Before leaving, Aunt Oliver said, "I'm going for a check-up this afternoon, so I might not have time to cook dinner."
Cynthia replied, "Okay, do you need me to take Pipi to the office?"
Everyone met Aunt Oliver's pet Pipi during the last team dinner. The ladies showed no hesitation in expressing how much they liked it, and even the guys didn't mind it, so bringing it to the office wouldn't be a problem.
Aunt Oliver said generously, "If it's convenient for you, just take it."
"Sure, no problem."
Cynthia stood at the door while William held Pipi and called into the house, "We're heading out."
"Be careful on the way."
The little one wasn't stressed at all in the car. William held it the whole time while it looked around curiously. Aunt Oliver gave it baths often, so it smelled fresh and clean.
Before taking it into the studio, they walked it downstairs to prevent any accidents inside. After that, William didn't care anymore—there were plenty of people willing to take care of it.
William had only one rule: don't let it affect work efficiency. A little break now and then was fine, but spending the whole morning playing with a dog was out of the question.
Starting today, Cynthia would begin interviewing new employees. William didn't plan to get involved since he had already given her the standards. He trusted her to pick the right people.
This round of hiring also included an accounting position. It was almost time to pay the first month's salaries, and the books needed to be in order—taxes had to be filed at the end of the year too.
After finishing the morning's development work, William checked the progress of the animation project. Four chapters were almost done, and he needed to make time to work on the remaining three. Once the animation for Journey was complete, they could move on to developing Honor of Kings.
But before that, there were still a few small animations to finish for Craftsman. If William handled them with his half-baked skills, the game's quality would suffer.
"WeChat Games is launching Happy Landlord tonight."
Cynthia was eating the lunch Aunt Oliver had prepared, holding her phone in the other hand as she shared the news with everyone at the table.
Claire asked, "Is it part of the Happy Universe series?"
"That's right."
Happy Universe was a concept William came up with. At first, only Cynthia knew about it, but after Happy Mahjong was launched, William casually mentioned it to the team, so everyone found out about the company's plans.
There was another reason.
Happy Landlord was originally supposed to be a game the whole team worked on together, but because of the requirements from WeChat Games, that plan was dropped. In fact, some people in the studio had already been involved in related work, but the project was canceled before they could officially start.
Marcus said worriedly, "I wonder if they'll do a good job."
After all, every Happy Universe game would carry the Earth Games label. If WeChat Games cut corners, Earth Games' reputation would take a hit too.
Angela said, "I don't think that'll be a problem."
She was the most qualified to say that. Before joining Earth Games, she had even applied to transfer to WeChat Games, but they weren't expanding at the time, so her request didn't go through. Still, that didn't stop her from knowing how things worked there.
Tencent didn't set up WeChat Games on a whim. They had clear goals and performance targets. Tencent wanted to break into the game market, so the first batch of people assigned to Vince were all top talents.
You could see it from The Pianist. Other companies just copied text-based "simulator" games, but WeChat Games made a piano game with real graphics and gameplay.
Their technical skills were solid. Their weakness was creativity—but after Vince got William's development plan, that was no longer a problem.
Happy Universe alone would keep them busy. Don't be fooled by how quickly Happy Mahjong gained popularity after launch—it was still a half-finished product, with lots of features left to add. Happy Landlord would likely be the same. The reason WeChat Games rushed to release it was to grab the market first.
Happy Mahjong's success would definitely make competitors jealous and show them a new path—traditional card and board games.
Bringing traditional games to mobile wasn't exactly a groundbreaking idea, but Happy Mahjong showed how to actually do it.
Good ideas are never in short supply. The key is making them happen. Before, people didn't know how to develop games. Now that they have both ideas and tech, everyone wants to be first.
The first to launch Mahjong, the first to launch Landlord, the first to launch Guandan, Run Fast… even Catch the Turtle. As long as there's something left, someone will try to claim the top spot.
Right now, WeChat Games is under a lot of pressure. The games need to be good, avoid overlapping with others, and the Happy Universe concept needs to take shape as quickly as possible. By the time others catch on and try to copy it, it'll be too late.
Happy Beans are the key to winning.
Don't underestimate virtual beans. Once players realize they can win beans in Mahjong and lose them in Poker, they'll subconsciously see them as a kind of currency. Even though it's just a virtual currency, in their minds, these beans feel no different from real money, and they still get the thrill of gambling.
That's why players are willing to spend money. Even though the beans can't be exchanged back into cash, having a huge amount of them and dominating in the Happy Universe still gives players a sense of satisfaction and pride.
And just like that, player engagement skyrockets!
At night.
The Happy Universe series was officially revealed on WeChat Games, and Merry worked with their marketing team to promote the games on behalf of Earth Games.
Even though Earth Games didn't take part in the actual development, the games are still officially labeled as Earth Games titles. After all, Earth Games is a big name in the industry, and even if Vince wanted to leave them out, his higher-ups would never agree.
Another reason is that the contract requires him to say so.
William didn't think the series would flop, so he wasn't going to pass up the chance to promote the company. The truth was, Vince didn't have much leverage, so Earth Games got to take advantage.
Of course, William had to try out "Happy Landlord" when it launched. The graphics style was basically the same as "Happy Mahjong," which is what they call a "family design language." It helps players feel comfortable when switching between the two games.
Right now, the game only has one mode — matchmaking — without even separating rooms by skill or stakes. The wins and losses are fixed.
Other features will be added in future updates. But "future" is risky, since player excitement doesn't last forever. If updates take too long, interest will drop.
William wondered if WeChat Games understood that. If not, he could always have Cynthia remind them.
Once more Happy Universe titles are out, William wouldn't mind giving WeChat Games another good idea.