Chapter 503 - Back to a Familiar Place (1/2)

Pei Qian nodded. “Alright, Teacher He. Let’s get started.”

He An’s expression lightened. “Yes, that’s the attitude you should have if you want to learn. Today, we’ll be talking about a few of the fundamental concepts associated with game design theory. “This fundamental concept is ‘accommodation’! ‘Accommodation’ means choosing different design genres, paths, and advertising methods for different groups of gamers.

“All in all, every single detail of the game has to match the target audience. A single mistake in detail could result in the game’s sudden death. You cannot afford to be sloppy.”

Pei Qian: “?”

A single mistake in detail could result in the game’s sudden death? Why have all my games been so successful, then? Do you mean that I’ve perfectly nailed all the right answers?

The corners of Pei Qian’s mouth twitched. For some reason, he felt like Teacher He was lashing at his corpse.

On the other hand, He An did not detect anything strange about ‘Ma Yang’s expression. He continued speaking. “Tengda’s games are classic examples that are worthy of being taught in textbooks!

“The Lonely Desert Road was a game with low production value. It was advertised by UP Masters who dissed it.

“Game Designer was a game that broke the fourth wall. It was advertised using large-scale performance art.

“Be Quiet was a game with complicated rules that required a lot of patience. It was advertised using a large-scale ARG that involved many people. At the same time, the ARG filtered players and protected the game’s environment.

He An’s teaching materials were filled with content.

As he talked about each game, he went through details contained in the teaching materials and meticulously analyzed the games! characteristics. At the same time, he explained every step of each advertising method, deciphering how news of the game was spread at each point. Lastly, he described the excited reaction of the entire internet to each game.

Pei Qian was forced to relive all of his past failures.

He An was rubbing salt in his wounds..,

Yet, Pei Qian had no other choice. This was one-on-one tutoring. If He An had been giving a speech on stage, Pei Qian could have gone to sleep or played phone games without anyone bothering about him.

However, since the two men were now face-to-face, He An would easily notice whenever Pei Qian got distracted.

What if that pissed Boss He off and caused him to leave without turning back?

Thus, Pei Qian had no choice but to listen intently to every detail and take it as he was learning from negative examples.

The entire plan took He An nearly two hours to go through. He analyzed everything about Pei Qian’s ‘past failures’, from the games’ genres and special gameplay to the advertising methods. At the same time, he lashed at every inch of Pei Qian’s corpse.

At that point, Boss He stopped to sip his coffee. Seeing that this part of the teaching had come to a close, Pei Qian quickly raised his own questions.

“Teacher He, based on what you just said, can I say that as long as I get the advertising ‘wrong’, the entire project would fail?” He An put his coffee cup down and nodded. “You can’t say you would fail for sure, but your chances of failing would definitely be higher! It’ll be just like how people who engage in false advertising get scorned. The same logic applies.

“However, our games market has not matured yet. Thus, games with paywalls that are produced in a slipshod manner and that peddle hostility prioritize cheating gamers into playing their games first. Their false advertising ends up increasing their income.

“Even if a small percentage of the people that they managed to rope in continue to play the game, it would be worth the sacrifice as long as they have high purchasing power. “Still, for standalone games of higher quality, messing with false advertising would almost guarantee miserable failure.”

Pei Qian’s eyes lit up.

Miserable failure?

Boss He was very careful with words. The fact that he was describing things in that way showed that the consequences would be extremely dire!

Pei Qian could not help but rejoice inwardly. He was still learning something useful!

Struggle was still being developed. If he could apply the knowledge that he acquired into that game, wouldn’t he be able to cause the games department to incur huge losses, just like he had always wanted?

At 5 PM…

He An kept his teaching materials. “Alright, that’s all for today’s class. I’ve finished what I wanted to teach. You can keep your copy of the notes. Review those successful plans when you get back. As time goes by, your standard would improve.

“As the saying goes, you can learn new things by revisiting the old.”

Pei Qian: “…”

Do I still have to constantly revisit and relive my experience of being back-stabbed? Doesn’t that sound overly cruel?!

Forget it. I’ll take it that the teacher has instructed me to keep learning from a book of negative examples. Pei Qian watched as He An packed up and prepared to leave. Then, he quickly asked, “Teacher He, I have another question. You talked about a few of Tengda’s plans during this lesson. For the next lesson, are you going to continue to—?”

He An’s expression darkened. “Boss Ma, your learning attitude is good, but you cannot keep picking and choosing what you want to learn! You have to trust that I will choose the most suitable material to teach you based on your characteristics and your standard.

“As for what exactly I’m going to teach you, you will find out when the time comes. You don’t have to ask so many questions.”

Pei Qian: “…alright.”

After sending He An off, Pei Qian could not help but feel sorrowful.

He An wasn’t planning to spend all the classes teaching Pei Qian the basic concepts and foundational knowledge of game design through all of Tengda’s past games, was he?

That would be unbearable!

It was true that Pei Qian could do the opposite of what the teaching materials taught him and then learn from that experience. However, that would still be one additional step!

Why couldn’t he learn about failure from the very beginning?

Pei Qian really wanted to hear about He An’s experience in failing, but He An had the impression that teaching Pei Qian about that would only hurt him and not benefit him. Thus, He An insisted on keeping mum about it.

What was Pei Qian to do?

He pondered for a moment. Money… he only had several hundred thousand yuan left. He had to spend it all anyway. How about… hiring another teacher to teach him specifically about failures?

Then, Pei Qian would be able to gain experience from failures and learn lessons from successes.

Learning about both sides of the coin would be even better, right?

The System had given him similar advice before. Although Pei Qian would be given a lot of money, he had still been advised to take one course at a time.

Otherwise, he would be biting off more than he could chew. Taking so many courses would probably cause him to fail the System’s examination in the end.