With the theme decided, the next step was figuring out what to name the game.

Pei Qian didn’t think for too long before quickly deciding.

“Mission and Choice”!

As for why it was called this specifically, there was a backstory.

Recently, Pei Qian had been learning about games and had learned quite a bit about the history of the domestic gaming industry from He An and Qiu Hong.

In 1995, the American company Eastwood released a series of games called “Command and Conquer,” which became the best-selling real-time strategy game in history. It established the template for RTS games, pioneering the “resource collection + production building + troop warfare” structure, and created and defined the concept of “fog of war.”

In short, it swept the world and, like “StarSea” and “Fantasy War,” was regarded as an eternal classic of world RTS games.

Then, in 1997, a game called “Mission and Choice” appeared domestically.

When Pei Qian first heard this name, he thought it was the parallel world’s “Freedom and Glory” and initially had a somewhat good impression of it, but he quickly discovered he had guessed wrong.

This game was the parallel world’s “Blood Lion.”

As Qiu Hong had once explained, during this period, the domestic gaming industry was in severe turmoil. Online gaming was rapidly rising, piracy was becoming rampant, and domestic single-player games were forced into price wars with pirated copies, but no matter how much they reduced prices, it was still to no avail.

And at this critical juncture, “Mission and Choice” appeared.

Major gaming media began to publish full-color advertisements for “Mission and Choice” everywhere. The cover featured a Chinese soldier in a space suit, with giant sandworms and technologically advanced starships in the background, along with several inflammatory promotional slogans.

“Your homeland, the Blue Star, has just suffered a devastating attack from the Insect race. The interstellar fleet has suffered heavy losses. Blood dyes the sky red, fire tears through the night, and swarms of insects flood over the human fleet like a tide. Facing the insects, I know your choice, although it will be a grim struggle, but we have no way back.”

“Join your comrades in defeating the insect swarm and saving the Blue Star!”

“Invested millions, produced with all effort, grand scenes, a domestic exemplar!”

“High-quality avant-garde rock musician music production, powerful software creation team, art creativity that knows no bounds, the explosive debut of the long-awaited ‘Mission and Choice’!”

Although these promotional slogans now seem somewhat bewildering, at that time they were incredibly exciting.

So, all single-player game enthusiasts were fired up. Players automatically ignored the knockoff feel that was evident throughout “Mission and Choice” from its name to its promotional images, and viewed it as a masterpiece that could surpass “Command and Conquer,” expecting it to be permanently remembered in the hall of RTS games.

But when players got their hands on the game, the word “disappointment” alone was insufficient to describe their feelings.

Crude, shoddy graphics, bugs everywhere, absurd game mechanics…

In short, it was unprecedentedly terrible.

Afterward, players realized that this game was just desperately piggybacking!

The name piggybacked on “Command and Conquer,” the story background piggybacked on “StarSea,” and then deliberately added some fake patriotic sentiment—it was all about frantically deceiving the emotions of domestic players.

Many people regarded this “Mission and Choice” as a disgrace to domestic games, the last straw that broke the camel’s back for domestic single-player games. Even today, most players have only two emotions when they hear the name “Mission and Choice”: ridicule or anger.

Previously, Pei Qian had named his game “Sea Fortress” for good luck, but the problem was that people in this world didn’t understand!

Only Pei Qian himself knew the meme behind the name, so it didn’t trigger any aversion.

Similarly, if he called it “Blood Lion,” people in this world would still have no concept of it.

But calling it “Mission and Choice” would instantly ignite the anger of all domestic players!

So Pei Qian immediately decided, this would be the name!

Come on, players, consume me with your fury!

Of course, using the same name would raise some copyright issues, but it didn’t matter. The company that made this game had already gone bankrupt several years ago, and the copyright for “Mission and Choice” should belong to the creditors, but no one would want it even if you paid them. If you went to the RSRO official platform, you could even directly request it.

Since they were using the name, they might as well use the story background too.

At the same time, to ensure foolproof failure, Pei Qian also quickly thought of several approaches that would greatly increase the chances of failure, planning to instruct Hu Xianbin shortly.

After considering everything, Pei Qian notified Hu Xianbin, Huang Sibo, and Zhu Xiaocai to have a small meeting in the conference room.

As for why he called Huang Sibo…

Of course, it was because of the CGI work, which still needed to be handled by Fei Huang Studio.

If he gave it to someone else, Pei Qian was afraid that if they couldn’t complete it within the timeline, it would cause a settlement delay, which would be troublesome.

……

Soon, everyone arrived at the conference room.

Hu Xianbin was well aware that after the great success of “Struggle,” Boss Pei would likely develop the next game soon.

However, both Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo were puzzled when they saw each other in the conference room.

Why had Boss Pei called them together?

Was this about making a game or making a movie?

Time was precious, so Pei Qian got straight to the point and began assigning tasks.

“For the next game, I need both of your departments to work closely together.”

“The development cycle is set for about 9 months. We’ll spend 200 million to make a sci-fi-themed RTS game, and another 300 million to create a full set of CGI for it. This task is assigned to your two departments respectively.”

The other three people were all stunned.

Two hundred million for the game, three hundred million for CGI?

The money for CGI was more than the money for the game itself?

Huang Sibo’s expression instantly became excited: “Boss Pei is determined to create a premium RTS game on the same level as ‘StarSea 2’? Three hundred million, if used to produce a dozen minutes of game CGI, the quality would not be inferior to foreign major studios!”

Hu Xianbin hesitated: “Spending three hundred million on CGI, can we recover the cost?”

Huang Sibo smiled: “Why not? The development cost of ‘StarSea 2’ was less than 100 million dollars. Calculating at 50 dollars per game, selling over two million copies would break even. It sold 1.5 million copies in just two days after release, and easily sold four to five million copies over its entire lifecycle, making quite a profit!”

“Even if our game doesn’t reach those numbers, with an investment of over 67 million dollars, even if it sells less than ‘StarSea 2,’ we’ll still make a profit.”

“Game CGI is the business card of a game. As long as it’s done well, it will spread across the internet and open up overseas markets. Investing 300 million in game CGI is for brand value, exploring overseas markets, and establishing a major developer’s image!”

Pei Qian fell silent.

Theoretically, was there still such a huge possibility of making money?

Thinking about it, it was true—300 million for CGI, spending all the money on just a dozen minutes, how exquisite would this CGI be?

Probably any segment taken out would spread across the entire internet.

Teacher He thought it couldn’t make money because he didn’t understand just how lucky Pei Qian was.

Pei Qian himself knew that what Huang Sibo described was entirely possible!

Huang Sibo was a good brother indeed.

Pei Qian coughed lightly: “Not a dozen minutes, but over an hour.”

By extending the duration to over an hour, the quality of the CGI would not be as high, and it wouldn’t be as eye-catching, right?

Besides, with such a long storyline, most players would probably get irritated watching it and just press ESC to skip it.

Huang Sibo was stunned and hesitated before saying, “Boss Pei, that won’t work!”

“For an hour and a half of pure game CGI, the quality is secondary—the schedule can’t be guaranteed! We only have 9 months total.”

“Our first choice would be to find a foreign company to do it, but that means we’d have to communicate across countries, languages, and time zones. A dozen minutes would be fine, but for over an hour, the communication cost would be very difficult to bear.”

“If we find a domestic company, reliable special effects teams are almost all working on movies. There are very few special effects companies that make pure game CGI, and their level can’t be counted on too much.”

Hu Xianbin thought for a moment and asked: “Would in-game real-time rendered cutscenes work?”

Huang Sibo nodded: “They would work, but the effect definitely wouldn’t be that great, and it wouldn’t cost that much money.”

Cinematic games like “Struggle” were essentially real-time rendered, and indeed, there was no way to spend 300 million, no matter how you thought about it.

Huang Sibo continued: “If we must complete it within the timeframe, I think… we could do it like making a movie, with live-action filming.”

“This way, we wouldn’t have to spend effort perfecting character movements, expressions, pores, hair, and so on. Some props and settings could also be shot for real, saving a lot of time, ensuring quality while also ensuring the schedule.”

“The only problem is… I haven’t heard of any game company doing it this way.”

Pei Qian fell silent.

He hadn’t considered this much originally, but listening to Huang Sibo’s analysis, there did seem to be significant issues!

Now there were three options:

The first option was to follow “Fantasy World” and spend money on short CGI, making the characters’ movements, expressions, hair, and so on highly realistic. But doing this would create a sensational effect. “StarSea 2” had already proven there was still room to make a profit.

If they wanted to make this highly detailed CGI longer, the schedule couldn’t be guaranteed.

The second option was to use purely in-game real-time rendering for CGI, but this definitely wouldn’t cost 300 million, possibly not even 10 million.

If they mixed real-time rendering and pre-rendered CGI, there would be no fundamental difference from the first option, still being a relatively safe, not risky enough approach.

The third option was to use a filmmaking approach, which would eliminate the need to obsess over details like character pores and hair during the production process. Many special effects could be replaced with props and sets, basically ensuring the schedule.

Pei Qian thought about it. If they made short CGI and truly replicated the success of “StarSea 2,” what then? This possibility couldn’t be ruled out.

If they made long pure game CGI, the schedule couldn’t be guaranteed, and everything would be for nothing. Delaying the settlement was unacceptable.

So the third option, live-action + movie CGI, seemed like a good approach. It could spend more money, guarantee the schedule, and extend the CGI length.

Then the question arose:

What if Fei Huang Studio took this film to theaters and made another round of box office revenue?

The game would make money once, and the movie would make money again—wouldn’t Boss Pei have a heart attack on the spot?

But on second thought, Pei Qian realized he had never heard of any game company doing this, which suggested this model had major issues.

After all, movies and game CGI were fundamentally not the same thing and couldn’t be treated as the same.