Recently, Hero Entertainment CEO Wu Dan was interviewed by the domestic CG industry media. In the interview, he also mentioned the reasons for investing in "Black Myth: Wukong". Let’s take a look.
Interview video:
Original content:
"Making world-quality games is what I want to do now."
– Wu Dan
With the development of the times and the progress of social needs, the game industry is now gradually changing on the way forward, and major game manufacturers are increasingly paying attention to the quality of games.
Although not many games have been released this year, it is obvious that there is an "undercurrent" surging fiercely behind the game industry.
A certain manufacturer has acquired a game developer.
How many shares did a certain manufacturer invest in a certain company?
A well-known person in the game industry joined a factory…
All kinds of news like this have come out in 2021, and it seems that major manufacturers are hiring and investing.
With questions about the current investment situation in the game industry, we contacted Hero Games and interviewed the former Vice President of Zhen Fund and current CEO of Hero Games: Mr. Wu Dan (Daniel).
I hope to learn from the CEO of this game company about the attitude of big companies towards game art, his ideas for investing in games and management teams, and the quality and requirements of the CEO of a game company for talents and their own game products. This will bring some experience to game art practitioners and reveal how the most successful game investors choose to invest in games.
Daniel Wu, co-founder of Hero Entertainment and CEO of Hero Games, graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in business administration.
After one and a half years of joining Zhen Fund, he was promoted to Vice President of Zhen Fund. On behalf of Zhen Fund, he has successfully invested in games such as "Blade of Shadows", "Superheroes", "National Shootout", and "MT Gaiden", including the mobile game "Vanity" recommended at the Apple iPhone 6 conference.
It is difficult to let go of past achievements at will.
Long before the birth of Hero Games, Wu Dan was already a very good game investor and achieved high professional achievements. After a year and a half of joining Zhen Fund, he became the youngest vice president of Zhen Fund.
This resume can be said to be very dazzling, but he doesn’t think so.
During the interview, facing such a "legendary" figure, we were driven by curiosity and wanted to ask him about his previous achievements.The hero does not mention the courage of the year"He said with a faint smile:" Those achievements are not very high, even if I think it is now, it is only a drop in the ocean. "
Then he naturally began to tell us about his experience in making games after changing roles.
From a pure investor to an entrepreneur and manager, making all the decisions, the change of identity has actually made him make a lot of changes.
Compared with the previous investment, he did not need to tear down personnel structure management and project direction control. Now he obviously pays more attention to strategic direction and organizational management capabilities.
In the chat, he also told us bluntly that the wrong strategic direction was chosen, and the team’s three years were wasted. If the management ability is insufficient, then a team of hundreds of people will have many problems.
Although he carried more responsibilities, when we talked about the mission of the hero game and the game he made, he instantly became refreshed and said eight words casually. "World quality, made in China".
In fact, it can be seen from the introduction on the official website of Hero Games that they are a game manufacturer that has always strived for world quality.
And from this interview, we found that they are a company where everyone adheres to this philosophy.
"Of course, this road is definitely long, but we are definitely aiming for this."
In recent years, a number of large game companies have launched investments in various small and medium-sized game companies, and some have even directly acquired and merged.
Among them, hero games are among the best in terms of investment.
Under the leadership of Wu Dan, Hero Games has been successful in foreign investment in recent years. Among them, "Black Myth: Wukong" is a very successful investment.
This not only demonstrates Wu Dan’s unique vision, but also further demonstrates that he is a successful game investor.
"The first element of investment is the team, not the direction."
The second is to prioritize scarcity.
In the interview, he said that the team of "Black Myth: Wukong" can handle the industrial management of more than 250 people, and the members of the team themselves have rich experience in game production and can control large-scale 3D MMO games, which is extremely rare.
With his unique vision, he took a fancy to the team and the scarcity of the game "Black Myth: Wukong" and decided to participate in the investment.
The third is the commercial nature.
Art and business, in his opinion, are one and inseparable. He takes this very seriously in his investments, he believes, "If an art does not have commercial laws, it is easy to die".
When talking about the nature of art and business, it can be seen that he very much agrees with the concept of "you have me" in art and business.
Whether a game can be popular or not, in addition to the delicacy of the game and the exquisite art, the commercial attributes behind it have always been in Wu Dan’s consideration. For him, investing in games cannot be completely divorced from the laws of business.
Should the development of a game focus more on content, technology, or art?
Different people may have different understandings, and when it comes to choosing, there may be some torn.
But for Wu Dan, this problem is not a problem. He told us that hero games are all about finding art first, then planning and technology.
"Art must be the player’s first perception, and the first perception determines many things"…"
In his understanding, the art style may not determine the success or failure of a game, but it can determine the initial power of the game and the final ceiling of the product.
He and Hero Games place more emphasis on whether art can achieve an extreme effect, not limited to "What style of game is popular?","What style of game sells well?"From a popular style perspective.
He believes that when the art style of a game reaches its peak, there are no small-style games, but rather large-style games.
At the same time, for him, the choice of artistic style is equivalent to personal taste and brand.
He believes that in the process of making a game, the further back you go, basically a lot of things have to revolve around art, with art as the center for subsequent development.
"In fact, the management style of our entire company, whether it is planning, technology, or producers, all respect art. We don’t like to make particularly strong propositional essays. We usually have a big set direction. What kind of world view and what kind of style of artistic expression are actually determined by art."
For hero games, there have always been three tracks.
One: Sandbox survival game.
Two: high-quality content games.
Three: high-quality numeric-centric games.
These three tracks are the direction in which Hero Games has always been developing, and they are also the key development directions of Hero Games.
In today’s game market, many game companies have multiple or multiple types of successful products.
But it doesn’t seem to be the case for him. Instead of pursuing diverse development, he chose to focus the hero game on these three tracks.
Rooted, solid, and focused, in the process of chatting, you can see his perseverance and the clear direction of the future development of hero games in him.
And among these three tracks, sandbox games are the key track for hero games.
When we talked about the hero game in 2022, it seemed that there was a game about to be launched with the theme of "Create it! Our Planet", Wu Dan became very excited.
He told us that this is one of the key projects of Hero Games on the sandbox track, and it is a game they have iteratively upgraded based on the game "Creation and Magic".
"We want to create a world with no limits and countless flashes of style."
He introduced us to the game in great detailWorld view, design style, creative philosophy, degree of freedom, etcInformation, and even during the commentary, you can see his love and anticipation for this game in his eyes.
From his eyes, it could be seen that Wu Dan was full of confidence in this game that had not yet been launched. His confidence also made us look forward to a world full of imagination and creativity.
Wu Dan: "We want the player’s imagination and the space to create and play, the default is unlimited."
This interview lasted a total of one and a half hours, only 90 minutes. In fact, it is difficult to show this "legendary" game entrepreneur in three dimensions.
A simple black suit could not conceal his love and persistence for the game.
He revealed the characteristics of gamers, allowing us to see every gamer who is persevering and working hard in this industry.
He gives people a sense of ease and composure, but his words are very firm and powerful.
Seven o’clock:"After working on the sandbox for so long, have you ever thought of giving up or doing something else?"
Dan Wu:"The country has invested so much time in the realistic sandbox. In fact, there is no other one except us. There is no second one."
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