A week after Lin Baicheng left Japan, Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideyoshi Yamada arrived in Hong Kong with five other talented game developers. Lin personally went to the airport to welcome them and hosted a dinner to celebrate their arrival.
The next day, Lin had the five employees sign their contracts with the company. Naturally, their salaries couldn't compare to Miyamoto's, but the terms were decent.
After that, Lin brought them to the newly rented office — conveniently located in the same building, just a floor below Baisheng Securities.
The IBM equipment he had ordered had already been delivered two days earlier, so once Miyamoto and the others arrived, they could immediately start working. However, before development began, Lin needed to explain to them the concept of the new game.
Since Lin didn't speak Japanese and Hideyoshi Yamada had already returned to Japan, he had anticipated the issue. A few days earlier, he had hired a Japanese translator, who also served as his language tutor.
"Miyamoto, everyone — the game I want us to develop this time will be called Pac-Man."
"The gameplay is simple. The player controls a little creature — I call it the sprite — who must eat all the dots scattered throughout a maze while avoiding the ghosts that roam inside."
"In my design, each of the four corners of the maze contains a flashing power-up. I call it the Power Pellet. Once the sprite eats one, it can chase and eat the ghosts for a limited time. During this period, the ghosts will flee and move more slowly. If a ghost is eaten, it will die temporarily and respawn in the ghost house after a short while."
"Of course, as time goes on and more dots are eaten, the Power Pellet's duration will shorten, and the ghosts will move faster."
Lin spoke slowly, pausing often so the translator could keep up.
Originally, he had wanted to develop a shooting game, but since that project had fallen through, he had plenty of other ideas to choose from. Eventually, he settled on Pac-Man — a game he remembered being created in the early 1980s. He wasn't about to miss such a golden opportunity.
"President!"
Miyamoto raised his hand. When Lin nodded for him to speak, he said, "If the player only eats dots, won't it be a bit monotonous? Perhaps we could design more kinds of items for the sprite to eat."
Lin nodded approvingly. "Good suggestion, Miyamoto. I've already considered that. I plan to design various fruit items — oranges, bananas, grapes, and so on. Each will give bonus points. We can discuss later how many types to include and how much each is worth."
"As expected of the President — you've thought of everything!" Miyamoto said with genuine admiration, not just flattery.
"Everyone, feel free to speak your mind," Lin encouraged. "Now, on the left and right sides of the maze, I've designed an exit. The sprite can travel through one side and appear on the other — but the ghosts can follow as well. This means the number of ghosts on-screen will keep increasing as the game progresses."
"That's brilliant!" Miyamoto exclaimed. "It'll give players a refreshing challenge — a wonderful idea, President."
Lin smiled. "Now, what do you all think about the win conditions? How should a level be cleared?"
Of course, he already had his own design in mind, but he wanted to see what ideas his team might come up with — a good exercise to train their creativity.
"How about making a special item — if the sprite eats it, the player clears the level?" one said.
"I think scoring would be better — once the player reaches a certain number of points, they move to the next stage," another suggested.
"What about combining multiple clear conditions?" said a third.
…
The team tossed out ideas one after another. Lin was satisfied — at least they were thinking.
"No rush," Lin said. "We can finalize the conditions as we go through development."
He wasn't following Pac-Man exactly. Lin only borrowed some concepts and core gameplay mechanics; after all, this was still the early 1980s. There would be plenty of room for innovation.
Of course, he wouldn't reveal all the great ideas from later generations at once — that would be unwise. Some things were better saved for future titles.
As discussions went on, everyone gained a clearer understanding of what the new game should look like. With Lin's detailed guidance, the project could move forward efficiently.
Lin wasn't afraid of leaks either — he had already instructed lawyer Chen Gao to file the patents and copyright registrations for the game's characters and designs.
Just then, the office phone rang.
"Hello? Who's speaking?" Lin picked it up.
"Mr. Lin, it's me — Liu Yihui."
Liu had good news. The U.S. division had finally received a response: an American distributor was very interested in Hong Kong Blocks and wanted to fly over for a face-to-face meeting.
They hadn't said what exactly they wanted to discuss, only that they'd already booked a flight — departing in two hours.
The distributor was from Los Angeles, and since the time difference between L.A. and Hong Kong was 15 hours, plus another 15 hours of flight time, they'd arrive around 3 or 4 a.m. the next day.
It was indeed good news — though Lin didn't get too excited. He was already planning to bring both Hong Kong Blocks and Pac-Man to Los Angeles for the big trade fair in October.
That fair wasn't just for games — it included toys and electronics as well. For Lin, the arrival of a distributor was simply the icing on the cake. Still, it was good news nonetheless.