Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 38
I’ve really committed a huge sin this time.
Shen Miaomiao sat at the head of the meeting room table, looking utterly defeated, a bare flower stem clenched in her hand.
Yes, that’s right.
She had already been so anxious that she resorted to the ancient and utterly ridiculous ritual of plucking petals to divine whether this investment would break even.
And the result? It just made her even more anxious—
She picked a five-petaled plum blossom and started with “break even.”
Break even, won’t break even, break even, won’t break even, break even... d*mn it!
Why the hell does a plum blossom have five petals?! What bad luck!
Superstitions are garbage!
She was freaking out.
After all, she’d been watching the hype around Vampire Survivors with her own eyes for a while now.
Its popularity and reputation among players were even higher than their last two games combined.
Granted!
Thanks to the Settlement Time Reduction Card, the profit-loss calculation for this round would be finalized just one hour after the game officially launched.
As long as Vampire Survivors didn’t hit 200,000 yuan in sales within that one hour, her investment would count as a loss—and she’d receive a tenfold rebate.
But!
Given how hot the game was, it wasn’t exactly impossible for it to recoup the investment within an hour either.
At that thought, Shen Miaomiao couldn’t help but pray silently—
Heaven above, Earth below, please let the YiYou Platform servers suddenly blow up.
Just one hour of downtime, and I’ll get my peaceful two million yuan rebate.
Whatever the game makes after that? Doesn’t matter to me anymore.
I only get a tiny bit of profit anyway.
Jesus Christ, Holy Mother Mary, High Monk Wang Lama of the Wudang Delegation to Shaolin—have mercy and give Shen Miaomiao a little grace...
On the other end, while Shen Miaomiao was praying to the heavens for YiYou’s servers to crash, she had no idea—
Over at the YiYou Platform’s programming department, the place was buzzing with activity. The sound of typing filled the air—it was a full-blown frenzy.
The newly appointed lead programmer, Ma Shan, clapped his hands in front of the office:
“Alright, everyone, listen up! Don’t stop working!”
“We’re at the most critical point of this entire development festival!”
“Server stability is absolutely key to wrapping up this event!”
“President Yan gave special instructions too.”
“Today, anyone else can screw up—but not the programming department!”
“Let me make this clear—”
“If, during the final results release—right when all the games go on sale—our servers lag out…”
“If the lag lasts more than ten seconds, everyone’s bonus for the month? Gone!”
Then!
Ma Shan changed his tone:
“But if we hold the line—if the servers stay smooth under pressure—”
“Overtime pay’s on the company!”
“And I’ll personally take you all out for foot massages!”
“Got it?!”
No man can resist a foot massage.
As soon as he said that, the entire department went wild!
Everyone looked like they just got hit with a shot of adrenaline.
“Sh*t! Shan-ge, you’re the best!”
“Don’t worry, Shan-ge. Even if I have a heart attack today, these servers won’t!”
“HAHAHA bro don’t jinx it…”
“For the sake of foot massages!”
“If the servers go down today, we’ll offer up our heads!”
“It’s almost 8 o’clock! Let’s go, brothers—!”
“LET’S GO——!!!”
In a blink, it was almost 8 PM.
Shen Miaomiao checked the time and shook off her nerves, giving herself a little pep talk.
Pull it together, Shen Miaomiao!
It’s only one hour!
Survive this one hour and she’d receive her first rebate from the system!
Sure, Vampire Survivors was red-hot right now.
But everyone knew that sales growth takes time.
People might love the game and be willing to pay for it—but it’s not like a massive crowd was sitting in front of their screens just waiting to hit “Buy” the moment it launched, right?
After all—
Most people had already been playing it for two weeks. They’d figured out all the gameplay tricks.
That initial purchase hype wouldn’t be that high.
Thinking that, Shen Miaomiao felt a bit more at ease.
Ring ring ring——!!!
As the clock’s hand hit exactly 8 PM, the alarm she had set went off right on time.
Game launch!!!
Shen Miaomiao perked up and quickly turned to look.
The others in the room all turned their eyes to the large projected screen at the front.
On the screen, the live sales curve twitched, then started climbing upward at a steady pace.
Vampire Survivors was priced at 15 yuan per copy.
With a total investment of 200,000 yuan, they’d need to sell at least 13,334 copies in the first hour to break even.
But in theory, that was basically impossible.
Since YiYou’s founding, no small game like Vampire Survivors had ever sold more than 8,900 copies in a single day.
Emphasis on single day.
What Gu Sheng and his team were up against was single-hour sales.
Over ten thousand copies in an hour? Practically a suicide mission.
Watching the curve climb at a steady pace, Shen Miaomiao was able to relax for a moment and let out a long sigh.
Thank god.
Even though that little backstabber Yan Sheng had stirred up some chaos, things were playing out just as she expected.
Half a month of repeated gameplay had left players a bit burned out, and the sales momentum wasn’t anything too wild.
Right now, the game was selling at a pace of about 100 copies per minute.
At that rate, they’d hit around 6,000 copies in the first hour.
Impressive, sure, but still within her acceptable range.
200,000 - 6,000 copies x 15 yuan = 110,000 yuan net loss.
Multiplied by ten.
She’d be pocketing 1.1 million yuan in rebate!
Totally acceptable!
Shen Miaomiao was lightning-fast at mental math. In an instant, she had already calculated the rebate windfall and couldn’t help grinning ear to ear.
However!
Just as her smile began to creep up—
Ding-dong!
Her phone buzzed with a notification.
She picked it up and saw a Weibo push:
【Someone you follow closely—“Gu Sheng Sam”—has posted new content! Come check it out!】
Huh?
Shen Miaomiao glanced up at Gu Sheng, surprised.
Well, well, this little punk’s slacking off right in front of me?!
No wonder he kept ignoring me when I tried to sneak peeks at him earlier.
Turns out he was scrolling through Weibo!
Nice! Very promising indeed!
Shen Miaomiao nodded in satisfaction.
She was all for Gu Sheng slacking off a little—anything to lower the game’s quality.
Feeling curious, Shen Miaomiao opened Weibo to see what kind of nonsense Gu Sheng had been posting.
His personal page popped up.
And there, pinned to the top, was the freshly posted update—
【Gu Sheng Sam: Very excited to announce that Vampire Survivors v1.1 will go live tonight at 8PM! This update includes two new maps (with hidden easter eggs), four unlockable characters, five brand-new weapons, five new items, three Super Weapons, and the very first upgradeable Super Weapon! Come check it out!】