Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 108
Whoa—
You really know how to talk big, Shen Miaomiao thought with a smirk, amused by Gu Sheng’s wild imagination.
This game of ours—
First, we hit the players with a beautifully packaged, half-baked, overpriced rip-off.
Then follow up with a “free” DLC loaded with in-game purchases.
With moves like that—
Forget the players, I want to cuss you out!
This is literally burning through the goodwill built by previous titles like it's pocket change.
By the time this game crashes and burns, it’s not just this project going down—future titles will get dragged down too.
And me!
Shen Miaomiao!
I’ll be the one walking away with a fat stack of cash!
Happily counting bills in the shadow of a self-sabotaging Supernova Designer!
The good life is right in front of me!
With that pleasant thought, Shen Miaomiao clapped her hands:
“Alright, problem solved—can we go back to gaming now?”
“Of course!”
Having finally resolved a nagging issue, Gu Sheng was re-energized. He grabbed the controller.
“Let’s cook!”
Beep beep—
The little food truck revved back to life.
Not long after, the conference room was filled with cheerful banter:
“NO LETTUCE! I’ve told you like three thousand times—this burger order has NO LETTUCE! You keep adding it anyway?!”
“Bulls***! You never said that! And even if you did, why’d you toss the lettuce by my feet, huh?”
“Next time we game, I’m bringing a recording device!”
“Heh! No need! I’m installing surveillance in this room tomorrow—just to record your shameless lies and excuses!”
“You’re impossible, Shen Miaomiao!”
“You’re unreasonable, Gu Sheng!”
“Stop copying me!”
“Stop copying me!”
“You gonna keep going?”
“You gonna keep going?”
“Shen Miaomiao is a pig!”
“I’ll kll you, you dmn thief!!!”
“…”
Several days later
Binjiang Tech Tower
Golden Wind Conference Room
Clack.
The door opened. The five core project managers already seated turned to look.
Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao walked in one after another.
Behind them, Chief Secretary Chu Qingzhou followed in with a meeting notebook.
All three sat down.
At the head of the table, Shen Miaomiao looked around and nodded.
“Alright, everyone’s here. Let’s begin. Director Gu, you first.”
She turned to Gu Sheng.
They exchanged a glance, and Gu Sheng nodded.
“We went to Zhongjing yesterday for YiYou’s project kickoff meeting, as you may already know.”
“I’ll give everyone a quick rundown of what went down.”
“The meeting had three major studios: us, Fury Blaze, and Kol. We’re the designated developers for their major flagship titles.”
“The meeting had two main purposes: first, to get us acquainted and aligned; second, to showcase the progress of YiYou X2’s development and its neural safety-certified FullSense Assistive Technology.”
“Not exaggerating here—this is a tech breakthrough for sensory gaming pods.”
His tone was firm, not boastful.
He’d personally experienced the tech the day before.
One word—
Terrifying.
Thanks to the assistive layer, YiYou X2’s environmental rendering capabilities had become indistinguishable from reality.
Take a simple example:
Let’s say your character sits at a desk to write.
With standard FullSense, you’d feel the temperature of the paper, the texture of the objects, hear the scribbling of a pencil.
But with the assistive tech?
You’d also feel the dust on the desk, the friction of the pencil against the page, and the faint indentation of each letter being pressed into the paper.
That microscopic level of detail freaked Gu Sheng out.
It felt like the last barrier between virtual and real had been obliterated.
The door to a second world—wide open.
Waiting for pioneers to chart new frontiers and build lasting glory.
Right after trying it, Gu Sheng regretted everything!
F**! That was a mistake!*
Why did I make Titanfall?! I should’ve gone with MIRROR instead!
Shooting, innovation, immersion—it had it all!
Big miss!
He swore to himself—
Once the time was right, and with rating systems protecting them, he would make MIRROR.
…But now wasn’t the time.
Titanfall had already burned through over a million emotion points.
Besides, slipping in a lewd game as a flagship project might be a bit much.
MIRROR would have to wait.
Back to the meeting—
“So, that’s the gist of yesterday’s briefing,” Gu Sheng said.
“And I’m sure you all know why I called this meeting today.”
“The TTF project proposal—I sent it out yesterday. Let’s hear your thoughts.”
That’s right.
After rounds of revision, Gu Sheng had finally completed the proposal for Titanfall.
Today’s agenda?
Project approval.
After he finished, everyone looked at each other.
Then they all turned back to Gu Sheng with hesitant expressions.
No doubt—
Gu Sheng was at the peak of his influence in the company.
From obliterating Glory Studio with Left 4 Dead to winning the Crown Award with PUBG in the Asia Esports Convention, his record spoke for itself.
The project team trusted him completely.
But still—
People clearly had reservations about TTF.
With Shen Miaomiao present, and fearing it might hurt Gu Sheng’s standing, they all hesitated.
Their glances said it all: Should we talk about this privately instead?
Seeing everyone’s eyes on him, Gu Sheng panicked.
Wait, what the hll? Did someone drape a golden robe on me or something?*
Good thing Little Nezha didn’t care about this kind of stuff—
Otherwise, even one glance would’ve landed him in hot water.
He waved it off helplessly. “Just say it. Say whatever you want. This is exactly why we’re reporting to President Shen today.”
“Ohhh, right right right—”
The others snapped out of it.
Like sunflowers, they all turned toward Shen Miaomiao.
After a moment’s silence, Jiang Yun was the first to speak:
“President Shen, I assume you’ve read through the proposal?”
That one sentence put Shen Miaomiao in a tight spot.
She thought back to the dozens of pages in the doc and shivered.
She shot Jiang Yun an awkward smile that basically said: Nope. That thing looked like it’d cause hair loss.
Besides, she’d already talked to Old Gu about this long ago.
Game details didn’t matter—she just knew it was a money pit.
“Uh… yeah, yeah.”
She forced a smile and motioned for Jiang Yun to continue.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect the script to be this complex.”
Jiang Yun nodded.
“Of course, there’s no doubt such a script adds tremendous depth to our story. Given our limited budget, we need strong narrative to stand out.”
“But…”
He paused, glanced at Gu Sheng, then went on:
“…but as for the mecha theme—I’m not too optimistic.”
Oh?
Shen Miaomiao raised her brows.
An unexpected surprise?
She’d known the project was a tough sell—
But she hadn’t paid attention to the content, let alone read the proposal.
Now, with Jiang Yun questioning the theme itself, her interest was piqued.
“Please, go on,” she said.
And Jiang Yun laid it out—
He wasn’t being a coward or fearmonger.
The truth was: Mecha games, both in China and abroad, were ultra-niche.
Unlike horror games, which players hate for being formulaic—
Mecha games were fundamentally flawed. No one had ever made one right.
The idea sounds cool—piloting a mech in VR.
But in reality?
Once you give a mech proper power, it becomes too strong.
In early mecha games, they were like cheat tools—invincible killing machines.
But that quickly turned gameplay into a snoozefest.
Crushing weak enemies brings no long-term satisfaction.
No challenge = no engagement.
So devs tried balancing mechs by introducing equally powerful enemies or full-on mech battles.
But then—everyone had one.
Everyone’s a mech pilot? Suddenly, mechs don’t feel special anymore.
It’s like, you’re a rapper, he’s a rapper, everyone’s a rapper—skr, it stops being fun.
And because mecha battles required constant high-octane scenes—
It became exhausting, like watching a multi-hour Michael Bay sizzle reel.
Eventually, even traditional gunplay felt better.
“So,” Jiang Yun spread his hands,
“Mecha games were always a flash-in-the-pan concept. In execution and hype, they’ve always fallen flat. Practically extinct now.”
Like a starter’s pistol, his remarks opened the floodgates.
Jiang Shan chimed in next:
“And that’s just one side of it. Artistically, mecha games also lost their edge. In China, gamers lean toward warmer visuals. Cold, metallic industrial vibes? Too emotionally sterile.”
“Even when some devs tried to turn mechs into waifus—‘mecha girls’—the industrial aesthetic fell even further out of favor.”
“Personally, I love gritty, realistic mechs, but let’s face it—the market just isn’t into it.”
Even the usually quiet Kai Lang spoke up, highlighting the sheer difficulty of developing a mecha game from a technical standpoint.
He was excited by the challenge—
But he knew the market wouldn’t be.
Everyone had something to say—
Different angles, same conclusion:
Mecha games are a hard sell.
To be blunt—
In today’s gaming world, making a mecha game is pouring money into a pit.
Shen Miaomiao was practically giddy.
Three giant hurdles already made this project a beast.
Now Old Gu had intentionally picked a cursed genre?
If not for her system still being active, she’d suspect Gu Sheng had figured it out!
What a move!
From the expressway to profits, he’d made a U-turn straight into Loss Avenue!
She nodded in satisfaction and looked around.
“Anyone else? Any other questions?”
This time, everyone shook their heads in unison.
Yup.
Aside from the theme being totally misaligned with the market—
There were no other issues.
But that one issue was fatal.
A game, no matter how great, is doomed without the soil to grow in.
Unless—
“Then we’ll create the market ourselves!”
Shen Miaomiao raised her hand and declared loudly.
Huh?!
Shock rippled through the room.
Everyone stared at her like she’d grown another head.
Seeing this, Shen Miaomiao laughed inside.
She got it now.
Everyone’s comments were the same flavor of “Yes, but…”
Jiang Yun loved the story, but there’s no market.
Jiang Shan loved the art, but there’s no market.
Kai Lang loved the tech challenge, but there’s no market.
Bottom line?
Everyone loved the game.
But as developers, that love meant nothing without sales.
In short—
This was a passion project, destined to flop commercially.
Shen Miaomiao almost saluted Gu Sheng on the spot.
Respect! Director Gu!
You creative genius!
If you'd shown me this idea earlier, we’d be a billion-dollar company by now!
A project this perfect?
She wasn’t about to let it go!
“If we don’t have the conditions—we create them! No market? Then we are the market!”
Seeing everyone stare at her, Shen Miaomiao knew—
It was time for her motivational moment.
“Unyielding determination, passionate hearts, and the spirit to break new ground!”
“Have you forgotten our Golden Spirit?”
“Now—
Let me ask you this—
Do you want to make this game?”
Everyone turned to look at each other.
Jiang Yun did.
He was captivated by the epic, complex storyline.
Jiang Shan did.
The cold, industrial aesthetic was her jam.
Kai Lang did.
This was his dream—a full-sense mech experience.
As for Lu Bian and Da Jiang?
Wherever Gu Sheng stood, they stood.
They all believed in this game’s artistic value.
They just didn’t think it could turn a profit.
Seeing this, Shen Miaomiao raised her hand boldly:
“If you love it—go for it!”
“The world needs progress. Games must evolve.”
“If every game company played it safe, how would the industry ever grow?”
“We’re a rising force.
We’ve got the brightest Supernova Designer,
And the most creative team!”
“No conditions? We create them!”
“No market? We become the market!”
“From this moment—
You’re no longer just Golden Wind.
You represent the heart of innovation in gaming—
Across China, across the world.”
“This isn’t a small step for us—”
“It’s a giant leap for the gaming industry!”
“I hereby declare—”
“YiYou X2 Flagship Project—Titanfall—”
“Is officially approved!!!”
Silence—
Then—
BOOM—!!!
The conference room exploded in thunderous applause!
All rise!
Everyone was beyond excited.
Kai Lang and Jiang Shan were even tearing up.
This was their company.
This was their team.
This was their president!
Young, bold, trailblazing, innovative!
She didn’t obsess over profit,
Nor rest on past glories.
To her, money was just numbers—
The real thrill was in pushing forward, forging new paths!
How lucky they were to be here.
To follow a leader like this.
President Shen was right!
No conditions? Create them. No market? Be the pioneers.
Nobody’s made a successful mecha game?
We’re here now! The change starts here!
Titanfall is coming—
And the market will follow!
Project approved! Let’s roll!