Wu Bin was also at the annual party venue, helping his colleagues from the Human Resources department distribute tokens, dining vouchers, and explaining the procedures to other employees.

Although he still had to work during the annual party, Wu Bin had no complaints; in fact, he was quite happy.

Because of the sense of participation and pride!

Wu Bin couldn’t help but think back to last year’s annual party: he had just joined Tenda not long ago, and failed the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test on his first attempt.

As an intern, Wu Bin couldn’t participate in regular work, let alone overtime. Every day he could only try to understand the Tenda Spirit, watching his colleagues busily working while he couldn’t contribute at all, feeling somewhat dejected.

Even though Wu Bin attended last year’s annual party as an intern and received all the rewards he was entitled to, which made him feel the warmth of home.

After a year of hard work, Wu Bin had become an indispensable member of Tenda’s Human Resources department!

Not only had he personally participated in two new employee recruitment activities, but he had also successfully summarized the Tenda Spirit, providing spiritual guidance for all future Tenda employees.

Now, Wu Bin felt he had become an indispensable member of Tenda. Being able to be responsible for annual party preparations and play his part in his position was also a form of happiness!

Soon, Wu Bin saw many familiar faces, including department heads and key members from various departments; there were also some new faces, probably the employees from the recent recruitment.

During this recruitment, a small number of people were eliminated. For the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test, the pass rate was no longer 100%.

However, Wu Bin thought this was a good thing. These new employees who ultimately passed the test truly matched the Tenda Spirit perfectly, and would certainly play an even greater role in their positions!

Since Wu Bin was from Human Resources, he had access to these personnel files, so he had impressions of both new and veteran employees.

Seeing the annual party procedures, veteran employees showed a sense of excitement within their expected reactions, while new employees were completely shocked.

This was nothing like the annual party they had imagined!

When they learned the annual party venue was at Far Great Land, the new employees basically guessed this would be an annual party completely different from other companies, but they didn’t expect it to be this wonderful.

This annual party had no annoying segments; it was entirely a carnival for the employees themselves.

Although veteran employees who attended last year’s party were mentally prepared, this year’s annual party scale and procedures far exceeded their expectations.

Most employees couldn’t even imagine such a perfect annual party!

Everyone’s faces radiated happiness. After receiving tokens, dining vouchers, and red envelopes, they couldn’t wait to shop in the mall.

On weekends and holidays, the Far Great Land daily foot traffic could reach tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands; the mall’s capacity was quite impressive.

Today was a weekday, with naturally fewer people. Even with Tenda Group’s two thousand employees, they wouldn’t create much impact; the overall foot traffic was moderate, neither too sparse nor too crowded.

Only when nearly two thousand people returned to the top floor for the lottery drawing would the foot traffic become a bit dense, but it was at most similar to GOL spring season regular game days.

One by one, employees went to the 8th floor and returned to the mall to eat and shop, each face radiating happiness.

Once sign-in was mostly complete, the Human Resources team would also join the fun, leaving only a few people to take turns on duty.

Wu Bin checked the tablet computer for sign-in. All departments were quite punctual; about seventy to eighty percent had arrived.

“Eh, Bao Xu didn’t come?”

“Could he be afraid of winning another trip, so he didn’t even come to the annual party?”

“That extreme?”

“Oh wait, he seems to still be in Los Angeles, couldn’t make it back…”

Bao Xu was an employee from Tenda’s gaming department, with seniority, so his ranking was quite high. Wu Bin noticed immediately that he hadn’t signed in.

Although many departments’ employees had never met Bao Xu, they all knew his legend.

After all, GOG created a hero specifically for him, and the “Lonely Desert Highway” DLC also featured an Easter egg for him. If any prize was an overseas trip and Bao Xu didn’t win it, everyone would feel that prize was incomplete.

Wu Bin initially thought Bao Xu intentionally skipped the party to avoid being drawn for travel again, but when he saw names like Min Jingchao and Ye Zhizou, he instantly realized they were all still in Los Angeles, not back in China yet, so they couldn’t attend.

The ioi Global Finals in Los Angeles would have its finals match this weekend, a decisive battle. FV team members and the data analysis team were probably still intensively preparing. As a member of the data analysis team, Bao Xu was definitely busy with this matter.

Wu Bin felt somewhat regretful but didn’t mind much. Seeing it was almost time, he also took his dining vouchers with some colleagues to find a place to eat in the mall.

…

Meanwhile, in the Capital, Independent Game Incubator Base.

“Good, it’s done!”

“Now I can finally rest easy and go home for the New Year.”

“After completing all work, we get complete vacation. We’ll continue development after returning next year.”

Qiu Hong ran through the “Ink and Smoke” demo one more time, watched the promotional video for “Ink and Smoke,” and was very satisfied.

After “The Office Worker’s Survival Manual” achieved success, it gave both Qiu Hong and the entire Poor Journey Plan a shot in the arm.

Qiu Hong decided to strike while the iron was hot, leveraging the current popularity of “The Office Worker’s Survival Manual” to release a promotional video and demo for “Ink and Smoke,” letting more people know about the Poor Journey Plan.

Additionally, they could start pre-sales for “Ink and Smoke” to gauge player feedback.

The only restriction Mr. Pei placed on the Poor Journey Plan was not revealing the relationship between Tenda Group and the Poor Journey Plan; he didn’t prohibit Qiu Hong from promoting the program.

Because Pei Qian felt promotion wouldn’t affect the success or failure of this endeavor. After all, there were many domestic competitions and activities supporting indie games that promoted heavily but with minimal effect.

Qiu Hong himself didn’t expect this promotion to have any great effect. At most, it would let domestic players who enjoy indie games know about the “Poor Journey Plan.”

On one hand, compared to online games and mobile games in China, players of single-player PC games were inherently fewer, with most of them preferring mainstream game modes and AAA titles. Players who enjoyed exploring indie games online were an extreme minority. On the other hand, game development was ultimately a commercial activity; emotional manipulation couldn’t work, and attempting it would likely fail.

If a game development company kept emphasizing how difficult things were, hoping to gain player sympathy to sell more games, it would be quite foolish and would actually disgust players.

Players only cared whether you could deliver good games. If you could, they’d pay; if not, if you lost money and went under, it was simply due to lack of ability.

Therefore, Qiu Hong chose this timing when “The Office Worker’s Survival Manual” gained popularity to promote the Poor Journey Plan.

Regardless, this was still a good start.

At the incubator base, Xi Hao, Wu Zhicheng and others were responsible for different tasks. After checking the video and demo, they coordinated with ESRO platform staff to upload the “Ink and Smoke” demo online and added “Poor Journey Plan” promotional images and videos to game pages related to “Ink and Smoke,” “The Office Worker’s Survival Manual,” and other Poor Journey Plan games.

After completing all submissions, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, they managed to produce some results before the Spring Festival, living up to the expectations of the boss behind Qiu Hong!

Although they didn’t know exactly who the financial backer behind Qiu Hong was, it didn’t affect his lofty image in everyone’s minds.

Because this boss was incredibly generous.

They had learned from Qiu Hong that incubator base employees all received substantial year-end bonuses, plus various gifts, red envelopes, and vouchers, with every independent game creator also receiving special gifts.

This boss behind Qiu Hong not only invested money to support indie games as charity work but was also so generous to everyone. How guilty would they feel if they couldn’t produce results!

Fortunately, they had achieved some results, and everyone could finally return home for the New Year with peace of mind.

Independent game creators, represented by Wu Zhicheng, were secretly determined to work twice as hard when they returned after the New Year to make their games excellent!

This wasn’t just for themselves, but also for the incubator base staff who had always helped them, and for that mysterious boss behind everything!

…

At Jingzhou Far Great Land, Tenda employees were happily shopping around the mall, drawing envious gazes wherever they went.

Others paid for meals with cash, cards, or scanning codes, but Tenda employees dined lavishly as if money was no object, then confidently handed over meal vouchers to cashiers before walking away.

Shopping was the same. The 1,000 yuan shopping vouchers could be spent freely. Most people chose to buy clothes, since annual party prizes included electronics and appliances – with high winning odds, buying such items might be awkward if they won them later.

Many uninformed onlookers watched Tenda employees hand over paper slips to pay, their faces filled with shock and confusion.

After asking staff, they learned Tenda was hosting their annual party in the mall today, and both meal and shopping vouchers were company-issued, fully reimbursed.

Some visitors went to the 8th floor and found it completely transformed, filled with claw machines and various mini-game areas. Upon inquiry, they learned Tenda had reserved the entire floor for their employees to play freely; outsiders weren’t allowed.

No other feeling – just envy, jealousy, and resentment!

Look at other people’s companies, then look at your own!

People had heard Tenda offered great benefits before, but it was just hearsay. They had no concrete concept of how good the benefits actually were.

But now, witnessing Tenda employees laughing and chatting while shopping, dining, playing games, and even using GOL venue for lottery drawings…

Various photos were posted online, sparking heated discussion.

Many people were inspired and quietly began preparing for Tenda’s recruitment exams next year.

For such a company, failing once meant trying twice; failing twice meant trying three times – they had to get in no matter what!

People online exclaimed this wasn’t Tenda’s annual party at all – it was clearly a Tenda recruitment advertisement!