Chapter Eighty-Nine: Lu Guo's Game

At Rising Voyage Tower, two operations staff members were chatting after lunch.

"The first-day numbers for The Mystic One are only a little over eighteen million."

"What? Only eighteen million on the first day? I thought it had over forty million saves. How could it be so low?"

"You know Yu Jia, the one who signed The Mystic One, right?"

"The new girl? She’s a little odd, but I hear Team Lead Han is very optimistic about her."

"I heard she was brought in by Director Wang."

"A backdoor hire? So that explains it. No wonder The Mystic One did so badly—Director Wang must have forced it through with resources."

"Exactly. Shame, but it’s not something the rest of us can envy."

After finishing lunch, the two operations staff sat at their stations and gossiped.

Though their voices were kept low, they still drifted into Yu Jia’s ears from nearby.

Yu Jia frowned, but did not take it too seriously.

In Yin Jian’s projects, it was always like this: weak on the first day, yet absurdly resilient afterward. She had long since grown numb to it.

Once she finished eating, she left the cafeteria at once.

Lately she had quite a lot on her plate, and she also had to help prepare material for the online class.

"Right, and there’s that fellow’s discount recommendation."

Back at her desk, Yu Jia remembered and immediately opened her operations dashboard, clicked the recommendation request, then entered and uploaded the materials for My Little World.

After that, she sent Han Hai a message. Not long afterward, the recommendation review for My Little World was approved directly.

Having finished that, she was just about to get back to her own work when her operations dashboard suddenly displayed a new message notification.

"Another one asking about replaying the game?"

Yu Jia rubbed her temples.

Recently, with more and more signed designers joining, she had also come to understand how exhausting an operations staff member’s job really was.

It meant being in work mode twenty-four hours a day.

Designers would consult at any time about the game’s performance, later recommendations, or problems within the game.

Sometimes she would even run into complete lunatics who would start cursing the moment they opened their mouths, leaving her utterly stunned.

That was why, despite her habit of adding every signed designer straight into the group chat, she now had to observe them for a while first. Only after confirming that there was no issue would she add them in.

To avoid group chat disasters.

Thinking of that, Yu Jia collected her thoughts, opened the message, and read the content before replying.

Happy Exploding Hair: Boss, I’ve finished the basic gameplay. Could I trouble you to take a look?

Seeing that it was Happy Exploding Hair, Yu Jia’s expression softened.

She was rather optimistic about this designer; he had the potential to make a quality game.

She immediately typed back.

Stone: Send it over.

Happy Exploding Hair: [Sunshine Zoo]

Happy Exploding Hair: Thanks, boss.

Stone: Wait a moment. I’ll take a look.

After replying, Yu Jia opened Sunshine Zoo.

A link to consciousness.

A barren wasteland appeared in her field of vision.

There was nothing on it but a few protruding rocks.

Yu Jia swiped her finger, and the wasteland vanished in an instant, replaced by a grassland.

Another swipe, and a beach appeared.

"A freely selectable map?"

Yu Jia muttered to herself, chose the beach, and entered the game.

[Cutscene not yet made]

"..."

Seeing the prompt before her, Yu Jia’s mouth twitched, and she quickly clicked to skip.

Then she entered the beach.

"No sound either?"

Yu Jia sighed. She knew a little about Happy Exploding Hair’s situation.

Funds were not exactly plentiful.

But she had not expected it to be this tight.

He could not even afford sound effects that cost a few hundred yuan.

"If the game is decent, I’ll help support him a little."

Yu Jia felt that, as Happy Exploding Hair’s operations staff member, she should offer him a bit of material support.

Putting those thoughts aside, she began to study the gameplay.

The character started with ten million in funds.

The player needed to use that ten million to build an animal park.

After that, it would be opened to visitors, earning money and gradually enriching the buildings within the park.

Yu Jia opened the shop, wanting to see what was available.

But when she got a clear look at the items, she was instantly dumbfounded.

Everything had no icon at all, only a line of descriptive text.

"Don’t tell me there aren’t even models."

Yu Jia’s delicate brows furrowed. She tried buying a trash can, and then a wooden sign bearing the words trash can appeared before her.

"..."

Ignoring these external factors, Yu Jia turned all her attention to the gameplay.

Management games were all much of a kind. To stand out, they either needed good pacing, keeping players hooked as they moved naturally with the rhythm, or a unique innovation that would arouse interest.

As for Lu Guo’s game...

Yu Jia stared at a wooden board labeled crab, moving swiftly across the beach, and fell silent.

It was not that she was unprofessional; she simply could not focus hard enough to find any real highlight in this game.

"Haah..."

Yu Jia sighed and forced herself onward.

Since she had promised Happy Exploding Hair she would take a look, she had to fulfill that promise no matter what.

It took her more than half an hour before Yu Jia, feeling rather dazed, finally exited the game.

Shaking her head to clear it, she opened her chat window with Happy Exploding Hair.

Stone: The tourists’ behavior and speech are very natural. That part is quite good, and it gives a strong sense of accomplishment.

Stone: However, the animals other than humans are a bit stiff. Put more effort into that, and I don’t think the game’s results will be too bad.

Happy Exploding Hair: Got it. Thanks, boss.

"Not lively enough?"

Reading Stone’s reply, Lu Guo fell into thought.

After carefully recalling his game, he realized that it really was just as Stone had said.

"I only handle customers; I haven’t had much close contact with the animals..."

"Looks like I’ll need to change jobs."

Just as he was thinking about what job to switch to, he saw another message from Stone.

Stone: Once you’ve made the trial version, send it to me again. If you run into any difficulties, do your best to tell me. I’ll help you as much as I can within my role.

Happy Exploding Hair: Okay.

After settling Happy Exploding Hair’s matter, Yu Jia continued with her own work.

She opened the chat window with Sword Ascending.

Stone: You there?

Leader of the Sword Ascending Sect: Stone is awesome!

"..."

Yu Jia rubbed her brow. This was another troublesome one.

After organizing her words, she typed.

Stone: Sword Ascending, Rising Voyage wants to hire you externally for one hundred thousand yuan to tell some newbie designers about your experience making games. It’s for the online class, so you don’t have to come in person. See if you can make it.

Leader of the Sword Ascending Sect: Hahaha, no problem.

Stone: ...That’s not what I meant.

Leader of the Sword Ascending Sect: Is there a difference?

Looking at Sword Ascending’s reply, Yu Jia wanted to argue.

But after thinking it over carefully, she could not really say what the difference was.

Well then...

Stone: Sword Ascending is awesome! I’ll message you later. By the way, when are you releasing your new game?

Leader of the Sword Ascending Sect: I’m already thinking about what color to use for the game text. Coming soon.

P.S. Monthly tickets, please!

Brothers, the game goes on sale tomorrow at noon. Please support the first-order!

Also, because I was too eager, I ended up posting the launch announcement a bit early, and a lot of brothers thought I was already on sale, emmm...