After the college entrance examination, life began to follow one's heart

Chapter 283 Xu Lin's First Money-Making Game: Breaking the Mold

Xu Lin returned home, took a shower, and then went back to his room to prepare for work.

I made an investment of 1.5 million in North America the day before yesterday.

Xu Lin now only has a little over 3.2 million yuan left in his pocket, which is a long time since he has had so little money left.

Investing requires a certain period of time to raise funds. Now that the development trajectory of Potential Company has changed, Xu Lin estimates that it will take at least six months to raise the funds.

However, let's just consider this money as temporarily stored overseas.

Therefore, Xu Lin still needs to think about how to make money through other channels, and specifically, the kind of channel that allows him to earn a large sum of money while lying down.

Xu Lin opened the backend of both software programs to check the latest number of paying users.

Academic Browser: 969532 users.

Download engine: 832569 people.

Right now, with so many people, Xu Lin can earn nearly 23 million a month.

But that's not the limit, because new people are being added every day.

It's early November now, and there's still a little over a month left in the year. In that remaining month, academic browsers might just add another million paying users for Xu Lin.

Xu Lin was quite surprised by the popularity of this software.

Unlike download engines, Xu Lin also had to occasionally use Douyin (TikTok) or create web page ads for promotion.

The academic browser was only promoted once at the beginning by Xu Lin, and then there was no further promotion, but netizens would promote it themselves.

As Xu Lin expected, a significant portion of the users who use the download engine software to download resources are using it to download pornographic content, so Xu Lin cannot promote it on Weibo.

"We need to develop another piece of software that can make money."

Xu Lin began to think about it.

He opened his phone's app store, determined to find some inspiration.

software?

game?

Xu Lin noticed the game.

Without a doubt, games are the most profitable.

However, Xu Lin could not possibly be developing those large-scale games currently on the market.

Operating a game is much more complicated than operating software.

Moreover, even with software, Xu Lin doesn't develop large-scale software. For example, the academic browser only has a small number of users, while other software has millions or tens of millions of users. A company only operates one or two software programs.

He didn't have the means.

So Xu Lin just wanted to make some money through some small tricks. He couldn't think of anything more than that. Things like monthly revenue of hundreds of millions, billions, or even tens of billions were none of his business.

"Games, what kind of games could they be?"

Xu Lin thought about it for a long time. The game market is already saturated, and it is dominated by a few big companies. It is difficult for newcomers to make money.

Moreover, the target audience is also very important.

Games are generally played mostly by young people.

If it's a middle-aged person, they already have to deal with life and family.

correct.

Middle-aged person?
Xu Lin suddenly had an idea.

In this society, middle-aged people are always the richest; they are the backbone of society.

And he must be a middle-aged man.

What about middle-aged women?
Don't you see how many women are at the helm of Fortune 500 companies? Out of 500 people, there are only about 20 women.

Therefore, Xu Lin thought of middle-aged men.

Q: Are there any games that middle-aged men play?
Of course there are.

Games like Legend of Mir, or some war strategy games like Rise of Kingdoms, have countless middle-aged men who spend a fortune on in-game purchases.

Therefore, Xu Lin's game target audience should be middle-aged men.

However, the group of middle-aged men is also very large, and there are many kinds of middle-aged men. There are successful middle-aged men who play with all kinds of beautiful girls every day, and there are many ordinary middle-aged men, and they are very diverse.

Successful middle-aged men are always a minority; ordinary middle-aged men are the vast majority.

Xu Lin's target audience must be the vast majority.

What kind of games should we develop?
Xu Lin felt that he had to find a new path. The game genres were already saturated. He couldn't just create a Three Kingdoms strategy game that middle-aged people liked and then compete with other similar games on the market. To put it bluntly, Chishi wouldn't even get a chance.

Xu Lin thought for a moment.

What are some things related to middle-aged men?
And it must be something that evokes emotions.

Emotions are important; people will only consume when they are emotional.

He pondered for a few minutes, and now his thinking speed was very fast.

A middle-aged man, unemployed, pathetic, divorced, his wife cheating on him, his children looking down on him, his parents old and ailing...

These can all touch upon the most sensitive emotional nerves of middle-aged men.

This describes the state of a middle-aged man; it doesn't apply to everyone, but it does to a significant number of people.

Is this not?

Inspiration struck me instantly.

You are thirty-eight years old this year, still in your prime. Liu Bang only rose to power in his forties or fifties, and became the emperor of the Han Dynasty in his fifties, ruling the world and creating the glorious four-hundred-year history of the Han Dynasty, thus making the Han people a prominent figure in history.

But today, at thirty-eight, you're about to be laid off. Jobs are hard to find these days, and middle-aged people aren't as competitive as younger people. To avoid being laid off, you have no choice but to take a pay cut and stay. You feel incredibly frustrated. You go drinking, not at a bar, but at a smelly roadside barbecue stall. Your reflection is in the cheap drinks; your face is oily, and your belly is bulging. The more you think about it, the more miserable you feel, like you have no will to live. You get drunk and return to your neighborhood, feeling dazed and confused. But then you discover your wife embracing a young man who's even more handsome than you were when you were young.

Actually, you've always suspected your wife of cheating on you, because she's recently started wearing makeup, and now you've finally caught her in the act.

At this moment, you want to rush up and beat the young man up.

Thus, the opportunity for a mid-life comeback has arrived.

Option 1: You've finally caught him red-handed, shouldn't you go and take him down?

Option Two: Those who aspire to great things are not in a hurry. Gather evidence to completely ruin the reputation of this adulterous couple, forcing them to flee to distant lands.

Option 3: You've already been a coward for half your life, what's a little more cowardice? Just pretend you didn't see it.

……

Xu Lin's story is very complex and varied; this is only a part of it. He wanted to portray an extremely unsuccessful middle-aged man to facilitate the logical operation of his story.

This is just the beginning. It's okay if it's a bit tough at the beginning; things will pick up later, and it will definitely give players a blast.

Then someone said, "If the beginning is tragic and full of bitterness and hatred, who would want to continue playing with you? Haven't you suffered enough in real life?"
That's because you're young, not middle-aged. Human thinking patterns change constantly with various factors such as environment and age. For example, when you're young, you may have lofty ambitions, but as a middle-aged person, you're more likely to compromise due to various realistic factors.

Many young people may have seen their parents or even grandparents watching some really silly short dramas, such as "The Son-in-Law Marries In," where a war god son-in-law washes his mother-in-law's feet. He is arrogant and domineering outside, and the top leader of the country calls him the Dragon King of the North. In the end, he gets slapped by his mother-in-law and can't fight back.

Meanwhile, his wife looks down on him, and her best friend looks down on him even more. The protagonist is out there fighting a military organization one day and an assassin organization the next, always acting like the sky is falling. But when he turns to his wife's family and friends, he's nothing. Moreover, he secretly uses his connections to help his wife's career, but she thinks it's all thanks to the villain and gets all lovey-dovey with him. The protagonist can only secretly feel touched by his own feelings.

Some middle-aged and elderly people enjoy watching this kind of content, but young people can't understand their thought process.

Or take Douyin (TikTok) for example. What kind of videos do some middle-aged and elderly housewives watch? Many of them are videos with special effects for middle-aged and elderly people, or for example, there was a blogger called Xiucai (秀才) who they like. On the other hand, there is a blogger who promotes "A Smile That Captivates a City" (一笑倾城).

These are things that young people find difficult to understand.

Think about what this thing actually is?

But big data always has a tailor-made solution for you; everyone lives in their own information cocoon.

The game Xu Lin is like that; it's targeted at a specific group of people.

But Xu Lin wasn't acting recklessly.

All his actions are based on the foundation of personal growth.

Therefore, players cannot say that his values ​​are skewed.

Putting personal growth first—these values ​​couldn't be more righteous.

Q: What is most important to a man?
Wife? Parents and children?
No.

The most important thing is yourself, and then, extend that to your own career and personal growth.

Young people may not understand, but middle-aged people, especially men who have experienced middle age, will definitely understand this principle.

For example, at the age of forty, with elderly parents to support and young children to raise, try to find out if you can't afford to give your children living expenses. Won't they resent you? If you can't earn money, won't your wife find someone else? If she has the means, for example, as long as she's not overweight and is presentable, she will most likely find someone else. There's no such thing as sharing joys and sorrows. Such great affection is very rare throughout history and across the world, and it mostly exists only in various novels, dramas, movies, and other media; it's just a beautiful fantasy of humankind.

Therefore, it is based on the concept of prioritizing personal growth.

And so Xu Lin's game, which was a mix of shit and gold, was born.

In other words, the protagonist of the story will continue to grow and thus achieve a comeback.

It has a storyline, videos, and a very high degree of freedom.

He uses his AI technology to generate people, videos, and all sorts of things.

all of these.

Xu Lin was able to achieve this through his own technology.

The AI-generated characters on the market now are quite impressive, some even quite realistic, but you can still tell they're fake.

Xu Lin's technology allows him to make his characters more realistic, just like a live-action film.

By the way, this story is about a man who failed in both his career and love life, and his midlife comeback. The so-called comeback is just a few things: money, fame, and beautiful women.

Finally, he returns home in glory, embracing a beautiful woman and driving a luxury car, just like Dong Ge.

Furthermore, regarding the phrase "returning home in glory," who has ever escaped it throughout the thousands of years of history?
Returning home in glory must be a major storyline in the future.

After completing the first part of the plot framework, Xu Lin began to think about releasing the game.

Xu Lin can now do four things at once, which makes him much more efficient.

The first part of the story is very simple. There is only one map, which is the neighborhood where the protagonist lives, and then some things happen.

In subsequent maps, Xu Lin will expand them further through the storyline.

Around 3 a.m., he registered as a developer on Steam at his own expense.

Developer: Gongzi Lin.

What is the game's name?
"A Guide to Men's Success"?
Let's call it that.

It tells a story of personal growth; what else would you call it but a guide to overcoming adversity?
Originally, Xu Lin wanted to talk about middle-aged men, but then he thought that many men actually face this dilemma, including younger men.

However, for a game, the name is not important; what matters is whether it is playable.

Xu Lin uploaded the game and priced it at 29.9 yuan.

Don't be fooled by the fact that this only costs the price of a McDonald's breakfast. In fact, Xu Lin will be uploading various DLCs later, including clothing DLC, beauty DLC, luxury car DLC, and so on.

Some games on Steam may seem cheap, but a complete set could actually cost at least a thousand dollars.

Furthermore, Xu Lin will also set up a game store, just like in free-to-play games, where players can recharge and buy items.

These are special props. For example, the "Show Your Power in Public" prop is actually a kind of aura prop that can make you more aura in some important occasions and give the protagonist a mysterious boss feel. It costs 10 yuan per use.

Finally, and most importantly.

Xu Lin also incorporated a self-thinking model formula.

With these formulas, the characters in the videos generated by Xu Lin can simulate human thinking. Note that it is simulating human thinking, not actually engaging in human thought processes.

However, this is also terrible.

Xu Lin used five formulas to develop a new game.

Going back to the beginning, because these characters can simulate human thinking, each person's interaction with each character they encounter while exploring the game may be different. Just like when you go out today and go to a restaurant downstairs, the conversations you have with the owner or waiters will be different each time, and the interactions will also be different.

These are all generated through Xu Lin's formula, which is unique to Xu Lin and not found in any other game in the world.

You could even say that the game is essentially a parallel world that's half real and half fake.

At 4:00 AM sharp, Xu Lin uploaded the game on time. Uploading a game to Steam requires approval, which usually takes three to five days.

Xu Lin was much more straightforward; he bypassed these review policies and hacked into the backend to upload his own content.

After uploading, you still need to promote it; otherwise, how will others know about your game?

So Xu Lin went to Douyin (TikTok).

Xu Lin created a video advertisement for promotion this time.

Title: In middle age, do you want to fight back against your failed life? Do you want to turn your life around?
Xu Lin wasn't acting recklessly.

His target users are middle-aged men.

And middle-aged men, that is a very large group.

However, Xu Lin will screen candidates.

The Douyin search function is very useful; you can find almost anything you want to search for, such as: how to review for the CET-4 and CET-6 exams, how to study for IELTS, what are some good restaurants or fun places to visit in Jiangdu, how to use a pair of dumbbells to work your whole body, and so on.

Middle-aged men also have their own problems: what to do about high uric acid, erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, aging parents, and suspicions of infidelity...

Xu Lin's target users are men who search for questions like "What should I do if my wife cheats on me?"

As long as these types of men search for these questions, big data will continuously push similar videos to them, and at that point, a large number of middle-aged men will empathize with them.

In short.

This is the power, even the terrifying aspect, of big data.

It can accurately confine everyone into their own information cocoon.

Xu Lin could take advantage of this and push advertisements specifically to them.

Xu Lin's advertisement was also very simple; it was a short video that featured the game content and an AI-generated, incredibly realistic-looking woman. In short, it was a brief introduction to the game.

A core question: What should I do if I'm middle-aged, my work isn't going well, my wife is cheating on me, and I feel like I've failed in life?
Not everyone will click on it, let alone buy the game on Steam.

but.

If three to five out of a hundred people buy it, that would be quite amazing.

How large is the middle-aged men group in China?

If we assume that the current unemployment rate is 35, and we start counting from 36 to 50, spanning 15 years, the number of middle-aged men would exceed 300 million.

With the internet so readily available, this group of people are mostly online, and Douyin (TikTok) has the largest user base, attracting a significant portion of them.

Xu Lin conservatively estimates that there are at least 150 million people involved.

Then, as people reach middle age, at least half of them face various marital difficulties. Some, though still married, are actually living separate lives or sleeping in separate rooms. There's a saying: "A kiss between middle-aged couples can give them nightmares for several nights in a row."

"Let's set a small goal, I'm not greedy, just give me a million players for this game!"

A game costs 29.9 yuan, and the game store also adds some items from time to time, plus DLCs are released every now and then, so the income is quite considerable.

If all goes well, it's not impossible for Xu Lin to earn 1 billion yuan.

As for what happens after a billion, Xu Lin stopped thinking that far ahead.

First of all, he is not greedy.

Around 4 a.m., Xu Lin started working on the streaming.

At this hour, many people are still asleep, so Xu Lin isn't in a hurry.

He went to sleep too.

And Xu Lin's game began to gain traction while he was sleeping. And it gained traction very quickly.

Because the game offers a high degree of freedom, for example, the characters are just like the plots filmed for you in real life, each character is so realistic.

What is the beginning of the game like?

When creating a character, in addition to the ten ordinary middle-aged men initially set by Xu Lin, players can also take a full-body photo of themselves and upload it. Later in the game, your character will be the one you portray. It's up to you whether you dare to do it.

However, even if the image is of yourself, it won't always be the player's real-life appearance, because as the story progresses, the protagonist needs to work out, groom themselves, get their hair permed, get a makeover, and so on. You can create the most perfect version of yourself.

Taking care of oneself is also a part of personal growth, and it is very important because the so-called "comeback" cannot be just about making money. It must be comprehensive, especially fitness and maintaining a good physique. When you go out, people will respect you more for your appearance than your appearance.

It should be noted that men in middle age, or those who have gotten married, generally become unkempt and most have a poor appearance.

This game is meant to tell them, bro, no matter what, you have to take care of yourself.

why?
This is because it involves the reproductive value of men.

The core element of the game is to allow players to control their own characters, make their characters grow continuously, and acquire a good appearance and sufficient economic conditions, which are reproductive value and survival value. There are two core aspects, and this is called a comeback.

In the first scene of the story, you get fired, go to a roadside stall to drink, drink cheap beer, get drunk, and after you're done, you open WeChat and find that no one cares about you. All you get are your children asking about living expenses. Where is your wife? Wasn't she supposed to be your bedmate? There wasn't a single message from her. When you get home, you find out that your wife is cheating on you.

The plot will be extremely depressing.

At this point, three options appear.

They represent three different situations:

First, an immediate counterattack, which means a full-blown fight, is to target the adulterer; tonight, we must beat him to a pulp.

Second, they lay low and gathered evidence to completely ruin the reputations of the adulterous couple.

Third, pretend you didn't see it and continue being your spineless coward.

At this point, the options start to get interesting.

For players, this game gave them a shocking sense of déjà vu from the very beginning.

How come the characters in this game are so realistic? It's like they all exist in real life.

Are you sure this isn't filming a movie?
Are you sure this isn't a movie/game?

But this is only the first part of the game, because later, as the protagonist leaves the neighborhood, Xu Lin will introduce various real-life beauties who don't exist in reality, allowing players to win them over while improving themselves and becoming stronger.

Can a man's rise to power be possible without a woman? And will there only be one woman?

Obviously not.

It started around 4 a.m.

Night owl players were so engrossed and amazed that they played until dawn. Some started taking screenshots or recording videos to post on TikTok, and then other players followed suit.

It wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't posted it, but then the players noticed that my content was different from theirs.
For example, this game allows you to edit your protagonist's dialogue.

For example, if you see your wife cheating at the beginning and choose to confront her directly and expose her on the spot, your character needs to speak, and the speech is edited by yourself, such as: "Why did you do this to me?", "XXX, I'll fuck your mother", etc.

And so on.

Moreover, your wife and your lover will react differently depending on what you say.

This level of freedom is simply unmatched.

In addition, you can even pick up a weapon and hit someone, but you can't kill them.

A warning will appear if someone commits murder.

This action will result in your game being lost, and your character will be subject to severe legal penalties.

Therefore, one must not kill.

However, in the first option, you can choose to expose the adulterer on the spot and beat him up, which means you can beat him up but not kill him.

If it's murder, then that's a huge problem. This is a real person, not a 3D model.

And what about the wife at this time?
Don't forget, Xu Lin's character can simulate real human thinking. At this point, his wife will kneel down and beg for forgiveness, tears streaming down her face. You should know that the player is a middle-aged man, and a large part of the players here are traditional men whose thinking has not been awakened. So next, the protagonist will choose to forgive according to the player's will. For the sake of the children, for the sake of reputation, in short, for all sorts of things, he chooses to endure.

At the same time, because the characters will simulate real thinking, the wife will not necessarily kneel down and beg for forgiveness. For example, if the player sets up a dialogue saying, "Why did you betray me?", the player can also set the expression and tone of voice when saying this. After setting these things, the wife character will react differently according to your expression and tone.

Furthermore, because of the role of the wife, she will simulate the thinking of a real person, and thus, she will also simulate a personality. So the question is, will the wife always beg for forgiveness? Not necessarily. She might also directly and simply say, "Since you've found out, let's get a divorce."

In Xu Lin's game design, he created a variety of female characters with different personalities. The wife a player encounters from the moment they enter the game will have a different personality than the wives encountered by other players. Consequently, their behavior patterns and thought processes will also be different, making each character unique.

In short, depending on how players play, it can generate many different possibilities.

Because the characters in this game are based on the idea that they can simulate the thinking of real people, every player who starts the game will have a roughly the same overall storyline, which is to help a middle-aged man get out of his predicament, rebuild his life, and make himself stronger and stronger through repeated comebacks.

However, in reality, the development, or the micro-level, is very random and follows the logic of real people's human nature. To put it more bluntly, it's like you've traveled to a parallel world and can't distinguish between the game and reality.

Therefore, Xu Lin's game is destined to break into the mainstream.

It won't be just something Xu Lin imagined, something only middle-aged men would play; rather, any gamer could potentially play it.

With its incredibly high degree of freedom and hyper-realistic characters, this game has far exceeded players' expectations.

Therefore, it is no longer just a simple game; it is a unique existence in the world today.

As the first practical application of an artificial intelligence self-thinking model, Xu Lin's five formulas were still too ahead of their time.

So, by noon the next day, the game had become a hot topic in the gaming community, waiting to continue its explosive growth in the internet age.

However, Xu Lin has not paid attention to it yet.

When he woke up in the morning, he could vaguely hear the sound of cooking downstairs.

As Xu Lin got up and opened the door, he smelled the aroma of vegetables, especially pickled cowpeas.

And it should be stir-fried with beef.

"Senior?"

"Oh? Honey, I just arrived."

Ning Yuhan's voice came from downstairs.

(End of this chapter)