Chapter 40: New Project
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
When he returned to his rented apartment, Pei Qian changed into his home clothes and laid down on the sofa, enjoying the afternoon sun with an indescribable joy.
Back when he was working, he wanted to experience the feeling of having a holiday whenever he felt like it. Finally, he did it!
It was a pity that this was something he couldn’t experience constantly or the system would deem it as a violation.
He took out a can of cold cola from the fridge and after taking two sips, began to contemplate on his plans for the future.
His plan of losing money for this period of time had been progressing rather smoothly.
Be it for rental of office space, hiring of employees or purchasing of office equipment, the entire process had indeed helped him spend quite a sum from the System Funds.
Not just that, those were fixed monthly expenses where he could continue to spend money on.
That had Pei Qian feeling extremely confident!
From the perspective of spending money quickly, he had achieved his aim.
However, the company had to operate normally and the system stated that they must not be excessively slack.
Now that he had more employees, Pei Qian was faced with a new problem.
He had to decide on a wrong direction to steer the company so that they could lose money legitimately without the employees being able to tell that he had done it intentionally!
“Now, that’s going to be difficult…”
Pei Qian thought about it.
The main idea was to choose the correct game genre.
He was not going to touch mobile games anymore – that’s a huge scam!
After the lesson learnt from Ghost General, Pei Qian understood that mobile games were actually the trend thanks to the early advancement of smartphones.
Even if he could produce a trash game, there was a chance that it could excel just with the trend alone!
If that was the case, client-side games were the way to go!
The current market for client-side games could be considered to be on a downhill phase.
The biggest MMORPG in the market, Fantasy World, was similar to World of Warcraft in his previous world.
If he wanted to die, pitting himself against Fantasy World was a decent option.
However, Pei Qian realized that there was still a risk to it.
Wouldn’t it be awkward if he managed to produce something like Eastward Legend 1?
And the main thing about MMORPGs was that their playstyles were extremely similar. Even if there was something perfect like Fantasy World, there would still be people playing it if they were to create another MMORPG 90% similar.
That no longer sounded like a steady plan!
What other games could he create with a 90% similarity level that would still end up dying?
Should he try to copy Gods Rising?
They must not let that happen!
If he were to end up creating another League of Legends, he would be doomed!
In truth, Pei Qian was not certain about the type of games that would cause him to lose money as well – he could only make a decision based on his previous life’s experience.
He would just try not to lay his hands on the games that had succeeded before in his past life.
After much contemplation, Pei Qian thought of a decent genre.
In the market, there was a game that was extremely successful for that genre.
No matter how hard his employees were to work to produce it, Pei Qian was certain that their game would never reach the level of that game.
Even though there was also a successful case of a game succeeding in that genre in his previous life, the main reason for its success was largely due to the environment.
However, there was a huge change to that environment in this parallel world!
Pei Qian felt that it was a rather decent option!
Coupled with a few more modifications that were bound to fail, he would definitely be able to lose money this time round!
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more perfect it seemed – he had already considered all the various aspects.
Now, he was left with the only problem of having to deceive his hired employees (dunces) slightly.
But of course, even if he did not deceive them, it would be fine as well. As the boss, the employees would have to obey Pei Qian’s orders – that power was still his.
However, Pei Qian was a reasonable man.
There were two risks involved in forcing the employees to produce a game they did not like. First, most people might not commit to it properly and as such, the game would not be produced. If they failed to produce a game that could pass the vetting process, that would be equivalent to excessive slacking and it would be deemed as a violation.
The other case would be for the employees to suspect that Pei Qian was sabotaging the project on purpose and that would be a violation as well.
Therefore, for safety’s sake, Pei Qian still preferred to have everyone convinced so that they would complete the task. Besides, all he had to do was to tweak the key parts of the planning process so that the entire development would be steered in the wrong direction!
…
Tuesday.
Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd., Meeting Room.
Huang Sibo and the rest were seated as they looked at Pei Qian expectantly.
It was November 12 and the previous day was Singles Day where everyone had a forced holiday because of Pei Qian’s order.
Huang Sibo felt as though he was in heaven for the three days leave!
However, after the leave, he was only more convinced of a single notion.
‘Boss Pei is a good boss and I’m going to give it my all for him!’
It was the same for everyone else.
A wonderful boss as such was almost extinct!
Giving everyone a holiday for Singles Day so that those with partners could spend it with them and those without could look for one? What sort of spirit was that?
Where else could they find another boss that would take such care of their employee welfare?
Therefore, everyone was thoroughly rejuvenated and motivated after the three days of leave.
That was the case even for Bao Xu such that his bald head seemed as though it was reflecting off a sense of optimism and positivity.
Pei Qian coughed gently and looked at everyone present. “The next project we’re working on will be a FPS.”
The moment everyone heard that, they were stunned.
That was especially so for Huang Sibo.
He knew that Pei Qian’s previous work of success was Ghost General, a mobile card game.
In theory, the new project should have been a new mobile card game on a larger scale or at the very least, another mobile game!
The sudden jump in genre – especially to an FPS – was somewhat drastic and most companies would not want to do it!
After all, it was too much of a risk to take for a company that had not tried it before.
Furthermore, the trend out there indicated that mobile games would continue to grow – wouldn’t it be a waste to give up on it?
As though he already knew what Huang Sibo wanted to say, Pei Qian continued, “We’re not going to work on a mobile game project.”
“Tengda’s aim is to become a leader in the games industry. We must not let ourselves be blinded by an insignificant mobile games project. Resting in our comfort zone after earning a little? That’s not the spirit of Tengda and nor is it mine!”
“At Tengda, we’d rather go big or go home!”
When Pei Qian said that phrase, he was filled with righteousness, looking as though he was a tycoon that was overseeing his entire empire with everything under his control.
Enlightened all of a sudden, Huang Sibo nodded his head furiously.
So, that was why!
They were on different levels entirely!
Huang Sibo was only thinking about doing a safe job and keeping the company afloat.
However, Boss Pei’s ambitions were totally different!
Go big or go home… those words had Huang Sibo’s blood burning!
That was the difference in their frame of minds!
In his previous company, they spent their time thinking about how to squeeze more money out of the gamers – that was just shameless at best!
Yet, compared to Tengda… that was the difference between companies!
Pei Qian looked at everyone’s reactions and was extremely satisfied.
“Now, I’ll continue with the demands I have of this project. For this project… Huang Sibo and Bao Xu will take charge.”
“Bao Xu’s in charge of coming up with the concept design and Huang Sibo is the chief planner to execute it.”
Bao Xu and Huang Sibo were both stunned as though they had misheard him.
‘Holy shit! Such an important task?!’
Concept design could be considered as the soul of a game.
As for executing the main plan, one would be responsible for the progress and ensure that the game was smoothly produced.
Basically, Pei Qian had just casually assigned the two most important positions of the design team!
It wasn’t so bad for Bao Xu. After all, he did not have much clue about the structure of a gaming company and did not realize that he had taken on such an important role.
However, Huang Sibo was completely stumped.
Executing the plan? He was going to be the chief planner in a single leap?
That was equivalent to a six year progression of his career!
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