Chapter 10 Mission and Choice

With the theme decided, the next thing to consider was the game's name.

Pei Qian didn't spend too long thinking about it; he quickly came up with a name.

*Mission and Choice*!

As for why it was called that, there was a story behind it.

Recently, Pei Qian had been studying game-related knowledge and had also learned a lot about the history of the domestic game industry from He An and Qiu Hong.

In 1995, the US company East Wood released a series of games called *Command & Conquer*. It was the best-selling real-time strategy game in history, set the standard for RTS games, pioneered the "resource collection + production construction + army combat" architecture, and created and defined the concept of "fog of war."

In short, it swept the globe and, like *StarCraft* and *Warcraft*, was regarded as an eternal classic of world RTS games.

And in 1997, a game called *Mission and Choice* appeared in China.

When Pei Qian first heard the name, he thought it was a parallel world version of *Freedom Fighters*. He was initially quite impressed, but he soon realized he was wrong.

This game was actually the parallel world's *Blood Lion*.

As Qiu Hong had mentioned, the domestic game industry was in a state of intense turmoil during this period. Online games were rising rapidly, piracy was rampant, and domestic stand-alone games were forced to fight a price war with pirated copies, but no matter how much they lowered their prices, it was still useless.

And at this critical juncture, *Mission and Choice* appeared.

Major game media outlets began to publish full-page color advertisements for *Mission and Choice*. The cover featured a Huaxia soldier in a space combat suit, with giant sandworms and technologically advanced interstellar battleships in the background, along with a few inflammatory slogans.

"Your homeland, Blue Star, has just suffered a devastating attack from the Zerg, and the interstellar fleet has suffered heavy losses. Blood stains the sky, fire tears through the night, and swarms of Zerg engulf the human fleet like a tide. Facing the Zerg, I know your choice, even though it will be a desperate struggle, we have no retreat."

"Join your comrades to defeat the Zerg and save Blue Star!"

"Millions spent, meticulously crafted, grand scenes, a domestic masterpiece!"

"High-level avant-garde rock musicians, a strong software creation team, imaginative artistic concepts, the highly anticipated *Mission and Choice* makes its explosive debut!"

Although these slogans seem a bit inexplicable now, they were incredibly exciting at the time.

As a result, the blood of all single-player game players was stirred up. Players automatically ignored the sense of imitation that permeated *Mission and Choice*, from its name to its promotional images, and regarded it as a masterpiece that could surpass *Command & Conquer*, expecting it to be permanently enshrined in the hall of RTS games.

But when players got their hands on the game, the word "disappointment" couldn't even begin to describe their feelings.

Crude and shoddy graphics, ubiquitous program bugs, and bizarre game mechanics…

In short, it was unprecedentedly terrible.

Afterward, players realized that this game was shamelessly copying everything!

The name was copied from *Command & Conquer*, the story background was copied from *StarCraft*, and then they deliberately added some fake and shoddy patriotic sentiments, all in an effort to deceive domestic players.

Many people regarded *Mission and Choice* as a disgrace to domestic games, the last straw that broke the back of domestic single-player games, and to this day, most players still have only two emotions when they hear the name *Mission and Choice*: ridicule or anger.

Previously, Pei Qian had named his game *Naval Fortress* in order to get a good omen, but the problem was that people in this world didn't understand!

Only Pei Qian himself knew the meaning behind the name, so it didn't cause any resentment.

Similarly, if he called it *Blood Lion*, people in this world would still have no concept of it.

But calling it *Mission and Choice* would instantly enrage all domestic players!

So Pei Qian immediately decided to use that name!

Come on, players, let your anger devour me!

Of course, there would definitely be some copyright issues with using the same name, but it didn't matter. The company that made the game had gone bankrupt several years ago. The copyright of *Mission and Choice* should belong to the creditors, but no one would want that thing even if it was given away for free. If he contacted the RSRO official platform, he could even get it directly.

Since he was using the name, he might as well use the story background as well.

At the same time, to ensure nothing went wrong, Pei Qian briefly thought of a few ways to greatly increase the chances of failure, which he would explain to Hu Xianbin later.

After considering everything, Pei Qian notified Hu Xianbin, Huang Sibao, and Zhu Xiaoce to come to the conference room for a small meeting.

As for why he called Huang Sibao…

Of course, it was for the CG. It still had to be entrusted to Fei Huang Workshop.

If he entrusted it to someone else, Pei Qian was afraid that it wouldn't be completed within the construction period, leading to a delayed settlement, which would be troublesome.

…

Soon, everyone arrived at the conference room.

Hu Xianbin was well aware that after the great success of *Struggle*, President Pei would soon be developing the next game.

However, Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibao were both puzzled after seeing each other in the conference room.

Why did President Pei call us both 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.

"The next game will require the full cooperation of both of your departments."

"The development cycle is set at about nine months. We're going to spend 200 million to make a science fiction-themed RTS game, and another 300 million to make a full set of CG for it. This task will be assigned to your two departments respectively."

The other three were all stunned.

Two hundred million to make a game, and three hundred million to make CG?

The money for making CG was more than the money for making the game?

Huang Sibao's expression instantly became excited: "President Pei is determined to make a high-quality RTS game on par with *StarCraft II*? Three hundred million, if used to burn a dozen minutes of game CG, the quality will definitely not be inferior to that of foreign giants!"

Hu Xianbin hesitated: "Burning 300 million to make CG, can we recover the cost?"

Huang Sibao smiled: "Why not? *StarCraft II*'s development cost was less than 100 million dollars. If each game is sold for 50 dollars, selling more than two million copies will break even. It broke 1.5 million copies within two days of its release, and it's easy to sell four or five million copies throughout its life cycle. It's very profitable, okay?"

"Even if our game doesn't reach that number, investing more than 60 million dollars, even if it sells less than *StarCraft II*, we'll still make a profit."

"Game CG is the game's business card. As long as it's done well, it will definitely spread like wildfire on the internet and will better open up overseas markets. Investing 300 million to make game CG is for brand value, to explore overseas markets, and to establish the image of a large company!"

Pei Qian fell silent.

Could there really be such a great profit potential in theory?

Thinking about it, it was true. Spending 300 million on CG, putting all the money into just a short dozen minutes, how exquisite would the CG be?

Probably any segment could go viral all over the internet.

Teacher He thought it wouldn't make money because he didn't understand how lucky Pei Qian was.

Pei Qian himself knew that the kind of thing Huang Sibao was talking about could totally happen!

Huang Sibao was a good brother.

Pei Qian cleared his throat twice: "Not a dozen minutes, but more than an hour."

Lengthening the duration to more than an hour would definitely lower the quality of the CG and wouldn't be too eye-catching, right?

Moreover, such a long story, most players would probably find it annoying and just press Esc to skip it, right?

Huang Sibao was stunned, and said hesitantly, "President Pei, that won't work!"

"If we're making pure game CG for an hour and a half, the quality is secondary. The construction period can't be guaranteed. We only have nine months in total."

"Our first choice is definitely to find a foreign company to do it, but that also means we have to communicate across countries, languages, and time zones. It's okay to do a dozen minutes, but doing more than an hour, the communication costs will be very difficult to bear."

"If we look for a domestic company, most of the reliable special effects teams are doing movies. There are very few special effects companies that do pure game CG, and their level can't be relied on."

Hu Xianbin thought for a while and asked, "Can we use in-game real-time rendering for the cutscenes?"

Huang Sibao nodded: "We can, but the effect definitely won't be very good, and it won't cost that much money."

Cinematic games like *Struggle* were equivalent to real-time rendering, and it certainly wouldn't cost 300 million no matter how you looked at it.

Huang Sibao continued, "If we have to complete it within the construction period, I think… we can use the method of filming a movie, live-action shooting."

"This way, we don't have to spend any more effort on the character's movements, expressions, pores, hair, and so on. Some props and sets can also be filmed in real life, which can save a lot of time, and guarantee both quality and the construction period."

"The only problem is… it seems that no game company has ever done this before."

Pei Qian fell silent.

He hadn't considered so much originally, but after listening to Huang Sibao's analysis, it seemed that there really was a big problem!

Now there were three options:

First, like *Fantasy World*, burn money to make short CG, making the character's movements, expressions, hair, and so on highly realistic. But the effect of doing so would definitely be very sensational, and *StarCraft II* had already proven that there was still room to make money.

If he wanted to make this kind of extremely detailed CG long, the construction period couldn't be guaranteed.

Second, purely use in-game real-time rendering to make CG, but that definitely wouldn't cost 300 million, and might not even cost 10 million.

If it was a mix of real-time rendering and CG, then it was no different from the first type in essence, and it was still a relatively safe and unadventurous path.

Third, use the method of filming a movie. This way, he wouldn't have to wrestle with the characters' pores and hair during the production process, and many special effects could be replaced with props and sets, so the construction period could be basically guaranteed.

Pei Qian thought for a while. If he made short CG, what if he really replicated the success of *StarCraft II*? That possibility wasn't non-existent.

If he made a long, pure game CG, the construction period couldn't be guaranteed, and everything would be for nothing. Delayed settlement was unacceptable.

Then the third option, live-action shooting + movie CG, seemed like a good path, which could both spend more money, ensure the construction period, and lengthen the CG duration.

Then the question came:

What if Fei Huang Workshop took this film to the cinema and made another wave of box office revenue?

The game makes one wave of money, and the movie makes another wave of money. Wouldn't President Pei have a myocardial infarction on the spot?

But Pei Qian thought again, he had never heard of a game company doing this before, which meant that there was a big problem with this model.

After all, movies and game CG were not the same thing in essence and couldn't be mixed up.