After he was decided, Pei Qian called Ma Yang out of the dormitory privately.
“What’s up, Brother Qian? Are you going to share with me some secret strategy?” Ma Yang looked at Pei Qian hopefully, thinking that the latter was going to discuss gaming strategies with him.
“I’ve been making a game myself recently. I need some help, are you interested?” Pei Qian was direct. After all, someone like Ma Yang wasn’t conniving and making things complicated might backfire.
Stunned for a moment, Ma Yang shook his head. “Are you messing with me? We’ve got so much workload to deal with in the semester, let alone have time to play with all these other stuff.”
He paused for a moment before continuing, “Don’t tell me that you’re fooled by the illusion caused by that messed up indie game as well?”
“A large reason why The Lonely Desert Road got popular was due to luck as well! Besides, it costs a lot of money to create games! Where would you get your money from?”
Pei Qian coughed. “I won’t hide it from you, but I’m actually a rich second-generation heir. My family gave me 300,000. Is that enough?”
Ma Yang’s mouth dropped wide open and he only spoke after a long time, “Are you serious? You’re not kidding me?”
Ma Yang did not know Pei Qian’s family background well, but he knew that Pei Qian wasn’t the type of guy who would pull pranks on others for fun – there was no need for him to lie to him with such a low class joke.
It was only then that Ma Yang started taking the preposition a little more seriously.
“Other than money, what about the other issues?” Ma Yang asked.
Pei Qian reversed the question. “Are there any other issues other than money?”
Ma Yang froze momentarily. “Do you know about art resources? Do you know how to code?”
Pei Qian shook his head. “No, but is that an issue? Those resources could be bought online with money and I could hire professionals to settle them.”
Ma Yang opened his mouth, finding it hard to express his current emotions.
Wasn’t that too naive?!
Even if you’re rich, that’s not the way to spend money!
Pei Qian patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about everything else. The only question I’m asking is if you’re willing to join in. If you are, I’ll leave you a position on the design team.”
Hesitation spread across Ma Yang’s face. “Brother Qian, given our close relationship, I should naturally be helping you with this non conditionally.”
“But, the both of us know nothing about creating a game! Even though the 300,000 was given to you by your family, I think you should still give this a second thought instead of making a decision so lightly.”
“I’m afraid that I would have really let you down if we make ducks and drakes out of the 300,000. I truly can’t join you.”
Pei Qian was speechless. He had not thought that Ma Yang’s conscience would actually be an obstacle…
But on second thought, indeed, even though Ma Yang was rather dumb, his character wasn’t bad – he was a typical mister nice guy.
Pei Qian could not reveal the origins of his money and could only claim that he was a rich second-generation heir and that the money was given by his family. Yet, that had Ma Yang reluctant to join out of fear that he would cause Pei Qian to lose money.
Left with no choice, Pei Qian could only prove himself with his previous success. “Actually, I’ve already made a game and it has already earned money.”
Ma Yang was stunned. “What game?”
“C-Cough,” Pei Qian coughed. “The Lonely Desert Road.”
“Pfft!” Ma Yang nearly spat out.
“You’re the one who made that lame game?!” Ma Yang was astounded.
He had even complained to Pei Qian about it previously that it was a game created by a wicked as*hole! To think that he was scolding the exact person…
Pei Qian was exasperated. “It really was made by me.”
It was an extremely awkward situation.
Ma Yang blinked his eyes and suddenly raised a thumbs up. “Nice! That works, Brother Qian! I couldn’t tell that you had such talent in designing games! You’re really a genius for the game to get that popular! No wonder I felt such an intimate feeling to the game when I played it previously. So, it’s because of this.”
Pei Qian did not know to laugh or to cry – this Old Ma changed sides way too quickly!
“Alright, enough of the bootlicking. Same question, are you in? I’ll give you a salary of 3,000 a month. Whether we profit or make a loss, you don’t have to take any responsibility,” Pei Qian offered.
Ma Yang’s attitude was completely different this time round as he nodded his head furiously. “Of course, of course! I’m definitely with you, Brother Qian! You know that even though I’m nothing great, I’m a reliable guy!”
After he found out that Pei Qian had created a successful game, Ma Yang felt that this was no longer child’s play. On the contrary, this was something with bright prospects that he couldn’t wait to join!
Pei Qian extended his sincere approval to Ma Yang. “That’s right, it’s exactly because you’re a reliable man that I want you in! Now, don’t let the others know about this. Of all the schoolmates I know, I think you’re the most talented. I haven’t even approached anyone else.”
Ma Yang was beaming brightly. “Of course, of course!”
“Alright, that settles it,” Pei Qian had nothing else to talk about. “There’s still a lot of preparatory work to be done. Go and get started with some things on your own, I’ll update you when there’s progress.”
Ma Yang nodded excitedly. “Sure, don’t worry! I’ll head to the bookstore this afternoon to see if there’s any technical books I can get to start learning! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely not be a burden!”
Ma Yang turned back to the dormitory and packed his stuff, preparing to head out.
“Actually, you don’t have to get any technical books to learn from…”
Pei Qian replied mentally. However, he raised his hand and ended up not saying anything.
He wondered if it was a right choice to get Ma Yang in.
Was someone so responsible and reliable truly a good fit for him to reach his goals…?
But on second thought, based on his understanding of Ma Yang as a person over the years, Pei Qian knew that while this man was reliable, his capabilities were limited.
Letting Ma Yang take a look at some technical books shouldn’t affect the bigger picture.
Chapter 11
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Ma Yang packed his stuff and headed out to the nearby bookstore in search of technical books on game designs.
Pei Qian did not know if Ma Yang would be able to purchase any but given the number of bookstores available, he should most likely be able to get some.
In reality, there were already some online shopping platforms by this period of time including websites that specialized in books.
However, most of the people had not gotten used to the platforms yet. In fact, some of the slower students did not apply for internet banking access even.
Ma Yang belonged to the group of slower, more traditional students. His first choice when it came to buying books was to rush to a bookstore and flipping through parts of the contents before deciding if he wanted it.
Of course, that status quo was about to be overturned by enormous changes in the coming few years.
Pei Qian got back onto his bed and opened his laptop, contemplating about what he should do next.
By noon, Ma Yang had returned.
He was carrying around eight books with a voluminous one amongst them that was around the thickness of two fingers. At 200 millimeters long, it was titled Overview of Advanced Programming.
Other than that, there were a bunch of others such as Survival Guide out of Coding, Collection of Program Management, Complete Guide to Coding and Guide to Recovering From Neck Injuries.
Ma Yang felt that he had gotten a great harvest.
Flipping through the books that Ma Yang brought back, Pei Qian’s gaze finally lingered on Guide to Recovering From Neck Injuries.
This guy had really prepared thoroughly!
He was even considering the possibility of them getting neck injuries?
However, the biggest problem that programmers faced wasn’t neck injuries – it was dying from being overworked!
Besides, it’s not as though you’re going to be a programmer!
Previously, Pei Qian had thought that he might have gotten the wrong guy for the job given how on the ball and passionate Ma Yang was towards the job.
But when he saw Ma Yang’s choice of books, Pei Qian was certain.
Ma Yang was the best partner for him, hands down!
Just look at how he had gone such a long way for bookstores just to get these books back.
Were they useless? Not exactly, since they were somewhat relevant.
Yet, one can’t claim that they were useful because… they just weren’t!
This was a classic example of working in vain!
Pei Qian patted Ma Yang on the shoulder. “Ma Yang, what we’re doing is design, not programming.”
“Besides, do you know that games nowadays are all created using game editors?”
“Also, technology is developing rapidly and changing way too quickly. The technicalities in these books are already almost outdated and they’re not really of use.”
Ma Yang’s face drained of color. “I was wondering why they were on discount in the bookstores! It’s because they can’t be sold!”
“I looked around the bookstore for a long time but I just couldn’t find any books about designing games. These were all that I could find and when I saw that they were on discount, I bought a couple of them.”
“What should we do? I can’t get a refund for discounted books!”
Ma Yang was panicked.
However, Pei Qian was completely relieved as he smiled. “It’s fine, it’s the effort that counts. If you feel that you shouldn’t waste these books after buying them, you can browse through them. After all, they’ll be of some help no matter what.”
Ma Yang felt more at ease upon hearing that. “Do you want to browse through them too? We can take turns.”
Pei Qian’s expression turned dark as he waved it off hurriedly. “N-No, it’s fine!”
Who would want to browse through these books? They’d be stiff even when used as pillows!
Lying down on his bed, Ma Yang opened the thickest book – Overview of Advanced Programming.
After five minutes, snoring sounds reverberated from his bed.
Pei Qian was pleased.
Yes, reliable!
Look at that attitude! 100 marks!
Look at those capabilities! 0 marks!
Wasn’t this the designer that he had been searching for painstakingly?
It was a pity that Ma Yang was the only person Pei Qian knew with such talents.
If there were a couple more of them, Pei Qian would be unmatched! Losing 300,000 would be extremely easy!
…
Pei Qian opened up ESRO’s official game editor and ignored The Lonely Desert Road’s downloads which had grown by another few thousands dismally as he began researching on his next project.
For indie games, their popularity normally came and left quickly.
Furthermore, The Lonely Desert Road was a game without any technical substance that would allow for sustained gameplay.
In Pei Qian’s previous life, there were similar examples as well of games that had poor quality, rough designs and boring, singular gameplays that had exploded in popularity for special reasons.
However, those were rare cases and out of hundreds of similar titles, only a couple would be as such.
Pei Qian had not expected that he would ever encounter such a thing!
In time to come, The Lonely Desert Road’s popularity would definitely go down along with its download rate and income earned – that’s only normal.
However, whether or not it would drop, the fact that a game as such had already earned money was something that had Pei Qian feeling the most miserable about.
Reflecting on his painful experience, Pei Qian decided that he had to change his mindset.
No more indie games this time round! He had to change!
In the short term, gamers would be associating Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. with The Lonely Desert Road.
Pei Qian was faced with two difficult options.
He could make another messed up game that might end up replicating The Lonely Desert Road’s success. Even if it doesn’t get to the same popularity, it could still be a devastating blow to Pei Qian if he were to earn a little profit.
Or, he could make a proper indie game… that gamers might deem to be of passable quality and end up purchasing.
That would be bad!
Furthermore, it would take quite a bit of effort to spend 300,000 for an indie game.
How expensive were the templates and art resources that he had to purchase in order to spend that 300,000 completely?
Besides, if he were to purchase all the expensive art resources and end up causing the game to look amazing, he might end up attracting a bunch of sightseeing group gamers and fail to make a loss once more!
Therefore, after much contemplation, Pei Qian decided to give up on these gamers who were passionate about indie games and change to another genre.
300,000 was not enough to make a large scale game.
Even though Pei Qian’s aim was to lose money, at the end of the day, the final product must still be made.
If the game does not clear the vetting process and the 300,000 of System Funds was used to produce nothing, the system would deem that as a violation.
Therefore, while the money must be spent, the game must be created too.
Pei Qian went through the official platform before finally deciding on his goal.
Mobile games!
He partly had no choice. Firstly, he didn’t have enough money to create a large scale game. Secondly, it wasn’t suitable for him to create any indie games in the short term.
Mobile and indie gamers were completely different groups of people.
Indie gamers may check out the new game because they’re curious about Tengda as a company, but not mobile gamers.
As long as the mobile game is trashy enough, Pei Qian was certain that there would be no interest to it!
After he was decided on the direction, it was time for market research.
Pei Qian entered the official games platform and looked through all the popular mobile games, even downloading some of the hottest ones to try them out for himself.
This was something that he had already noticed previously, but in terms of mobile phones, this parallel universe seemed to be much more advanced than his previous world.
Chapter 12
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In his previous life, smartphones had started getting common and trending during 2010 to 2011. Alongside the wave, some of the popular mobile games such as card games started appearing around 2012.
However, smartphones had appeared earlier in this world and so by 2008, there were already card games.
By now, 2009, card games were commonplace.
When they were just introduced, card games were truly innovative and were popular for a long time.
However, due to the large amount of copycats, gamers were already sick of it and something as simple such as earning money just by creating something similar was no longer existent.
In this world, the progenitor of card games was called Qute Three Kingdoms. The reason it was popular was due to the same few reasons – cartoonish and cute style, traditional card gameplay et cetera.
In 2008, back when the Three Kingdoms’ IP wasn’t commonplace yet, gamers were more accepting of it in general.
However, thanks t
o the trend of smartphones, the game singlehandedly created a miracle and earned the creators a huge pot of gold such that their competitors were brimming with jealousy.
In this world, the game editors were extremely advanced and many indie creators can enter the playing field with ease. With that, all sorts of copycat card games started spouting out, causing the initial craze for card games that could have lasted for three to five years to burn out within just one.
As of now, gamers viewed card games with a sense of disdain and reluctance.
That was exactly what Pei Qian wanted!
Other than that, he had also noticed a huge difference between Qute Three Kingdoms and card games in his previous world.
In terms of paywalling, it was the complete opposite.
The game could be purchased with a fixed price of 5 yuan. Other than that, the in-game items were sold at a rather fair price. The concept of receiving a rare card by topping up 2,000 yuan or the likes of those did not exist in this world at all.
The in-game payments were basically capped at 1,000 yuan or so. Beyond that, there was nowhere else to spend the money on.
Despite that, Qute Three Kingdoms was still lambasted by the gamers for being greedy.
That’s because the ecosystem of this world was different from Pei Qian’s previous one.
Piracy wasn’t so rampant in this world owing to the strong IP Rights protection, so standalone game creators were having quite a good life.
Because of that, single purchases or top up refill cards were the main profit models that gamers have acknowledged and gotten used to.
When it came to Qute Three Kingdoms, it was clear that the creators did not dare to go overboard as well. They merely implemented a 5 yuan purchase price along with some slight in-game purchases.
Even then, they were lambasted to hell.
After researching through the market, Pei Qian started contemplating on how he should mess the game up.
The most straightforward method was to have a direct clash!
If the market already has an extremely successful game that’s practically the founder of the genre, all Pei Qian had to do was to copy it wholesale and he was almost guaranteed to be doomed!
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