I was in my final year of high school, and my deskmate found out I was writing a novel!

That night, he sent Xinghuo Interactive Entertainment's proposal to the team, along with his own analysis.

"Their promotional resources, such as the student section of the app store, are very useful, but the 'season pass' they asked us to add needs to be re-evaluated."

For example, the battle pass should only include skins and avatars, not items that affect the game's balance. We'll have an online meeting tomorrow to vote on whether to discuss the next steps with them.

Miaomiao sat next to him, helping him organize the player feedback documents, and suddenly said:

"Ye Feng, don't you think making games is similar to writing novels? You have to grasp the core 'soul' first, and you can't lose sight of the essence for the sake of traffic."

Ye Feng turned to look at her; the light from the lamp fell softly on her face. He smiled and nodded.

"Yes, whether it's 'Ring of Destiny' or 'Elemental Corridor,' the core elements cannot be lost. For example, the soul of 'Elemental Corridor' is 'fun and fair.' If you lose that, no matter how many people promote it, it won't make a difference."

He picked up his phone and looked at the message from Zhou Ming about the "dilemma of the second-hand digital business," and began to ponder it again.

Perhaps Zhou Ming's dilemma can be combined with his own ideas for the future? After all, the needs of college students are never singular.

On the third day after the initial test data was released, Ye Feng's WeChat was flooded with friend requests from strangers.

The first to pass the verification was Li Zhe, the business manager from "Spark Publishing". He immediately sent a PDF proposal with the title in bold: "Exclusive Publishing Cooperation Proposal for 'Elemental Corridor: Bullet of Destiny'".

Ye Feng sat in his study, his fingers swiping across the cooperation terms on the screen.

Spark is willing to provide a promotional budget of 50 yuan, covering university KOLs and the gaming community GG, and has also promised to connect with TapTap homepage recommendation slots.

However, they demanded exclusive publishing rights for the game, with a revenue split of "65% for the team and 35% for the publisher," and proposed adding monetization features such as "season pass" and "skin gacha" to the game.

He forwarded the plan to the team group, and Chen Guowei quickly replied:

"50 for promotion is a lot, but isn't a 35% commission too high? And won't adding gacha mechanics conflict with our 'low-spending, high-replayability' positioning?"

Zhang Ming also agreed: "During the trial, some players said they hated the pressure to spend money. If gacha mechanics are added, the rating will definitely drop."

Ye Feng didn't reply immediately, but instead arranged to meet Li Zhe at a coffee shop.

The other person was dressed in a suit and tie, and handed over his business card as soon as he sat down.

"Mr. Ye, the first test data for our game is outstanding, especially the 75% retention rate on the second day, which is higher than many products from major companies."

"As long as you cooperate with us in making commercial adjustments, exceeding ten million in revenue within six months is not a problem."

"But what players prefer is a stress-free gameplay experience."

Ye Feng pushed over the printed player comments, which were full of messages like "Don't add pay-to-win elements" and "Keep it pure."

"If we change the gameplay just to increase revenue, we will lose our core users."

Li Zhe frowned and then proposed a compromise.

"Then at least add an 'Appearance Shop' to sell skins that don't affect the game's balance, right? We can find artists to create custom skins, so you don't have to pay for them."

Ye Feng shook his head.

"It's not the right time yet. The first test just ended, and we need to optimize bugs and add new content first. We can talk about monetization when players are more accepting of it."

The negotiations ultimately failed, and Li Zhe was still trying to persuade Li Zhe before he left.

"Mr. Ye, your small team is short of resources. If you miss out on us, you may not have such a good opportunity next time."

Ye Feng simply smiled, but he knew perfectly well what was going on.

He's less concerned with short-term revenue and more interested in preserving the game's original essence.

Two days later, a second publisher, Aurora Interactive Entertainment, also approached them.

This company focuses on independent game publishing and has a more moderate attitude than Spark, only requiring "non-exclusive publishing rights" with a revenue split of "70% for the team and 30% for the publisher".

We do not mandate changes to the gameplay; we only suggest adding a "voluntary donation" button and a "merchandise redemption code" function.

During a team meeting, Li Hao did some calculations.

"Aurora offers a more reasonable revenue share and doesn't interfere with gameplay. If we cooperate with them, we can save a lot of promotional effort and focus on modifying the game."

Chen Guowei hesitated.

"But their promotional resources are not as good as Xinghuo's, and their coverage of university channels is limited. Our core users are still students, so we are worried that the promotional effect will not be able to keep up."

Ye Feng looked at the proposals from the two publishers on the screen and tapped his fingers on the edge of the table.

"Don't rush to sign. Let's fix the bugs reported in the first test and create the new boss, 'Thunderstorm Lord.' Once we have the new version, we can discuss the details of promotional resources with them. For example, we can require them to cover the gaming communities of 10 universities in the Yangtze River Delta region, which would align with our target user group."

Just as he was arguing with the publisher, Zhou Ming called again. This time, he brought a stack of design sketches to Ye Feng's study.

"Brother Feng, look at the sketches I drew for the merchandise!"

Zhou Ming spread the sketches on the table. There were power banks shaped like elemental bullets (red shells for fire elements and blue transparent shells for ice elements), keyboard stickers with pixelated images of game protagonists, and computer cleaning kits with the "Elemental Corridor" logo.

"I've spoken with the factory, and the cost of these merchandise items isn't high. We'll price them within a range that students can afford, like 69 yuan for a power bank and 9.9 yuan for stickers. They're sure to sell well!"

Ye Feng picked up the sketch of the power bank and traced his finger across the shape of the "fire element bullet".

"This design is good, but we need to add a small detail—print the element combination formulas from the game on the side of the power bank, such as 'fire + water = steam,' to make it more recognizable." Zhou Ming's eyes lit up.

"Yeah! How come I didn't think of that! We could also print the game's open beta redemption code on the back of the stickers, and give away a gift pack with the purchase of merchandise. Students would definitely be willing to buy it!"

The two talked more and more deeply, and Zhou Ming even mentioned the difficulties faced by digital companies.

"Recently, there has been a decrease in the recycling of used mobile phones. Students want to wait for the new model, but they are reluctant to spend money to buy it. Many people ask if they can 'use the old one first and then change it when they have more money'."

Ye Feng's heart stirred, recalling the "digital rental" idea he had been pondering before, and he casually mentioned it.

"What if we created a 'digital subscription' service where students could rent headphones and tablets for a few dozen yuan a month, and then return or buy them back when the subscription expired? What do you think?"

Zhou Ming was stunned for a moment, then slapped his thigh.

"That's a great idea! For example, renting an entry-level pair of headphones for 30 yuan a month is much cheaper than buying new ones! But we need to solve the issues of equipment maintenance and deposits, otherwise the risk is too great." Ye Feng nodded: "We can cooperate with Sesame Credit, allowing those with high credit scores to waive the deposit, and then charge a small insurance fee to cover maintenance costs."