After leaving Tenda Group headquarters, Old Song immediately called Qiu Hong, the person in charge of the Independent Game Incubator.

Qiu Hong had already expanded the Independent Game Incubator to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other culturally developed first-tier cities. The scale was growing larger, and the incubator was accommodating more and more independent game producers.

However, he hadn’t stopped there and was still wholeheartedly promoting the Independent Game Incubator.

After all, there were still many independent game producers in China who needed support, and Qiu Hong’s work was actually arduous and far-reaching.

Fortunately, this “grassroots” activity was limited to various departments within Tenda; otherwise, Qiu Hong would have been delivering packages for Headwind Logistics too.

Old Song quickly connected the call and briefly explained Mr. Pei’s arrangements to Qiu Hong.

Qiu Hong was surprised: “The Independent Game Incubator is supposed to produce the flagship title for the gaming router?”

“Are you sure this is Mr. Pei’s request?”

Old Song said helplessly, “I also think this is a bit outrageous, but these were indeed Mr. Pei’s exact words.”

Qiu Hong considered this for a moment, then asked further, “What else did Mr. Pei say? Did he mention what kind of game he wanted? At least there should be a general direction, right?”

Old Song shook his head: “Mr. Pei only said we definitely couldn’t fool players with a remastered old game, and ‘The Future You Choose’ would launch two months after the gaming router, so the timing wasn’t suitable.”

“It would be best to develop a game that matches the characteristics of the gaming router, or at least has some conceptual connection, so that hardware and software can be well integrated.”

“Besides that, Mr. Pei didn’t say anything else. He told me to pass this information to you and said you would definitely come up with a good solution.”

Although Qiu Hong was still confused, he nodded: “Okay, I’ll discuss this thoroughly with Xi Hao and try to understand Mr. Pei’s intentions.”

“By the way, Mr. Pei mentioned hardware-software integration—do you have the design draft for this new console?”

Old Song said, “There’s a relatively primitive design draft, but Mr. Pei’s concept is quite clear, and the machine’s form probably won’t change much in the future. I’ll send you the design draft right away.”

…

After hanging up, Qiu Hong waited patiently for a while and soon received the design plan for the new console.

Although the plan was still quite basic, Mr. Pei’s design intent was already visible.

“Combining a gaming console with a router, optimizing game streaming effects to achieve cloud gaming in players’ homes first?”

“As expected of Mr. Pei, his design thinking is so imaginative and difficult to fathom!”

“But Mr. Pei said hardware and software should be integrated, and this launch escort game should be related to the console’s characteristics…”

“How can they be related?”

“Moreover, Mr. Pei is really overestimating these independent game producers in the incubator, and overestimating me too.”

“I never thought I’d be a game producer again, and producing the flagship title for Tenda’s first gaming console at that—the pressure is immense…”

“I’d better first have a meeting with Xi Hao, Wu Zhicheng, and a few other outstanding independent game producers to try to understand Mr. Pei’s design intent.”

Qiu Hong called Xi Hao, Wu Zhicheng, and others to the break area, planning to hold a small meeting immediately.

This was Tenda’s first console flagship title after all—no small matter that couldn’t be neglected.

After completing “Ink and Smoke,” Wu Zhicheng hadn’t had any particularly good inspiration, so he hadn’t developed any new game projects.

Recently, he had been developing various patches and DLC for “Ink and Smoke,” but the game was already highly complete, so it was about time to consider a new project.

Qiu Hong very quickly introduced Mr. Pei’s requirements to everyone.

Wu Zhicheng looked confused: “What? Mr. Pei actually wants us to develop the escort game? And all of us independent game designers together?”

Qiu Hong said helplessly: “That’s right.”

Clearly, Mr. Pei’s request was a bit too outlandish, and each time it was conveyed, it raised new questions.

Xi Hao remained silent for a moment, then asked, “Can we refuse this request? Just say that the current development strength of the incubator isn’t sufficient to support such a large-scale project.”

Qiu Hong shook his head: “Of course not! Since Mr. Pei has assigned this task to us, it means he believes the current development capabilities of the Independent Game Incubator are adequate for this task.”

“If Mr. Pei thinks we can do it, but we question ourselves, is that appropriate?”

“Let’s not overthink this. Let’s focus on analyzing Mr. Pei’s design intent according to the standard process.”

Although Qiu Hong didn’t work in Tenda’s gaming department, he had heard about Tenda’s internal game design method: first carefully analyze the unreasonable aspects of Mr. Pei’s requirements, then extend and deduce from them, and finally arrive at a unique design plan.

The others all looked dejected. Since this task couldn’t be refused, they might as well try to design something and see.

Qiu Hong said, “Let me start with some initial thoughts to get us going.”

“Mr. Pei has basically set a time limit for this game’s development. He wants it to launch simultaneously with the new gaming console, which means compared to AAA titles like ‘The Future You Choose,’ this game will be much smaller in scale.”

“I think approximately a dozen hours of gameplay with a price point just over 100 yuan would be appropriate.”

“But Mr. Pei has special requirements—it needs to match the characteristics of the gaming router and achieve hardware-software integration as much as possible. Any thoughts on this?”

After some consideration, Xi Hao said, “Wait a minute, I think there’s an issue we need to address first.”

“The Independent Game Incubator consists of independent game producers, not complete game development teams. These independent game producers all have their own ideas and haven’t worked as cogs in an assembly line. Managing them to jointly develop a project would likely be extremely difficult.”

“Didn’t Mr. Pei consider this when assigning the task?”

This question stumped everyone, as it was indeed a questionable point.

As an excellent game design master, Mr. Pei definitely understood this better than everyone else. Was it because Mr. Pei had no other development resources available that he forcibly assigned this task to the Independent Game Incubator?

This didn’t align with Mr. Pei’s image of being strategically masterful.

Wu Zhicheng remained silent for a while, then said, “I think Mr. Pei must have considered this issue. Perhaps it’s because we’re actually the most suitable people to make this game?”

“Compared to regular game development teams, the Independent Game Incubator’s biggest advantage is that we have many independent game producers with many ideas and styles.”

“If each independent game producer creates a different part of the game, and then we link them all together, providing players with many different gaming experiences within one game, wouldn’t that fully leverage our advantages?”

“Mr. Pei would probably be happy to see this.”

Qiu Hong nodded: “Hmm? That makes sense! Since Mr. Pei has assigned this task to us, he must see our unique advantages. We should think about how to leverage these advantages rather than immediately doubting ourselves.”

“So, regarding how the gameplay can integrate with the gaming router hardware, do you have any ideas?”

Wu Zhicheng continued: “According to the current plan, the gaming router’s biggest advantage is its very convenient wireless streaming.”

“In other words, after using the gaming router to structure a whole-house network and connecting all display devices in the room to the router, the router can enable wireless streaming and screen casting from the console to all display devices.”

“Players can then play games in front of any screen.”

“What’s the use of this function? Is it merely so that when players get tired of gaming in the living room, they can seamlessly continue in the bedroom?”

“That’s certainly one of its functions, but the practicality seems too limited.”

“I think this feature is actually more suitable for multiplayer games!”

At this point, everyone’s eyes lit up: “Multiplayer games?”

Wu Zhicheng nodded: “Exactly. The characteristic of console multiplayer games is having multiple players on the same screen, which inevitably divides one display into two or four sections.”

“But after dividing, each player’s screen becomes too small. Unless players are using a very large TV, the gaming experience will definitely be affected.”

“Imagine if the same game could split screens across a TV and computer, TV and phone, or phone and tablet—that would definitely be a huge improvement for players’ gaming experience!”

“And the number of players who could join multiplayer games would increase significantly, no longer limited to just two to four people as before.”

“As for the controller issue, that’s easy to solve—just provide players with a virtual controller app on their phones.”

Qiu Hong couldn’t help but give a thumbs up, praising: “Excellent! I think this is exactly the effect Mr. Pei wants to achieve!”

“And following this line of thought, party-style multiplayer split-screen games are actually very close to the independent game style—this is precisely the strength of independent game designers!”

“With this approach, the prototype of this game becomes very clear.”

“It’s a party-style game that can be played by multiple people on the same screen. We can develop approximately a dozen hours of main storyline, and within the main storyline, there can be several or even a dozen different gameplay styles. Outside the main storyline, we can also create some competitive mini-games for multiple players on the same screen to increase fun and replayability.”

“Compared to other party-style multiplayer games, this game’s biggest advantage would be using the gaming router’s streaming function to cast game screens to different displays, breaking the size limitation of a single display!”

“This way, we just need to finalize the game’s main storyline and art style, and the internal structure and smaller gameplay elements can be independently completed by individual game producers!”

“Isn’t this exactly what Mr. Pei is expecting?”