You had to remember, the anti-fraud competition had female judges presiding over it.
Could they evaluate things objectively and fairly?
Shen Yingying fell silent for a moment, took a deep breath, and spoke with a grave expression:
“The most I can invest is another two million.”
“What do you plan to do? With time this tight, can you make it?”
“The closed beta has to be completed within a week, and you still have to produce the game CG. That’s an enormous workload.”
Although she disliked certain plot points in the game, that did not mean she wasn’t optimistic about its potential.
To be honest, taken as a whole, this game was indeed quite good. There were no similar competing products on the market at all, and with the virtual helmet and the game itself being bundled for sale, the profit margin would be huge.
But the problem was that there were only seven days left before the competition began.
Time was extremely tight.
What Shen Yingying did not know was that
Chen Jiajun was not worried about time at all.
The completion level of Crimson Golden Triangle: Survivor had long since reached public beta standards. It could go online at any time.
It simply lacked attention. If it were launched rashly, the disadvantages would outweigh the benefits.
It would be better to hold back for now and build up strength.
Then, when the competition officially began, they could catch Penguin Group completely off guard.
Chen Jiajun’s face was full of smiles as he said decisively:
“Don’t worry. One week is more than enough.”
“The bugs that needed fixing have already been fixed. The remaining optimization can be adjusted slowly afterward.”
“I already have a complete framework for the game CG. As long as the funds are in place, it can be finished by tomorrow morning at the earliest.”
“What we lack most right now is attention.”
“Of the two million, I plan to use five hundred thousand on the final rendering of the CG. The remaining one and a half million will all be thrown into promotion.”
“First, buy traffic and warm up the game CG with promotions.”
“Then cooperate with Bilibili to run an event and recruit streamers to experience the game.”
“Encourage uploaders to create objective and fair game review videos, with cash rewards distributed according to like rankings.”
“Set up a grand prize for clearing the game. The first player to clear it can receive a million-yuan reward.”
“In short, we have to hype up the topic, ferment discussion, and sell streamers and players a grand dream!”
Shen Yingying was completely bewildered listening to him, but she finally understood what Chen Jiajun meant.
And yet she still felt that something was off!
“Wait. If you use it like this, I’m afraid two million won’t be enough, right?”
She couldn’t help interrupting:
“The rendering alone costs five hundred thousand. Buying trending searches and latching onto hot topics will be another huge expense.”
“Even if Bilibili’s scale isn’t that big, if you want to run an A-level game event, you won’t get it done without at least a million!”
The more she calculated, the more alarmed she became, and her speaking speed quickened:
“Not to mention you still have to give streamers cash rewards and reward players who clear the game. The moment you make a move, it’s a million-yuan prize?”
“With rewards like that, even five million wouldn’t be enough, would it?!”
Chen Jiajun, however, merely smiled faintly and said calmly:
“Don’t worry. The prize money can be paid after the event ends.”
“As for the first-clear reward of one million that you’re worried about, you don’t actually think players can get it that easily, do you?”
“I’ll be honest with you today. If someone wants to escape from the game I designed, without a year or half a year, it’s absolutely impossible.”
Chen Jiajun was not bragging.
If players could not restart infinitely, forget half a year or a year,
the vast majority of them would probably never escape Myanmar in their entire lives.
After all, the game’s difficulty was right there.
No matter what choice they made, they would encounter fraud syndicates comparable to terrorists.
They might even run into warlords and get captured.
Chen Jiajun could already imagine the scene of players breaking down after the public beta.
All sorts of complaints about NPCs, complaints about game design!
Tsk, tsk, tsk… Just thinking about it made him excited!
Shen Yingying nodded. There was absolutely no problem with Chen Jiajun’s professional ability.
She began to have confidence in Crimson Golden Triangle: Survivor. As long as the promotion wasn’t especially disastrous, it would definitely become popular. As for just how popular, that was hard to say.
“I have a better idea regarding the promotion plan.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Expose the matter of Zhang San plagiarizing Mao Pian and selling it to Penguin Group.”
“Didn’t someone reveal that some time ago? Penguin suppressed the heat overnight. Now it’s been scrubbed so clean there isn’t even a hair left. Besides, Zhang San himself is already inside working a sewing machine. He won’t be getting out for eight or ten years. Is there any need to heat it up again?” Chen Jiajun asked in confusion.
“Even a good horse doesn’t go back to old grazing ground. This time, we’ll use another method to mess with them.”
“What do you mean?”
Chen Jiajun became interested. When it came to marketing, Shen Yingying was the professional.
“It’s very simple. We say that the sucker Penguin plagiarized a game that had already been eliminated by a small studio, and even dumped tens of millions into it.”
“In short, we disgust them.”
“Don’t they want to drag us down, then buy the copyright to Mao Pian?”
“Then we’ll make sure things don’t go their way.”
“Whenever we lose heat, we’ll hire some paid posters and tear a chunk off Penguin.”
“The money we lose, we’ll earn all of it back through publicity.”
Shen Yingying had been holding in a breath of resentment all this time.
In the past, companies that went against Penguin had basically all gone bankrupt. After being dragged to the end, they could only sell their copyrights.
And then Penguin became the original creator.
But now, Chen Jiajun, along with the game Crimson Golden Triangle, allowed her to see hope again.
Perhaps they really could rely on this game to turn things around and become a tough bone Penguin could not gnaw through.
As long as they survived this wave and she managed to turn things around, she would definitely fight Penguin to the bitter end!
……
……
At this moment,
Penguin Group headquarters,
Game Division.
Zhao Kai, the person in charge of the Mao Pian project team, was crossing his legs and casually flipping through the game optimization plans submitted by his subordinates.
As the dark horse project with the strongest momentum in the group recently, Mao Pian had not only received rave reviews, but had also fought its way to second place in the anti-fraud themed game competition.
Although it was currently temporarily behind Pig Factory’s Anti-Fraud Storm,
Zhao Kai was not panicking in the slightest.
Judging by the current rate at which Mao Pian’s popularity was rising, surpassing Pig Factory was only a matter of time.
As long as they stabilized things afterward, first place was already a certainty.
The only thing he was worried about now was the copyright acquisition.
It had been almost a month, yet Seal Studio still had not relented.
According to the intelligence Zhang San had obtained, Chen Jiajun should have already been at the end of his rope, saddled with a mountain of foreign debt, while his team members had all run off.
Logically speaking, he should be extremely eager to sell the game copyright right now.
But even now, there was still no movement at all.
Could it be that his hint had not been obvious enough? Did they think the money was too little?
Or had some variable appeared?
Zhao Kai faintly felt somewhat uneasy.
Just then,
there was a knock on the office door.
“Come in.”
He quickly straightened his sitting posture, returning to his usual image as a stern person in charge.
A subordinate hurried in and handed over a tablet:
“Boss, there’s news on Seal Studio, the one you asked me to investigate.”
“Their team has indeed collapsed, but the main creator, Chen Jiajun, hasn’t left.”
“And…” The subordinate paused, his tone somewhat strange. “He seems to have quietly made a new game. Take a look.”
Zhao Kai took the tablet and swept his gaze over the screen.
A page titled Crimson Golden Triangle: Survivor popped up.
At first, his brows tightened.
But when he saw the crude UI design, as well as the game’s reservation count of less than three digits, he immediately burst out laughing.
“Is Chen Jiajun planning to smash the pot because it’s already broken?”
Zhao Kai scoffed:
“He gave up an annual salary of a million, stubbornly dragged things out and refused to sell the copyright to Mao Pian, and after holding it in for so long, this is the pile of crap he squeezed out?”
“And what’s this? The world’s first 4D game, one-hundred-percent virtual reality…”
“Does he even understand what one hundred percent means?!”
Zhao Kai tossed the tablet onto the desk and snorted:
“Go. Get me a copy of Crimson Golden Triangle’s game materials, then get me a closed beta qualification too.”
“I’d like to see what on earth he’s managed to create!”