I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!

Chapter 78: Chapter 49: Game Launch! Mr. Ke Is So Happy He Can’t Stop Smiling!_1 Chapter 78: Chapter 49: Game Launch! Mr. Ke Is So Happy He Can’t Stop Smiling!_1 With Ke Jin’s planning in place,

Number One Player Company began to enter the development phase of the new game in full swing.

One day, Ke Jin went to pick up Ke Yu from school and they headed to the company together; an illustration in “Wind Traveler” needed her fine touch.

When they passed the shaded path in front of the company,

a gust of wind arose and the verdant leaves began to scatter in the air.

Ke Yu felt the scene was so carefree and comfortable that she stopped walking, stretched out her little hand, and gently waited for a leaf to wobble and lie in her palm.

“Brother, look, there’s a little hole gnawed by a bug on this leaf,”

“I can see you through this hole, hee hee,” Ke Yu said, holding the leaf up to her face and looking through the hole at the other side.

Her elder brother was wearing a loose short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of gray slim-fit sweatpants, looking at her with hands in his pockets and an annoyed expression: “Are we going or not? The whole company is waiting for you to revise the illustration.”

“Hehe, let’s go, let’s go,” Ke Yu put down the leaf that was covering her face.

The elder brother in front of her suddenly wore a Klein blue hoodie, paired with fuzzy, light green military pants, and his feet sported a pair of yellow men’s Doc Martens.

And the lush green leaf in her hand had, without her realizing it, been surreptitiously replaced by time with an orangey one full of cracks, which crumbled into countless pieces with a gentle pinch.

“Time flies so fast, it’s already deep autumn in the blink of an eye.” Ke Yu brushed the leaf crumbs from her hands with a pat and sighed.

It was as if the project for “Wind Traveler” had just started yesterday, when she was laughing and frolicking with her own brother on the leaf-covered path.

But in the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed, and “Wind Traveler” had passed its final quality check today.

The employees’ voices went from initial complaints to a look of expectation in everyone’s eyes.

Even Ke Yu had to admit,

“Wind Traveler” was such a fantastic game!

She recalled the profound impact “Wind Traveler” had on all the staff when it was first beta-tested at the company.

She was there, her mouth agape as if she could fit an egg into it, her eyes brimming with tears, almost turning her eyes into poached eggs.

“Brother, after being with you for so long, how come I never realized you had this amazing talent?” Ke Yu hooked her arm around her brother’s as they walked against the sunset on their way home.

“What?”

“Games, you know, games,” Ke Yu rattled on with her tongue, “A few months ago, you suddenly told me you wanted to make games, then shared the fantastic ideas in your head, and I was so dumbfounded, then you convinced me to join you in making games, and I never thought…”

Mid-sentence, she paused, turning to glance once more at the company, now nearly drowned in the orange glow of the sunset.

I never thought the company would have gradually gotten on the right track.

Two months’ time.

The heat from “Skyline” also slowly faded.

But looking back at its debut month, it still achieved an impressive revenue of 9.73 million!

To think, this was after the advertising was removed, and it took only half a month to hit this remarkable achievement! It was directly included in NAA’s list of annual premium titles.

And in the following month, it maintained around 5 million in revenue.

This record, although inseparable from the official promotion, is also a testament to “Skyline”‘s solid quality.

Ke Jin didn’t have so much leisurely elegance as Ke Yu.

He looked at the slowly lighting evening lights along the roadside, pondering in his heart.

The release date for “Wind Traveler” was set for early Friday morning, priced at 79 yuan.

Ke Jin actually wanted to push the price even lower,

but given the delicate and beautiful graphics, the Number One Player Company staff had labored heart and soul for a month to polish.

Too low a price, the employees would probably feel bad.

But fortunately,

the system’s accompanying tasks had also been rolled out.

The regular task was to reach a total of 5 million topic degree across the net.

That is, the sum of heat indicators across all platforms had to exceed 5 million.

This difficulty was not too great.

The ultimate task provided Ke Jin with a slight relief.

This time, the goal was not revenue but sales volume.

It was required to be under 100,000 units.

In other words, even if you price a game at 999 and sell 99,000 units, even if the revenue is nearly hitting one hundred million, the system wouldn’t care.

As long as sales didn’t exceed 100,000 units.

“One hundred thousand units, barring any surprises, we probably won’t sell that much… right?” To be safe, this time Ke Jin didn’t intend to jinx himself.

A true master always keeps a learner’s heart!

…

Time flew by, and finally, early Friday morning arrived.

Thanks to the reputation built on previous games, Number One Player Company had accumulated a certain number of fans.

Therefore, at this moment, many players were already waiting in the comment section of the official website.

Ke Jin was waiting too.

He wanted to see the first reaction of players after encountering the game.

And today, the entire staff of the company stayed up late with him.

It was to see just how high the first day sales of this game could soar.

Soon, the whole company knew the results.

Half an hour before launch.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry! I can’t wait anymore!!”

“Baby Ke, charge! We’ll silently support you from behind!”

Half an hour after launch.

“Uhh… it’s kind of hard to comment. I’ve played for half an hour and don’t know what I’m supposed to do… Maybe I’m still not able to get into story-based games.”

“Why does this new release from Number One Player Company feel a bit… lame?”

“I shouldn’t say this, but the graphics are good, the scenery is pretty, but what’s the point of the game? I wandered around the map for half an hour, collected only two murals, and I still can’t understand what these murals are talking about…”

“This game is too abstract!”

“This game really isn’t fun, but Number One Player Company is still decent as ever, allowing refunds—I’m outta here, guys! I’ll support the next game!”

An hour later.

The expressions of the employees went from the initial anticipation to full of helplessness and bitterness.

“Wind Traveler”

Sold terribly!

In one hour, relying on prior word-of-mouth, it had already sold more than 20,000 copies.

But the refund rate was a staggering 95%!

The comment section was uniformly ‘don’t understand’, ‘abstract’, ‘too ahead of its time, haha’, ‘don’t like story-based games’, ‘screenshots can be used as wallpapers, the rest, I’d rather not say’, ‘see you in the next game, go Number One Player!’

Seeing these numbers, Ke Jin was laughing wildly in his heart.

That’s right, you don’t understand it, can’t figure out how to play it.

If you really could understand it, it would be a huge problem.

But turning his head and seeing the anxious looks on his employees’ faces, and some of the women with less resilience already quietly sobbing, covering their faces.

Ke Jin’s mouth twitched repeatedly, suddenly feeling like he was running out of good karma.

I’m really not a good person… hahaha.

The employees worked hard on the game, sales were poor, yet I almost laughed out loud…

I really deserve to die… hahaha.

“Whew…” Taking a deep breath, he forcefully suppressed the joy in his heart.

Don’t worry, brothers!

As long as we meet the conditions, I’ll give all staff a paid break for a month when we get back!

Wait till then, and I’ll tell you all about Number One Player Company’s grand plan for a gaming revival!

“So… so everyone, don’t be… don’t be too sad,” Ke Jin’s mouth trembled uncontrollably, struggling to suppress his delighted mood and squeeze out a sorrowful expression.

But the coordination between his inner feelings and expression wasn’t very good, making it hard to look genuinely upset.

To avoid slipping up, he quickly said, “It’s getting late, everyone go home and sleep, we’ll have a day off tomorrow to relax.”

Seeing that Mr. Ke himself had offered words of comfort.

The employees gradually came to terms with it.

Yes indeed, the game sold poorly.

But Mr. Ke is the one who should be the saddest among us!

He ran around busy with planning, invested funds, and put in so much effort.

And yet look at him, he’s still able to laugh at this moment.

What right do we have to feel sad…

“Alright then, Mr. Ke, we’ll get going,” an employee said.

“Yeah, I’ll take care of closing up tonight, you guys hurry on home, you’ve all worked hard.”

Get moving, if you don’t leave now I’ll really lose it!

“Okay, Mr. Ke, don’t be too upset. In our eyes, there’s really nothing wrong with this game, it’s just that the players might not be able to understand it yet.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not upset, you guys go on home.”

Finally, after seeing off the last employee with a reluctant farewell, he watched them leave the street from the floor-to-ceiling window.

Only then did Ke Jin allow himself a slight smile.

He had waited too long for this moment!

But, as per tradition,

He couldn’t be too happy now, for fear of joy turning to sorrow.

He got up and went to the fridge, his fingertips glided past the champagne prepared for the employees’ celebration, but ultimately stopped at the soda.

Taking it out, he poured himself a glass.

Sitting in the executive chair, Ke Jin turned on his computer and opened up several major streaming platforms, like Shark, Thunderbolt, Wolf Tooth, scanning through the various live streaming rooms.

The preliminary selection of players was done.

But next, he had to face the toughest challenge.

The test of the streamers!