Li Geng and the Others' Lives
In a student dormitory at Jingshi University.
Li Geng, Qin Jiadong, and their two roommates were sitting around a small table, raising their glasses for a toast.
"I never expected this. We're almost financially independent now, just from making modpacks on the Xingye Gaming Platform."
Qin Jiadong sighed, then drained the beer in his glass.
On the table were two heaping plates of crayfish, along with grilled meat and other food. Clearly, the four of them were living well.
Li Geng took a sip from his glass. Thinking about his life now, he truly hadn't expected that he, too, would get to live this way.
The four roommates could now be considered independent entrepreneurs. They had applied for an entrepreneurship studio at Jingshi University and put together a small team of around a dozen people.
The studio developed game resources for Minecraft, including texture packs, shader packs, and modpacks.
Each of them now had several million yuan in savings, and each took home four to five hundred thousand yuan a month.
Before, they wouldn't have dared dream of it.
"Yeah, Old Qin, you've really got a good head on your shoulders. You actually thought of starting a studio."
"Life's pretty comfortable for us now."
"Old Wang, look who's talking. You got together with that guy's girlfriend from the dorm next door. Life's pretty sweet for you now, huh?"
"Ahem, let's not talk about that. We both wanted it, didn't we?"
"Hahahaha!"
Everyone burst out laughing at Old Wang's embarrassed expression.
Li Geng raised a hand to adjust his glasses and said, "By the way, have you noticed Starfield's new game?"
The others were briefly taken aback. Qin Jiadong said excitedly, "Of course. Just looking at that game, you can tell it'll be thrilling."
"PUBG. I'll definitely give it a try when it comes out."
They weren't actual office workers, but bona fide college students, full of curiosity and enthusiasm for games.
Wang Zhiwen said, "I heard Qisheng made some kind of shooting simulator too. They really do love riding on other people's coattails."
"Don't even mention Qisheng. A company like that will go under sooner or later."
"They're still trying to ride someone else's coattails at a time like this. Do they have no brains?"
As they talked, night fell before they knew it. The four didn't stay up much longer and chose to rest.
The next morning, Li Geng was the first to wake up. He rubbed his still-groggy face, went to the sink, and washed it.
He was usually the first one up. After all, he had plenty to do at the studio.
Of course, he received a share of the studio's equity and profits twenty percent larger than the other three. That was mainly because his ability spoke for itself, and he organized much of the work.
After buying some buns at the cafeteria, Li Geng ate as he rode a little yellow shared bike to the studio on campus.
Several people had already arrived. When they saw Li Geng, they laughed and said, "Isn't this our Boss Li? You're late today."
Li Geng smiled at them. They were his seniors at school, and they usually got along well.
He scratched his head and said, "I bought you some buns. Help yourselves if you're hungry."
With that, Li Geng put the two bags of buns on the table, then went to his computer and turned it on.
As soon as it started up, he opened the Xingye Gaming Platform to check yesterday's earnings.
752,329 yuan.
Seeing that, Li Geng rubbed his eyes, wondering if he had read it wrong.
More than seven hundred thousand yuan. The last time they had earned that much in a day was when the Xingye Gaming Platform had just launched. Back then, there weren't many game resource creators, and they had made a profit by getting their resources out ahead of everyone else.
But afterward, as the number of Minecraft creators grew, their income had declined, until they were earning seventy to eighty thousand yuan a day.
After paying everyone at the studio, the four of them each took home only four to five hundred thousand yuan a month.
But what was going on today? How had their income shot up so much!?
He hurriedly pulled out his phone and checked the trending searches on the short-video platform.
There were as many as six or seven trending searches about Minecraft. It went without saying what that meant: publicity on that scale meant an increase in player numbers.
He looked back at the Xingye Gaming Platform and found its statistics for the number of game players.
The first figure he saw startled him.
60 million downloads!?
In just one day, boosted by yesterday's multiple trending searches, Minecraft's player count had surged by ten million. That was simply unbelievable.
When Qin Jiadong and the other two arrived at the studio, Li Geng immediately called them into their small office.
"Quick, look. The number of downloads for our game resources has surged over the past two days."
At Li Geng's words, Qin Jiadong immediately perked up. He had been sluggish that morning, but now he was as excited as if he had taken a drug.
He leaned toward the computer, and when he saw the daily earnings of more than seven hundred thousand yuan, his breathing quickened again.
How long had it been? About a month or more. It had been a long time since they had earned that much in a day.
If the four of them hadn't formed a studio and kept making new resources to upload to the platform, they would have struggled to earn even ten thousand yuan a day on their own now.
It wasn't that they were bad at it, but that they had far too many competitors.
Once everyone knew something made money, competition would follow, and earnings would fall.
It was just like when AIGC had first taken off. As long as you had the skills to make AI short videos, you could grab a big slice of the pie. But now, too many people were doing it, and making money as easily as in the beginning was impossible.
That had led to studios constantly springing up and competing, and now they were in the same situation.
"Nice!"
Qin Jiadong pumped his fist and let out an excited shout.
Then, Qin Jiadong, thinking of something, said to Li Geng and the other two, "As long as the number of players keeps growing, the pie for creators will get bigger. We need to hurry and design and create game resources while we can still get a good slice."
"What do you think? Should we recruit a few more seniors and have them help us speed up resource creation?"
Li Geng pushed up his glasses and thought for a moment before saying, "I've done the math. We pay our seniors between five and seven thousand yuan a month, and each person we recruit brings in a bit more profit."
"We can expand the team."
"But there's something else we need to keep in mind. We aren't the only ones who have seen the profit in this. Other creator studios must have noticed it too."
"They'll also recruit more people with the relevant skills to speed up game resource production."
"So, I think we can recruit eight more people and keep the team at around twenty."
The other three exchanged glances, then all nodded in agreement.
Hiring too many people wasn't good either. They had to consider management and stability.
With that, they reached an agreement, stacked their four arms together, and thrust them upward.
"Let's do it! ×4"