October 9th, Sunday, is a working day due to a schedule adjustment.

At Fei Huang Studio, Huang Sibo was anxiously pacing back and forth.

Hu Xianbin was also at Fei Huang Studio, similarly pacing anxiously.

They couldn’t figure it out!

Yesterday, Mr. Pei assigned the new game task and left. The two of them had been thinking from yesterday until now, but despite racking their brains, they couldn’t come up with any leads.

They had some ideas, but couldn’t determine if these were what Mr. Pei wanted.

Undeniably, the difficulty of Mr. Pei’s task this time was extremely high, higher than any previous assignment. Relying on just one or two people’s efforts was completely ineffective.

The reason Hu Xianbin was also here was that although they were separately responsible for the game plot and film plot, these were essentially the same thing and had to be developed together.

If one side handled the game while the other handled the film without good communication, with each doing their own thing, success would certainly be impossible.

Huang Sibo looked at his watch: “They should be arriving soon.”

Just as he finished speaking, they heard many people chatting and laughing outside Fei Huang Studio, walking toward the office area.

Huang Sibo’s eyes lit up—reinforcements had arrived!

This lineup was extremely impressive.

Besides the original three—Huang Sibo, Hu Xianbin, and Zhu Xiaocai—Bao Xu, Lü Mingliang, Li Yada, Lin Wan, and Ma Yiqun had all come too!

This lineup could be considered the most luxurious assembly of Tenda Group’s gaming division.

Among them were not only Tenda Games’ four generations of lead planners but also professional talents in film, games, novels, and other fields like Zhu Xiaocai, Bao Xu, Lin Wan, and Ma Yiqun.

These eight people represented the highest level of Tenda’s entire cultural industry, each an expert at interpreting Mr. Pei’s intentions.

If they couldn’t fight alone, they’d have to call for help!

Huang Sibo had already arranged the meeting room, invited everyone in, and arranged for tea to be served.

“Please be seated, everyone. Today we’re pressed for time with a heavy task. We must finalize the general plan for the new game and new movie in one day! Let’s try to uphold the Tenda spirit and complete our work without overtime.”

Huang Sibo gestured for everyone to sit around the conference table.

He was the head of Fei Huang Studio and also Tenda Games’ first-generation lead planner. He had the most seniority among everyone and worked across both the game and film industries, so it was most appropriate for him to lead this project.

These people were all familiar with each other, so there was no awkwardness. They sat around the conference table, drinking tea, with various expressions on their faces.

Lü Mingliang’s expression was the most bewildered among everyone. Looking at today’s lineup, he was a bit confused: “Brother Huang, this matter seems unrelated to Headwind Logistics? Why did you ask me to come?”

Huang Sibo said, “You were once a lead planner in Tenda’s gaming division, of course you should be here!”

“For this game Mr. Pei wants to make, he’s given too little information. I really can’t guess Mr. Pei’s true intentions on my own, so I had to seek everyone’s help.”

“Each of us might only have been responsible for a portion of Mr. Pei’s projects—games, movies, whatever—and thus only grasped part of Mr. Pei’s vision. Our knowledge complements each other.”

“So for this game, we must pool our wisdom and efforts!”

“I’ve organized Mr. Pei’s requirements. Please read them carefully first, and we’ll start brainstorming in ten minutes.”

Huang Sibo gave everyone a sheet of paper clearly listing Mr. Pei’s requirements for the game “Mission and Choice.”

Everyone read Mr. Pei’s requirements carefully, each furrowing their brows.

It was hard to understand!

All these people had solved Mr. Pei’s puzzles to varying degrees, but undeniably, this puzzle was the most difficult.

Because this time, Mr. Pei had not only proposed many design requirements that seemed completely unreasonable, but these elements were also interconnected—pull one thread, and the whole fabric moves.

If there were only one or two unreasonable requirements, they would be easy to solve;

But with seven or eight or even more seemingly unreasonable requirements, they needed to find a solution that satisfied all of them.

If any single point wasn’t properly addressed, they might miss by a hair but err by a thousand miles!

Ten minutes later, Huang Sibo looked up: “Alright, time is tight. Let’s brainstorm for an hour first, inspire each other, and then continue thinking.”

“I’ll share my thoughts first.”

“Following the standard analysis procedure, the first step is definitely to identify the unreasonable aspects of these requirements and deeply analyze the fundamental design philosophy behind them.”

“Each unreasonable aspect might have multiple possible solutions. We need to synthesize this information to find the single correct approach.”

“First, I believe this is definitely a game that wins through its storyline, which I don’t think anyone would disagree with. The film investment is even greater than the game itself, and it’s required to be over an hour and a half. This indicates that the plot’s weight is completely on par with the game itself, perhaps even exceeding it.”

“So I’m considering whether we can breakthrough from the storyline perspective.”

“Regarding the plot, do you have any good ideas?” Huang Sibo looked toward Zhu Xiaocai and Ma Yiqun.

Ma Yiqun himself also came from the gaming industry and understood both games and storylines, so he participated in this discussion.

After thinking, he said: “The plot indeed carries significant weight, but the storyline must also serve the gameplay.”

“If it’s merely the theme of ‘resisting insects and protecting home,’ that’s too broad. Our chances of guessing Mr. Pei’s true intentions would be practically zero.”

“We still need to breakthrough from the gameplay perspective.”

“From the game ‘Struggle,’ we can see that although Mr. Pei puts a lot of effort into the storyline, he’s not pursuing pure plot. He’s more after the unity of story and gameplay, that is, ‘breaking the fourth wall,’ making the storyline not just an extension of gameplay but integrating at a higher level.”

Huang Sibo thought for a moment: “Hmm, that’s true.”

Li Yada spoke up: “From a player’s perspective, I find two of Mr. Pei’s requirements very interesting: the game is very unbalanced, and some units don’t follow commands. These could be entry points for gameplay.”

“Brother Bao, you’re also a veteran RTS game player. What do you think?”

Bao Xu stroked his chin thoughtfully: “These two points are obviously fatal flaws for conventional RTS games. Imbalance and too many uncertain factors completely dissolve the competitive nature of the game.”

“What does dissolving competitiveness bring…”

Lin Wan: “Better entertainment?… That doesn’t seem right either, because for most RTS game players, the competitive nature of RTS games equals entertainment.”

Bao Xu thought carefully and said: “I think it should be realism.”

“Humans and insects are inherently unbalanced. In most films and TV works, insects hold an overwhelming advantage when facing humans.”

“Insects reproduce very quickly, completely obey commands, and can easily resurrect if not careful—this is obviously a nightmare for humans.”

“Combined with the point that ‘soldiers have their own thoughts,’ Mr. Pei obviously wants us to make humans relatively weak and insects relatively strong, thus highlighting realism!”

“When players use humans to fight insects, they’ll feel it’s unfair, which gives more realism than those absolutely balanced RTS games.”

“For this realism, Mr. Pei is willing to give up the competitive nature and balance of RTS games. This should be a crucial point.”

Lin Wan had a sudden realization: “I understand! So the game mechanics make the gap between humans and insects more explicit. This should be connected to the plot!”

Huang Sibo nodded: “Yes, this is a critical point. So, does Mr. Pei’s specific requirement that the game must be simple to operate relate to this?”

Bao Xu slightly frowned: “It seems… unrelated. Whether the game is simple or difficult, both can make the two races unbalanced.”

Everyone fell into a brief silence.

Because “seemingly unrelated” often doesn’t mean “truly unrelated” but rather “related but not apparent.”

Lü Mingliang thought for a moment and said: “I believe this is related to the ‘focus’ Mr. Pei is considering.”

“I had this feeling when making ‘Game Producer.'”

“For the content Mr. Pei wants to express, he’s willing to spend huge sums and use the most exaggerated methods. Like how ‘Game Producer’ could have been made as a text adventure game, but Mr. Pei made every choice into a 3D scene; ‘Struggle’ was also elaborately made into an interactive movie-type game.”

“If these two games were made as text adventures, the investment could be reduced tenfold or more, but Mr. Pei still spared no expense, just to make the key content he wanted to express prominent enough.”

“And for less important content, Mr. Pei would delete if possible, simplify if possible, to minimize these factors’ interference with players.”

“Since ‘Mission and Choice’ has already decided not to focus on competitiveness but to reflect realism and highlight the plot, then, is operation still important? Not anymore.”

“Operation is for competitiveness.”

“And simplifying operations, weakening in-battle strategy means players can have more time to think and prepare pre-battle strategies.”

“This should be the key point Mr. Pei wants to express.”

Huang Sibo quickly noted it down: “That makes sense!”

“A balanced RTS game needs competitive operations, but what’s the point of operations in an unbalanced RTS game? After players need fewer operations, the freed-up time can be used for more pre-battle strategy.”

“But…”

“In traditional RTS games’ ‘collection-building-combat’ model, combat accounts for at least 60% of the game’s fun. If we reduce the operational experience in combat, it might be a huge weakening of the game experience.”

Bao Xu thought for a moment and said: “So we should make the collection and building systems more complex, letting players spend most of their time and energy on these two aspects.”

“Especially pre-battle strategy, players must think deeply when making each choice.”

Li Yada strongly agreed: “Right, just like match-3 games. The initial match-3 games were all about speed and time limits, while later match-3 games became unlimited time, limited moves, requiring chain reactions for scoring.”

“The latter requires more thinking, is more fun, and better fits today’s players’ gaming habits.”

“Obviously, Mr. Pei doesn’t simply want to copy the success of ‘StarCraft’ but is exploring a new RTS game mode!”

“Still real-time, still strategy, but allowing players with poor operational skills to also experience the fun of the game.”