Chapter 1265 The Direction of Design

Zhou Muyan hesitated slightly before saying, "President Pei, I have a few doubts. Could you possibly explain them a bit?"

"It's not that I don't trust you, I just want to learn some more advanced design concepts."

He was too embarrassed to say it outright, but he really didn't believe it.

It wasn't that he didn't believe in President Pei's abilities, or that he didn't believe in his integrity, but the problem was that integrity wasn't an absolute thing.

There was a saying that closeness determined the difference in treatment.

When President Pei was designing games for Tengda, he definitely went all out. But now, President Pei was only responsible for coming up with an idea, and the specific development and operation were being handled by Tianhuo Studio and Longyu Group. Could President Pei still give it his all?

Would he come up with his best ideas?

Would he delve deeply into the market situation and carefully scrutinize the details?

What's more, *Bullet Marks 2*, as an FPS game, was directly competing with *Sea Fortress*. If it snatched too many users, wouldn't it affect *Sea Fortress* and cause its revenue to drop significantly?

Considering these factors, it was perfectly understandable that President Pei would be somewhat reserved in the design of *Bullet Marks 2*.

He couldn't ask about such things too bluntly, but he still had to ask.

After all, even a casual attempt at this game would require an investment of several million yuan, and even a slight attention to detail would cost tens of millions. It would be very painful if so much money went down the drain.

Pei Qian chuckled, completely unperturbed.

He had experienced similar scenes too many times. If everyone didn't ask, he would feel uneasy instead.

As long as you asked, all sorts of sophistries would come out of his mouth, guaranteeing that he would arrange everything to your satisfaction.

Pei Qian said with a smile, "What are your doubts?"

Zhou Muyan thought for a moment and said, "First of all, it's the feel of the game."

"Back then, *Bullet Marks* had a big disadvantage compared to *Sea Fortress*, which was that its feel was too close to *Counter Terrorist Plan*, which made it less comfortable for beginners to play."

"I was always thinking at the time that if I were to make another FPS game in the future, I would definitely learn from *Sea Fortress* and lower the threshold for beginners as much as possible."

"Why continue the feel of *Bullet Marks*?"

After *Bullet Marks* failed, Zhou Muyan practically led the designers of the entire project team in studying *Sea Fortress*, and they had analyzed many problems very thoroughly.

Learning from successful experiences was a must-have ability for every designer.

Therefore, Zhou Muyan felt that President Pei's statement was somewhat unreasonable.

Pei Qian was silent for a moment and said, "Times have changed. *Sea Fortress* is old news from two or three years ago. Wouldn't it be like carving a mark on a boat to find your sword if we went to learn from it now?"

Zhou Muyan's mouth twitched slightly, "Does President Pei mean that the design of *Bullet Marks* was actually two or three years ahead of its time? It only failed because it was born at the wrong time?"

Although this statement was quite outrageous, that seemed to be what President Pei meant!

Otherwise, why would they continue the feel of *Bullet Marks* two or three years later?

Pei Qian smiled awkwardly but politely, "Well... you can't analyze games in such a static and one-sided way."

"Some trends are cyclical. For example, in the fashion world, the ultimate in novelty often becomes retro, but this retro is not a complete replica and imitation of the past, but a spiral rise and transcendence..."

"Think about it, players have been playing the *Sea Fortress* model for two or three years now, and many of them are tired of it and have improved their skills. Shouldn't we change to something more difficult?"

"So, it's not very accurate to simply say that your design was born at the wrong time. It should be said that on the spiral of constantly evolving trends, you chose the wrong coordinate. Moving back a little, or rising a little, you could have touched the trend."

Pei Qian didn't dare to talk about those particularly detailed concepts, because the more he said, the more likely he was to expose himself.

On the one hand, he didn't have too much professional knowledge in this area, and on the other hand, the more detailed and clear it was, the easier it was to expose flaws.

It was like when a fortune teller was swindling people, he must not say things too clearly, he must talk in a grand and empty way, mysteriously and vaguely.

It was even better if there were reasons for any kind of interpretation.

If he said a particularly accurate result, wouldn't it be easy to be directly slapped in the face?

After listening to President Pei's explanation, all the designers hurriedly lowered their heads to record in their notebooks.

As expected, President Pei spoke differently from other designers, obviously not on the same level!

To put it in terms of martial arts, ordinary experts often focus on techniques and specific martial arts moves when discussing martial arts, so they talk in great detail.

But true experts have already mastered all kinds of moves, so what's the point of talking about details?

What they talk about at this time may be some concepts about martial arts, which seem to be grand and empty on the surface, but they represent a higher realm and have a very strong guiding role.

Just like President Pei said, the point that "trends are in a constantly changing spiral" is enough to have a significant guiding significance for everyone's subsequent selection of projects and research on market trends.

Zhou Muyan nodded slightly, and his conviction increased greatly.

In fact, he wouldn't have been particularly satisfied whether President Pei answered yes or no to his question of whether *"Bullet Marks"* was two or three years ahead of its time.

If he answered yes, Zhou Muyan would think that he was敷衍 (fūyǎn, going through the motions/being perfunctory) him, he had a very clear understanding of his own abilities; if he said no, it would contradict President Pei's previous statement.

But President Pei's answer was between "yes" and "no". The trend was not a straight line, but a spiral. The design of *"Bullet Marks"* was actually very close to the trend in a straight line distance, but in reality, it was very far away.

As expected of President Pei, even a casual explanation was so philosophical!

Zhou Muyan immediately extended this passage: "Then does President Pei mean that we should follow the design of *Bullet Marks*, but we can't completely copy it, but we have to make some modifications on the basis of continuing this concept?"

Pei Qian: "Well... yes."

He originally wanted to say no, because once this thing was modified, it might not be easy to lose money, but then he thought again, wasn't what he had been saying for so long what Zhou Muyan understood?

At this time, he could only bite the bullet and admit it.

However, he added: "But you must pay attention, this modification must be cautious, even if you modify it a little less, you can't overdo it."

"Too much is as bad as too little."

"We must maintain the original core as much as possible, and we must grasp the degree of it ourselves."

This could be regarded as a slight remedy, allowing the game to stay on this wrong path for a while longer.

Zhou Muyan nodded, he had no problem with this point, President Pei's ingenious explanation completely convinced him.

But there were other problems.

Zhou Muyan coughed lightly and looked at Sun Xi: "Regarding the charging model of *Bullet Marks 2*... Sun Xi, what do you think? There are no outsiders here, feel free to speak your mind."

Sun Xi was very smart and understood at the time.

He wanted me to raise questions!

Obviously, the real question was Zhou Muyan, but Zhou Muyan was, after all, the producer, and he couldn't always ask questions like an elementary school student, that would be too embarrassing!

What's more, the other designers were watching coldly, and it wouldn't be appropriate for President Zhou to keep asking questions.

Therefore, at this time, a younger brother had to stand up and solve problems for his elder brother.

If Sun Xi dared to answer "I think President Pei's design is very good, there is no problem," then he was afraid that he could pack his things and leave tomorrow.

Coincidentally, Sun Xi did have doubts, or rather, these more normal designers present had similar doubts.

"President Pei, I do have some doubts about the charging model."

"The item charging of *Bullet Marks* was badly criticized, this model can no longer be used, and we must change to a new charging model, we all know this very well."

"But why not use the charging model of *Sea Fortress*?"

"The *Sea Fortress* free-to-play + heavily pay-to-win (huo Qilin chong ke) model has been proven to be a very successful model, it is indeed very popular, and players have basically accepted it."

"The charging model will not have any suspicion of reference and plagiarism. Players will not feel disgusted because the charging models of the two games are very similar."

"At this time, why not continue to sell epic weapons in the *Sea Fortress* charging model, but sell skins instead?"

"After all, in FPS games, players can't see their own bodies, they can only see the guns in their hands. The effect of selling skins will be very different compared to MOBA games."

Sun Xi's meaning was very clear, the charging model was not considered plagiarism, so why not continue to use the method that players were already familiar with?

For example, if there was already a MOBA game on the market that charged for skins, and another MOBA game was released, wouldn't it charge for skins? Would it go for other charging points?

That obviously didn't make any sense.

The same was true for FPS games. The fact had already proved that this group of players particularly accepted the charging model of *Sea Fortress*, which was a free game plus limited epic weapons, which satisfied both civilian players and tycoon players, with good income and good reputation.

Moreover, the charging model was not related to the "spiral rise" of game design concepts. There were no skills involved, it was simply a matter of choice.

So why change it?

Pei Qian was silent for a moment and said, "The charging model of the game is indeed not considered plagiarism, but if there is a sense of familiarity, it will still cause player resentment."

"Time charging, item charging, skin charging and other models are used too much by other games, and have become normalized, so it won't make people feel strange to use them again."

"But *Sea Fortress*'s epic weapons are only used by itself, and most of the other games have failed after using them."

"So this sense of familiarity will still make players feel more resentful."

"Moreover, the charging model of *Sea Fortress* is related to its gameplay. Its feel takes care of novice players, so overall it is a less 'professional' shooting game. It doesn't matter if it is slightly unfair, players are more tolerant."

"But if it is a game that is positioned as more 'professional', then any unfairness may cause player resentment."

"Combining these two kinds of resentment, the first impression that *Bullet Marks 2* gives players will be very bad."