Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 69 Small Gift and Map Exploration Degree

Chapter 69: Chapter 69 Small Gift and Map Exploration Degree

Lilith thought for a moment, "Well, you do have a point. How much would these little gifts cost if we do it in the cheapest way possible?"

Gu Fan made a rough estimate, "The customization industry for small commodities is highly developed domestically, and shipping costs are practically nothing.

"If we custom-make a batch of medals for players who beat the game, then each medal would cost at most three to five yuan. Including the shipping fee, it should be possible to handle it within ten yuan per person."

About eighty percent of the players who bought the game could beat it. If thirty percent of those provided their address, then every 10,000 copies sold would require approximately 2,400 gifts to be sent out.

It’s a simple math problem, not too difficult to figure out.

Lilith waved her hand indifferently, "Okay, let’s do it this way then."

However, just as she was about to disappear on the spot, Gu Fan stopped her.

"Hold on! President Li, there’s a key issue.

"Where will the money come from?"

Lilith frowned as if she heard some wild fantasy, and looked at Gu Fan: "What do you mean where will the money come from? Didn’t the game make a lot of money?"

Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon was priced at 98 yuan. After deducting platform fees, taxes, and other factors, one copy of the game should net about 60 yuan in profit.

In Lilith’s view, spending ten yuan on a small gift seemed perfectly normal and reasonable.

But clearly, Gu Fan didn’t share that opinion.

He spread his hands out: "The company doesn’t have spare cash!"

Lilith was stunned, "Where’s the money?"

Gu Fan articulated seriously, "Isn’t it all clearly written in the contract? Seventy percent is for research and marketing expenses for the next game. Money for custom gifts for players obviously can’t be counted under research and marketing expenses, right?

"Moreover, Prometheus is far larger than any game we’ve developed before, and it’s exactly when we need funds. How can we not keep enough budget in the company accounts?"

Lilith looked baffled, "That seventy percent is untouchable, but what about the remaining thirty percent?"

Gu Fan spread his hands again: "Out of that, five percent is my personal bonus, which is clearly not enough. Besides, do you really expect me to pay out of my own pocket for this?"

Lilith scowled, "And the remaining twenty-five percent?"

Gu Fan declared confidently: "Isn’t that all the company’s operational expenses? It’s all been spent!"

Lilith was shocked, "All spent? Does our company really need that much money for operations now? Don’t think I don’t know, the rent for that little shabby cafe you leased isn’t that much per month!"

Gu Fan explained, "Yes, the rent for the location isn’t much, but I also need to pay the staff their salaries and bonuses.

"Sigh, one doesn’t know the cost of household expenses until they become head of a family. If I don’t give the employees their bonuses, and they get poached by other companies, that would affect the development progress of the next game, wouldn’t it? That would be trouble.

"In the end, it will still affect your grand plans.

"Besides, providing benefits to players isn’t covered by the three main expenses listed in the contract. As the president of Nitiandang games, I have the right to refuse.

"This money shouldn’t come out of Nitiandang game company’s account!"

Lilith was speechless: "So if I pay for it myself, that’s fine, right? Look at how stingy you are!"

Gu Fan thought to himself gleefully, perfect, that’s exactly what I was waiting to hear!

It looks like my guess was correct!

Gu Fan had noticed that in the contract he signed with Lilith, there was a clause stating that if the game were to make a loss, then Lilith would cover the essential development funds required.

This surely implied that Lilith’s "Negative Emotion Collection Office" in the Human World wasn’t limited to just the Nitiandang company; there must be other ventures!

After all, could a Hell Demon possibly lack money?

Since you’re not short on cash, then we really need to have a good talk.

It would be remiss of me to not secure additional funds considering the risk I’m carrying!

"Alright, since you, President Li, personally resolved the funding issue, there is no problem.

"However, I have a small suggestion: as for the gifts, they could actually be of a higher standard.

"Making them at a budget of 20 yuan each wouldn’t be a problem at all."

Lilith furrowed her brows and looked at Gu Fan doubtfully, "Why?"

Clearly, when Gu Fan was faced with the possibility of digging into his own pockets, he was meek and compliant, treating a gift like it was worth at most ten dollars; but now that he heard Lilith would be paying, he immediately doubled it to twenty.

This change in attitude was truly infuriating.

Gu Fan explained, "I initially gave a relatively low standard just because of insufficient funds, so I was forced to compromise and couldn’t come up with the optimal marketing plan!

"Now that the funding is sufficient, our strategy naturally needs to be adjusted accordingly.

"I suggest increasing the reward standard for all players to twenty dollars per person, creating a rather exquisite commemorative medal and a certificate.

"Especially for this Chen Tingquan, we could even make him a small gold trophy custom-designed to look like Zhuge Liang’s fan on a base!

"Hey, hey, hey, President Li, please don’t rush to hit me. I’m not repaying evil with good here, this is definitely about casting a long line to catch a big fish!"

Seeing that Lilith, who had been looking for something to hit him with, stopped, Gu Fan hurriedly continued his explanation, "We give the players a taste of sweetness so that they’ll come back to play ’Prometheus’!

"The negative emotions owed by players in ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’ must be repaid double in ’Prometheus’!"

Lilith furrowed her brow and thought for a long time.

Eventually, tilting her head, she said, "That makes sense! Casting a long line to catch a big fish, it really is like that!

"Alright then, we’ll do as you say! Our hellish empire is vast, and we’re not short on funds."

Gu Fan promptly agreed, "Right! And it’s all for better collection of negative emotions. This reason would even be legitimate and reasonable if it went up to Lucifer himself!

"Hey President Li, don’t be in such a hurry to leave, there’s another issue.

"For ’Prometheus,’ the game... Should we implement a similar design? Like the special screen after clearing the game?"

Lilith thought for a moment: "Yes!"

Although the feature in ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’ wasn’t particularly successful, it was all due to bugs that caused unexpected outcomes.

The feature itself shouldn’t have any issues.

Setting an extremely difficult goal for game completion serves two purposes: it helps identify dangerous elements among the players and collect their information for "special attention" later, and it can also attract more players into the fray with small gifts, laying the groundwork for promoting the next game.

It’s an approach that should be all benefit and no harm!

Carrying it forward to ’Prometheus’ is also perfectly reasonable.

However, Lilith quickly realized a problem, "But this time, we need to set a higher goal! We can’t have a repeat of the ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’ fiasco!"

Originally, Lilith wanted to filter out the dangerous elements among the players, ideally only around a few dozen, worth giving special attention to.

But now, with at least tens of thousands of players having cleared the game, that’s impossible to manage!

’Prometheus’ definitely cannot make the same mistake. This "end-of-game summary screen" must function as an effective filter.

Gu Fan suggested, "How about we implement an ’exploration completion’ achievement system?"

"Oh?" Lilith’s eyes lit up, "Let’s hear it."

Gu Fan explained, "It’s simple, whenever a player travels to a new place, it counts as ’explored’.

"Only when the map exploration completion reaches 100% is the game considered cleared.

"That way, even if no players clear the game, we can still sort them by their level of exploration completion, from highest to lowest, to identify those who pose a greater threat."

Lilith couldn’t help but slap the table in admiration, "Brilliant! I should have thought of that earlier, a flexible mechanism is key!"

Why did so many people clear ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’? Part of it was because of game bugs, but the other part was that the standards weren’t flexible enough!

With just the two options of "cleared" or "not cleared," once a bug occurs, it becomes difficult to recover.

But setting the goal of 100% map exploration is quite flexible.

This time, it should be possible to identify a sufficiently threatening group of players to focus on!

Lilith was very happy, and after grabbing a bag of chips, she went off to revise the design proposal with joy.