Agreed to make bad games, What the Hell is Titan Fall 139
by adminChapter 139: If Our Sentiments Are Alike, We Are on the Same Level
Three days later!
Shen Miao Miao, fully recovered, returned to the company.
Her first act upon returning to work was to convene a meeting of all the project department executives to discuss the project proposal for the Titanfall spin-off project!
Now, the features of the official system have all been unlocked.
The tactic of “main project profit + sub-project loss” has given Shen Miao Miao a new hope for making losses.
And APEX, as a spin-off project of Titanfall, naturally became the first sub-project entry in the complete official system.
It was also Shen Miao Miao’s best guinea pig for testing whether the “sub-project could achieve losses under the condition of the main project’s profit”!
“Is everyone here? Let’s start the meeting.”
In the Golden Wind conference room, Shen Miao Miao’s face was still a little pale, but her spirits were already pretty good. She clapped her hands to signal the start of the meeting.
However, Gu Sheng, as if remembering something, raised his hand:
“Wait a minute, Shen. I suddenly remembered that someone is missing.”
“Missing?” Shen Miao Miao looked around.
Sister Chu Chu, the core trio led by Gu Sheng, and Jiang Yun, Kailang, and Jiang Shan.
Wasn’t it always these people at every meeting? Who was missing?
“I suggest that we include Wang Xiaoming from the Operation Department in this project proposal meeting,”
Gu Sheng said:
“Wang, since taking over PUBG’s operation work, has been diligent and hardworking, progressing rapidly,”
“And he has a deep understanding of the player needs and actual situations of large-scale multiplayer online competitive games,”
“What do you think, Shen?”
Oh – the whole family is here.
It seemed that Lao Gu placed great importance on this APEX spin-off project.
It’s also a good thing.
With Titanfall as a predecessor, anyone with a normal brain would try their best to make the spin-off work match the quality of the main work.
It’s a pity that I have the system, sorry Lao Gu.
Shen Miao Miao thought to herself.
You’ve already achieved fame and fortune with Titanfall. Let me lose some money on this small, insignificant sub-project, as compensation.
Today, not even the Emperor of Heaven himself can come here. I have to find a way to make it lose money!
She nodded: “Okay, call Wang to the meeting.”
Gu Sheng smiled and nodded, sending a message to Wang Xiaoming.
Before long, Wang Xiaoming knocked on the conference room door. After a brief greeting, he took his seat.
“Okay, everyone’s here. Let’s have the meeting,”
Shen Miao Miao began:
“Now, the success of Titanfall is undeniable,”
“We’ve already promised the spin-off project, so it’s time to put it on the agenda,”
“I’ve called you all here today to talk about the project proposal for APEX,”
“This includes game content, investment, monetization models, and so on,”
“Now, Director Gu, please talk about the game content first.”
Before the meeting.
Oh no.
To be precise, when Gu Sheng was accompanying her to get her last IV drip last night, Shen Miao Miao asked Gu Sheng about the APEX project.
It’s almost done.
That was Gu Sheng’s reply.
In fact, as early as the second week after Titanfall’s release, he had already exchanged APEX from the system.
With Titanfall as a foundation, APEX no longer had the debuff of double emotional value unlock. It only required 400,000 emotions to unlock.
What he had to do next was to slightly modify it, adapting it to sensory pod games and ‘porting’ it to ArtJoy X2.
“Okay,”
Gu Sheng nodded and said:
“Regarding APEX, I’ve also briefly mentioned it to everyone in the project department,”
“The main form of the game will continue the most popular multiplayer project in our hands—PUBG,”
“Battle Royale, or the so-called chicken dinner.”
Mhm!
Good!
Upon hearing this game format!
Shen Miao Miao nodded vigorously!
She hadn’t been a complete couch potato lying in bed while staying at home for the past few days.
While Lao Gu was at work, she would occasionally go to the study they shared and read for a while.
Mainly to see what players expected from Titanfall’s spin-off.
Many people thought that this time, the multiplayer mode of Titanfall should be closer to traditional competitive modes.
Both sides would be divided, they would engage in offensive and defensive tactics in small and medium-sized scenes, and then accumulate energy points by killing enemies, summoning Titans after meeting the requirements.
A very basic game mode.
Even now, one of the flagship projects of the North Pole Bear Generation 3 sensory pods, the first-generation FPS game “Smoke,” produced by the Tian Lang team, has already released a trailer for its mech mode.
Its mode gameplay is like this.
After all, they are a top-tier manufacturer, with enough personnel and money. The speed of copying a simple mode is much faster than Golden Wind.
However, due to the limitations of the first-generation FPS setting, “Smoke”‘s mech mode, compared to the stunning and immersive Titanfall, still lacks a certain flavor.
Therefore, players are still looking forward to Golden Wind releasing a genuine multiplayer spin-off.
Shen Miao Miao was worried that he would follow the rules and release a normal multiplayer battle.
It turns out Lao Gu is quite aware!
He directly passed the normal battle format and said “Battle Royale” right away!
You have to know!
Battle Royale games are not doing well in the market today!
After PUBG, almost every FPS game has more or less a chicken dinner element!
Some make it a separate mode, while others completely copy it, such as Guangyao’s “Special Operations.”
In such a situation of serious homogeneity, players inevitably experience aesthetic fatigue when it comes to this game mode.
Most people play it for a while and then go back to PUBG.
After all, this chicken dinner origin game is well optimized, has a good feel, has many events, and releases new maps relatively quickly.
Even now, there is a saying in the market – PUBG pioneered the chicken dinner genre, and the crown will forever be on PUBG’s head.
In this case!
Titanfall’s spin-off seems unsuitable for choosing Battle Royale again.
PUBG is too successful.
So successful that even Golden Wind itself can hardly surpass it.
Heaven helps me!
Shen Miao Miao nodded with a smile.
However!
She didn’t take it lightly!
Because from her understanding of Lao Gu, whenever he made any illogical decisions, it meant that he definitely had corresponding solutions!
Thinking of this, Shen Miao Miao asked:
“So, this game… Director Gu, do you have any new perspectives?”
Show me all your tricks. I’m going to take a good look this time.
“Just a little, it’s a small-scale innovation,”
Gu Sheng smiled slightly and said:
“As we all know, the current Battle Royale type games mainly focus on firearms for offensive tactics, and props as auxiliary, including our PUBG.”
“But this time, we’re going to make some minor adjustments.”
“We will add ‘skills’ to the game, borrowing from RPG or MOBA games to introduce unique heroes and give them corresponding skills.”
Hiss—
As expected!
Upon hearing this, Shen Miao Miao narrowed her eyes slightly.
Good boy, you have a backup plan after all.
“Then, in your opinion, how confident are you in this adjustment?”
“It’s hard to say…”
Gu Sheng shook his head ambiguously.
This wasn’t him being modest, but the situation was like this.
You have to know that this is a parallel world.
The game market landscape is inherently different from the previous life.
And this difference became even more obvious after his arrival.
In the previous life, in terms of game content, why was APEX able to grab a significant portion of the market from PUBG? Because APEX had a good feel, good optimization, fast pace, and because of the addition of skills, the solo game experience was more enjoyable.
It can be said that in terms of ‘fun’, APEX surpassed the master.
Therefore, in the previous life, it was able to compete with PUBG for market share, and even rival it during its peak.
But in this world!
Things are different!
The feel that Pai Pai was proud of was caught up by the PUBG that Gu Sheng personally tuned.
Pai Pai’s absolutely friendly optimization was also caught up by the PUBG that Gu Sheng personally tuned.
Pai Pai’s advantages were cut by two major blows.
It seemed that all that remained were the ‘fast game pace’ and ‘new skill gameplay’ innovations.
But “game pace” is still highly subjective.
Some people like fast-paced games, while others may prefer slow-paced games to be a sneaky jerk.
As for the ‘new skill gameplay’ innovation, the situation is even more complex.
“Five years ago, when sensory pods were just starting to be mass-produced and expand the market, there was a game that was similar in design concept to our APEX,”
After getting Gu Sheng’s approval, Jiang Yun introduced:
“Clash of the Gods, it’s a first-person perspective MOBA game,”
“It completely adopts the settings of MOBA games, but changes the top-down view to a first-person perspective.”
“In the game, players will play as heroes and attack or cast skills to destroy the enemy base and win.”
First-person LOL.
Hearing this setting, Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow: “Sounds pretty good?”
“Indeed,”
Jiang Yun nodded:
“In terms of game innovation, it does sound good, and it also attracted a large group of players when it first launched.”
“But,”
Immediately, Jiang Yun’s tone changed:
“It didn’t last long,”
“After the game’s novelty wore off, the game’s core issues became apparent.”
“Although the design idea of ‘using MOBA as a basis to implement FPS perspective’ looks amazing, these are ultimately two different types of games, and there is a natural incompatibility.”
“MOBA games require macro, operation, and team coordination.”
“And these core points are difficult to fully realize in FPS mode.”
“This leads to the game’s core being very twisted.”
“Without the drag-screen god’s view, it leads to incomplete information reception, affecting macro judgment.”
“And without macro judgment, whether it’s roaming, solo carrying, or grouping together, the execution efficiency will be reduced, further affecting the operation.”
“Plus, the limitations of the first-person perspective, team battles are basically just skills hitting the face, you can’t find the key points, and you can’t cooperate.”
“Ultimately, it led to the game’s rapid decline, and it was announced to shut down just seven months after its release.”
At this point.
Jiang Yun sighed regretfully.
“It’s what we call – a good game, just not fun to play.”
For any game company in the world.
This is a fatal sentence.
Obviously, the game “Clash of the Gods” was well-received both among the player base and among professional designers in the industry.
Because its design creativity was indeed eye-catching, many people, like Shen Miao Miao, thought it was an interesting game when they first heard about it.
But after actually experiencing it, players realized that the game was just too twisted to play.
It didn’t achieve the good of MOBA, nor did it benefit from FPS.
Indisputably excellent creativity, combined with an unpleasant gaming experience, resulted in the final assessment of this game –
A good game, just not fun to play.
“Now,”
After Jiang Yun finished, Lu Bian continued:
“The APEX project we’re preparing is like turning the design concept of “Clash of the Gods” around—”
“We want to use FPS as the basis and implement MOBA-style skill design.”
Hiss—
After listening for a while, Shen Miao Miao understood.
She couldn’t help but gasp.
You’re really crazy, Lao Gu.
How does your brain work?
In everyone’s eyes, PUBG was already at its peak upon its debut, the ultimate in Battle Royale games.
But Gu Sheng still wants to try to challenge the peak he created.
Even though she had been amazed by Gu Sheng’s creativity many times before.
But this time, Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but sigh in her heart.
Lao Gu is truly extraordinary. His understanding and design approach to games completely defy his age and experience.
However!
Despite the sigh!
Shen Miao Miao understood the words of everyone in the project department!
Now!
This APEX project is very risky!
In terms of game type, it’s targeted at PUBG, the behemoth that almost completely dominates the Battle Royale market!
In terms of design philosophy, it’s also targeted at a product that was praised but not popular, ultimately abandoned by the market because of its conflicting core!
The debuff is almost maxed out!
Shen Miao Miao even suspected that Gu Sheng was also engaged in scientific research, and didn’t even consider the profitability of this APEX project.
After all, from the current situation.
This project seems more challenging for Gu Sheng.
He wants to charge at the game benchmark he created, even if he fails, it’s worth it.
Mhm…
That must be it.
Shen Miao Miao nodded silently.
After all, to ensure stable profitability and a solid reputation, Gu Sheng could just release a regular battle, like “Smoke.”
But he stubbornly chooses to dance on the edge of the sword, to be unconventional, to challenge the impossible.
Good, good.
Shen Miao Miao is very satisfied.
If our sentiments are alike, we are on the same level.
“I think we can give it a try,”
Shen Miao Miao stated her approval on the spot:
“Standing still is not the style of Golden Wind,”
“The failure of “Clash of the Gods” is indeed a pity, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing for us,”
“Perhaps they just put FPS and MOBA in the wrong order.”
“After we reverse it, maybe it’ll be successful.”
Shen Miao Miao chuckled and told everyone not to be pressured, since she’s approved this project, she won’t blame them for its failure.
Moreover.
Many of the data for this project was taken from the main body of Titanfall. The cost, at most, is 50 million.
Compared to their previous high-risk PUBG and Titanfall, the situation is much better.
“Therefore,” Shen Miao Miao said, “Don’t be afraid of failure, just try. We can afford to lose.”
Upon hearing this, everyone smiled and said, ‘Shen, you’re so open-minded’.
“Hahaha, flattery is unnecessary,”
Shen Miao Miao, wearing the cap of praise, smiled and waved her hand:
“Since the game content, design philosophy, and cost investment are all okay.”
“Next, there’s one last thing, and it’s the most important one—.”
“Let’s discuss the monetization model of this game!”
(End of Chapter)
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