Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 672: Teacher He is the Guiding Lantern

Tengda naturally was on holiday during the seven-day National Day Holiday.

The last cycle just ended. Pei Qian’s personal wealth had reached 2.2 million yuan, which was very touching. He could take his opportunity to have a good rest.

His parents had finally moved to the new house.

Pei Qian’s plan went very well. He first got them to choose the furniture and household appliances and got them to stay there for a few days to bring some life to the house. The house was a gift to them naturally.

However, while Pei Qian came to the new house near the high-speed rail station prepared in advance, he was still shocked by the furnishing style within.

The full set of solid wood furniture was big and heavy; they were all dark brown, The TV wall was filled with lotus, large landscape paintings on the wall, and green plants that could be seen everywhere in the living room, bedroom, study—everywhere.

Yes, there was no need to consider anymore. This house would be given to them. He would not live in it no matter what they said, he thought silently.

However, Pei Qian really did not need this house anymore. The Sloth Apartments were so comfortable. There were cleaners and butlers; there was no need for him to tidy the house.

Pei Qian did not have any plans for the current two million personal wealth yet either.

He would save it first so that he could better resist the risk.

...

October 8th, Saturday, work as usual...

Pei Qian came to the office early because he had two things to do today.

First, arrange which department to receive shock therapy and the Tengda Cornerstone Award.

Next, to assign a new game development task to Tengda Games.

The departments for shock therapy and the Tengda Cornerstone Award for this cycle were really a little hard to decide.

The shock therapy was prepared for the department that made the most money but most departments seemed to be making money during the last cycle, but none of them made Pei Qian really anxious.

Obviously, the most profitable of all was IOI’s 500 million shares. However, should this be counted towards Dream Realization Ventures or Shang Yang Games? None of them seemed very suitable.

It was a historical issue, strictly speaking.

Should he give Old Ma the shock? That seemed pointless as well.

Therefore, Pei Qian thought for a long time and decided that this cycle should be to shock Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Of course, the shock would only be for the management; the stores would continue their normal operations.

The management arranged the location and renovation of the new store before going into shock for three months. The store employees would be paid extra wages based on salary standards. The money would be spent without backstabbing this way, which was perfect.

Tengda Games and Shang Yang Games should also be shocked, but he was still counting on their normal operations to burn money for this cycle so he could only spare them.

The choice for Tengda Cornerstone Award gave Pei Qian a headache as well.

Fish-Catching Take-Out would have undoubtedly gotten the award if they had lost money up till now, but they had already betrayed him so they were not eligible for this award.

The other departments that Pei Qian had high hopes for include the Deposit Fitness gym, Sloth Apartments, etc. They all basically had problems now and could only kiss this ‘last place reward’ goodbye.

Upwind Logistics had gotten it once; it was impossible to give them repeatedly, right?

Pei Qian finally decided to give this prize to Otto Technologies after some thought.

Otto Technologies might not have done anything, but they had only spent money without production. That in itself was a merit.

It would be a waste not to give the reward. Find the best fitting one and make do with it.

Pei Qian handed over the commendation to Assistant Xin after he was arranged and then began to think about the new game.

This cycle only had four months, which was totally not enough for a well-made RTS game.

Not to mention CG, it was simply not enough.

Therefore, Pei Qian thought about dragging this game to the next cycle and spent more money.

However, he had no idea how to make this game.

Pei Qian did not want to decide for himself, let alone Hu Xianbin and the others. No matter which one it was, it seemed that there would be no good results.

Therefore, it was better to ask Teacher He for help!

Pei Qian made a video call to He An.

It was connected in no time.

He An had left Jingzhou and returned to his residence. Judging from the video, it seemed like he was reading a book while drinking tea quite leisurely.

“Boss Pei? What’s up?” He An drank his tea leisurely.

“Teacher He, I would like to ask for your advice for the new game,” Pei Qian asked very humbly.

“Pfft!”

He An nearly choked.

For some reason, people would always feel that Boss Pei was acting arrogant whenever he was being humble.

Fortunately, He An had gotten used to it. He coughed twice before saying: “Didn’t I say everything clearly? What else is there to ask?”

“RTS game, spend 200 million yuan on the game itself, spend 300 million yuan on the CG, a total of 500 million yuan—it was absolutely challenging.”

He An repeated what he said previously.

Pei Qian nodded. “I know, Teacher He. But there is still not enough.

“Do you want to consider the details?

“For example, what theme? What type of story background?

“Should the operations of the game be hardcore or simple?”

“You’re also letting me choose this, too? The challenge is hard enough; you want to add more?” He An was slightly shocked on the other end of the video call.

Pei Qian nodded quickly. “Yes, add it up!”

He An became silent.

So confident?

The difficulty for the RTS game wasn’t enough; you want to add on to the challenge?

Sure, I hope you don’t regret it.

He An considered for a while before saying, “There are actually not many options for the theme. There are only science fiction, western fiction, and eastern fiction.”

“Sci-fi theme would be ‘Starcraft’, Western fiction would be ‘Fantasy Battle’, Eastern fiction... no one has done it yet.”

Pei Qian was delighted. “Then, should I make an Eastern fiction RTS?”

He An smiled. “Didn’t you want it to be challenging? The Eastern fiction RTS has the lowest challenge!”

Pei Qian was stunned.

He An took a sip of his tea and continued. “There are almost no RTS games produced locally that could be regarded as successful. If you make an RTS game with the theme of the Three Kingdoms or Ancient mythology, it would become very popular even if the quality was average since it would be the only one!

“The chances of it becoming successful are still rather big if overseas players purchase it because they are interested in Eastern culture.

“If you want a challenge, you should choose western fantasy or sci-fi; how about going up directly against Fantasy Battle and Starcraft?”

Pei Qian was hit with a realization.

Indeed, a seasoned veteran was valuable for his experience and insights.

If he did not ask Teacher He and made an Eastern fiction RTS game, he might even make profits!

What He An said made sense after thinking carefully.

Competing on the wrong footing would on the contrary increase the substantiality.

On the contrary, RTS games already had jewels like Starcraft and Fantasy Battle previously. Wouldn’t it become a head-on battle if he were to make a similar one?

Excellent!

Teacher He was really scheming; he felt like he could definitely win this time!

Pei Qian raised his eyebrows with joy and continued. “Okay, let’s do it then! Teacher He, please continue, what about the difficulty of the game?”

He An frowned and looked carefully at Boss Pei’s expression on the cell phone screen.

He seemed to be happy?

So confident?

I don’t believe you dare to do as I say!

He An continued. “The operations of the game have to be simpler.”

Pei Qian was stunned. “Huh?”

He An smiled. “What’s with your “huh?” You don’t dare to do it?”

Pei Qian scratched his head. “It’s not that I don’t dare to, Teacher He. Are you sure making something simple will give me a loss... oh, no, I mean be more challenging?”

He An frowned slightly, a little confused whether Boss Pei was speaking the truth or was he acting. “Of course, there was no doubt about this.

“RTS games are now on a decline, but there were so many old players so the most important thing is nostalgia!

“If you make the operations more cumbersome like Fantasy Battle and Starcraft 2, it would naturally be welcomed by hardcore players. That is the target group of players for RTS games.”

“Starcraft 2 was released the year before the previous year, many people must have complained about it, but its sales are not low at all. The expansion pack released last year was also well-received.

“It might be impossible to reproduce the brilliance of Starcraft, but from a commercial standpoint, it is very successful!

“Making RTS games more difficult is the correct way to do it. The purchasing power of these hardcore players is very scary if you can meet their requirements.

“On the contrary, if the RTS game is simple, then it would be very embarrassing. For hardcore players, the game was too simple and boring to play; for normal players, it is an RTS game that can never be comparable to GOG no matter how simple it is. They wouldn’t touch it.”

Pei Qian was stunned again.

That’s right! Teacher He made a lot of sense!

Pei Qian had learned about game design so what He An said made absolute sense to him.

“Alright, I understand, Teacher He! You are really my guiding lantern! I will definitely treat you to a good meal at a nameless restaurant when the game is done!”

Pei Qian thanked him profusely before hanging up.

He An looked at the ‘video call ended’ on the cell phone, baffled.

Boss Pei seemed to have said... guiding lantern?

...

Pei Qian knew in his heart that there was hope after he hung up.

Make a low-difficulty sci-fi or western fantasy RTS game for 500 million yuan, it would definitely lose money!

So the question was whether to make sci-fi or western fantasy?

He decided on sci-fi in the end.

On the one hand, Starcraft 2 was released more than a year ago but still had some popularity until now. The possibility of failure was greater if he were to go head-on with it.

Going head-on with Fantasy Battle that was released nine years ago might not have such a high probability of failure.

On the other hand, there were a lot of heroes in GOG that were suitable for western fantasy background, Pei Qian was afraid that—when the new game and GOG would be seen as one—all the GOG players would be attracted to that. It would be troublesome.

It was not impossible looking at his previous experience.

Therefore, it was better to work on a sci-fi theme. The possibility of failure was higher and would burn more money!