Chapter 10: Player's Defense Broken_1

"According to the revenue-sharing contract with the channel, the minimum amount for consumption is one yuan. Because if we were to divide it further, it wouldn't be easy to settle the accounts with the channels."

"Too bad, it would've been great if there was a one-cent recharge option."

After sending Wen Zhiyin off, Ke Jin began tinkering with the recharge interface of iwanna.

In his previous life, iwanna was a completely free game, but now, Ke Jin wanted to add some rechargeable content and felt a bit lost on where to start.

The core essence of this game was for players to grow while enduring hardships.

Therefore, recharge options to increase bullet density, bullet power, flying ability, brief invincibility, and a series of other features didn't fit.

If a game destroyed its core, it would also lose its appeal to players.

After all, besides the amount of krypton needed, the system had another requirement.

Reach ten thousand points of popularity within seven days.

Ke Jin didn't know the system's algorithm for calculating popularity yet, but he was sure it would be more difficult than the last task.

After some thought, Ke Jin decided to make adjustments to the resurrection mechanism.

In other games, resurrecting on the spot can be quite a bug.

But iwanna is about rhythm and feel, and sometimes, successive jumps might not be an issue.

But dying midway and then resurrecting, only to lose the rhythm and die again within seconds, was also normal.

So the impact of a resurrection mechanism on iwanna wasn't as significant as one might imagine.

"Then let's set the first recharge to 1 yuan for 10 Resurrection Coins," Ke Jin's fingers flew as he modified the source code.

"Next, following Arenson's Effect, reduce the rewards for the second tier of krypton spending."

"For the second time, you can only recharge 100 yuan and get 5 Resurrection Coins."

"For the third time, you can only recharge 500 yuan and get 1 Resurrection Coin."

Done!

Ke Jin clapped his hands in satisfaction and took a careful look at his masterpiece.

Outrageous!

Even looking at this recharge interface made him feel it was outrageous!

He almost wanted to curse out the planner's entire family.

Oh, I'm the one who designed this game.

Well, then there's no problem.

It's just over the internet, after all.

In the virtual world, you can disrespect virtual mothers and dig up virtual ancestral graves at will.

"This time, I'm going to win it all!" After all preparations were done, Ke Jin opened WWgame platform's creator backend.

He uploaded the game's compressed installation pack to the platform and submitted it for review.

But he hesitated for a long time over the option "Do you need this platform's promotion and publicity?"

The lowest tier of promotional fees was 5,000 yuan, and the last game barely made back its investment.

And that didn't even include the costs of making the game, and he had directly obtained the finished product.

If you replaced him with another local Blue Star designer, there would be expenses for programming, art, music, UI, etc., and they would definitely run at a loss.

Only he could give away games at no cost and still make a profit from inside.

After hesitating for a while, Ke Jin still gave up on the promotion this time.

5,000 yuan was a minor issue.

He was afraid that like last time, some content creator would come out of nowhere to play his game.

And just like that, shoot the popularity through the roof.

If he promoted on top of that.

Wouldn't he just be begging others to krypton through him?

Play it safe, no need for promotion!

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"Ding, a new game submission request for approval, please review it as soon as possible."

At WWgame platform, the review department.

As a seasoned reviewer, Hou Xiaoguang had been with the platform for five years now.

His job was simple: to playtest briefly and scan for any illegal content.

Another part was assessing the potential of the game and whether it was worth the platform's recommendation resources.

The WWgame platform managed to slowly carve out a niche for itself from the cyber-junkyard, surviving on the crumbs left by other leading platforms, by following a certain survival strategy.

One of the pillars that helped its growth was free publicity resources.

While the larger environment within the platform still favored paid promotion, with several tiers of promotional options,

if your game had sufficient quality and potential for further development,

the platform would also support creators for free, using its resources to help with game publicity and promotion.

After all, if a game truly became popular, the platform could earn 50% of the game's revenue stream, so it's a win-win.

Most new creators on the WWgame platform were strapped for cash and valued this resource highly.

Thus, more and more flocked to it,

which contributed to the platform's growth to its current size.

"Why is someone uploading games so close to quitting time? Damn, it's annoying." Hou Xiaoguang frowned and muttered to himself.

From the initial enthusiasm when he started the job, to the current slacking off.

He had experienced too many games of all scales and sizes.

He was almost sick of playing them.

The uniform Draw Card System, coupled with gameplay that even a toddler could master, and then attempting to list it for sale,

after all, there's always a new generation that hasn't played them yet, and they could still dupe some.

Just the thought of having to grit his teeth through half an hour of playtesting and then writing a 200-word brief report to describe the game contents and submit it to the higher-ups,

made Hou Xiaoguang feel nauseous.

"Damn it, I'm quitting after this month. They don't raise the salary, and it's the same crappy games over and over again. Shit!" Hou Xiaoguang cursed under his breath as he clicked open the uploaded installation package.

The company's equipment was top-notch, and it decompressed the file in just half a minute.

However, the gaming window that popped up caused Hou Xiaoguang's irritation to momentarily pause.

The UI interface of the game looked very rough.

The background was constructed of copious pixelated patterns, blue skies, white clouds, a ground made of yellow dirt blocks, and a child wearing a red cape, holding a tiny pistol that was just one pixel point.

There were only two options.

[Start Game]

[Exit Game]

The screen prominently displayed a few large English letters.

"i wanna"

And that was it.

This was the game's opening UI, the first login interface for players.

"What is this?" Hou Xiaoguang was thoroughly baffled.

One could say that this was the most rudimentary interface he had seen in recent years.

At least, draw card games still made an effort to produce refined graphics and artwork.

This game, to say a dog designed its UI would be an insult to dogs.

"Such an abstract UI, and they dare to make it into a draw card system to swindle money?"

"Players must have ridiculously low standards to spend money on draw cards in your game..."

"Surely no one's gaming experience is abstract in itself, right?"

Muttering complaints internally, but following the rule that any game on the market should at least be played through once,

Hou Xiaoguang reluctantly clicked on the [Start Game] button.

After entering the game, the abstract visuals did not improve.

The background was still a simple blue sky with white clouds texture, and a little boy stood on some earthy yellow tiles.

There were just a few apple trees added in the distance.

On the far right of the apple trees, a small square box rested quietly on the ground, with 'SAVE' written in English on it.

Then, the interface began to display subtitles for the tutorial.

The keyboard's arrow keys controlled the character's left and right movement.

The shift key controlled the character's jump, allowing for a double jump.

The Z key fired bullets.

"A control-based game?" Hou Xiaoguang showed a look of unexpected surprise.

Due to the game industry on Blue Star deviating more and more towards emphasizing in-game purchases, the reluctance to develop new gameplay mechanics led to a rapid decline in game genres.

Games like i wanna, referred to on Earth as side-scrolling platformers, were broadly classified on Blue Star as control-based games.

This meant that the gameplay highly depended on the player's keyboard and mouse skills and relied heavily on the player controlling the character.

For many rich man gamers on Blue Star,

I've spent money, and you want me to control it myself?

Who would play a game without an auto button?

At this moment, another prompt popped up in the game interface.

"Please guide the character to the save point to pass the level!"

Hou Xiaoguang, who was initially a little pleasantly surprised by the control-based game, frowned again after reading this passage.

"Does it mean, as long as I pass through these apple trees and reach the save point, I've passed the level?"

He looked at the game screen.

The path before him was smooth, without even a jumping platform in sight.

All he needed to do was keep pressing the → key to reach the save point.

"This gameplay, it's not even worthy of being called simplistic..."

Hou Xiaoguang shook his head in extreme disappointment, intending to casually get through a couple of levels and write a summary to get off work early.

However, just as he controlled the Kid to walk under the apple tree,

"Pfft!"

Suddenly!

In a turn of events that Hou Xiaoguang mistook for just a texture, an apple from the apple tree above fell straight down and killed the Kid.

On the screen,

The words GAME OVER slowly appeared.

"Huh?"

Hou Xiaoguang was dumbfounded.

Like, apples can kill people too?

His initial disdain for the game was replaced by astonishment.

This game...

The gameplay seems a bit different?

At least, it wasn't as simple as he thought.

Upon restarting the game, he again manipulated the Kid to the spot where he had just met his demise.

This time, he didn't dare to thoughtlessly pass under the tree again.

"The game gave a double jump feature, could it be asking players to continuously jump over the apples from above?" While pondering this, Hou Xiaoguang started maneuvering.

After stepping back a few places, he held down the → key without letting go, and charged to just below the fruit tree.

His finger forcefully pressed the shift key.

Jump!

Holding his breath and fixated on the little person on the screen rising from the ground, he decisively pressed the jump button a second time.

At this point, the Kid's height had already surpassed the apple that had killed him before.

"Yes! I made it!" Just as the Kid was about to trace a parabolic path through the air, flying past the apple,

"Pfft!"

The apple on the tree defied the laws of Newton and shot straight upwards, piercing right through the Kid above!

GAME OVER!

The words popped up on the screen.

"Bang!" Hou Xiaoguang slapped the desk in rage: "Damn it! Who makes a game like this?"

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Thanks to 'Swordplay and Flower Stacking_'for the generous gift of 100 book coins!

Thank you for your support, big spender! Bowing down to you! Bang bang bang!!!