Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 74: The Pure Gold Trophy!

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: The Pure Gold Trophy!

Soon, "Prometheus" entered a state of intensive development.

The tentative development time for the game was two months, with an additional half-month reserved for testing.

In terms of game features alone, "Prometheus" was the most difficult game that Heaven Defying Studio had ever developed.

Just the construction system, if developed from scratch, would require at least six months.

Fortunately, construction games were a relatively mainstream category, and there were many related templates on the official platform.

After careful selection, Gu Fan chose the most expensive simulation construction game template available, priced at a whopping 750,000!

Although pricey, it was worth every penny.

The template was incredibly powerful, allowing players to freely alter various voxels during construction, down to each little square, and even manually craft some special buildings like in "Minecraft."

For instance, Chinese-style dougong buildings, or even sculptures of various styles, and so on.

Of course, what could actually be built still depended on the players’ skill levels.

However, even with these templates at hand, "Prometheus" still had a lot of content to be made, and two months of development time was quite tight.

But the staff, from top to bottom at Heaven Defying Studio, showed no signs of dissatisfaction; in fact, many felt that the development was progressing too slowly and could be faster!

They couldn’t wait for the new game to launch and earn double bonuses!

Feng Hui even wanted to bring his army cot to the company and sleep on the floor, making it clear that he was determined to get the top tier of the next bonus payout.

But Gu Fan stopped him.

Mainly because the coffee shop wouldn’t open late at night, nor would it allow all-nighters!

Later, Feng Hui found a way around it—he simply brought his laptop home to code!

Often, Gu Fan, feeling inspired late at night before bed, would open his computer and find that Feng Hui or Zhao Haiquan had submitted new code. Every morning when he checked the project’s progress, there was always a pleasant surprise.

And this overtime was different from the norm in most companies.

In typical companies, overtime was basically shoddy work, and the employees’ actual output efficiency was hardly higher than normal working hours.

But at Heaven Defying Studio, the overtime was truly voluntary and effective, combined with the working attitude, the development pace had seen a significant boost compared to "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon"!

After all, who wouldn’t want to earn a bonus of 188,000 like Zhao Haiquan!

Many internet companies strictly forbid employees from discussing their salaries with each other for a simple reason: most of these companies had a "salary inversion" situation, where such discussions could lead to the resignation of more experienced staff.

But Heaven Defying Studio had none of these problems—salaries were basically open and transparent, with no intentional concealment.

So it was very clear to everyone that they were more like shareholders in Heaven Defying Studio than employees.

After all, every month they received a specific percentage of the company’s actual revenue as dividends—what else could that be if not shareholders?

At this point, all the staff at Heaven Defying Studio had only one thought: to throw their heads and spill their blood for President Gu!

Of course, there were some objections to the current design drafts. For example, it was supposed to be a survival construction game, but players were not allowed to build freely at all? It seemed like a decision made by someone who had been kicked in the head by a donkey!

But in response, Gu Fan maintained the same attitude as before: no explanations, figure it out yourself!

After all, the design draft was given to you not to collect your opinions, but for you to follow it to the letter.

In this highly motivated state, the development progress of "Prometheus" was very optimistic, and it was even possible to finish ahead of schedule!

...

...

September 1st, Sunday, 7 pm.

In one hour, at 8 pm tonight, "Prometheus" was set to officially go on sale!

Compared to the original plan of "two months of development with an additional two weeks set aside for testing," the actual progress was much more optimistic, cutting the development time by a full half-month.

Of course, the two weeks needed for testing weren’t abbreviated at all.

For many game companies, this was like a fantasy.

Even with programmers being pushed to work crazy overtime, it was good enough if the program wasn’t delayed—how could it be finished ahead of schedule?

But Heaven Defying Studio’s development progress was just that defying!

Gu Fan had already prepared various snacks, chips, and drinks, setting them out in the living room.

If this game continued to be a hit, it might be about time to move to a new place!

As expected, the rare boss Lilith respawned at five minutes past seven.

Looking at the mountain of snacks and beverages piled up on the small table before her, she felt very content, and expertly settled into the massage chair, taking the remote control from Gu Fan and switching on the projector’s livestream software.

As soon as she opened it, it defaulted to Chen Tingquan’s livestream channel, where she had left off last time.

"Alright, valued viewers, this treasure of yours is quite an opener, very much so, but it’s not really useful, right? Just keep it and play with it yourself; you understand it can’t earn any energy."

"Huh? Viewers, hold on a sec, someone’s knocking at the door."

Chen Tingquan got up to open the door and after a short while, he returned.

"Huh? We’re not appraising treasures today, folks. I’ve received a gift, huh. Strange, where did this gift come from?

"Don’t talk nonsense, folks, it’s not loot given by turning the tables; this is a positive energy livestream channel, don’t talk recklessly about such things."

"Eh? It’s actually sent from Heaven Defying Studio?

"Oh! Right, they did say there would be a gift for clearing Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon!"

...

Lilith had almost forgotten about this herself, and she looked at Gu Fan unconsciously.

Gu Fan hurriedly explained, "President Li, it was the standard you decided on back then, a little gift of 20 dollars for each player who clears the game, and for Chen Tingquan, as the number one culprit, a special gift.

"We carefully selected and made this special reward, then requested the courier company to deliver it today.

"It’s all to generate higher heat and attention for Prometheus in its early stages!"

Lilith nodded, "Um, right, there was such a matter."

After all, it was money from her own personal fund; Lilith quickly remembered and then turned to look at the projection screen, ready to see Chen Tingquan’s reaction to his gift.

...

While unboxing in front of the livestream camera, Chen Tingquan shared his "glorious deeds" with his viewers.

"Some new viewers might not know, but back then, this game was being cursed at left and right! Instructor Ding even staked his fortune and life on it, insisting that he wouldn’t stop broadcasting if he didn’t clear the game. In the end, it was I who averted the crisis and propped up the faltering building! I discovered the ’Strategic Dragon Synergy’ core mechanic, which not only saved the game’s reputation but also Instructor Ding’s hide.

"Thinking about it, Little Ding owes me a meal."

Chen Tingquan boasted while opening the package.

The viewers in the livestream channel also began bombarding the chat with emotive comments.

"I’ve received it! A completion medal, a certificate, quite exquisitely made; feels like the cost must be about ten bucks or so."

"Only ten bucks?"

"What else? The game only sold for 98, and the official platform takes a cut, plus taxes. Do you expect the developer to go out-of-pocket to send you gifts? A ten buck badge is already decent!"

"There’s even a completion certificate, pretty amusing really, makes it seem like the game’s super hard to beat."

"If you’re so capable, try clearing it without the ’Strategic Dragon Synergy’ then."

"That’s the game’s core mechanic, why shouldn’t I use it? That’s like saying if you have the skills, go win a skiing championship without a snowboard."

"That’s a BUG!"

"Nonsense, it’s a core mechanic!"

Watching the chat heading towards an argument, Chen Tingquan quickly took out the item from the express box.

"Huh? Viewers, my gift seems a bit different from what you all described?

"Is this a gold trophy? The shape is of Zhuge Liang’s feather fan. Huh? This is pretty interesting.

"Gold-plated? No wait, why does it feel so heavy, like it has heft.

"Hold on, this couldn’t be... made of pure gold, could it?

"This is really made of pure gold, it comes with a certificate too!"

Chen Tingquan was stunned; as a professional appraiser, he was naturally familiar with gold. A touch, a heft, was all he needed to roughly confirm whether it was gold or not. And with the accompanying certificate, it was even clearer.

"Heaven Defying Studio actually sent me a pure gold trophy??"

The trophy wasn’t big, only a small palm-sized one. Although it was pure gold, it wasn’t particularly expensive, probably worth about twenty or thirty thousand yuan.

But for a game company to give such a gift to a player was already ridiculously lavish!

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