"Hiring."
Aoki Haruhi tapped Ayase Akane's desk.
"Eh?"
The latter was momentarily stunned, and her eyes immediately lit up.
"Okay, President, how many people do you want to hire now, and for what positions?"
Ayase Akane quickly picked up a pen and paper, ready to take notes.
"Hmm…" Aoki Haruhi scanned the room.
Currently, the company has 35 full-Time employees, and several new hires will report to the company in April.
Then there are 5 regular interns.
Schools in Neon have 3 holidays a year: summer vacation in July, then school starts in September and continues until December for the New Year, followed by winter vacation until January.
Then spring break in February or March.
School resumes in April.
For example, Makoto Shinkai came to the company for an internship during spring break.
This batch of interns had already left the company by April.
Of course, there are some exceptions, depending on how you get along with the interns; if the conditions are good and the interns are also interested, they can certainly come to the company to work during their free Time from school.
This is a very common phenomenon in Neon and China.
In his previous life, Aoki Haruhi had also worked at a small game company where half of the workload was carried by interns.
Using interns as full-Time employees is an unspoken understanding among capitalists.
But at least Aoki Haruhi would pay them sufficient intern salaries, and if they performed well, they could even sign an employment contract first and join Pokeni right after graduating from university.
This could be considered relatively conscientious.
Most companies make interns work without any compensation, and some large companies even require interns to pay for their internships.
Makoto Shinkai was one of the individuals Aoki Haruhi paid special attention to, so even though school had started, Makoto Shinkai would still come to the company to help out during his free Time, doing various odd jobs.
He wasn't doing it for the intern salary; primarily, he felt a sense of belonging at Pokeni, had senior he liked, and could do things he enjoyed.
Sometimes, the company would also assign him original art tasks, allowing him to complete them at school and bring them in later.
Although Ninjin Makoto is not a full-Time employee now, he is considered a part of Pokeni and is treated as half a full-Time employee.
In the future, Aoki Haruhi also wants to entrust more important work to this young man.
Besides Ninjin Makoto, there are a few other promising young men who receive similar treatment, being cultivated as future talents for the company.
Of course, whether they will choose Pokeni after they graduate is still an unknown.
...
So, with everyone counted, the company currently has 40 people.
However, this is only enough to support 2 to 3 teams.
One project currently under development is diablo ii, which was originally assigned to Shinji Mikami, but he wanted to work on The Witcher with Gen Urobuchi, so Aoki Haruhi had to take over diablo ii himself.
The other is Pokémon, and the development progress of Pokémon is currently quite ideal.
The mechanism of this game is not complex; the most important aspect is that the original art and character design will take a considerable amount of Time. According to Aoki Haruhi's own estimation, Pokémon should be completed by June.
But these two projects basically already occupy all of the company's manpower.
To free up hands to work on The Witcher, either they need to expand hiring, or see if the programmers and artists can interleave their work.
The so-called interleaved work is somewhat like "Time-slice round-robin scheduling" in computer processes, because everyone's work arrangements have certain staggered and sequential orders, and it's impossible for everyone to be doing saturated work at the same Time.
When some people deliver their current tasks and are waiting for the next batch of work to arrive, there is some surplus Time, and this Time can be used to work on other projects.
To put it bluntly, The Witcher needs to pick up what's left over from diablo ii.
But this would make the development cycle of The Witcher relatively long, as human resources would only become available after Pokémon development is completed.
"Two programmers, two artists, that's roughly it for now," Aoki Haruhi said. "Oh, right, when Sakata Taiji screens candidates, tell him to pay extra attention; we need talent who can draw Japanese-style Western fantasy."
"Yes, President."
Ayase Akane diligently recorded with her pen.
This way, the company's staff will grow more and more.
"Oh, and we also need to find a larger venue; the current company area can no longer accommodate so many people," Aoki Haruhi added.
"Eh?"
HR-chan was stunned for a moment, pointing at herself with her finger, "Should I contact them?"
"What else?"
"Ah... Darn it, President, you're treating me like a secretary again!"
...
Returning to his office, Aoki Haruhi folded his arms and pondered silently.
Large-scale game development is indeed a very Time-consuming, money-consuming, and resource-intensive endeavor.
Development cycles are generally long; six months is considered short, and some projects can take one or two years, three or four years, or even up to 10 years.
But the problem is that several of Pokeni's current games are large-scale projects.
A game like Diablo is one with a relatively long cycle.
In contrast, galgame has distinct advantages.
The development cycle is short, the selling price is high, and Pokeni's reputation is not small now; as long as the product quality is excellent enough, the money earned is actually quite a lot.
With the current programming development progress, as long as the art volume can be ramped up, a galgame's production cycle is only about 3 months.
Should he make another galgame?
...
After spending 5 days organizing the plan for the new galgame, on the afternoon of the second Tuesday, while Ninjin Makoto was at the company, Aoki Haruhi called him, Art Director Sakata Taiji, and Copywriter Ishino Mika into the President's office.
Aoki Haruhi handed each of them a printed copy of the project proposal.
Ninjin Makoto was somewhat overwhelmed, taking two deep breaths to calm himself down.
The President is so good to me, I don't know how to repay him.
He looked down and saw several large characters written on the proposal—
"Your Name."
This was an original Neon animated film directed by Makoto Shinkai in 2016, with Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone Kamishiraishi as the main voice actors, produced by Comix Wave Films.
The film tells the story of male and female high school students meeting in a dream and searching for each other.
It can be said that this animated film established Makoto Shinkai's position in the field of animated films, and he has since been hailed as Hayao Miyazaki's successor.
Your Name is considered his mature work after many years of exploration; before this, his works often seemed to be "beautiful visuals, but lacking in storytelling."
This film also created a box office miracle for animated films worldwide, becoming a masterpiece in the hearts of countless people.
If he was going to do it, he might as well go big!
This was Aoki Haruhi's idea.
Previously, he was limited by hardware, but now Pokeni's technology has improved, both in software and hardware.
Although using Sega's MD couldn't achieve the exquisite beauty of a wallpaper fanatic, it could still reach a considerably good level.
...
The few people remained silent, quietly flipping through the pages.
The story is set in Neon, where a comet visits once every thousand years.
Miyamizu Mitsuha, a female high school student living in a small Neon town, finds the election campaigns held by her father, the town mayor, and the ancient customs of her family shrine boring.
Longing for the big city, she even fantasizes, "Please let me be a handsome guy in Tokyo in my next life!"
Suddenly, one day, Mitsuha had a dream that she had become a boy, in an unfamiliar room, facing unfamiliar friends, and the streets of Tokyo.
Although confused, the young girl was filled with joy at being able to come to the Tokyo she had longed for.
At the same Time, Tachibana Taki, a male high school student living in Tokyo, also had a strange dream where he became a female high school student in a remote mountain town he had never visited.
The boy and girl thus met each other in their dreams, and with the belief of "No matter where you are in the world, I will definitely come to see you," they set out to find each other.
...
Although he had deep memories of the anime in his mind, due to the limitations of the Time, Aoki Haruhi made some subtle adjustments to the script outline in this game proposal.
For example—
The smartphone, this kind of thing has not been invented yet, so naturally, it cannot appear in the plan.
Relatively speaking, there was a slight regret, but overall, the impact was not very significant.
After reading, each person let out a sigh.
Ishino Mika lowered her eyelids and smiled silently.
She could almost feel the beauty of the story described in the script, and she had her own ideas about the emotions of the male and female protagonists, as well as their respective encounters.
If the details could be filled in completely, it would truly be a good story.
On the other side, Sakata Taiji and Ninjin Makoto had the same idea.
"This story of exchanging lives and saving each other is truly wonderful," Sakata Taiji exclaimed.
"Yes. Is this the CEO's work?" Ninjin Makoto caressed the original line drafts within it; although they weren't colored yet, he could already see beauty and—
A sense of déjà vu.
This feeling was truly very subtle, as if he had seen it in his dreams.
"I'm afraid I'll never be able to reach the CEO's talent in this lifetime," Ninjin Makoto said.
"No, no," Aoki Haruhi thought to himself, "This is your work to begin with."
The group chatted for a while, exchanging opinions on some uncertain issues, and Ishino Mika already had a good idea of things.
"Currently, the company is short-staffed, so let Shinkai be the original artist for this project for now. I hope the main design comes from Shinkai."
Aoki Haruhi said this to Sakata Taiji, the head of art.
The latter understood and nodded silently.
Although he still had some doubts, he was willing to trust the CEO's judgment.
"The only problem is, Shinkai is currently a freshman, and I don't know if he can manage his studies, and his Time is also unstable."
"It's fine, I can take it back to school to work on," Ninjin Makoto said.
It seems this guy is very interested in the "Your Name" project.
Sakata Taiji thought to himself.
However, he highly recognized Ninjin Makoto's original art ability; although some techniques were still a bit rusty, he had already shown extraordinary talent, and it was not impossible that he could become a master in the future.
Sakata Taiji even had the thought that—
It would be a waste of talent if this guy stayed in a game company.
According to his vision, Ninjin Makoto was more suitable to follow Hayao Miyazaki to make independent animation.
"But CEO, I'm still just an intern. Why did you choose me?" Ninjin Makoto asked weakly.
"Because I think you are the most suitable," Aoki Haruhi said decisively.
This was indeed Aoki Haruhi's honest truth; in this world, there was no one more suitable to be the original artist for "Your Name" than Ninjin Makoto.
Because this originally belonged to him.
"I've seen your work, and I find it quite beautiful and imaginative. After finishing this project proposal, my first thought was of you.
If it's you, you can probably do the best original art for the game. This is my first intuition."
Huh?
Is that so?
Ninjin Makoto suddenly felt a bit moved.
To receive such strong recognition from the CEO right after starting an internship at the company, he truly didn't know how to repay him.
"Okay, CEO, I will definitely work hard and strive not to let down your expectations."
...
After Ninjin Makoto and Sakata Taiji left, Ishino Mika held the project proposal and looked at Aoki Haruhi, hesitating to speak.
"What's wrong?" Aoki Haruhi turned around and asked.
"CEO, didn't you dislike making galgames?"
Aoki Haruhi's mouth twitched twice.
"The trend has changed... And making money isn't shameful, let alone our galgame is different from other galgames; we are a galgame that brings happiness and emotion to people!"
"Mmm," Ishino Mika nodded.
She didn't expect the CEO would eventually compromise for money.
However, being able to forge a different path for galgames also showed considerable personal charm.
But—didn't he know whether it was happy or not?
...
After assigning the work, Aoki Haruhi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Mainly, the company's repayment pressure was too great, so he didn't dare to take too many risks. Making money from a short-cycle galgame was also good.
Time gradually passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was late May.
The weather also began to warm up.
In early June, Aoki Haruhi was invited to attend the Chicago Electronic Consumer Exhibition in Chicago, USA.
The Chicago Electronic Consumer Exhibition was equivalent to the future E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo or Tokyo Game Show, mainly inviting large global electronics manufacturers to exhibit and promote their new products, and also allowing more people to access these cutting-edge products.
Around this Time last year, Nintendo and Sony were still at odds at the electronic exhibition.
A year passed in a flash, and Aoki Haruhi came to this stage belonging to the big shots.
The main reason for the invitation was that Sega would launch a new handheld console at this exhibition, and Pokémon and Sony were the main participants.
Of course, Nao Tsuda from DUN was also accompanying him.
...
The entire consumer exhibition was divided into two parts: the first part was the pre-exhibition press conference, where each participating company introduced its products, and media reporters and consumers would attend the event.
After the press conference, it was open for free viewing and experience.
Each participating company would have a fixed area, which they would set up and display products for consumers to experience.
At this Time, the process was relatively well-established, and similar exhibitions in the future would basically follow this model.
On the afternoon of the first day, Nintendo brought their SFC console, jointly developed and expanded with Philips. Because it used new disc technology, playing game on the SFC could increase the game capacity to over 500 megabytes.
This technology was actually not that advanced anymore; at last year's electronic exhibition, Sony had already presented the PS prototype developed for Nintendo.
Unfortunately, it had all turned into a pipe dream now.
It was quite ironic to recall.
But the media and players didn't seem to have such deep memories; when the Nintendo console was displayed on stage and the presenter played a demo on the TV, the audience still cheered for super mario.
Aoki Haruhi glanced back at Mr. Ken Kutaragi, Sony's representative, and saw that he had a resentful expression, clearly showing that he was determined and ready for revenge.
On the morning of the second day, it was Sega's turn for the pre-exhibition press conference.
Media reporters were already waiting in full force below, because before the press conference, everyone had already received news that Sega would launch a brand new handheld game console this year, jointly developed by Sega and Sony.
Coupled with the love-hate relationship between Sega, Sony, and Nintendo, the atmosphere of this press conference became intense.
Everyone was looking forward to a very dramatic performance.
...
The person demonstrating on stage for Sega was their sales manager from their American branch, named Tom Kalinske.
After Tom came on stage, he raised the microphone and smiled slightly, "Hello everyone, I'm Tom Kalinske, the sales manager of Sega."
There was a round of applause below.
Everyone had been looking forward to Sega for a long Time, just wanting to see what kind of sparks would fly between Sega and Nintendo this year.
Tom smiled slightly, "If there's anything in this world that can make our dreams come true, or even allow us to hold our dreams in our hands.
I think, at least this thing won't be black and white."
Hahahahaha...
A burst of laughter erupted below.
This was clearly hinting that Nintendo's Game Boy still had a black and white screen.
Randy, Nintendo's sales manager, didn't look very good, but when facing the media reporters' cameras, he still tried to force a smile.
"Whose dreams are black and white?"
Tom Kalinske spread his hands, then made an inviting gesture, and the staff below immediately ran onto the stage and placed a brand new handheld game console in his hand.
On the large screen, the camera zoomed in and magnified onto Kalinske's hand, showcasing the brand new game console.
"Now, I would like to solemnly introduce to you—
Sega!
GAME POCKET!"
...
Thunderous applause erupted again below.
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