120: Chapter 120 Is this an alarm clock?

Over the next few days, everything at the company ran steadily.

The data for "defend the carrot" continued to grow; although the growth rate had slowed down slightly compared to previous days, it was still far ahead of other games.

Daily new downloads remained stable at several hundred thousand, and the curve for in-game item purchases was slowly climbing without any signs of a cliff-like drop—this indicated that the game's lifecycle was longer than Chen Fan had anticipated.

Monday morning.

Chen Fan had no classes, so he didn't even need to ask for leave and went straight to the company.

After arriving at the company, he first checked the data for "defend the carrot". Total downloads had already exceeded 4.8 million, and revenue had reached over 8.23 million.

Perhaps because it was the weekend, the payment data had increased significantly compared to the previous days—Saturday and Sunday combined contributed nearly 1.5 million in revenue, with users showing a significantly higher willingness to pay than on weekdays.

After reviewing the payment data, Chen Fan pulled out the project proposal for "happy elimination" that the planning team had prepared.

This was what Sun Zheyuan had sent to his email before getting off work last Friday, and he hadn't had the chance to look at it closely yet.

Taking advantage of his free time this morning, he printed out the document and sat at his desk to flip through it slowly.

He had only flipped through two pages when his brow furrowed.

This proposal was very different from what Chen Fan had envisioned.

The theme still used gems.

It wasn't that this direction was bad, but it was too generic. There were already a ton of match-three games with gem themes on the market, and players had long since developed aesthetic fatigue.

Making another one just like them wouldn't have any appeal.

He immediately called over the planner, Sun Zheyuan.

"Mr. Chen, were you looking for me?" Sun Zheyuan knocked on the door and walked in.

Chen Fan spread the proposal out on the desk and pointed to the plan on it: "Who decided on this theme?"

"Uh... that was my idea," Sun Zheyuan leaned in to take a look and pushed up his glasses. "The gem theme is quite mature on the market, and the risk is low. Plus, the art assets are easy to make; just draw some gems, no need for overly complex designs."

"No." Chen Fan interrupted him, his tone not harsh but very direct. "Gems are too monotonous."

"There are already games on the market using gems. When players see 'gems again,' they won't even have the interest to click on it. If we make another one like this, why would players choose ours?"

Sun Zheyuan was stunned for a moment, then immediately nodded: "You're right."

He didn't argue or explain. Because of the success of "defend the carrot," Sun Zheyuan was already completely convinced by this young boss.

A college student not even twenty years old, whose first game had achieved millions of global downloads and nearly ten million in monthly revenue—this couldn't be explained by just luck.

"Then, Mr. Chen, what kind of theme do you think would be better?"

Chen Fan leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment.

"Let's use animals."

He picked up the pen on the table, pulled over a blank sheet of A4 paper, and started sketching casually.

First, he drew a round head, then two round eyes, and finally, a big mouth.

Sun Zheyuan took a look, a flash of confusion in his eyes.

"Mr. Chen, is this an alarm clock?"

The corner of Chen Fan's mouth twitched. He had clearly drawn a frog, so how could it be an alarm clock?

He looked down at what he had drawn: a round face, big eyes, a wide mouth, with crooked lines. It didn't look like a frog at all; it really did look a bit like one of those old-fashioned alarm clocks on a nightstand.

He set the pen down on the table and said expressionlessly: "This is a frog."

Sun Zheyuan glanced at the paper, then at Chen Fan's expression, and nodded without hesitation: "The boss is right, this is indeed a frog."

Chen Fan stared at him for two seconds, and Sun Zheyuan returned an innocent look.

"Fine," Chen Fan crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it onto the table. "Let the art team work their magic and draw those kinds of round, cute animals. Don't use gems, understand?"

"Understood." Sun Zheyuan looked down and diligently wrote down "Animal theme, round shapes, cute style" in his notebook, then looked up. "Mr. Chen, is there anything else?"

"The background interface," Chen Fan said. "Use a vine, the kind that has no end. Every time a level is cleared, it climbs up a bit."

"A vine?" Sun Zheyuan paused, his pen tip stopping on the paper. "We aren't using a traditional level map?"

"No." Chen Fan shook his head. "Level maps are too common; players just click around, and it doesn't feel like much. With a vine climbing upward, players can intuitively see their progress—climbing higher and higher, further and further. They'll always want to know what's above, so they'll naturally keep playing level after level."

Sun Zheyuan pondered this for a moment, his eyes slowly lighting up.

"Okay, Mr. Chen. Do you see anything else that needs changing?"

"Let's start with these changes for now and see how it goes."

"Very well, Mr. Chen."

Sun Zheyuan closed his notebook and turned to leave, but stopped and glanced back at the paper with the frog drawing on the table.

"Mr. Chen, should I... take this frog to show the art team as a reference?"

"Take it."

Sun Zheyuan gathered the paper and walked quickly back to his workstation.

Not long after Sun Zheyuan left, Chen Fan's phone rang.

He picked up his phone and saw it was a call from Counselor Shen Na.

Why would his counselor be calling?

Chen Fan's expression darkened. Could it be that another teacher had reported him?

Last week, there were only classes on Friday and Saturday, and he had skipped one class during those two days.

Plus, he had gotten Wang Lei and the others to help him answer the roll call for that class, and the teacher hadn't noticed.

With a head full of questions, Chen Fan answered the phone.

"Hello, Teacher Shen."

"Chen Fan, there's something I want to talk to you about."

"What is it? Did some teacher report me to you?"

"Report? Report what?" Counselor Shen Na on the other end of the phone sounded confused, then, as if realizing something, her voice raised a few octaves. "Did you commit some kind of offense?"

"I didn't commit any offense. I just thought some teacher had reported me for skipping class again."

Hearing this, Counselor Shen Na was between laughter and tears, and said crossly: "No one reported you. I'm calling you to tell you that I reported your company startup to the dean of our School of Management, and after hearing about it, he wants to come and see the company."

"Why would the leader want to come to our company?"

"Didn't I tell you before that the leadership might come for an inspection? Besides, the school encourages entrepreneurship among students, and since you've already achieved results, the leadership attaches great importance to it."

After finishing, Counselor Shen Na lowered her voice and said, "Let me tell you, you need to seize this opportunity. If the leadership is satisfied, it will be hard for you to fail a course in the future."