Creating such a successful game for the company, yet only receiving less than 1% of the revenue, anyone would find it hard to accept psychologically.
Of course, Qiu Hong was still better off. Many game companies had successful game projects, but didn’t give the development team any bonuses at all. Such companies existed, and there were quite a few of them.
Qiu Hong saw this clearly, believing that working for others would never lead to a promising future, which was why he broke away to start his own business.
Not talking about projects with monthly revenue exceeding 100 million, even with just several million or tens of millions, his income would still vastly surpass what he earned before.
But the problem was that entrepreneurship was much harder than he had imagined.
If entrepreneurship wasn’t successful, then forget about getting rich; not starving would be considered good enough.
So, the price Mr. Pei offered was sincere and tempting enough.
However, the “Desperate Path Plan” itself didn’t seem like an investment project, but rather more like a charitable project, combined with Mr. Pei’s bonus rules, leaving Qiu Hong undecided.
After considering for a moment, Qiu Hong asked, “Mr. Pei, may I boldly ask, what is the purpose of this ‘Desperate Path Plan’?”
Pei Qian fell silent.
To be honest, Mr. Pei was stumped by the question.
The primary purpose was, of course, to lose money, but he couldn’t say that.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian said, “There’s no specific purpose.”
Qiu Hong was bewildered. “How can there be no purpose?”
Pei Qian asked in return, “Why must there be a purpose?”
Qiu Hong was stunned. He blinked, carefully savoring Mr. Pei’s words.
Everyone must have a purpose when doing things. Mr. Pei had achieved such enormous success; surely his actions couldn’t all be on a whim.
So why would Mr. Pei say such a thing?
Mr. Pei’s statement didn’t mean there was truly no purpose, but rather no utilitarian, worldly purpose.
Qiu Hong’s question was rather implicit. What he wanted to ask was: investing in Chinese single-player games and indie games doesn’t make money, so what’s in it for you?
Mr. Pei was also responding according to the deeper logic behind Qiu Hong’s question: investing in Chinese single-player games and indie games doesn’t make money, so does that mean I can’t invest? Why must it be about making money? Is it not acceptable to simply do something meaningful for this industry?
Looking at Mr. Pei’s determined gaze, Qiu Hong suddenly remembered something.
Previously, he had indeed discussed some views on Chinese games with Mr. Pei, who seemed to have some sighs about the catastrophic decline of single-player games a decade ago.
Could it be that Mr. Pei was purely setting up this “Desperate Path Plan” to support the domestic single-player game industry, not for making money at all?
If so, think carefully about the name of this plan.
Desperate Path Plan.
Why choose such a name?
On one hand, it could be considered that the entire Chinese single-player game industry had once reached a desperate end. On the other hand, it could also be thought that this plan was specifically to help those indie game companies and indie game producers who had reached a desperate end and were about to close down.
If he had received help from such a Desperate Path Plan when he first started his business, would the result have been different?
After understanding this point and looking at Mr. Pei again, Qiu Hong suddenly felt a kind of idealistic radiance emanating from him.
No empty talk, no clichés, but simply the name of this plan had deeply moved Qiu Hong!
But what about his performance bonus? It wasn’t that he thought it was too little, just that it was a bit difficult to understand.
Thinking of this, Qiu Hong nodded. “Mr. Pei, I think I understand now.”
“However, there are some details I still don’t understand. With so many companies, what’s the specific selection method? Are you sure my bonus isn’t determined by the investment returns?”
Upon hearing the words “understand now,” Pei Qian instinctively shuddered.
He took a sip of tea and explained, “The specific selection method is very simple.”
“You’ll go around the country looking for these small teams making single-player games and indie games, but don’t disclose the relationship between the ‘Desperate Path Plan’ and Tenda Games.”
“Of course, travel expenses will be fully reimbursed.”
“As for which small teams meet the criteria, the standard is simple: don’t invest in those you find extremely reliable or extremely unreliable. As for what ‘reliable’ means, you can judge that yourself.”
“One thing to note is that the games must be one-time purchases, without any in-app purchases.”
“Only when their games are launched and making money will we take a share according to our investment.”
“As for your bonus income… what I said earlier is the final plan. It won’t be determined by investment returns.”
After saying this, Pei Qian felt a bit uneasy.
He was afraid Qiu Hong would refuse.
Having bonuses based on investment returns seemed more attractive. Although the actual bonus income and stability would be far lower than what Pei Qian was currently offering, people tend to imagine things in the best possible light.
But Pei Qian couldn’t give Qiu Hong bonuses based on investment returns. Otherwise, wouldn’t Qiu Hong rack his brains to find profitable projects?
With the current bonus method, Qiu Hong was essentially encouraged to diversify investments. The more projects and the fewer profitable ones, the higher his bonus.
As for not disclosing the relationship between the “Desperate Path Plan” and Tenda Games, this was because once associated with Tenda, the plan could no longer remain low-key. The funded companies would certainly receive attention, imperceptibly increasing the probability of their games becoming popular.
Therefore, they had to spend money quietly, without establishing too many connections with Tenda, to avoid triggering a multi-departmental backstabbing effect.
But these things couldn’t be explicitly stated, only hoping that Qiu Hong would understand on his own.
Qiu Hong once again fell into deep thought.
He didn’t think Mr. Pei’s bonus distribution method was stingy. On the contrary, he felt Mr. Pei was being too generous.
Because they were investing in small teams making single-player games and indie games, the success rate of such investments would be good if it reached a few percent, with the failure probability far exceeding the success probability.
Since losing money was the more probable outcome, the current bonus distribution method was more advantageous to him from a rational perspective.
As for why Mr. Pei specifically emphasized that both too reliable and too unreliable projects shouldn’t be invested in?
For the too unreliable ones, it was obvious—many of these companies and producers were just scamming money. No matter how much you invested, they would only produce garbage. Such companies deserved to go bankrupt.
For the too reliable companies, they weren’t exactly at a “desperate end.” Even without funding from the Desperate Path Plan, they would likely find other investors to overcome the crisis.
The ones most in need of help were those in the middle layer. They wanted to make good games but couldn’t attract the favor of regular investment companies.
As for why “cast a wide net,” this was also easy to understand.
On one hand, it was because eggs shouldn’t be put in one basket; on the other hand, it was to broaden the range of help from the Desperate Path Plan.
It was like helping the poor—giving one poor person 100,000 yuan was not as good as giving 100 poor people 1,000 yuan each.
Many small companies and teams wouldn’t know how to spend 5 million or 10 million yuan if given to them, potentially leading to serious waste. But if given 500,000 or 1 million yuan, it would be enough to help them through difficulties, allowing these funds to be utilized most fully.
Not publicizing it meant giving up fame, but it also prevented those garbage producers who sought fame and defrauded investors from coming to the door.
After thinking it through, Qiu Hong silently marveled at how thorough Mr. Pei’s thinking was!
Indeed, only someone with such meticulous thinking could achieve success in various fields!
Qiu Hong couldn’t help but recall the scene of giving a lecture to Mr. Pei before, feeling a sense of shame for showing off in front of an expert.
But perhaps it was because of their previous communication that Mr. Pei chose him?
Mr. Pei had once said not to let the tragedy of the times become a personal tragedy. This clearly showed that he saw Qiu Hong still harbored a special feeling for single-player games deep in his heart, right?
Qiu Hong felt that the idealistic radiance emanating from Mr. Pei shone even brighter, and Mr. Pei’s smile conveyed warmth and trust!
Thinking of this, Qiu Hong nodded, “Alright, Mr. Pei, I’m willing to take charge of the ‘Desperate Path Plan.’ I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation!”
…
In the afternoon, at the Shangyang Games.
Wang Xiaobin was still racking his brains about the DLC content.
During this time, he had also looked at some player opinions on the forum, selecting several strongly resonating proposals for consideration.
“Hmm? Director Zhu sent the plot outline!”
Wang Xiaobin quickly received the document.
This plot outline was for the DLC story of the game “Sea Fortress,” not the story outline for “Destiny and Choice.”
It was uncertain whether the plot story for “Destiny and Choice” had been completed yet.
But Wang Xiaobin didn’t care about that; he was already quite busy with his work.
After opening the document, Wang Xiaobin found that it wasn’t just a simple story outline, but also included some freshly drawn concept art sketches, including the insect race that would be encountered in the game, and line drawings of the appearance and weapon equipment of the characters in the game.
Although it was a first-person perspective and the protagonist’s face couldn’t be seen, the appearance of other team members was visible.
Like many settings in films or games, these characters also wore special battle suits, which were high-tech armor.
Unlike those heavy designs that often reached over three meters in height and weighed half a ton, these people’s battle suits were more slender and lightweight.
According to the description in the design document, these battle suits were called “Lark Type III Battle Suits,” powered by a miniature fusion reactor in the chest that could charge the battle rifle in hand. The back had jet outlets which, besides heat dissipation, could also support ultra-short-distance flight for a short time.
Simultaneously, soldiers had undergone enhancement surgeries using physical, chemical, and genetic means to speed up reaction time, strength, and vision. Although only a few soldiers persisted through this, they gained the ability to pilot the Lark battle suits.
The reason these battle suits were named Lark, besides being relatively lightweight and capable of short-distance flight, was also because birds are natural enemies of insects.
The hands of the battle suit had recoil cancellation devices, the feet had gravity devices, and the weapons were special rifles carried by individual soldiers using both gunpowder and magnetic rail dual propulsion.
The helmet contained an integrated system with functions such as instant communication, infrared detection, terrain navigation, trajectory calculation, status monitoring, and artificial intelligence.
Although the rifle had extreme power and a high rate of fire, activating the hand’s recoil cancellation device could achieve a “no recoil” effect for a short time, while the foot’s gravity device allowed the user to stand on any solid surface.
In other words, every soldier wearing a Lark battle suit could obtain combat abilities that could be considered cheating, such as wall-climbing, limited x-ray vision, no recoil, auto-aim, and short-distance flight.
The soldiers’ battlefield data would be uploaded in real-time, and the massive data would be processed and analyzed by artificial intelligence, which would then command the soldiers’ actions.
This meant that artificial intelligence could answer most combat-related questions asked by soldiers at any time and guide their actions.
Of course, team communications within the squad would be preserved, allowing team members to make some adaptable responses.
The appearances of all squad members were hidden in the helmets of the Lark battle suits, but the scene inside the helmets was vaguely visible: a giant monocular lens covered the soldier’s left eye, and the extended part of the lens wrapped around the left side of the jaw. Not much expression could be seen, but gender and general facial features could be distinguished.
In addition, each person’s battle suit had a large number and a small amount of personalized painting, so even though they wore standard battle suits, careful observation could distinguish who was who, provided they weren’t in intense combat.
Furthermore, the story outline also briefly explained the mission of this squad.
On the main battlefield, armored vehicles and heavy tanks targeting the insect race were the main fighting forces. Soldiers didn’t need to wear battle suits to engage in melee combat with the insect swarm.
But neither armored vehicles nor battle suits could fully defend against the acid, horny claws, and pincers of the insect race. At the same time, the shells of most insect units couldn’t resist the individual rifles propelled by both gunpowder and magnetic rails.
For individual soldiers, stacking armor and enhancing firepower no longer had much significance, so the main effect of the Lark battle suit was to provide high mobility and stealth.
Under these premises, the combat squad wearing Lark battle suits had the mission objective of avoiding the main forces of the insect swarm, infiltrating deep into the insect nest, and executing a decapitation operation against the insect queen.
There were many such squads, and the protagonist was the captain of one of the action squads.
All the team members firmly believed that if they successfully decapitated the insect queen, they could turn the tide of battle and even eliminate all insects.
But from the story outline, the decapitation operation against the insect queen didn’t seem to be such a simple matter.
And the team members in the story still knew nothing about this.