Chapter 1312 I'd Better Not Give Directions

Pei Qian felt a bit dizzy and couldn't quite grasp the main point.

This was mainly because Li Yada hadn't intended to write in great detail when drafting the content, focusing only on the core aspects.

Who was President Pei? A game design master!

Why be so verbose?

A simple sentence should suffice for President Pei, writing too much might even be annoying.

Therefore, the written content was quite concise. Pei Qian scanned it and his first impression was that the game mixed too many elements and felt somewhat bloated.

The emphasis was still on the game's risks.

As long as Li Yada could demonstrate that the game's risks were high enough, Pei Qian felt it was worth considering.

"Tell me briefly about your thoughts first," Pei Qian said, looking at Li Yada.

Li Yada organized her thoughts slightly.

President Pei asked me to report, so clearly there were things he didn't understand.

President Pei had quickly finished reading the proposal, so he must have already grasped the general idea of the game's content.

After all, as a game design master, being able to envision the entire game from a framework should be a basic skill.

So, what should she report now?

She should report things that weren't written in the proposal and that President Pei couldn't envision.

Thinking of this, Li Yada said, "The proposal was submitted by a small studio. Their previous game was called *Empire's Edge*, which was released on Dawn Games platform and performed decently..."

"The main designer is named Yan Qi, who has been in the industry for a while. His previous design experience was mainly in the mobile game sector..."

"This game was designed by Yan Qi in a flash of inspiration. I think the content has some highlights."

"However, as I wrote in the risk assessment report, the scale of this game is too large, completely beyond the capacity of Yan Qi and his studio. The estimated R&D funding starts at least at one hundred million."

"Moreover, this game also has high risks, mainly in the following aspects."

"Yan Qi and his studio's development experience is insufficient for such a large-scale project, and they may encounter many unexpected problems during development;"

"Due to the huge investment, the purchasing power of the domestic game market may be insufficient. Although the game will be well-received among a niche group of players who prefer this type of game, it's likely that the R&D and promotion costs won't be recouped;"

"Moreover, compared to the relatively pure game content of *Rebirth from Despair*, *Shu Li* mixes more content, which is an innovation, but also a risk..."

"As for whether it's feasible and whether to invest money, President Pei, you'll have to judge for yourself."

"The key is whether this idea and creativity are worth taking these risks."

Li Yada's introduction mainly focused on the background of Yan Qi and his studio.

After all, the game's gameplay was already clearly written in the proposal. It was nothing more than being inspired by *Rebirth from Despair*, but incorporating many different gameplay styles and adding various officially encouraged "escape" mechanisms to create a unique game.

President Pei should be able to envision the entire game after taking a look at the points in this proposal.

By truthfully introducing the risks of this game, President Pei should be able to give a more comprehensive evaluation.

As soon as Pei Qian heard about risks, he was no longer sleepy.

Sounds like this project is quite reliable!

The main designer and the entire development team have been making mobile games before? They have absolutely no experience in developing PC games?

And they've only worked on small projects worth a few million at most, and now they're suddenly jumping to hundreds of millions?

The key is the game itself, which sounds like a hodgepodge. Even if it could replicate the success of *Rebirth from Despair*, the two games are too different.

On the surface, they both have elements of suffering, but if you delve deeper, the differences are huge.

Moreover, the story background is fictional, with no IP, and the prototype is taken from a relatively unpopular dynasty in history. This story background should not be a plus for players at all.

Feels good!

Pei Qian took the proposal again and looked at it again.

This gameplay of suffering in the early stages and grinding in the later stages doesn't seem completely unfeasible, but considering two points: first, few similar games have become popular games; and second, the game itself requires a huge investment and the development team lacks experience, so overall, the possibility of making money is actually very low.

Whether a game makes money is relative.

The higher the investment, the harder it is to make money.

Because there are only so many players, and it's difficult to break through the upper limit of game pricing. More investment means a higher break-even sales target, and the difficulty increases exponentially with each order of magnitude increase in sales.

In short, it's worth a try!

After considering for a moment, Pei Qian said, "It's okay to invest money."

Li Yada couldn't help but feel happy.

President Pei agreed, which means there's no problem with the gameplay of this game, and it can be a hit!

But after waiting for a while, she didn't hear anything else. Li Yada hesitated and asked, "President Pei, do you have any opinions or suggestions? Is there anything that can be improved in the gameplay of this game?"

Pei Qian looked at the proposal, then looked at Li Yada.

Improvements?

Actually, he really wanted to give some instructions, but thinking back to his previous "achievements" in guiding Tengda Games and Shang Yang Games, he should just stay out of it.

What if a casual suggestion had a finishing touch effect and made this game take off?

That would be infuriating.

So, Pei Qian shook his head: "As an investor, don't always interfere randomly. Everyone has their own ideas about games. This isn't Tengda's game after all."

"Besides, I think this game is okay, there aren't any big problems."

"The only thing I'm worried about is whether one hundred million is enough. It might be better if we could add more."

"Imagination is priceless. How can we let money limit a designer's imagination?"

Logically speaking, one hundred million is already quite a lot, but for this kind of game, it's obviously more difficult to recoup the costs the more you invest.

In other words, every penny added after one hundred million will make it exponentially more difficult for this game to be profitable.

But Pei Qian couldn't directly say that he wanted to give more money, that wouldn't be reasonable, since they only asked for one hundred million.

Moreover, the system was still watching, so he had to find a way to fool it.

The good thing about this kind of project is that the system won't use it to hold back the settlement. For Pei Qian, the money is spent once it's spent, and he doesn't have to worry about it for a long time.

But Pei Qian couldn't think of a specific reason to take out more money for the time being, so he could only let the game's designer think about it himself.

Li Yada nodded: "Is that so? President Pei thinks so too?"

"Indeed, this kind of game still needs sufficient R&D funding to achieve good results."

"In that case, I'll go back and have Yan Qi and his team refine the proposal, add back the content that was cut before, and add more to the game's flow and level design. We'll also make more equipment, props, NPCs, monsters, and so on."

Pei Qian added: "Arrange the recruitment as soon as possible. Anyway, you'll have to recruit people sooner or later. Don't wait until halfway through to realize that the progress is too slow, then it'll be too late."

For game companies, labor costs are the biggest part of development costs.

The more people you hire, the higher the daily expenses. Hiring people early means spending money early, and hiring more people means spending more money.

Anyway, such a big project, and a new team needs to be integrated, the development time won't be short. Hiring people early won't make the development progress much faster, but it can spend more money.

Li Yada was a little touched.

Although she had expected that President Pei might invest in this game and support Yan Qi's dream, she didn't expect President Pei to be so generous. One hundred million was already enough, but he still wanted to add more money.

But to be honest, similar game effects are indeed made with money.

When Tengda made *Rebirth from Despair*, its foundation wasn't very strong, so the game's content was relatively pure, the game flow wasn't very long, and the final game price wasn't high.

But now, Tengda's size is completely different.

Perhaps President Pei saw the current plight of Yan Qi's small studio and thought of Tengda's early days, so he decided to lend a helping hand?

He couldn't let the *Shu Li* project leave any regrets!

Sure enough, President Pei's understanding of investment is different from other investors.

Other investors are thinking about how to cut costs and how to seek the biggest return with the lowest cost, so when they encounter this kind of project, their first reaction is definitely how to lower the cost, and their second reaction is to interfere with the project and interfere with the creation.

But President Pei is different. When he encounters this kind of problem, his first reaction is to consider whether there is enough money and whether people should be recruited as soon as possible. And even though President Pei is a game design master, he fully respects the original designer's ideas and has no intention of interfering with the creation at all!

It can only be said that President Pei's first identity is still a designer, and then an investor.

Or rather, even if President Pei is an investor, he is an investor of a completely different nature from other investors.

"Okay, President Pei, then I'll go and tell them to have the designer re-sort the proposal, add all the ideas that were cut before, and make this game complete."

"Uh... or should I wait for He Desheng to come back and let He Desheng say it?"

"I still have to make sure my identity is not revealed."

Li Yada had previously told Yan Qi that she knew people at Yu Meng Ventures and could speak for them, but if she directly relayed the message officially, it would be a bit beyond the scope of a friend and would easily arouse suspicion.

Therefore, it would be better to wait for He Desheng to come back and talk as the person in charge of Yu Meng Ventures.

Pei Qian nodded: "Yes, it's okay, the confidentiality work still needs to be done."

"Speaking of which... can the identity of Dawn Games platform still be hidden?"

Li Yada thought for a while: "It's still okay, it's still safe for now."

Pei Qian was slightly relieved: "Okay, continue to hide it. Hide it for as long as you can, this is very important."

It's better to continue hiding it so that he can continue to burn money. As long as it's not exposed in the short term, he can burn another sum.

Once the relationship between Dawn Games platform and Tengda is exposed, he will only be forced to enter the next stage.