You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

In the early morning, the sky in Jianghai City was clear, a rare sight. The sun shone into the office through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the spacious conference table.

Lu Yu sat in the main seat, legs crossed, tapping the table with his fingers, and glanced indifferently at several core members in the conference room.

"You're all aware of the direction of the new project," he said casually. "This time, we don't want to make it too big, nor do we want to plunge the entire company into internal chaos."

The planning director nodded and pushed up his glasses. "I see. Mr. Lu is saying that we need to control the size of the team to prevent the company from growing too quickly, which would lead to a surge in management costs. We also need to prevent excessive internal competition from affecting creative freedom."

"Right." Lu Yu casually twirled the pen in his hand, his tone lazy, "So, the recruitment criteria this time is very simple - only those 'weirdos' who don't want to be involuted, who are unconventional, who are free and undisciplined, but who do have real talent and knowledge."

The meeting room was silent, and everyone looked at each other.

"..."

"Mr. Lu, are you serious?" the technical director couldn't help but ask.

"Of course." Lu Yu's lips curled up slightly. "Compared to those who are obsessed with climbing the career ladder and thinking about how to work overtime every day to overwhelm their colleagues, I admire those who simply love games but are extremely disgusted with workplace rules."

"Is this kind of person... really easy to find?" The art director frowned.

"Of course." Lu Yu chuckled, stood up, stretched, and said lazily: "Besides, I already have a goal."

Lu Yu never likes to recruit talents in a traditional way. He believes that true talents often do not actively submit resumes, but need to be "encountered by chance."

So, in the next few days, he turned on **"Hunter Mode**——

Instead of going to major recruitment websites to screen resumes, he went straight to various game exhibitions, independent game developer gatherings, and even some seemingly unrelated art salons in Shanghai, just to find the most suitable person.

However, things did not go so smoothly.

——A gathering of an independent game developer forum.

A serious-looking programmer wearing headphones was giving a passionate speech on the stage: "I believe game coding should be pure art! Working overtime is disrespectful to the code!"

After listening for half an hour, Lu Yu found that although this person's ideas were extreme, his technical level was just average, so he gave up decisively.

——A game design competition at a certain university.

A young designer excitedly showed off his work: "I made a game with no UI at all. Players must rely entirely on intuition to explore!"

Lu Yu tried the game for five minutes and found that it was almost completely unplayable. Even the basic interactive logic was not well implemented, so he left quietly.

——An underground electronic music club.

A man in a punk windbreaker is improvising the game soundtrack on the spot. It is wild and free, with a strong musical atmosphere.

Lu Yu's eyes lit up, and he was about to go up and talk to them, but when the other party heard that it was a game company, he immediately rolled his eyes and said, "Sorry, I don't do commercial projects."

"..."

After searching for a whole week, Lu Yu still didn't meet the "right weirdo".

Until that afternoon, he walked into an Internet cafe.

This internet cafe is located on an old street in Jianghai City. The LED sign at the entrance is quite old and flickers dimly. The interior is also decorated in a retro style, with even a number of CRT monitors placed in the corners, giving it a sense of 90s nostalgia.

Lu Yu pushed open the door, walked straight to the bar and ordered a cup of American coffee, then casually glanced around the environment of the Internet cafe.

Then his eyes stopped at a seat in a corner.

A young man was sitting in front of a computer, wearing a loose sweatshirt, his hair a little messy, his eyes lazy, an unlit lollipop in his mouth, controlling the mouse with one hand, and the other hand casually resting on the keyboard, typing code.

Lu Yu stood behind him, looked for a while, and raised his brows slightly.

——This guy’s coding style is extremely free, yet extremely fluent.

He did not follow any traditional design pattern, but wrote the program completely by intuition. Although the code logic seems chaotic, it is actually full of a wonderful "sense of rhythm".

more importantly……

This guy is actually using a broken computer from an internet cafe to develop a game on the spot?!

Lu Yu took a look at the screen and found that it was a very creative pixel-style puzzle game with bold scene design, unique gameplay, and even the UI interface was very personal.

He couldn't help but ask, "Did you make this game...all by yourself?"

Without even turning his head, the young man casually said, "Yeah."

“Are you an independent developer?”

"That's it."

"You made this game, do you plan to sell it?"

Upon hearing this, the young man finally stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Lu Yu.

He has a pair of lazy but sharp eyes, as if he has no interest in anything, but with a hint of hidden edge.

"Sell?" He raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and said with a hint of sarcasm, "I'm just playing around, I don't think about making money."

Lu Yu smiled, pulled over a chair, sat down unceremoniously, and said casually: "Now, I'll give you a chance to make money."

The young man raised an eyebrow: "Oh?"

"Join me and make a really good game." Lu Yu looked straight at him, his tone calm, but with irresistible confidence.

The young man was silent for a second, then suddenly laughed.

"That sounds... interesting."

——At this moment, the "most unreliable" genius of Taoyuan Township was finally found.

The air was filled with the faint aroma of coffee, and the old speakers in the Internet cafe played unclear BGM. Occasionally, players in the next area burst into excited shouts, but all this noise seemed particularly far away in this corner.

Lu Yu sat on the chair with his hands crossed, looking with interest at the young man in front of him who was wearing a loose sweatshirt, had messy hair, and exuded a "useless" temperament.

"So, what's your name?" Lu Yu asked casually.

The young man held a lollipop in his mouth, stretched lazily, looked away from the computer screen, and said slowly: "Zhou Xing."

This name sounds like an ordinary office worker, or even a salesperson. But Lu Yu knows that real weirdos often have normal names.

"Zhou Xing..." Lu Yu repeated, as if chewing on the name.

Then, he directly extended his invitation: "Join Taoyuan Township." Zhou Xing was stunned for a moment, then chuckled, his tone a little teasing: "So soon? You didn't even check my background, and you dare to let me join?"

Lu Yu spread his hands, looking matter-of-fact. "The fact that you can create such an interesting game in an internet cafe on a crappy computer shows that your skills are fine. The fact that you can focus on development in such a noisy environment shows that you have a stable mindset. Your design philosophy for the game is also quite unconventional. I need someone like you."

Zhou Xing blinked, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, as if he was very pleased with this evaluation: "It sounds like your expectations of me are quite low?"

"No, I have very high expectations of you." Lu Yu smiled, with a meaningful glint in his eyes, "I hope that after you join, you will specifically come up with some 'unreliable' ideas for the project."

Zhou Xing: “……???”

It turns out that Lu Yu is an extremely efficient person.

——From the time Zhou Xing got into Lu Yu’s car, to the time he arrived at the Taoyuan Township studio, and then to the time the HR, with a look of shock on their face, processed his onboarding, the entire process took no more than an hour.

When Zhou Xing received his work badge, he was still a little dazed: "...Did I join a fake company? Is it so casual?"

HR looked at Lu Yu helplessly and couldn't help but whispered: "Mr. Lu, are you really not going to let him do a formal interview? At least let him fill out a background check form..."

"No need." Lu Yu waved his hand, his tone relaxed, "What we want is interesting people, not machines filling out forms."

HR: “…Okay, you’re the boss anyway.”

Zhou Xing watched this scene with great interest, a playful smile on his lips, feeling as if he had accidentally entered a strange organization.

On the second day of his employment, Lu Yu convened the core team in the conference room of Taoyuan Township to formally discuss the establishment of a new project.

He sat at the front of the conference table, holding a cup of black coffee in his hand. He glanced at everyone, suddenly smiled, and said:

"For this project, we want to break all traditional game development routines."

Everyone pricked up their ears, ready to listen to what shocking new concept the boss would come up with.

As a result, Lu Yu's next words stunned everyone -

"What we're going to make is a game that's completely mediocre."

The conference room fell into a brief silence.

The planning director pushed up his glasses, trying to confirm that he had heard correctly: "...mediocre?"

"Yes, we need to make a game that has no highlights, no characteristics, and no competitiveness." Lu Yu said seriously, "The gameplay should be stereotyped, the plot should be clichéd, the art should be ordinary, the music should be forgettable, and the entire game should make players sleepy after playing for five minutes."

The art director couldn't help but ask, "...Mr. Lu, are you serious?"

"Of course." Lu Yu nodded as a matter of course. "While all other game companies are frantically competing internally and scrambling to innovate, we're doing the opposite. Making an 'extremely boring' game might actually be a different kind of innovation."

Everyone: "..."

What kind of reverse marketing idea is this?!
——Just when everyone was confused, Zhou Xing suddenly chuckled and tapped the table lightly with his fingers.

"Interesting." His tone was lazy, but his eyes were shining with excitement. "I like this idea."

Lu Yu's mouth corners slightly raised: "That's why I let you join the company."

Zhou Xing gave a meaningful smile, then lazily leaned back in his chair and said slowly, "Since we want to make a mediocre game, we have to fundamentally make players lose interest."

"For example, we could design an extremely long tutorial that would take players two hours to play without them even being able to enter the main game."

"For example, we could create a storyline with no twists and turns, where all the NPC dialogue is like random AI-generated nonsense, and the main quests are all about boring stuff like 'Go to the village entrance to find Zhang San' or 'Fight five wolves'."

"For example, the combat system must be extremely rigid, with only one attack button and no way to dodge."

"We could even force players to watch a 30-second 'meaningless black screen' loading interface before each cutscene, making them question their lives..."

Zhou Xing became more and more excited as he spoke, but the others in the meeting room broke out in cold sweats.

The planning director couldn't help but swallow his saliva and whispered, "...Mr. Lu, is this really okay?"

Lu Yu smiled, his eyes deep: "Of course no problem."

"What we want to create is a game that's so mediocre it's infuriating, so that every player can't help but curse after playing for ten minutes."

"And then... when they realize that this is all intentional, then maybe the game will be a success."

【Taoyuan Township Studio, Meeting Room】

The air in the conference room was filled with the aroma of coffee, and the sunlight from outside shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the table, illuminating a group of developers who were planning "the weirdest game in history."

Lu Yu sat in the main seat, holding a cup of black coffee in his hand. His eyes swept over the plans on the conference table, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

"So, our final plan is..."

Zhou Xing lazily leaned back in his chair, a lollipop in his mouth, his eyes a little playful, and he said slowly:

"A game that tries to stop you from playing from the moment you enter the game."

The conference room fell into a brief silence.

Everyone looked at each other, seemingly trying to digest this completely illogical game design idea.

The technical director pushed his glasses up and asked tentatively, "...In other words, once players start the game, the game's first task is to make them give up playing it?"

"That's right!" Zhou Xing snapped his fingers, his tone firm, "The core goal of this game is to make players 'not want to play' as much as possible!"

The art director frowned. "Wait, doesn't this sound... a bit backwards?"

"How are we putting the cart before the horse?" Zhou Xing shrugged, speaking matter-of-factly. "Think about it, the gaming market is so competitive right now, and every game is desperately trying to attract and retain players. But we're doing the opposite, actively 'driving' players away. Isn't that more unique?"

The planning director rubbed his temples and said in a complicated tone, "You mean... we want to make a game with 'anti-user experience'?"

"Right!" Zhou Xing's eyes sparkled with excitement. "We want players to feel like the game is against them every step of the way. Every interface is trying to discourage them, every option is trying to get them to turn off the game, and every UI design is filled with hostility and malice!"

The conference room fell into a brief silence again.

Then--

Lu Yu suddenly patted the table lightly, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a meaningful smile.

"This idea... is fine."

"Since we want to stop players from playing, we have to set up fundamental obstacles." Lu Yu tapped the table lightly, his eyes sharp. "Tell me, what specific plans do you have?" (End of this chapter)