Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 552 - 535: Basic Principles of Living off Past Savings

Chapter 552: Chapter 535: Basic Principles of Living off Past Savings

Guo Zhao Sheng cleared his throat, "Just now, there seemed to be someone who only wanted to continue making crappy mods at home."

Gan Di said with all sincerity, "It was President Gu’s passion for games that infected me, and I suddenly realized that making mods at home means never having a day in the sun!

"President Gu’s dream is my dream, and I want to change the world with President Gu!

"I have drifted through life, lamenting not finding a great leader..."

Guo Zhao Sheng quickly raised his hand, "Stop, stop, I just performed President Gu’s dream so genuinely, and I didn’t see you moved at all."

Gan Di spoke earnestly, "There was a delay; I had lag.

"Dreams, although powerful and capable of wireless transmission, are limited by network signal issues and aren’t received that quickly.

"But now I have fully received it!

"I must strike in my Gundam form, President Gu’s dream is my dream, Nitiandang’s goals are my goals!"

Guo Zhao Sheng struggled to hold back his laughter, "Alright, then pack up, and we’ll head back to the Capital City tomorrow."

In the end, it’s all about the money.

Dreams?

Dreams without financial support are like castles in the air, not worth mentioning!

In fact, among those YouTubers, Gan Di was one of the ones not short on cash.

He didn’t care how many followers he had in his stream, and he didn’t deliberately chase popularity to increase followers. Even the mods he worked on were mostly done for free, and he had never charged a dime.

Powered purely by passion.

But not lacking money doesn’t mean he doesn’t love money.

It mostly depends on the amount.

While Gan Di wasn’t much into pay-to-win mobile games, he had heard early on about the money-making capabilities of these big-budget games.

Not just Gan Di, many traditional gaming giants from abroad who used to sell full-priced games were drooling over the profits of mobile game developers, otherwise why would those traditional giants start adding various in-app purchases to their games?

These popular pay-to-win mobile games gross hundreds of millions a month, and at the lesser estimates, they’re netting tens of millions in profit.

What does getting 1% of the net profit from the game each month mean, as the lead designer?

Never mind one percent, even one-tenth of a percent is very tempting.

Gan Di just did a simple calculation of the number, and immediately changed his mind.

What? You say pay-to-win games are a quick way to bring the house down?

Come on, I have so few followers, bring the house down then.

Although money wouldn’t make Gan Di approve of the pay-to-win game’s charging model, he was not hindered from doing his utmost, putting 120% effort into completing the tasks assigned by Nitiandang.

After dinner, the two happily went back to their respective homes.

Gan Di went home to pack and take care of some affairs before preparing to go to the Capital City for a closed-door session.

Success or failure was riding on this moment!

As for the specific development time, while it was currently uncertain, given Nitiandang’s ultra-high efficiency, Gan Di felt that about six months should be enough.

To struggle for six months and then rest easy for the rest of life, he truly couldn’t resist such an offer.

As for Guo Zhao Sheng, he went back to the budget hotel he was staying in.

Why not a five-star hotel?

Because Nitiandang wouldn’t reimburse for it.

However, Guo Zhao Sheng had no complaints whatsoever because the money saved in this aspect would be generously cashed out by Nitiandang, safe in his pocket.

Walking on the street, Guo Zhao Sheng looked around and saw no one; he took out his phone and made a call to Gu Fan.

"President Gu, the fish has taken the bait, time to reel it in!"

...

In the evening.

Lilith and Qin Fengliang were plotting loudly.

After receiving the new game’s overall framework from Gu Fan, Lilith had decided to go for a AAA-level gacha game with the increasingly addictive gacha model.

But Lilith’s trust in Gu Fan only went so far.

Eggs must not all be placed in one basket, that’s the basic principle.

So, Lilith ran to Qin Fengliang again to continue improving the other parts of the game.

The combination of the two’s ideas was less likely to create a chemical reaction, but more likely to turn the game into a Frankenstein’s monster or something entirely mismatched.

"So, with this as a foundation for design, do you have any good ideas?" asked Lilith, filled with expectation.

Qin Fengliang fell into deep thought.

When she first saw Lilith approaching, she was a bit nervous, thinking about how to respond in case the other party came with accusations.

After all, everyone had seen the state of the "Star Plan" now.

Qin Fengliang felt it was very unfair, it had nothing to do with her!

The two outrageous bugs should surely be blamed on Nitiandang’s people, my ideas were flawless!

Of course, she felt a bit guilty herself for that statement, since she had initially vowed with absolute certainty that the fake-AI would not have any problems this time, yet it turned out that it was precisely the fake-AI that caused a huge issue.

Although the massive problem was caused jointly by Nitiandang, the officials, and herself, it was after all her idea in the first place.

However, Qin Fengliang had prepared a slew of excuses in advance but didn’t have to face Lilith’s wrath as expected.

It seemed that Lilith had quickly accepted the failure of the Star Plan and had rapidly shifted her focus to the next game.

In Qin Fengliang’s view, there was still ample room to salvage the Star Plan.

But after much consideration, she chose to keep quiet decisively. After all, when she confidently tried to "rescue" the previous few games, the end result was that they constantly got worse with every alteration.

So this time, let’s just pretend nothing happened!

After listening to Lilith outline the major framework of this new game, Qin Fengliang did have some thoughts.

Although Qin Fengliang wasn’t exactly an avid player of pay-to-win mobile games, she wasn’t totally ignorant of their existence either.

So yes, she was able to offer some suggestions.

The first step, which was also the one Lilith emphasized, was to determine the genre of the game.

The framework provided by Gu Fan was very broad, only specifying "a AAA-level pay-to-win mobile game" and "the more you pull in gacha, the more elite it gets."

Should it be a fantasy, a xianxia, a western fantasy?

Or realistic, cartoonish, magically exaggerated?

What exactly would be the background of the story, and what about the main characters?

It was all still blank.

Although Qin Fengliang could not directly participate in the development of the game, at least she could offer a general direction, for Lilith to remotely control and guide the development in that direction.

This was indeed the main reason Lilith came to her.

After much thought, Qin Fengliang said, "President Li, although I can’t say which style or genre is appropriate, I do believe that copying ourselves and relying on our old successes could be a good choice."

Lilith was startled.

She had expected Qin Fengliang to give a more concrete answer.

"Why is copying ourselves and relying on past successes a good choice?"

Qin Fengliang explained, "Because it’s so easy to get criticized!

"President Li, think about it. Why do many of Nitiandang’s new games start off on the right foot? Even when they disgust the players, the players still don’t leave, they just wait for the bugs to rescue their game experience.

"Where does this level of forgiveness come from?

"On one hand, it’s because of Nitiandang’s previously accumulated good reputation, with not a single failed title. So players feel that ’Nitiandang’s games are all quality games,’ and even if they aren’t fun at first, players will still play through gritted teeth;

"But there’s also a very important reason, Nitiandang never relies on past successes!

"President Li, go online and see, aren’t there many players saying this?

"Because Nitiandang almost always works on new IPs, it gives players a very strong sense of novelty, with both the world view and game mechanics differing greatly from previous ones.

"So naturally, players are much more forgiving."

Lilith nodded, finally seeing the light, "Hmm? You do have a point!"

Before, she hadn’t thought so much, just worried that using previous successful projects would not be good, and starting from scratch had a higher chance of failure, and was also easier to gather negative emotions.

But after hearing Qin Fengliang’s words, she realized she might have fallen into a certain fallacy.

If they could turn this on its head, it actually seemed like there could be something to it?

"Then if we are to rely on old successes, which game should we take from?" Lilith asked.

Qin Fengliang explained at a leisurely pace, "President Li, don’t rush, I haven’t finished my analysis.

"Relying on old successes is also about the way and method.

"If the way of relying on old successes is to create a sequel, using previous mechanics and settings, or just making minor adjustments to those without changing the core gameplay, the players will probably still accept it.

"After all, most of Nitiandang’s games have a core base of die-hard fans.

"If we truly do it this way, it would undoubtedly be the worst-case scenario: not many new players coming in, just old and loyal players playing, who already have a high tolerance and are less likely to generate negative emotions.

"Shadow World was like this before, because its fan base was very stable, so releasing a sequel wouldn’t change anything.

"But, the reverse is different.

"We use a sequel to negate the prequel. Or, we let the sequel adopt a completely different monetization model, targeting a completely different group of players!

"This way, although those old players would still skeptically download and try the game, they would quickly feel betrayed by Nitiandang, resulting in a lot of negative emotions.

"Isn’t that perfect, President Li, since you were planning to make a pay-to-win game this time?

"Most of Nitiandang’s previous creations were buy-to-play standalone games, and these two types of gamer are just not compatible."

Lilith nodded seriously, "Yes, yes, that makes sense!

"Which predecessor shall we eliminate then? I’ve been irritated by these games for a long time!"

By now, Nitiandang indeed had many games, and somewhat frustratingly, they were all quite successful.

Games that left a deep impression on Lilith, like "Ascension" and "Blood of Lies," were both successful examples of buy-to-play action games.

Turning such games into mobile games sounded very appealing!

Yet, Qin Fengliang said, "After an initial screening, I think Legend of Infinity Fantasy would be most suitable."

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