Interactive movie-type games might not be as thrilling as shooters, but with a good storyline, they could maximize the immersive experience of VR games. Additionally, interactive movie-type games required fewer operations and had more stable viewpoints, which better suited VR characteristics.
The success rate of these two game types seemed too high—they absolutely couldn’t make them!
Although real-time strategy games seemed to have a low probability of success, the lesson of “Mission and Choice” had just happened not long ago, and Pei Qian had a bit of PTSD regarding this game type, so he decided not to consider it.
Pei Qian waved his hand: “Not suitable.”
“The game types you mentioned—if made too small, they won’t have the right effect; if made too large, the equipment can’t support them.”
“After all, the equipment hasn’t been developed yet, so it’s unclear what resolution it can achieve. Most of the games you mentioned have realistic art styles that require high image precision to be effective.”
Lin Wan nodded, feeling that Mr. Pei was absolutely right.
Especially for interactive movie-type games—if viewers saw just a bunch of pixelation, it would seriously affect the gaming experience.
“Then… Mr. Pei, if realistic art styles are difficult to implement, we can only do styles that lean more toward cartoon.”
“But VR games and cartoon styles don’t seem to go well together, do they? What type of game could we make?”
Using cartoon art styles was a clever approach when equipment performance and screen resolution were low. For example, the excellent “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” managed to create a very delicate visual feeling even with Switch’s 720p display.
Moreover, this style had distinctive features that easily left deep impressions on players.
The only problem was that the game types suitable for this art style were somewhat limited. Of course, it wasn’t completely impossible to forcibly use this style for FPS games and interactive movie games, but it would be slightly less effective, not meeting Mr. Pei’s consistent pursuit of excellence.
Pei Qian said: “To summarize, this game should have the following characteristics:”
“We need to fully consider the relatively weak performance of VR equipment at this stage, so we’ll adopt a cartoon art style, and the game’s size shouldn’t be too large.”
“Also, considering that current VR equipment easily causes dizziness for players, the game’s viewpoint changes shouldn’t be too rapid. It would be better to be relatively smooth, primarily using teleportation viewpoints.”
“The game’s operations shouldn’t be too difficult; we shouldn’t create obstacles for players due to controls.”
Lin Wan pondered thoughtfully: “It sounds like making a casual game would be better, but there are already some simple casual games among current VR games, though these games seem to have received mediocre responses.”
“Given the current equipment capabilities, casual games are indeed the safest bet, but it’s not easy to stand out, is it?”
“If we make our own VR glasses, but the accompanying game doesn’t have enough appeal, it might lower the sales of the glasses, which in turn would affect the game’s sales. That would be troublesome.”
Pei Qian said: “The reason other casual games have received mediocre responses is mainly because the designers lack ability, the investment is too small, and the gameplay depth is insufficient. If we invest heavily and create a game with sufficient depth of gameplay, then we can drive VR glasses sales through the game and successfully open up this market!”
Lin Wan nodded slightly, thoughtful.
Mr. Pei’s analysis strangely made quite a bit of sense to her.
Pei Qian continued: “My idea is to make a casual life simulation game where players are born on a deserted island. They can pull weeds, plant flowers, chop trees, and fish on the island, while also being able to visit other players’ islands.”
“Then we can add some deep cultivation gameplay to maintain player stickiness, striving to ensure that our VR glasses equipment has enough appeal even with just this one game.”
“Of course, for the specific details, you can think more about it. The design of this game is still primarily your responsibility.”
Pei Qian’s words were seventy percent true and thirty percent false. Although they sounded reasonable, they weren’t very practical.
Making casual game gameplay deep enough to keep players addicted sounded simple, but it was actually extremely difficult to achieve.
Casual games had a low barrier to entry, and so many casual games emerged worldwide every year, but how many truly stood out?
On computers or mobile phones, casual games just needed to be priced cheaply to find a market.
But the problem was that in the VR realm, wanting to play this game meant spending two to three thousand yuan to buy VR glasses. Unless the game was exceptionally good, who would be willing to spend that money?
So Pei Qian’s words sounded flawless, but the actual probability of success was very low.
Lin Chang frowned slightly, saying somewhat suspiciously: “Mr. Pei, it seems like there might be an issue? These ideas all sound a bit too idealistic. We still need to consider practical factors…”
Lin Wan immediately interrupted him: “If you don’t understand, don’t just jump in blindly. I think Mr. Pei’s approach is indeed very innovative and worth trying.”
Lin Chang: “…”
Pei Qian smiled slightly. Perfect!
As long as Lin Wan accepted this design plan, everything else would fall into place.
Lin Chang truly didn’t understand games. Although he instinctively felt something might be wrong, since Mr. Pei and Lin Wan had reached a consensus, there was nothing more to say.
“Alright, then the last question: how much should we invest?”
Developing both the game and VR glasses required money.
Late Journey Studio was jointly funded by Shenhua Group and Tenda, with equal shares, so the funding should also be equal. Of course, considering Lin Wan’s relationship, Lin Chang felt it would be completely fine for Shenhua to contribute more money.
Lin Wan made a rough estimate and said: “For a casual game, the investment shouldn’t need to be too much; ten million should be about enough.”
“As for VR glasses, completely independent development would probably cost about fifteen million, but if we just make the headset, it would be much cheaper—several million should also be enough.”
VR glasses mainly consisted of three components: the head-mounted display, controllers, and base station positioners. To save costs, they could develop only the headset, while using ready-made foreign controllers and base station positioners.
They would just need to sell their headset bundled with other brands’ controllers and base station positioners.
Lin Chang nodded slightly, thinking this investment was completely within an acceptable range. Even if it was completely wasted, it wouldn’t hurt.
Given Shenhua Group’s size, just some excess inventory in the phone department would cost more than this.
However, Pei Qian shook his head and said decisively: “That won’t do!”
“If we’re going to do something, we should do it to the best of our ability. The key to Tenda Games’ success is pursuit of excellence!”
“It’s better to spend twice the money to make a 100-point work than to save half the cost to make an 80-point work. The former will be remembered by players for a long time, while the latter will quickly be submerged among many excellent games.”
“In my view, the game’s development cost should be doubled to twenty million.”
“For the VR glasses’ development cost, let’s make it an even twenty million as well.”
He looked at Lin Chang: “If you feel the cost is a bit high, Tenda can bear more of it, which would be completely fine…”
Lin Chang hurriedly stated his position: “How could that be acceptable! We’ll stick to what we agreed upon earlier—half and half.”
Lin Chang originally thought it was completely unnecessary to invest so much money in VR. Currently, the entire market couldn’t be said to be completely open; it hadn’t even begun to sprout. Investing so much money seemed too risky.
But when Mr. Pei said “it’s fine if Tenda bears more,” Lin Chang definitely couldn’t back down.
Because Mr. Pei’s initiative in establishing this company already had some elements of helping out. Asking Mr. Pei to contribute more money—would a decent person do that?
Lin Chang had to firmly state that whatever money Mr. Pei put in, Shenhua would definitely match it. Otherwise, it would be too ungracious.
And so, all the preliminary preparation work for Late Journey Studio was finalized.
Moving forward, Lin Wan would recruit while preparing the game design plan. As for the VR glasses, they could collaborate with Shenhua Group’s mobile phone department.
Pei Qian stood up: “In that case, the preliminary preparation work is all completed. I have something else this afternoon, so I’ll leave first. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me anytime.”
Lin Wan also stood up: “Alright, Mr. Pei. I’ll definitely lead Late Journey Studio well and make this game a success!”