Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Ye Zhizhou looked at what he had written in his notebook.

Why did it look like… everything was the exact opposite of what they had set before? It didn't seem like Pei Qian had any intention other than to give opposite directions.

"Does Boss Pei have the secret to always creating successful games?

"Does he round up all the special points of common games in the market and then purposely go in the opposite direction in order to allow gamers to experience a completely novel feeling?

"Ugh…"

Ye Zhizhou found this quite ridiculous. Not only was it insulting to Boss Pei, but it was also insulting to himself.

If it were so easy to succeed, why did he have to rack his brains every day about what kind of game to create?

However, on closer inspection, Ye Zhizhou found yet another problem. Some opposite directions that Pei Qian had given sounded extra ridiculous.

Take Boss Pei's request for them to create a web-based horror game, for example. How the h*ll were they supposed to do that?!

Two people or more would be playing the horror game at the same time… would that even be terrifying?!

There was no other game like it in the market!

Yet, when looked at from another angle, perhaps that was precisely what would make the game novel and refreshing. Perhaps that was precisely what would make the game a hot topic of discussion.

Without realizing it, Ye Zhizhou found himself caught in a whirlpool of emotions. Many thoughts were floating across his mind, causing him to feel dizzy.

Wang Xiaobin obviously felt equally dizzy.

He did not think that it was possible to create a game that complied with Boss Pei's requirements.

That was because there was currently no other game like it. How were they supposed to come up with one entirely from scratch?

"Boss Pei, can you give us some more tips?"

Pei Qian giggled inwardly.

Some more tips?

I cannot give you any more hints. Figure it out for yourself. I couldn't ask for anything better than for the game to incur losses.

Pei Qian was just about to turn down the request when Lin Wan spoke.

"That's enough. Boss Pei has already given us a general direction to follow. These instructions would contain the game's deeper meaning.

"We'll put together our gaming experience over the past few days to chew on it. We need to have independent thoughts. We cannot always be like babies, crying piteously for food and waiting for Boss Pei to spoon-feed us."

Pei Qian was speechless. "…"

Good job, Director Lin! You said exactly what I was thinking.

Wang Xiaobin lowered his head, feeling ashamed.

That's right. Boss Pei has already given us a general direction. Are we incapable of even settling the finer details and tying up loose ends? If so, we would be undeserving of our titles as designers!

"We'll go and think of a new plan, then." Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou returned to their work desks and got busy.

Pei Qian asked Lin Wan to remain behind and briefed her on Otto Technologies.

Before this, Pei Qian had already briefly told Lin Wan that he recruited Chang You. However, he had done that over the phone, and so the conversation had been quite short.

Now, Pei Qian planned to spend a bit more time discussing things in detail. After all, Lin Chang was the director of Otto Technologies. She was ranked higher than Chang You.

If Lin Wan washed her hands off Otto Technologies, even if the business failed, Lin Wan would not feel defeated in any way. That reduced the chances of her leaving Tengda and returning home to take over her family business.

Pei Qian's ultimate aim was to make Lin Wan feel like she had contributed significantly to Otto Technologies' development. When the products failed, Lin Wan would have a deep sense that she was not cut out for this work. In addition to Shang Yang Games' eventual failure, this would cause Lin Wan to be severely disheartened.

"As for Chang You… I know that society, people in the industry especially, views him negatively. However…"

Pei Qian felt slightly worried. If Lin Wan and Chang You did not get along, Lin Wan might end up shifting all responsibility for the business's failure to him. Again, she might not return home to take over her family business.

Lin Wan subtly shook her head. "Boss Pei, you don't have to worry. Since you selected him, I trust something is outstanding about him.

"We're in the Internet age, and we are constantly being bombarded with information. Yet, we are also seeing an unprecedented shortage of facts. Rumors can spread across the globe overnight. Yet, no one cares about the refutations that can also be found online.

"Similarly, details of a person's disgraceful past can spread like wildfire overnight on the Internet. Many people would think that they know a person inside out after reading such things.

"Yet, the bombardment of information online hides the person's true colors.

"Although I don't agree with my father on many things, I agree with what he says about the Internet. He always emphasizes that the Internet is not omnipotent and that the bombardment of information could ironically blind someone.

"Boss Pei, I believe that you had your own considerations when you made Vice-President Chang in charge of Otto Technologies.

"Since you trust him, I will definitely trust him as well."

Pei Qian was momentarily speechless. He had not even said anything, and yet Lin Wan had stolen the words right out of his mouth.

"Yes… of course, that's a good thing. However, as the head, you are integral to Otto Technologies as well. You must not remain out of the picture."

Pei Qian was hinting at Lin Wan to get more involved with the cell phone business, so that she would feel more like a contributor.

This way—once the cell phone business failed, Lin Wan would naturally feel heavily responsible. That would make her want to go home and take over her family business all the more.

Lin Wan nodded. "Don't worry, Boss Pei. I will supervise Otto Technologies. While I avoid being overly-involved, I will also make sure to set the future direction for them. I'll make sure that they will develop a spirit similar to Tengda's and that they do what is expected of them."

Pei Qian was very satisfied. He felt like his employees were cooperating very well with him and like he had the entire situation in the palm of his hands.

…

After Boss Pei left, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin returned to their work desks and began racking their brains.

This was too difficult!

Boss Pei had given them so many restrictions. How should they design the game?

The 'web-based game' requirement was already hard to deal with. On top of that, they were not allowed to come up with a storyline, make use of ghosts and monsters, or design a powerful weapon system.

They were completely bewildered. They had received assignments from Boss Pei before, but their assignments had always been relatively simple.

For example, Boss Pei once asked them to get rid of all purchase options but a basic one in Bloody Battle Song. After much thought, Ye Zhizhou finally came up with the 'Chosen One' system.

That was because the game already had a complete framework. Ye Zhizhou only had to make minor alterations to it.

It was the same when they worked on the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song as well. Basically, there had been no change to the game's framework. They had still been working with familiar material; that was why everything went smoothly and easily.

However, this time was completely different.

Horror games and standalone games were uncharted territories for the company. Boss Pei had also given very hazy directions. They felt like they were groping around in the dark.

Not knowing how to proceed, they both turned to face Lin Wan. Everyone at Shang Yang Games was considered inexperienced at guessing Boss Pei's true intentions.

"Director Lin, come and brainstorm with us. What kind of game does Boss Pei want us to create?"

Lin Wan casually pulled a chair over and sat down. She remained silent for a while before saying, "Actually, I'm a beginner at guessing Boss Pei's intentions, too. I'm still a far cry from a lot of other seniors.

"However, I have learned a lot from Bao Xu. I can share these lessons with you."

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin quickly retrieved their notebooks again and listened closely to Lin Wan.

It's coming! The important learning point is coming!

What was the core competitive strength among employees in Tengda?

It was the ability to guess Boss Pei's intentions!

As the main leader of Tengda Corporation, Boss Pei was ambitious and far-sighted. At the same time, he had a unique, deep, and accurate understanding of the market and gamers' psyche. Often, when Boss Pei gave them a game to work on, he would already have an idea of what the game would look like and how the market would react in the end.

Thus, whether each project could succeed or not depended on how well the employees understood Boss Pei's intentions.

Now, Director Lin was going to share with everyone how to guess Boss Pei's intentions. Without a doubt, this was as valuable as treasure!

Lin Wan recalled her days working in Tengda Games and thought about how Bao Xu explained a lot of Boss Pei's actions. She had wanted to summarize these lessons a long time ago, and now, she had found an opportune moment to do so.

"First, we can be confident that Boss Pei's directions are always right. We must ignore all costs and follow them. You may think that this sounds superficial, but this would be the foundation of all your inferences.

"You should take Boss Pei's points as self-evident and absolutely axiomatic. On that basis, you can start making inferences."

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin felt slightly light-headed. It was almost as if they were students attending Philosophy classes all over again.

Yet, this was to be expected. These were important concepts. It would be strange if they found them easy to understand.

Both of them continued listening closely.

Lin Wan spoke again. "When Bao Xu worked on Ocean Stronghold, he used Boss Pei's axioms as his starting point. He kept rejecting content that did not fit with the axioms and adding content that did. Finally, he completed the game's first prototype.

"Now, we can do the same.

"We'll take the first point first—the most important one. The horror game must be a web-based one. Games that allow multiple players to enter at once can only involve cooperating or fighting.

"Players could fight with the computer or with other players. The former would mean multiple players have to work together to solve puzzles. The latter would be similar to war games. Since Boss Pei has emphasized that we should not come up with a storyline, we can't have two or more people working on puzzles together.

"That means we must design the game so that people have to cooperate with or fight one another."

"That means our game could take on a similar model to many other board games. There could be a time limit of ten minutes to two hours. Depending on the number of players, there could be different tasks. Between the players, we could also use both the cooperation and fighting models."

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin nodded.

That analysis clarified many things!

Most importantly, they had decided to base the game on board games. Now, both of them could roughly picture what the game would look like.

Lin Wan looked at them and said, "You can try figuring out the rest."

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin exchanged a look, feeling like they had just been called on by the teacher to answer a question. The question had already been solved halfway, but the students now had to complete the answer.

Ye Zhizhou pondered for a moment and said, "We can't include ghosts and monsters, but can have insane people at most. That's another important clue.

"There aren't many examples among other games, but what if we look at movies?"