In Xu Meng's impression, the Cologne International Game Show has always been the label of this city.
But in fact, as the fourth largest city in Germany, there are many things worth mentioning about this city.
Before the International Game Show moved to this city, it was always known in Europe for its historical culture and heavy industry.
The landmark of this city — Cologne Cathedral.
It is known as the most perfect example of Gothic church architecture.
Compared with those two towering and gorgeous spires, the Cologne Game Show is just a fledgling junior.
But the development speed of the Cologne Game Show is too fast.
Riding on the east wind of the Internet, its influence is increasing day by day.
Today, it is known as one of the world's three major game exhibitions along with the American Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and the Tokyo Game Show (TGS).
And it has faintly become the world's largest offline game exhibition.
— E3 is more professional, but because of its high price, it is mainly aimed at professionals.
The Cologne Game Show attracts 300,000 to 400,000 players, and its scale and momentum are naturally incomparable.
If it's just players, they may not have such a deep feeling.
But for game developers, the status of the Cologne Game Show is irreplaceable.
… …
Half an hour later, the team arrived at the hotel.
Standing in the hotel lobby, Chen Junyi asked Xu Meng: "Do you want to join the advance team and check the booth layout?"
Hearing this, the excited employees around him quieted down and looked at Xu Meng.
Xu Meng immediately shook his head: "No need."
"There is still a day tomorrow, so don't rush for this moment."
"Everyone has been on the plane for more than ten hours, which is uncomfortable enough. Let's all disband and rest."
After speaking, he was about to leave with his suitcase.
But after taking two steps, he remembered something important and immediately turned around and reminded: "If anyone is full of energy and wants to go out for a walk after taking a shower, it's best to go with a few people."
"And — don't go to the red-light district."
"At this time, many domestic game media are also gathered here. If you are photographed, it will be a pile of bad things."
Ding Nian raised his right hand and asked seemingly puzzled: "Boss! Please! Why are there reporters in the red-light district?"
"Is it because there is news in the red-light district?"
"I said in case! In case!" Xu Meng was a little speechless, "What, do you also want to go to the red-light district?"
Ding Nian blinked: "I really want to go and see."
"? ? ?" Xu Meng looked at Ding Nian with a strange look, "You… are you planning to come out of the closet?"
"?" Ding Nian was stunned for a moment, and then looked at the colleagues around him with gossip eyes, and immediately retorted in a very loud voice, "Of course not!"
"What kind of inspiration requires going to the red-light district for material?" Xu Meng couldn't understand.
But he still understood the principle of not interfering in artists' affairs.
"Go if you want to, but don't run around by yourself. After the game show is over, I will find a few bodyguards to accompany you before returning to China."
Ding Nian's eyes lit up and she nodded repeatedly.
Perhaps because Xu Meng's reaction gave her confidence, or perhaps the bodyguards Xu Meng mentioned gave her a sense of security, she immediately added: "And nightclubs and strip clubs!"
"? ? ?"
Xu Meng hesitated a little, "Are you sure it's really for material, not for a company-funded clubbing trip?"
"I swear!" Ding Nian raised three fingers and swore solemnly.
"Okay, is there anything else? Tell me all at once." Xu Meng has always been tolerant of his own people.
Ding Nian really had one —
"Next month! Munich! Erotic Exhibition!"
Good fellow, Xu Meng looked Ding Nian up and down carefully, feeling like he had gotten to know her again.
Ding Nian was a little guilty from his gaze, "That… it's not necessary to go…"
"No, go!" Xu Meng waved his hand, "Just go! The company will reimburse you!"
As soon as he said this, many people on the side also raised their hands and shouted: "Boss, boss, we also want to go! We also need inspiration!"
"You need a fart!" Xu Meng was not polite, "You are not drawing, what kind of inspiration are you looking for?"
Of course, it was impossible for Xu Meng to bring a group of artists to Cologne to participate in the exhibition.
Only "Frost Snow Project" was relatively special, and character design was one of the core of the game, so he brought Ding Nian.
Xu Fang, who had transferred to the "King of War" project team, did not come this time.
The exhibition team mainly consisted of marketing, publicity, and a small number of programmers.
These people were not reconciled, so they said: "We can protect Director Ding!"
"Go to rest!" Xu Meng waved his hand, pulled his suitcase and went upstairs to rest.
He was worried that if he continued to talk about this topic, it would eventually evolve into a heaven-defying news like "Dream Building Game Employees Collectively Rush to the Red-Light District for Fieldwork."
Little assistant Chen Mengling quickly followed with her suitcase, their rooms were on the same floor.
After washing up and eating supper, Xu Meng sat in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window, admiring the brightly lit Cologne night scene outside the window, and couldn't help but be a little lost in thought.
Participating in the Cologne Game Show.
Now it seems to be a natural success, and there is no difficulty.
Even without the invitation and help of the Softfoot game box, Dream Building is fully qualified and capable of participating in the exhibition.
But in his previous life, when he was still an independent game developer.
Bringing his own game to participate in the exhibition was his dream.
But until he died suddenly, he failed to realize this dream.
— In the original world, the games he made relied on "riding the heat" and "creating memes" to successfully recover the production costs and earn the funds to develop the next game.
In this world, colleagues, media, and even subordinates think that Xu Meng's actions are out of line and his brain circuits are strange, making it difficult to keep up with his thinking.
But for Xu Meng, this is already restrained.
Back in his hometown, in order to promote the game, what he did was even more outrageous than now.
When promoting his debut work "Three People Go Together", he shamelessly put up the slogan:
[Recommended for couples and best friends, or married couples and mistresses to play together for double the fun!]
He was heavily criticized, but it also attracted a lot of attention.
And what he didn't expect was: there were actually heaven-defying players who played like this!
— Of course, mostly with one party being unaware.
As a result, problems arose while playing:
Anxiety and frustration when encountering difficult levels;
Prioritizing who to take care of first in areas requiring tacit cooperation;
Whether to hug or kiss in celebration after successfully completing a difficult problem... ...
Such details are easily noticed.
The newest novels are first released on !
Thus, mistresses tearing apart the legal wife, boyfriends kissing the wrong person, male best friends jumping in, husbands/wives coming out on the spot... ...
A large number of shocking scoops that exploded the eyeballs of netizens came one after another, allowing the game's popularity to continue to soar, eventually even crushing the assassin-themed canned game released by a long-established overseas company that month!
When the second work, "PokéDream," was released, Xu Meng once again used his heaven-defying brain circuit to give players a bit of "Guangdong-style" shock:
In this game, you can not only capture magical creatures, but also stew and eat those that you can't capture!
After eating them, you can not only increase the probability of capturing similar magical creatures next time, but also improve the trainer's various attributes.
In this way, when a pet loses in battle, the trainer can pick up his weapon and fight!
The players were greatly shocked.
While transforming into a god of food and eating gluttonously, they speculated about when he would receive a lawyer's letter from Nintendo.
But he didn't receive a lawyer's letter; instead, he steadily ate the traffic.
... ...
His marketing strategy has always been unconventional, a tactic that can only be played in the Internet age.
This is not because he has a prejudice against traditional marketing methods.
But purely as an independent game developer, he cannot afford the high cost of traditional marketing methods.
The survival environment for independent game developers is so difficult.
Many people give up their game dreams because they cannot get exposure, resulting in a disastrous launch.
But Xu Meng did not.
He had thought of all the methods to make games, but he never thought of giving up.
It's just that having his own booth at the Cologne International Games Show and introducing his games to players all over the world in a dignified manner has become an unspeakable dream.
He always thought that he would have to wait until he was 40 years old, become a truly well-known producer, and establish his own studio before he could realize this dream.
But he didn't expect that this dream would be realized in such a magical way now.
This made him feel a little unreal.
In the hastily formed exhibition group, even though they had been on the plane for more than ten hours, many employees did not feel tired at all.
They were still excitedly chatting about all kinds of things—
The novelty of going abroad for the first time, complaints about German food, meeting a group of international students in the hotel's small bar, and running into famous game producers while eating.
Some people teamed up to go out and admire the Cologne night scene.
Some people talked a lot about the upcoming days of the exhibition, looking forward to the performance of their own games, and also looking forward to the appearance of other high-quality games... ...
These people seemed to have inexhaustible energy, and they were still chatting enthusiastically until Xu Meng fell asleep.
The next day, when Xu Meng woke up, he immediately led the team to meet up with the advance team, checked the layout of the booth, and arranged the work schedule for the employees.
The booth obtained by Zhumeng was indeed not large.
After all, it was already a bit late when they decided to participate in the exhibition, and good locations had already been reserved by large companies.
He had too many things to put, so it looked a bit cramped no matter how you looked at it.
However, Xu Meng had a good attitude.
Although Zhumeng has made a name for itself in the domestic Chinese mobile game circle, and the company's revenue is also very impressive.
But when placed globally, it has only just begun to emerge.
And this year's Cologne International Games Show has more than 1,000 companies from more than 60 countries participating, gathering large and small game developers, toy animation, digital equipment, and various software and hardware and emerging technology companies from around the world.
Every exhibition hall and every booth is precious.
So the stage was directly cancelled, no performances were arranged, and almost all the space was used to place equipment.
The most space-consuming tank simulator was not taken out for the time being, only 20 omnidirectional treadmills and supporting equipment, as well as five fully enclosed dressing rooms, were put out.
The remaining standees, posters, and monitors were placed on the outer circle.
Trial demos, tourist accounts, queuing software, emergency measures, game introduction sessions, and connections with peers and media... ...
Xu Meng checked everything over and over again, striving for perfection.
In this process, the event of [participating in the Cologne Games Show] finally felt real.
After everything was ready, Xu Meng announced the dismissal and let everyone act freely.
As for himself, he sat in Zhumeng's booth, watching the colleagues from all over the world busy, and a special emotion kept surging up—
The world's top game show.
The total area of the exhibition hall is 230,000 square meters, with more than 1,000 exhibitors from more than 60 countries, nearly 400,000 players from 110 countries, game developers from all over the world, large and small game media... ... gathering here to attend the grand event.
In the next five days, this will be the holy land for global game players, an absolute storm center!
Adding up both lives, this is already the 10th year of making games.
He has finally arrived here.
He has stepped into this storm.
And he is not here to just make up the numbers.
He is here to announce his arrival to the world, to make Zhumeng take this as a starting point and embark on a broader world stage!
It all starts with this small booth!
Seeking monthly tickets!
