Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 205 - 204 Can you give any hints?

Chapter 205: Chapter 204 Can you give any hints?

After roughly finalizing the design scheme for the micro steering wheel controller with Gu Fan, Lu Haocheng immediately returned, ready to find a designer for detailed design and to produce a sample.

Originally, he thought it was just an ordinary toy, but now Lu Haocheng realized that it could be considered a core accessory for the "Explorer" series controllers!

If it really succeeded, it might even boost the sales of the "Explorer" series controllers.

But what if it failed?

No problem, after all, the "Explorer" series had previously released many accessories that were spectacular failures, such as that steering wheel knob.

At that time, it would just be a fun activity, and not necessarily a bad thing.

However, one thing that deserved attention was that President Gu always insisted on calling this set of plans "your plan," even to the point of seeming to distance himself from it.

This made Lu Haocheng feel a little embarrassed.

"President Gu, this is clearly your design! I can’t take credit for your work.

"I even think that when we release this product, we should add your name to it. Let’s call it... ’A commemorative accessory personally designed by Gu Fan, President and Chief Designer of the Nitian Paradise Company’! I think it will sell well!"

Gu Fan quickly shook his head, "Of course not!

"We at Nitian Paradise always focus on realism and don’t go for such flashy gimmicks.

"Besides, I just provided the idea, but as for the actual implementation, don’t you guys have to do it? In the cultural and creative industry, ideas are not important; what’s important is the person who realizes those ideas.

"So, Mr. Lu, there’s no need to be modest. If the product fails, it would just mean there was a problem with the idea. If it succeeds, then it’s because of your good implementation."

Lu Haocheng couldn’t help but beam with joy, "Oh, how could I possibly accept that? Thank you so much, President Gu!"

Clearly, Gu Fan’s words meant one thing: if there was blame to be taken, it would be on Gu Fan, but if there was credit to be claimed, it would all go to Lu Haocheng.

In the internal affairs of the Smart Controller Company, Lu Haocheng, of course, had to hope for some successful projects and performance for promotion.

If this collaboration turned out to be a huge success, he would undoubtedly reap many benefits.

And whether he was the actual designer of this product would directly affect the extent of the credit he received.

Of course, in Lu Haocheng’s view, Gu Fan was the president of Nitian Paradise Company; the company was his, so it was normal for him not to care about the small credit for designing a product.

Still, this generosity moved Lu Haocheng.

After all, there are plenty of penny-pinching bosses in reality, and very few who are truly generous.

Gu Fan chuckled to himself. What generosity—he saw it as nothing more than basic survival instinct.

The two happily agreed upon the design for the micro steering wheel controller.

As for what it would be called specifically and how it would be marketed later, that was a matter for the future. The pressing need at the moment was to produce the product, play with it, test it, make some improvements afterwards, and try to make a big splash with its launch!

...

Back in his hotel room, Gu Fan lay on the bed and stretched languidly.

Ever since Lilith transferred him away from the gaming department, Gu Fan had been enjoying his leisure; his workload had plummeted, allowing him more time to rest every day.

But he wondered how the progress of Road Rage Simulator was coming along.

Gu Fan opened the streaming platform on his laptop to see what games the streamers were broadcasting recently.

But then his expression turned to one of surprise, and his mouse stopped on the page for an exclusive event on the platform.

The "Ascension" National Speedrun Competition!

Gu Fan was initially surprised but not shocked, thinking it was an event organized by the Totoro live streaming platform itself.

But upon closer inspection, he realized that the event was actually jointly organized by Nitian Paradise Company and the streaming platform! The prizes were all provided by Nitian Paradise Company, while Totoro live streaming provided some promotional support.

Gu Fan’s CPU nearly overheated trying to figure out what was going on.

Was this an idea from Zhou Yang or Su Tong?

But such an event would surely have required Lilith’s approval, right?

When he looked carefully at the competition rules for the speedrun, Gu Fan understood.

This speedrun competition was entirely different from the previous ones for Sisyphus and Hell Inferior Demon. The focus was on the word "national"!

The competition was divided into many different tracks, not only distinguishing between abnormal and normal routes but also breaking it down into different stages within the game itself.

Based on the game’s progress, each speedrunning process was roughly divided into three or more stages.

A speedrun that typically took around 30 minutes, when divided into three stages, only took about 10 minutes.

For the average player, this significantly lowered the difficulty.

Moreover, players didn’t need to finish within 10 minutes to get a reward; the official requirement was to complete each stage in about 13 minutes or so to receive a prize.

Of course, since the processes differ, it’s not possible to precisely time each phase to exactly 10 minutes, so the specific standards can fluctuate a bit. But on the whole, the time standard required for average players is generally about 50% longer than that of professional speedrunners’ theoretical best times.

The rewards for this speedrunning competition focus on participation. As long as you meet the standard for any track, you can get a 10 RMB discount coupon for any Nitian Paradise game; if you meet the standard for three tracks, you can get a small gift worth about 30 RMB; and if you meet the standard for five or more tracks, then the next game from Nitian Paradise is free!

If you can complete a speedrun of the entire game and meet the minimum standards, you’ll get an additional reward: a 198 RMB red envelope!

These rewards might not seem like much, but the key point is that they’re not like ranking rewards that limit the number of winners; instead, these are throughput rewards that are given out to everyone who meets the criteria!

If we take it to the extreme, if every player of Nitian Paradise’s games could speedrun the whole process of "Ascension" and meet the official’s minimum time standard, the official would indeed give out 198 RMB to every player!

Such rewards are quite tempting for ordinary players!

Compared to the generous throughput rewards, the ranking rewards seem quite meager, even to the point of being superfluous.

Only the top three finishers in each track receive red envelope rewards of 298, 198, and 98 RMB, respectively.

Normally in a speedrunning event, even if the prize money for the top few places is low, there should still be around 1000 RMB, and the first prize is usually much higher than the second, not to mention that it’s normal to give away thousands of RMB worth of peripherals or hardware as a prize.

After all, to win first place in a speedrunning competition, one must put in much more effort than others.

But it must be said that this new speedrunning event really has generated a great deal of enthusiasm and attention.

"Ascension" was already starting to wane in popularity. Although there are indeed many players who enjoy researching speedruns of the game, it’s ultimately a niche-player carnival.

Ordinary players complete a first playthrough, aim for the perfect ending, and then generally put the game down.

But now, with no new games to replace it in the short term, plus the real-money rewards of this speedrunning competition, players who have nothing else to do are taking the opportunity to learn about speedrunning.

Just by completing a 10-minute speedrun of one of the mini-tracks, you can earn yourself the price of a milk tea. Why not give it a try since you’re free anyway?

The rising heat and attention of the competition itself have attracted even more players to join.

They may not care about the rewards, but they do care about the heat and traffic the competition brings.

As a result, the momentum at the start of this speedrunning competition has surpassed those of Sisyphus and even Hell Inferior Demon!

Meanwhile, Gu Fan was feeling somewhat tense as he looked at this speedrunning competition.

He hadn’t expected that someone would send a pillow just as he was dozing off...

He had already used up all the positive emotions that Xiamiel gave him, primarily to enhance the positive emotions players received during the speedrunning process.

If you just look at the recent situation, it’s a bit puzzling. Although it’s likely to break even, it’s not clear if there will be much profit.

But now, with this sudden nationwide speedrun...

Gu Fan could only say he felt as if someone in the background was helping him out.

Was it Xiamiel who took action, or someone within the company?

Surely it wasn’t Lilith who came up with this brilliant idea on a whim?

It was truly a perplexing situation.

However, Gu Fan didn’t delve into it too deeply, as appearing too curious might arouse Lilith’s suspicion. He pretended to be unaware and just focused on doing his own job well.

...

...

In the blink of an eye, more than two months passed by.

May 30th, Friday, 5 PM.

Gu Fan hadn’t stayed at the hotel today but had returned to the villa. After all, the weekend was coming, there was no work, and thus no need to be "on a business trip," allowing him to rest well.

During the daytime, Lu Haocheng had brought over the sample of the twice-improved mini steering wheel controller attachment. Gu Fan tried it briefly and didn’t find any further issues, so it was almost ready for mass production.

Of course, "mass production" in this case meant at most a few hundred units.

Even that was possible only because Nitian Paradise Company is financially robust and reputable enough to negotiate for it.

After all, the accessory looked quite unreliable and even Zhìtōng, the controller manufacturer, didn’t dare to produce too many. Should they overstock, it would be troublesome, as such gimmicky products might not even sell even if discounted.

The renovation of the experience store was also nearly complete. Gu Fan had been closely monitoring the progress and was quite satisfied with the outcome of the renovation, which fully realized the ideas from his initial plan.

As for Road Rage Simulator, according to the schedule, the game’s development should nearly be finished, although it would still need to undergo rigorous testing afterward.

Gu Fan was sitting on the sofa, pondering what takeout to order for the evening, when the doorbell rang.

Opening the door, he was surprised to see Zhou Yang.

"President Gu, I heard you were back, so I hurried over to see you," Zhou Yang said, his expression filled with conflict. "Road Rage Simulator is largely developed now, but... President Gu, I still can’t figure out what kind of bug this game might produce. Could you... give me a hint?"