"Our goal is just the Happy Beans top-up revenue—we can let go of the rest."
After explaining the "Happy Universe" concept to Cynthia in the office, William stated their terms.
Cynthia nodded. "Happy Beans will definitely be the biggest source of income, but the rest of the ad revenue won't be small either. Are you sure you want to give it up?"
"Let's give them a little sweetness. Otherwise, why would they agree to split the most profitable project with us?" William's thinking was simple—how the actual negotiation went was entirely up to Cynthia's skills.
"I'll try to get us the best deal I can."
"Don't forget the non-compete clause."
That was necessary—otherwise, if they released a "Happy Mahjong" and WeChat Games saw the profit but didn't want to share, they could just turn around and launch a "Happy Universe" themselves, kicking Earth Games out of the picture.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure they sign a good contract," Cynthia said confidently.
This was what she was best at, and William had no doubt about her.
When he left the office, he could see Marcus with his headphones on, still seriously testing the version of "Piano Tiles" William had sent him. According to Marcus, out of the twenty songs in the game, he had already cleared thirteen. Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, he probably hadn't slept all night.
The plan for "Piano Tiles" included a new mode with "long press," "swipe," and "two/three/four fingers on screen" gameplay. But the time wasn't right—William was waiting for a competitor to appear so he could hit them with a crushing advantage.
9:10 a.m.
Leon was the first to arrive at the company entrance. He was dressed very formally, stood about 1.8 meters tall, and though he was balding, it made him look even more professional.
Cynthia led him into William's office. Once Leon sat down at the desk, she stood behind William.
"Hello."
"Hello." Leon looked at William with a hint of surprise—clearly, he hadn't expected the famous Earth Games to be run by such a young face.
Before coming, he had assumed William would be a middle-aged man. After all, to develop multiple blockbuster hits back to back, you'd think it would take an industry veteran with decades of experience. But that clearly wasn't the case.
"I've seen your work—the visuals are great, and the facial details on the characters are very delicate."
"Thank you," Leon said. "I also brought some other pieces you can take a look at."
He took out a stack of large photos from his briefcase.
"I have a personal habit—before making a certain visual effect, I like to first draw the concept art for it. That way, I can better capture the feel during production. That's also the main reason why you see such fine details in the characters of my film projects."
"I see."
William hadn't expected Leon to also be a concept artist. But that habit of his sounded time-consuming. As expected, efficiency and quality were hard to have at the same time.
While flipping through the concept art, William asked, "Do you have any salary requirements?"
Leon replied, "I'd like about a 10% increase over my current pay. But since your company is just starting out, I can accept no raise for the short term."
After reviewing all the pieces, William came to a conclusion—Leon was more suited to being a concept artist than a VFX artist. His drawings carried a lot of personal style and storytelling, not the formulaic stiffness of standard work.
For example, with a planet theme, most people's first thought would be to show two planets from the surface of one—two celestial bodies in the same frame. But Leon's idea was to make the planets like nested dolls: the outer one semi-transparent, the inner one like its core, the two intertwined in a striking visual composition.
Interesting.
"Would you mind waiting outside for a moment?"
William wouldn't agree to his terms immediately—that would put the company in a weaker position and make later negotiations harder. This was one of the techniques Cynthia had taught him.
"No problem."
Once Leon left the office, William turned to Cynthia. "I think he's good."
"Compared to his VFX work, I think his drawing talent stands out more," Cynthia said, picking up one of the pieces. From afar she had only glanced at them, but up close they had a completely different feel.
"Exactly—that's what I noticed too."
In game development, concept artists were indispensable. Every game started with concept art—only after those ideas were set could modeling, scene building, and mission design follow. Without it, modelers, scene designers, and quest designers would be lost about what to make or how to push the story forward.
More importantly, modeling and scene building were massive tasks. If the design direction wasn't set from the start and had to be scrapped halfway, the loss would be huge.
A concept artist's job was to unify the design vision, then pass it on for others to complete the remaining work.
Although Earth Games rarely made fully original games—since there were so many excellent titles on Earth to "draw inspiration" from—if William had to use reputation points to download concept art every time, the cost would be too high. It was better to give a concept to a concept artist and have them recreate it as closely as possible. If it wasn't right, it could always be revised, usually within just a few days.
After letting Leon wait outside for a few minutes, William had Cynthia bring him back in.
"Have you ever thought about changing jobs?"
"What do you mean?"
"I want you to work on concept art just for our games," William said, holding up Leon's portfolio.
Leon stared at his own work for a moment, thinking. After a short silence, he asked, "Will the pay be lower?"
William smiled. "Don't worry, it'll still be based on your current salary. We'll just have a three-month trial period, and after that, you'll get a ten percent raise on top of what you're making now. How's that?"
With his biggest concern out of the way, Leon agreed without hesitation. "No problem."
William motioned for him to follow Cynthia to handle the onboarding paperwork.
He had to admit, Cynthia was a great manager—she could handle every part of the company's operations. It was making William think about hiring her an assistant.
Finding out about Leon's talent for drawing was a real surprise—it meant they'd never have to worry about having promo art for their Weibo posts again.
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