"Gus, did Zoey hex you or something?" Luke Bennett groaned as soon as they returned to Gus Shepard's office at WindyPeak Games Inc.
Luke and Jake Rivers crowded around, looking like they'd just been sentenced to hard labor.
"That game she pitched? I wouldn't know where to start!" Luke said, slumping. "It's a dumpster fire—wet and dry trash mixed together. Every awful trope in gaming!"
Jake, usually quiet, nodded. "Yeah, Brother Gus, you said we're the iron triangle. We can handle pressure. Why didn't you let Luke shoot it down? Now we're stuck."
Luke sighed. "I get you're the director, but I could've played bad cop. Called her out. We wouldn't be in this mess."
Gus paused, then cracked a smile. He hadn't picked the wrong crew. They were worried he'd been cornered into accepting Zoey's absurd proposal and wanted to protect him.
"You guys are solid," Gus said, nodding. "But you're missing something. I chose this project."
Luke and Jake froze, brains buffering.
"You… chose it?" Luke squinted. "Gus, come on. This isn't some secret CEO mission. Her ideas are nuts!"
Gus tossed a balled-up paper at Luke, laughing. "Mission? You're the only one obsessed with quests."
Luke caught it, grinning despite himself. "Then what's the deal? You're really making this trash heap?"
Gus raised an eyebrow. "It's not made yet. How do you know it's trash?"
Jake chimed in, deadpan. "Top-down, bullet hell, pixel art, one-life permadeath, random gear, enemy spam. It's a checklist of everything players hate."
It sounded logical. Those mechanics were market poison—guaranteed to flop.
But Gus wasn't buying it. "No genre is inherently trash," he said firmly. "Shooting, racing, whatever—only bad execution fails. Like in BattleForge—no useless characters, just players who don't know how to use them."
Luke raised a hand. "Uh, except that one tank who one-shots with a triple combo."
"What tank?" Gus blinked.
Luke slapped his thigh. "You forgot the Ironclad? Come on!"
"Alright, alright, focus on the vibe," Gus said, chuckling. "Point is, with the right ideas, even a 'dead' genre can surprise."
Luke frowned. "How?"
"Start with random gear," Gus said. "Sure, you might get a stick after a boss fight. But what if that stick's exactly what you need? Or you've got 99 sticks, and one more crafts a Godstaff that makes you invincible?"
Luke's eyes widened. "Wait… stack random drops for big payoffs? Quantitative to qualitative?"
"Exactly," Gus snapped his fingers. "Randomness is a double-edged sword. You see the downside—players getting junk. But it also opens endless possibilities. A trash drop can frustrate, but a rare artifact drop? Pure dopamine."
Jake caught the spark. "Like a lottery! People don't buy tickets expecting to win—they chase the chance. That's the hook!"
Gus nodded. "Exactly. We give players countless lotteries. One win—say, a god-tier weapon—and they're mowing down enemies, hooked for life. Even after 100 failures, they'll keep chasing that high."
Luke lit up. "We could tier gear! Level it up, then fuse maxed items into superweapons—invincibility, life-drain, massive damage."
Jake jumped in. "And visuals! Start plain, then ramp up effects as you progress. More bullets than the enemy throws! Superweapons? Neon explosions, screen-shaking chaos!"
The two high-fived, buzzing. "This sounds sick!"
Gus grinned like a proud dad. Then, a chime rang in his mind.
Ding! Consumed 7,899 vibe points!
Unlocked: Vampire Survivor