Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian seemed to despise Interactive Fiction games on the surface, thinking they were old-fashioned. However, he was very clear internally: another way to interpret old-fashioned was stable!

Interactive Fiction was a rather old and yet stable gaming genre; it had survived for a long time.

Pei Qian had memories from his previous life. He knew that as an Interactive Fiction game, Chinese Parents was an independent game that had used an Interactive Fiction’s format; it had achieved considerable success!

Pei Qian was not going to allow something like that to happen.

Hence, he had to completely veto and abandon any thoughts at following this Interactive Fiction game model!

Pei Qian cleared his throat and continued, “My thinking is… we should do a 3D flowchart. That’s right, a diagram as completed as a spider web. The boxes in the flowchart would be individual rooms; the lines on the flowchart would be corridors.”

“The gamers will walk within the corridors. That would be the process of choosing the diverging paths within the flowchart; within each room, the results from their choices would be produced! In every room, a door would lead back to the corridor; that means that gamers can choose from a range of options.

“Do you guys understand what I mean?”

Everyone nodded and then shook their heads in unison again.

They understood, but they didn’t as well!

Pei Qian’s description had allowed most of them to imagine the gameplay. To use Visio or any software related to it to draw a flowchart; that was commonly done in games and within the industry.

They were used to represent some logic or procedural flows.

For example, some procedures would start from a certain condition; after a series of judgments, an end-result would be produced. From the looks of it, flowcharts were formed from grids and rhombus shapes filled with countless words. These grids would be linked together by many arrowheads.

Once all the grids were made into 3D, with small and big rooms and the arrowheads changing into corridors, the entire flowchart would become a huge maze. As the main character walked within this huge maze, every door represented a choice; when he finally walked to the last room, that would be one conclusion to the game.

However, what everyone did not get was… what genre was this?

They had never seen anything like this before!

They haven’t heard anything like this in other countries, much less within the country. Was it feasible? Even if they used high-quality 3D modeling and made so many huge backdrops and scenarios, what if they only managed to create a game where people could only walk about forever?

They felt that… something was amiss!

However, no one would question Pei Qian.

They didn’t get it?

That was exactly right!

Boss Pei’s thought process… could ordinary people fathom that?

Only Huang Sibo and Bao Xu could roughly guess at Pei Qian’s designs and plans; everyone else was far from that level!

Lu Mingliang knew this deeply as he took a notebook and kept on taking notes. Fortunately, Boss Pei had given a very detailed description; and Lu Mingliang didn’t need to do much guessing. All he had to do was strictly abide by Boss Pei’s words; that won’t go wrong!

Lin Wan raised a hand and said, “Boss Pei, I feel that this is a rather novel design! However, if the gamers were to walk about forever in the game; would they get bored?”

Bored?

That was ideal!

That was the effect I wanted!

However, Lin Wan’s question made Pei Qian think about another hidden danger. Would this… not be pushing the envelope enough? If the game was only boring, it might not be sufficient to push gamers to quit.

What if they liked the feeling of making choices, tolerated the boredom, and actually became engrossed in it?

Pei Qian became deep in thought.

“I know.” Pei Qian suddenly thought of a good idea, “Let’s add some voice-overs in the game!”

“Voice-overs?” Lin Wan blinked. She didn’t really understand.

Although it wasn’t that common to have voice-overs in games, that was normally added with the computer graphics at introduction scenes. If it was added during the gameplay, it would affect the player immersion of the game.

Pei Qian laughed.

Why did he want to add voice-overs?

He precisely wanted to affect the gamers’ immersion into the game, preventing them from continuing!

Not only that, but I also want to add some controversial statements into the voice-overs, to continuously mock the players, make them angry, and have them start scolding out loud!

I want them to feel as if they were being humiliated in person. That way, they would give this game very bad reviews and wouldn’t recommend it; and the game’s reputation would crash. Wouldn’t the game then slowly die off?

Think about it: every time a gamer made a choice, the system’s voice-overs would mock the player.

A game that scolded players!

Exhilarating!

Gamers with a little backbone would start smashing their computer mouses, right?

Pei Qian coughed slightly twice as he explained, “Voice-overs would be the way we interact with players. If players kept on running here and there; that is indeed rather boring. He would see himself as an outsider, an observer, and would easily lose interest.

“We will use the voice-overs to interact with him. For example, when he made a wrong choice, voice-over A would be activated; if he made the correct one, voice-over B would be triggered. This way, players would get some form of feedback after making every decision; he wouldn’t feel lonely or bored!”

Lin Wan saw the light as she furiously nodded.

Boss Pei was indeed the boss; he could even think of something so ingenious!

What was a genius designer?

This was!

Lin Wan couldn’t help but recall her experience working in Sun Strike Studios. In the Sun Strike Studios office, this kind of discussion was common as well. Brainstorming was done to decide on some details of a game as well as how to develop it.

However, the atmosphere was completely different! Zhou Muyan would always ask the same thing: “Are there games with similar gameplay?”

If it was an affirmative, Zhou Muyan would analyze and see if this gameplay had been successful; if it had been, he would adopt the suggestion. However, if the answer was negative or if some other game had employed the same method but failed, this idea would be instantly axed.

This was not an isolated case—most of the gaming companies in the country all did the same!

For the sake of stability, most designers did not dare to trial and error; they all veered towards learning from past cases’ experiences. Hence, many games became cast from the same mold. They were all very alike.

However, Boss Pei’s way of doing things made Lin Wan really admire him.

He did not care if there was successful precedence; he was courageous enough to be a pioneer! This setup was much more high-level than the Sun Strike Studios and Zhou Muyan!

Lin Wan reaffirmed her conviction that Pei Qian was a master designer—without a doubt!

As for Lu Mingliang, he could only continue to write furiously in his notebook. He just felt that it was awesome, but he really didn’t understand why Pei Qian was doing this. However, he knew where he stood in the company and would never voice any dissenting opinions regarding this. He would follow everything as per Boss Pei’s instructions.

After successfully convincing everyone, Pei Qian felt very satisfied.

This feeling was really nice!

This project was completely within his control!

“I want a design draft within three days and a whole workflow to be created within a week. Within two weeks, all the art resources should be ready. Any problems?” Pei Qian looked at Lu Mingliang.

Lu Mingliang immediately nodded, “Rest assured, Boss Pei, I will definitely complete these tasks!”

After speaking, Lu Mingliang—lacking in self-confidence—then asked, “Boss Pei, if we can’t finish on time; can we apply for overtime?”

Overtime was a special privilege for the exemplary employees; he wasn’t sure if he was considered one by Boss Pei.

Pei Qian thought for a while, nodded, and said, “Sure. However, you can’t go beyond nine at night. Although you guys are young, you should still take care of your bodies.”

“Yes!” Lu Mingliang was very touched.

To care so much about their welfare; besides Tengda, where else?

If he didn’t do his best for Boss Pei, was he still human?