Chapter 310: A Brand-New Direction
Chapter 310: A Brand-New Direction
Inside the office, Pei Qian stared at the employees’ replies on the internal forum, mute and speechless, with only a long sigh left.
He had clearly intended to persuade everyone to slack off more and work less, yet it was forcibly interpreted as a motivational pep talk—and judging by the reactions, it actually seemed… pretty successful!
Seeing all the employees declaring that they would “take care of their health, improve their professional skills, and work even harder for Tengda,” Pei Qian felt exhausted in his heart.
He wanted to reply a few lines, but for a moment, he couldn’t find any words.
Forget it. Just leave it like this…
As long as the intention got across, it was fine. There had to be at least some people who slackened off a bit because of that letter, right?
Pei Qian pulled out his little notebook, preparing to roughly plan out the tasks for the next cycle.
Although this cycle was very long—five whole months—because he had previously burned through too much loss potential in advance as a desperate measure, this month the revenue capacity of each industry might sharply increase.
To avoid ending up hiding in the little dark room crying at the end of the cycle, he had no choice but to plan ahead and prepare in advance.
He must cut off danger while it was still in the bud!
Pei Qian thought for a moment. The first and foremost issue was Lin Wan and Shangyang Games.
Previously, he had already reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Lin Chang and Lin Yu. He also had a preliminary plan on how to arrange Lin Wan’s next assignment.
Pei Qian decided that while Lin Wan continued to handle Shangyang Games’ business, she would also take charge of a brand-new field.
This way, Lin Wan would inevitably be spread too thin and unable to handle both sides well, greatly increasing the chance of failure.
Shangyang Games had just moved into a new office building. Employee benefits had skyrocketed, and every aspect of their treatment now matched Tengda. Their daily expenses had already jumped significantly.
As long as the new game failed and the new business failed, not only could all the profits earned by the mobile version of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition be completely wiped out, but it could also conveniently drag down the parent company, Tengda.
Just thinking about such an exciting scenario filled Pei Qian with anticipation!
They had just produced a wildly successful game. Lin Wan must be feeling extremely inflated right now.
Humans… it’s exactly at these inflated moments that they’re easiest to deceive.
Pei Qian quickly figured out how to arrange things for Lin Wan and Shangyang Games. Once he had a general direction, he called the driver and headed to Shangyang Games’ new office.
…
Reception Room.
A newly hired administrative assistant brought tea for the two of them.
Lin Wan sat across from Pei Qian, full of pride and expectation. Clearly, she couldn’t wait to begin developing the next game.
Seeing Lin Wan’s look of triumph, Pei Qian silently sighed in his heart.
How did things end up like this…
In the end, it was all Lin Yu’s fault! It’s miserable having pig teammates!
This time, he must learn from the lesson. No matter what, they could not make another mobile game!
Pei Qian made this resolution in silence.
Lin Wan took a sip of tea. “President Pei, the morale across the entire company is excellent right now. You could say our fighting spirit is at its peak.”
“After a thorough period of rest, everyone is eager to dive into brand-new work.”
“I have to say, your internal letter was beautifully written. It greatly boosted the employees’ morale. While reminding everyone to maintain their fighting spirit, it also provided warm humanistic care.”
“You were incredibly thoughtful!”
Pei Qian held his teacup, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Please stop mentioning that internal letter! What I wanted to express was not at all what you all understood!
He originally wanted to say something, but hesitated and held back.
Forget it. No need to dwell on it.
However, judging from Lin Wan’s current mental state, the situation at Shangyang Games was pretty much exactly what Pei Qian had expected.
If you word it nicely, they were “high in morale.”
If you don’t word it nicely… they were “inflated.”
Since everyone was inflated, it would make things much easier for him to execute his plans.
Pei Qian sipped his tea, maintaining his usual calm, detached demeanor.
“The new game… no need to rush. It’s not too late to make it after you’ve really thought it through.”
“Do you have any good ideas or concepts?”
Lin Wan clearly expected this question from President Pei and had prepared well in advance.
“Yes! I’ve had some basic discussions with Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin. We all believe that to continue the success of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, we should keep pushing forward on the path of premium mobile games!”
“Right now the mobile version of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition only has a net monthly revenue of four to five million, and the TPDb score is only 89. Our hope is that the next mobile game can reach ten million net monthly revenue, with a rating above 95!”
Pei Qian’s hand trembled as he held his teacup.
Having goals is nice, but could you stop saying such terrifying things out loud!?
Pei Qian remained silent for a moment.
“…I remember Wang Xiaobin originally wanted to make a single-player game.”
Before deciding to make Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, Pei Qian had done a simple lottery—he had every employee at Shangyang Games submit a design proposal, and he would select one.
Back then, Wang Xiaobin’s proposal was a safe, low-ambition single-player game.
At the time, Pei Qian felt its lower bound wasn’t low enough. Even though it had some potential to fail, compared to Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, its failure probability was far too low.
So he passed on it.
But now, Pei Qian was filled with regret.
If possible, he wouldn’t mind “mending the pen after losing the sheep,” digging up that old single-player proposal again, and turning it into the new project for Shangyang Games.
Lin Wan smiled. “Yes, Wang Xiaobin did want to make a single-player game back then.”
“But I remember your evaluation at the time, President Pei—you said his approach was too conservative and mediocre, lacking innovation.”
Pei Qian coughed twice. “Ahem, that was then. Now is now.”
“I just want him to modify the game a bit… make it more ‘special.’”
“That proposal was actually pretty well written, really.”
Pei Qian tried his best to make his expression look sincere enough.
Lin Wan gave a soft smile, wearing a look that said “President Pei is comforting his employees again.”
“I understand what you mean, President Pei.”
“Wang Xiaobin did try to revise it, just as you asked.”
“But while he was revising it, Turn Back Before It’s Too Late was released.”
Pei Qian: “?”
Lin Wan explained, “Originally, Wang Xiaobin had many ideas he thought were pretty good. But after seeing Turn Back Before It’s Too Late, his entire outlook was overturned, and his confidence took massive damage.”
“He felt that no matter how he changed his design, it could never reach the level of Turn Back Before It’s Too Late. Compared to it, his game was nothing but trash. So he decided to scrap the entire thing and start over from zero.”
“After that… it just fizzled out.”
“The last time I asked him about it, he said the new proposal only has a little over two hundred words. He hasn’t even finalized the redesigned core gameplay or the updated story.”
Pei Qian: “…”
How is this suddenly related to me???
The success of Turn Back Before It’s Too Late hit Wang Xiaobin so hard that he scrapped his entire previous design and decided to start over?
Doesn’t that mean… that proposal is gone now?
Pei Qian felt a pang in his heart.
Young people these days are way too easily influenced!
They hit the slightest setback and immediately give up? How is that acceptable?
Originally, Pei Qian planned to have Shangyang Games follow Wang Xiaobin’s old ideas to make the next game.
That way, even if the game didn’t lose money outright, it would likely be so mediocre that it wouldn’t earn much—at least not enough to burden President Pei with pressure.
But now? No chance.
Even Wang Xiaobin himself is disappointed in his old proposal. What can Pei Qian do?
Seeing Shangyang Games on the verge of continuing the success of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition and diving right back into mobile game development, Pei Qian felt this harmful trend must be stopped!
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian slowly spoke:
“Continuing to make mobile games… I don’t think that’s advisable.”
“Hm? Why?” Lin Wan listened carefully.
President Pei’s words still carried great weight in her heart.
Pei Qian paused, then said earnestly:
“People should have the courage to step out of their comfort zone and constantly challenge themselves.”
“Continuing to make mobile games and earning a little bit of financial success—such small profits are insignificant.”
“True success comes from creating a high-quality game, achieving both reputation and profit. That is what truly fulfills a game developer’s ideals!”
Lin Wan nodded, deeply convinced.
But after thinking for a moment, she said:
“However… none of the three of us have a solid, reliable game idea.”
“Even if we want to make a premium game, we don’t know where to start.”
Pei Qian leisurely sipped his tea.
“Well… I can provide…”
“A general direction.”
Lin Wan’s eyes lit up with surprise. “What is it?”
“Horror games.” Pei Qian said with a completely serious expression.
Lin Wan froze. “Huh?”
She thought about it, then said with visible hesitation:
“A horror game… no one in our team has ever made one. Oh, actually, not just horror games—none of us have made any kind of traditional single-player game before.”
“And besides, no one on the team has really played horror games. They’re basically not interested in the genre at all…”
“Saying they’re completely clueless wouldn’t be an exaggeration…”
Pei Qian smiled faintly.
They’ve barely played horror games?
Isn’t that perfect!
The reason Pei Qian thought of horror games was mainly due to the inspiration he got from Xia Jiang and the others’ amusement-park incident earlier.
After the documentary crew fled Jingzhou overnight in terror, Pei Qian asked the Tengda staff who had accompanied them to the amusement park and roughly confirmed the participation rate of each attraction.
After investigating, he found that although many of the extreme rides—like the drop tower, roller coaster, and giant pendulum—were terrifying, most of them still had pretty high participation.
Probably because people think “Well, we’re already here,” or “It’s free anyway.”
But among all the attractions, there was one with the lowest participation rate:
The haunted house.
And it wasn’t just the documentary crew who hated it—almost all visitors to the amusement park avoided the haunted house.
After looking into it, Pei Qian confirmed that among all the facilities in this Jingzhou amusement park, the haunted house had the lowest popularity.
It ultimately came down to two reasons:
-
Many visitors—especially women—might dare to ride a high-altitude attraction but won’t dare enter a haunted house. And since their boyfriends can’t just leave them behind and go in alone, this naturally filters out a huge portion of potential customers.
-
The haunted house’s set design was crude, and the experience was extremely short. So even the few visitors who were interested came out disappointed and never went a second time.
Inspired by all this, Pei Qian felt that this “experience” could be carried over into game development!
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