“Exceptional Invitation! First Battle Victory!”

“Breaking News! Golden Wind Wins GDC’s ‘Most Anticipated Game’ Award!”

“Most Anticipated Game Award! Escape from Hell Truly Deserves It!”

“First Ever International Award for China’s Gaming Circle! The One Making History is This!”

“Widely Expected to Win International Prize! Stunning Everyone and Leading the Game Flagship!”

“...”

Two days later!

The GDC closed.

Thanks to its outstanding gameplay and stunning two-player cooperative mode, Escape from Hell unsurprisingly took home this year’s GDC Most Anticipated Game Award.

Yet when Gu Sheng, representing Golden Wind, firmly received the certificate from the organizers, media and players burst into heated discussion!

Especially the domestic gaming community, who were beyond excited and thrilled!

The first international conference award!

Although this award didn’t carry as much weight as internationally renowned ones like the Golden Joystick, TGA, or GIGA Awards.

But it still marked a huge breakthrough for Chinese game developers going from zero to winning international recognition!

For a moment, Golden Wind had clearly become the dark horse rising from China’s gaming scene.

Moreover, thanks to the prior groundwork of Titanfall and To the Moon, plus Escape’s stunning victory over Silent Hill,

many media outlets held high hopes for the final quality of Escape from Hell.

Some media had already boldly hyped it up, completely unafraid that Golden Wind’s finished product might flop.

As for the players, naturally, the voices were all full of anticipation—

“Little Yellow is awesome, a true one-shot sensation!”

“But this game’s format isn’t easy to learn; regular studios just can’t pull it off.”

“Indeed, it’s no longer just simple gameplay innovation; it adds much more artistic depth, like the script of To the Moon that’s hard to replicate.”

“Alas, the two-player requirement is a killer for me, the social phobic.”

“There’s no solution to that; it’s a concession for gameplay, and it looks like player communication during the game is indispensable.”

“The system requirements are too high—need a friend to play with (lol).”

“This is probably Golden Wind’s highest-config requirement game so far (doge).”

“But knowing Old Thief’s personality, if this game succeeds, they’ll likely continue making similar games; there’ll always be single-player ones.”

“Right now, I just want to know when this game will release.”

“I was about to escape prison and then it cut off, Old Thief’s heart is truly wicked!”

“And supposedly, the demo just showed the basic gameplay and effects; the real thrilling stuff comes later...”

“Can’t wait for the third day playing Escape from Hell, miss it already...”

...

Clack.

With a light sound, Gu Sheng placed the crystal certificate into the office’s display cabinet and nodded.

“Ah—another one to show off!”

“So... what is this exactly...”

Behind him, Shen Miaomiao’s tone held a trace of nervousness.

The cabinet against the wall in Gu Sheng’s office was obviously new, framed in black walnut panels, with a blast-proof glass front—obviously valuable.

The compartments were neatly arranged in rows and columns, mostly empty.

Only a few held items.

Like the Yiyou Mini Games Festival Rising Star Trophy, the CDEA Exhibition Best New Studio award, the Asian Games Gold Crown, and the freshly received GDC Most Anticipated Game certificate.

“As you can see,”

Gu Sheng closed the glass cabinet and sat down in his executive chair, gesturing to Shen Miaomiao:

“This is my newly built award display cabinet. From now on, all domestic and international awards, big or small, will be collected here, like collecting stamps.”

Gu Sheng knew that to become the King of Games, relying on one profitable project after another was not enough.

XunTeng also made profits, but could it be called the King of Games?

Of course not.

To truly be the King of Games, besides profits, industry recognition was also necessary.

And those awards were the marks of industry recognition.

GDC was just the beginning; in the future, Golden Wind would strive for one award after another.

A live demo of Escape from Hell had already opened the global gaming arena’s doors for them.

Next, Golden Wind was about to embark on the path of crowning itself the King of Games worldwide.

“When this display cabinet is full,”

Gu Sheng said,

“Golden Wind will undoubtedly become the world’s one and only top game company.”

My goodness!

Hearing this, Shen Miaomiao shivered inside.

So many compartments!

Who knows how many revolutionary titles Old Gu would produce in the future!

Wouldn’t she then be drifting further away from her goal of losing money massively and achieving yacht freedom anytime soon?

But on second thought!

Maybe not.

As the saying goes, “Whose child cries every day? No gambler loses every day.”

Gu Sheng’s ambition to become King of Games was a good thing!

Because building a towering super gaming empire atop the world required accumulating one hit game after another.

And Shen Miaomiao herself!

Carrying the losing rebate system,

only needed to find the right chance in those countless works to extract a couple of heavy waves of profit, and she could suddenly become wealthy.

Out of ten games, losing money on three would stand out.

But out of a hundred games, losing money on three was insignificant and wouldn’t affect the company’s foothold at the world’s peak or crowning as King of Games.

She shouldn’t worry about Gu Sheng’s ideal.

On the contrary, she should be grateful that Old Gu’s goal was so lofty.

Because only with more and more titles would her chances of losing money increase.

Thinking of this,

Shen Miaomiao relaxed and even felt a little happy.

Hey hey! What’s this called?

This is called “Tying the King of Games, Experiencing a Doomed Life…”

No, no! Scratch that!

It’s called “Tying the King of Games! Experiencing the Life of a Richest Man!”

Yes!

Life of the richest!

That’s right!

“Excellent! President Gu is talented and ambitious! Great things will come in the future!”

Shen Miaomiao strode over to the sofa and sat down, slowly applauding with a seasoned approving look:

“Old Shen knows your ideal and would be very pleased.”

“Oh, Uncle Shen knows,” Gu Sheng smiled, “This cabinet was a gift from your dad.”

Shen Miaomiao: ...

You dog! Give me back my dad!

Damn it! Old Shen never gave me anything like this! Seems like he never had any career expectations for me!

But for Gu Sheng!

Whenever Old Shen had time, he would teach him by word and deed.

How to choose, advance, and retreat in business; losses aren’t always losses, gains aren’t always gains.

How to avoid hesitation and regrets in life decisions; choices have no right or wrong; just don’t regret with a clear conscience.

Old Shen even used his own past experiences to illustrate when and how Gu Sheng should act.

Every time she went home, Shen Miaomiao felt like a “buy one get one free” extra, Gu Sheng’s personal driver, specifically driving him home drunk!

Am I really his biological daughter?

Rolling her eyes, Shen Miaomiao blew out her breath and snorted angrily:

“Hmph... Let’s get to the point!”

“What point?”

Hearing this, Gu Sheng was a bit surprised, apparently not expecting to hear such a rare phrase from Little Nezha, raising an eyebrow:

“New flavored lollipops for the claw machine again?”

“...That’s just one thing,” Shen Miaomiao answered.

Seeing Gu Sheng’s “I knew it” expression, she continued:

“But besides that, there’s something else!”

“What else?” Gu Sheng sighed helplessly, propping his cheek with his hand.

“Yuki and Sato want to introduce some former colleagues to the company,”

Shen Miaomiao said,

“But... they’re from Yamamoto Studio, so they want to hear your opinion.”

Good!

With the battle between Silent Hill and Escape settled, Komera was soundly defeated!

Now, Yamamoto Studio had been delisted and reorganized.

The latest studio replacing Yamamoto Tsunashiro, becoming a new Big Three studio, was called Nishikawa Studio, directed by Nishikawa Jiro.

As mentioned before, Komera had many studios under its umbrella.

Now with Nishikawa in charge, they had their original team.

What he had to do was just expand his existing studio by adding more personnel.

He could not take in Yamamoto Studio wholesale.

But this meant many original Yamamoto Studio members faced redistribution.

Although all these studios belonged to the same Komera company,

for the employees being transferred, switching studios was as difficult as resigning and re-employment!

Work modes, styles, rhythms, results—all had to be readjusted!

So!

Some who had participated in PT’s production or heard of “Mr. Gu’s” reputation started to get ideas and grew fascinated with Golden Wind.

Since switching studios was basically like resigning and re-employment,

why not truly resign from Komera and join Golden Wind?

“...But they still came from Yamamoto Studio, and that studio had been at loggerheads with us,”

Shen Miaomiao said,

“So they’re a bit worried you might hold grudges and refuse to accept them.”

“Renegade ninja.”

Hearing this!

Gu Sheng gave an accurate definition.

Then asked, “How many?”

Shen Miaomiao counted on her fingers: “Seven.”

Wow!

Gu Sheng nearly laughed out loud.

The Seven Renegade Ninjas.

Gu Sheng pressed his forehead, thinking for a moment.

Holding grudges did not exist.

The original Seven Renegade Ninjas belonged to Yamamoto Studio, employees under Komera Group.

Each served their own master and duties; nothing wrong with that.

Moreover, from start to finish, he never regarded Yamamoto Studio as a mortal enemy.

Now that the Seven Renegade Ninjas had defected from Komera, to him, it was no different than Yuki and Sato before.

Experienced veterans, these kinds of people were hard to poach in the market; now actively proposing to join Golden Wind was naturally a good thing.

What he considered was how to arrange the Seven Renegade Ninjas after they joined Golden Wind.

Currently!

Golden Wind only had one project team.

Not counting him, Old Lu, and Da Jiang as the iron triangle.

The first batch had 16 people, later adding 2 more, totaling 18.

This scale was just enough for Golden Wind now.

After all, the company’s policy was always “control the core, supplemented by outsourcing.”

So 18 wasn’t many, but for developing one game project, it was enough.

However,

With Golden Wind’s growing reputation, stepping onto the international stage, and about to join the Billion Club as a mid-sized game company,

the company’s business scale should be appropriately upgraded.

Otherwise, with only one team running on a single core, when could they ever reach the top of the world?

Gu Sheng had been thinking about a second expansion.

Not much—just recruit eight or ten more experts to establish a second studio and start developing multiple projects in parallel.

But before he could propose this to Little Nezha, influenced by Golden Mud Truck, Komera sent him the Seven Renegade Ninjas.

“I think it’s actually good,”

Gu Sheng thought for a moment, smiling and nodding, looking at Little Nezha:

“What do you think?”

“I think...”

Shen Miaomiao shrugged.

She was a bit hesitant and conflicted about accepting the Seven Renegade Ninjas.

Not because she doubted their loyalty.

Old Shen had taught her before: there is no eternal loyalty in business, only eternal interests.

Her main concern was that these people were too experienced, after all, former employees of a Big Three studio, masters among masters, each with real skills.

But the problem was, she also wanted to expand the company scale, increase the speed of game project development, and develop projects in parallel.

Because only in this way could game projects iterate frequently, increasing her chances of losing money.

After careful thought!

Shen Miaomiao finally nodded:

“If you think it’s okay, I have no objection. The company must develop; our scale will grow bigger in the future.”

“XunTeng has its Big Three, Komera also has its Big Three.”

“Now, even if we accept the Seven Renegade Ninjas, we only have two studios.”

“The road ahead is still long.”

More chances for me to lose money.

Shen Miaomiao added mentally.

Gu Sheng naturally didn’t hear her inner monologue and showed an approving expression: “High ideological awareness, President Shen!”

“Of course!” Shen Miaomiao lifted her head, almost smiling.

See? He still has to thank me!

“Let’s go!” Gu Sheng beckoned, standing up.

Shen Miaomiao looked puzzled: “Go? Where to?”

“Catch lollipops?” Gu Sheng said. “Didn’t the claw machine get new flavored lollipops?”

Hearing this, Shen Miaomiao paused.

Then smiled.

Smiled very sweetly.

Old Gu was just like that.

Although when working he was focused and serious, as if work was the main theme of his life, his greatest pursuit.

But he never forgot his little wishes.

Even a new flavored lollipop was as important to him as his career.

“Let’s go!”

Shen Miaomiao jumped up joyfully, like a lively little deer, following Gu Sheng’s steps:

“Let’s go catch lollipops!”

Golden Wind opens second studio!

For players, this wasn’t exactly big news; compared to this, they cared more about when Escape from Hell would launch.

But within the gaming circle!

This news was explosive, even comparable to when Komera kicked out Gu Sheng and monopolized the project!

So, within half a day, a post on the Huaxia Game Developers Forum dominated the entire site’s trending list first place—

“Golden Wind Accepts Komera Employees! Big Win!!!”

-----------------

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com