April 16, Monday.

“Finally completed!”

Qiao Liang rubbed his dark circles, then stretched.

His computer screen showed that the new episode of “Masterpiece” had been successfully uploaded and passed review, which made him feel relieved.

After continuously playing through both “Mission and Choice” and “Fantasy War Remake” on Saturday, Qiao Liang was suddenly bursting with inspiration. He spent the entire Sunday in a frenzied work session, staying up late to edit this episode.

After sleeping for just four or five hours, he woke up this morning to work intensely for a few more hours. By the afternoon, the video was finally complete!

Qiao Liang was quite satisfied with this video.

Previously, when analyzing “Struggle,” Qiao Liang had encountered some minor setbacks, and the video almost failed to materialize. In the end, it was the veteran He An’s long Weibo post analyzing the game from a designer’s perspective that gave Qiao Liang his epiphany.

After that, Qiao Liang learned from his experience.

He gradually realized that Mr. Pei’s level was getting higher and higher, with his game design concepts advancing by leaps and bounds. As a mere game player, Qiao Liang’s understanding of games was increasingly diverging from Mr. Pei’s, with the gap widening.

If this continued, sooner or later there would come a day when “Mr. Pei creates a classic game worthy of going down in history, but Qiao Laoshi fails to interpret it properly.”

Qiao Liang absolutely couldn’t allow that to happen!

Therefore, to keep up with Mr. Pei’s rapidly evolving understanding of games, Qiao Liang also spent a lot of time studying professional game design knowledge and reading various game media and professional game developers’ analyses and evaluations of classic games.

His efforts had finally paid off.

Qiao Liang noticed that while many players on the internet were praising “Mission and Choice,” many weren’t hitting the key points.

Although “Mission and Choice” had become popular, it wasn’t popular enough—it hadn’t completely broken through the circle!

Time was a crucial factor.

After all, “Mission and Choice” lacked early promotion. Relying solely on the natural spread of popularity, its heat was still limited in just two or three days.

So, Qiao Liang felt that he should use this episode to systematically, comprehensively, and thoroughly praise the game, letting players understand the epoch-making historical significance it carried!

Only when players clearly recognized this would they properly appreciate the game’s true value. Those who were still hesitating and observing would then unhesitatingly pay to buy it in droves!

…

Meanwhile.

Pei Qian had just arrived at Shangyang Games, planning to deceive Lin Wan and get the establishment of Shenhua’s gaming department on the agenda as soon as possible.

Setting up this department had at least two benefits for Pei Qian: first, he could get rid of Lin Wan; second, he could be more flexible in spending money.

A newly established Shenhua gaming department would likely have a higher probability of failing at making games. Moreover, the system imposed different restrictions on Tenda Group’s own projects versus projects that Tenda Group invested in or participated in.

For instance, games developed by Tenda’s gaming department would be subject to various system restrictions, while games developed in the Poverty Plan Incubator would face fewer restrictions, and investments in other companies through Dream Venture Capital would face even fewer restrictions.

At this moment, the office area of Shangyang Games was permeated with a busy yet enthusiastic atmosphere.

“There’s still a small bug here, fix it quickly.”

“The personality of this mature female character still feels a bit stiff. Should we make some minor adjustments?”

“It does seem that way. It might mainly be a voice acting issue. Let’s have the voice actor re-record these few lines.”

The development of “Fitness Showdown” at Shangyang Games was also in its final stages, entering the testing, bug-fixing, and final optimization phase.

The success of “Mission and Choice” had undoubtedly given Shangyang Games a shot in the arm, filling everyone with motivation.

After all, Tenda Group had only two “legitimate sons” in its game departments. One was clearly about to take off, so how could the other be content to lag behind?

Pei Qian saw this with his eyes and felt the pain in his heart.

How did the once-promising Shangyang Games turn into this!

Obviously, Lin Wan, as the highest person in charge of Shangyang Games, should bear the greatest responsibility.

Thinking of this, Pei Qian went to Lin Wan’s office and gently knocked on the door.

“Mr. Pei?” Lin Wan was somewhat surprised. “Please, sit down.”

She poured tea and asked, “What brings Mr. Pei here today? Shouldn’t you be overseeing ‘Mission and Choice’ at Tenda Games?”

“Or do you feel that ‘Mission and Choice’ is completely fine now, so you’ve come to check on the progress of ‘Fitness Showdown’?”

Pei Qian silently took a sip of tea, inwardly scoffing.

Lin Wan was completely wrong.

It wasn’t that “Mission and Choice” was completely fine—it was completely beyond saving, which was why he had come to Shangyang Games!

Moreover, “Fitness Showdown” wasn’t the focus; Pei Qian didn’t care about this project at all.

What waves could a fitness game make? Could it compare to a project like “Mission and Choice”?

Even if you let it make money without restraint, how much could it make?

What Pei Qian now cared about was the future development of the entire Shangyang Games!

After considering for a moment, he said, “You’ve been the head of Shangyang Games for quite a while now. How do you feel?”

Lin Wan thought for a moment: “It’s been great! I feel that during my time as the head of Shangyang Games, my abilities have steadily improved, and I’ve learned a lot of game design theory. I could say I’ve benefited tremendously!”

“However… I still have many shortcomings.”

“Games at the level of ‘Struggle’ and ‘Mission and Choice’ are beyond what I could achieve no matter how hard I try. So, I need to continue to strengthen my learning!”

Pei Qian fell silent.

As expected, Lin Wan still maintained this attitude, with no change.

But if you think this way, it’s too much for me to handle!

“Struggle” and “Mission and Choice” don’t actually contain any profound game design theories; their creation was completely accidental. In fact, your game design theory has long surpassed mine. Please, just leave quickly and let me lose money in peace!

But Pei Qian couldn’t say these words out loud.

Pei Qian couldn’t tell Lin Wan “you’re already excellent enough” now, because Lin Wan firmly believed in her heart that she was still far from good enough. If Pei Qian said such things, it would trigger Lin Wan’s defense mechanism, making her suspect if Lin Chang was interfering, which would make the situation spiral out of control.

Pei Qian had to send her away steadily without triggering the defense mechanism in Lin Wan’s heart.

He had very cleverly thought of a set of rhetoric, and based on his understanding of Lin Wan, this approach had a very high chance of success.

“Indeed.”

“Although your ability in game design has improved, there’s still some gap before you become a top-tier game producer.”

Pei Qian first outwardly agreed with Lin Wan’s assessment, which would minimize her wariness and pave the way for what he was about to say.

Lin Wan’s eyes indeed lit up as she asked, “Then Mr. Pei, what should I do next to better improve myself?”

Pei Qian was silent for a moment, then said, “I think you should step out of your comfort zone.”

Lin Wan was stunned: “Step out of my comfort zone?”

Pei Qian nodded: “Yes, Shangyang Games is your comfort zone.”

“To become a top-tier game producer, three aspects of ability are essential.”

“First, free-spirited thinking and a sufficiently far-sighted vision.”

“Second, management and control ability to lead a team well.”

“Third, adaptability to unfamiliar environments.”

“Thinking and vision are relatively abstract things. You’ve already begun to develop them, but to progress further, you can only rely on your own enlightenment—no one can teach you hand in hand.”

“The key lies in the latter two points.”

“An excellent game producer never works alone; there must be a very strong team supporting from behind. You must ensure that every employee in the team understands your intentions and acts as an extension of your thoughts, transforming these intentions into specific details in the game.”

“And for an excellent game producer, the environment is never unchanging. If you’re excellent in one environment but accomplish nothing in another, you still can’t be called an excellent game producer.”

When saying these words, Pei Qian’s expression was very serious and earnest, giving people the feeling that “this is genuine insight.”

In reality, he was making it all up to pave the way for what he was about to say next.

But even though he was making it up, it sounded reasonable, which was essential to confuse Lin Wan sufficiently.

Lin Wan had a thoughtful expression, but it was mixed with a hint of confusion.

“But, Mr. Pei, I have a good team at Shangyang Games. Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou have helped me a lot, and our ideas are very aligned.”

“As for adaptability to unfamiliar environments… The games developed by Shangyang Games are all different types. Doesn’t this demonstrate that we can adapt well to unfamiliar market environments?”

Pei Qian immediately shook his head: “No.”

“This is the key point I mentioned earlier: you need to step out of your comfort zone!”

“Why is Shangyang Games your comfort zone?”

“Because long before you arrived, Wang Xiaobin, Ye Zhizhou, and those base-level employees had already been working together for a long time. After I acquired Shangyang Games, there was a series of adjustments to the personnel structure, and the entire organizational framework of Shangyang Games was completely established.”

“You took over an already very mature team, so of course orders were followed promptly, and everything went very smoothly.”

“But for an excellent producer, an excellent production team obviously needs to be personally built.”

“The same goes for adaptability to unfamiliar environments.”

“In the mature team of Shangyang Games, your adaptability is actually greatly enhanced. The general direction of the games was determined early on, the details were largely decided after discussions with everyone, and when the games were released, they automatically had the ‘Tenda Halo,’ with players viewing them through a filter… All of this greatly enhanced adaptability.”

“But in reality, this adaptability doesn’t belong to you personally; it belongs to the entire Shangyang Games, and even to Tenda Group.”

“At this point, if you’re merely satisfied with the current state, you can certainly continue like this. But the question is, are you really just satisfied with this?”

Lin Wan immediately said: “Of course not!”