Soon after returning to Jingzhou City, the New Year of 2010 arrived.
Everything at Tengda was running smoothly: salaries were paid on time, rent was settled promptly, and system funds comfortably covered all expenses. As long as he managed to lose all the money and ensured the game flopped upon release, Pei Qian would directly pocket half a million yuan.
At school, the examination period had arrived. To avoid failing his classes, Pei Qian rarely visited the company these days.
Besides, he didn't care how the game was progressing anyway—losing money was his true goal…
On Thursday, January 7th, Pei Qian finished yet another exam, returned to his rented apartment near campus, and sprawled lazily onto the sofa, savoring the relaxed feeling.
With the system's settlement date drawing nearer, and his money-losing objective nearly achieved, Pei Qian finally felt his tense nerves easing slightly.
Out of habit, he summoned the system interface to check his financial status.
[Wealth Conversion System]
[Host: Pei Qian]
[Profit Conversion Ratio: 100:1 | Loss Conversion Ratio: 1:1]
[Next Settlement Date: 25 days from now]
[System Funds: 138,754.5 Yuan (↓361,245.5)]
[Personal Funds: 1,255 Yuan]
Brilliantly done!
Finally, almost all the money had been spent!
Pei Qian was nearly moved to tears.
Thanks to his painstaking efforts, he had finally balanced the accounts, turning profits into losses!
Currently, Tengda's monthly expenses included rent for office space, employee salaries and overtime pay, utilities, daily expenses, office supplies, and occasional company dinners or team-building activities to accelerate spending.
Through these efforts, he had successfully depleted the steady income generated by Ghost General.
At last, the system funds barely showed any surplus!
As things stood now, the system funds were essentially in a deficit compared to the initial 500,000 yuan provided.
Next, he needed to do just two more things.
First, he'd publish Ocean Fortress online in the next couple of days to fulfill the system's requirement that no unreleased products remained a week before settlement.
Second, he'd rapidly spend the remaining 130,000+ yuan to leave the system's account as empty as possible.
Afterwards, he could simply wait for settlement day and receive his payout!
As for promoting Ocean Fortress...
Pei Qian had zero intention of promoting it.
He'd just upload it to the official platform quietly—ideally, no one would even notice it!
Since the goal was losing money, he certainly needed to avoid players discovering this game at all costs!
"To be safe, let's have a team-building event right after we finish developing the game to burn through the remaining 130,000 yuan. The less money left, the better!"
"The team worked so hard on this project; surely it's reasonable to reward them with a movie, dinner, and karaoke night?"
Thinking this through, Pei Qian immediately called Assistant Xin.
"Assistant Xin, arranges a team-building event this Friday evening to celebrate the completion of Ocean Fortress. First, we'll watch a movie, then have dinner, followed by karaoke. Reserve entire venues whenever possible!"
"No, the timing isn't a mistake—I specifically mean Friday evening."
"Saturday and Sunday are rest days. It'd be immoral to take away employee rest time for team-building, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, Friday evening is perfect."
"Good. Once everything's arranged, send me the itinerary for review. As usual, make sure it's high-end and classy, understood?"
Pei Qian gave these brief instructions and was about to hang up when Assistant Xin interrupted.
"Hold on, President Pei, there's one more thing."
"Do you remember the young woman who spoke to you when we visited Tianhuo Studio in Guangzhou? Her name is Lin Wan."
Lin Wan?
The name vaguely rang a bell, but Pei Qian didn't remember clearly.
"What about her?"
Assistant Xin explained over the phone, "She's in Jingzhou City now and insists on joining our company. Her attitude is very determined—she even says she's willing to work without pay."
Pei Qian was taken aback. "What? Where is she now?"
Assistant Xin replied, "She's here at the office, she arrived not long ago. I just finished greeting her."
Why had she suddenly left Tianhuo Studio to come to Jingzhou?
Joining our company, and not even wanting a salary?
That won't do!
Pei Qian thought for a moment, then asked, "Assistant Xin, what's your impression of her?"
Xin Hailu was silent for a second before carefully responding, "President Pei, I suspect this girl has an unusual background, she's probably from a wealthy family. I noticed her clothes and bag are all famous international brands. The outfit alone probably costs tens of thousands."
"She doesn't seem arrogant at all, and she has a pleasant personality. However, I'm a bit worried she might be too naïve. She seems overly idealistic, which might not make her suitable as an employee. Of course, the final decision is yours."
Too naïve and idealistic?
Wouldn't that mean she had almost no practical work ability?
Perfect! That's exactly the kind of employee I want!
Pei Qian felt that Lin Wan completely matched his recruitment criteria!
A pampered girl from a wealthy family, with essentially zero working ability—what could be better?
"Alright, hire her! As for salary… let's start her off with 4,000 yuan per month, and consider a raise later. You can handle her contract directly. About her work… Actually, we don't have much to do right now, so don't assign her anything specific. Just let her do whatever she wants. Oh right, remember to include her in Friday's event!"
Pei Qian gave these casual instructions and quickly forgot about the matter entirely, returning happily to imagining the 500,000 yuan he'd soon receive.
…
Meanwhile, at the company, Ocean Fortress was entering its final development stage.
Bao Xu hadn't gone to Guangzhou with the others. Instead, he'd spent the past several days repeatedly testing the story mode of Ocean Fortress, carefully noting any parts that felt awkward or uncomfortable, and handing these notes to Huang Sibo for adjustments.
Bao Xu wasn't versed in sophisticated game-design theory; he trusted his gamer instincts.
Whenever his gut feeling told him something was wrong, he'd immediately record it and pass it along.
Huang Sibo, meanwhile, would rack his brain analyzing exactly what was causing the problem, and frequently managed to devise effective solutions.
Huang Sibo knew very well that the story mode was the highlight of Ocean Fortress, the crucial element that could elevate the game's quality. It had to be perfect!
Of course, other aspects such as shooting mechanics, character models, animations, and additional game modes were equally important to the player experience.
Most of these playtests were done by Bao Xu as well. As a hardcore gamer, he simply redirected the time spent playing other games into playing their own game.
Bao Xu didn't find it tiresome at all—he actually enjoyed it immensely!
When playing other games, Bao Xu often felt helpless about flaws. Submitting customer feedback was usually futile; either it wouldn't reach the developers, or even if it did, they typically ignored it.
But Ocean Fortress was entirely different. If Bao Xu found a problem, he simply informed Huang Sibo, and it was swiftly fixed!
The major changes identified earlier had already been implemented. Now, only minor details remained to be tweaked—like bullet trajectories and character collision boxes. These were important for gameplay, but easy enough to adjust by changing a few parameters.
As the original development deadline approached, Huang Sibo finally felt relief.
Mission accomplished!
Ocean Fortress had been completed on schedule, meeting both quality and quantity expectations, thus honoring President Pei's trust!
However, Huang Sibo had absolutely no idea how the game would be marketed or promoted.
He wasn't particularly worried about this either; after all, such decisions were entirely up to President Pei.
With President Pei overseeing marketing strategy, how could they possibly fail?
The same President Pei who came up with the ingenious idea of promoting Ghost General via Weibo would undoubtedly have an equally brilliant plan prepared!
<+>
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded
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[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/losing-money-to-129248702
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