To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 481: Chapter 283: The Shock from Britain (Part 2)

He tossed a plastic bag of food into the host’s arms and then extended his hand, saying, “That’ll be 9 pounds 15 pence.”

“Why? I didn’t order any takeaway!”

“The location was set to here, I don’t care about the rest. The meal costs 5 pounds 15 pence, packaging fee 1 pound, delivery charge 2 pounds.”

“This is robbery! Plus, the restaurant is just a hundred meters from my house, and you’re charging me 2 pounds! And what’s that 1 pound for!”

“The platform’s ordering fee.”

“This is robbery!”

...

“I don’t care, you have to pay.”

Pressured by the other person’s size, the host reluctantly gave the money and returned to his original spot with the takeaway bag, looking downcast.

He silently opened the takeaway bag, only to find fish and chips inside.

But the fish had turned black, the chips had gone limp, and they looked so unappetizing, mushy to the bite.

And the chips didn’t even come with ketchup, tasting in the mouth like crumbled rubber, not delicious at all.

Yet in his glasses, the game system kept prompting him to overlap the physical item with the image for the best gaming experience.

Looking at the attractive pictures in the glasses and then at the trashy food in reality, the host felt even more disgusted by what was in his mouth.

By now, Qiu Yu and Alan had both realized.

So your ‘true taste experience’ is actually having someone deliver takeaway for you!

No wonder they dared to guarantee a 100% reproduction since that’s actually what’s being put in your mouth, how could it not be accurate.

But the original 5 pounds 15 pence item had been jacked up to 9 pounds 15 pence, and the game platform even thoughtfully charged an ordering fee of 1 pound, quite the little trickster.

Having eaten the depressing takeaway, the host’s lips were twitching, but he still suppressed his anger, barely squeezing out a smile, “It’s truly an innovative way to play the game, merging virtual with reality, allowing me to see…”

[Did you enjoy the game? Could you give us a five-star review, please?]

The sudden pop-up completely shattered the host’s mental defenses.

He ripped off the glasses and smashed them to the ground, then furiously started stomping on them, shouting in rage, “I’ll give you a good review, you motherfucking bastard! I’ll give you a good review! I’ll give you a good review!”

After stomping more than a dozen times, he picked up a stool nearby and shattered the glasses into fragments.

The screen went black, but the host’s voice continued to ring out nearby, endlessly expressing his feelings.

He had been hungry for four hours, paid an exorbitant delivery fee, only to eat fish and chips that tasted absolutely horrible, and in the end, had the cheek to ask him for a five-star review.

Screw that!

I’m not making this money!

The host’s experience was full of entertainment value, especially the uninterrupted fifteen-minute rant at the end that made people collapse with laughter, and incidentally proved that not every company can handle virtual reality.

After having a good laugh, Alan wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and asked Qiu Yu, who was at the computer, “How are today’s numbers?”

“Not bad,” Qiu Yu answered.

Glancing at Qiu Yu, Alan felt that the other person was in a very good mood, surely it was more than just ‘not bad.’

Qiu Yu’s game had finally launched a while ago and had its premiere at Game Inn, with currently acceptable earnings.

The game adopted a pixel-art plane shooting mode, where players could control their pixel aircraft through various scenes, battling and defeating the final boss to earn rewards.

In the traditional shooting game mode, Qiu Yu had incorporated several roguelike gameplay elements, with a plethora of weapons and items randomly generated, adding difficulty modes and various Divine Artifacts to offer a different sense of randomness in each round.

To save on costs, all images and UI in the game were generated in pixel art, and some of the code was also created by AI programs.

Because it was pixel art, the AI’s performance was relatively natural.

The game connected to an ad pool, allowing players to revive through watching ads or get extra currency, and they could also purchase monthly or lifetime ad-free passes.

Game Inn supported independent developers like him with traffic, and the game’s online player count quickly broke ten thousand following its launch, maintaining good retention rates for both the next day and the first week.

Afterward, we could apply for a precision push promotion from Game Inn, and the platform will promote the game according to its tags one time, which would further increase revenue.

Right now, there aren’t many competitors in the airplane shooting game genre, and even fewer with random elements. Plus, Qiu Yu’s game is of high quality, so this month’s income should be quite substantial.

Knowing Qiu Yu’s current situation, Alan whistled and said, “Then you should treat us, how about grilled lamb skewers? And add a big bottle of beer. Oh, and some lamb kidneys.”

“Sure,” Qiu Yu said with a smile.

After ordering takeout, Qiu Yu checked the data again and heaved a sigh of relief in his heart.

Full-time game development seems wonderful, but only he understands the internal pressure.

In the early stages, there were no incoming funds, and all expenses had to come out of his own savings. Thankfully, Alan knew about Qiu Yu’s situation and occasionally took him out for a nice meal and even helped him with half the rent, which allowed him to hold on until now.

Moreover, with AI development nowadays and since his game’s content doesn’t rely heavily on art, he was able to sustain himself.

Thankfully, his game was a success. Now all he needed to do was to keep updating and operating it consistently.

While it wasn’t a blockbuster hit, the quality of the game earned recognition from many people. With hundreds of reviews and discussions under its related entries, it could already provide for him in this niche market.

The next step was to accumulate more experience and capital, and then continue game development to eventually establish his own studio.

As Qiu Yu chatted with Alan about the recent hardships, after finishing the takeout, he returned to his computer to admire the data for a while and then planned to continue his version updates, aiming to take his game to the next level.

The good days were coming.

However, when he found an unexpected email in his inbox, he read it with confusion, and the smile gradually disappeared from his face.

Alan, who was wiping his mouth, sensed something was wrong and came over to ask, “What’s up?”

“Nnity is changing its pricing strategy,” Qiu Yu said.

“…To what?”

“About a dollar per installation, charging based on the number of player installations.”

“They’ve gone mad! Do they really think they’re the only game engine around?”

Nnity had long been one of the biggest game engines, boasting a comprehensive range of built-in features that made creating game UIs and rendering models very convenient.

After reading through the revised policy in detail, Alan found the situation wasn’t as dire, but it was undoubtedly a bad sign.

Frequent changes could greatly affect the company’s reputation, and the stock price dropped by 20% in response, indicating the market’s lack of confidence in their decision.

This move was likely a test of the manufacturers’ limits—if there wasn’t significant pushback, they might adopt more aggressive pricing strategies.

Many developers had decided to modify their games’ engines. For small independent games the impact might be minimal, but if his next game became a hit, it would be just another cash crop for them.

The good mood from before had vanished, and the backend game data started looking like ticking bombs, putting Qiu Yu in a terrible mood.

As Alan quietly kept Qiu Yu company with a bottle of beer, a flash of insight struck him, and he said, “Didn’t Fang Cheng Studio’s ‘Spirit Vessel’ open up MOD mode? Can you port your game into that?”

“Impossible…wait, it actually might be possible!”

Immediately turning on his computer, Qiu Yu reran “Spirit Vessel” and opened MOD mode, then was surprised to find the MOD’s functionality was much more powerful than he had imagined.

All types of functions were pre-installed, with a vast number of in-game models, and there were also various materials added by players.

Just the free pixel art resources alone were much more impressive than the AI-generated ones, and they didn’t require high programming skills. With proficiency in some operations, one could make a decent game.

Since its launch just over half a year ago, “Spirit Vessel” had accumulated an unbelievable amount of materials, with some even earning an income of over 100,000 a month through selling MODs.

After a long look, Qiu Yu realized he had been a bit foolish.

Why hadn’t he discovered this treasure trove earlier?

Most functions of Nnity could be achieved through the MOD editor, and the free plugins added by others further expanded the MOD’s functionalities, making it a pretty decent game editor.

Stroking his chin, Qiu Yu looked at the Artifact Spirit MOD editor, and various ideas began to emerge, exciting him.

This thing was already a homegrown game editor!