Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 203: The Ultimate Solution for the Miniature Steering Wheel!

Chapter 203: Chapter 203: The Ultimate Solution for the Miniature Steering Wheel!

February 13th, Thursday.

Sky Against Heaven Game Experience Store.

The renovation team was very efficient and had already started work on the site.

Gu Fan generally entrusted Xiao Mingyu with matters related to the experience store, directing only the general selection of the location, conceiving the renovation plan, and then finding commercial properties, signing long-term leases, and hiring reliable renovation companies—all these tasks were handled by Xiao Mingyu alone.

The renovation team as a whole was quite reliable. The designer was amazed at the renovation plan Gu Fan had proposed and offered some professional advice.

Thus, the renovation work of the experience store unfolded rapidly and vigorously.

Gu Fan had specifically chosen various eco-friendly materials, hoping to complete the renovation in a little over two months, and aimed to open for business in time to coincide with the release of the new game.

After finishing his tasks, Gu Fan went to a nearby café to meet with the person in charge of the Zhìtōng controllers.

"President Gu, I presume? Hello! My name is Lu Haocheng, and I’m here to discuss the product design with you today."

"This is the preliminary design I’ve come up with. Please take a look," Lu Haocheng said as he handed the printouts of the design plan to Gu Fan.

Gu Fan took them and first looked at the co-branded controller design.

The design was relatively simple, consisting of just two or three pages, basically a reskin.

Zhìtōng controllers primarily had three best-selling products, named quite bluntly: Wind God, Fire God, and Thunder God, with prices increasing respectively.

Among them, Thunder God was the flagship product of Zhìtōng, containing all of Zhìtōng’s latest technologies and gameplay features.

Of course, there were other models, such as the "Breeze" series, aimed at being affordable, compact, and portable, as well as the "Explorer" series, mainly for testing niche and unpopular new technologies.

If a new technology received positive market feedback, they would consider applying it to the "Thunder God" series. If the cost of the technology decreased, they would then consider adopting it in the "Fire God" or "Wind God" series.

For the co-branded controllers, it was just a matter of mixing and matching.

They would pick a game from Sky Against Heaven’s lineup, employ its design style, then choose a specific product from the mainline Zhìtōng controllers and swap the casing, with a slight price increase for sale.

Considering that players buying such commemorative edition controllers generally weren’t short of money, they mostly chose the highest-end model directly.

Lu Haocheng had thus selected the latest "Thunder God" series controller, the specific model being "Thunder God 3S," originally priced at 499 yuan, with the co-branded version slightly raised by 20 yuan to 519 yuan.

As for the co-branded game, of course, it was "Ascension" and "Road Rage Simulator."

The "Ascension" co-branded controller would mainly feature an immortal cultivator style, while "Road Rage Simulator" would adopt a racing game style.

Gu Fan briefly examined the plans, neither approving nor disapproving, and then picked up the "Microcontroller Steering Wheel Adapter" proposal to look at.

This was the real highlight.

However, after looking at this design plan, Gu Fan shook his head slightly.

Lu Haocheng seemed to have anticipated this, and said somewhat sheepishly, "President Gu, I know this plan may not quite meet your requirements."

"You wrote in the request that this gadget’s price must be over 100 yuan!"

"But... for such a small thing, with a very simple structure, if made of plastic, the cost is estimated to be less than five yuan."

"If made with a metal material, it’s also hard to reach 30 yuan, and metal would have many problems, such as feel, joystick rebound, etc. That’s not too reliable either!"

"I could only make a simple optimization based on similar small toys currently on the market."

Gu Fan sighed silently, clearly, the other party’s thinking was not broad enough, and he needed to provide a bit of inspiration and guidance.

"Lu, think broader. How can such mediocre product design stand out in today’s highly competitive market?"

"’Ascension’s’ co-branded controller can directly use the Thunder God 3S, but ’Road Rage Simulator’ won’t do—it doesn’t reflect the game’s characteristics at all, nor does it synergize with our new ’Microcontroller Steering Wheel Adapter.’ This definitely won’t do!"

"Lu, a 100-yuan price point is not high. Once you open your mind, you might even feel that the budget is not enough."

"Who said we must adopt such a rudimentary structure? Who said we can only control direction by connecting a controller? Can’t we send signals directly to the controller?"

"Besides, what’s a steering wheel’s essential feature? It’s force feedback!"

"Can’t you manage to add that feature to a micro steering wheel too?"

"Just right, I noticed that your company already has a decent product, this one: ’Explorer 4’ detachable modular controller."

Lu Haocheng was somewhat surprised. He originally thought that this "100-yuan accessory" was a random suggestion, but now it seemed to be well-prepared—there was a clear plan in President Gu’s mind!

But what exactly was that plan?

Lu Haocheng was of course well aware of the Explorer 4 controller—it was a detachable modular controller with four button function zones on the controller: left and right joysticks, a D-pad, and ABXY buttons, all of which could be freely disassembled and replaced.

This also enabled many bizarre layouts, such as the "PS-like layout" with both joysticks at the bottom, or the "anti-human layout" with both joysticks on top, and even removing the right joystick and replacing it with another set of D-pads.