As for the current landscape of the gaming industry, it was basically similar to the situation Pei Qian remembered from 2009 in his previous life.
For instance, the most popular online game shifted from World of Warcraft to Fantasy World, Counter-Strike to Counter-Terrorism Plan, and DOTA to Divine Revelation. While the branding had changed slightly, gameplay remained largely the same.
However, mobile gaming had significantly improved, likely due to faster hardware development.
For example, card-based mobile games emerged around 2012 in Pei Qian's original world, benefiting from the rise of smartphones. But in this parallel world, due to earlier smartphone popularity, similar games had already become prevalent around 2008, and were now mature and refined.
"This makes things clearer."
"All I have to do is buy templates and art resources on the ESRO marketplace, spend the full fifty thousand yuan, produce a game that nobody wants to play or buy, and after two weeks, it'll count as a total loss."
"Perfect!"
Having made his decision, Pei Qian started browsing the ESRO resource marketplace for templates.
Basic driving simulator template: 20,000 yuan, comes with vehicle interior and exterior textures included.
Scenery template: Desert highway, 15,000 yuan. Environmental dynamic effects (sunrise, sunset, sandstorms) add another 8,000 yuan, totaling 23,000 yuan.
"A bit pricey, but I precisely want something expensive!"
"There's still a bit of money left."
Radio music pack: Select 30 songs from 100 available tracks, or let the system play randomly, 6,000 yuan.
"Only 1,000 yuan left… hmm, let's buy a simple leaderboard function. Can't afford anything else anyway."
After some quick decisions, Pei Qian frantically placed orders, quickly exhausting all 50,000 yuan.
To be honest, these resources weren't expensive at all for game development.
The basic driving simulator template, for instance, came with fundamental driving-game mechanics already built-in—acceleration, braking, steering, collisions—everything included.
The desert highway scene allowed users to freely adjust the length of the road within the editor, with random variations occurring throughout the environment. With the additional environment simulation feature, players could experience changing times of day and sandstorms.
Since these were all standard templates, many indie game developers bought them as well, meaning asset overlap was guaranteed.
Some developers invested more to avoid looking identical to other games by commissioning customized art resources, but Pei Qian didn't care at all.
So what if the image in his game overlaps? It would make it even better! After all, he aimed for a loss—players refusing to play because the game looked too generic was exactly what he wanted.
Pei Qian began developing the game.
Although he aimed to lose money, the game still needed to pass ESRO's review and be successfully listed for sale.
If the game were incomplete or severely broken, it wouldn't pass ESRO's approval, and the system would likely flag Pei Qian for violations.
Therefore, no matter how awful the game was, it had to fulfill basic requirements.
Pei Qian dragged the base driving simulator template into the editor, followed by the desert highway scene.
The general framework was now complete—players entering the game would immediately be able to drive down a lonely desert highway.
But since he'd bought other resources, he couldn't let them go to waste.
Pei Qian implemented the in-car radio feature, allowing players to randomly listen to music while driving. Of course, the music selection consisted entirely of obscure or very classic tracks; popular hits weren't attainable for such a small sum.
Now, a critical question arose:
What was the core gameplay loop of this game?
Pei Qian had no idea.
Racing?
Impossible—he had no money to implement it.
After all, he'd only bought the basic template, which included just one car texture and one scenery setting.
Those fancy race tracks, beautiful cars, and complicated racing mechanics—he simply couldn't afford them!
How could he create proper gameplay without money?
Pei Qian slapped his forehead suddenly, coming up with an idea.
The game's core gameplay would be incredibly simple: just driving.
Players would start from the beginning and drive all the way to the finish line, completing the game.
But merely piecing together generic resources wouldn't pass ESRO's review—it lacked innovation entirely.
He needed some changes to pass the approval process—but these modifications couldn't be too attractive, as he still needed the game to lose money!
After some consideration, Pei Qian decided to stretch the desert road scene infinitely long.
He extended it so the entire gameplay would last a total of eight hours!
Yes, players had to drive down a desert highway for eight full hours, with the road making occasional turns along the way.
Players couldn't just press one button to finish easily.
This way, the gameplay differed slightly from other driving simulation games on the market, ensuring it could pass ESRO's review.
Plus, a game with such absurd, tedious gameplay would surely earn the anger of countless players. How could it possibly turn a profit?
Pei Qian became increasingly excited, convinced of his genius.
Finally, he added an extremely simple completion screen, displaying just a single line:
"Congratulations, you've successfully wasted 8 valuable hours of your life!"
Even if someone did complete the game, they'd be so annoyed they'd never play another game from his company again!
The leaderboard feature couldn't go to waste either, so he created a "Time-Wasting Leaderboard," tracking players' "Number of Completions" and "Total Playtime."
The leaderboard had no practical value—it merely served to use the paid feature.
The implementation was straightforward, requiring nothing more than simple dragging and parameter adjustments within the editor—easy enough for anyone with functioning hands.
Including the time spent learning the editor, buying resources, and assembling the game, it took Pei Qian less than two hours.
"A game this terrible is destined to lose money!"
Once finished, Pei Qian ran the game on his laptop to test it.
Five minutes in, he nearly threw up from boredom and quickly quit.
All players could do was drive endlessly—pure boredom and torture.
Pei Qian felt extremely satisfied and immediately prepared the game for release.
Game Name: Lonely Desert Road
Description:
"Driving alone for hours on an empty desert highway, you'll gain some insights about life."
Pei Qian struggled a bit when writing this description.
Should he exaggerate the game's qualities?
No—if the exaggerated description attracted clickbait-driven players, it might reduce his intended losses.
Should he openly criticize it as garbage?
That wouldn't work either—it would be too obvious. Not only could the system flag it as a violation, but it might also trigger players' curiosity, causing reverse psychology to kick in.
Thus, Pei Qian opted for a truthful yet dull description to ensure minimal interest.
Next came the pricing.
Pei Qian priced the game at 1 yuan.
He didn't dare set the price too high—if, by some twist, players impulsively bought it at a higher price, it would reduce his intended losses.
At such a low price, even if a few dozen players accidentally bought it, it wouldn't significantly affect his losses.
After finalizing everything, Pei Qian uploaded the game and waited for ESRO's review and subsequent release on the official gaming marketplace.
Typically, approval took anywhere from a few hours to two or three days.
The official marketplace used an automated recommendation system. New games in the same batch were promoted based purely on data performance. Unless malicious activity occurred, marketplace administrators wouldn't intervene.
Pei Qian wasn't worried at all.
For such a garbage game, it was guaranteed to be utterly ignored after release and quickly fade into obscurity. Two weeks later, the 50,000 yuan would convert into his personal funds—how delightful!
Pei Qian closed his laptop, feeling deeply satisfied and filled with happiness.
- - - - - -
If you want to see more chapter of this fic for free, please go to my Scribblehub Account[1], I cross-poted this fic in there too.
Link: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/[2]
[1] https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/
[2] https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1589938/losing-money-to-become-a-tycoon-starting-with-games/