During the seven-day National Day holiday, Tenda naturally gave everyone time off.

The previous cycle had just ended, and Pei Qian’s wealth had touched a moving 2.2 million, which was the perfect opportunity to take a good rest.

His parents had finally moved to the new house.

Pei Qian’s plan went smoothly: first letting his parents take time to choose furniture and home appliances, then having them stay there for a few days to add some life to the house. This way, once his parents got used to living there, the house would naturally become theirs.

However, when Pei Qian arrived at the new house near the high-speed rail station this time, although he had mentally prepared himself in advance, he was still shocked by the interior decoration style.

The complete set of solid wood furniture was large and heavy, uniformly dark brown; the TV wall was filled with lotus flower paintings, and large landscape paintings hung on the walls; green plants were visible everywhere in the living room, bedroom, and study.

Pei Qian silently thought, well, there’s no need to hesitate anymore—this house is for his parents, and he would never live here again no matter what.

But Pei didn’t need this house anymore. The Sloth Apartment was so comfortable, with a housekeeper and cleaning service, so he didn’t have to tidy up or clean.

As for the current 2 million in personal wealth, Pei Qian hadn’t yet figured out exactly how to spend it.

He’d save it for now. Having some money would strengthen his risk resistance capability.

……

October 8th, Saturday, back to normal work.

Pei Qian arrived at the company office early. Today, he had two things to do.

First, arrange the Shock Department and the Tenda Cornerstone Award.

Second, assign the development task for a new game to Tenda Games.

It was quite difficult to decide on the Shock Department and Tenda Cornerstone Award for this cycle.

The Shock Therapy was meant for the department that earned the most money, but in the last cycle, it seemed that many departments were making money, yet none of them reached a level that would make Pei Qian anxious.

The most profitable was the 500 million IOI shares, but it was unclear whether this should be attributed to Dream Realization Venture Capital or Shangyang Games. Neither seemed very appropriate.

Strictly speaking, this was a historical issue.

What about shocking Old Ma? That wouldn’t make sense either.

So, after thinking for a long time, Pei Qian decided to shock Slackin’ Internet Café for this cycle. Of course, only the management would be shocked; the various stores would still operate normally.

After the management arranged new store locations and decoration matters, they would go into shock for three months. Store employees would receive extra wages according to overtime standards. This way, money would be spent without generating new backstabs—simply perfect.

Although Tenda Games and Shangyang Games also deserved to be shocked, they needed to maintain normal operations to burn money this cycle, so they had to be spared.

As for the choice of the Tenda Cornerstone Award, Pei Qian was equally troubled.

If Slackin’ Delivery had persisted in losing money until now, they would undoubtedly have received the Tenda Cornerstone Award. But Slackin’ Delivery had already rebelled, so they weren’t qualified for this award.

The other departments Pei Qian had high hopes for, including Tuoguan Fitness and Sloth Apartments, had all created various kinds of troubles, so they could only say goodbye to this “last place reward system” cornerstone award.

As for Headwind Logistics, they had already received it once, so they couldn’t keep getting it.

After thinking about it, Pei Qian finally decided to give this award to OTTO Technology.

Although OTTO Technology hadn’t done anything, they had spent money without producing results, which was already a great achievement.

It would be a waste not to give out such rewards. Among the short candidates, they would have to make do.

After arranging everything, Pei Qian handed the commendation matters to Assistant Xin, then began to consider the new game.

This cycle was only four months, which was completely insufficient for a well-made RTS game.

Not to mention creating CGI—that would be even more inadequate.

So Pei Qian had planned to drag this game into the next cycle, to be able to spend more money.

However, he still had no idea how to make this game.

Pei Qian didn’t want to decide for himself, and he didn’t want to let Hu Xianbin and the others express themselves freely. Either way, it seemed there wouldn’t be a good result.

So, he would seek help from Teacher He!

With this in mind, Pei Qian made a video call request to He An.

Soon, the video call connected.

He An had already left Jingzhou and returned to his place. From what could be seen in the video, he seemed to be drinking tea and reading a book, quite leisurely.

“Mr. Pei? Is there something I can help with?” He An slowly took a sip of his tea.

Pei Qian said very humbly: “Teacher He, I’d like to ask about the new game.”

“Poof!”

He An almost choked.

For some reason, the more humble Mr. Pei’s attitude was, the more it felt like he was showing off.

Fortunately, He An was already used to it. After coughing a couple of times, he said: “Haven’t I already made it very clear? What else is there to ask?”

“An RTS game, spend 200 million on the game itself, another 300 million on CGI, a total of 500 million, absolutely challenging.”

He An repeated what he had said before.

Pei Qian nodded: “I know, Teacher He. But if it’s just like that, I’m afraid it might not be enough.”

“Why not consider the details?”

“For example, what theme should we go with? What kind of story background should we choose?”

“Should the game’s operational difficulty be more hardcore or simpler?”

He An on the other end of the video, was stunned: “You want me to choose this too? The challenge is already high enough, and you want to make it even higher?”

Pei Qian quickly nodded: “Yes, even higher!”

He An fell silent.

So confident?

Already making an RTS game, yet still feeling the difficulty wasn’t enough, and wanting to increase it?

Fine, I hope you won’t regret it.

He An thought for a moment, then said: “In terms of theme, there aren’t many options, basically just sci-fi, Western fantasy, or Chinese style.”

“For sci-fi, that would be ‘StarSea,’ for Western fantasy, that would be ‘Fantasy War.’ As for Chinese style… no one has done it yet.”

Pei Qian’s heart leaped with joy: “Then should I make a Chinese-style RTS?”

He An chuckled: “Didn’t you want a challenge? A Chinese-style RTS would be the least challenging!”

Pei Qian was confused: “Huh?”

He An took a sip of tea and continued: “Domestic developers have almost no RTS games worth mentioning. If you make an RTS game with a Three Kingdoms or ancient mythology theme, and spend a large amount of funds to polish it meticulously, even if the quality is average, it would still be praised to the skies by domestic players, after all, it’s one of a kind!”

“Then, if foreign players become interested because of the Chinese culture and make purchases, the chances of success would still be very high.”

“If you want a challenge, choose Western fantasy or sci-fi, and directly compete with ‘Fantasy War’ and ‘StarSea,’ how about that?”

Pei Qian suddenly understood.

Indeed, an elder at home is like a treasure.

If he hadn’t asked Teacher He and had foolishly gone ahead and made a Chinese-style RTS game, he might have ended up making money again!

Thinking carefully, what He An said made a lot of sense.

Competing in a different position would greatly increase the chances of success.

Conversely, there were already the excellent ‘StarSea’ and ‘Fantasy War’ RTS games. If he followed the trend and made a similar one, wouldn’t it become purely head-to-head competition?

Great!

Teacher He was indeed deeply calculating; it felt secure!

Pei Qian’s eyebrows lifted with joy as he continued: “Good, let’s do that! Please continue, Teacher He. What about the game’s difficulty?”

He An frowned, carefully looking at Mr. Pei’s expression on the phone screen.

He did seem quite happy.

So confident?

I don’t believe you’ll dare to do as I say!

He An continued: “The game’s operational difficulty should be simpler.”

Pei Qian was stunned: “Huh?”

He An chuckled: “What are you ‘huh’-ing about? Don’t dare?”

Pei Qian scratched his head: “It’s not that I don’t dare, Teacher He. Are you sure making it simpler can lose mo—I mean, be more challenging?”

He An frowned slightly, unable to tell if Mr. Pei was being sincere or acting: “Of course, there’s no question about it.”

“RTS games are declining now, but there are plenty of veteran players, and nostalgia is abundant!”

“Making the operations more complex, like ‘Fantasy War’ and ‘StarSea 2,’ would naturally be welcomed by hardcore players, which is the target audience for RTS games.”

“‘StarSea 2’ was released the year before last. Although many people predicted its downfall, the sales weren’t low at all, and the expansion pack released last year was also highly praised.”

“While it might not recreate the glory of ‘StarSea,’ from a purely commercial perspective, it was very successful!”

“Making the difficulty of an RTS game high is the correct approach. As long as it can satisfy the demands of these hardcore players, their purchasing power is truly terrifying.”

“Conversely, if an RTS game is made simple, it becomes very awkward. For hardcore players, the game is too simple and not fun to play; for general players, no matter how simple it is, it’s still an RTS game—can it compare with GOG? They still won’t touch it.”

Pei Qian had another realization.

Yes! What the Teacher He said made sense!

After all, Pei Qian had studied game design, and with He An’s hint, he immediately understood.

“Alright, I understand, Teacher He! You are truly my guiding light! When the game is finished, I must treat you to a big meal at the No Name Restaurant!”

Pei Qian expressed his gratitude profusely, then hung up the video call.

He An looked at the “Video ended” prompt on his phone screen, somewhat puzzled.

What Mr. Pei said seemed to be… a guiding death lamp?

……

After hanging up the video call, Pei Qian was thoroughly clear in his mind.

Making a low-difficulty sci-fi or Western fantasy themed RTS game, spending 500 million on it, would mean losing money!

So the question was, should he make sci-fi or Western fantasy?

After thinking about it, he decided to go with sci-fi.

On one hand, ‘StarSea 2’ had been released more than a year ago, and its popularity was still present. Competing with this would increase the probability of failure.

If he competed with ‘Fantasy War,’ that was a game from nine years ago, so the probability of failure wouldn’t be as high.

On the other hand, GOG had a bunch of heroes suitable for a Western fantasy background. Pei Qian feared that the new game might collaborate with GOG again, luring all of GOG’s players over, which would be troublesome.

Based on experience, this wasn’t impossible.

So, he’d make a sci-fi-themed game, with a higher probability of failure and more money to burn!