Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Wednesday…

Meeting Room…

Lu Mingliang was very nervous and a little disturbed.

The two honchos that could confidently place their legs on this meeting table… were no longer around!

Bao Xu had not come to work since yesterday. Having been given one-month long paid leave, Boss Pei had forcibly requested for him to clock in at all the famous sights and destinations in the country and to learn from other big gaming companies.

Huang Sibo had also not shown himself recently. Who knew what he had spent Boss Pei’s one million yuan reward on?

As these two bosses were no longer fronting things, Lu Mingliang had become the chief planner; he suddenly felt an immense amount of pressure!

Furthermore, after Boss Pei had stated the near-term goals of the company at this meeting, Lu Mingliang was even more worried.

Boss Pei had said that Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold would not be launching any new updates recently. All manpower was going to be focused on developing the next game!

This was a little unexpected for Lu Mingliang and was rather vexing for him.

Logically speaking—with two successful games on hand, now should be the time to frantically make money out of them. Such as releasing a new edition, making some new cards, or a new epic weapon…

They could literally make loads of money easily; it was very profitable!

Lu Mingliang could also use this opportunity to finish handing over his current tasks and taking over the new ones. He would first create a new edition for Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold and then slowly ease into his new role before starting on a new game. This was the safest way.

However, Boss Pei actually did not have plans to create a new edition for the existing games and immediately wanted to start on a new project!

This made Lu Mingliang—the newly minted chief planner of only two days—very lost and flustered.

Of course, Lu Mingliang was clear that Boss Pei definitely had reasons for his decision. Boss Pei was a person that kept on pushing forward; he was not an ordinary boss who would stand still and count his profits. Not stopping for a while and earning money on a new edition but immediately taking a huge risk with a new project; Boss Pei’s ambition, foresight, and bandwidth were clear!

“As for the new game, I already have some thoughts. Please listen.”

At the head of the meeting table, Pei Qian was perfectly composed as he captured everyone’s attention; Lu Mingliang was surer than ever about Pei Qian.

However…

Pei Qian had done this for the exact opposite reasons. Why did he not want to release a new edition? To release a new edition, he needed to charge a fee with it. He had to either collect money by selling it as downloadable content or add it as payable service within the game.

The system was not going to accept a completely free new edition. The problem was Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold’s had too many players; they were very willing to pay as well! Under these circumstances—if he released a new edition now, he might actually start making huge numbers of sales immediately.

Hence, Pei Qian felt that it was safer to start on a new project. After all, ruining a new project was much easier than screwing around with an existing successful one!

Many new games immediately flopped upon release. Even if a professional, star producer had been behind them; that was hard to make things flourish as well. Furthermore, many old games though managed to hang in there, they were but hanging on a thread.

Hence, Pei Qian decided to start afresh. Also, he was going to learn from the previous round.

What was his greatest mistake then?

He had too much confidence in Huang Sibo and Bao Xu!

Pei Qian had never expected his three conditions had been turned by the duo into the selling point of the game! This time, Pei Qian decided to exert more control over the entire project. He could not allow another Ocean Stronghold to be launched!

He even didn’t dare to let Xiao Lu be creative.

What if… Xiao Lu went to consult Bao Xu in the dark or he suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and thought of a good idea?

Hence, Pei Qian was going to make his word the law this time. He looked about and said slowly, “This time, we are going to create a game that would be legendary!

“Its name is…

“Game Designer!”

Everyone in the meeting room looked attentively at Pei Qian. Although they didn’t understand, it sounded impressive!

It sounds rather awesome! This was the game that was going to change Tengda’s story in the gaming industry? However, regarding this title, while it could be used for a documentary or an interview; how was it supposed to be turned into a game?

Hence, everyone was listening closely.

Pei Qian looked very confident and talked impressively. “This game is very simple. The game will be about the life of a game producer. In the game, the Game Designer has to continuously make choices; every choice would lead to a different outcome.

“For example, he could freely choose the game type, payment method, advertisement strategy, etc. At the same time, the gamer would also encounter a series of sudden events. Finally, the gamer would create a game and be able to see its profits and sales online. This is the rough idea. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask them.”

No one spoke; everyone looked a little flabbergasted.

Pei Qian grinned confidently.

Flabbergasted, right?

That’s right!

This was a niche genre that no one had done before. Furthermore, its content was also not attractive; there was no way to make it grand as well. The gameplay was also extremely simple! The gaming industry was so miserable and dull; if it became a game, it definitely would not be fun.

This kind of genre would not fly!

Even if it was an independent game that attracted a small wave of gamers, it was hard to profit much from it. At that time, spending more money on art resources would result in sales dropping; and they might not even be able to recoup costs!

Of course, Pei Qian naturally had another way to spin this.

Lu Mingliang was the first to raise his hand.

“Boss Pei, I understand the general idea behind this game. I want to ask: what is the way to present and market this game? Is it an independent game like interactive fiction?”

Interactive Fiction; to put it plainly, it meant a game where one conversed with fictional characters.

This type of game was easy to create and had varied applications. One only needed to create a 2D scene and original characters, adding a huge amount of text to the game. That would easily reveal all there was to the game.

Based on Lu Mingliang’s thinking, this game was actually similar to games like Chinese Parents. Of course, Lu Mingliang did not know about the game called Chinese Parents; he had seen other Interactive Fiction games, however.

Pei Qian shook his head, “No.”

Like an Interactive Fiction? Of course not!

How much could he spend on an Interactive Fiction? Just a few original paintings and a few well-known voice-overs; that would only cost a few hundreds of thousands; that was not enough!

Ocean Stronghold was racking in four to five hundred thousand in profits in a week. If only so little was invested in the new game, wasn’t that ineffective?

That would not solve his problem!

Pei Qian was targeting at least two million and above for the new game. That was the only way to generate losses! If not, hundreds of thousands of yuan of losses would not mean much due to the Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold money-making trees.

“We will be going full 3D; we will use the most high-tech 3D modeling. Whether it is people or the settings; I want the best!”

Lu Mingliang was stunned.

He could not imagine what that would be like!

He felt strange just thinking about it!

“To use 3D for everything… all for an Interactive Fiction game?” Lu Mingliang ventured a query.

“Why are you so fixated on Interactive Fiction games?” Pei Qian was a little speechless as he shook his head and said, “I do not intend to use an Interactive Fiction’s format; that is too old-fashioned!

“We are going to be more abstract and use modern techniques and methods to package this game!”