Seeing Pei Qian’s determined expression, Ma Yang scratched his head.
It sounded… logical.
“Alright… we’ll listen to you…” Ma Yang replied weakly.
Chapter 108 - Ma Yiqun’s Task
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s losses had reassured Pei Qian greatly. As for Boss Pei’s Daily Life and Game Designer, they both had signs of losing steam as well. If something else happened with Fish-Catching Internet Cafe again, Pei Qian’s heart might not be able to take it anymore.
Fortunately, Ma Yang would never let him down! Pei Qian settled down a little.
He was still most concerned now with Game Designer. The internet cafe continued to incur losses. Although three hundred thousand seemed like a lot, it was the icing on the cake and wasn’t that substantial.
As for Boss Pei’s Daily Life… Pei Qian’s only wish was for it not to engage in sponsored partnerships.
“Next, I have to continue paying attention to Game Designer; I can’t allow anyone to pull any stunts! I must learn my lesson from Ocean Stronghold the previous time.
“Previously, I had not delved into Ocean Stronghold and played it for long; I had only seen the story mode and the 888 Red Kilin and thought that all was good. In the end, it wasn’t that case at all!
“This time, I must play the game through from start to end!”
Thinking of this, Pei Qian was a little anxious.
Everyone said that it was hard to make money.
For me—why was it that it was so hard to make a loss?!
…
March 25th…
Game Designer was finally officially completed. It was in late-stage modification and bug fixing now.
Pei Qian asked for the latest version of the game from the developing team and installed it on his computer. He was going to have a go at it from the start! Although he knew every choice and result like the back of his hand, Pei Qian still wanted to complete the entire gameplay once.
The release date for the game was April 1st.
To release a game on April Fool’s Day; yes, he was that reckless! If Pei Qian really found something in the game now that might result in it being popular, there still was time to fix and rectify it by April 1st.
As for publicity…
Pei Qian had given up on struggling.
Different from the past two times, Tengda Games now was rather well-known. With Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold’s reputations, Tengda had gained in popularity.
To date, all of Tengda’s games had been released through the official games platform. Once Game Designer was released, some Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold players would definitely come to try it out!
Under these circumstances—regardless of whether he did advertising or not, it would not affect Game Designer that much.
The crux was the game itself.
Pei Qian had done so many things in the game to mock gamers; that was where his confidence was at! Pei Qian started the game from the very beginning. Every segment, every result, every voice-over; he paid much attention to them.
“…Lu Mingliang’s dubbing is actually not bad? How did he make out this irritating and cheapskate voice? It’s so boring. There’s no point in running, really. This voice-over keeps on mocking me; can I just go and beat Lu Mingliang up now…”
“How long more do I have to run…? Hang in there…”
Pei Qian felt that he was in a trance; Game Designer had created the ultimate urge in him to quit playing. Although Ruan Guangjian had personally created the animation and concept designs and the entire game’s artistic style was rather unique—to Pei Qian, these were tasteless.
Why?
Every single choice, every voice-over… had been written by Pei Qian!
Walking in a room, he was faced with an umpteenth number of choices. For a gamer, after every door and every decision, an unknown awaited them. However, for Pei Qian, he knew clearly what was going to happen.
Knowing what was going to happen well; would this game be fun?
Just like if one was watching a detective drama, and he already knew who the killer was—what the ending was like. No matter how good or splendid the process was, it would not have that good an effect.
Hence, Pei Qian scrunched his nose as he went through the entire gameplay once and experienced a few different endings. He came to a conclusion.
This game was exceedingly boring! There was no special way to play it. Players could only control their gamers to run around and enter room after room. Every time they ran to a new room, they could only see the setup inside each room and hear a voice-over mocking them.
Besides that, no other way of playing the game existed!
“En, not bad. This time, this game has standards.
“Alas, I must indeed intervene in order to make sure things are smooth!”
Pei Qian rested easy. From the looks of it, this game did not require any alterations. It would flunk at the launch, and all he had to do was wait for the losses to come in!
…
…
At this same time, everyone else in the company was extremely busy.
Ma Yiqun—who had formally entered the company—received his first formal task. He was to play Game Designer!
However, it was to just experience the game.
Lu Mingliang asked Ma Yiqun to see more and learn more; however, he was not intending to let Ma Yiqun raise any opinions or suggestions. He most definitely was not going to let Ma Yiqun make changes to the game.
“This company… is indeed special,” Ma Yiqun sighed and said.
The work environment was very good while a harmonious environment was ever-present; a salary package much higher than the industry standard.
Ma Yiqun had heard Huang Sibo talk about these things before and hence had not felt that surprised.
What surprised him was the way the company worked!
He still remembered the first day he entered Shang Yang Games back then. He had just entered and before he had even warmed his seat, Old Liu had tossed a huge pile of game synopses at him.
There was no direction, no instruction. His demands were vague and his standards unclear. Besides the due date, everything else was left to Ma Yiqun. All in all, he was there to work!
As for Tengda, things were completely different. He had arrived and had not been given any work but only a few words: see more and learn more! If he wanted to quickly throw himself into work?
Apologies, that wasn’t going to happen.
“Indeed, this is a completely different level, right?
“Shang Yang Games was doing things that were rough and did not apply technology at all. Hence, even newcomers like me could get used to the work quickly. Hiring new people for them was entirely just to have menial workers to issue commands to.
“For Tengda, a high standard of design had to go into the work here. Hence, newcomers could only learn! Furthermore, this learning process had to be for an extended time…
“Ah, I seem to have returned to high school. I’m quite nervous and the pressure is great.”
Ma Yiqun couldn’t help but salute Tengda. After running through Game Designer once, Ma Yiqun felt that it was very unique. This type of game… he had never seen it before!
It did not seem to belong to any commonly seen games in the market now. If this was something proposed at Shang Yang Games, the boss would have shot this down immediately. With no precedent and huge risks involved, Shang Yang Games’ boss would definitely not have invested money in it!
However, it seemed like this kind of new and uncommon thing was quite normal. With the boss leading the way to innovate and come up with new ideas, all employees listened and cooperated seamlessly!
This kind of understanding and consensus was not something that could be fostered in a short while.
In Shang Yang Games, Ma Yiqun frequently heard some conversations like ‘is there precedence’, ‘which ga
me is this copying’, ‘are there enough paywall options’, etc. In Tengda, he had not heard such talk at all. It seemed as if everyone was working in steps towards a common goal. Although Ma Yiqun didn’t understand, he felt this was something incredible!
Ma Yiqun deeply felt that he still had so much to learn.
“No wonder no work has been assigned to me; my abilities are still severely lacking! I must work hard to learn and understand what’s going on; I must align with Boss Pei’s train of thought as soon as possible!”
Ma Yiqun quietly made up his mind.
Chapter 109 - Boss Pei…. a Lonely person.
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Bao Xu had already finished with the updates for Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold; he finally managed to take a breather recently.
Lu Mingliang immediately handed over the Game Designer game for Bao Xu to try it out.
After all, this was the number-one experienced game tester in the company; he also knew Boss Pei’s intentions the best! As Lu Mingliang was not feeling very confident, he needed to get a confidence boost from this experienced person.
Bao Xu seriously went through the game once. He did not run through all the possible endings; that would be a waste of time. He had just followed his instincts and completed two to three runs of the game.
“How is it, Brother Bao? How does the game feel? Are there things that need to be changed? Lu Mingliang asked.
Bao Xu did not answer immediately.
After a while, Bao Xu responded, “What do you guys think?”
The ‘you guys’ here naturally referred to everyone involved in developing Game Designer, including Lu Mingliang. Lu Mingliang hesitated as he decided to tell the truth. “Many people feel that… this game is a little boring. Besides me, no one else has much confidence in this game.
“Although this game had been personally designed by Boss Pei, it somehow seems… to lack the motivation for one to persevere and continue playing…”
Lu Mingliang was very conflicted. On one hand, he was at a loss at what to do and embarrassed. Thinking about the previous game, Huang Sibo and Bao Xu had created Ocean Stronghold; and it had been an instant success!
Now, when it came to his turn after he took over from Huang Sibo, he still had to have Boss Pei personally helping him to make changes to the game. He felt as if he was being a hindrance, and he didn’t have much face.
On the other hand, he was really worried. Since the gameplay had been designed by Boss Pei while the game arts had been taken care of by Big Boss Ruan; from every aspect, this game ought to be very popular and lucrative.
However, after trying it out, it didn’t give off the sense that ‘this would be in high demand’; many people in the design team all thought that it was rather boring!
These contradicting feelings made Lu Mingliang very apprehensive. He couldn’t possibly go and ask Boss Pei directly and hence wanted to hear Bao Xu’s opinion.
Bao Xu thought for a moment. “I think that your thinking is from an insider’s point of view. You guys have long seen the game script and know every single choice and option within the game. It is as if someone had given you guys a spoiler; of course, you guys won’t feel anything special while playing.
“As a bystander, I feel that this game is interesting and very special.”
Lu Mingliang was stunned; he did not expect Bao Xu to have such a high appraisal of this game.
It was interesting? Very special?
Although it seemed like an ordinary description, the crux was whose mouth those words came from!
Who was Bao Xu? He was a god when it came to game development; he had done so many games before, and his insights were definitely broader than ordinary players. Just like that little girl that had been added into Ocean Stronghold. For many domestic players, it was their first time encountering this kind of gameplay. However, Bao Xu had done this design up precisely because he had seen this and played this in many foreign games before.
This was a difference in perspectives and horizons.
Even Bao Xu—who had played so many games—felt that Game Designer was ‘interesting’; suffice to say, Game Designer was indeed very special!
However, Bao Xu had not finished speaking just yet.
His face grew stern as he caveated, “However, that does not mean that this game would definitely make money. I think that this is Boss Pei’s experiment with a non-mainstream game. He would either be called a god or would fail miserably. Everything depends on how the market reacts to it.”
“Please enlighten me, Brother Bao.” Lu Mingliang listened earnestly.
Bao Xu formulated his thoughts. “I can only guess at Boss Pei’s intentions based on my limited gaming experience. I feel that Boss Pei has always been a very lonely person.”
Lu Mingliang was confused, “Boss Pei is a very lonely person? Why would you say that? I think that… Boss Pei is rather optimistic and chirpy.”
“Really?” Bao Xu asked back, “Do you remember that company gathering we had?? How Boss Pei acted?”
Lu Mingliang was a little stumped. He recalled what happened that day. That gathering for a meal had been to celebrate Ocean Stronghold’s successful development. Boss Pei had brought everyone to eat a four-hundred-yuan apiece buffet.
As they had had so much fun and the food was so good, Lu Mingliang’s memory of that day was still fresh.
How Boss Pei acted? He actually didn’t really have an impression.
He tried again to jog his memory.
“It seemed… Boss Pei had been sitting down quietly the whole time. He did not eat or drink much; he seemed to have a lot on his mind, and he kept thinking of things…” Lu Mingliang looked at Bao Xu.
Bao Xu nodded, “That’s right. In such a place and environment, can one’s real mental state be noticed? In the office normally, Boss Pei is rather amicable in front of us. As a leader, this is what Boss Pei has to do: to constantly infect us with his best energy, to encourage us.”
“However, at gatherings over a meal, one who is actually really a lonely person would more or less reveal his true emotions!
“Think about it. At that time, Ocean Stronghold’s development had been completed, and we were almost on the cusp of a huge success. Delicacies had been laid out in front of everyone. No matter how one looked at it, there was no reason to be worried or troubled, right?
“What is it that could make Boss Pei so dejected? It is probably his feeling of loneliness internally!”
Lu Mingliang blinked as he felt that this seemed to make sense. Boss Pei was indeed not at his best form by then, from an emotional and mental point of view.
Bao Xu continued, “Furthermore, when I’ve been updating and making new changes to Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold, I could feel similar feelings and emotions in the games. These had probably been hidden deep inside the games during the preliminary stages of designing the games!
“Take Ghost General, for example. Why was the purchase price set at ten yuan and the permanent card at thirty yuan? I think that this represented a mockery of the heartlessness of the game industry.
“Boss Pei must think that this game wasn’t worth much! That if he sold a card for a few hundred or a thousand; that would be a scam! Ghost General’s creation was to expose this scam, for players to realize that it was laughable to spend so much money to get a card!
“From The Lonely Desert Road to Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold… and now Game Designer, Boss Pei had been using unique ways to mock the impetuous, profit-minded, and black-hearted game industry.
“However… Game Designer seemed to be even more direct, fierier, and deeper than the previous games! It… is even less appealing.”
Lu Mingliang’s eyes steadily lit up. So, that was why!
Everything now made sense!
However, Lu Mingliang soon had something he didn’t understand again. “Wait, since this game is so deep, why do you—Brother Bao—think that this game could eit
her be a grand success or a huge failure?”‘
Bao Xu looked out of the window and gazed at the scenery far away. “Products that surpasses its time… haven’t they all been like this? A real artist often would not be appreciated or understood by the masses. To experience failure in business or in the commercial sector was very normal.”
“If Game Designer failed, that wouldn’t be Boss Pei’s failure. It would just be that… gamers now do not deserve such a good game. Perhaps in the future, they would slowly understand the profoundness behind this game.”
“For now… whether this impetuous games market can understand and delve into the meaning of this game or not… I really do not know.”
Chapter 110 - Boss Pei’s Publicity Method
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
After hearing Bao Xu’s explanation, Lu Mingliang felt very emotional and heavy. He was emotional because he felt he was taking part in a great undertaking, making a game with historic importance… that would leave a mark in developing the domestic game industry!
He was feeling heavy because he was even more worried about this game’s prospects. Such a game that did not appeal to the masses and did not curry favor with gamers; could it really be successful?
Just a little carelessness could lead to a huge whammy in the games market and to Tengda’s reputation; this was really too risky an experiment!
“I never imagined that Boss Pei could have decided on such a crucial strategy while appearing jovial about it! If this game made a loss, we would get millions of blisters on our feet; our reputation would suffer tremendously!
“If it was me, I would be so worried and won’t be able to sleep well, right? However, Boss Pei is as composed as usual; he indeed is someone who is set out for great things!”
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