Agreed to make bad games, What the Hell is Titan Fall 61
by adminChapter 61: Achieving the Achievement: Rise from the Ashes!
Shen Miao Miao knew the first-day sales figures for *Terror Phobia*.
A little over two thousand copies!
It wasn’t even as good as her previous sales predictions!
Therefore, she confidently put *Golden Wind* aside and spent a week at home tackling her thesis.
After all, even if *Terror Phobia* could maintain a daily sales volume of two thousand copies, the weekly revenue would be about six hundred and fifty thousand yuan at most, and after deducting the commission, it would be about five hundred thousand yuan.
It was still far from the two million yuan cost!
Thinking about this, Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but feel sincerely happy, thinking that the first thing she would do upon returning to the company tomorrow was to give a kiss to the fifty yuan bill on her desk!
Then introduce herself to it, saying that many brothers and sisters had come to keep it company!
Those brothers and sisters were so beautiful!
Each of them was wearing bright red clothes!
And they were all in bundles!
When those things were placed in the money counting machine, whoosh—
It was simply the most beautiful symphony in the world!
Shen Miao Miao had even imagined herself swimming in a sea of money.
Then, a crisp sound rang out in her mind!
[Ding! Time’s up! This round of investment settlement is complete!]
[Project: Terror Phobia]
[Project Investment Amount: 2 Million Yuan]
[Project Rebate Amount: 0 Yuan]
[Remaining Settlement Time: 0 (Settled)]
[Ding! Detected host’s turnaround! Achievement unlocked: Rise from the Ashes!]
[Achievement Reward: Super Guaranteed Card]
[Reward has been issued, host can use it at any time!]
Shen Miao Miao’s smile remained on her face, but she was completely petrified.
It was as if she had dropped offline in the Earth OL game.
Huh?
Did it start?
It was already over.
Her brain completely froze for two minutes!
Shen Miao Miao stiffly raised her hand, mechanically logging into the ArtJoy platform’s enterprise-side backend on her computer to check the data.
She saw the title of *Terror Phobia* in the “Latest Release” section followed by its current sales figures:
Real-time Sales: 55,557 sets
Total Sales Amount: 2,500,0065 Yuan
Looking at the two lines of numbers, Shen Miao Miao effortlessly calculated in her mind the final seven-day profit of *Terror Phobia* after deducting the commission:
2,000,052 Yuan.
Not much.
It was just fifty-two yuan more than the total investment amount.
Without a moment’s hesitation!
Shen Miao Miao acted completely out of instinct!
“I—What the…”
Slap!
Shen Miao Miao slammed the laptop shut!
What the heck!
Over two thousand copies on the first day, how could it reach over fifty thousand copies in just a week?!
This was almost catching up to the sales volume of mid-to-large-sized sensory pod games!
Shen Miao Miao was about to explode!
Actually, if it was just a loss, she wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.
After all, this wasn’t the first time she had lost money.
The key was that this damn system was so mocking!!!
It even deliberately popped up an achievement called “Rise from the Ashes”!
Oh!
I lost five yuan last time! This time I made fifty more!
So I’ve risen from the ashes?!
Can I even rise from the ashes with just these two bucks?!
Shen Miao Miao felt like the system was maliciously mocking her!
Of course!
The most hateful thing wasn’t the system, but the mastermind behind it, the one who was maliciously boosting the sales of her game!
Two thousand on the first day, fifty thousand in a week, Shen Miao Miao wasn’t an idiot, she could tell something was wrong!
She immediately concluded that something external must have intervened during the week she wasn’t paying attention to the company!
Otherwise, game sales wouldn’t have increased so abruptly!
Thinking about this, Shen Miao Miao reopened her computer and typed “Terror Phobia” into the search engine.
Click.
Soon, countless news articles appeared on the pop-up web page:
*Terror Descends! Multiple Review Websites Give Terror Phobia Extremely High Scores!*
*All Platforms Review Over 9.5! Terror Phobia Creates a New Genre of Horror Games!*
*What Game Earned Numerous High Scores? Exclusive Special Brings You a Deep Analysis of the Design Essence of Terror Phobia!*
*…*
Reviews?!
Shen Miao Miao was full of question marks!
She had heard about this kind of publicity strategy from Gu Sheng before.
It was said to be a very powerful publicity method, and it was very well received by players!
But the problem was that, generally speaking, mainstream professional media review teams would only pick big projects for review.
Projects like theirs, with only a hundred or a few hundred thousand yuan in budget, simply didn’t catch their attention!
So… where did these so-called reviews come from?
Shen Miao Miao continued to scroll down the mouse—
*ArtJoy Announces Exclusive Theme for Terror Phobia! Two Steps to Get Yours Quickly!*
*Supernova Treatment! ArtJoy Releases a Major Event, Giving Away Terror Phobia Game Topics to Win Sensory Pods!*
*…*
She stared at the screen for two seconds!
Shen Miao Miao couldn’t hold back, she burst out laughing!
Pointing at the ArtJoy logo on the screen, she gritted her teeth:
“Good boy, you…”
You again!
Shen Miao Miao let out a long sigh in her heart.
You’re a dog with a cat!
Shen Miao Miao was a smart person, she immediately realized that the extra eighty thousand yuan she had given had led Yan Sheng to misunderstand!
Brother, can you please stop overthinking?
I just wanted to raise the production cost within the system’s allowed range…
Why do you keep wearing a fake identity and cooperate with me…
But!
Thinking about it again!
Something wasn’t right!
Previously, Lao Gu had told her about media reviews, saying that it was a very powerful double-edged sword publicity method.
If the game was good, the reviews would elevate the game to the altar, driving sales up and up.
But if the game wasn’t good, the reviews would also point out the problems mercilessly, and even have a negative impact on the game’s sales!
Moreover!
Those mainstream review media were very protective of their reputation.
You could pay them or use connections to ask them to review for you, but the outcome of the review was something you couldn’t control!
Good was good, bad was bad!
Thinking about this, Shen Miao Miao scratched her head.
Because in her opinion, *Terror Phobia* was completely a counter-mainstream work, or even to put it bluntly, it was a work that fundamentally destroyed the established settings of horror games!
How could everyone be so enthusiastic about it?
Shen Miao Miao was really confused.
So, she randomly clicked on a review with the highest popularity and read it carefully:
*Black Box Review: Terror Phobia – A Joker That Redefines Horror Games (9.8/10)*
Shen Miao Miao looked at the 9.8 score and couldn’t help but grin.
So high!
She scrolled down the screen and saw it read:
【Without exaggeration, this is the best horror game I’ve played on the sensory pod platform in the past five years, bar none.】
【The reason I say this is that it created a precedent-setting “online horror game” type.】
【Secondly, and most importantly, it created a new branch of horror games from scratch.】
【We call it—psychological horror.】
【It cancels the traditional horror game’s customary weapon settings, leaving players unarmed and constantly experiencing fear.】
【It cancels the traditional horror game’s stereotyped long processes, shortening the boring铺垫, and presenting brilliance immediately.】
【It cancels the traditional horror game’s inherent expansive maps, creating cramped spaces and pushing the tension to the max.】
【From Vampire Survivor to Terror Phobia, Golden Wind has once again proven their unique understanding of games.】
【From graphics to sound effects, from environmental atmosphere to numerous settings, this game seems to constantly remind you—there are ghosts here, but you are helpless.】
【And this is precisely the most ingenious part of psychological horror.】
【…】
Looking at line after line of review text, Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but frown:
These praised settings…
Why do they seem so familiar?
She then scrolled down to the player comments:
‘It’s accurate, it’s incisive, it’s reasonable (thumbs up)’
‘Don’t talk about anything else, the no-weapon feature is really a jerk, it’s really scary when you enter the game (anger)’
‘The short process setting greatly compresses the game’s long铺垫, it goes straight to the point, the design is really awesome (I like it I like it)’
‘Spending forty-five yuan to play for five minutes and then getting kicked out, I’m a fool (yeah)’
‘This game really gets your blood pressure up, the way the space changes is so creepy (scared)’
‘9.8 is pretty accurate, worthy of Box Mother (open Coke)’
‘…’
Every comment was genuine feedback from the players.
Looking at the comment section, looking at the review.
Looking at the comment section, looking at the review.
Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but ask a question from the depths of her soul:
Huh?
No weapons, short processes, small maps, multiplayer…
Isn’t this what I listed as the big pits I was going to fall into?!
At this moment!
Thought exploded!
Where was I born, where will I die? Why do I exist in this world? Did the world choose me or did I choose the world? Does the universe have an end? Does time have a length? Where did the past time disappear? Where does the future time stop?
Who killed me?
And who did I kill?!
After a long time!
The review page scrolled to the end.
Seeing the eye-catching seven characters “New Flagship of Horror Games” at the end of the review!
Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but let out a desperate cry in her heart:
Damn it!
Is it… I killed me?!
It’s a sin!
Shen Miao Miao gritted her teeth, as if she had taken a bite of the original nine-turn intestine.
But!
Besides regret, Shen Miao Miao also decided to reflect on herself!
No!
She couldn’t keep losing money aimlessly like this!
She had to find the root cause of her losses and try to avoid them in her next project!
Otherwise, just thinking and doing like this, hitting the east and the west, losing money might take forever!
Even if she lost money, she had to have a plan!
Thinking about this.
Shen Miao Miao grabbed her pen and started writing and analyzing on the paper:
First! It’s the gameplay type!
From Mao Liao to Who’s the Dad, and from Vampire Survivor to Terror Phobia.
These games were either abstract in gameplay or niche in genre, they were the “carefully selected” tracks that seemed like they were destined to fail!
But!
It was precisely because these games were niche in genre that they were almost invincible in the market!
Shen Miao Miao, a financial engineering graduate, knew all too well the terrifying power of monopolies.
In any industry, whether it was watches and jewelry, breakfast shops, or even picking up scrap, once a monopoly was formed in the market, the resulting profits were astronomical!
Hmm!
Shen Miao Miao nodded.
It seemed that her previous thinking was really quite dangerous.
Her next project had to change, she had to go against the grain, specifically find popular game genres to do, like guns, cars, and balls.
That kind of genre was fiercely competitive, it was difficult for them to stand out, and the probability of failure was higher!
Swish swish swish—
Shen Miao Miao wrote down her thoughts in her little notebook.
Secondly! It’s the publicity attitude!
Previously, she had always been too conservative, extremely resistant to publicity.
But it was precisely because of this that ArtJoy had repeatedly misinterpreted, made up a lot of nonsense, and gave her a whole bunch of publicity!
Damn it!
Just mentioning this made Shen Miao Miao angry.
Moreover, once you don’t do publicity because you say you don’t have money, twice because you don’t have money, what about afterwards?
Ten times, eight times, thirty, fifty times, will you never do publicity?
Although Gu Sheng, judging from his resume, was just a big smart guy with no work experience, Shen Miao Miao always felt that he was a little strange, with a bit of the old-timer vibe in the game industry.
Over time, it was inevitable that he would see through some of the tricks.
Therefore!
For the next game, she should still find some publicity, both to look normal and to tell Yan Sheng, the killer whale, clearly: Don’t keep self-playing!
Swish swish swish—
Shen Miao Miao wrote down her thoughts again in her little notebook.
Thirdly! It’s the game investment!
There’s not much to say about this.
The higher the investment, the slower the cost recovery, simple and easy to understand.
She just hated that Lao Shen wouldn’t sponsor her a single cent.
Otherwise, she would have to invest Shen’s capital!
Then, the system rebates would be astronomical, and it might even directly affect international monetary relations!
“Sigh…”
However, she could only think about it in her head, Shen Miao Miao sighed.
She should still be practical and start making changes from small aspects.
She had to be down-to-earth, take one step at a time, open her mind, be proactive, and achieve orderly losses!
Thinking about this!
Shen Miao Miao threw the pen aside, looking at her little notebook with satisfaction:
“Hmm… popular genre… guns, cars, balls… increase the difficulty of competition…”
“Hmm… appropriate publicity… pretend to be doing it… reduce the probability of accidents…”
“Then, increase investment!”
Perfect!
Shen Miao Miao slapped her hand!
Since she had succeeded in sneaking around before, this time, let me be beaten openly!
Thinking about it, Shen Miao Miao’s mood became brighter, she snapped her fingers—啪!
“System! What’s that Rise from the Ashes reward card you have? Show me!”
[Ding! Retrieved “Rise from the Ashes” achievement reward: Super Guaranteed Card for you.]
[Description: After using it, the rebate multiplier for the next investment will be increased to (can be drawn). ]
[Note: The drawn multiplier will not be lower than the inherent rebate multiplier, upper limit 100 times.]
Seeing this!
Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but light up!
Good stuff!
Previously it was time reduction, this time it was rebate multiplier increase!
“Draw!”
With Shen Miao Miao’s crisp shout, the multiplier started spinning, finally stopping at the glittering number 100!
“Woohoo!”
Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but cheer, jumping up from her chair!
“Got it! Got it! Got it!”
“One hundred times! Jackpot!”
“This time, I’m really going to rise from the ashes hahahahaha…”
(End of Chapter)
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