Studio is named Ning Sha. She used to work at a company called X-ONE.”
The PR manager froze for a moment, then immediately nodded. “I understand what to do.”
At the same time, in Yafan Studio, inside the 18th-floor conference room.
Xie Yunfan was in a very good mood as he held a meeting with everyone.
“Our new game has been out for three days, and the results are excellent. Downloads have already passed ten million. Everyone has worked hard!”
The conference room burst into enthusiastic applause.
Recently, the planning team had all been closely following the game. Seeing the countless positive reviews online and the large number of recommendations on social media, everyone was very happy.
Being part of such a project was truly something to be proud of.
Xie Yunfan smiled and said, “Ten million downloads is only the beginning. Keep up the good work. Chapter Two is already finished. The testing team should work a bit harder and run more stress tests. The other teams should continue with Chapter Three.”
The people below him looked energized, and everyone returned to work with even more motivation.
Xie Yunfan had always kept tight control of the game’s schedule.
When the first chapter passed review in mid-June, the production team was already rushing to make Chapter Two. Now that Chapter Two had entered testing, production had immediately moved on to Chapter Three.
For a game that updated with this kind of episodic story structure, the whole team was under huge pressure. If any department slipped up and delayed things, the game could very easily stall entirely.
Fortunately, Xie Yunfan was experienced. He was always able to coordinate conflicts between different departments and find the best solution.
He also often went to help the stage-design team. Many of the stage mechanics and boss challenge designs came from his own ideas.
With him there, the gameplay core would not fall apart.
On the story side, the script team followed the outline, sorted out the logic, and then let Zhou Shiyue polish the language details. At this point, they had reached the Women’s Kingdom portion.
On the art side, half of it was done.
The other teams were also working on Chapter Three.
All of the groups were busy in an orderly way under Xie Yunfan’s arrangement.
Hu Fei was an old acquaintance from his day-boosting days, and Zhang Zizheng was a college classmate. Both were very familiar with him and had no problem speaking up if they had concerns. Seeing that they were seriously playing the game, Xie Yunfan asked, “How does the character switching in Chapter Two feel to you?”
Hu Fei said, “It’s very interesting! But I think it still isn’t smooth enough.”
Zhang Zizheng opened a stage and said, “The multi-character idea is great in theory, but controlling Monkey feels the best. Switching to Tang Seng is a bit laggy.”
Zizheng was a game design major. He was not only good at playing games, but also understood game code. He pointed out a few bugs to Xie Yunfan: “There’s a lag here when switching. The AI’s processing clearly isn’t coded well.”
Team lead Huo Minghui suggested, “In Easy Mode, players can directly control Tang Seng and let the disciples do the fighting. That would let people clear stages mindlessly. But I think Tang Seng’s skills are too simple. Should we add a healing skill?”
Xie Yunfan thought for a moment and said, “You mean making Tang Seng into a team support? Besides the chanting buff, add a healing skill too?”
Huo Minghui nodded. “That would give him more gameplay. Otherwise, controlling Tang Seng is too boring.”
Xie Yunfan nodded while noting down what they said.
There was still some time before the game launched. The cutscenes and all the stages had already been made, and they were now racing through testing. It was still possible to adjust details in time.
……
Yafan Studio was working at full speed.
Meanwhile, the players of Journey to the West were replaying the game from the beginning.
Those who chose Easy Mode at first were now replaying the second run in Normal or Challenge Mode; those who had just focused on the gameplay the first time and skipped the story were now going back to watch the story; and the advanced players who had already played Challenge Mode without missing any story were beginning to study Sun Wukong’s “Seventy-Two Transformations.”
They discovered a trick in Stage Seven.
After Sun Wukong ate the peaches and returned to Flower-Fruit Mountain, he didn’t have to trigger the Water Curtain Cave scene.
The game’s world map was open-world, which meant that as long as you didn’t trigger a story event, you could freely explore. You could choose to go to the Dragon Palace, the underworld, or Mount Spirit Platform.
As long as a map had been unlocked, you could enter it.
Many players didn’t like the Five-Element Mountain storyline where the Great Sage was pressed down. So they simply kept Monkey from entering Water Curtain Cave and treated him as a free and carefree monkey who could roam around using the Seventy-Two Transformations.
For example, streamer Liu-ge turned Sun Wukong into a snake and sent him slithering through the grass at Mount Spirit Platform, while also going to visit his master, Patriarch Bodhi, who had expelled him.
Streamer Mengtu turned the Great Sage into a fish and sent him to the Dragon Palace to look at the beautiful coral and shells. Without the story events and guards, the seabed scenery was stunning.
Some people secretly sent Monkey into Heaven and unexpectedly discovered that the heavenly realm had already descended into chaos — the Peach Orchard was left unattended. So they snuck around and ate the unripe peaches.
Some even controlled the Great Sage not to return to Flower-Fruit Mountain, but to go find the Bull Demon King. Because they had sworn brotherhood, if Monkey went to see him now, the Bull Demon King would even host a banquet.
Players all marveled that this game had so many hidden Easter eggs.
One playthrough was not enough to discover everything.
During the “empty window” after the story ended, players got bored and sent Monkey roaming all over the map, discovering all kinds of fun places.
This was clearly intentional design by Yafan Studio.
The story was exciting, yes, but this was still a game, not an animated series.
There was a great deal of gameplay to discover. Some players had fun eating peaches in the Peach Orchard, others toured the Dragon Palace and lingered in the underwater scenery.
Some even spent an entire day just playing with the transformations.
Because the game had so much replay value, even after the first chapter ended, many livestreamers were still willing to go back and mine all sorts of interesting gameplay content.
Swinging in the forest, transforming into birds to travel around…
This mobile game even had a bit of an open-world feel.
Across the major livestream platforms, Journey to the West did not lose popularity at all. Instead, it became more and more hot.
Many players who had been waiting for the animated updates also joined the “game army,” controlling Monkey and wandering freely through the world.
On Wednesday morning, Journey to the West’s total downloads passed 15 million.
On Friday night, it passed 20 million!
By Saturday and Sunday, a large number of office workers had learned about the game, and students who usually had too much homework and no time to play also came to download it.
By Sunday night, the game had passed 30 million downloads.
The game officially took off and exploded into a viral hit within one week.
Players were eagerly waiting for the release of Chapter Two.
……
A week later, Yafan Studio released an announcement:
“Dear players, Journey to the West Chapter Two: Journey Together has finished testing and will be officially available for download on July 10 at 7:00 p.m. Mobile Game House and Yafan Studio’s official website will both be updated simultaneously.
Starting with Chapter Two, the game will use a paid-download model.
Each chapter will cost 5 yuan. The total number of stages in the game is around 81, and the paid chapters are expected to total 10 installments, for 50 yuan in all, to be updated over the next few months.
Yafan Studio’s goal is to make polished, enjoyable games.
We can guarantee that the animated quality and gameplay in the later paid chapters will not be lower than in the free chapter.
Thank you all for your continued support ^^”
This announcement immediately caused an uproar.
Most players thought the charge was normal. After all, the first chapter had been free to try. It would be unreasonable for the entire game to remain free.
Yafan Studio was making a game, not running a charity.
Just the animation alone clearly required a lot of investment, and with download numbers so high for stages 1 through 7, Yafan Studio still had not earned a single cent. Charging 5 yuan for Chapter Two was already very reasonable.
Some people mocked it cynically:
【They’re already charging? That’s too eager.】
【Charging for Chapter Two? Boring, I’m out.】
【So they really do still care only about money.】
【Of course they’re going to harvest the leeks now that they’ve grown big enough.】
But many rational players commented in support on Weibo:
【Ten chapters total for 50 yuan? That’s pretty cheap.】
【Isn’t the Great Sage worth 5 yuan to you? I think the price is too low.】
【You spend more than that on a random diamond monthly card in Wings of Dream’s games.】
【These days, a 50-yuan game is already really conscientious, isn’t it?】
【People who play games should know this price is already very fair.】
【What can 50 yuan buy in other games, anyway? Stop hate-spreading without thinking.】
【I’m even worried Little Sailboat will go bankrupt if they keep this up…】
In fact, Xie Yunfan set the price low mainly because the game had a large child player base.
Children don’t have much pocket money. If the price were too high, they’d have to ask their parents, and parents might not be willing. At 5 yuan per chapter, the price of a bag of snacks, most parents would be willing to let their children try it.
A low price also meant thin margins but high volume. The game’s paying-user rate would be very high. The larger the player base, the better it would be for future merchandise development and IP promotion.
His main goal was to turn Journey to the West into a “national mobile game,” something everyone could afford and enjoy, while making Tang Seng’s party into classic game and animation characters.
As long as the brand name got out there, why worry about future profits?
……
As soon as Yafan Studio’s announcement was released, countless players eagerly posted comments and looked forward to downloading Chapter Two on the 10th and seeing the Great Sage’s next story.
That very night, however, a strange topic suddenly surged onto the trending list:
#JourneyToTheWestOriginalArtPlagiarism#
This topic was posted by a marketing account called “Game Frontier.”
They compared one of Journey to the West’s Dragon Palace monster illustrations with an illustration from another website and concluded that the original art had been plagiarized.
Within just ten minutes, the topic shot to the top of Weibo’s hot search. Countless marketing accounts jumped in to fan the flames, and many uninformed artists also appeared, shouting “Boycott plagiarism.”
Many players were confused and clicked in to look…
The two pictures really did look too similar, didn’t they? Had it actually been copied?
【Does Yafan Studio’s art team have no explanation?】
【Who drew this? This is straight-up plagiarism, shameless!】
【How could Little Sailboat have such a plagiarizing employee?】
【Art team, apologize!】
At 10 p.m., Xie Yunfan had just finished taking a shower when his phone started blowing up. Several missed calls were all from Ning Sha.
He answered in confusion. “Sister Sha?”
Ning Sha’s usually calm voice was clearly nervous, almost on the verge of tears. “Boss, d-did you see the trending topic?”
Xie Yunfan immediately sensed something was wrong. “Don’t panic. What happened?”
Ning Sha took a deep breath and explained, her voice trembling: “Before I resigned, I worked for several years at X-ONE. They made a game called Star Monster, and at the time I was responsible for drawing monster concept art. A lot of those drawings stayed with the original company.”
Xie Yunfan asked, “And then?”
Ning Sha said, “The picture posted on Weibo is actually a sketch I drew myself while looking for inspiration back then. I never submitted it to the original company, so it counts as my private work. In this update, one of the Dragon Palace mobs is a crab, and I subconsciously drew a crab very similar to that old sketch. Both drawings were made by me, so the similarity is high… and they dug it out and used it as supposed proof of plagiarism.”
Xie Yunfan understood.
Even if it was plagiarism, it was Ning Sha plagiarizing herself.
More importantly, this wasn’t even really plagiarism. That sketch had never been submitted to the original company. The copyright belonged to her, so she should have been free to use it however she wanted. There was nothing wrong with using it directly.
What was strange was how long ago this had happened, and Ning Sha herself had nearly forgotten it. How had that marketing account dug up the image?
And now, with Chapter Two about to launch, this kind of “plagiarism” scandal appearing at exactly this time was too coincidental.
Xie Yunfan quickly figured out the reason and asked calmly, “When you were working at your previous company, did you show that private sketch to any coworkers you knew well?”
Ning Sha thought for a moment, and suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
“I had a student I was mentoring at the time.”
Xie Yunfan asked, “Did you show it to that student?”
Ning Sha’s face went pale. She nodded and said, “Her name was Xiaoxue. She was an art student, and I used to teach her concept art. I even let her copy that drawing.”
Xie Yunfan said, “Do you still have the chat logs with her?”
Ning Sha quickly said, “Yes.”
Xie Yunfan said, “Send me a screen recording.”
Ning Sha immediately recorded and sent him the chat conversation from two years ago with that student. Fortunately, the messages showing that she had sent the image for the student to copy were still there. Otherwise, this would have been impossible to clear up.
She had sincerely mentored the student back then and never expected to be stabbed in the back by the girl.
In art, plagiarism is the biggest taboo. Once a plagiarism scandal breaks, many companies will “cut off the tail to save the whole body” and fire the employee to calm the players, while protecting the game’s reputation.
She wondered anxiously what the boss would do.
“Boss, do you believe me?” Ning Sha asked uneasily.
Xie Yunfan smiled and said, “Of course. It’s just a small mob illustration. With your skill level, there would be no need to plagiarize. Don’t do anything for now. I’ll handle this.”
Ning Sha finally felt a little relieved. “Okay, thank you, boss.”
……
After hanging up, Xie Yunfan sent a message to Luo Hang.
“Did you see the trending topic?”
Luo Hang replied, “I saw it. Who drew that original art? Was it really plagiarism, or were they framed?”
Xie Yunfan answered helplessly, “It was drawn by Ning Sha. She was set up. Who do you think did it?”
Luo Hang thought for a moment and guessed, “Most likely Tang Tonghai. He’s used all kinds of dirty tricks to crush many studios. Your existence may have made him feel threatened.”
Xie Yunfan sent back a smiling face. “Then I guess I’m honored.”
He had actually forced Wings of Dream’s big boss to make a move.
That method was really vicious.
But Tang Tonghai probably had not expected that Xie Yunfan was no ordinary newcomer.
He had experienced too many smear campaigns and betrayals in his past life, and he was very familiar with all kinds of dirty industry tactics. From the moment Journey to the West was initiated, he had already been guarding against exactly this move.
He wanted to serialize the animation inside the game, so the art and modeling absolutely could not go wrong. Otherwise, it would damage the game’s reputation and drag down the image of the Great Sage.
Xie Yunfan directly called Lawyer Zou.
Lawyer Zou asked in confusion, “Yunfan? Calling this late — what’s the emergency?”
Xie Yunfan said, “Lawyer Zou, I want to issue a lawyer’s statement immediately. Someone is spreading rumors that my studio’s art plagiarized, but I already have complete evidence.”
Lawyer Zou immediately understood. “Alright. I have the firm’s seal with me. I’ll write the statement right now.”
Xie Yunfan continued, “Also, I want to formally sue that Weibo marketing account. Their reposts have already gone over ten thousand and have seriously damaged my studio’s reputation.”
Lawyer Zou blinked. “You want to sue directly?”
Xie Yunfan said firmly, “Yes. No need to be polite. Please preserve the evidence chain as soon as possible. He hasn’t deleted the post yet, so we can catch him red-handed. I’ll fully authorize you to handle this case. The marketing account’s IP is in the capital, so you may need to travel there for a business trip.”
Lawyer Zou couldn’t help asking, “Why do I feel like you were expecting this?”
Xie Yunfan smiled helplessly. “My game is popular now, so of course I have to guard against competitors playing dirty. This time, I’m also making an example out of them. Any marketing account that stirs up nonsense can come at me — I’ll sue every single one.”
Lawyer Zou admired Xie Yunfan’s decisive style.
Back when the Xie brothers had gone to the capital to negotiate with Qihang, they had brought him along to review the contract and appointed him as Yafan Studio’s legal adviser.
During this period, he had been collecting the advisory fee without much to do. He only drafted a few employment contracts for the studio’s recruitment process.
He hadn’t expected work to come in this fast.
Litigation was his specialty. The evidence chain here was solid, so winning would not be a problem.
Lawyer Zou said cheerfully, “Got it. I’ll draft the lawyer’s letter right now. Record the screen and preserve the evidence first. Tomorrow I’ll go to the capital and get the personal information of the marketing accounts with the most reposts from Weibo. The lawsuit and court process may take some time, so we’ll have to wait slowly.”
Xie Yunfan said, “That’s fine. The result can wait, but the response must be fast.”
If he let the negative public opinion continue to spread, it would mislead bystanders.
He had to respond within the golden public-relations window.
Half an hour later, Yafan Studio released a statement:
“Regarding the plagiarism incident involving the original art of Journey to the West, the studio has conducted an emergency investigation and already determined the reason — the original art in question was a private piece drawn by one of our artists while employed at a previous company. The copyright belongs to the artist. The so-called ‘plagiarized artwork’ is actually the artist’s own work, which was stolen and uploaded online. There is no plagiarism whatsoever.
The Weibo account ‘Game Frontier,’ without clarifying the facts, publicly spread false allegations of plagiarism, seriously damaging Yafan Studio’s reputation.
The studio has appointed Lawyer Zou Zhicheng of Nantian Law Firm to preserve all evidence via screen recording and will sue at an appropriate time. We will defend the studio’s reputation through legal means.
The internet is not a lawless place. We ask all netizens not to spread false information.”
The Weibo post also included an image of a stamped lawyer’s statement, along with two comparative images of the drawing process proving that the two artworks were made by the same person.
The players who had been worried just moments ago were stunned.
【Damn, that PR speed is insane.】
【They already found the result that fast? I haven’t even finished enjoying the drama!】
【Sorry, I got too excited earlier and accidentally wronged the artist!】
【Issuing a lawyer’s statement overnight and even planning to sue?】
【Little Sailboat, you’re so tough!】
【No wonder they made my Great Sage — this studio is fearless!】
【I thought they would just punish the employee as an “individual mistake,” but they’re suing the marketing account directly?】
【They didn’t fire the artist — they went after the marketing account!】
【Sue them, sue them all!】
【Boss, 666!】
At that moment, everyone in the studio was paying close attention to the incident.
What no one expected was how fast the boss handled the sudden crisis.
In just half an hour, there was already a lawyer’s statement, evidence preservation, and a lawsuit?
The boss was so cool!
As Yafan Studio employees, everyone felt moved.
Especially Ning Sha, who sat in front of her computer with reddened eyes.
In another company, to calm player outrage, they might have fired her. But not only did her boss not make things difficult for her, he investigated the truth and then helped her sue the marketing account.
Such a reliable boss — she had truly not misjudged him.
Xie Yunfan’s lightning-fast action seemed to be telling everyone: as long as you’re one of my teammates and you do your job seriously, I will not let you suffer.
I will protect everyone.