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This Online Game Developer is Definitely Problematic
Type
Web Novel (CN)
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Rating(4.0 / 5.0, 106 votes)
5    54% (57 votes)
4    11% (12 votes)
3    18% (19 votes)
2    11% (12 votes)
1    6% (6 votes)
Language
Support Book (#ad)
Author(s)
One entry per line
Artist(s)
One entry per line
N/A
Year
Example: 2012
2022
Status in COO
Status in Country of Origin. One entry per line
690 Chapter, 3 Extra (Completed)
Licensed
N/A
Completely Translated
No
Original Publisher
One entry per line
English Publisher
One entry per line
N/A
Release Frequency
Every 10.9 Day(s)
Activity Stats
[Graph]
Weekly Rank: #12036
Monthly Rank: #11355
All Time Rank: #1581
Reading List
[Graph]
On 1225 Reading Lists
Monthly Rank: #18430
All Time Rank: #8387

Description

Links are NOT allowed. Format your description nicely so people can easily read them. Please use proper spacing and paragraphs.

A turn-based online game that hadn’t been updated for half a year, had a development budget seven times that of its competitors, yet only made a tenth of their revenue—a total failure. A game that everyone had already abandoned, right at the brink of being shut down… suddenly released a new version.

Lead designer Lin Yao.

From that moment, she became a legend.

—”The wildest ideas, the boldest moves, a complete game-changer. We never understand what she’s doing, but she always ends up making more money than us…”

Associated Names
One entry per line
这个网游策划果然有问题
Related Series
N/A
Recommendations
Became A Space Alien (3)
Starting as a Manga Editor (2)
The Ninth Lady is Rebellious and Arrogant Person (2)
Which Family’s Young Miss is So Arrogant? (2)
Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock (1)
The Game Director That Returned from Hell (1)
Recommendation Lists
  1. Game Library
  2. Baihe novels with blurbs
  3. Game Developer
  4. Showbiz/Business Girlboss
  5. updating Baihe I'm drooling over

Latest Release

Date Group Release
11/30/25 BOTI Translation c579
11/30/25 BOTI Translation c578
11/29/25 BOTI Translation c577
11/29/25 BOTI Translation c576
11/28/25 BOTI Translation c575
11/28/25 BOTI Translation c574
11/27/25 BOTI Translation c573
11/27/25 BOTI Translation c572
11/26/25 BOTI Translation c571
11/26/25 BOTI Translation c570
11/25/25 BOTI Translation c569
11/25/25 BOTI Translation c568
11/24/25 BOTI Translation c567
11/24/25 BOTI Translation c566
11/23/25 BOTI Translation c565
123456…37
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14 Reviews sorted by


ikstarven
ikstarven rated it
June 7, 2025
Status: c500
As with all these long novels, the initial chapters are very nice, but it does kind of bore you out because... Literally the whole premise is completely plagiarising games down to a single mesh and how the whole world is amazed at this, not only games, anything that was remotely popular gets copied... software, hardware, art, music I'm very annoyed and cringing hard when "We will rock you", yknow, the football music is put on every single event by the protagonist's company and almost the whole chorus gets written in... more>> chapters, you dont have to wonder what song is the author's favorite, even literature is completely carbon copied. It's that typical face-slap cultivation novel where every single time people underestimate the protagonist and laugh at them and every single time they are silenced by how protagonist was right all along and how they are enlightened, only to turn around and repeat this whole thing again after 5 chapters. It's also not explained how the protagonist can remember and write down dozens, if not hundreds of games in great detail, to plagiarize them. Although in this one the protagonist actually tries to make somewhat unique games, mix-matching different games together, while the newer work by the same author (Manga editor) just throws it out the window and literally copies everything with the all-mighty brain that remembers everything with photographic memory

Spoiler

Later on there is a system that helps the protagonist make games by finishing up 30% of work after the protagonist does 70%, which is pointless tbh.

[collapse]

Also... there are way too many descriptions of characters' bodies and figures. Like one paragraph there will be extensive details and statistics of a game production, and then for no reason there will be a sentence describing the protagonist's shapely and rounded figure.... why? Sometimes a whole chapter is dedicated to this... and the descriptions, as unneeded as they are, never change, like the author REALLY wants the readers to know about the body shape of characters by constantly repeating the same sentence dozens of times, and the Manga Editor novel is also guilty of this

Spoiler

The last straw for me was when the protagonist makes 1 game, but splits it into 2 identical games with just different visuals for characters, players from both games can play with each other, and the owner of 1 game can literally replace character visuals to the one of the second game, and if you buy both games you only have to pay for one, and LITERALLY NO REASONING FOR IT IS EVER WRITTEN BY THE AUTHOR.... once again, why?

[collapse]

Spoiler

Also that review about making a game that flopped is false, it just had a slow start and then immediately became sky-high worldwide innovative game that everyone glazes after literally 1 chapter

[collapse]
<<less
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rakedrawgen
rakedrawgen rated it
October 10, 2025
Status: c486
This story started off fine for the most part and then veered into the worst parts of the genre as it dragged on. That is, the introductory arc of this story is Lin Yao using her previous life's knowledge to implement business tactics and game events to revitalize a dying MMO, Fantasy OL. This part is interesting as it reminds me of typical isekai problem solving: Lloyd from The Greatest Estate Developer solves some fantasy world issue through civil engineering, a maid solves the duke's accounting issues using double bookkeeping,... more>> etc. It felt less like "I will plagiarize video games willy-nilly to be successful" and more like "I know that these tactics will attract players" during this Fantasy OL arc. There's a purposeful decision-making outside of just outright plagiarism. As they begin developing their own video games however, any hint of originality is discarded as the protagonist simply plagiarizes past works verbatim. Instead of responding to issues like in the Fantasy OL arc, it's Lin Yao thinking to herself, "What video game should I copy next to be successful?" Perhaps this is my fault for reading this video game developer transmigration story in which this plagiarism is the norm, but I think at one point Lin Yao copies 10+ video games in one go, and I find myself asking "What am I reading at this point?"

What I find particularly repulsive about the above plagiarism is that the antagonists of this story are typically portrayed as shameless copycats who follow the hype wave brought on by Lin Yao's games. Meanwhile, there's this glazing of Lin Yao and her creativity despite her work later on being exact replicas of games with strong narratives like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I cannot help but find this intensely hypocritical and disgusting, especially when such narratives are recounted within the story itself. To add onto this, every single one of Lin Yao's video game releases is successful so the main problem of Lin Yao later on is that she's too successful and is spreading herself thin over multiple projects. Woe is me.

The system in this novel very rarely appears, but when it does, it's very powerful and functions like a deus ex machina in how its rewards explain away parts of the plot. Depending on your point of view, this can be seen as the worst type of system. I think the most laughable part about this system is how it enables Lin Yao to plagiarize further when
Spoiler

the system rewards her with an autocomplete function for video game design documents if she finishes 70% of it. This reward really only exists to explain away how Lin Yao can perfectly replicate games with detailed parameter balance like League of Legends. But the punchline to me is that this function doesn't work for original games, so the system itself is rewarding her for this mindless plagiarism.

[collapse]

Focusing on the positives of this story for a bit, I do like how there's more of a business management feel to this story. I don't like how the solutions to issues later on is just "copy X game from previous life for loads of money", but I think this is a more interesting aspect to read. And once outside of the first few chapters which are miserable, the writing style is fairly simple and easy to read. I also think the way the story handles side characters to be good in how they leave an impression despite being potential one-off characters. Supporting characters like Zhong Xiu and Zhu Nianqiao work well in my opinion, even if they aren't particularly deep.

Paradoxically, I find the character writing for the main characters to be very bland and dry especially with regards to the yuri aspects. It's easy for the story to have Lin Yao yap about business decisions on end, and while these can be interesting, it also makes her personality somewhat dull. Lin Yao doesn't really have a goal outside of the money grind, nominally to protect her friends and family, and I find that unsatisfying. She feels more like a copier machine rather than a character that I care about at times. So the flip side to all of this is the yuri in this novel, where Lin Yao is playful with Mu Wanqing. The yuri scenes in this story are disconnected from the narrative and feel disjointed as a result. I think the intent is that these scenes act as a reprieve for when the video game stuff gets too heavy, but it makes Mu Wanqing shallow and uninteresting. That is, the way this author writes yuri leans more into archetypes and objectification; Mu Wanqing is described so often as the office lady with black stockings and glasses, that she's more of a body with clothes as opposed to an actual character. The yuri scenes overall in this are repetitive and based more on physicality such as pinching waists and asking if they lost weight and discussing body fat and wearing skirts and wearing stockings and wearing jeans and yada yada. Maybe someone else can find this cute, but I found it tired over time and found myself later on skimming through these sections.

So I give this story 2 stars: I think it does some things right especially in the earlier arcs, but it feels tired and creatively bankrupt as the story drags on. It's a little weird to me because I think the author has some level of cognizance about flaws I mentioned, as I think I see attempts to make the story more interesting, but these attempts feel halfhearted and overshadowed by the present issues. This is my opinion about two-thirds into the novel as that's as far as the translation goes at the moment, but I don't imagine this getting significantly better. <<less
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Graestra
Graestra rated it
June 24, 2025
Status: c280
Quite good. I have some nitpicks, but my only real criticism is of the translation. It reads well, but it’s inconsistent as though there’s two translators with no collaboration or proofreader or editor.

The formatting will change every few chapters. Sometimes there’s no spacing between line breaks, other times there is. Names also change back and forth repeatedly every so often.

A game company called ImagiNation will suddenly be called Dream Nation, and then maybe a chapter or two later swap back. Same with a game engine being called Blue Star Engine... more>> and then Bluecore Engine. And again with a game called Breakthrough and then Breakout. Same with a project called the Year Highlights Project and then the Yearbook Plan.

This swapping back and forth of names and terms every few chapters continues all the way up to the most recent publicly available chapter. It’s not too difficult to ignore since it at least doesn’t happen with character names or most of the other groups and games, but it’s still noticeable and for a group that seemingly charges money for advance chapters I would have expected more effort put into the reader experience.

It really shouldn’t be difficult to make a document of common names and terms used in the story to use as reference and to have someone proofread the chapters to make sure it’s consistent. <<less
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Kittybob
Kittybob rated it
March 28, 2025
Status: c120
A competently written game development story, with a more plausible progression than some of the other ones. The main plot is essentially the MC accelerating the growth of the gaming industry by achieving new milestones through developing her own games and software. Although I have some nitpicks I'd definitely recommend this if you enjoy that kind of story. The main character is fun and compelling, and works hard to achieve her goals. Some of the interpersonal relationships really help humanize the characters, which is great.

The first arc is centered on... more>> a turn-based mmorpg in the style of 2000s era giants like Ultima online, but my unfamiliarity with that genre and specifically the Chinese mmos being referenced made it more interesting to me personally. I'm glad it's not just immediately aping every popular game in the market, and focuses on gradually growing towards bigger goals.

For worldbuilding, the concept of a world with an archaic 2000s era entertainment industry and infrastructure but the hardware to match 2020s standards is honestly a pretty unique backdrop, and the more I thought about it the more I appreciated the strangeness of it. The fact it is distinctly 'not earth' helps separate it from some of the other game development stories.

There's some elements of slow romance and some face-slapping as usual, and generally I think all the characters are pretty fun, if a little one-note aside from the main leads. Speaking of, Lin Yao and Mu Wanqing are really cute together, and their moments are a nice reprieve from the game dev bits, but avoid overshadowing the main plot.

There is one quirk of the writing that's a little annoying- they'll constantly cut sentences using "--", and it makes the flow of the writing a little staggered, if that makes sense? It's minor enough to ignore and could be a translation thing, but it's still notable. (It's definitely a translation thing).

Anyways, I've thoroughly enjoyed these first hundred chapters, so I'd definitely recommend checking it out! <<less
7 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
breeziiily
breeziiily rated it
May 17, 2025
Status: c690
As a whole, this game serves as a Love Letter to Games and Gaming (If you know, please forgive the pun). It's not perfect, some of the developments are rushed, while others are inconsistent, or don't fully make sense, but honestly, what is? It doesn't diminish the excitement of one of your favorite games being listed onto the list, and the descriptions of people finding out and enjoying what made it so special. Throughout the entire story, it maintains the energy of an author and protagonist who loves games, and... more>> conveys that to her staff. If you've ever wanted to imagine what your favorites could look like without corporate and monetization hanging over your head, then I'd recommend giving this a read.

9/10, not perfect writing, but very much so worth the read for someone who's passionate about games and gaming culture rather than seeing it as a financial cheat code. <<less
6 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
AsianessPride
AsianessPride rated it
May 7, 2025
Status: --
Ooooh this is getting translated! 5/5 from me, gotta love how she builds on what she has and remains a gamer through and through.

slight yuri vibes which I’m totally here for. She’s always ahead of the game
4 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Sky3Fall
Sky3Fall
April 17, 2025
Status: c143
5/5 for me. My favorite thing about this story is that while it references popular games from our world, the MC doesn't just copy and paste. She actually does, ya know, game development, in accordance with what she thinks that world would find fun. I know nothing about game development so I don't know if the process described in this story is realistic, but just having scenes where the characters actually discuss the development process with some even doubting the MC elevates the story by a ton.

Edit 1, Chapter 172: Spoilers Ahead
Spoiler

Holy crap the MC actually made a game that flopped because she misread the market! I legitimately never thought something like this would happen! Kudos to the author for not just letting the MC roll over the entire world.

[collapse]
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Skysabeast
Skysabeast rated it
July 19, 2025
Status: c330
I honestly really quite enjoy novels like this; these types of novels don't have that kind of one track story and can be branched off quite easily, with the story not being too serious. This novel is the relaxing sort of novel to read after going through a bunch of serious or over dramatized novels.

The novel is basically about someone from our world transmigrating into another world where the tech is at the same level but the world was more focused on war and had only recently stepped into the... more>> games industry, this gives the story the start of the main character plagiarising games from our world. Right, I know that sounds bad BUT this story does it well and give good reason for the MC and it doesn't feel bad either; the reason the MC started plagiarising other games was because she was truly bored out of her mind when she wasn't working and since this world didn't have games she decided to get into it herself, and she also wanted to feel connected to her old world because of homesickness and nostalgia. The other point is that it truly doesn't feel bad to read about the MC copying work because rather than copying the work she is more showing to this new world these popular games from our world and getting their reactions and making peoples lives better.

I've seen a few people complaining about the repetitiveness of the story and I am only halfway through simply because I would rather wait for the official translation to come out but so far I haven't felt bored a single time and I truly enjoy the parts which show the populations reactions to the games.

I also want to mention the girls love romance (which is the only reason why I started reading this in the first place, , , I only rly enjoy GL _O_/), this was done pretty well so far, with it being slow paced and kinda of out of the way for the most part, with few hints here and there. At the part of the story I am at they haven't confirmed any relationship but are slowly making progress, which truly fits this story of a low consequence read (no unneeded drama getting in the way). I hope it works out!

All in all great read! I read this for 2 days straight and have only just finished the translated chapter, will definitely come back to this!

PS... completely forgot to write about the system! TBH the system doesn't have too much impact on the story and I like it like that, it just kinda is there to give the MC a confidence boost and a goal for her to achieve. Sure it has a few moments where it gives the software of a few apps that are needed for plot development but that just adds to the relaxed feel I talked about before! So, no need to worry about overpowered MC because of system type thing in this story, it really barley pops up (forgot about it ong). <<less
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metaeatscake
metaeatscake rated it
April 27, 2025
Status: c165
I spent the better part of my weekend just shredding through the chapters. The synopsis captures the story quite well. At the beginning, the MC doesn't start with much - a game that has awful monetization, bad gameplay design, mocked by the industry as a joke, and full of incompetent staff. The early arc is mostly office politics drama and groundwork for what would be the MC's "girlfriend". From there, it gets more about the games and how it's making the competition seethe. It later features an eSport tournament that... more>> I think is very well written.

The story references real gaming industry companies and events, such as Tencent and Netease, even mentioning miHoYo's Genshin Impact and the recent Battlefield game. To me it's nice that I don't have to deal with random Wacdonalds-type brand alterations by the author.

I don't think I can do much justice for the story, I recommend just starting it and giving it the 10, 20 or whatever chapters test to see if you'll like it. BOTI Translation does a good job, and the release rate looks pretty steady. I would say that it has a good grasp of how to write a story around the gaming industry. [Edit 2025-October: BOTI Translation is so bad. You can stop reading by like c450 or earlier because it does not get better from there.] <<less
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jkreijkamp
jkreijkamp rated it
May 26, 2025
Status: c219
Good translation with a fast rate of releases. The story is a very light read but with an overload of game facts where the MC analyses what makes the game she blatantly recreates fun. The female characters are very feely-touchy for a Chinese web novel, probably a yuri tag wouldn't be out of the place here. The story is full of plot holes like how games are a new thing is this world but we have modern gpu's that are already quite close to what we have today and also... more>> game consoles that are way past gen 1. My main gripe is that the MC just recreates games from our world without even bothering to change style or story. Even though the author lets the MC steal all kinds of ip mainly from Japan and the USA, it doesn't stop the author from the usual Japan, Korea and West bashing. Still the story has many fun moments and the interaction between characters are often quite enjoyable. <<less
2 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Piknos
Piknos rated it
May 20, 2025
Status: c210
Super fun to read, it's a reincarnation/business mogul type of story in a game developer setting. It isn't fast paced or jumpy, so far she's really only released three games but still it's gone by quickly with a mix of in game events and real life interactions. I sunk an entire day reading the whole thing in one shot!
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DarkD
DarkD
September 28, 2025
Status: c150
Won't rate this as it isn't my cup of tea, but I will say that this isn't what I thought it was.

There's been something of a trend recently of Chinese novels making a protagonist transmigrate to a new world with a terrible game development industry and then using our worlds games to shock and awe them. I was thinking this would be another one of those, and it is to a certain extent, but it's from a completely different angle. I would almost call it a slice of life fiction... more>> | gender bender | game developer. And yes, I know it's not technically a gender bender, but it's written like it is, and I feel like the author is just embarassed to publicly admit it's a "Total Substitution" aka Gender Bender fiction. There have been a few times the protagonist shied away from being girly and even once described their own interests as "manly". Literally just edit chapter one to say she used to be a guy, and it would be a perfect gender bender. The story is much more about the development side of the idea. And they aren't using recognizable titles. The novel is about original titles inspired by Chinese games you've never heard of. At least for the first game, the second game does steal western titles. One thing I am upset about is the setting is in a parallel earth with the same countries/cultures. Just with no games. It rubs me the wrong way because there are scenes that pit China against other countries (in a very respectful manner mind you), but I am still a little cheesed because China ends up coming out on top. If this was a different world with original countries, I wouldn't care, but I feel like my sense of nationalism is being poked. If the development of a game in this novel takes 40 chapters, there'll be about 4 chapters of people playing the game. So don't expect to read a lot of player commentary.

A lot of the novel focuses on the yuri aspect as well. It's not overly intrusive, the author just likes describing the gorgeous female staff members interacting in somewhat erot*c ways. Or making yuri suggestive commentary.

Only complaint is it uses the same narrative most chinese novels have. That people will believe any shallow lies they are told. It's rather awkward because you can tell this is the author justifying the CCP in their novels. The example the author uses is terrible and full of plot holes. The whole sub-plot just comes off as awkward. <<less
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
Kishirika
Kishirika rated it
August 15, 2025
Status: Completed
This novel is a Big Love Letter to games. It may not perfect, some yuri part kinda too long and keep repeat same old thing, but for me who growing up with almost everything in this novel, it really enjoyable. Throughout the entire story author keep reminding the game I used to play, even make me remember a good old memory of childhood that I forgot once, especially at the latter part of novel, I really really enjoy it so much.

10/10, for someone like me who grown up with gaming,... more>> this is the best love letter. <<less
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
camperment
camperment rated it
May 25, 2025
Status: c83
Truly a hidden gem. This is like kingdom-building but for game development! I'm not a gamer girlie myself so I don't understand that many references (and that's fine), but I feel like the author must have been a big gamer or at least worked in the gaming industry themself. If not, then they must have done an extensive research cuz these conflicts between different divisions of development team feel real... Like you can feel that the author creates conflicts not for the sake of needing conflicts to drive the story... more>> but because each character has different motivation and interests that drive them to be in conflict with other characters.

Overall, a must read (even for non GL readers) <<less
1 Likes · Like Permalink | Report
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