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    ## Chapter 51: I! Genius!

    Lu Bian was numb.

    The moment he saw Xiao Nezha walk into the office, he knew things were about to go south.

    Xiao Nezha, a true “phoenix chick” (a prodigy), knew nothing about games. She just agreed to whatever Gu Sheng said.

    Sometimes, she even had these random ideas, making all kinds of ridiculous demands.

    This time, Gu Sheng had turned into a “Sleeping Dragon” (a hidden genius), acting like he was under some sort of spell, immediately wanting to make a horror game.

    Lu Bian let out a long sigh in his heart.

    Well, it seemed the company’s top two people were all losing their minds. No one could stop the “Golden Wind” (a company that was losing money) from self-destructing.

    Soon!

    Everyone was there, the project meeting was starting.

    Actually, to call this a “meeting” was a stretch. It was more like a “private chat” between Gu Sheng and Xiao Nezha.

    After all, the other people were all lost in thought, each with their own worries:

    Lu Bian was thinking, “This is definitely going to be a disaster. Should I volunteer to be the project leader? That way, even if the project crashes and burns, it’ll be my reputation that’s ruined, not Old Gu’s fresh Super Nova award.”

    Da Jiang was thinking, “Since a horror game is a done deal, how can I make it more visually stunning? Even if we can’t compensate for the gameplay shortcomings, we should at least make the game less ugly when it dies.”

    As for Chu Qingzhou, he was thinking about how to connect with the “Artistic Tour” platform, put a little pressure on Yan Sheng, and make him increase their game’s promotional efforts. That 80,000 yuan couldn’t be wasted!

    Everyone had their own worries, their brows furrowed as they pondered, occasionally scribbling on their meeting notebooks.

    Meanwhile, Xiao Nezha and Gu Sheng were having a lively conversation!

    Gu Sheng was thinking, “Although Xiao Nezha doesn’t understand game development, she at least understands games, she knows what players want. The success of ‘Vampire Survivor’ was the best proof. Xiao Nezha’s seemingly random suggestions all hit the nail on the head, ultimately leading me to choose that game. So this time, I’m going to try the same approach.”

    As for Xiao Nezha, she was letting her imagination run wild, with the mindset that they were bound to lose money. She came up with the most ridiculous ideas she could think of.

    She wanted to make the game as bad as possible, aiming for the absolute lowest point in its journey to failure.

    “…Hmm, shrinking the map, that’s not a bad suggestion.” Gu Sheng wrote down Xiao Nezha’s suggestion in his notebook.

    “Anything else?”

    “There’s…” Xiao Nezha propped her chin, pondering deeply.

    So far, she had given Gu Sheng nearly every terrible idea she could think of.

    Considering that popular games usually had weapons, she suggested Gu Sheng remove weapons altogether, intentionally making players unhappy.

    Considering that popular games usually had long gameplay, she suggested Gu Sheng shorten the game’s duration, ruining the player experience.

    Considering that popular games usually had vast maps, she suggested Gu Sheng compress the game map, diminishing the player’s sense of exploration.

    It seemed like she had managed to eliminate every possible positive aspect of a horror game.

    For a moment, Xiao Nezha was at a loss for ideas. She looked around the conference room.

    Then, a flash of inspiration struck her!

    “Oh right, could we… make the game multiplayer?”

    Shen Miaomiao let out a triumphant cheer in her heart!

    I! Genius!

    You see!

    Previous horror games, in order to achieve a sense of atmosphere, were all single-player!

    The entire game, forget teammates, you barely even saw NPCs!

    The whole point was to create a sense of isolation and helplessness, to fully amplify the player’s fear in a terrifying environment!

    You could even say that’s the core of horror games!

    One person playing a horror game is scary, but two, three, even four people together? What’s scary about that?

    Shen Miaomiao felt like she had grown.

    From being clueless about games before, she had actually learned to see beyond the surface and grasp the essence, hitting the core of the game with one suggestion!

    Praiseworthy!

    Gu Sheng was also stunned upon hearing her suggestion.

    Multiplayer?

    Right!

    How come I hadn’t thought of the multiplayer aspect?!

    “Hmm…” Gu Sheng pondered for a moment, his brow furrowed as he looked at the notes on Xiao Nezha’s suggestions, deep in thought.

    No weapons, small map, short gameplay, multiplayer, plus an emotion value limit of 50,000 points. The options seemed clear.

    Gu Sheng picked up his pen and wrote down the game title in his notebook:

    “Terror Phobia”

    Not bad!

    Thanks to Comrade Xiao Nezha’s careful guidance!

    Gu Sheng’s originally chaotic thinking suddenly became clear!

    He immediately settled on this multiplayer horror puzzle game that had gone viral on the Steam sales charts, beating out “Cyberpunk 2077” and other popular titles.

    Wow, it seems like I’ll have to communicate with Xiao Nezha more in the future.

    Gu Sheng nodded silently.

    My game library is too vast, finding a specific game is no easy feat, I need Xiao Nezha’s help!

    It’s like she has a golden tongue!

    Gu Sheng wrote down the game title in his notebook, quite satisfied.

    He then looked up at Shen Miaomiao: “Okay, I understand. Do you have any other ideas or suggestions?”

    Shen Miaomiao felt her head was starting to ache, her supply of outrageous ideas had run dry.

    She shook her head: “Alright, that’s it. You can just do it however you want.”

    Since the framework was already laid out, no matter what Gu Sheng did, it probably wouldn’t make a big splash.

    After settling the game framework, it was time to talk about investment.

    According to Gu Sheng’s basic calculations, to create “Terror Phobia” on the sensory pod platform, they would conservatively need around 500,000 to 800,000 yuan.

    “Plus the sensory pod equipment registration fee…” Gu Sheng wrote a bold “1,000,000” on the notebook.

    Sensory pods were expensive.

    Of course, apart from that, Gu Sheng also wanted to make the game even more refined.

    As everyone knew, the original “Terror Phobia” had relatively low production costs, resulting in visuals that weren’t exactly high-quality.

    The characters were stiff, the ghost textures were basic, the physics collisions and ragdoll system were also far from ideal.

    Even though it managed to cover its flaws with its gameplay, giving it an overall polished look.

    But this time, with Gu Sheng personally at the helm, and with Xiao Nezha’s full support, they definitely wanted to make it more complete.

    Gu Sheng even wanted to incorporate some Chinese horror elements, in addition to the original game content.

    Paper effigies, paper horses, white paper money, schools, ancient mansions, sanatoriums.

    He wanted to give players a dose of “Golden Wind” spiritual terror and underworld shock.

    Exciting.

    So, Gu Sheng threw all these things into the mix, estimating that it would cost at least a couple of million, excluding the sensory pod registration fee.

    Of course!

    This was just his estimate.

    After finishing, Gu Sheng didn’t get up immediately but instead looked at Xiao Nezha, with practiced ease.

    Your turn, go ahead.

    Xiao Nezha, living up to expectations, waved her hand: “This amount of money won’t even be enough for a sensory pod game! Two million!”

    Ah – comfortable.

    Gu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief.

    Since joining “Golden Wind,” he felt uncomfortable if every game didn’t have a budget increase of two or three times.

    Okay.

    Gu Sheng nodded.

    Adding budget to a game like “Mao Liao” was difficult, as its visual quality and production complexity were already set.

    But a game like “Terror Phobia” wanted to burn budget? Easy!

    Just slightly improve the fabric system’s visuals, and that would require a lot of money!

    The gameplay was there, adding budget meant adding visuals, and adding visuals meant adding horror!

    Thinking about it, Gu Sheng shrugged –

    This game wasn’t originally very scary, but my boss insisted on increasing the budget, so the game’s level of horror…

    Is now beyond my control.

    (End of Chapter)

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