After deciding on the theme, the next step was the name of the game.
Pei Qian did not think about it for too long. He quickly decided.
Mission and Choice!
As for why it was called that, it was actually because of the past.
Pei Qian had been learning about games some time ago. He had also learned a lot about the past of the domestic games industry from He An and Qiu Hong.
In 1995, America's Touki Corporation released a series of games called 'Command and Conquest'. This was the best-selling real-time strategy game in history. It set a model for RTS games and was the first to create the structure of 'resource collection + production and construction + army combat'. It created and defined the concept of 'fog of war'.
All in all, it was popular all over the world. Just like games like Starcraft and Fantasy Battle, it was regarded as an eternal classic of the world's RTS games.
In 1997, a game called 'Mission and Choice' appeared in the country.
When he first heard this name, Pei Qian thought that it was the parallel world's Freedom and Glory. He had a good impression of it, but he soon realized that he had guessed wrong.
This game was actually a parallel world's Blood Lion.
Just as Qiu Hong had said before, the domestic games industry had been in a state of intense turmoil during this period of time. Online games were rising rapidly, and piracy was gradually spreading. Domestic standalone games were forced to fight a price war with piracy, but no matter how much they reduced the price, it was still useless.
At this juncture, 'Mission and Choice' appeared.
All the major games media outlets began to publish colorful advertisements for Mission and Choice. The cover was a Chinese soldier in a space uniform. The background was a huge sandworm and a technological interstellar battleship. There were also a few provocative slogans below.
"Your hometown, Blue Planet, has just suffered a destructive attack from the Zergs. The interstellar fleet suffered heavy losses. Blood dyed the sky red, flames tore through the night, and the swarm of insects drowned the human fleet like a tide. I know your choice in the face of the swarm of insects. We have no way out even though it will be a bleak operation. "
"Defeat the swarm of insects with your comrades and save Blue Planet!"
"It cost a million yuan to produce with all our might. The scene is grand, a domestic model!"
"High-standard avant-garde rock musician music production, strong software creation group, unrestrained artistic creativity. Everyone is looking forward to the explosive debut of Mission and Choice!"
Although these slogans seem a little inexplicable now, they were incomparably brilliant at that time.
Thus, the blood of all standalone game players was stirred up. Players automatically ignored the ubiquitous imitation of Mission and Choice from its name to its promotional picture. Instead, they saw it as a masterpiece that could surpass Command and Conquer. They looked forward to it being passed down in the RTS game hall forever.
But when the gamers got their hands on the game, the word 'disappointed' couldn't describe their feelings.
Simple and crude graphics, program bugs everywhere, and incredible game mechanics …
In short, it was unprecedentedly rotten.
After that, the players realized that this game was just freeloading crazily!
The name was borrowed from Command and Conquer, the story background was borrowed from Galaxy, and some fake patriotic sentiments were deliberately added. In short, it was crazy to deceive the feelings of domestic players.
Many people saw Mission and Choice as a disgrace to domestically-produced games, the last straw that crushed domestically-produced standalone games. What's more, most players still only had two emotions when they heard the name Mission and Choice: ridicule or anger.
Previously, Pei Qian had named his game Ocean Stronghold to get a good omen. However, the problem was that the people of this world did not understand!
Only Pei Qian himself knew about the joke of this name, so it did not cause any resistance.
Similarly, if it was called Blood Lion, the people of this world would still have no concept of it.
However, if it was called Mission and Choice, it would instantly arouse the anger of all domestic players!
Thus, Pei Qian immediately decided to call it this!
Come on, gamers, devour me with your anger!
Of course, there would definitely be a little copyright problem if they had the same name. However, it did not matter. The company that created this game had already closed down for several years. The copyright of Mission and Choice should belong to the creditors. However, no one would want this thing even if they paid for it. They could even ask for it directly if they found RSRO's official platform.
Since he used the name, he should use the background of the story as well.
At the same time, Pei Qian thought of a few methods that could greatly increase the chances of failure in order to ensure that nothing went wrong. He prepared to explain them to Hu Xianbin later.
Pei Qian informed Hu Xianbin, Huang Sibo, and Zhu Xiaoce to the conference room for a small meeting after he was done considering everything.
As for why he was called Huang Sibo …
Of course, it was because he had to leave the CG to Fei Huang Workspace.
Pei Qian was afraid that it would be troublesome if he could not complete it within the deadline and cause settlement to be delayed.
…
Soon, everyone arrived at the conference room.
Hu Xianbin knew very well that Boss Pei would be developing the next game soon after the success of Struggle.
However, Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo were puzzled when they saw each other in the conference room.
Why did Boss Pei call us here?
Was he going to make a game or a movie?
Time was precious, so Pei Qian went straight to the point and began to assign tasks.
"For the next game, I'll need the cooperation of both departments."
"The development cycle is set to be about nine months. We will spend 200 million to make a sci-fi themed RTS game and another 300 million to make a full set of CG for it. This task will be handed over to both departments."
The other three were stunned.
200 million for the game and 300 million for the CG?
The money for the CG was more than the game?
Huang Sibo's expression instantly became excited. "Boss Pei is determined to make a boutique RTS game at the same level as Starcraft 2? 300 million yuan, if used to burn more than ten minutes of game CG, the quality would definitely not lose to the big foreign manufacturers! "
Hu Xianbin was a little hesitant. "Burning 300 million yuan for CG, can we recover the cost?"
Huang Sibo smiled. "Why not? The development cost of Starcraft 2 is less than 100 million US dollars. If each game is priced at 50 US dollars, we can recover the cost by selling more than two million copies. It broke 1.5 million copies in two days on the market. It's easy to sell four to five million copies in the entire life cycle. It's very profitable, okay?
"Even if our game doesn't reach this number, investing more than 60 million US dollars would still be profitable even if it sells less than Starcraft 2.
"Game CG is the business card of the game. As long as it is done well, it will definitely go viral on the internet and better open up the overseas market. Investing 300 million yuan for game CG is for brand value, opening up the overseas market, and establishing the character of a big factory! "
Pei Qian fell into silence.
There was such a big possibility of making money in theory?
It was true when he thought about it. 300 million yuan for CG, spending all the money in just ten minutes. How sophisticated would the CG be?
He was afraid that any one of them could go viral on the internet.
Teacher He felt that it would not be profitable because he did not understand how lucky Pei Qian was.
Pei Qian himself knew that what Huang Sibo said was completely possible!
Huang Sibo was a good brother.
Pei Qian coughed lightly. "It won't be ten minutes, it will be more than an hour."
The quality of the CG would definitely not be so high if the time was extended to more than an hour, and it would not be too eye-catching, right?
Moreover, with such a long plot, most players would probably be very annoyed and just press ESC to skip it, right?
Huang Sibo was stunned. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Boss Pei, we can't!
"The quality of the game CG is secondary if we make it in one and a half hours. There is no way to guarantee the duration. We only have nine months in total.
"Our first choice is definitely to find a foreign company to do it, but that also means that we have to communicate across countries, languages, and time zones. It would be fine to do it for more than ten minutes, but the cost of communication would be very unbearable if we do it for more than an hour.
"If we find a domestic company, the more reliable special effects teams are almost all in movies. There are very few special effects companies that do pure game CG, and their standards are not very high. "
Hu Xianbin thought about it and asked, "Can the real-time simulation in the game work?"
Huang Sibo nodded. "Yes, but the effect would definitely not be that good, and it would not cost that much money."
A cinematic game like Struggle was equivalent to real-time simulation. It really would not cost 300 million yuan no matter how he thought about it.
Huang Sibo continued, "If we have to complete it within the time limit, I think … we can do it like a movie, shooting it in real life.
"That way, the character's movements, expressions, pores, hair, and the like would not have to spend energy on it. Some props and settings could also be filmed in real life, which would save a lot of time and ensure the quality while also ensuring the time limit.
"The only problem is … I don't seem to have heard of any game companies doing this."
Pei Qian fell silent.
He did not think so much at first, but after listening to Huang Sibo's analysis, it seemed that there was indeed a big problem!
There were three choices now:
The first was to burn money to make a short CG like Fantasy World, making the character's movements, expressions, hair, and so on highly realistic. However, the effect of this would definitely be very sensational. Starcraft 2 had already proved that there was still room for profit.
There was no guarantee of the time limit if he wanted to make this extremely detailed CG for a long time.
The second was to purely use the game's real-time simulation to make CG, but it would definitely not cost 300 million yuan. It might not even cost 10 million yuan.
If it was a mix of real-time calculation and CG, it would be no different from the first. It was still a safer and less risky path.
The third was to do it like a movie so that there was no need to worry about the character's pores and hair during the production process. Many special effects could be replaced with props and settings so that the time limit could be basically guaranteed.
Pei Qian thought about it. What if they really replicated the success of Starcraft 2 by making a short CG? That was not impossible.
If they made a long pure game CG, everything would be wasted if the time limit could not be guaranteed. Delayed settlement would be unacceptable.
Then, the third plan, real life plus movie CG seemed to be a good way to go. It could not only spend more money, but it could also guarantee the time limit and lengthen the length of CG.
There was a problem then:
What if Fei Huang Workspace took this film to the cinema and made a lot of money at the box office?
If the game made a lot of money and the movie made a lot of money, wouldn't Boss Pei have a heart attack on the spot?
However, on further thought, Pei Qian seemed to have never heard of any game companies doing this, which meant that there was a big problem with this model.
After all, movies and game CGs were essentially two different things. They could not be confused.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
