Ding Nian Slaughters Her Way Through the Headhunting Firm

Last life, Xu Meng had seen a paper-doll shooting game.

However, that game's ending wasn't great: after a brief period of popularity, it quickly faded away.

The reasons were naturally multifaceted, but Xu Meng believed one important reason was—

The misalignment of target users and core gameplay.

Their promotional direction and overall art style were welcoming otakus to play.

But the game's core gameplay highly emphasized competitiveness.

The end result was luring otakus in, only for them to be slaughtered by veteran shooting game players.

—Of course, there were otakus who were good at shooting games, but their overall proportion was quite low.

When the game's main target users discovered that their only fate after entering the game was to be target practice for the old-timers, getting dozens of headshots in a single match, the game's decline was inevitable.

Xu Meng, feeling his way forward, could naturally avoid this.

Frost Snow Project has a large number of PVE gameplay options, and players have plenty of opportunities to interact with their favorite characters. Otakus don't have to worry about having nothing to do if they don't want to fight.

Moreover, PVP will also be a light competitive mode.

As long as players aren't beaten into a pulp by experts, allowing both sides to kill each other, and letting novices also feel the fun, the entire mode can survive.

And "surviving" is Xu Meng's only requirement for this gameplay.

After leaving the level design department, he went to the programming and numerical planning departments to explain this new task to them.

These two groups of people were also very excited.

Especially Peng Linmu, who was simply bursting with enthusiasm.

Although their task was the most complex—

They needed to allow the character to switch back and forth between 3D modeling and 2D paper-doll, be able to stick to the wall and move after becoming a paper-doll, and be able to slowly float down like a kite and fly far away when jumping from a high place.

Each of these three tasks required a lot of brainpower, both mentally and physically.

But Peng Linmu pounded his chest loudly, almost making a military pledge.

Obviously, compared to how to make the character's chest and buttocks look good when they shake, he preferred to study "real technology."

Even though the former is far more profitable than the latter.

At this point, Xu Meng also completed his day's exercise and slowly strolled back to his office.

After returning, he browsed social networks to check the work results of the operations team.

In the past half month, he had been completely immersed in software development, and the work of maintaining the popularity of Frost Snow Project naturally returned to the operations team.

The method of maintaining popularity was also very simple—releasing some materials every two or three days.

Sometimes it was a new original painting of a certain character, sometimes it was a few GIFs, and from time to time, they would answer a few questions that players were most concerned about.

Thanks to Konjac Games constantly recharging the online commentators, leading some uninformed commentators to charge every day, the popularity of Frost Snow Project has been maintained well.

Although Song Zhicheng was a bit conservative in his actions, he could always complete the tasks assigned to him in a steady manner.

After negotiating with Bilibili, he obtained broader review conditions that day, and after that, the release of slightly erotic original paintings was never blocked again.

Of course, Bilibili didn't give many privileges either.

The video review standards were still the same as for ordinary accounts.

But that wasn't a problem, just add water mist to the sensitive areas when the time comes.

Refunds for underage users, commercial orders for virtual streamer collaborations, and other tasks were also completed in an orderly manner.

After half a month, Xu Meng slowly got the sense of security brought by this "controllability."

Song Zhicheng's evaluation in his heart also changed from "mediocre" to "trustworthy."

The reason why Song Zhicheng can't fully display his abilities now is because of the magical circle of second-generation mobile games.

When Zhu Meng's next game isn't a second-generation mobile game, pulling him over should allow him to show his talents.

After reading his own situation, Xu Meng also searched for Konjac Games.

What's strange is that their new game, which directly competes with the Frost Snow Project remake, still hasn't started its promotion.

Not even a single bit of material has leaked.

In the past half-month, besides another round of sarcastic exchanges with Four-Dimensional Games, there hasn't been any movement at all.

"That's not right..." Xu Meng muttered.

Who would spend money to snipe at their opponent but not bother to promote their own product for half a month? What's the point? Too much money and nowhere to spend it? "Boss, time for your medicine!"

"It's not medicine, it's supplements!" Xu Meng corrected.

The medicine he was initially prescribed was long gone. After seeing the doctor again, the doctor didn't prescribe any more medicine, only supplements, along with the cliché advice of "regulate your sleep schedule, don't stay up late."

"Oh, right, boss, time for your supplements!" The little assistant readily agreed.

Seeing Xu Meng obediently take his supplements, the little assistant felt relieved.

After half a month, the boss finally wasn't looking like he was about to drop dead from exhaustion.

With his mood relaxed, his previously lively and outgoing nature quickly returned: "Boss, wanna hear some gossip?"

"Gossip? What gossip?"

"Rumor has it that Ding Nian alone has single-handedly taken down eight headhunting firms that cover the gaming industry!"

"?" Xu Meng didn't immediately process the little assistant's long sentence.

After a few seconds of thought, he understood what it meant: "Huh?"

"I got a call from a headhunting firm today," the little assistant said astonishingly.

"I thought they were trying to poach me, but it turned out they were asking for Ding Nian's contact information."

Xu Meng was stunned. Are headhunting firms this reckless now? Directly calling the company's assistant for poaching?

But the surprise the little assistant brought him had only just begun: "I mentioned it in a small group later, and found out that many people have received similar calls."

"It seems that ever since He Yin's new splash art was released, headhunting firms have been constantly inquiring about Ding Nian, but she has relatively simple interpersonal relationships, so headhunting firms often end up contacting our employees."

"Gradually, everyone found out."

"But Ding Nian hasn't shown any signs of leaving, so she must have refused them all."

"After a while, everyone's focus shifted, and they started keeping track of which companies she rejected, and even made a bet on whether she could reject more than 10."

The little assistant felt that since Ding Nian was determined not to leave, the matter automatically fell into the category of "gossip and fun."

But Xu Meng vaguely felt that this matter might be subtly related to the problem he was currently struggling to understand.

So many headhunting firms are concentrated on poaching Ding Nian, it's likely that Konjac Games spent a lot of money to poach her! They're not satisfied with the content created by their own artists, so they want to poach Zhu Meng's artists? That's too shameless.

How annoying! Why is this company full of underhanded tactics?

Can't we have a fair and square showdown? I really want to use the same method to annoy them! But I don't really think much of their artists...

Konjac's most profitable game is called Divine Bird, which is a typical gacha game, and the biggest feature of the characters inside is that they all have various wings.

It's quite cute, but it didn't make Xu Meng have the kind of "too awesome, must poach" feeling.

In the end, he could only add another note in his little notebook: [May 16th, poached by Konjac Games!] If there's a chance in the future, I must take revenge!

After writing it down, Xu Meng, who had already met his exercise quota and planned to slack off in the office until he got off work, stood up nimbly again and went to the art department to appease his key general.

For the current Zhu Meng and the Frost Snow Project, every artist who can produce high-quality splash art is very important.

Talents like Ding Nian, who also have leadership skills and can inspire the team's potential, are even more indispensable.

Although he found out a little late, it's not his fault.

It's all the headhunting firms' fault! "You just want Ding Nian's contact information?"

"I have it too!"

"Why don't you call me?"