Chapter 805 - 428: The Ups and Downs of Married Life

April 20, 2123, 10:30 AM, West Continent Technology Co., Ltd.

The young male and female employees were tapping on their keyboards at their respective desks, or gathered in groups of two or three, sipping drinks while discussing the development challenges they faced.

The next moment, the door of the general manager’s office opened, and a round-faced girl wearing jeans and a hoodie walked out, causing the atmosphere to quiet down. Everyone’s gaze subtly shifted towards the girl, with a slight air of curiosity.

Feeling a bit uneasy, she quickened her steps and approached a bald programmer in the center of the workstations.

"Another batch of new Class C bugs has been reported, Director Zhao. I sent them to your email."

"Received."

Director Zhao gestured an OK sign, then glanced towards the general manager’s office, lowered his voice, and asked the question everyone present wanted to know;

"Has Chairman Li given any feedback after playing for over an hour?"

...

"Very nice, more interesting than I expected!"

Li Peifeng held his phone, engrossed in playing.

As of today, West Continent Company has grown to a considerable size, with more than twenty departments and 530 employees. The mobile game project "Sword and Magic" has gone through over a billion in funding, and a year of development, finally showing some results.

Although it can’t even be considered a semi-finished product, only having the combat system and a few map scenes, making it not yet ready for public testing, it’s now ready for internal playtesting to see its quality.

Overall, Li Peifeng is satisfied. The graphics are realistic and beautiful, standing in the first tier of mobile games on the market in quality. The character movements are natural, expressions are vivid, skill strikes are smooth and seamless, and the combat mode is novel and creative. Unfortunately, the current completion level is inadequate. There’s no storyline or music, and optimization is poor, making his playtest experience slightly regretful.

Wang Lianzong recognized this point and introduced the progress: "It’s expected that by June next year, the game world of ’Sword and Magic’ will be fully realized, with the game storyline updated to the first three volumes of the novel. It can be rush tested during the summer break, with a month of testing, and by August, after completing the content of five volumes, public testing can begin. Subsequently, each month we can update the game content at the speed of one novel volume..."

Li Peifeng nodded: "This plan is fine, but the timing for rush testing is still somewhat late. It’s best to handle rush testing one month before the summer break and conduct public testing during the break. Since the second season of the ’Sword and Magic’ anime is already set for July, we can maximize the summer traffic if we also set the mobile game’s public test for July."

"Also, the PVP part should be added during the public test. The joy of competition is endless; only PVP keeps players the most engaged. Sole reliance on exploring the world and experiencing the storyline won’t maintain high user engagement in the long term."

Wang Lianzong agreed: "The PVP is also in development. It’s just that balancing values requires hiring two more teams. And to move the public test to next summer... the production team needs to continue expanding its recruitment."

He Yimeng added: "You’ve seen the plan, right? As per your idea, at this stage we need to expand recruitment to at least six hundred people."

Li Peifeng pressed his lips and said to He Yimeng: "Recruit, continue to recruit... as long as the public test can proceed smoothly next year midsummer, ammo is guaranteed enough."

Although mentally prepared, the speed at which the mobile game burns money is still somewhat beyond his expectations.

Now "Sword and Magic" has a production team of 520 employees, with an average monthly salary of 20,000 per person. The personnel expenses for the past year alone are over 120 million.

If recruitment expands to 600 employees and develops for another year, personnel expenses will be at least 140 million.

Plus operational, promotional, engine, and other costs, 400 million might be burned in total for the mobile game to smoothly proceed to public testing.

If it weren’t for the success of the "Sword and Magic" anime, which not only earned a large sum but also confirmed the commercial value of this IP, Li Peifeng wouldn’t dare continue investing in this bottomless pit.

But how can a hen-pecked husband come up with so much money??

He Yimeng glanced at him, her eyes carrying a slight doubt: "The overseas sales performance of ’Sword and Magic’ is pretty good?"

"It’s alright, plus the anime’s revenue share, it’s enough for West Continent’s expenses."

During last Christmas, the overseas edition of "Sword and Magic" was launched.

It included not only English but also Korean and Japanese among other languages.

The results after launch were better than Li Peifeng expected, with overseas royalties each month almost equaling domestic ones. Li Peifeng even foresightedly contacted Endpoint, having them deposit these royalties into another card, along with other anime and film copyright income.

Thus, a secret stash was established, but claiming Zhao Qingge had not noticed at all is impossible, just that Old Zhao doesn’t want to be too harsh, which spared Li Peifeng some small troubles.

"As long as opening expenses are covered, that’s good, or else Professor Zhao might come to the company for inspection with a pregnant belly, and I wouldn’t have time to entertain her."

He Yimeng’s tone was indifferent but hid a trace of dissatisfaction.

Since Zhao Qingge took control of the household finances and realized that He Yimeng was running West Continent, she had come to the company twice, each time adopting an inspecting posture, not quite pointing and commanding but not far off, thus it’s inevitable for He Yimeng to have feelings about it.

"Someone is looking for me, you guys chat."

Wang Lianzong silently exited the room; now he understood much more about Boss Li’s romantic affairs and knew them all, fearing for his life.