Meanwhile, He An, who was deep in thought, also saw Tenda’s official Weibo post.

“Strange, what does this Weibo post mean?”

“The official directly says there’s no clear theme, just a mirror?”

“Huh, how could that be possible!”

“This kind of rhetoric might fool ordinary players or content creators, but it can’t fool a professional like me.”

“This Weibo post must have caused great confusion for many content creators wanting to analyze ‘Struggle,’ right?”

“That’s understandable, because interpreting this game has completely exceeded their knowledge domain. You need professional game design knowledge to explain it clearly!”

“And this Weibo post… seems more like imposing some kind of restriction, making a distinction.”

“All interpretations of ‘Struggle’ can be divided into two parts: first, interpreting the real-world issues reflected in ‘Struggle’; second, interpreting the true meaning intended by the creator of ‘Struggle.'”

“This Weibo post encourages all players to participate in the first type of interpretation, while only professionals like me can see the second part!”

He An wouldn’t interpret this Weibo post literally.

The reason was simple—he acknowledged a simple truth: every creator embeds their agenda in their work. Any artistic work, whether a game or a film, can serve as a mirror, but it will always contain projections of the creator’s thoughts.

In other words, any material, after being processed through some artistic form of creation, will carry the creator’s personal touch. It’s just a matter of more or less.

Humans are subjective animals, and no one can be objective.

It’s impossible not to embed personal views, because that would mean the creator has no thoughts of their own, and their work would have no soul.

“Struggle” was not a soulless work!

What the Weibo post emphasized on the surface contradicted the actual content of the game “Struggle.”

When things go against the norm, there must be something unusual.

Since it didn’t align with common sense, it meant there was something more to it.

And this hidden meaning couldn’t be analyzed by ordinary game enthusiasts and content creators.

Only someone like He An, who had delved deeply into the gaming field for many years and reached the pinnacle of game creation theory, could analyze it!

As the saying goes, laypeople see the excitement, while professionals see the technique.

In He An’s view, previous interpretations of Mr. Pei’s games had only remained at the level of “seeing the excitement,” because all the puzzles Mr. Pei had set before were within the games themselves.

But this time, Mr. Pei had set the puzzle in the game’s deep structure, in the fusion of game and reality, and even in the basic theory of games.

How could ordinary game enthusiasts analyze this without understanding the basic theories of game development?

That’s why they felt at a loss.

Previously, He An felt that this game gave him a special feeling. Despite contradicting all four basic theories, it still didn’t feel like a failed game to him.

Why was that?

After carefully studying the content of this game and comparing it with the four basic theories, He An suddenly realized something.

Mr. Pei had achieved a reversal with great wisdom by violating all four basic theories as a premise, embracing death to find life!

Seemingly violating all four basic theories, but in reality, meeting the requirements of these four basic theories at a higher level.

This was like going from seeing a mountain as a mountain, skipping past seeing a mountain not as a mountain, directly to seeing a mountain still as a mountain.

After the analysis, He An felt that this content was perfect for lecturing Mr. Ma.

Because those four basic theories were experiential summaries for ordinary game developers, but Mr. Pei was the one who broke the stereotypical experience, and he broke all four at once!

He An felt that such brilliant content would be wasted if it were only used for lecturing Mr. Ma.

It deserves to become teaching material for all game developers, helping all domestic game developers improve together!

Thinking about it, Mr. Pei must have had this deeper meaning when creating this game.

So, He An decided to elaborate on the content of this lesson and put it online, giving a lesson to all game developers!

Of course, this might not be so good for Mr. Ma, as he had paid tuition.

But it didn’t matter, he could just refund Mr. Ma’s money!

Refunding the cost of one lesson while still allowing Mr. Ma to learn knowledge was no big deal.

He An didn’t teach merely for the tuition anyway.

With this in mind, He An began preparing an analytical article on “Struggle.”

Or more accurately, it was about the revolutionary game design theory expressed by Mr. Pei through the game “Struggle.”

This game design theory could be seen as a spiral transcendence of all game design theories He An had previously taught. It seemed to overturn all previous basic theories at a higher level, yet subtly aligned with these basic theories.

The title of the article was: “Struggle’s Subversion and Transcendence of All Traditional Game Design Theories!”

At the beginning of the article, He An didn’t introduce himself, because he had his own Weibo account with many players and fans. In the domestic gaming circle, there was hardly any developer who didn’t know him.

Therefore, he didn’t need to introduce himself; he only needed to write out his content faithfully, and countless people would spread it naturally.

…

“Recently, I’ve been playing ‘Struggle’ and have gained some insights to share with everyone.”

“‘Struggle’ completely subverts traditional game design theory while pushing theory to a new height.”

“Strictly speaking, it’s not entirely a game made for players; it’s more like a textbook, a textbook specifically for all game developers to learn from.”

“Only game developers who understand basic game design theories can understand this textbook, so it’s normal for ordinary players not to see through or understand it, because ordinary players lack a sufficient theoretical foundation.”

“Next, I’ll analyze from a game developer’s perspective why this game can be considered a textbook specifically for all game developers to learn from.”

“First, let’s start with this official Weibo post.”

“The official says ‘Struggle’ is a mirror and has no clear ideology. Many people believe that ‘Struggle’ truly doesn’t contain any personal thoughts, and any attempt to analyze its internal thoughts is over-interpretation.”

“This is wrong!”

“Because all artistic works in this world are created by people, and when people create artistic works, they always project their thoughts into them to varying degrees. Otherwise, the work couldn’t take shape.”

“It’s like when you write a novel—when your protagonist makes a choice, what’s your basis? Basic emotional instinct? Reader demand? Or overall theme?”

“Undoubtedly, you can’t create a work without purpose. When you write a certain plot, you’re always subconsciously projecting your thoughts onto it.”

“So when the official says ‘Struggle’ is a mirror, it means it reflects the many aspects of life, and everyone can see different content from it. The official doesn’t want to force you to accept a specific value system.”

“But since it’s an artistic work, ‘Struggle’ must contain content from the creator’s subconscious. The only question is: what is it?”

“And this is the key to how ‘Struggle’ subverts traditional game design theory.”

“This game subverts at least four aspects of basic game design theory.”

“Its promotional method misaligns with the game content.”

“It chooses an obscure, niche, thankless game type.”

“Its game content exceeds most players’ tolerance, instinctively making people feel uncomfortable.”

“Its existence also doesn’t satisfy most players’ needs and fails to achieve entertainment and relaxation purposes.”

“These contents involve some basic theories; I welcome all developers to elaborate, so I won’t go into detail here.”

“If an ordinary game violates these four basic principles, it would be a terrible game that no one would like.”

“However, many people, including myself, wouldn’t consider ‘Struggle’ a failed game.”

“Considering these are very basic theories, Mr. Pei, as a successful game developer, couldn’t possibly not know them.”

“Therefore, I have reason to believe that Mr. Pei did this intentionally. He used this technique to subvert all basic theories and then achieve the integration and unification of all theories at a higher level!”

“This is why I say ‘Struggle’ can be viewed as a textbook for all game developers, because all game developers can learn something from it.”

“So, how does Mr. Pei achieve the integration and unification of all theories at a higher level?”

“This technique has been used before in ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ called ‘breaking the fourth wall’!”

“However, in ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ this technique was very obvious, and players with stronger perception could appreciate it after deep thought.”

“But this time, this technique is completely integrated into the game, into the underlying concept of game design, so only those who understand basic game design theory can understand it.”

“This fourth-wall-breaking technique progresses layer by layer.”

“First, the game’s promotional method breaks the fourth wall. Do you remember how the promotion of ‘Struggle’ was misleading?”

“Mr. Pei is suggesting a principle through this promotional case: sometimes, deceiving people doesn’t necessarily require telling lies. Just telling part of the truth can also deceive people, often with better effect!”

“When promoting ‘Struggle,’ Mr. Pei only told part of the truth. On the surface, each statement was true, but when combined, the flavor completely changed.”

“And in the game, the wealthy protagonist’s emphasis on struggle is also only telling part of the truth, and even he didn’t realize this. His success was indeed related to his struggle, but could he have achieved such success without his father’s education and abundant resources? Obviously not.”

“Therefore, players think Mr. Pei is a fraud, and the poor person who killed the wealthy protagonist in the game also believes the wealthy person is a fraud.”

“Understanding this point, it’s not hard to understand why that poor person said ‘fraud’ at the end. On the surface, the wealthy person talked about struggle, said true things, all from his own experience, but precisely because it was a partial truth, it was more misleading, which is why the poor person who killed him was so angry.”

“Second, the game’s form of expression also breaks the fourth wall.”

“The game completely draws from American social reality, presenting the life details of the rich and poor exactly as they are in reality. While playing the game, you naturally form an extremely close connection with reality.”

“We would think that the wealthy and poor protagonists are like living people existing in reality, and such a story happening is completely reasonable.”

“The abundant details added to the game allow everyone to see shadows of reality in the game, to see things that have happened to themselves, thus highly integrating the game’s content with reality.”

“Creating a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand readers.”

“Finally, what the game creator truly wants to express is also hidden in the game. If you can discover it, you’ll know that this also breaks the fourth wall!”

“How many people noticed the luxury brand logo that ran throughout the game?”

“And how many people noticed that the opportunity for the poor to change their fate actually exists in reality, but in the game, it was completely deprived by the game’s mechanism itself?”