Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 490: Crowdfunding a Game
Monday, April 18
The matter of Tengda Imperial Secret Police had already been handed over to Tang Yishu. As for what kind of people she would recruit, nobody knew.
Tengda Group now had quite a few departments. Even if only one claims-adjustment trainee were assigned to each department, more than a dozen people would be needed. It was impossible to gather that many on such short notice.
Pei Qian's requirement for Tang Yishu was simple: have everyone recruited by next Saturday.
Then, on Saturday, while the company was empty, they could secretly hold a meeting and assign tasks. Somehow, the thought of it felt oddly exciting.
As usual, Pei Qian slept until he woke up naturally. After breakfast, he stopped by the company for a brief appearance.
However, before he could even open Aili Island's website and continue watching dramas, there was a knock on the door.
"Hm?"
Pei Qian frowned.
What could be so urgent?
He had only been in his office for less than two minutes. Whoever was outside had clearly been waiting for quite some time.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Hu Xianbin walked in.
"What is it? Did development on Struggle run into problems?"
A trace of anticipation appeared in Pei Qian's heart.
Hu Xianbin shook his head.
"No, development on Struggle has been progressing smoothly so far. It's about GOG!"
Pei Qian immediately felt disappointed.
Partly because Struggle was progressing smoothly, and partly because Hu Xianbin was still worrying about GOG. That was completely against the spirit of Tengda Group.
Pei Qian cleared his throat.
"Let's not talk about GOG just yet."
"There's something wrong with your work approach."
"A person's energy is limited. At any given time, you can only focus on one thing. How can you be managing Struggle's development while also handling GOG's operations?"
"Hurry up and hand over GOG's operational responsibilities."
After all, Hu Xianbin had been deeply involved in GOG's later development stages and had overseen both the mobile and PC launches. He knew the project inside and out.
The reason Pei Qian had assigned him to lead Struggle's development was specifically to keep him away from GOG. Yet here he was, trying to handle both jobs at once. Completely unacceptable.
Hu Xianbin froze for a moment.
"Uh, understood, President Pei. I'll transfer my responsibilities to Min Jingchao as soon as I get back."
"But... regarding GOG, I really do have something important to report!"
Pei Qian nodded.
"Alright, go ahead."
Hu Xianbin looked anxious.
"President Pei, I'd like to make an exception and urgently recruit more staff for Tengda Group's game division!"
Pei Qian immediately frowned.
An exception?
More hiring?
Young man, that's a very dangerous line of thinking.
At Tengda Group, all departments and positions followed a unified hiring schedule: only twice a year, in May and November.
The timing was chosen mainly to avoid peak recruiting seasons.
Since the hiring process was rather lengthy and new employees were given ample time to resign from their previous jobs and complete handovers, actual onboarding usually happened about a month later.
But Pei Qian glanced at the calendar.
Today was already April 18.
What urgent matter could GOG possibly have that couldn't wait another month or so?
Something was definitely suspicious.
Internally, Pei Qian became highly alert, though outwardly he remained calm.
"Why the rush to hire more people?"
Hu Xianbin replied, "President Pei, because IOI is about to start an 'arms race' with us. The GOG project urgently needs additional manpower to expand!"
"Otherwise, all the advantages we've built up in the early stages will disappear!"
Pei Qian instantly felt delighted.
Although he didn't fully understand what Hu Xianbin meant by an "arms race," one thing was crystal clear:
Lin Wan had finally begun making her move!
By now, preparations for the Chinese server of IOI should be nearly complete. They had probably also formulated a series of promotional strategies and were getting ready to compete with GOG for market share.
As for how Hu Xianbin had obtained this information, Pei Qian had no idea.
However, considering that Tengda Games and Shangyang Games were sister departments, it wasn't surprising no matter what channel the information had come from.
With the mentality of enjoying the spectacle from the sidelines, Pei Qian smiled and said, "Really? Tell me more."
Hu Xianbin hurriedly explained, "IOI's strategy is to update relentlessly and win through sheer volume. According to their current plans, they're going to release two new heroes every month. That's incredibly fast!"
"Right now, GOG already has slightly fewer heroes than IOI, but the gap is still within an acceptable range."
"But if IOI keeps releasing heroes at this lightning-fast pace while we're still leisurely releasing one hero every two months, they'll leave us in the dust very quickly. When that happens, GOG's first-mover advantage will disappear completely!"
Pei Qian nodded repeatedly as he listened.
Not bad. Fingertip Games and Lin Wan are both pretty reliable.
Sure enough, things are developing exactly according to the script I envisioned. My planning truly leaves nothing to chance.
His expression became even calmer and more composed.
"So," he asked, "you want to hire more people and compete with them on speed?"
Hu Xianbin nodded.
"Exactly. There's no reason we should lose to them in terms of development speed!"
"The faster a game updates, the better it can maintain player engagement and overall popularity. That's an enormous advantage."
"The current situation is a narrow path where only the brave survive. GOG absolutely cannot back down!"
Pei Qian fell silent for a moment.
"I disagree."
"Making an exception to hire people early is definitely out of the question. In fact, even during next month's regular recruitment cycle, I wouldn't recommend the game department hiring too many newcomers."
Hu Xianbin froze.
"W-Why?"
Leaning back in his executive chair, Pei Qian spoke seriously:
"What matters is quality, not quantity."
"With more people, development becomes faster, and more ideas get proposed. On the surface, that sounds like a good thing."
"But a large workforce can be a treasure—or it can become a prison."
"When you run into a problem, don't always resort to the crude solution of overwhelming it with manpower. That lowers the ceiling of your thinking and gradually erodes your creativity."
"In short, don't hire more people."
Hu Xianbin became anxious.
"But President Pei—"
Pei Qian repeated himself:
"Don't hire more people."
That left Hu Xianbin speechless.
He certainly didn't dare force President Pei to repeat himself a third time. All he could do was sigh and quietly leave the office.
A satisfied smile appeared on Pei Qian's face.
Lin Wan, this is all the help I can give you.
You'd better finish the job soon!
. . .
Hu Xianbin returned upstairs with his head hanging low and sat down at his workstation.
The moment Min Jingchao saw him come back, he hurried over.
"Well? Did President Pei agree?"
Hu Xianbin shook his head.
"No. President Pei rejected it."
Min Jingchao was stunned.
"Rejected it? That can't be right."
"President Pei has always been generous when it comes to company spending. Why would he suddenly refuse to hire a few more designers? That doesn't make any sense."
Hu Xianbin sighed.
"I don't know what President Pei was thinking either. But his attitude was extremely firm."
"He said not only can we not make an exception and recruit early, but even during next month's hiring cycle, we shouldn't bring in too many people."
Min Jingchao frowned in confusion.
"President Pei wouldn't say something like that without a reason. Did he say anything else?"
"Usually there are hidden clues in what President Pei says."
Hu Xianbin tried to recall the conversation.
"Let me think..."
"He seemed to say that having more people can be either a treasure or a prison."
"But that doesn't seem to carry any deeper meaning..."
"Should we ask Sister Li and Brother Bao for help?"
Min Jingchao shook his head.
"I don't think we should throw every analysis problem at Brother Bao."
"At Tengda Group, understanding President Pei's intentions is a basic skill. We need to practice it ourselves."
Hu Xianbin thought about it.
"That's true."
"But what President Pei said this time really doesn't seem to have any hidden meaning. I still have absolutely no clue."
Min Jingchao knitted his brows tightly and fell into deep thought.
After a long while, Min Jingchao's brows finally relaxed a little.
"Taken at face value, I think what he meant is this: every designer has different ideas."
"Having more people certainly brings more perspectives, approaches, and design philosophies. But when all of those perspectives, approaches, and philosophies are mixed together, they can become a prison."
"Other people's viewpoints and ideas end up limiting your thinking, and in the same way, your own ideas end up limiting theirs."
"If everyone is pulling in different directions, they'll only hold each other back and reduce efficiency."
"So creating new heroes for GOG is both hard work and highly technical work. It requires a continuous stream of creativity. The key isn't how many people you have, but whether the lead designer can accurately control the game's direction."
"No matter how many designers you hire, in the end only one person can make the final decisions, unify the artistic style, and coordinate overall balance planning. Otherwise, the game will turn into a patchwork monster."
Hu Xianbin was already familiar with this style of interpretation and immediately nodded.
"Yeah, that makes sense!"
"But it still doesn't solve the problem."
"Everyone has a limited capacity for coming up with ideas. If there are too few people, there simply won't be enough inspiration."
"You can handle the overall planning and coordination, but generating ideas and designing different heroes still requires manpower."
Min Jingchao fell silent once again.
This time, he thought for even longer.
Finally, he slowly said:
"Maybe... not necessarily."
"It's true that everyone's inspiration and creative output are limited. But designers aren't the only ones who can provide inspiration and design heroes."
"President Pei was expressing a dialectical way of thinking. He never denied the power of numbers. His exact words were that more people could be 'a treasure or a prison.'"
"We've only analyzed the 'prison' side, but we haven't fully explored the 'treasure' side."
"No matter how many designers we hire, how could they compare to the collective wisdom of the player base?"
"Designers are only a small treasure."
"Players are the real treasure."
"President Pei doesn't want us hiring more designers because it doesn't fundamentally solve the problem. It's inefficient."
"In other words..."
"We can let players participate in GOG's hero design process!"
"So what if IOI develops heroes quickly?"
"If we can truly mobilize the enthusiasm of our players, then inspiration and ideas will become an inexhaustible resource!"
Hu Xianbin suddenly understood.
"That makes perfect sense!"
"So that's what President Pei meant?"
"You're right. If we fully mobilize the players, have them provide ideas and concepts, then our designers only need to handle the screening, refinement, balancing, and implementation. That completely solves the problem!"
Min Jingchao jumped to his feet.
"I'll go work on an event proposal right now!"
. . .
After sending Hu Xianbin away, Pei Qian watched a few more episodes of his drama.
When he checked the time, it was already three in the afternoon.
"Haven't seen Old Ma in a long time. I should drop by Dream Fulfillment Ventures."
Only then did Pei Qian remember that he'd been meaning to visit Dream Fulfillment Ventures and ask Ma Yang about any promising investment projects he had discovered.
But he'd been so busy that he'd completely forgotten.
The weather was nice today, making it a good opportunity to go out for a walk and see how Ma Yang and Dream Fulfillment Ventures had been doing lately.
Previously, Pei Qian had specifically instructed Ma Yang to notify him immediately whenever he found a suitable investment opportunity.
Yet so much time had passed, and there hadn't been a single update from him.
Pei Qian couldn't help but wonder:
What exactly has that guy Ma Yang been busy with?
He wasn't worried that Ma Yang was secretly spending money.
After the incident involving the investment in Fingertip Games, Pei Qian had already required that all investments made by Dream Fulfillment Ventures receive his approval first.
Since nobody had come asking for permission, it meant Dream Fulfillment Ventures hadn't spent a single cent.
Which raised an important question:
If Ma Yang hasn't spent any money... then what has he been doing all this time?
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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 536: Still Going with the "Bare Walls" Style[1]
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284
[2] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/losing-money-to-164800513?collection=1399284