Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 44

“Excuse me for a moment.”

A lightbulb seemed to flash in Shen Miaomiao’s mind—like her life had found a new sense of direction again.

She nodded apologetically to the other developers and excused herself from the crowd, making her way to the restroom.

Door shut. Lid down. Lock clicked!

Ka-cha!

Ahh... the world was finally at peace.

Sitting on the toilet seat, Shen Miaomiao let out a long, relieved sigh.

She needed a quiet place to think.

Perfect!

First of all!

For a small-scale game company like theirs, the motion-sensing cabin was basically a guaranteed money pit.

First off, just buying the development engine for motion-sensing cabin games was a huge expense!

Shen Miaomiao didn’t know the exact figures, but from what she’d heard, a mature motion-sensing cabin game engine could easily cost hundreds of thousands, even millions, per quarter!

Gotta spend big!

Second, making a motion-sensing cabin game wasn’t something two or three people could just whip up.

The sheer size of the project—without a team of dozens—was straight-up impossible!

Gotta spend even more!

Lastly, the current market share for motion-sensing cabin games? It was basically dominated by the big corporations.

So if you wanted a foothold in the market, you’d have to match those giants across the board.

Which means... yeah, still gotta throw money at it!

All in all!

Getting into the motion-sensing cabin market? Step one: burn through cash like crazy.

At the low end, you’d be sinking hundreds of thousands. At the high end, millions—even tens of millions weren’t out of the question!

And the most critical part?

Just because you pour the money in... doesn’t mean you’ll make any of it back!

Quite the opposite, actually—plenty of small companies, even the ones brave enough to invest, still ended up losing their shirts.

Just like that developer from earlier who’d been asking questions at the event.

Exactly this!

Shen Miaomiao nodded enthusiastically.

Wasn’t this the perfect classic example of a money-losing venture?

Totally her kind of thing!

Of course!

If it were that simple, she wouldn’t have needed to hide out in the restroom to think it over.

Yup.

Besides wanting to dive into the motion-sensing cabin market, she’d gotten another spark of inspiration from another dumb developer’s question earlier!

And that was... horror games!

You had to know—there were only a handful of mainstream genres in today’s gaming market.

And the genres that fit the motion-sensing cabin? Even fewer!

As for horror games? They were already rare in the regular market, let alone in the motion-sensing cabin space.

Anyone who’d studied even a little market economics knew the deal.

If a product was practically nonexistent in the market, there was usually just one reason—

No demand.

No market, no profits—so naturally, no one bothered making it.

Hmmmm—!!!

Sitting on the toilet lid, Shen Miaomiao’s expression turned... a little strange.

A money-burning, high-risk, almost guaranteed-to-fail market.

Combined with a super niche, no-demand game genre.

Oh ho.

Wasn’t this basically the perfect recipe for a disaster project?

Shen Miaomiao couldn’t help but get excited.

If she could pull off this loss, it would be a massive one!

Even if she held back a little, she’d still need to throw in at least a hundred thousand!

Even if she invested a million... and only lost half of it!

“That’s still five hundred thousand...!!!”

The thought made Shen Miaomiao let out a small gasp, her big eyes sparkling like stars.

I really am a little genius!

Thinking of that fifty yuan bill she’d framed, she waved a tiny fist at it.

“Don’t worry, Fifty! I’ll take this to the next level, just watch me!”

This time’s Developer Exchange Event had been quite the haul for Golden Wind.

Thanks to the “collective brainstorming” from the other developers, Shen Miaomiao came out of the restroom with a brand-new inspiration for losing money.

As for Gu Sheng, he’d gotten exactly what he wanted too—at the exchange event, he managed to consult with plenty of fellow designers about the motion-sensing cabin.

Through these conversations, Gu Sheng learned that in this world, motion-sensing cabin technology had actually been around for over a decade.

Back then, though, the costs were astronomical, and the compatibility was low, so it was mostly limited to high-end users.

It wasn’t until a few years ago, after some of the world’s top electronics brands teamed up on R&D, that the breakthrough for mass production finally happened. That’s when motion-sensing cabins started trickling down from the high-end market to the mid-range.

And as market ownership gradually expanded, the ecosystem of content compatible with motion-sensing cabins exploded too.

Movies, TV shows, education, shopping, gaming... you could do it all in a motion-sensing cabin.

Naturally, the big gaming corporations saw the opportunity and dove in headfirst.

The formats for motion-sensing cabin games also became standardized through this massive capital war—

shooters, racing games, and sports—the big three of guns, cars, and balls ruled the market.

As for the other types of games—like Galgames, card games, or rhythm games—while they popped up here and there, none of them made much of a splash.

Wait... no horror games?

After all this, Gu Sheng was a bit surprised.

Because in his experience, motion-sensing cabins and horror games should be a match made in heaven!

But for some reason, this seemingly perfect pairing just didn’t have a market here.

Gu Sheng made a mental note of it—he’d ask Lu Bian and Da Jiang about it when they got back.

All in all, this little “intel-gathering mission” was a total success.

That was on the personal side.

On the company side? The haul was even bigger.

Once the reports from various gaming media outlets started rolling out—

The very next day!

Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao became the hot topic in the domestic gaming scene!

“The Real New Blood! Golden Wind’s Lead Designer Is So Young?!”

“Shocking! The Creator of Three Hit Games Is Still in School!”

“Young? Immature? Let’s Uncover the True Strength of Golden Wind’s President!”

“This Event Showed Me the True Rising Stars of the Gaming Scene”

“…”

Article after article poured in, and the player comments? Flooding in like crazy!

“D*mn! Gu Sheng is the same age as me?!”

“Doesn’t that make you feel ashamed saying that?”

“My review: kkrj.”

“Turns out this champion of weird games is actually kinda good-looking.”

“Yeah, I always thought someone who could make abstract games like Who’s the Dad must be pretty abstract themselves, but Sheng-ge is actually kind of a sunshine boy.”

“Definitely gives off that bright and sunny big brother vibe.”

“Can’t believe Sheng-ge is this young.”

“Yeah, that’s why they call him new blood.”

“By the way, Golden Wind’s CEO... she’s so chibi, it’s kinda cute.”

“Hahaha, chibi, huh? You mean the two bun-shaped hairdos?”

“Gotta say, she kinda looks like Little Nezha.”

“You’re awful, seriously. Just say Nezha, don’t call her a d*mn lotus root!”

“Watch your mouth! How dare you make fun of my Nezha boss!”

“No, but seriously, her dad’s actually like a Tower-Holding Heavenly King in the business world.”

“…”

Comment after comment scrolled across the screen, and Gu Sheng, half-lying in his executive chair, was thoroughly enjoying himself.

He popped a handful of chips into his mouth, washed it down with a gulp of soda, feeling like he was on top of the world.

Right in the middle of this blissful moment—

Ka-cha.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the office door.

Chu Qingzhou peeked in and looked at Gu Sheng.

“Director Gu, got a moment? President Shen wants to discuss the new project with you.”