Kapitel 19: Chapter 19 What is Balance?_1

Looking at this message, Kongkong almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

He immediately called Huang Ping, who had already left, back, and slamming the table, Kongkong shouted, "Go fix that thing, that thing, right now!"

"Which thing?" asked Huang Ping, puzzled.

Kongkong widened his eyes, clenched his fists tight, and said with frustration, "That thing, you know!"

Noticing that Huang Ping still had no clue, Kongkong turned his own screen around, pointed at it, and said, "Take a look for yourself!"

Once Huang Ping had a clear view of the message, which showed that "Princess Dungeon" had introduced PVP gameplay, he felt a huge tremor in his heart and exclaimed in disbelief, "How is this possible!"

"Now it's not about what's possible or not, but they've actually done it! Download the game right now and figure out what's going on!"

Tianyi allots a certain budget for game purchases every month, giving each planner a share of 1,000 yuan.

This money can be used to buy single-player games or to make in-game purchases in MMOs or mobile games, and is considered an extra perk for game planners.

So, Huang Ping immediately used his allocation to download "Princess Dungeon" for 68 yuan.

It is shameful to say, but as a game planner, he had never even played his industry competitors' games.

Since joining Kongkong Studio, a place he had once longed for, he found himself unavoidably suffering from electronic ED.

The normalized 996 overtime culture left him with no time to play games; he would download a game and exit hastily after just ten minutes. Many AAA titles were essentially just gathering dust in his library.

Playing his own company's games too much also gave him a feeling of nausea; the original passion had vanished amidst the frequent changes made by the producer.

When was the last time he enjoyed playing a game?

He had thought "Princess Dungeon" was just a superior and conscientious indie project, but when he actually loaded into it, he realized he was wrong.

I am so foolish, truly.

I've always heard my comrades online say how fun this game is, yet I never played it.

Only after playing today did I understand just how interesting this game is.

From the moment he started playing the game on Kongkong's orders to conquering the third dungeon, Huang Ping stretched his sore fingers with satisfaction, feeling that this game was truly incredible.

At that moment, he finally understood what that "romance" tag meant.

Playing this game felt as smooth and delightful as being in love, as if he had returned to that time of high school first love, where every minute and every second was so pleasant, so seamless.

As Huang Ping was savoring the moment, he saw a colleague come over and sit down next to him, then teasingly said, "Ah Huang, why did you come in so early today? Not cutting it close, are you?"

"What do you mean, came in early?" asked Huang Ping, confused.

"It's only eight o'clock. Usually, you clock in at the last second, but today you came an hour early, that's not like you."

Huang Ping then realized his stomach was empty.

Reflecting on his experience from the day before, he slapped his thigh and blurted out, "Damn!"

His colleague jumped in fright, "What happened?"

"I forgot to clock in."

"Then go punch the clock."

"I forgot to do it last night."

"Then you're in trouble. Kongkong's been in a bad mood recently, and now you're going to get chewed out again."

Slapping his forehead, Huang Ping realized that since last night, he hadn't left his workstation.

He hadn't even drunk a sip of water or gone to the bathroom once. In this moment, his mighty bladder stood supreme, showing him which organ was truly the boss!

After a quick restroom break, he returned to his seat and mulled over various aspects of "Princess Dungeon" for quite some time, thinking deeply about each of them.

Finally, he let out a helpless sigh.

No way around it.

This was the work of a King.

Their game outclassed his in every aspect, and it wasn't just a small margin—it was better in every way.

It was like going out to eat; his place offered a 648 yuan A5 wagyu beef steak that you could keep ordering more of, but each additional order would cost you money.

The other was like a 68 yuan buffet with everything you could want—flying in the sky, running on the ground, swimming in the sea—everything in one place, and all-you-can-eat to boot.

If you even wanted alien sashimi, they'd whip up a plate for you.

So, how could you possibly compete with that?

After sighing, Huang Ping thought hard and realized that there still might be a glimmer of hope.

And that would be the PvP system.

Fang Cheng Studio was just a small studio, at most seven or eight people—it was impossible for such a small team, no matter how talented, to solve the biggest issue in any PvP-mode: balancing.

After all, the randomness inherent in their game was too strong, naturally clashing with any competitive aspect—it just couldn't be reconciled.

Their so-called PvP was probably nothing more than a simple system where everyone competed over a single numeric value.

Then, after scouring the game for a while, he made a surprising discovery.

He couldn't find the PvP entrance.

Having no choice, he logged into Bilibili and searched for "Princess Dungeon" videos, then gasped in shock.

Had the number of videos about "Princess Dungeon" soared to the thousands in just a few days?

Soon after, Huang Ping understood why.

Every player with a bit of dedication could find their own highlight moments within the game.

Even accidentally pulling a horde of a thousand monsters and slowly wearing them down while dragging them along could be turned into a video that would wildly attract other players' likes.

What's more horrifying was that tens of thousands of players were continuously exploring the game's mechanics, but these seemed to be endless, as if they could never fully be unearthed.

Are all newcomers monsters now?

When I first entered the field, I spent half a year just on matching tables!

And in the latest released videos, Huang Ping finally found what he was looking for—the method to enter PvP.

The entrance method looked like an Easter egg: by using certain special methods to continuously fly upwards from the ground outside the dungeon, you could see a huge platform in the air.

On this platform, players could meet each other and engage in a delightful (and treacherous) duel.

Returning to the game, Huang Ping followed the method from the video and smoothly found the platform, then he noted that the platform was quite crudely made, simply a large stone platform floating in the sky, indestructible.

Standing on the platform, he saw that it had already gathered thousands of players; they were either fighting in pairs or as groups, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

It wasn't just about numeric values?

Huang Ping didn't join the fray but watched from the sidelines, ready to understand how "Princess Dungeon" handled balance.

But after watching one duel, he had an epiphany.

There was a problem with his thinking.

The game hadn't considered balance at all!

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Kapitel 20: Chapter 20 You Gave Too Much_1

Every player who knew how to reach the stone platform, and had the means to do so, already boasted their unique aesthetic and had integrated a set of equipment twisted enough to meet their taste.

So, the game didn't bother with balance, letting these freaks gather and slaughter each other, and the most freakish one among them would emerge victorious.

Because equipment had counteractive relationships with one another, there was no such thing as a definitive version solution.

Moreover, the game's content hadn't been fully explored yet. After new combo routines were discovered, existing ones would be updated and iterated, allowing the game to dazzle with renewed charm.

Consequently, even without updating the game, the players' varied explorations and discoveries kept the game internally self-evolving and fresh, maintaining its strong vitality.

At that moment, Huang Ping was convinced.

Such game balance was something their online game would never be able to achieve.

After all, there was an unwavering truth in mobile games: the big spenders must dominate all.

Non-spenders would never beat the ones who made a first purchase, and those who made a first purchase would never beat the monthly card holders.

A thousand-spender would absolutely be stronger than a monthly card holder, and those who spent tens of thousands set themselves apart again.

After that, players who spent ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or even a million had to be incomparably strong in the game.

Therefore, in pay-to-win games, the so-called balance could be summarized in one point: "Spending power must always be the strongest, and all balance serves the spending power."

Free players were forever just one of the paid players' in-game features, part of the atmosphere crew, the tool-man who shouted "666" when the big spenders won, the ultimate bootlicker pushing the buttocks when surrounded by their embrace.

However, this didn't matter in single-player games.

Everyone was a player who had paid sixty-eight to buy the game outright; nobody was nobler than anyone else, and strength was more a reflection of understanding the game mechanics.

In such PvP circumstances, losing meant you were outplayed, not outspent.

Feeling the game's atmosphere here, Huang Ping sighed.

The deeper he delved, the more he realized that everyone at Fang Cheng Studio was a genius.

This kind of balance-ignoring approach was free and enjoyable, something Huang Ping didn't dare to imagine, let alone attempt.

While Huang Ping was reflecting, a voice snapped him back to reality.

KongKong, having just arrived at the office, immediately raised his voice: "Huang Ping, what did you mean by not replying to my FeiXin message last night? How did you do with the tasks I assigned you yesterday?"

Glancing at his empty notebook, Huang Ping sighed and then walked into KongKong's office.

Even with his eyes closed, he knew what he was about to face.

But as the lead strategist, he had no choice but to steel himself, close the door, and brace for KongKong's ire.

Meanwhile, in Fang Cheng Studio, someone else was feeling quite helpless.

In front of Fang Cheng, Xiao Douzi pointed at the screen and asked helplessly, "Boss, our game has PvP, why didn't you tell me about it?"

Fang Cheng looked confusedly at the screen teeming with players: "Oh, I didn't think it was a big deal, so I didn't mention it."

Covering his head, Xiao Douzi felt a wave of headache coming on.

He thought he was unconventional enough, but compared to his boss, he was nothing.

To develop PvP in a pigeon game, and to do it successfully—a move filled with creativity—he couldn't even dare to dream of it.

Not to mention the challenge of simulating environments and combining a plethora of random effects without causing conflicts.

But to his amazement, the boss had really done it.

And he didn't even think it was a big deal!

Suppressing the urge to kneel down, Xiao Douzi continued, "So boss, what did you originally create this thing for? It couldn't have been just for fun."

"It wasn't much," Fang Cheng replied. "Running each dungeon was kind of troublesome, so I made a feature that allowed instant access to different dungeons, and then this thing came out."

"Wait a minute," Xiao Douzi interrupted Fang Cheng again. "Can I understand it this way, that all the player data is actually on the same server, and you didn't use single-player storage?"

In fact, the storage function was located on each planet, and he had only accessed the control terminal.

Explaining this, however, would be too complicated, so Fang Cheng simply said, "You could say that."

Covering her head, Xiao Douzi felt like her brain was about to explode.

Although she had known for a long time that her boss was amazing, she hadn't expected him to be this incredible.

Actually, when she saw that the game was only 10MB in size, she should have realized something was up.

After all, just a few high-definition images would take up that much space; it was impossible for the game's effects to be that good.

The only explanation was that the boss had rented a huge data server, and all the data was actually being processed on the server, with the client acting merely as an interface for real-time calculations.

But thinking of this only made it seem more unbelievable.

How would the server costs be calculated, and how would they deal with network instability?

Xiao Douzi, who only had an understanding of programming, still vaguely felt that no programming expert could achieve this at the moment.

While Xiao Douzi was dazed, Xu Qingling came over with the financial report and said to Fang Cheng, "Boss, our project team's game has achieved its first phase of success. I think we can pop some champagne to celebrate."

"Let's not," Fang Cheng said. "I see a lot of people online saying they don't like team-building exercises."

"That's because stupid leaders always take up rest time. As long as we hold our team-building events during workdays and then take a day or two off afterward, no one will hate it."

Fang Cheng glanced at Xiao Douzi, and she nodded vigorously in agreement.

With his employee's affirmation, Fang Cheng also nodded, "Okay, that works."

"Great. Before the team-building, we can also distribute the project bonus. Boss, how much do you think is appropriate to hand out?"

Fang Cheng didn't really have a concept of money.

After all, as an Immortal, he had no interest in worldly things; his only interest was in creating games that he and the players found fun, and then achieving transcendence was enough.

However, it seemed the studio needed to keep a cash reserve for the next game's budget.

There also needed to be funds set aside for emergencies and future office expenses for purchasing various materials.

Moreover, funds for hiring new staff and salaries for current employees had to be reserved.

After doing some calculations, Fang Cheng realized he didn't need much budget for developing games.

His method of game development was simple; he used Divine Sense to scan the entire world, find a suitable planet, and then make some adjustments to it.

If that wasn't enough, he could resort to Void Creation or even Dream Creation methods—there was always a way to create an environment he envisioned.

After finishing his calculations, Fang Cheng confidently said, "Let's distribute 60% then."

Xu Qingling looked at Fang Cheng with resignation and sighed, "Boss, you're running a business, not a charity."

"Ah, is there a problem with that?"

"Alright, 10% is enough. I haven't contributed much, so I'll take just 1%. That way, my share of the bonus would be over sixty thousand, and Xiao Douzi, you can take five hundred and forty thousand. Oh, and there are taxes to pay, so it might end up being around four hundred thousand."

Upon hearing such a huge figure, Xiao Douzi's complexion changed.

Boss, that's way too much.

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