After arranging the work at Shangyang Games, Pei Qian returned to his office and reconsidered his upcoming tasks.

The game department’s work had all been confirmed: Tenda Games would develop “Eternal Cycle,” Shangyang Games would develop “Safe and Civilized Driving,” and Chixing Studio would develop “Real Estate Agent Simulator VR.”

Among these three games, it seemed that only “Eternal Cycle” had a higher probability of making money; the other two games should be relatively safe bets.

There wasn’t much of an issue with “Eternal Cycle” either, since it was just a DLC. They could price it as low as possible, and it wouldn’t matter even if they made a small profit.

The main mission of “Eternal Cycle” was to make the base game “Turn Back to Shore” free.

As long as the base game “Turn Back to Shore” successfully became free, it would be worth it overall even if “Eternal Cycle” made a little money.

As for other departments, they had plenty of tasks as well.

At Headwind Logistics, Lü Mingliang had been preparing seriously for three months, and the inter-city air freight business was about to officially begin.

For Endpoint Chinese Website’s copyright development, besides the “Eternal Cycle” game, Fei Huang Studio was also going to shoot a web series of “The Successor” abroad. Additionally, they needed to establish an animation department to adapt the novel “Agent Academy,” which was set in the GOG universe, into an animation.

The publicity department still needed to work hard to make the reverse publicity effect more and more obvious, but this was all Meng Chang’s job, so Pei Qian didn’t need to worry about it.

For GOG, they still needed to pay attention to IOI’s movements. Pei Qian was thinking they could ease up a bit and give IOI a breather, making sure not to accidentally knock IOI down—that would be troublesome.

Outu Technology needed to cooperate with Shangyang Games to make a steering wheel for driving simulation.

Tenda’s experience stores would continue to open. Although the current store in Jingsheng Plaza had a lot of foot traffic, it only looked busy but wasn’t profitable. Considering it was the first store and located in Jingzhou, the high foot traffic was understandable. Opening more stores should burn more money.

Then there was Rabbit Tail Livestream, which Pei Qian also planned to pay some attention to.

After Pei Qian’s previous “suicide operation,” Rabbit Tail Livestream’s traffic had dropped significantly. Although they later organized activities like the “BP Proof Tournament” to help the website recover, the overall development momentum had indeed been curbed.

Pei Qian figured that now Rabbit Tail Livestream’s situation was more optimistic, so he could consider letting it share some responsibility and burn some money.

Finally, there was the office building, but there was no rush for this matter. According to the system’s rules, infrastructure projects weren’t bound by settlement periods, so they could start anytime.

Building a large building wouldn’t be completed in just a few months, so starting a day earlier or later wouldn’t make much difference.

Pei Qian considered talking to Liang Qianfan first, letting him choose a location for the building and produce an initial design plan. Then, after the movie box office and other funds were in place, they could start building the office—there was no hurry.

As long as they ensured that the money was spent before this settlement period, it would be fine.

There were many other projects, but Pei Qian didn’t plan to pay special attention to them unless there were unusual circumstances. After all, he had long established the principle of “managing the big and letting go of the small”—it was impossible to manage all projects, so he could only focus on some of them.

Pei Qian stretched lazily and glanced at his work memo.

“Hmm? Without realizing it, it’s August already.”

“Doesn’t that mean… it’s time for my third favorite part—’Bao Xu’s Travel’?”

Tenda had two outstanding employee evaluations each year, in February and August.

Six months passed so quickly, in the blink of an eye. The memory of Bao Xu going to Egypt with Liang Qianfan to see the pyramids was still fresh, as if it had happened just yesterday.

“Bao Xu’s Travel” had become a traditional retained project, becoming Pei Qian’s third favorite activity.

What were the first and second?

Of course, they were losing money at settlement and Meng Chang getting base salary.

If we were to rank further, “Qiao Laoshi’s Haunted House Tour” might rank fourth, making up “Mr. Pei’s Four Great Joys in Life.”

“I wonder which place Bao Xu will choose to travel to this time?”

Pei Qian didn’t even consider the possibility that “Bao Xu wouldn’t go traveling.”

Because from all indications, this was practically a certainty!

Previously, Pei Qian had wanted to protect Bao Xu, even writing a letter of commendation, but in the end, he only showed it to Bao Xu to scare him a bit, stopping short of sending it out.

But unexpectedly, the food market became popular, the TV station interviewed him, and Bao Xu’s meritorious contributions to the food market suddenly became common knowledge!

Now Pei Qian couldn’t protect him anymore.

In the past six months, the most successful project should be “Mission and Choice,” after all, it was a major project that had been in development for nearly a year. Both the game and movie were successful, so the best employee would definitely come from this project.

Huang Sibo’s contribution was the greatest since he led the entire project, but the problem was that Huang Sibo had already received a Dream Fund once and wouldn’t receive it a second time.

The official explanation for this rule was that once an employee had received the Dream Fund, it meant their dream had been realized, so they wouldn’t get it a second time, leaving the opportunity for others.

But in reality, Pei Qian’s true thought was that if an employee received the Dream Fund, was transferred to another department, and still made significant contributions, it meant this person could succeed regardless of how many times they changed positions. There was no need to repeatedly waste valuable spots in the first-to-be-eliminated system on such a person; it was more practical to eliminate others.

In short, Huang Sibo wouldn’t receive this award again.

Excluding Huang Sibo, Hu Xianbin, Min Jingchao, and Zhu Xiaocai all had a great chance.

But considering that the gaming department, as Tenda Group’s core department, had always had the reputation of “Tenda’s Elite” and had a natural advantage in voting.

Hu Xianbin had already been responsible for more than one game, so even based on seniority, it was probably his turn.

Although Doubt VR glasses were also very successful, Chixing Studio wasn’t part of Tenda Group and didn’t participate in the selection.

As for second place…

Although other departments had their own achievements, such as Outu Technology making the smart fitness clothes rack and Shangyang Games developing “Fitness Battle,” Bao Xu had unparalleled advantages in competing for this second place.

The cyberpunk-style food market was a huge success, generating enthusiastic responses and even TV coverage. Indirectly, it led to Tenda acquiring food street shops, causing complex chain reactions after the subway plan was announced—these achievements were outstanding.

In this project, Bao Xu had rendered distinguished service: he proposed the style, designed various interactive elements in the food market, and worked tirelessly back and forth.

Zhang Yahui, the person in charge of the food market, believed that Bao Xu’s contribution far exceeded his own.

Moreover, as an employee of the game department, Bao Xu worked tirelessly for the food market project, setting an excellent example.

Finally, “Bao Xu’s Travel” was the popular choice—many people would likely try to vote him into second place.

So, after thinking it over, Pei Qian felt that this travel spot would inevitably go to Bao Xu.

Now the worth considering questions were: what would Hu Xianbin do after getting the Dream Fund? Who would take over for Hu Xianbin and become the new person in charge of Tenda Games? And where would Bao Xu choose to travel?

Pei Qian couldn’t help but look forward to Friday’s outstanding employee selection!

…

…

August 2nd, Thursday.

Outu Technology meeting room.

Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou were discussing “Safe and Civilized Driving” and the issue of developing a compatible steering wheel with Chang You and Jiang Yuan.

After yesterday’s brainstorming, Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou had quickly written out the design concept draft for “Safe and Civilized Driving.”

Based on their understanding of Mr. Pei’s initial design ideas, the steering wheel was obviously very important for this game.

So, on the day after writing the design concept draft, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin came to Outu Technology to arrange the steering wheel matter as soon as possible, ensuring that this peripheral could be released together with the game.

The design concept drafts had been printed out, with Chang You and Jiang Yuan each having a copy. They looked at the design draft while listening to Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin explain the core gameplay of this game.

“This game is too realistic,” Chang You couldn’t help but sigh after understanding the various settings of this game.

Although he didn’t know much about games, he knew what these “inhumane” settings meant in a racing game.

Using severe punitive measures to make players follow traffic rules even in the game—only Mr. Pei would come up with such a design; other game designers probably wouldn’t have such courage.

Of course, Chang You and Jiang Yuan wouldn’t question this design plan at all. Everyone had their areas of expertise, and game design was the gaming department’s business, especially since this was Mr. Pei’s design plan.

Who would dare to question Mr. Pei’s game design skills?

For Chang You and Jiang Yuan, the key was how to cooperate with Shangyang Games to make this steering wheel peripheral well.

Wang Xiaobin said, “Although I’m not particularly knowledgeable about simulation steering wheels, we happen to have someone in our project team who is very passionate about racing simulations, so I consulted with him yesterday and did some intensive study on the relevant knowledge.”

“Now let me share the basic situation with everyone.”

“There are many gaming steering wheels on the market currently, ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of yuan, with very noticeable differences.”

“Gaming steering wheels can be roughly divided into two categories: entertainment steering wheels and realistic steering wheels.”

“Realistic steering wheels can be further divided into two types: gear or belt-driven force feedback steering wheels, and direct drive steering wheels using stepper motors or servo motors.”

“Basically all those under a thousand yuan are entertainment steering wheels. These steering wheels have no force feedback, relying solely on primitive mechanical structures like springs or elastic cords to center the wheel. The steering wheel can’t turn by itself and can’t simulate tire state changes—in simple terms, they’re just reskinned controllers.”

“Entry-level force feedback steering wheels and direct drive steering wheels are both considered realistic steering wheels, just with different specific structures. The mainstream force feedback steering wheels typically cost between two to three thousand yuan, making them entry-level models among realistic steering wheels.”

“The force feedback in these steering wheels is mainly through gear, belt drive, or a combination of gear and belt. Compared to entertainment steering wheels under a thousand yuan, the experience rises to a significantly higher level, making them the first choice for beginners.”

“The last type is direct drive steering wheels.”