Becoming the richest man by playing games that help cure depression

Just then, with a "ding," the game was downloaded. Zhao Qiang grinned at his girlfriend, his confidence practically overflowing: "Watch closely, see how easily your husband beats the game."

When the game screen opens, a silly little person sits in a jar, lands on a flat rock, and is next to the big tree that has stumped countless streamers.

Zhao Qiang shook the mouse a couple of times to get used to it, then moved straight towards the tree. It has to be said, his gaming talent was truly impressive; he reached the tree in no time.

He had specifically researched this place beforehand, and proudly pointed to the big tree at his girlfriend: "This lousy spot is where so many people get it wrong, watch carefully!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he slammed the hammer into the ground with a loud thud. The little figure in the jar was propelled up to the second branch by the recoil.

"Wow, my husband is so amazing!" The girlfriend's eyes lit up, her face full of admiration.

Zhao Qiang was so pleased with himself that his tail was practically wagging in the air. He thought to himself, "That's it? What's so difficult about it?"

He couldn't resist smugly saying, "See? I told you those streamers weren't doing it on purpose, they just really don't know how to play."

As he spoke, he jabbed the hammer into the tree branch again, trying to repeat his previous trick. But after a loud thud, thud! Clang! The little man crashed directly into the tree branch and bounced back to the starting point.

Zhao Qiang's smile froze instantly. There was a two-second silence before he scratched his head, trying to smooth things over: "Hey, just a small mistake, let's do it again!"

One more time, and Zhao Qiang finally managed to sit on the second-level tree branch again, shouting, "Let's go!"

—Thump! The silly little man sat back down steadily on the ground.

His girlfriend's lips twitched, but she didn't dare to say anything. Zhao Qiang tried several times, his expression gradually becoming serious.

The problem was finally figured out: the branches were too short, so no matter what angle you jumped from, you would hit the treetop.

"Oh, I get it, I get it!" He slapped his thigh and changed his approach. "If we can't jump over it, we'll hook over it!"

As he spoke, he shook the mouse, and the little man in the tank shook the hammer in response.

"This game is super simple. Look, first do this with the hammer, then do this, and you're done with a single swing."

Zhao Qiang gestured as he spoke to his girlfriend, who nodded in agreement.

"Watch closely!" Zhao Qiang said confidently. "First like this! Then like this! And then flick it!"

Thump! Clang!

The two men stared at each other, the air thick with tension once more. Zhao Qiang took a deep breath, his composure crumbling; the way that hammer was being used was far too bizarre!

He suddenly realized he had been a bit too arrogant; the game was not as simple as he had imagined.

But my girlfriend is watching. She was just bragging and patting her chest. If I back down now, where will I put my face? No way, I have to go today, no matter what!

Once, twice, three times... ten times, twenty times, thirty times...

"First like this, then like this, and then—hmm?"

"Honey, don't rush, take your time."

"First like this, then like this! And then—hiss!"

"Honey, how about we stop playing?"

"First like this! Then like this! And then—"

"Honey, let it go, really let it go..."

"Grass--!!!"

"Aaaaaaah!"

When the little figure in the jar fell back to the starting point for the 120th time, Zhao Qiang completely broke down.

He smashed the keyboard in half, his eyes bloodshot, and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Who the hell made this game! I'm going to chop them up!"

"Honey! Calm down!" His girlfriend quickly pulled him back.

In fact, it's not just Zhao Qiang; countless players are experiencing the same breakdown, wishing they could drag the game's creator out of the screen and give him a good beating.

On the other side, Li Zhujian's system resentment value filled up amidst a chorus of curses, directly boosting his abilities!

After the upgrade, Li Zhujian scratched his head, a little confused: "Make music? How do you do this?!"

He had some doubts; a good game truly needs to be good in every aspect—graphics, gameplay, story, and...

Playability is essential, but music, frankly speaking, is just the icing on the cake.

Good background music can be a pleasant surprise, but if the game itself is bad, even the best music can't save it.

For someone like him who desperately needs to improve his core game abilities, this upgrade is practically useless.

Li Zhujian squatted on the ground, resting his chin on his hand and muttering, "How can we use music to its fullest potential? No, we need to do something truly extraordinary!"

Meanwhile, in the conference room at Mingye Games' headquarters, the atmosphere was so tense it was almost palpable.

Xiang Dahai, the game's planning director, slammed his fist on the table, his face grim and intimidating. The team members below all lowered their heads, not daring to breathe.

"Speak up!" Xiang Dahai slammed his hand on the table again, making the cups rattle. "You were all talking big when we were playing games, and now you're all mute?!"

After hesitating for a long time, a young man wearing glasses and with hair curled like ramen noodles finally raised his hand timidly:

"President Xiang... Nobody expected that such a game would become our competitor."

Just thinking about that silly little guy sitting in the vat, looking like he's mocking the entire gaming community, makes my scalp tingle.

A week ago, their department spent over 800,000 yuan developing a pixel-style action game, which unfortunately ran into that little game where you swing a giant hammer.

At the time, nobody took the "collision" seriously—Mingye Games was a professional team, with planners, artists, and writers all in place.

The competing products should be from game companies of the same level. It's not like an unknown independent developer should be making a silly little game that can only be controlled with a mouse!

Curly hair couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried, how could that silly game where you swing a sledgehammer and go up against gravity be considered an action game?

Xiang Dahai couldn't understand it even more. How could this lousy game completely crush their sales and even take the top spot on the weekly sales chart for action games on the Zhiyou platform?

"Your entire performance bonus is deducted this month! Your salary is halved!" Xiang Dahai gritted his teeth in anger. "Go back and reflect on why we were robbed of our chance by this stupid game!"

Also, quickly find out who the game's producer is!

The conference room was filled with hesitant, submissive responses. Xiang Dahai paused for a long while before letting out a harsh sigh: "This failure is a lesson, remember it well!"

Right now, the sledgehammer is at the top of the sales charts, and we can't climb up there anytime soon, so the company has temporarily adjusted its plans.

We need to quickly develop a different type of game to recoup our losses. What are your ideas?

Upon hearing this, the tense atmosphere in the meeting room finally dissipated a bit, and several team members' eyes lit up—they had expected this.

Seeing the unstoppable sales of the sledgehammer, they knew they were doomed to lose this battle.

A large company was completely crushed by an independent developer with a game that was simple in graphics and had brain-dead gameplay.

The company couldn't just let it go like that, so they held a meeting overnight to figure out what type of game to use to save face.

Curly quickly stood up and projected the charts he had prepared in advance onto the screen: "We checked the current market share of games..."

Action games are dominated by sledgehammer-wielding companies, leaving us no room to compete; shooting games are controlled by top-tier developers, giving us no chance.

RPG games involve too much work on storylines and character modeling, resulting in slow progress and making them less than ideal.