Pei Qian judged from He An’s expression that he was really angry.
That was quite normal; who wouldn’t be angry when he was being cheated?
Ruan Guangjian’s ‘Boss Pei’ explained everything. He An must have now understood that Pei Qian tricked him into thinking that he was ‘Ma Yang’ during their lessons.
As to how He An himself understood this matter…
That was difficult to say.
Pei Qian felt that he would make more mistakes if he were to say anything extra. He should wait for Teacher He to ask before answering him.
Pei Qian quickly broke the ice after thinking about it. “Teacher He, would you like a cup of coffee?”
He An’s sullen face looked a little better, but he was still silent.
The two of them walked into Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and found a place to sit down. The waiter came over immediately to take their orders and came back expeditiously with two cups of coffee.
He An drank his coffee. Boss Pei’s ‘Teacher He’ made him cool down significantly.
He should be angry now, but his mood was a little complicated besides being angry.
He An would have left if it was anyone else, but to Boss Pei… he had to reconsider.
There seemed to be many suspicious points here; he had to have clarity before doing anything else.
The ‘Boss Ma’ who took his lectures—that actor in Boss Pei’s Daily Life—was actually the real Boss Pei. Then, the problem came. Why did Boss Pei act as Boss Ma to get me to teach him?
Could he be worried that I would not teach him if he said he was Boss Pei himself/
Hmmm… that was possible. I would probably not take on this job if I knew that it was to teach Boss Pei. I would most likely meet him and discuss with him generally; neither would I have seriously prepared those lessons nor taken his money.
So Boss Pei wanted to learn from ground zero?
That did not seem possible.
Boss Pei already had his genius mind even if he did not study all these so why bother to learn it all again?
It was luck if he made one successful game, but it was not just luck if he made so many successful games…
Or was it that Boss Pei originally wanted to subvert these game design concepts? Was that why he made ‘Struggle’ that deliberately contradicted my theory?
Or, as a genius of game design, his ideas were too far away from common men that to complete a textbook-like work like ‘Struggle’, they had to accept the design concept from traditional designers?
Were the breakthrough innovations he made based on traditional ideas?
Both of them drank their coffee silently with thoughts on both their minds.
Pei Qian thought for a long time but did not think of a suitable reason.
Why did he need to learn that? Because it was a requirement from the system.
This reason was impossible to tell him!
Then, would it be possible to tell He An that he actually did not understand game design? He just wanted to learn some basic knowledge? Too many successes and wanted to learn from failure experiences as well?
He An would probably splash his coffee all over his face before he had a chance to finish then.
He An would definitely be pissed off if he heard all these.
That was too difficult!
Pei Qian did not want it to continue this cold war so he said tentatively: “Teacher He, I actually have some special reasons for doing what I did. It is just not convenient for me to tell you.”
“Boss Pei, I’m guessing that you feel that the knowledge from a common man will help you better see the problems you might have overlooked before?” He An said after being silent for a short while.
“Just like some talented artists and musicians would find some ordinary artist for inspiration after they did not know how better to continue after their huge successes, right?”
Pei Qian: “?”
He An took a sip of his coffee and continued. “You did make me very angry having concealed your identity, but thinking about it carefully, I probably would not have been so serious about teaching if you told me who you were from the start.
“Moreover, you have been addressing me as ‘Teacher He’, and you had been listening very intently when I spoke about Tengda Games. Obviously, you wanted to re-examine your game from another angle.
“I spoke about ‘The Landlord Game’ in the lecture and expectations for domestically-produced standalone games. You responded very well with the game ‘Struggle’; to be honest, I’m very pleased with this.
“Therefore, as a gracious person, I’ll let bygones be bygones!”
Pei Qian never expected that He An would actually figure everything out by himself even though he did not say anything.
Erm…
Had the imagination supplement that happened to the employees started to happen with people around him on a large scale?
Pei Qian was silent for a moment. “Uh… Teacher He, there is some truth in what you said, but it is not all because of that.”
He An was a little stunned. “Oh?”
Pei Qian thought about the wording a little. “In fact, the game ‘Struggle’ deliberately added some failure elements. The main reason is to experiment and see how these failure elements would affect a game…
“However, by some stroke of luck, these failure elements also succeeded…”
Pei Qian did not want to take all the success of ‘Struggle’ for himself. To be honest, he had always been distressed about the praise given to him by the outside world.
That was because most contents in it were not his intentions at all!
Boss Pei’s persona would become higher and higher if they were to continue praising him like this. He would also fall badly if the fall came for him in the future.
Pei Qian did not really care about it. He was more worried that the people who gave him that persona could not take the difference.
Therefore, he had to set the expectations right and not let everyone expect too much of himself by keeping a low profile.
Pei Qian nearly wanted to write ‘I’m just a normal person’ on his face.
Pei Qian wanted to work hard to dispel the false impression that the success of ‘Struggle’ was strategized by Boss Pei.
Of course, it was not possible for him to tell others that he wanted to lose money. However, to put it in another way… which was to experiment for the various failures of games. It was much easier to accept and would not cause too much doubt.
He An froze for a moment. “Intentionally add some failure factors to the game and see how they impact the game?
“Boss Pei, is it possible that you have reached the stage of ‘gaining whatever you want’? You can even achieve success even if you added some failure factors at will?
“Are you… challenging me?
“Boss Pei, you might have the qualification to say that, but I must still say, young man, don’t be too arrogant! Pride makes the fall; how can you talk as though you are ‘Dugu Qiubai[1.’Dugu Qiubai is a fictional character appearing in Jin Yong’s novels, literally meaning ‘Alone and Lonely, Wishing For Defeat.]’?
“It is not easy to make a successful game; isn’t it easy to make a failed game?
“Think about it clearly: it is not as easy to become successful again if you were to fail.”
Pei Qian found that the more he explained, the more He An misunderstood.
However, He An’s words made Pei Qian’s eyes shine.
It was easy to lose money by making a game?
“Why don’t we do this? Teacher He, how about this? Please tell me a type of game that would definitely fail… let me challenge myself.”
He could always say that he was challenging himself, not deliberately losing money to make games that fail.
Some truths could not be told. He An would not be able to believe in him anyway.
Only such a statement would be able to be accepted by He An.
Let He An think of a path that would inevitably fail. It must be a surefire way!
He An’s mouth twitched slightly. “Yo, are you provoking me?
“You’ll make a failed game according to what I say?”
Pei Qian nodded fiercely. “Of course!”
He An laughed. “That’s easy! Make an RTS game; not too much—invest 200 million yuan. The engines were ready-made, and a large part of the development time and cost had already been saved. Doing this would definitely result in a loss!”
Pei Qian nodded. As expected, Teacher He also felt that RTS games could lose money! That was the same as what he told him in class.
However, it did not seem that reliable if it was just the game type.
“What about other aspects?” Pei Qian asked.
He An was shocked. “So confident?! In that case, invest another 300 million yuan to make a CG; it will definitely lose all your money!”
“As for the subject, I don’t need to limit it since you will be investing 500 million yuan if you add CG. If you can’t make a loss with this…”
“…then you are incredible.”
He An panted but did not dare set any flag that was too damaging.
500 million yuan investment? Pei Qian thought.
Hmm, it would be a little troublesome to squeeze out this amount of money, but that was okay in the name of losing money.
What was more, this 500 million yuan was not to be invested all at once. Such a game would definitely need to be developed across two settlement cycles. It may take a year to develop it so it would not be a big deal to squeeze out 500 million yuan during such a long time.
Pei Qian nodded thinking about this. “Alright, Teacher He, that will be the next Tengda game!”
He An nearly spat his coffee out.
“Are you really going to make RTS games?”
He An originally thought that Boss Pei was just joking. Looking at Boss Pei’s expression, it seemed like he really wanted to challenge himself?
“Boss Pei, that is 500 million yuan! Are you sure you don’t need to think about it?”
Pei Qian smiled. “No need!”
His loss was set in stone, looking at He An’s expression!
What else was there to think about if it was a definite loss?
He An did not know what to say after he was dumbfounded.
That 500 million yuan did not seem to mean much to Boss Pei!
Could it be possible that Boss Pei had plans once he heard about RTS games? Could there be some method I don’t know about?
He An was convinced: what was this called? The courageous and daring!
He had always felt that the young should not be too arrogant and vigorous.
However, Boss Pei’s heroic and vigorous appearance seemed to have made him see himself when he was a teenager.
Would he be a young man if he was not vigorous?
He An could not help but admire him from the bottom of his heart and give him a thumbs-up. “Alright, Boss He, the matter of you lying to me will be total bygones if you really do this. Not only that, but I’ll also be your mouthpiece on Weibo!”
“There is no need to be my mouthpiece! If this game really makes me lose all my money, then I will ask Teacher He for more tips,” Pei Qian hurriedly said.
He An: “?”
Boss Pei was really a maverick game designer; what he said was so plausible and unpredictable.
