As for the current gaming industry environment, it was basically similar to the situation in 2009 from Pei Qian’s previous life.
For instance, the most popular online games had changed from World of Warcraft to “Fantasy World,” CS had become “Counter-Terrorism Plan,” DotA had become “Divine Awakening.” The packaging was different, but the gameplay was roughly the same.
Mobile games had seen obvious improvements, possibly because hardware development was faster than in his previous life.
For example, in Pei Qian’s previous life, card mobile games benefited from the smartphone popularization wave and only appeared in 2012, but in this parallel world, due to the earlier appearance of smartphones, similar games had already emerged around 2008, and now were a very mature game genre.
“In that case, the situation is very clear.”
“I just need to spend money purchasing templates and art resources from the resource platform, use up all fifty thousand yuan, and then if the resulting game isn’t played by anyone and doesn’t sell, it would be equivalent to a total loss after two weeks.”
“Perfect!”
Having made up his mind, Pei Qian began searching for the templates he wanted on the resource platform.
“Basic driving simulation template, 20,000 yuan, comes with a set of vehicle interior and exterior textures.”
“Scene template, desert highway template, 15,000 yuan. If dynamic environmental changes are needed, add another 8,000 yuan, totaling 23,000 yuan.”
“A bit expensive, but that’s exactly what I want!”
“Still have some money left unspent.”
“Radio music, choose 30 songs from a selection of 100, or have the system randomly play from the music library, 6,000 yuan.”
“Still 1,000 yuan left, hmm… let’s buy a simple leaderboard function, can’t afford anything else.”
After brief consideration, Pei Qian went on a shopping spree on the resource platform, quickly spending all 50,000 yuan.
To be honest, these resources weren’t expensive.
For example, this basic driving simulation template, once plugged into the game editor, would implement all the basic functions of a driving simulation game.
Accelerator, brake, turning, collision, and so on—everything was included.
And the desert highway scene inherently supported adjusting the road length freely in the editor, with the desert scenery showing some random variations.
With the environmental change simulation feature added, there would be sunrise, sunset, sandstorms, and other environmental changes.
Since these were common templates, many independent game developers would buy and use them, so getting identical games was 100% guaranteed.
Some developers, to avoid this problem, would customize some art resources for replacement, though that would require additional investment.
But Pei Qian didn’t care about this at all.
Identical games? So what! After all, he was aiming to lose money. If players didn’t play his game because it looked the same as others, that would be exactly what he wanted!
Pei Qian started creating the game.
Although he wanted to lose money, the game at least had to pass ESRO’s review and successfully launch on the platform.
If it were a half-finished product with severe functional deficiencies, it wouldn’t pass ESRO’s review, and the system might judge Pei Qian as violating the rules.
So, no matter how terrible the game was, the basic functions had to be complete.
He dragged the basic template into the editor, then the scene template.
With that, the game’s framework was established. Players could drive on the desert highway once they entered the game.
But he couldn’t waste the resources he’d purchased.
Pei Qian also added the radio function to the vehicle, so players could turn on the radio and listen to random music while driving.
These were either niche music or very traditional classical music. Those popular songs couldn’t possibly be bought with so little money.
Next came a rather crucial question.
What exactly was the core gameplay?
Pei Qian himself didn’t know.
Racing?
Don’t be ridiculous, he couldn’t afford that.
He could only afford one basic template, had textures for just one car, and could only buy one scene.
Those complex racetracks, beautiful cars, and related racing gameplay programs—he couldn’t afford any of them!
How could he create gameplay without money?
Pei Qian slapped his forehead as an idea struck him.
The core gameplay was simple: just driving!
Driving from the starting point to the end point would complete the game!
But that alone wouldn’t work. Pieced together entirely from generic resources without any gameplay innovation, it would probably struggle to pass the review.
He needed to make some changes to ensure the game could pass review, but these changes couldn’t be too good—he had to ensure the game would lose money, and no one would play it!
After some thought, Pei Qian directly extended the desert track scene indefinitely.
Extended it to a total gameplay time of 8 hours!
That’s right, players would need to drive for 8 hours on this road to reach the endpoint, and during this time, the desert highway would take a turn now and then.
It would be impossible for players to complete the game by just pressing one key.
This way, the gameplay would be different from ordinary driving simulation games on the market, and it should pass the review.
Moreover, with such an infuriating gameplay, wouldn’t it be thoroughly condemned by players? There was no way this game could make money!
Pei Qian was very excited, feeling he was simply a genius.
Finally, he made a very crude game completion interface, just displaying one line of text: “Congratulations, you’ve successfully wasted 8 precious hours of your life!”
Even if someone could complete the game, he had to make them so angry that they would never play a game from his company again!
The leaderboard function he bought couldn’t go to waste either, so he made a “Time Wasting Leaderboard” to track each player’s “number of completions” and “effective gameplay time.”
This leaderboard wasn’t particularly useful; it was purely to make use of the function he’d paid for.
Just like that, the game was quickly completed.
These functions were among the most basic supported by the editor, requiring only simple drag-and-drop operations and parameter adjustments—tasks that pretty much anyone with hands could do.
Self-learning the editor, buying resources, and creating the game—all of it together took less than two hours.
“With such a stupid game, I’m guaranteed to lose money!”
After completing the game, Pei Qian tested it on his computer.
He quit the game after just five minutes, nearly getting sick.
It was just driving, driving, driving from the moment you entered—boring to the extreme!
Pei Qian was very satisfied and immediately published the game.
Game title: “Lonely Desert Highway.”
Game description: On a desert highway, driving alone for several hours, you will gain some reflections on life.
Pei Qian struggled while writing the description.
Praise his own game? Not appropriate. What if it attracted a bunch of players who just came for the title? How would he lose enough money?
Criticize his own game? Also not appropriate. That would be too obvious. On one hand, he worried the system might judge it as a violation; on the other hand, he also feared triggering players’ reverse psychology—what if the more he said the game was garbage, the more they wanted to play it?
So, he wrote an honest description, aiming to make players uninterested at first glance!
Then came pricing.
Pei Qian set the price at 1 yuan.
He didn’t want to set it too high. If it was too expensive and a few idiots impulsively bought it, wouldn’t he lose less money?
With a price low enough, even if a few dozen players bought it, it wouldn’t significantly impact Pei Qian’s losses.
After everything was done, Pei Qian uploaded the game and waited for it to pass the review and automatically launch on the official game platform.
This process generally took anywhere from a few hours to two or three days.
The official platform used a completely automated recommendation system. New games in the same batch would be automatically recommended based on changing data. Unless there was malicious ranking manipulation, administrators wouldn’t intervene.
Pei Qian wasn’t worried at all.
With such a garbage game, it would surely be ignored and quickly fade into obscurity once launched. When the two-week period was up, he’d have the fifty thousand yuan in hand—wouldn’t that be wonderful!
Pei Qian closed his laptop, feeling refreshed with a sense of happiness naturally arising!