Yan Qi asked urgently, “Sister Li, how should we analyze the source of Mr. Pei’s inspiration?”

Li Yada paused slightly before saying, “Regarding this point, my friend can’t be 100% certain either, these are just speculations. After hearing her out, I thought her ideas made sense, but you should evaluate them yourself.”

Yan Qi immediately nodded. “Of course.”

After all, this was secondhand information that had passed through several people, so inevitably some details would be lost or misinterpreted.

Besides, nobody truly knew what Mr. Pei was thinking.

Even designers who had worked with Mr. Pei could only make educated guesses about his true intentions, and any speculation would inevitably contain some inaccuracies.

Yan Qi certainly wouldn’t believe everything blindly. If what Li Yada said made sense, he would listen and might gain some inspiration. If it didn’t make sense, he’d simply disregard it—either way, he had nothing to lose.

After establishing this disclaimer, Li Yada continued, “Actually, to trace the source of Mr. Pei’s inspiration, we mainly need to start with the basic requirements he provides.”

“Obviously, Mr. Pei derives these requirements from his sources of inspiration. These requirements form the cornerstone of game design, from which he determines the ultimate form of the game.”

“This ultimate form has its core completely locked down by Mr. Pei, with only the external presentation allowed to vary within certain limits. And these variations don’t actually affect the essence of the game.”

“After setting the general direction, Mr. Pei only needs to check in periodically to ensure the game hasn’t strayed too far from his vision, and everything will be fine.”

“That’s the basic development process at Tenda.”

“Reverse-engineering Mr. Pei’s sources of inspiration from these basic conditions is certainly challenging. After all, there are fewer inspiration sources but many basic conditions, making it difficult to determine which conditions were directly derived from the inspirations and which were supplemented later by Mr. Pei based on the game’s final form.”

“This has been a sticking point that troubled my friend for a long time.”

Yan Qi nodded in deep agreement.

This was precisely what had been puzzling him.

According to the speculated design process, Mr. Pei would start with a few sources of inspiration, then derive basic game requirements from those inspirations, and finally design the actual form of the game.

But there was an additional step after that—supplementing a few more basic requirements based on the game’s actual form, because these requirements were meant for designers to ensure the game wouldn’t go off track.

To use an analogy, if Mr. Pei wanted to build a building, he would first place several pillars on the ground and then envision what the completed building would look like based on these pillars.

But with just these few pillars, other designers might not be able to meet Mr. Pei’s requirements. So, Mr. Pei would add several more pillars based on his vision of the completed building.

Together, these two sets of pillars would completely lock down the shape of the building, allowing other designers to construct exactly what Mr. Pei wanted.

Yan Qi’s current confusion lay in how to distinguish between these two sets of pillars.

He needed to identify which were Mr. Pei’s original inspirations and which were added later.

It was like when building a house—all walls might look similar, but some are load-bearing walls that cannot be removed, while others are not load-bearing and can be demolished.

If one made the wrong identification, treating non-load-bearing walls as load-bearing or removing load-bearing walls, the consequences would be severe.

Li Yada said, “This can be both very difficult and quite simple.”

“If there’s only one design plan, it would indeed be impossible to distinguish.”

“But if we could review every game Mr. Pei has designed, collect all the requirements he’s put forward, and then compare and analyze them, we could naturally extract their commonalities.”

Yan Qi suddenly had a moment of clarity.

Yes! That was it!

With just one game, it wouldn’t be possible.

But with the requirements Mr. Pei had put forward for all his games, summarizing and filtering these requirements would naturally lead to a relatively accurate answer!

The more samples there were, the closer the inferred patterns would be to the truth!

Though he hadn’t yet arrived at any usable conclusions, Yan Qi was already quite convinced by Li Yada, feeling that she was truly insightful and had opened a new world for him.

Li Yada continued, “Because there are so many games involved, my friend didn’t explain each one to me in detail, but she did share some of the patterns she had identified.”

Yan Qi nodded. This made sense. Given the number of games Mr. Pei had made, even if Li Yada’s friend, as a designer, had thoroughly analyzed all these games, she wouldn’t have shared all the details with Li Yada.

The key was the final result.

Li Yada said, “In summary, Mr. Pei does indeed have certain starting points when deciding to create a game. Some of these can’t be referenced or learned, but there are parts that can be used for reference, and they reflect certain patterns in game design.”

“First, Mr. Pei likes to create game types he’s never done before, and even within the same game type, he chooses a completely different entry point.”

“Among the various game types, Mr. Pei particularly favors niche games with smaller audiences, striving to make them appeal to mainstream tastes and thereby break through market barriers.”

“Second, Mr. Pei likes to do the opposite of what’s popular in competing games on the market, choosing unexpected approaches.”

“But this difference must not violate the core fun and objective rules of the game, achieving an effect that seems bizarre on the surface but makes sense upon careful analysis.”

“Third, Mr. Pei believes that one shouldn’t always cater to players’ superficial habits and ideas, but should strive to discover their deeper desires.”

“That is, trying to find the deeper pleasures that the same gameplay can bring to players.”

“Finally, in terms of packaging, Mr. Pei chooses story backgrounds that best represent traditional Chinese culture and are relatively iconic, incorporating philosophical reflections that resonate with domestic players.”

“In summary, Mr. Pei is very good at doing the opposite of what’s popular on the market.”

“On the surface, this seems to go against players’ tastes, but it actually breaks the formulaic thinking that players are tired of, guiding them with another, deeper kind of pleasure, and standing out among numerous games.”

Yan Qi listened attentively while quickly taking notes on his computer.

These concepts sounded somewhat abstract and theoretical. Without corresponding examples for reference, they were actually quite difficult to grasp.

Yan Qi couldn’t understand them deeply yet, but he could gradually comprehend them by comparing them with Tenda’s games.

After finishing his notes, Yan Qi quickly scanned through these patterns and had a moment of realization: “So my previous thinking was completely wrong.”

“I thought that ‘Turn Back to Shore’ had already achieved perfection in the field of Chinese action games, but that was looking at the problem with a rigid, static perspective.”

“What I’m seeing now is actually what Mr. Pei saw two years ago.”

“If Mr. Pei were to decide to make an action game now, it would definitely be vastly different from ‘Turn Back to Shore.'”

“And if I want my game to succeed, I must learn from Mr. Pei and try to think from his perspective.”

Li Yada nodded with satisfaction. “Exactly, that’s the principle.”

Yan Qi’s previous ideas had been completely overturned. He furrowed his brow and began to think seriously.

‘Turn Back to Shore’ certainly hadn’t become outdated even now, but he absolutely couldn’t make a game that imitated it.

Because Mr. Pei’s games succeeded by being ahead of their time.

If Yan Qi wanted to succeed, he definitely needed to learn from Mr. Pei and design a game that was ahead of its time.

It had to be significantly different in style from ‘Turn Back to Shore.’

Yan Qi understood clearly that he couldn’t reach Mr. Pei’s level, and the action game he made would almost certainly not reach the heights of ‘Turn Back to Shore.’

But there’s a saying: aim high and achieve the middle. Striving for 100 points might result in 90, but aiming for just 60 points might lead to failure.

Therefore, Yan Qi had to work toward Mr. Pei’s direction. This way, even if his game didn’t become a massive hit, at least it could be profitable and lay a solid foundation for future blockbuster games.

“So… Sister Li, how should I go against the grain?”

“‘Turn Back to Shore’ did go against the grain of previous Chinese action games by forcibly increasing the difficulty. If I were to go against that and lower the difficulty, wouldn’t I just be going back to square one?”

“That doesn’t seem to work either.”

Li Yada smiled slightly. “Of course you can’t go back.”

“What we call ‘going against the grain’ isn’t a straight line but a spiral upward process. Going against the grain doesn’t mean retracing your steps, but pursuing higher development after consolidating existing patterns.”

“As for how exactly to spiral upward, that’s the question you need to think about—I can’t help you there.”

In truth, Li Yada could design, but she didn’t want to interfere too much.

Teaching someone to fish is better than giving them fish. She had already imparted the methodology to Yan Qi; whether the game could be made and what level it would ultimately reach depended on Yan Qi himself.

Yan Qi quickly said, “Thank you so much!”

“If Sister Li hadn’t enlightened me, I might still be thinking about making a game that imitates ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ which would likely end in failure.”

“Although I don’t have any ideas for the new game yet, the general direction is much clearer now!”

“You’ve shared such valuable insights with me, I really don’t know how to thank you!”

Li Yada smiled. “No need to thank me, thank Mr. Pei if you must.”

“Having more and more excellent domestic games is Mr. Pei’s long-cherished wish and something he’s always been promoting.”

“Creating an excellent domestic action game would itself be a form of repayment.”

“In my view, you don’t actually lack anything except the right methods and approaches, as well as confidence and courage.”

“Now that you’ve mastered the methods and approaches, as long as you maintain your confidence and courage, you’ll definitely succeed!”