To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 17: A Big Mistake_1

Two and a half days of game time were enough for Wang to collect plenty of materials in the game.

Even if he wasn't a technical UP host, Wang was definitely an editing-type UP host.

After all, even a blind cat can find a dead rat, and as long as one has enough understanding of Princess Dungeon's environmental mechanics, there's a chance to showcase some unusual kills, resulting in explosive gaming effects.

Watching Wang's video, the viewers quickly got excited.

"Does anyone have Wang's contact information? Has anyone confirmed with Wang that this is really the game and not some prank?"

"I'm done for, I think I saw a digital succubus."

"The neighboring King's Dungeon, each boss only has about a dozen ways to be killed. And I've seen it, it's essentially just different weapons leading to the kills."

"That's right, I've seen it too, but in this game, even a noob like Wang can use more than 30 ways to kill; is this game a bit abnormal?"

"I checked the name of this game, Princess Dungeon; how come the naming taste is so poor? Oh, it's by Fang Cheng, then never mind."

As a seasoned old fan, Wang had more than once criticized Fang Cheng's poor naming taste, which was a disaster and became a running joke in his videos.

And with Wang's video boosting, Princess Dungeon finally faced its first small explosion.

Yesterday's download count was still in single digits, but since the release of Wang Say Games' video, the game's downloads suddenly soared to 1,100.

The share for games on the Steam platform is 70%, and for a game costing 68 yuan, the final cut for Fang Zheng Studio is about 47 yuan.

And game studios have many tax exemption policies in their first two years; as long as the studio distributes salaries on time and buys social insurance for employees, there's no need to pay taxes on the game's income.

So, discovering the surge in download numbers, Xu Qingling happily calculated the income and figured out they would earn a sizable sum of 50,000 yuan.

Although it wasn't enough for her to buy a bag, for a studio with only three people, this sum was already quite a lot.

Gleefully summarizing the data and sending it to Fang Cheng, she excitedly said, "Boss, our game's downloads have gone up!"

Engrossed in his meditation, Fang Cheng lifted his head, frowned at the summarized data, and then opened the Steam game interface, letting out a sigh of relief.

No comments, huh.

Although the downloads had increased, it seemed likely they were sympathy downloads from other people.

After all, his previous games Towards Death and Life and The Forest's Second Son had been minor hits, and it seemed these players probably heard about him through other channels and decided to do him a favor.

This suggests that the romance game, which deviated from his original idea, isn't that fun, and his taste seemed similar to most people's.

Therefore, Fang Cheng said with a smile, "No worries."

Xu Qingling looked at Fang Cheng's reply with confusion and couldn't help but say, "Boss, what I meant was, our game's download numbers have gone up, now we have 1,100."

"No worries, such a small matter is no problem."

With her head full of fog, Xu Qingling stared at the reply on the screen, feeling that her thinking wasn't on the same server as Fang Cheng's.

Why did it seem like Fang Cheng felt defeated when the download numbers increased?

After pondering for a long time, she realized she didn't quite understand the thoughts of these game people, so she went to find another one of Fang Cheng's loyal followers, Xiao Douzi.

At that moment, Xiao Douzi was still tweaking values.

With a grim expression, Xiao Douzi working looked like a textbook psychopath in any crime drama, the kind of high-IQ villain who outsmarts the protagonist.

At this time, Xiao Douzi gave off a "do not disturb" vibe, and even Xu Qingling dared not interrupt, waiting until he had finished working before voicing her doubts.

After listening, Xiao Douzi nodded, "No worries, such a small matter is no problem."

"What the—I mean, why are you repeating what the boss said?"

"Because the boss and I are similar, both pure game people. This game is the result of our three people's labor, but mainly the boss's. He definitely realizes our vision has been conveyed, and this small download count is temporary; the future is bound to be bright."

Xu Qingling furrowed her pretty brows and hesitated before asking, "You mean, the boss thinks the number of downloads is too low?"

"Yes, you might not understand the significance of this game among indie games. For indie game players, the content volume is a very important aspect. A decent indie game should have at least a hundred different skills, equipment, or weapons. Did you know how many weapons the recently released King's Dungeon by Tianyi has?"

"I don't know."

"300."

Hearing this number, Xu Qingling's frown deepened even more.

Even without much gaming knowledge, she understood that games are like exams; going from 0 to 100 is easy, but from 100 to 200 is a hurdle.

And 300 would indicate a scary level of mastery over the exam mechanics, making them top students in the arena.

Realizing their competition could reach such a level made Xu Qingling shudder, then she asked with concern, "So how many does our Princess Dungeon have?"

"3,800, and that's just what I'm aware of."

The sudden jump in numbers left Xu Qingling speechless.

Pointing at the screen, without believing, she asked, "You mean to say, you and the boss packed the content of 10 games into one?"

"Yeah, and all these different combinations can work together to produce new effects. Even the boss and I can't predict how many effective combinations players will find in this game. For a fan of indie games, this game is practically endless. And such an amazing game costs only 68 yuan."

Having understood the heft of Princess Dungeon, Xu Qingling finally realized why Fang Cheng would say not to worry about minor issues.

"So, Xiao Douzi, what do you think the final sales of this game will be?"

Indie games might not be a major category in the domestic gaming circle, but they have many hardcore fans.

Taking into account the quality of Princess Dungeon, Xiao Douzi considered for a moment and then gave his estimate, "90,000 copies."

This figure was far beyond Xu Qingling's expectations.

90,000 copies sold would mean their final income would be about 4 million yuan.

After repaying the loans, their studio could continue to operate, and she could stay by Fang Cheng's side for a long time.

She felt quite satisfied with this answer.

But it didn't take many days for Xu Qingling to realize that Xiao Douzi was incredibly wrong.

And it was a huge mistake.