Ma Yang packed his stuff and headed out to the nearby bookstore in search of technical books on game designs.
Pei Qian did not know if Ma Yang would be able to purchase any but given the number of bookstores available, he should most likely be able to get some.
In reality, there were already some online shopping platforms by this period of time including websites that specialized in books.
However, most of the people had not gotten used to the platforms yet. In fact, some of the slower students did not apply for internet banking access even.
Ma Yang belonged to the group of slower, more traditional students. His first choice when it came to buying books was to rush to a bookstore and flipping through parts of the contents before deciding if he wanted it.
Of course, that status quo was about to be overturned by enormous changes in the coming few years.
Pei Qian got back onto his bed and opened his laptop, contemplating about what he should do next.
By noon, Ma Yang had returned.
He was carrying around eight books with a voluminous one amongst them that was around the thickness of two fingers. At 200 millimeters long, it was titled Overview of Advanced Programming.
Other than that, there were a bunch of others such as Survival Guide out of Coding, Collection of Program Management, Complete Guide to Coding and Guide to Recovering From Neck Injuries.
Ma Yang felt that he had gotten a great harvest.
Flipping through the books that Ma Yang brought back, Pei Qian's gaze finally lingered on Guide to Recovering From Neck Injuries.
This guy had really prepared thoroughly!
He was even considering the possibility of them getting neck injuries?
However, the biggest problem that programmers faced wasn't neck injuries - it was dying from being overworked!
Besides, it's not as though you're going to be a programmer!
Previously, Pei Qian had thought that he might have gotten the wrong guy for the job given how on the ball and passionate Ma Yang was towards the job.
But when he saw Ma Yang's choice of books, Pei Qian was certain.
Ma Yang was the best partner for him, hands down!
Just look at how he had gone such a long way for bookstores just to get these books back.
Were they useless? Not exactly, since they were somewhat relevant.
Yet, one can't claim that they were useful because… they just weren't!
This was a classic example of working in vain!
Pei Qian patted Ma Yang on the shoulder. "Ma Yang, what we're doing is design, not programming."
"Besides, do you know that games nowadays are all created using game editors?"
"Also, technology is developing rapidly and changing way too quickly. The technicalities in these books are already almost outdated and they're not really of use."
Ma Yang's face drained of color. "I was wondering why they were on discount in the bookstores! It's because they can't be sold!"
"I looked around the bookstore for a long time but I just couldn't find any books about designing games. These were all that I could find and when I saw that they were on discount, I bought a couple of them."
"What should we do? I can't get a refund for discounted books!"
Ma Yang was panicked.
However, Pei Qian was completely relieved as he smiled. "It's fine, it's the effort that counts. If you feel that you shouldn't waste these books after buying them, you can browse through them. After all, they'll be of some help no matter what."
Ma Yang felt more at ease upon hearing that. "Do you want to browse through them too? We can take turns."
Pei Qian's expression turned dark as he waved it off hurriedly. "N-No, it's fine!"
Who would want to browse through these books? They'd be stiff even when used as pillows!
Lying down on his bed, Ma Yang opened the thickest book - Overview of Advanced Programming.
After five minutes, snoring sounds reverberated from his bed.
Pei Qian was pleased.
Yes, reliable!
Look at that attitude! 100 marks!
Look at those capabilities! 0 marks!
Wasn't this the designer that he had been searching for painstakingly?
It was a pity that Ma Yang was the only person Pei Qian knew with such talents.
If there were a couple more of them, Pei Qian would be unmatched! Losing 300,000 would be extremely easy!
…
Pei Qian opened up ESRO's official game editor and ignored The Lonely Desert Road's downloads which had grown by another few thousands dismally as he began researching on his next project.
For indie games, their popularity normally came and left quickly.
Furthermore, The Lonely Desert Road was a game without any technical substance that would allow for sustained gameplay.
In Pei Qian's previous life, there were similar examples as well of games that had poor quality, rough designs and boring, singular gameplays that had exploded in popularity for special reasons.
However, those were rare cases and out of hundreds of similar titles, only a couple would be as such.
Pei Qian had not expected that he would ever encounter such a thing!
In time to come, The Lonely Desert Road's popularity would definitely go down along with its download rate and income earned - that's only normal.
However, whether or not it would drop, the fact that a game as such had already earned money was something that had Pei Qian feeling the most miserable about.
Reflecting on his painful experience, Pei Qian decided that he had to change his mindset.
No more indie games this time round! He had to change!
In the short term, gamers would be associating Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. with The Lonely Desert Road.
Pei Qian was faced with two difficult options.
He could make another messed up game that might end up replicating The Lonely Desert Road's success. Even if it doesn't get to the same popularity, it could still be a devastating blow to Pei Qian if he were to earn a little profit.
Or, he could make a proper indie game… that gamers might deem to be of passable quality and end up purchasing.
That would be bad!
Furthermore, it would take quite a bit of effort to spend 300,000 for an indie game.
How expensive were the templates and art resources that he had to purchase in order to spend that 300,000 completely?
Besides, if he were to purchase all the expensive art resources and end up causing the game to look amazing, he might end up attracting a bunch of sightseeing group gamers and fail to make a loss once more!
Therefore, after much contemplation, Pei Qian decided to give up on these gamers who were passionate about indie games and change to another genre.
300,000 was not enough to make a large scale game.
Even though Pei Qian's aim was to lose money, at the end of the day, the final product must still be made.
If the game does not clear the vetting process and the 300,000 of System Funds was used to produce nothing, the system would deem that as a violation.
Therefore, while the money must be spent, the game must be created too.
Pei Qian went through the official platform before finally deciding on his goal.
Mobile games!
He partly had no choice. Firstly, he didn't have enough money to create a large scale game. Secondly, it wasn't suitable for him to create any indie games in the short term.
Mobile and indie gamers were completely different groups of people.
Indie gamers may check out the new game because they're curious about Tengda as a company, but not mobile gamers.
As long as the mobile game is trashy enough, Pei Qian was certain that there would be no interest to it!
After he was decided on the direction, it was time for market research.
Pei Qian entered the official games platform and looked through all the popular mobile games, even downloading some of the hottest ones to try them out for himself.
This was something that he had already noticed previously, but in terms of mobile phones, this parallel universe seemed to be much more advanced than his previous world.