Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 196: President Gu Is No Longer in Charge of Game Development!

Chapter 196: Chapter 196: President Gu Is No Longer in Charge of Game Development!

February 7th, Friday evening at 6 p.m.

Heads of various departments from Nitiandang’s gaming company gathered in a meeting room on the first floor of a villa, ready for a meeting.

Wei Chengjie was somewhat puzzled, why did they have to hold the meeting after work hours?

If this was any other company, that would be quite normal.

But given the workload at Nitiandang, holding a meeting during the day wouldn’t have been a problem at all, right?

Zhou Yang responded like this.

"Don’t ask, just remember, any meeting held in the evening is one called by the investors! Just show some respect and make an appearance, and as for what is specifically said, you can take it or leave it."

Wei Chengjie was completely confused.

Although he had previously studied Nitiandang’s urban myths industriously and memorized these guidelines by rote, he still didn’t completely understand their underlying logic and had many questions about the details.

Especially concerning the complex relationship between investors and the company, which he had yet to fully grasp.

However, Wei Chengjie couldn’t be bothered to ponder these issues, as strictly speaking, his current position was that of "Lead Producer", meaning he wasn’t responsible for the game’s functional design but just needed to manage the project and ensure the game’s timely development.

With President Gu and Zhou Yang around, Wei Chengjie could just bury himself in his work without concerning himself with the trivial details.

While everyone was chatting idly, Lilith arrived.

No sooner had she sat down at the main conference table than she made a startling statement.

"Today’s meeting, well, there’s nothing particularly important, it’s mainly to adjust our company’s organizational structure.

"As everyone can see, with the continuous development of Nitiandang’s games, our on-paper funds have been increasing, and the original small workshop-style framework isn’t quite suitable anymore.

"Previously, President Gu had also mentioned to me the hope of reallocating some of the surplus funds for investment, right President Gu?"

Gu Fan wasn’t quite clear what Lilith was getting at, but he still nodded: "Yes."

This was something Gu Fan had indeed mentioned to Lilith before, but at that time, Lilith seemed to lack interest, apparently not taking it to heart.

Why bring up this matter now?

Quite puzzling!

As a profitable gaming company, Nitiandang, like many other successful gaming firms, encountered the problem of having too much cash on the books, to the point where they didn’t know how to spend it!

Although in the initial design, 70% of the company’s funds were intended for the development of the next game, this allocation method was feasible in the beginning, but now, that 70% of funding clearly exceeded what was needed to develop the next game.

Take Nitiandang’s current situation, for instance. Before the development of "Ascension," their development and operational funds had already reached 53 million.

The costs for "Ascension" came to about 37 million when different expenses were added up, which meant there was an approximate surplus of 16 million from the original funds.

And with the popularity and hot sales of "Ascension," in the one week since its release, it had already sold over a hundred thousand copies!

With a selling price of 138 per copy, the game had already brought in over 8 million in revenue in one week.

Given this data, it’s very likely that "Ascension" could exceed 500,000 in sales in the first month, and reaching a cumulative sales volume of a million shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.

In other words, the 37 million cost would eventually yield a revenue of over 80 million or even surpass a hundred million.

In addition, the other games were still contributing to the income steadily.

Combining all of this, if Nitiandang’s next game took three months to develop, then, strictly speaking, at least 56 million would be available for research and development funding, according to the 70% rule!

What game could cost so much money to develop?

Of course, there’s no ceiling to expenses in the gaming industry. If one is willing to work on those super productions, investing a few billion wouldn’t be difficult.

However, beholden to local conditions, Lilith was eager to amass a large amount of negative emotions in the short term, so she didn’t accept long development cycles; at most, three or four months, and the game needed to be released.

Even if there was a crazy hiring spree in the short term, a significant improvement in work efficiency was unlikely, as this was not a simple 1+1=2 problem.

So, it was basically impossible to spend that much on development costs.

What to do with these research and development funds, then? Naturally, they had to find other ways to spend them.

Of course, the signed contract can’t be violated; if it says 70% should be used for game promotion and development, it can only be used for game promotion and development.

The problem is that "game promotion and development" itself is a very broad concept.

Buying traffic counts as promotion, but does buying a building to advertise the game count as promotion?

Anything related to the game’s content is considered a development cost, so does the game’s physical disc count as a development cost? Do the peripherals that come with the physical disc count as part of the game’s development cost?

On these issues, Lilith’s contract didn’t specify in detail. If one were to nitpick, broadly related contents could essentially be forcibly included under this category.

"The money is just lying there in the company account; it might as well be put to some good use."

This was Gu Fan’s suggestion to Lilith, and at this moment, it was evident that Lilith had taken this advice to heart.

But why exactly had she adopted it? Gu Fan was still somewhat puzzled.

Lilith clapped her hands together, "Therefore, I’ve decided! There will be some adjustments to the current organizational structure of the company.

"President Gu will take the lead in exploring new business areas for our Nitiandang games and expand our territories!

"Physical industries, investments, or game peripherals... Any industry that is directly related to our main gaming business is viable for us to step into!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd couldn’t help but become excited.

Ah, President Li, finally you are doing something worthwhile as an investor!

However, old employees like Zhou Yang and Zhao Haiquan, besides being surprised, also held a deep skepticism.

They looked at each other and saw the same confusion in each other’s eyes.

This was completely out of character for President Li! Was this still the same moronic producer? How had she suddenly become so involved in personnel matters?

There has to be a problem, definitely a problem!

As expected, Lilith changed her tone, "So with this change... President Gu will be busy pioneering new fields and naturally won’t be able to juggle the development of the game as well.

"Therefore, Nitiandang games will undergo regular personnel adjustments.

"In order for President Gu to work without worries, Zhou Yang! Wei Chengjie! You two will take over President Gu’s mantle and be fully responsible for the game development!

"Especially Zhou Yang, later on, I will hand over the new game’s conceptual design draft to you. You have three days to refine it into a detailed game design document. This game is also President Gu’s idea, so you’d better take it seriously and not just go through the motions."

At this statement, everyone was shocked, "Then what will President Gu do?"

Lilith explained, "As I mentioned before. President Gu will mainly focus on pioneering new businesses and managing the company we invest in, Hell Frontline.

"Of course, President Gu is still the president of Nitiandang games, and when the company needs him, he can always come back to handle the business of the game department.

"Of course, what constitutes a ’need’... I’ll be strictly gatekeeping."

But these words evidently did not convince the employees present; they immediately became agitated.

"In the end, President Gu is no longer responsible for the game department?"

"No, that won’t do; that’s absolutely unacceptable!"

"Without President Gu, the game department will lose its soul! President Li, please reconsider!"

"Without President Gu, the game department will collapse immediately! Even if we develop new businesses, the gaming business is the lifeblood of Nitiandang!"

The crowd was in complete uproar, utterly unable to accept this arrangement!

Because everyone knew very well that Nitiandang games had survived until now because President Gu had played an irreplaceable role!

Without President Gu’s restraint, who knows what kind of things investor President Li would do.

Though Nitiandang games’ financial status seemed quite good at the moment, the gaming industry itself is highly risky. A single game failure can cause severe damage, and consecutive failures in two games could even lead to bankruptcy.

What about our bonuses then?

You’re not just picking a fight with President Gu, you’re gambling with the lives and livelihoods of all the employees!

Therefore, the decision was immediately met with unanimous opposition from everyone in the company!

Lilith’s eyes narrowed slightly, and her expression became very dangerous.

Obviously, she was becoming increasingly aware that there seemed to be some problems with Nitiandang company. And these issues would clearly hinder her grand endeavor of collecting negative emotions!

Now these employees only knew about President Gu and not about President Li, how could this be tolerated?

It turned out that even after giving these employees a lot of bonuses, she still hadn’t won their hearts...

As the tension between the two sides escalated, it was Gu Fan who spoke up.

"President Li, and everyone else, let’s all calm down for a moment.

"I fully support President Li’s decision regarding this matter!"

This response caused everyone to be taken aback.

Especially Lilith, who raised her eyebrows and uttered a curious "Hmm?", clearly taken by surprise.

Gu Fan looked at Zhou Yang and the other leaders of the company, "I believe that after working together for some time now, you all have a sound understanding of Nitiandang’s game design philosophy. Even if I am not intervening in the game development, you will surely be able to complete the tasks within your remit properly!"

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