Ye Zhizhou looked at the points he had recorded in his notebook.

It felt like… wasn’t this just reversing all the directions they had previously finalized?

It seemed that apart from “reversal,” there wasn’t any other innovation…

“Could this be Mr. Pei’s exclusive secret for always creating successful games?”

“Summarize all the characteristics of conventional games on the market, then deliberately do the opposite, thereby creating an unprecedented freshness for players?”

“Uh…”

Ye Zhizhou felt this idea was a bit outlandish, feeling it was not only insulting to Mr. Pei but also to himself.

If success were that easy, why would he rack his brains every day trying to figure out what kind of game to make?

But looking carefully at these points, Ye Zhizhou discovered new problems.

Some key points, when reversed, resulted in extremely bizarre outcomes.

For instance, Mr. Pei required making a networked horror game.

How the hell do you make that?!

Two or even multiple people playing a horror game together? Would that still be scary?

There didn’t seem to be any similar examples on the market!

But then again, perhaps it was precisely because there were no similar examples on the market that a game made this way would appear sufficiently novel? Could it generate enough buzz?

Ye Zhizhou unconsciously fell into a whirlpool of overthinking, with many thoughts swirling in his mind, making him a bit dizzy.

Wang Xiaobin was also confused.

He felt that, according to Mr. Pei’s requirements, this game couldn’t be made at all.

How do you make something when you’ve never seen anything similar?

“Mr. Pei, could you give us a bit more guidance?”

Pei Qian inwardly chuckled.

More guidance?

Guidance was impossible. They’d have to figure it out themselves. He’d be more than happy if they made the game at a loss.

Just as Pei Qian was about to refuse, Lin Wan spoke up.

“That’s enough already. Mr. Pei has already set all the main directions for us. The deeper meaning of the game is within these few guidelines.”

“Reflect on the gaming experiences of these past few days, can think independently, and don’t always be like a baby waiting to be fed, expecting Mr. Pei to spoon-feed you.”

Pei Qian: “…”

Well done, Director Lin!

She expressed exactly what I was thinking.

Wang Xiaobin lowered his head, feeling a bit ashamed.

Indeed, Mr. Pei had already determined the main direction. Could they not handle these minor details themselves? That would be too unworthy of their identity as designers!

“Then we’ll go think of new approaches right away.” Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou returned to their respective workstations and began to busy themselves.

Pei Qian kept Lin Wan behind, wanting to briefly discuss OTTO Technology matters.

Previously, Pei Qian had already briefly told Lin Wan about his arrangements for Chang You’s position, but that was over the phone and relatively brief.

Now Pei Qian planned to spend a few minutes on more in-depth communication.

After all, Lin Wan was the nominal director of OTTO Technology, half a rank higher than Chang You.

If Lin Wan completely disengaged from managing OTTO Technology, even if the phone project failed, Lin Wan wouldn’t feel too frustrated, let alone leave Tenda to inherit the family business because of it.

Pei Qian’s ultimate goal was to make Lin Wan also contribute “importantly” to OTTO Technology’s development. This way, when the product failed, Lin Wan would deeply feel she wasn’t cut out for this, and coupled with Shangyang Games’ failure, would naturally develop a sense of disillusionment.

“Regarding this Chang You, I know there are many negative speculations about him in society, especially within the industry, but…”

Pei Qian was a bit worried that if Lin Wan and Chang You didn’t get along, when the phone failed, Lin Wan might push all the blame onto Chang You, which would still fail to achieve the goal of making her return to inherit the family business.

Lin Wan shook her head slightly: “Mr. Pei, you need not worry.”

“Since you’ve chosen him, I believe he must have some exceptional qualities.”

“We’re in the internet age, an era of information explosion, but also an era of unprecedented information scarcity.”

“Online, rumors can spread worldwide overnight; yet, voices of clarification, equally online, go unnoticed.”

Similarly, online ‘dirt’ about a person can spread like wildfire overnight. Many people think they understand a person after seeing some things online.”

“But the real person is obscured by online information.”

“Although I disagree with many of my father’s viewpoints, he has always emphasized that the internet is not omnipotent, and excessive information might blind people—a point I do agree with.”

“I believe Mr. Pei must have his considerations in choosing Chang You as the person in charge of OTTO Technology.”

“Since Mr. Pei trusts him, I will certainly trust him the same way.”

Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.

They hadn’t even discussed much, yet Lin Wan had already said all the right things.

“Well… that’s best, of course.”

“However, as a director, you are also indispensable in OTTO Technology. Never consider yourself an outsider.”

Pei Qian was hinting to Lin Wan to get more involved in the phone business, appropriately increasing her sense of participation.

This way, when the phone project failed, it would be more natural for Lin Wan to feel like she was taking the blame and more inclined to return to inherit the family business.

Lin Wan nodded: “Rest assured, Mr. Pei. I will supervise them without excessively interfering with OTTO Technology’s established development policies, ensuring their overall direction aligns with Tenda’s spirit, fulfilling my responsibilities.”

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this, feeling that his employees were mysteriously cooperative, and everything was going according to his plan.

…

After seeing Mr. Pei off, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin returned to their workstations and began scratching their heads.

This was too difficult!

With so many constraints from Mr. Pei, how could they make this game?

Just the “online game” requirement alone was challenging enough, let alone the explicit demands for no storyline, no ghosts, and no strong weapon system.

They were completely at a loss.

Previously, both had received tasks from Mr. Pei, but those tasks were often very simple.

For example, when Mr. Pei required cutting all payment points in “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” and keeping only the most basic one, Ye Zhizhou thought long and hard and came up with the “Chosen System.”

This was because the game itself already had a very complete framework, and Ye Zhizhou was just making minor adjustments to this framework.

Later, the mobile version of “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was the same; the basic structure hadn’t changed, still the familiar set of elements, so it was easy to handle.

But this time was different.

Horror games, single-player games—these were all areas they had never ventured into. Mr. Pei’s direction was also very vague, so naturally, they were somewhat at a loss.

As a last resort, both looked to Lin Wan.

When it came to speculating Mr. Pei’s intentions, everyone at Shangyang Games was out of their depth.

“Director Lin, could you also help think about what kind of game Mr. Pei hopes for us to make?”

Lin Wan pulled a chair over casually and sat down, pondering for a moment before saying: “Actually, regarding speculating on Mr. Pei’s intentions, I’m just a beginner too, far behind some veterans.”

“However, I have indeed learned a few things from Bao Xu.”

“I can share them with you.”

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin immediately took out their notebooks in unison, listening attentively.

Here it comes, the key point!

What was the core competency of working at Tenda?

It was the ability to speculate on Mr. Pei’s intentions!

As the helmsman of the entire Tenda Group, Mr. Pei had always been far-sighted with a long-term vision, while also having an exquisite grasp of the market and player psychology.

When Mr. Pei arranged tasks for everyone to make a game, he often already had full confidence in the final form of the game and market feedback.

So, whether the project could be done well depended on how deeply everyone understood Mr. Pei’s intentions.

And now, Director Lin sharing methods to speculate on Mr. Pei’s intentions was undoubtedly sharing a treasure!

Lin Wan recalled her time working in Tenda’s game department, thinking of Bao Xu’s many interpretations of Mr. Pei. She had long wanted to summarize all this content, and now she had the perfect opportunity.

“First, we need to establish one thing: Mr. Pei’s direction is correct and must be followed at all costs.”

“You might think this sounds vague, but it’s the foundation of all reasoning.”

“You can treat the points given by Mr. Pei as self-evident absolute axioms and derive from them.”

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin listened, feeling a bit dizzy, as if they had returned to their student days in philosophy class.

But this was normal. For such important thoughts, if they were too simple and easy to understand, that would be problematic.

Both listened earnestly.

Lin Wan continued: “When making ‘Sea Fortress,’ Bao Xu started from the few axioms given by Mr. Pei, continuously negating content incompatible with the axioms and adding content matching the axioms, finally perfecting the prototype of the entire game.”

“Now, we can do the same.”

“First, the first point, which is also the most important point, is that this horror game will be a networked game.”

“Multi-player networked game elements are essentially about cooperation and competition.”

“Competition is divided into ‘competition with the game’ and ‘competition with people.’ Competition with the game is multiple players solving puzzles together, while competition with people is repeatable gameplay like battles.”

“Since Mr. Pei emphasized no storyline, the path of two or more people cooperating to solve puzzles is blocked.”

“So, the design direction naturally leaves only the repeatable gameplay of multi-player cooperation and competition.”

“That is, similar to many board games, controlling time between ten minutes to two hours, involving multiple players, each with different objectives, with both cooperation and competition among them.”

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin nodded together.

With this analysis, things seemed much clearer!

Especially pinpointing the target to a board game-like mode, which gave both a rough outline of the game in their minds.

Lin Wan looked at them: “You try the rest.”

Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin exchanged glances. This felt a bit like a teacher teaching students how to solve problems, solving half and leaving the rest for the students to complete themselves.

Ye Zhizhou considered for a moment, then said: “No ghosts, at most maniacs—this is also a very important clue.”

“If game examples are hard to find, could we look to movies?”