The night of the awards ceremony.
All the designers knew that the talks and conferences were just for show. The real highlight was the awards ceremony at night.
The talks were just for show, but the awards ceremony at night represented the achievements and honors of the designers.
The designers entered the venue. There were already a lot of people when Chen Mo and the others entered.
This year's awards ceremony seemed to be grander than previous years. Although the venue didn't change, the decorations were more extravagant. There were even cameras to record the entire ceremony.
Moreover, a few video websites started broadcasting it.
This was the first time the awards ceremony was broadcasted live. The previous awards ceremonies were technically fine. The reason why it wasn't broadcasted was because the Game Committee didn't want to arrange it. The awards ceremony was an internal affair between the designers and the Game Committee, and had little to do with the players.
But this year, the Game Committee probably wanted to expand the influence of the awards ceremony to allow more players to participate. This was the first time they had a live broadcast for the players to watch.
Although they did have a live broadcast, it wasn't a big deal. It was only streamed on a few streaming platforms and video websites, so it wasn't very popular.
Even so, there were still hundreds of thousands of viewers watching.
Many of the viewers were discussing it in the chat.
"Why isn't it starting yet?"
"Hurry up, reveal the award!"
"Grand Tang Game of the Year, it's a sure thing!"
"Will there be League of Legends?"
"Can we see Chen Mo? Where is Chen Mo? "
"Are those S-grade videogame designers sitting in the front row? Who are they? It's too far … "
The awards ceremony hadn't officially started yet, so the video was still of the videogame designers entering the venue. Most of the viewers were gamers who were interested in the video game industry, preferring VR and single player games. There was also a small portion who joined for novelty.
Chen Mo, Zhang Xiaokong and the others entered the venue together, and the staff did their best to guide them.
What surprised Chen Mo was that he wasn't seated with Zhang Xiaokong, Qiu Hengyang, and the others. Instead, he was seated near the front.
Chen Mo didn't see a single familiar face as he looked around, which made him feel awkward.
Zhang Xiaokong said, "As expected, you're different in the eyes of the Game Committee. You're no longer sitting with us. Hurry up and go, have fun with the designers from Emperor Dynasty and Zen. "
"…"
The seats were all arranged in advance. Other than the leaders in the front row, the seats were arranged according to the designer's rank. The first two rows were basically all S-grade designers, and further back were A-grade, B-grade, and so on.
Of course, there were differences between designers of the same level. Some A-grade designers already had a few masterpieces, so of course they would sit closer to the front.
As for Chen Mo, he was assigned a more sensitive position in the first two rows, but his position was relatively to the side.
Strictly speaking, Chen Mo was still an A + grade designer, not an S-grade designer. However, there were still two or three empty seats left, so Chen Mo was squeezed in.
Obviously, in the eyes of the Game Committee leaders, Chen Mo was only one step away from S grade.
Chen Mo basically knew all of the other S-grade designers, but he had never spoken to them or interacted with them. Most of these designers worked for Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Zen Entertainment, neither of which Chen Mo had a good relationship with.
There were a few independent designers, but they were more of a loner, focusing on making games and rarely showing their faces in public, so Chen Mo didn't have many chances to interact with them.
Most of the S-grade designers maintained a polite distance when they saw Chen Mo.
The reasons for this were quite complicated. Part of the reason was that scholars tended to look down on each other. As S-grade designers, they all had their own pride. Another reason was the discord between the companies. Since Thunderbolt Entertainment wasn't on good terms with Emperor Dynasty and Zen Entertainment, especially since Lin Chaoxu and Liu Yuanfeng had been secretly pissed off by Chen Mo, it wasn't a good idea for the designers to get too close to Chen Mo.
As for why these S-grade video game designers wanted to join Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Zen Entertainment, that was a whole other story.
Making games was a high risk but also a high reward. These large scale VR games could easily cost tens or even hundreds of millions. It would be great if they made a profit, but what if they made a loss? Most S-grade designers wouldn't be able to take that risk.
The biggest benefit of joining a big company like Emperor Dynasty or Zen Entertainment was that they could avoid risk. The company would take care of the R&D and marketing, so it didn't matter if they made a loss, since it was the company that made the loss. Even if they made a profit, they would still make a lot of money.
Taking everything into consideration, joining a big company could effectively avoid risk, allowing the designers to work without any worries.
Most designers were only good at making games, and didn't know anything about company operations or marketing. Therefore, these big companies were attractive to the S-grade designers.
As for Chen Mo, he was a special case. There were very few designers like him who started from scratch, developed games, created distribution channels, and even became their own boss. That was why he was the odd one out.
As Chen Mo sat down, the designer next to him turned around.
"Chen Mo? I've heard a lot about you. "
Chen Mo recognized this person, Zen Entertainment's S-grade videogame designer Ran He, the creator of Blazing Assault.
Ran He was one of the more established S-grade videogame designers in China, specializing in FPS games, and had quite a bit of fame in the video game industry.
Chen Mo immediately replied, "I'm flattered, you're my senior."
Ran He smiled. "What senior? I just entered the industry a few years earlier than you. This year's release of Overwatch has been going strong. If nothing unexpected happens, this year's Game of the Year should be your Overwatch. You'll be entering the S-rank."
The two chatted for a bit.
As an FPS videogame designer, Ran He had done a lot of research on Overwatch, and knew how innovative the game was, which was why he had such high hopes for it.
As for himself, he had just finished a big update for Blazing Assault this year, and the new game was still in preparation, so he didn't have any work to participate in the judging.
S-grade videogame designers like Ran He had long since passed the point of winning with quantity, and it would be great if they could produce one work every two to three years.
This was especially true for designers like Ran He and Qin Xiao, who had designed high-quality games. Normally, they wouldn't open new projects frequently. They would prioritize running their old projects well, and only consider opening new projects when the lifespan of their old projects was almost up.
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