Your Boy Finally Made It!

Life is Dodge woven from a series of choices.

In this unique journey of everyone, one will always encounter a crossroads that may affect their entire life.

For many, this intersection represents an entrance exam, a job interview, or a phone number.

There is always that one moment that is crucial to a person.

For Caneghem, that moment was the bright, sunny afternoon when he first met Lin Lixin.

That meeting a year ago completely changed the fate of this young man who switched from a medical PhD to the gaming industry.

The phenomenal success of their first game, "Might and Magic," on NovaBo still feels like a dream.

Although he made money, Caneghem still prefers to tinker with game development himself.

Instead of using the money to expand his studio, he first bought himself better development equipment and a batch of high-quality coffee beans that he heard were imported from abroad.

Coffee is the best mana potion for programmers.

In early 1987, Caneghem threw the empty pizza box outside.

This was a small reward he gave himself to celebrate the New Year.

A sausage pizza with double cheese.

After washing his hands, Caneghem sat back down at his PC and rummaged through the messy pile of documents until he found the best-bound booklet.

This is the project proposal for "Heroes of Might and Magic"Might and Magic that Boss Lin gave me.

To be honest, it's really perfect, even far exceeding my expectations.

This is a spin-off based on the world of "Might and Might and Magic".

Players will take on the role of a monarch, fighting against the native forces of the Continent of Enroth in a struggle for the throne.

Turn-based strategy games shouldn't be difficult to implement.

At least in Caneghem's mind, a relatively acceptable design had been basically formed.

But sometimes fate is just that unreasonable.

With the release of NovaXeno, along with Gamenova's first-party strategy masterpiece Civilization, which ushered in a new era of strategy games, the countdown to the end of the 8-bit era has officially begun.

His initial draft, which he had been so proud of, suddenly became somewhat outdated.

Caneghem was a strong-willed person, so of course he couldn't accept this.

So after receiving the NX console and Civilization disc that Lin Lixin had specially sent him, Caneghem made his decision on the very day he played it.

Start over!

Damn it, anyway, I'm the only one to support here, and the money I made from "Might and Magic" is enough for me to focus on developing a new game.

At worst, we can just let things settle down for a few more years.

Fortunately, the NX development kit is basically unchanged from the NB era, except for a large number of new, easy-to-use functions.

"Snoring"

Caneghem picked up his cup and downed his coffee in one gulp. Then, looking at the document, he scratched his head. "Could it be that I'm working too slowly and Boss Lin can't wait?"

Many of the elements in this plan were already familiar to Caneghem from Civilization.

That makes sense, it's been a year already.

"Forget it, I don't have many people here, and none of them are as skilled as Boss Lin or Carmack. It's okay to be slower, but we can't let the quality suffer."

Caneghem patted his face, quickly banishing the fleeting thought of "should I speed things up and just get by?" from his mind.

I believe in Boss Lin, and I believe in myself!

Just then, the phone rang.

"Hey? Caneghem, do you need a company? I have an Adventure game developer here who doesn't have a place to use it."

Hello? Did I type the wrong number?

Hearing the silence on the other end of the phone, Lin Lixin called out twice more in confusion before Caneghem replied.

"Hey, boss, what did you mean just now?"

"It means exactly what it says. I just bought Activision. They have a studio that makes Adventure games, and they're a bunch of pretty good guys. Are you interested?"

As Lin Lixin spoke, his eyes kept glancing at David, who was still sitting there somewhat at a loss.

David swallowed hard, completely bewildered by what was happening before his eyes.

This is so surreal, bro.

Magical games are all fake; this is real magic.

Regardless of Lin Lixin's style of doing things, David keenly caught the name in Lin Lixin's words.

"Caneghem"

He recognized the name.

Rather, it's hard for any RPG enthusiast not to remember him.

Joe Van Caneghem.

This previously unknown young man developed "Might and Magic," now considered one of the three major CRPGs, and also the best-selling third-party game on NovaBo.

"Well, that's how it is. Developing 16-bit systems is definitely more difficult, so I was thinking of finding you some help."

There was another long silence on the other end of the phone.

"Lin, I don't have the extra energy to run a development studio. I prefer to develop my own things freely."

Accepting sponsorship from a small studio isn't all good; it can also be a constraint.

If I were no longer in my current solitary state, could I truly still maintain my original intention and dedicate myself purely to perfecting a work of art through development?

Caneghem knew the answer to that question perfectly well.

That would go against his original intention.

Perhaps with the backing of GAMENOVA and Lin Lixin, he can still print more money in the future by increasing production capacity.

But is that really what I want?

Of course not.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be better to just honestly be a doctor?

This is a medical PhD from the America, with the American flag in the center.

"Hmm—that is indeed a problem."

Lin Lixin pondered for a moment, "How about this, I'll hire you as our Chief Development Officer in my capacity as Chairman of Infocom, and the operations will remain under Activision as usual."

This is blatant co-opting.

Caneghem had been dreaming of this opportunity to truly become a part of GAMENOVA, rather than just a third-party developer.

Regardless of how well he got along with Lin Lixin and others, they would often dine and chat together.

But no matter how close he gets, he is still an outsider in name only.

Caneghem isn't a true independent studio like Sir-Tech or OriginSystems; he's a self-made man who doesn't necessarily aspire to be independent.

He had met Will Sid when he went to GAMENOVA to study, and knew that GAMENOVA's development department had already expanded and recruited new people.

To be honest, Caneghem really envies those lucky guys, even feels jealous.

Driven mad with jealousy.

Why can they do it, but I can't?

Caneghem had asked himself this question countless times.

He considered himself not to be top-tier, but he was certainly not an ordinary person either.

And now, today, Lin Lixin has finally extended an invitation to him formally for the first time.

"It's my honor, boss!"

My buddy finally made it through!