What if Teacher He could find a suspicious point that he did not notice?
Pei Qian sorted out the main points of the meeting and sent them to He An.
“Teacher He, how high do you think is the success rate of ‘Mission and Choice’?”
He An replied in less than two minutes.
“?”
“???”
Several question marks were sent in succession, followed by a video call.
“Boss Pei, are you really planning to do this?” He An asked in a humbled voice.
Pei Qian nodded. “That’s right.”
He An looked shocked. “That’s 500 million yuan!”
Pei Qian could not help but be elated. “Yes, 500 million yuan!”
He An could not help but become silent. He observed Boss Pei’s expression carefully but could not guess Boss Pei’s true thoughts.
“I will definitely pray in advance if it was other games companies.
“The standard answer… ‘Starcraft 2’ is there. Not only did you not copy it, but you are making all the possible mistakes all at once. This 500 million yuan would be a total loss.”
He An paused and said, “But…
“Boss Pei, you should have already figured out what to do and deliberately only released part of the one-sided news to deliberately confuse me, right?
“Are you showing off your skills again?
“I will definitely be shocked by you and would subvert many basic theories of game design after the game is successful.
“Isn’t that what you think?”
Pei Qian: “…”
Sh*t, even Teacher He was starting to imagine things.
“Teacher He, how do you guess this game will profit?” Pei Qian tried asking.
“You’re awesome! I can’t guess it alright!” He An replied with a dark expression.
Pei Qian was a little speechless. Why did you suddenly become angry while we chat?
Alright, he was now reassured since Teacher He could not guess how to profit.
“Alright, thank you for your guidance, Teacher He. I’ll definitely treat you to a meal after the game is published!”
Pei Qian hung up happily.
Chapter 675 - Eight Immortals Cross the Sea, Each Showed Their Prowess
October 9th, Sunday, Adjusted workday…
Huang Sibo was baffled in Fei Huang Workspace.
Hu Xianbin was with him, just as baffled.
They could not find a reason!
Boss Pei left after giving them the task of the new game. The two of them had been thinking about it since yesterday, but nothing came out from it.
There were some ideas, but they were not sure if that was what Boss Pei always wanted.
It had to be said that the difficulty of the mission from Boss Pei was simply too high, higher than any previous ones. It was completely difficult to rely on the strength of one or two people.
The reason why Hu Xianbin was there was that the game had to be produced together with the movie plot even though they were to be completed separately.
If there was no good communication and they were to work on their tasks individually, it would definitely not be able to succeed.
Huang Sibo looked at his watch. “They should be here soon.”
He heard many people laughing outside Fei Huang Workspace as soon as he ended his sentence.
Huang Sibo’s eyes brightened up. Rescue was here!
The lineup this time was extremely luxurious.
In addition to the original group of Hu Xianbin, Huang Sibo, and Zhu Xiaoce; Bao Xu, Lu Mingliang, Li Yada, Lin Wan, and Ma Yiqun were here!
This lineup could be said to be the most luxurious lineup in the gaming department of Tengda.
They were not only the four chief planners in Tengda Games, there was also Zhu Xiaoce, Bao Xu, Lin Wan, Ma Yiqun—professionals in the fields of movies, games, and novels.
These eight people could be said to represent the highest level of the entire Tengda spirit cultural industry, and all of them were good support to answer Boss Pei’s spirit.
If one could not win alone, one could only call for reinforcements!
Huang Sibo had already arranged the conference room, greeted everyone to enter, and then arranged for someone to pour drinks.
“Sit down, everyone. Time is tight, and the task is happy. We must finalize the general plan for the new game and movie in a day! Let’s try to carry forward the Tengda spirit and complete the work without overtime.”
Huang Sibo motioned everyone to sit down before being seated himself.
He was the person-in-charge of Fei Huang Workspace and the original master planner of Tengda Games. He was the most senior amongst them all and had crossed the game and film industries so it was most appropriate for him to take the lead in this project.
These people were very familiar with each other so there would be no formal situation, sitting around the conference tables and drinking tea with different expressions on their faces.
Lu Mingliang’s expressions were the most inexplicable among all of them. He looked at today’s lineup and was confused. “Brother Huang, today’s matter seemed to have nothing to do with Upwind Logistics? Why do you want me here?”
“You were once Tengda Games’ chief planner; of course, you have to come!” Huang Sibo replied.
“The game that Boss Pei wants to make this time has too little information. I really cannot understand what his real intention was so I can only ask everyone for help.
“Every one of us may only have been in charge of a part of Boss Pei’s projects, be it in games or movies; but we have only grasped a part of Boss Pei’s spirit and our knowledge is complementary.
“Therefore, the game this time has to be a team effort!
“I have sorted out Boss Pei’s requirements. Let’s take a closer look. We’ll start brainstorming after 10 minutes.”
Huang Sibo sent everyone a piece of paper that clearly stated Boss Pei’s requirements for the game ‘Mission and Choice’.
Everyone looked at Boss Pei’s requests seriously and frowned.
Hard to understand!
All of these people have solved the puzzles set by Boss Pei previously, but it was undeniable that this puzzle was the most difficult.
Not only did Boss Pei not put forward a lot of seemingly unreasonable design requirements this time. However, these contents were still interlocked throughout the entire body.
It would be easy to answer if it was only one or two unreasonable requirements.
However, they must find a solution that meets all the requirements if there were seven or eight seemingly unreasonable requirements.
Everything might be lost if any one point was not done well!
Ten minutes later, Huang Sibo raised his head. “Alright, time is running out. Let’s brainstorm for an hour, give each other some inspiration, and then continue thinking.
“I’ll talk about my opinion first.
“According to the standard analysis, the first step would definitely be to find the unreasonable points in these requirements and analyze the basic design concepts behind them.
“Every irrationality might have multiple solutions. We need to integrate this information to find the only correct answer.
“First of all, I think this game definitely has to win with the plot. No one should object to it, right? Investment in movies is more than the investment in the game itself. The requirement is for it to be one and a half hours, which means that the importance of the plot is at least on par with the game.
“Therefore, I’m considering if there could be a breakthrough from the plot.
“Do you have any better ideas in terms of the plot?” Huang Sibo looked at Zhu Xiaoce and Ma Yiqun.
Ma Yiqun was also from the game industry so he knew about games and plots and also participated in this discussion.
He thought about it and said, “The plot really does have a lot of weight, but it must also serve the gameplay.
&nbs
p; “It would be too broad if it only had the theme of ‘resisting the Zerg and defending our homeland’. The true thoughts from Boss Pei would probably be zero in this case.
“We’ll still have to find a breakthrough point from the gameplay.
“It can be seen from ‘Struggle’ that Boss Pei might have worked hard on the plot, but it was not a simple one. He’s pursuing the unity of plot and gameplay, which is the approach of ‘breaking the dimension wall’. Therefore, the plot was not just an extension of the gameplay but also integrated on a higher level.”
Huang Sibo thought about it and said, “En, that’s right!
“From the perspective of the players, I think Boss Pei’s two requirements are very interesting: the game is very unbalanced, and some units will not obey the commands. This should be an entry point in the gameplay.
“Brother Bao, you are also a veteran RTS game player, what do you think?”
Bao Xu rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “These two points are obviously fatal flaws for conventional RTS games. Imbalance and too many uncertain factors have completely eliminated the competitive nature of the game.
“What is brought by the elimination of competition…”
Lin Wan: “…is better entertainment? …it doesn’t seem right because, for most players of RTS games, the competitive nature of RTS games equals entertainment.”
Bao Xu thought about it seriously and said. “I think it should be authentic.
“Humans and Zergs were inherently unbalanced. In most films and televisions, Zergs had overwhelming advantages when facing humans.
“The Zergs multiply very quickly. They completely obey instructions. If you don’t pay attention, they will resurrect. It’s a huge nightmare for humans.
“Combining the point of view of ‘soldiers have their own ideas’. Boss Pei obviously hopes that we will make the human race weaker and the Zergs stronger so that we can highlight a sense of authenticity!
“Players will feel unfair when using humans to fight against the Zergs. This is more authentic than that of an absolutely balanced RTS game.
“For this kind of authenticity, Boss Pei would rather give up the competitive and balanced nature of RTS games. This should be a very critical point.
“I understand now! In other words, the game mechanism is to show the gap between the Human race and the Zergs more clearly. This should be related to the plot!” Lin Wan suddenly said.
Huang Sibo nodded. “Yes, this is a very key point. Then, Boss Pei specifically requested that this game must be simple to operate. Does it have anything to do with this?”
Bao Xu frowned. “It seems… to be unrelated. It doesn’t matter if the game was simple or difficult. It can make both races unbalanced.”
Everyone fell into a period of brief silence.
Just because it ‘seems unrelated’ often did not mean that it was ‘really okay’, because it was ‘related but not seen’.
Lu Mingliang thought about it and said, “I think this should be related to the ‘focus’ that Boss Pei considered.
“I have such a feeling when working on ‘Game Designer’.
“Boss Pei will be willing to spend a lot of money to express what he wants to express most exaggeratedly. It was just like the ‘Game Designer’ which could have been made into Interactive Fiction, but Boss Pei chose to make it into 3D scenes. Struggle was also made into an interactive movie game.
“The investment for these two games could be reduced by 10 times or more if they were made into Interactive Fiction. However, Boss Pei spared no expense to make the key contents that he wanted to express sufficiently prominent.
“And for some less important content, Boss Pei could always delete and simplify to avoid these factors from interfering with players.
“Since ‘Mission and Choice’ had decided not to be competitive but to reflect authenticity and highlight the plot, would the operation still be important? It would no longer be.
“Operation is for competition.
“The significance of simplifying operations and weakening in-battle strategies was that players could have more time to think and prepare for pre-battle strategies.
“This should be the point that Boss Pei wants to express.”
Huang Sibo nodded down hurriedly. “Makes sense!
“Only a balanced RTS game has to have operations. Why do you need operations for an unbalanced RTS? The players would be able to take the time to do more preparation for strategy.
“However…
“In the traditional RTS games with their ‘consolidation-build-combat’ mode, battle accounts for at least 60% of the fun. If you are to take away the combat experience, I’m afraid it will be a huge weakening of the game experience.”
Bao Xu thought for a while and said, “So the collection and construction system should be made more complex so that players can spend most of their time and energy on these two links.
“Especially the pre-war strategy, every player must think carefully before making every choice.”
Li Yada agreed deeply. “Yes, it’s like elimination games. The original elimination games were all about speed and time! However, later elimination games have become unlimited, which require elimination points.
“The latter required more thinking, which was more fun and more in-line with current game habits of players.
“Obviously, Boss Pei did not want to simply copy the success of ‘Starcraft’ but explore a new RTS game model!
“It is still a real-time strategy game, but players who do not operate well can also experience the fun of the game.”
Chapter 676 - The Script Has a Little Way to Go
Lin Wan raised her hand and said, “I have something to add. Every soldier of the human race has their own way of thinking. They might not fall apart or disobey orders, but they may take the initiative to send themselves on a death mission, fight the Zergs, and emerge victorious, right?
“As for how exactly those humans would act, it’s obviously closely connected to their strategizing process before the battle.
“For example, the commander might take a certain course of action to affect the soldiers’ boldness and way of thinking. Then, the soldiers’ initial individualism might slowly dissipate and be replaced with unity.”
Huang Sibo nodded. “Yes, that’s definitely a good idea as well.”
Everyone began to take their own notes. At this point in their discussion, everyone could see the silhouette of the new game.
This game would be completely different from traditional RTS games. The emphasis would be on the strategy before battle and not during battle, which would make the game more realistic.
What’s more, additional focus would be placed on the storyline, so that the movie would have more weightage than the game.
Once Ma Yiqun finished taking notes, his eyes lit up. “I suddenly thought of a good idea for the storyline!
“Boss Pei really likes gameplay that breaks through the fourth wall. Wanting to make the game as realistic as possible would be directly in line with his goals.
“If we hint gamers that there’s a real person behind every position through the game’s storyline, and sacrificing one position would be akin to sacrificing a real person… wouldn’t we successfully break through the fourth wall?”
Zhu Xiaoce hummed softly. “That’s a good idea, but… it seems quite outdated.
“Someone wrote a sci-fi novel on this concept in 1985, and it won the Nebula and Hugo awards. On top of that, the story was also about a war between the human race and Zergs, and a child who mistakenly thought he was playing a game when he was actually leading an inter-planet war…”
Ma Yiqun looked unfazed. “Of course, I know that. How could I not have heard of it before?
“Still, in literature, one’s not forbidden from writing about the same material just because someone else has done it before. Are you saying that people couldn’t write Western fantasy once Lord of the Rings was released? Of course not.
/> “The question is whether one is plainly copying or coming up with a novel idea while standing on their shoulders.
“No matter whether one is developing a book or a game, a good idea would just be the first block of the foundation. Whether they made use of that good idea or not depends on how one expresses it.
“I think that this idea is suited to be expressed as a game, and it’s perfectly in line with Boss Pei’s game design concepts.”
Zhu Xiaoce nodded. “Hmm… you’re right, but that also means that we have to think about how to tell the same story in a novel way.
“If we don’t, we’ll be using someone else’s manuscript. Then, both our game and movie would fail.”
Everyone fell silent.
Obviously, if they really wanted to work on this idea, they had to express it better than the classics. Alternatively, they had to ensure that they did not turn out exactly the same. One could only imagine how difficult that would be.
Huang Sibo sounded sorrowful as he said, “Boss Pei has given us too little to work with this tine.”
Lin Wan read through Boss Pei’s requests once again and noticed a blindspot. “Boss Pei specified for us to only look for one actor who doesn’t need to have expressions. Is he hinting at the storyline?”
Zhu Xiaoce answered, “I have already thought about this. There are only two possibilities.
“First, the protagonist could be wearing a helmet or a mask the entire time, so that no one can see his face. Then, he’ll be an opera-like symbol. That’s what happens in some movies.
“Second, the protagonist could be extremely ruthless and expressionless. That would emphasize the protagonist’s character.
“However, either of those interpretations could work. That makes it harder for us to figure out which is the right one.”
After some thought, Ma Yiqun said, “Both could work, but they’re both different in terms of reasonableness.
“If the protagonist becomes an opera-like symbol, the symbol must be a reference to something meaningful. Most superhero or sci-fi movies make use of this method to reveal problems and conflicts in society.
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