Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 22
“President Shen’s doing the game proposal?!”
Inside the Game Director’s Office at Golden Wind.
Lu Bian and Da Jiang turned to Chu Qingzhou in shock, speaking in unison.
“Uh… yeah,”
Chu Qingzhou shrugged helplessly.
“This time, President Shen wants to personally lead the project proposal for the competition.”
“This…”
Lu Bian looked troubled.
“Secretary Chu, this kind of thing… shouldn’t trouble President Shen, right?”
Truthfully, Chu Qingzhou also wasn’t a fan of the boss jumping in on the business side of things.
You don’t understand how game production works, so what are you even directing?
Besides, the young lady wasn’t normally like this.
She was a classic couch potato—happy to keep her hands off everything. If she could coast through life as a hands-off boss, she’d jump at the chance!
So what’s with this sudden burst of enthusiasm for leading a game proposal?
But!
The boss had spoken, and as the secretary, Chu Qingzhou couldn’t object. All she could do was follow orders:
“President Shen gave the order herself. I told her that your team is more qualified when it comes to making games,”
“But she still wants to take the lead. What do you three think?”
As she spoke, everyone’s eyes turned toward Gu Sheng.
After all, he was the director.
Even if he disagreed, he’d be the one to persuade Shen Miaomiao.
“Hmm—”
Gu Sheng thought for a moment, then said:
“Alright, if President Shen wants to take charge, that means she values this project a lot.”
“But considering that she’s not particularly… experienced in the game industry,”
“Some of the finer details will still need to be adjusted by our team.”
His response was very diplomatic—and made his point clear:
Big-picture input is fine—she’s the boss, after all.
But when it comes to the nuts and bolts, she should stay out of it. She’s not equipped to handle those details anyway.
This was already very respectful of Gu Sheng.
Most professionals don’t like outsiders giving them directions—even if that outsider is the CEO.
And in this case… their CEO really didn’t understand game production.
Chu Qingzhou nodded in agreement.
“Alright then, Director Gu, you guys prepare on your end,”
She exhaled in relief.
“I’ll go talk to President Shen again. Let’s regroup in the meeting room in ten minutes.”
“Got it.”
Gu Sheng nodded.
Chu the Executive Assistant left the room—
And the office immediately exploded.
“F**k, Lao Gu! Are you okay?! You’re letting Little Nezha direct our game?!”
Lu Bian closed the door and stared at Gu Sheng, looking panicked:
“She doesn’t know sh*t about game development! Didn’t you see how she reacted at the last demo?”
Let’s not forget!
At their last demo, that diaper-wearing baby bugged out in full view and glitched like crazy!
Any normal boss would’ve flipped the table and fired the three of them on the spot!
But Little Nezha?
She just sat there grinning like a fool and clapping!
And now she’s going to lead the game proposal?!
Da Jiang also looked conflicted. “Yeah, Sheng-ge, President Shen’s a great boss, no doubt… but that doesn’t mean she’ll make a good game planner…”
But Gu Sheng just smiled calmly.
“That’s why I said—we’ll handle the details.”
He poured each of them a glass of water and gestured for them to relax.
“It’s precisely because she doesn’t know game development that I want to hear her input.”
Lu Bian and Da Jiang exchanged a confused glance.
“I don’t get it, Sheng-ge,” Da Jiang said, scratching his head.
Gu Sheng chuckled:
“Little Nezha may not understand how to make games, but at least she knows what she wants. And why do we make games?”
“To… let other people play?” Lu Bian answered.
Gu Sheng pointed at him approvingly.
“Exactly. We make games for players.”
With that, a brief silence fell over the office.
Then Lu Bian suddenly lit up: “Ohhh—”
“You’re saying Little Nezha is our player!”
He got it now.
Lao Gu agreed to hear out Little Nezha’s suggestions because she didn’t know game development.
She was a pure player.
Her only metric for judging a game was: “Is it fun or not?”
And what Gu Sheng wanted was precisely that kind of raw player feedback.
“Whatever kind of game you think is fun—I’ll make that kind of game.”
“You really are something, Lao Gu!”
Lu Bian gave a thumbs-up, looking impressed.
“No wonder you were born to be a designer. That mindset is just genius.”
“Kiss-ass.”
Gu Sheng shot back with a laugh, then turned to Da Jiang.
“What about you? Agree with this design philosophy?”
“Uh—”
Da Jiang paused for two seconds, then cupped his fists:
“Same here!”
Ten minutes later—
Meeting room.
Don’t be fooled by how much of a couch potato Little Nezha was—in matters involving money, she was always fast and decisive.
Sitting at the head of the table, Shen Miaomiao was practically vibrating with excitement.
Who would’ve thought? One day, she—someone who knew nothing about game development—would get to lead a game proposal!
Sorry, Comrade Gu.
She thought silently.
I know you want to be a great game designer, but we’re just not on the same path. Once I succeed, I’ll share some of the rebate money with you as compensation!
Just as she was thinking this, Gu Sheng and his team entered the meeting room.
Everyone took their seats, and the planning meeting officially began.
“No need to be formal,”
Shen Miaomiao smiled brightly.
“Today’s meeting is for open discussion. If I say anything off or inappropriate, Director Gu, feel free to correct me.”
Gu Sheng nodded: “You’re too modest, President Shen. Please go ahead.”
Alright then! I won’t hold back!
Shen Miaomiao grinned wickedly inside and opened her meeting notebook.
It was full of stats she had just looked up—things like the worst-performing game genres in the last three years, the most negatively reviewed games in the past five, lowest-selling games on YiYou, etc.
“Ahem, let’s start by settling on the game genre,”
She cleared her throat and looked at the three men.
“Director Gu, do you have any ideas about what genre we should go with?”
Let’s see how much Emotional Value I’ve got stored in the system, Gu Sheng thought to himself.
He shook his head. “Not yet. The notice was short, so we haven’t had time to discuss. Do you have something in mind, President Shen?”
Bingo!
Shen Miaomiao was thrilled with that answer. Great, that makes this easy.
Let’s just pick the worst genre from my data and go with that.
She glanced down at her notes:
“Then let’s make… a bullet hell shooter!”
Bullet hell shooter—a genre where players dodge a barrage of lethal projectiles while trying to survive and counterattack.
To be honest—
Shen Miaomiao had never heard of it before.
And in the past five years, not a single game in that genre had been released on YiYou.
It was the kind of game even dogs wouldn’t look at.
Sure enough—
The second she said it—
Lu Bian and Da Jiang both gasped audibly.
What the hell kind of crap genre is that?!