Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 62: Calculate the Bonus!

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Calculate the Bonus!

Clearly, neither Zhou Yang nor Zhao Haiquan believed a punctation mark of that excuse.

It’s indeed possible that a boss might give bonuses because of profits, but to claim all the team building funds were saved up for bonuses is highly unlikely.

The pitch was full of holes!

Why you ask?

The reason is quite simple, even the most generous game companies, even if a game made money, the portion allocated for team bonuses generally wouldn’t exceed 10% of the game’s profit.

That is to say, if a game earned a million, then it would be good to allocate a hundred thousand for employee bonuses; if it earned ten million, at most a million would be allocated.

There weren’t too many reasons, the industry just worked that way.

And that was already very generous compared to some bosses who, even if the game made money, wouldn’t give a penny in bonuses, not to mention making good on any empty promises previously made. Do the employees have any complaints? Not one bit.

So, the vast majority of veteran employees who have been in the industry for a year or two are well aware of this, and could roughly calculate their potential bonuses based on the game’s profits.

Take Zhao Haiquan, for example; as a backend programmer, a relatively important role, if the entire team could get 10%, then he should be able to get around 1%.

If the game made a profit of a million in a month, he would get a bonus of ten thousand.

Don’t complain about it being too little, it’s already good enough to get something.

For the boss, the saved employee benefits could go straight into their own pocket. Why give an employee an extra ten thousand when it means taking ten thousand less for themselves?

So, from generous to stingy, bosses can roughly be categorized into three levels.

The first kind is very generous; they give out 10% of the project profits in bonuses, then set aside some money for team building activities, renewing work equipment, improving the work environment, and providing perks like game rooms and gyms.

The second kind is quite stingy; they give symbolic bonuses, a slight increase of thirty to forty percent over the regular salary, and then symbolically hold some team building activities, such as a meal on the company’s dime or a small outing.

The third kind is extremely stingy; the above benefits are completely nonexistent.

As for saving the money for team building to give out as bonuses? Absolutely impossible!

Because in employees’ eyes, team building is useless, nowhere near as good as tangible bonuses; whereas for the boss, team building activities are much more cost-effective than handing out bonuses.

Bonuses are hard cash given directly to employees, once given out they’re gone, and employees will not necessarily be grateful, nor is this something that’s easily advertised.

Team building is different, on one hand, it is a company expense that can involve some tax deducting moves. At the same time, it can "enhance team cohesion". Most importantly, some perks might give the impression of "this is a great company to work for", while actually costing very little.

In sum, if we use basic needs as a metaphor:

Full and timely payment of salary, that’s the basic requirement, like the staple food of a meal;

Team building activities and improvements to the work environment, these are advanced requirements, like the vegetables of a meal;

As for generous project bonuses? That’s the highest demand, like the delicacies and king crabs of a meal.

Who, when hosting a meal, would skip the vegetables and let you have all the king crab you could eat?

That’s almost impossible.

So, President Gu’s behavior was quite understandable.

Although he said he wanted to save the money for team building to give out as bonuses, in actuality it was just an excuse for not wanting to give benefits. If he even wanted to save on team building, how could the real cash possibly be used to give out bonuses?

What’s that saying? Handing out hard-earned cash to the poor is a sin!

Therefore, after a few short exchanges, Zhou Yang and Zhao Haiquan tacitly avoided the subject.

Talking about it only added to the frustration, so why bother?

Thinking positively, at least they had gathered valuable project experience, which would make job-hopping a lot smoother if it came to that.

As for bonuses, it all depended on President Gu’s conscience. He had to give out a few thousand at least, right?

...

Gu Fan refreshed the backend data.

Until now, "Infernal Trajectory" had finally reached a cumulative sales of a million, "Sisyphus" had broken through half a million, and "Against Heaven Blocks" surprisingly also reached a hundred thousand.

The growth of "Infernal Trajectory" had slowed down. A million sales was probably the game’s limit; after all, strictly speaking, it was at most a quirky little game that could "Bullet Bending", and it was difficult to maintain popularity for a long time.

A million in sales was already the result of a double buff from being "affordably priced" and having an "explosion in popularity".

The selling price of Sisyphus was significantly higher than that of "Infernal Trajectory", and the game itself had a higher entry barrier. It relied solely on streamers’ suffering and speedrunners’ stunts to maintain its current popularity. Half a million sales were already quite impressive.

Moreover, this game still had some momentum left. With future discounts or some streamers breaking down and giving it a new wave of popularity, it wouldn’t be a problem to add another two or three hundred thousand to the sales figures.

Against Heaven Blocks was the most surprising. Initially, a game from a small gaming contest wouldn’t have such high sales, but this game genuinely attracted a lot of dedicated players of the original Rotating Blocks, so the sales performance turned out to be unexpectedly good, and its growth continued to be stable.

And what about Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon, priced at 98?

So far, in just two days, its sales had already broken fifty thousand!

Taking into account a price of 98, so far, the game had earned Nitiandang over three million!

And starting from today, the popularity of this game was only now really kicking off, with its reputation starting to turn around, so a conservative estimate would put its first-month sales at at least three to four hundred thousand.

This also meant that Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon would undoubtedly become Nitiandang’s most profitable game since its establishment.

Just in time for this weekend, before the first payment for Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon would arrive, Nitiandang’s company funds had increased by about 12 million compared to last time!

Previously, about 8 million in funds were reserved for the development and promotion of Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon. Development and promotion had cost about 4 million, leaving 3.7 million remaining.

The original company operating funds were 2.8 million. Not much of this money was spent, leaving 2.3 million leftover.

After this financial replenishment, funds for game development and promotion were around 12.1 million, and operational funds for the company were 5.3 million.

Gu Fan was set to reliably receive a 5% bonus, which was over six hundred thousand before taxes, or about 370 thousand in hand, and his personal savings had reached 780 thousand.

Gu Fan felt perfectly justified in taking this money.

It was all earned through my own abilities!

Oh no, it should be said that it was pried from between Lilith’s fingers through my own capabilities, and I am proud of it!

After taking my share, it’s time to consider bonuses for the brothers.

According to the contract between Lilith and Gu Fan, Gu Fan could take a fixed 5% of the net profits for the month, while 25% of the net profits could be used as the company’s operating funds.

The so-called operating funds were how money could be spent outside the funds for game development, operations, and Gu Fan’s personal bonus.

It could be used for company benefits, such as team building events, ordering afternoon tea, or arranging gym memberships for employees, or add amenities like a water bar or an entertainment room to the company.

It could also be purely used for employee bonuses.

For Gu Fan, of course, he chose the latter.

After all, the former were company benefits, and the company belonged to Lilith! Why improve the benefits so much? In the end, the employees would be grateful to the company, and the talent attracted would be there for the company’s benefits.

When Gu Fan really left the company, he couldn’t take anything with him.

But if he gave out bonuses directly? The employees would remember Gu Fan’s favors. When Gu Fan eventually slapped his rear and left, he could simply strip the company bare, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.

Therefore, forget about company benefits, give out cash!

As for exactly how much to distribute?

Gu Fan had an idea. He wouldn’t dispense all of the operating funds at once; overall, it still depended on the specific capabilities and contributions of the employees.

For example, since the employees hadn’t participated in the development of the first three games, they naturally wouldn’t share in the revenue from those games.

And how much each person would get also depended on the employees’ abilities and contribution value, which required dynamic assessment.

Thinking this, Gu Fan called over Xiao Mingyu.

"Come help me calculate the bonuses."

Xiao Mingyu nodded earnestly, "Alright, President Gu, how exactly should we calculate it?"

Clearly, she too was filled with anticipation and eager to learn how President Gu would distribute the bonuses.

This was also a decisive factor in Xiao Mingyu’s decision to work at Nitiandang!