According to statistics, more than 200 teams and thousands of enthusiasts have registered for the first "Star Showdown".
Although most participants are amateurs, the IPP's network and reputation mean that many professionals also participate.
The reason is that the three games that ultimately won this competition are eligible for promotion on IPP's platform!
For the average gamer, this is already a very rare opportunity.
Mingyan just finished reading the overall introduction to the competition and wants to take a closer look at the competition rules.
Xia Cheng, on the other side, laughed and said, "You don't need to read the rules. I'm not here to invite you to participate—if you participate, then all the other participants won't need to compete for the championship, and it will become a competition with only runners-up and third place."
Mingyan blinked: "What is that?"
"Judges."
Xia Cheng spoke briefly, turning to a page of the document in front of Mingyan.
The "Star Showcase" has reached its final stage, and it's clear that the three best entries will be selected.
As is customary for this type of activity, the final game score will be based on a combination of two data points.
One is the data collected by players during the trial phase, as well as the votes and scores given by players;
Another factor is the judges' scores. The highest and lowest scores will be discarded, and then the average score will be taken.
The former accounts for 70%, and the latter accounts for 30%.
The proposal already includes a list of judges to be invited.
Three people have already accepted the invitation; they are all big names in the gaming industry in the Sixth Star Province. The remaining few are still in negotiations.
Mingyan, who was probably the youngest among the judges, couldn't help but say, "If I were to be a judge, would my qualifications be a bit lacking...?"
Xia Cheng shook his head and said, "Do you know how many perfect scores have ever been produced in the Sixth Star Province?"
Mingyan honestly replied, "I don't know, but I'd guess there are thirty or forty?"
Xia Cheng smiled and said, "Thirty or forty is the treatment for the Central Star Province. In the Sixth Star Province, there are a total of 21 works, including your 'Blue Star Apocalypse'."
Mingyan let out a soft "Ah," somewhat surprised.
Xia Cheng counted on his fingers and said, "Among the judges we invited, only one of them, like you, has been the lead designer of a perfect score game. The rest are either designers who have participated in the project or have worked on classic games with a score of 9.5 or higher... but none of them have led the design and development of three games with a score of 9.5 or higher, just like you."
Mingyan blinked, unsure what to say.
Xia Cheng laughed and said, "If it weren't for the fact that you're relatively reclusive, all sorts of events, associations, and companies wanting to get close to you and invite you would have lined up all the way outside the star system by now. You really should come out and see the world more often."
He bluntly stated, "I still have to work on a new game, so I don't have time to go out and play."
Xia Cheng said, "...That's a completely unsurprising answer."
In fact, Xia Cheng was right.
More than a year ago, when Blue Star Studio was gradually gaining fame, Mingyan received many invitations in his inbox.
The Sixth Star Province has many game design-related associations and organizations that have tried to invite Mingyan to join; many award selections have also notified Mingyan to come and receive the awards and prize money.
Some even wanted to award him positions such as "honorary vice chairman"...
But he explicitly said he refused because he found it too troublesome.
After all, he's a workaholic who doesn't even want to engage in the most basic social interactions.
The same goes for this invitation from IPP. If Xia Cheng hadn't personally delivered the invitation, Mingyan would have had no chance of even opening the letter and glancing at it.
As for organizations that want to invite Mingyan to join or invest in Blue Star Studio, there are even more.
Given Bluestar's business capabilities at the time, even super-capital giants like cruise lines saw its potential and wanted a piece of the pie, not to mention other venture capital firms.
But until this year, none of them expected that Blue Star's money-making ability would be several times more terrifying than the cruise ship's estimates.
If they had known that "Blue Star Apocalypse" would be so successful, the cruise line would never have given up on Mingyan so easily!
IPP is now the only designated commercial partner of Blue Star Studio.
Many people within the company are secretly rejoicing, realizing how fortunate they were to have gone back to sign Minecraft back then...
Manager Xia Cheng's ability to recognize talent and decisively befriend the chief designer of Blue Star is truly admirable...
Blue Star Studio is now a well-known and high-performing company in the local area. Partnering with them guarantees good performance and a bright future.
The holding of this "Star Showcase Competition" is also an olive branch extended to Mingyan by IPP.
They can collaborate in other areas besides game publishing, which is a manifestation of their close and friendly relationship.
In other words, if he explicitly accepts the invitation, it means he has a very high level of goodwill towards IPP.
Xia Cheng's inner thoughts: That's right, the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his work time to accept my invitation already shows that he has a high level of affection for me.
Mingyan did struggle internally for a moment.
However, considering that the design of "The Mortal Soul" has temporarily come to an end, and there is still some time before he enters the development room for the ALPHA version, he really doesn't have any urgent work lately...
Then he looked at Xia Cheng's expectant expression.
Xia Cheng pressed on, saying, "I guarantee it won't take up much of your time. It's just the last day for the scoring, and you'll need to try out eight games in total. We've also prepared a generous appearance fee."
Well... doing activities with business partners, that can be considered a form of work, right?