Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

After assigning important tasks to various departments, he headed to the development team of the “Battlefield” project.

According to the original plan, the first round of publicity would be released tonight, “Hunter: Call of the Wilderness” would be on sale tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow would see the release of the advanced version.

But now, this plan had to be postponed.

The reason was that Lincoln was somewhat dissatisfied with the two tutorial levels.

This couldn’t be entirely blamed on the employees, as he also had to take some responsibility.

Time pressure was an issue, as was the misalignment of ideas—

Teaching players how to switch guns, use skills, drive vehicles, capture points, and choose the correct weapon depending on distance, among other things.

The employees in both groups did well with these tasks, completing them at a high level.

However, after fully experiencing it, Lincoln found it hard to be satisfied: the game felt too shallow when played.

The development team’s focus was entirely on game mechanics, combat, and how to win, among other “teaching” content.

Correspondingly, the exploration of the game’s “anti-war” core was entirely superficial.

How to show the cruelty of the battlefield?

The lines of dialogue from the NPCs and the continuous sacrifices on the battlefield.

How to display the sorrow and bravery?

By using music and large-scale scenes, where soldiers charge forward one after another under the grand music, fighting against the enemy.

These methods were not wrong, but they remained somewhat superficial.

Without proper elaboration and careful polishing, it’s difficult to truly convey the cruelty and sorrow of war to the players.

To truly convey the horror of war and the spirit of anti-war to the players, more emphasis needs to be placed on details:

The battlefield environment, deadly hazards everywhere, meaningless deaths, the numbness and confusion of the soldiers…

All these aspects need to be showcased.

So, the current level of completion is definitely not enough!

Without its anti-war core, would “Battlefield” still be a good game?

Lincoln asked himself subconsciously.

Aren’t players there for the multiplayer competition instead of the single-player campaign?

So in terms of revenue and player online rate, it would still be a good game.

Lincoln came to a conclusion in his heart.

But the game would miss its chance to become a “top-level” work.

Therefore, the choice Lincoln had to make was very clear—a major overhaul! Personally leading the team for a thorough overhaul!

The game mechanics and how to win are not the key.

As long as players know the victory conditions, they will naturally go to great lengths to achieve victory, even going further than the developers in terms of attention to detail, and employing more imaginative tactics.

What they need to do is use enough details to convey emotions and ideas to the players.

So

Tighten the focus, and get started!

If possible, try to catch up to this week’s deadline!

Lincoln made up his mind to be fully involved with Mavis, even deciding to temporarily let go of his riding lessons.

After all, the sensory data he needed to ride the horses in “Battlefield” was already more than adequate.

As for practicing boxing and cold weapon combat, there was no way he could give that up, otherwise, Lincoln worried that Xu Chun would come looking for him with a wooden sword.

Ever since discovering that Lincoln was “promising,” he tried more than once to persuade Lincoln to devote more energy to martial arts, and go further down that path.

In his words: “Going a little further, even just a few steps, will benefit you for the rest of your life! If you give up halfway, it’ll be a complete waste of your talent!”

If his so-called “taking a few more steps” didn’t involve so much effort and time, Lincoln might have actually agreed.

But now, after his numerous polite refusals had proved futile, Lincoln had no choice but to say bluntly: “I have a few too many talents, so if I waste something, I’ll waste it.”

Xu Chun wanted to say more, but Lincoln cut him off: “Look, my research benefits the whole country, and in the future will benefit all of humanity. My game-making benefits hundreds of millions of players. Isn’t it more selfless than if I just focus on martial arts and only care about myself?”

“We must have a heart of dedication that doesn’t benefit ourselves and serves only the best interests of others!”

These righteous words left Xu Chun speechless.

Although he was 100% sure that Lincoln’s unwillingness to continue training after it ended was simply due to laziness!

If it didn’t require hard practice to be healthy and live a long life, how could Lincoln possibly refuse?

But Lincoln’s given reason was one he couldn’t refute, so he had no choice but to double down on monitoring Lincoln’s training rigorously…

Lincoln and an already busy Mavis returned to the “Battlefield” development map and set about improving the single-player campaign with the team.

Meanwhile, Jurassic Park saw an influx of tourists!

The earliest players to enter Jurassic Park were overjoyed to receive a special reward—[Dinosaur Island Pioneer ID Card].

However, the distribution of the cards was not based on the order of entering the park.

All players who set foot on Dinosaur Island before the park’s opening were considered “early pioneers” and received this commemorative reward.

This card isn’t just for show; it actually has real value—

With this card, you can get some special privileges, such as VIP seats for performances, queue-free access to popular attractions, and priority trial privileges for newly developed projects, and so on.

Not many features, but all quite useful.

Cloud Dream does indeed have the capacity to create a separate mirror image for every player, allowing everyone to sit in the best viewing spots.

The problem is that this approach is just too wasteful—not only does it waste the server’s computing power, but it also wastes such a large venue.

Not to mention the extravagance of having a park as large as Jurassic Park where you don’t need to spend a penny to enter and play as you please.

So in here, the restrictions on individual mirrors are a bit stricter than the main amusement park.

If players want better viewing seats, they either have to come early, wait a bit longer, or have a [Pioneer ID Card].

But now that Jurassic Park is open, the [Pioneer ID Card] is out of print.

So, is there another way?

Yes, there is.

[Jurassic Park VIP Card]!

No need for 998, and not even 98! Just 30 dollars to enjoy a full month of privileges!

Aside from this card having a one-month validity period, while the [Pioneer ID Card] is valid for life, it almost offers the same rights as the [Pioneer ID Card].

It even has an advantage that the [Pioneer ID Card] doesn’t have: it comes with family discount measures; the cardholder can bring one player under 15 years old into the park to enjoy the same benefits!

And the requirements are very lenient; it doesn’t even matter if the child is yours or not, as long as the age meets the standard, they can enjoy the same benefits directly.

In two words—cost-effective!

Of course, as always, you can still enjoy all the services of Jurassic Park without spending a penny and without any cuts.

Even if you have to wait in line, the wait time won’t exceed 10 minutes; Cloud Dream has always been strict about this bottom line.

It’s just that Lincoln greatly overestimated the patience of many players for 10 minutes.

If it’s in the amusement park and there’s no other option, people will wait.

But now they see oh wow! They don’t have to wait?!

And this price…

Isn’t this a monthly card?!

And then they look up again at this huge park, the high-tech venues, and the giant prehistoric creatures…

At this rate, is 30 dollars expensive?

Of course not! Not only is it not expensive, but it’s downright cheap!

So

Buy! Buy it up!

By 6 o’clock in the evening, over 3 million [Jurassic Park VIP Cards] had been sold!

And this is far from the end

As players wrap up their day, finishing classes and work, an even larger user base starts to log on, and Jurassic Park’s real consumer force—family users—also start to make their appearances.

The sales speed of this monthly card is rising again!

However, many players have just logged into the virtual world and haven’t had time to visit Jurassic Park for a fresh look when Cloud Dream sends a new notification:

[Hunter: Call of the Wilderness pre-sale starts, together with the official start of the second player referendum!]

Tomorrow evening, Hunter: Call of the Wilderness will be officially released.

Before that, there has to be a result as to whether the smell of feces should be changed or not, and if it should be changed, how it should be changed.

This way, Lincoln will have time to modify the shit smell before players enter this world.

To ensure the vote truly reflects the opinions of all players, Lincoln has introduced a “pre-sale mechanism” for the first time.

Only those who have actually bought the game with money are eligible to vote.

This way, players who don’t intend to play the game and just want to watch the fun can be stopped from voting and distorting the accuracy of the voting results.

As for the original closed beta test players’ trolling and random voting, they will also be greatly diluted by the votes of a larger scale of players.

After all, no matter how large-scale the closed beta test, it’s a small proportion compared to Cloud Dream’s potential user base.

Lincoln can be almost certain: after the game is released, the number of players entering the “Hunter” world will be at least dozens of times more than the closed beta test players!

This is because Hunter: Call of the Wilderness is more niche than Cloud Dream’s previous games, and the estimated sales were more conservative.

“This way, it can finally represent the true opinions of the target players, right?”

Lincoln nodded in satisfaction.

When players see this message, they are naturally excited and invigorated.

The new game will be released tomorrow—good news!

The shitty smell can be voted away—great news!

However

“Why the hell is there an option for [double the shit smell]?!”

“Must be crazy!”