Chapter 329: A Standardized Process for Guessing President Pei’s Intentions
Chapter 329: A Standardized Process for Guessing President Pei’s Intentions
Ye Zhizhou looked at the few points he had written down in his notebook.
It felt like… weren’t these just all the directions they had previously agreed on, but flipped completely upside down?
Aside from being “reversed,” there didn’t seem to be any other new ideas…
‘Could this really be President Pei’s exclusive secret to always making successful games?’
‘Summarize all the conventional features of games on the market, then deliberately go against them, creating a sense of unprecedented freshness for players?’
‘Uh…’
Ye Zhizhou felt this line of thinking was a bit absurd—it seemed like it was not only insulting President Pei, but also insulting himself.
If success were really that easy, why would he rack his brains every day over what kind of game to make?
But after taking another careful look at those points, Ye Zhizhou noticed a new problem.
Some of the ideas became downright ridiculous once reversed.
For example, President Pei wanted them to make an online horror game.
How the hell was that supposed to work?!
Two people—or even more—playing a horror game together? Would that even be scary?
There didn’t seem to be any similar examples on the market at all.
But then another thought occurred to him: maybe it was precisely because there were no such examples that the game would feel novel enough, and generate enough buzz?
Ye Zhizhou unconsciously sank into a whirlpool of speculation, countless thoughts spinning in his mind and making his head spin.
Wang Xiaobin was clearly just as dizzy.
He felt that if they followed President Pei’s thinking, this game simply couldn’t be made.
After all, if you’d never seen a similar game before, how were you supposed to design it?
“President Pei, could you give us a few more hints?” Wang Xiaobin asked.
Pei Qian sneered inwardly.
More hints?
Absolutely not. You figure it out yourselves—if the game loses money, I couldn’t be happier.
Just as Pei Qian was about to refuse, Lin Wan spoke up.
“This is already more than enough. President Pei has helped us set all the major directions. The deeper meaning of the game is contained within these few hints.”
“Combine them with your gaming experiences from the past few days and think carefully. You need independent thinking skills. Don’t always act like babies waiting to be fed, expecting President Pei to spoon-feed you.”
Pei Qian: “……”
Director Lin, well said! You voiced exactly what I was thinking.
Wang Xiaobin lowered his head, feeling a bit ashamed.
That’s right, President Pei had already nailed down the big picture. If they couldn’t even handle these minor details, wouldn’t that be far too unworthy of their identities as designers?
“Then we’ll go think up some new ideas right away.” Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou returned to their respective desks and got busy.
Pei Qian, meanwhile, kept Lin Wan behind, intending to briefly talk about matters related to Outu Technology.
Previously, Pei Qian had already given Lin Wan a rough idea of his plans for Chang You’s position, but that conversation had been over the phone and fairly cursory.
Now, Pei Qian planned to spend a few minutes discussing it in more depth.
After all, Lin Wan was the nominal director of Outu Technology, half a rank higher than Chang You.
If Lin Wan completely washed her hands of Outu Technology, then even if the phone project failed, she wouldn’t feel much frustration—let alone leave Tengda and go back to inherit the family business.
Pei Qian’s ultimate goal was to have Lin Wan also make an “important contribution” to the development of Outu Technology. That way, when the product inevitably failed, Lin Wan would deeply feel that she simply wasn’t cut out for this line of work. Combined with the failure of Shangyang Games, this would naturally give rise to a sense of discouragement and disillusionment.
“Regarding this Chang You, I know that in society—especially within the industry—there are many unfavorable speculations about him, but…”
Pei Qian was a bit worried. If Lin Wan didn’t get along with Chang You, and when the phone project failed she pushed all the blame onto Chang You, then the goal of getting her to go back and inherit the family business would still not be achieved.
Lin Wan gently shook her head. “President Pei, you don’t need to worry.”
“Since he’s someone you’ve chosen, I believe he must have some outstanding qualities.”
“Now is the internet age—an age of information explosion, and at the same time, an age of unprecedented information scarcity.”
“On the internet, rumors can spread across the world overnight; yet voices that debunk those rumors also exist online, but no one pays them any attention.”
“Similarly, on the internet, so-called ‘dark history’ about a person can spread like wildfire overnight. Many people think that just because they’ve seen a few things online, they understand that person.”
“But the real person is instead buried beneath the information on the internet.”
“Although I disagree with many of my father’s views, he has always emphasized that the internet is not omnipotent, and that too much information can actually blind people. On this point, I agree with him.”
“I believe that since President Pei chose Chang You to be in charge of Outu Technology, you must have your own considerations.”
“Since President Pei trusts him, then I will certainly trust him as well.”
Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.
He hadn’t even said much yet, and Lin Wan had already said all the nice things for him.
“Mm… that’s naturally for the best.”
“However, as the director, you are also indispensable to Outu Technology. You mustn’t treat yourself as an outsider.”
Pei Qian was hinting to Lin Wan to get more involved in the phone business and appropriately increase her sense of participation.
That way, when the phone project failed, Lin Wan would naturally develop the feeling that she should shoulder part of the blame, and would be even more inclined to go back and inherit the family business.
Lin Wan nodded. “President Pei, rest assured. On the premise of not excessively interfering with Outu Technology’s established development strategy, I will supervise them, ensure that their overall direction aligns with the Tengda spirit, and fulfill the responsibilities I ought to fulfill.”
Pei Qian was extremely satisfied with this response. He felt that his employees were cooperating in a mysteriously perfect way, and that everything was proceeding under his control.
…
After seeing President Pei off, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin returned to their desks and started scratching their heads.
This was way too hard!
President Pei had given them so many constraints—how were they supposed to make this game?
Just the requirement of being an “online game” alone was already hard enough to deal with, not to mention the explicit demands of no story, no ghosts, and no strong weapon system.
They were completely at a loss.
Previously, the two of them had indeed received tasks from President Pei, but those tasks were usually very straightforward.
For example, when President Pei asked them to cut all monetization points from Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition except for the most basic one, Ye Zhizhou thought about it for a long time and came up with the “Chosen One System.”
That was because the game itself already had a very complete overall framework, and Ye Zhizhou was merely making minor adjustments within that framework.
The same was true later when they worked on the mobile version of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition. The basic structure hadn’t changed—it was still the familiar setup—so the work went smoothly.
But this time, it was different.
Horror games and single-player games were both fields they had never touched before, and the direction President Pei had given was extremely vague, so naturally they felt completely lost.
With no other choice, the two of them turned their eyes to Lin Wan.
When it came to deciphering President Pei’s intentions, everyone at Shangyang Games was a rookie by comparison.
“Director Lin, could you help us think this through as well? What kind of game does President Pei actually want us to make?”
Lin Wan casually pulled a chair over and sat down. After pondering for a moment, she said, “To be honest, when it comes to interpreting President Pei’s intentions, I’m still just a beginner. Compared to some of the veterans, I’m still far behind.”
“However, I have learned a few things from Bao Xu.”
“I can share them with you.”
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin hurriedly pulled out their notebooks in unison and listened with full concentration.
Here it comes—the important part!
What is the core competitiveness of working at Tengda?
It’s the ability to interpret President Pei’s intentions!
As the helmsman of the entire Tengda Group, President Pei was always far-sighted and visionary, with an exquisitely precise grasp of the market and player psychology.
When President Pei assigned a project and asked everyone to make a game, he often already had a clear picture in mind of the game’s final form and its market reception.
Therefore, whether a project succeeded or not depended on how deeply everyone understood President Pei’s intentions.
And now, with Director Lin sharing her method of interpreting President Pei’s intentions, she was undoubtedly sharing a treasure trove!
Lin Wan recalled her time working in Tengda’s game department and all of Bao Xu’s interpretations of President Pei. She had long wanted to summarize these insights, and now she finally had the opportunity.
“First, we need to establish one thing: President Pei’s direction is absolutely correct, and we must spare no effort to carry it out.”
“You might feel that this sounds a bit abstract, but it is the foundation of all reasoning.”
“You can treat the points President Pei gives as self-evident absolute axioms, and then derive everything else based on them.”
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin felt a little dizzy, as if they had gone back to their days as students in philosophy class.
But that was only natural. If something this important were too simple and easy to understand, that would be suspicious.
The two of them listened attentively.
Lin Wan continued, “When making Ocean Fortress, Bao Xu started from the few axioms President Pei provided. He continuously eliminated elements that were incompatible with those axioms, and continuously added elements that matched them, eventually refining the complete prototype of the game.”
“Now, we can do the same.”
“First, the first and most important point: this horror game will be an online game.”
“The multiplayer elements in online games boil down to nothing more than cooperation and confrontation.”
“Confrontation can be divided into ‘confrontation with the game’ and ‘confrontation with other people.’ Confrontation with the game means multiple players solving puzzles together, while confrontation with other people refers to competitive, repeatable gameplay.”
“Since President Pei emphasized that there should be no story, the path of two or more players cooperating to solve puzzles is blocked.”
“So naturally, the only design direction left is a multiplayer, cooperative-yet-competitive, repeatable gameplay model.”
“In other words, something similar to many board games: sessions lasting between ten minutes and two hours, with multiple players participating, each with different objectives, featuring both cooperation and opposition among them.”
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin nodded together.
After analyzing it this way, everything suddenly felt much clearer!
Especially after narrowing the target down to something resembling a board-game-style format, the two of them finally had a rough outline of the game taking shape in their minds.
Lin Wan looked at them. “You can try handling the rest yourselves.”
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin exchanged glances. It felt a bit like a teacher guiding students through a problem—solving half of it, then leaving the rest for the students to finish on their own.
After thinking for a moment, Ye Zhizhou said, “No ghosts or monsters—at most, there can be madmen. That’s also a very important clue.”
“It’s hard to find good examples in games. Should we maybe shift our focus to films?”
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