Seeing the bewildered expressions on both their faces, Pei Qian could hardly resist giving himself a thumbs up.

I’m simply too clever!

Pei Qian’s current requirement was to turn GTA into a movie and “The Matrix” into a game.

That just sounded completely wrong!

The film script proposed by Zhu Xiaocai was mainly considered from the perspective of grand scenes and visual impact.

Compared to games, films have a shorter length, so they should focus on showcasing spectacular scenes that dazzle the audience.

Moreover, Zhu Xiaocai’s protagonist was clearly tailored for Lu Zhiyao.

This protagonist, as the leader of the resistance, simultaneously possessed two different qualities: on one hand, he was decisive, brave, and firm, full of fighting spirit, willing to pay any price to achieve his goals, even sacrificing himself to become a war machine.

This aspect was somewhat similar to Captain Qin Yi in “Mission and Choice.”

On the other hand, at the end of the story, he would display complex emotions and feel confused. Although he overthrew Tenda, he fell into a dilemma, becoming unprecedentedly hesitant and weak, which was a bit like the protagonist in “Beautiful Tomorrow.”

If Lu Zhiyao were to play this role, it might become another classic in film history.

It felt extremely dangerous!

Meanwhile, the game design proposal put forward by Ye Zhizhou was considered from the perspective of gameplay.

Players would start from the very bottom of society, beginning as street thugs and petty thieves, all the way to stealing a wealthy person’s identity and doing “big business.” Their activities would become increasingly substantial and thrilling.

These changes were very obvious and had a large span, making them more suitable to be presented over a dozen hours of gameplay in a single game.

Moreover, the protagonist’s personality was clearly not as vivid as the protagonist in Zhu Xiaocai’s film script.

Each player might imbue the game protagonist with different emotions as they experienced these events, which was also the advantage of games compared to films.

In short, both individuals’ starting points were very sound.

Moreover, they would certainly have a deeper understanding of their own ideas. Swapping them might not necessarily allow them to accurately grasp the essence of each other’s ideas.

Once swapped, the ideas and themes would become incompatible to some degree, and this was precisely the key to Pei Qian’s plan to lose money.

Of course, could they still be made after swapping the ideas? They certainly could.

The film could definitely be produced, and the game could definitely be made. They might even still receive good reviews, but… they likely wouldn’t be blockbuster hits.

As long as they weren’t massive hits, everything would be fine.

Because whether it was a game or a film, the investment would be enormous. As long as they didn’t become huge hits, it would be difficult to recover the costs, resulting in a situation where they received praise but not profits.

Additionally, once these two major works were released, they would deliver an invisible blow to Tenda’s reputation, coordinating with the offensive from large companies like Zhujia Group and Shengyun Express, resulting in immeasurable losses.

Therefore, Pei Qian was very satisfied with this!

He felt that making the two people swap ideas was a stroke of genius, averting a huge crisis!

Zhu Xiaocai and Ye Zhizhou were both stunned for a moment, clearly somewhat unwilling.

My idea! Why give it to someone else?

Of course, neither of them said anything, after all, they were good friends who saw each other frequently. It didn’t seem appropriate to directly reject each other’s ideas face to face…

Moreover, this was Mr. Pei’s personal directive.

But no matter what, it was still a bit uncomfortable.

Because they could also sense that these two ideas had different starting points. The game idea wasn’t very compatible with the film theme and would definitely require many adaptations, and vice versa.

Whenever there’s adaptation, there’s great uncertainty, making it easy to fail.

But after hemming and hawing for a long time, the two of them still didn’t say anything.

Because they both felt that since Mr. Pei had said so, he must have very clear thoughts and objectives. The reason everyone didn’t understand now was because they hadn’t yet comprehended these thoughts and objectives.

If that was the case, they should try to understand first, rather than rushing to reject.

If they really couldn’t figure it out, they could speak up later.

Seeing the troubled expressions on their faces, Pei Qian couldn’t help but secretly rejoice.

Good, this was a good sign!

If that was the case, he would let them worry about this project.

With the game and film issues resolved, one of Pei Qian’s concerns was addressed, and next, he could settle down to research his paper.

Although this cycle had just begun, Pei Qian felt inexplicably confident!

…

…

March 11th, Monday.

Yu Fei arrived at the company right on time, sat at his workstation, and began to conceptualize and design the game plan that Mr. Pei had assigned last week.

Actually, he used to arrive fifteen minutes early, but recently, the technique of clocking in precisely on time had become very sophisticated.

The reason was very simple—advance practice!

Everyone had heard that Mr. Pei had already requested the TPDb website team to develop an internal office chat software with a clock-in function. Unlike the current software, the new clock-in ranking wouldn’t reward early arrivals, but rather the precision of clocking in exactly on time!

The more precise you were at clocking in for work, the more substantial rewards you could earn.

Although they didn’t know exactly what kind of substantial rewards there would be, Tenda’s “substantial rewards” were definitely very, very generous and would certainly not disappoint.

Thus, many people had already started practicing to adapt to this rhythm in advance.

This task sounded simple, but it actually had a certain degree of difficulty because you couldn’t wait in line at the clock-in area in advance. As soon as you arrived, you had to clock in. If you arrived early, then you’d clock in early, failing to achieve the effect of clocking in exactly on time.

The front desk staff was watching, and no one could break the rules.

You had to pass through at a normal walking pace and then clock in for it to count as a valid score.

As for when to set out, how fast to walk through, whether to factor in crowding in advance, and how to make your time as close as possible to the theoretical limit… these were all points that could be explored in depth.

True masters were often defined by whether these details were properly handled.

Of course, one could also choose to go with the flow and not pursue a high rank in the clock-in timing, but no matter what, this method of ranking clock-in precision would make everyone less eager to arrive early and leave late. This subtle change was the true intent of this software.

Yu Fei got a cup of coffee, turned on his computer, and continued to study Director Zhu Xiaocai’s idea.

After studying it for a day on Friday and naturally having some associations and new understandings over the weekend, by Monday, Yu Fei began to appreciate the ingenuity of this idea.

Although Yu Fei was just a self-taught game designer, he had already developed two games and had been immersed in the industry for so long that his understanding of games had become quite profound.

He discovered that compared to Ye Zhizhou’s proposal, Zhu Xiaocai’s proposal seemed more suitable for making into a game!

Of course, both were good ideas, just with different focuses.

Ye Zhizhou’s design proposal featured a small character from the lower class gradually climbing up, from initial petty theft to kidnapping a wealthy person and changing identities in the middle, and finally to being eliminated by Tenda at the end. It indeed had rich gameplay, but expressing this story through a game somehow seemed a bit off.

First of all, diverse gameplay types didn’t necessarily equate to a fun game.

From petty theft to intense gunfights, the gameplay was indeed varied, but was petty theft necessarily interesting? Not necessarily.

Although this story also had gunfights, they only occupied a small part of the game. It seemed that there would be more dramatic content, which might not maximize the release of players’ excitement.

Secondly, the disillusionment at the end was actually a bit excessive for a game.

After players’ hard work for so long, they would end up on a dead-end road with nothing to show for it. Although this had certain ideological implications, it would definitely be uncomfortable for players.

Many AAA titles had also adopted such endings, and the final results couldn’t be said to be bad, but they weren’t particularly good either. Players who liked it really liked it, but there were indeed some players who were very unwilling to accept it.

Looking at Director Zhu Xiaocai’s idea, on the other hand, it showed improvement in these two aspects.

As a member of the resistance, continuously modifying oneself through gene serums and mechanical arms to obtain powerful combat abilities, often creating iconic one-against-many scenes.

Although the overall combat form was relatively singular, the scenes could be upgraded, and the enemies faced would change. This continuous spectacle would bring sustained excitement to players.

Less drama, more action—it seemed more suitable as a carrier for games.

And this ending would be easier for players to accept.

Because at least on the surface, the protagonist overthrew Tenda through various means. Although the future was uncertain and the truth was unclear, with many ways to interpret it, at least the players’ efforts were not entirely in vain.

Of course, once the idea was switched, the approach to the game would be completely different.

The previous approach would likely lean more towards an open-world type of game, requiring all scenes from the lower, middle, and upper levels to be meticulously crafted and detailed, with the focus mainly on some life-like plots.

The protagonist wouldn’t have many superpowers, and his combat power would be limited to a relatively weak level, so the combat system would be relatively simple, somewhat like a more traditional shooting game.

The current approach, however, would focus on some grander war scenes. Each time the protagonist injected gene serums or modified his mechanical arms, he would gain brand new abilities, leading to a more science fiction and superhuman combat mode that was more diverse, with more exaggerated battle scenes.

Comparatively, the development difficulty actually decreased.

Because lower-level life scenes were actually harder to create than grand war scenes. The cost-effectiveness of development wasn’t high, and there was also a certain risk of delays.

The more Yu Fei considered it, the more he felt that Mr. Pei was truly impressive!

Objectively speaking, these two ideas would succeed regardless of how they were executed.

Because they were both very good stories in themselves. Whether made into films or games, only the approach would differ. As long as adjustments were made to the stories to accommodate the characteristics of games, neither would be bad.

But even if both would succeed, there would still be huge differences in the grasp of details and the ultimate potential.

And this was where Mr. Pei surpassed everyone else!