Chapter 241 – General Assembly

Cloud Journey tells the story of a girl named Gloudy on a journey of self-discovery and finding her sense of belonging.

Born with a different appearance from the residents of the Holy Kingdom, she was exiled. Initially alone, she was filled with inferiority and confusion, always avoiding others.

Despite being ostracized, Gloudy maintained a kind heart. After rescuing an injured crow, she became friends with it.

With the crow as a catalyst, Gloudy met all sorts of people and made many friends. One friend informed her of a realm above the clouds where others like her lived, prompting Gloudy to embark on a journey to find this kingdom above the clouds.

Throughout her journey, Gloudy traveled to many places, solved various puzzles, and gained friendships and personal growth. She gradually developed a strong sense of independence, becoming confident and outgoing. However, upon reaching the distant kingdom, she found only ruins.

If Gloudy hadn’t formed all the necessary 【Friendships】 (similar to rewards from important side quests) along the way, her journey would also end among the ruins, with her friends who had bonded with her appearing in the final scene to accompany her.

But if Gloudy had forged all the necessary 【Friendships】, her friends wouldn’t just accompany her—they would also help her discover a hidden dream gate. Through this gate, Gloudy would see her homeland as it once was, along with its residents and her family.

In this lengthy hidden chapter, she would learn the history of the rise and fall of the Cloud Kingdom and discover that she is its last remaining citizen. She would then carry on the wishes of her parents and kin, living a happy and fulfilled life.

Cloud Journey has a straightforward and clear storyline, with the theme essentially being a tale of personal growth, similar to the story of the ugly duckling transforming into a swan.

It doesn’t aim to convey profound philosophy. The narrative Mei Fang designed was intended to leave players with a warm feeling and a smile, emphasizing the atmosphere created by the art, interactive environments, and music to provide a good interactive experience.

Judging by Yue Xinyi’s feedback, Mei Fang’s design seemed relatively successful.

Mei Fang got quite the beating from Yue Xinyi. After all, Yue Xinyi had grown up consuming all kinds of novels and manga, gaining a vast amount of experience.

Her punches were nothing like Xia Yuan’s playful taps on the chest—Yue Xinyi’s hits really hurt Mei Fang.

“Scumbag Mei Dog, do you even have a heart?! I worked so hard playing as Gloudy, why couldn’t she get a happy ending in the end?”

“Gloudy isn’t that pitiful… Ro, Yale, and Wood are still with her in the end, isn’t that a happy ending?”

After venting about Mei Fang’s script design, Yue Xinyi became somewhat reflective. “Originally, I thought you guys were just making some money-grabbing, fun games. But it turns out you can actually create something artistic. This Cloud Journey feels like it opened a new door to a different world for me. I never imagined a game could be made like this.”

“Of course! With our Mei Fang’s gaming experience…” Xia Yuan began to praise her childhood sweetheart, boasting to everyone around them. Yue Xinyi, watching this, tugged on Lin Youxi’s arm.

“You’re just going to stand by and watch?” Yue Xinyi asked.

“And what’s wrong with watching?” Lin Youxi tilted her head.

Yue Xinyi looked at Lin Youxi with an expression of frustration and whispered to her, “I think Yuan Yuan is just one step away from outright saying she’s Mei Dog’s girlfriend. You better not wait until it’s too late, when things are already a done deal, to start regretting it.”

“Oh, that…” Lin Youxi didn’t respond directly. Instead, she smiled and brushed off Yue Xinyi’s concerns. “You’re overthinking it. This is just the kind of relationship we childhood sweethearts have.”

“What the heck!” Yue Xinyi was driven nearly crazy by Lin Youxi’s “cluelessness” and “indecisiveness.”

Only Liu Xiaoyu, who knew everything, felt sympathy for her. Yue Xinyi had once claimed to be Lin Youxi’s best friend back in middle school, yet even she wasn’t told about Lin Youxi and Mei Fang’s kiss.

However, explaining it now would be complicated, and there wasn’t much point in doing so anyway——

Mei Fang is their shared boyfriend or something…

Even though the final game build was finished, the work on releasing the game wasn’t over yet.

First, Mei Fang needed to handle the game’s marketing and operations. In 2012, Steam was still mostly just a launcher for Dota 2 in China, but the Greenlight^[1] feature, a hallmark of indie game development, was introduced. This system allowed independent game developers to submit their games for community voting, giving smaller games a chance to be featured on the platform.

While registering as a developer and uploading Cloud Journey on Steam, Mei Fang was also preparing related content for C Site.

Cloud Journey was his painstaking “debut” game. Although it was initially inspired by an indie game from his past life called GRIS, the story had been completely adapted to reflect Guo Yun’s growth.

You can see influences from Celeste, Monument Valley, and Journey in the game. The friendship mechanic was inspired by Undertale, and the dream gate was borrowed from the later indie masterpiece Hollow Knight. These borrowed elements were not plagiarism; they were a culmination of Mei Fang’s experiences. This is how games evolve from generation to generation.

Of course, during the process of making this game, Mei Fang also had many things he wished he could have done differently, but this feeling of unfulfilled aspirations tends to surface every time he completes a project.

The difference this time was that the project had been completed entirely under his leadership as the boss. Mei Fang had always mocked his previous bosses for not understanding games.

But just how much did he truly understand them?

This was the moment of truth.

While Mei Fang was organizing the follow-up tasks for the game, everyone took some time to relax towards the end of the summer. They had a few good meals, all on Boss Mei’s tab, and visited various amusement parks. Just as everyone was starting to discuss heading back home, news came from Mei Yue—the company’s office space had been fully renovated and was ready for them to move in.

Most of the core members of Mei Fang’s company were students under 18. However, leaving aside the Ximilu Studio, the actual operating team for C Site consisted of a group of part-time members Mei Fang recruited using his influence as the site owner.

Under Mei Yue’s guidance, Mei Fang and Lin Youxi prepared official job offers for their part-time team members. Due to the rapidly growing influence of C Site, many of the part-timers from smaller companies quickly agreed to switch over and sign the offers.

Although the salary wasn’t high, the experience of working at C Site was incredibly valuable.

However, a small number of employees from larger companies hesitated, worried that C Site wasn’t as stable as A Site, and their current salaries were much more attractive than what Mei Fang was offering, so they remained undecided and kept watching the situation.

“This time, I brought everyone to Jiangcheng not only to help push Cloud Journey forward but also to gather everyone for a full company meeting. Of course, by “everyone,” I mean all the people from Lin Xi Technology and Ximilu Games, including our previous outsourcing teams—who are now officially our colleagues,” Mei Fang announced.

Everyone seemed a bit nervous after hearing this.

“We’re all still high school students, but some of those part-time employees have been working for years, right? There might even be some of those big-bellied, middle-aged programmers with receding hairlines… Won’t we, as minors, be looked down upon when we meet them?” someone asked.

“It’s okay to have those thoughts,” Mei Fang reassured them. “These people who are officially signing contracts are the most trusted core members of the C Site team that Youxi and I rely on. Outwardly, Sister Yue Yue is the company’s legal representative and nominal leader. And besides, just by looking at us, no one can tell if we’re sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, or whatever. As long as we don’t make a big deal out of it, we’ll be fine…”

Mei Fang then looked around at everyone and continued, “But since this is a company we built together, you can be more relaxed here. If anyone really has social anxiety, you don’t have to attend the full meeting tomorrow. I can introduce you all online.”

“Social anxiety? Come on, anyone who’s stuck with you until now definitely doesn’t have social anxiety,” Yue Xinyi retorted. “If anyone does, it’s just the socially awkward ones——”

She was in the middle of roasting Mei Dog when she noticed Xia Yuan feeding Mei Fang various snacks while listening to him talk. Yue Xinyi immediately became furious.

Are all childhood sweethearts so lawless these days?