Xu Meng's confusion had just surfaced when new information emerged once again—
Owned Company: Dream Building Game Network Technology Co., Ltd. Employee Count Over One Hundred, Task Over-completion Task Completed! Basic reward: 2M Cash Value Cryptocurrency Bonus reward: Intelligent Collaboration Development Tool Reward issuance complete Task Update— Fortunately, you picked up a company; unfortunately, this company is about to go under. Task: Turn Crisis into Safety Task Objective: Reverse the deteriorating reputation and revenue of "Frost Snow Project", and save the company from bankruptcy crisis
The light curtain vanished.
Xu Meng was stunned for a moment, and then wanted to slam the table in disappointment—
Wasn't this utterly useless?! 2 million wasn't a small amount of money.
If he were still in his original world, he would be happy for at least a month.
After all, building a game company from scratch was mostly in a studio model, with a maximum of no more than 10 people.
2 million was enough to pay a year's wages.
But at Dream Building, it would only buy another month of life.
The higher-grade development tool was the same, doing nothing more than boosting work efficiency.
Yet the problem Dream Building currently faced was simply not something that could be resolved in a month or two—elevating a failing shooter game to a first-rate level within two months? Wasn't this a joke?!
The media and industry peers had already pronounced a death sentence on Dream Building, and even the players had started lighting mourning candles for it.
Seeing Xu Meng's ugly expression, assistant Chen Mengling thought he had been angered by the trending search, and hastily comforted him:
"Boss, don't panic first. There are only two or three people secretly submitting resumes, and most of them are still very loyal!"
Xu Meng raised his head to look at this assistant, a question mark slowly popping up over his head.
If you don't know how to speak, you don't have to talk!
Since you, a general manager's assistant, have already caught wind of it, the actual situation can only be much more severe! "Got it, got it. You go busy yourself first." Xu Meng waved his hand.
"Oh, right." The little assistant looked completely worried, but could only leave the office.
Xu Meng, however, had a headache as he turned on the computer to study their in-house "Frost Snow Project", wanting to see what the exact situation was and whether there was still any salvation.
Judging from the initial project establishment, "Frost Snow Project" had set its sights on the fact that there was no 2D + shooter type of game on the market yet, wanting to seize this still-blank track.
The idea was good, but the final finished product...
Was neither 2D nor a shooter.
To talk about a shooter game, it didn't do multiplayer, didn't do combat, and didn't seriously study shooting feel.
It devoted its body and soul to studying how to squeeze player resources, and how to design bosses and firearm numerical values to force players to pay money.
To talk about 2D, it didn't put in effort on bishojo character designs and appearances, instead messing around with a bunch of random plots, and even setting up romantic pairings between male and female characters in the game...
The three female characters with the heaviest screen time in the opening act—Tong Que, He Yin, and Xiao Ningxi—actually had obvious affectionate dialogue with male characters two out of three times! Only Xiao Ningxi was left, and that was just because she escaped disaster due to being young.
—Even so, Xiao Ningxi still had a close male master, Yun Fei.
This filled Xu Meng's head with question marks:
Are they sick in the head? Which household's 2D game is designed like this?
Other people make games by playing to their strengths and avoiding weaknesses, but you play to your weaknesses and avoid your strengths, using whatever dregs there are, right? How could you not bomb?!
Xu Meng only felt his blood pressure rise and a splitting headache.
He suddenly understood why the games he developed by riding the wave of hot topics in his past life managed to break through.
—Although he rode trends, when designing games he always stood in the player's perspective to think, studying how to design fun and how to give players surprises.
As a result, there were actually so many game designers who didn't care what players thought at all?!
What was even more magical was: right now, under his command, were all crouching dragons and fledgling phoenixes of this caliber!
Xu Meng was utterly speechless and even felt somewhat like laughing.
"Good, good, good... Is that how you want to play..."
The orthodox path to reversing a game's reputation—relying on hard strength to improve game quality—could simply be forgotten, as it was utterly impossible in a short time.
"Then we can only... take a unorthodox path."
He had seen things like a 2D shooter game coming back from the dead before.
Although the methods were a bit unpresentable and inevitably subject to abuse as vulgar by some moral guardians, it was still better than the company going bankrupt, employees losing their jobs, and him taking on millions in debt.
He consequently logged into the official account of "Frost Snow Project", and while thinking, began to write an announcement.
10 minutes later, Weiguang social platform.
The official account of "Frost Snow Project" published an announcement.
Because Game Observer's bankruptcy prophecy had hit the trending searches, a massive amount of media and netizens were waiting for a response from "Frost Snow Project".
Mutual internet bickering between Game Observer and the targets of their bankruptcy prophecies was also a recurring program, always able to attract a massive amount of netizens to watch the drama unfold, and this time was naturally no exception.
Now that "Frost Snow Project" had finally taken up the challenge, the drama-watching netizens swarmed over instantly.
Then, they saw something that completely exceeded expectations—
"Thank you for everyone's concern for 'Frost Snow Project' and Dream Building Game.
However, this tiny matter is really not worth beating drums and gongs to summon everyone here.
Since you've all come anyway, to ensure nobody's trip was in vain, I'll take this opportunity to announce a few things.
'Frost Snow Project' has already initiated the remaking process, and some of the disclosable changes are as follows: 1. Plot changes: All character romantic pairing settings will be deleted, and such content will no longer be produced in the future.
(Note: The writing team will be replaced with fresh blood, and we sincerely recruit game narrative planners and male-oriented harem web novelists to join the writing team.) 2. Character outfits: All female characters will receive a comprehensive wardrobe change, and more outfits capable of fully showcasing character figures and personalized aesthetics will continue to be launched in the future.
Male characters unrelated to the main storyline will be deleted, and related characters will also be gender-swapped into female characters.
(Note: We sincerely recruit concept artists, and all Dream Building employees warmly welcome bishojo H-artists to jump ship!) 3. Rating upgrade: We deeply regret to announce—
Due to issues with character figures, outfits, and action scales after the remake, the rating of 'Frost Snow Project' will be raised from the original [12+] to [18+].
Starting from today, users under the age of 18 will no longer be able to register.
After the version update, registered users under 18 will also be unable to log in.
The underage refund channel will be launched within a week.
More change intel will be gradually disclosed hereafter, so please look forward to it!"—Everyone who saw this announcement—whether they were Game Observer editors, industry peers, "Frost Snow Project" players, or purely drama-watching netizens—was completely stunned stupid.
The exact same sentence rolled over and over in their heads—
"What kind of operation is this???"
They couldn't understand it! Completely couldn't understand it! Weren't you supposed to fiercely refute Game Observer's viewpoint, angrily scold them for unsubstantiated data and fabricating rumors out of thin air, demand that Game Observer apologize for its erroneous remarks regarding the losses caused to Dream Building Game, and threaten to resort to legal means, while actually doing nothing besides talking tough?
—Netizens could see similar plays seven or eight times a year, and had long since grown skillful through practice! How come when it came to Dream Building Game, they suddenly stopped playing according to normal convention??
Not only were you not angry, but you even took the opportunity to issue an announcement?
And furthermore...
Did you even care to look at what you actually posted?!
Once the netizens regained their wits, the comment section directly exploded: "The writing team is being sacrificed to the heavens just like that?"
"Died well! Deeply satisfying! But what's the deal with recruiting harem web novelists?"
"Is this implying we can build harems in the game from now on!?"
"I know a guy who writes harem novels, writes them damn well, but after three consecutive flops, he's almost unable to make ends meet. @Wheel Turner, come beg for food quickly!"
"Character gender swap? Awesome! I can only say it's truly fucking awesome!"
"Outfit changes, 18+, H-artists... Is this about to strip off the armor completely? Things are looking up, brothers!"
"Genius! 2D games should have learned from hentai long ago."
The uproar was not limited to the internet alone.
Just a door away from Xu Meng's general manager's office, the open-plan office area also rapidly grew noisy.
And the most lively part of it, without a doubt, was the writing team slacking off at work and browsing Weiguang.
As they browsed, they suddenly discovered they had been fired...
Before you continue