game development designer

Chapter 289 The West World to Be Born

Red Dead Redemption is marked as a sandbox game. At the beginning, including the game design plan given by Chuhe, the efforts of the entire team are all towards this point.

But at the same time, the entire team does not want the game to become a Ubisoft-style sandbox. In order to make the game process longer, to make the game 'interesting', to make the game content more 'rich', and then introduce a large A pile of repetitive and meaningless side quests.

In fact, whether it is an online game player or a stand-alone player, there is a large part of the meaning party.

For example, I played a game, what can I get.

hapiness?Well, there is, but it's a bit unreal.

So factors such as level, equipment, and skills are introduced into the game. I beat a monster, which can increase my experience. After increasing the experience, I can upgrade, get better equipment, and learn more powerful skills.

However, in some games, especially stand-alone games, game producers add many useless side tasks in order to expand the so-called game content and process.

What are players doing side missions for?
Get some useful item rewards, or start a plot that is independent or related to the main line or the game background.

But in some games, there are usually such tasks. The village chief asks you to kill 10 chickens, and then gives you a meat bun; , the reward is 100 experience points.

What is the point of such a task?

Refuse to add such meaningless side quests to the game. At the same time, all side quests are always inextricably linked with the main quest.

When you refuse to complete the main task, but explore the entire game world, if you unconsciously perform side tasks, it will unknowingly lead you to the main task.

Just like the rivers and lakes back then, Chuhe and the others wanted to accomplish a great achievement, turning everything in the game into a destructible existence.

But after trying, they had to give up. This sounded very tempting idea, because according to the production feedback of the team, a lot of vicious bugs would be born in this way, and from the demo DEMO, it seems that this is not interesting , and the performance of the two hosts of Microsoft and Sony is also a big problem.

However, although this condition cannot be achieved, some unique physical effects are still added to Red Dead Redemption.

For example, in a textile factory, if you throw a torch on the fabric, the entire textile factory may be burned down; when you are caught on snow or muddy land, if you don’t take the initiative to wipe off your footprints, then The enemy will follow your footprints all the time, and finally find you.

Compared with Call of Duty and Battlefield, which are like Hollywood commercial blockbusters, which are full of explosions and passion from beginning to end, Red Dead Redemption also has big scenes, but more of them are small-scale details. There is only one thing for everything. The goal is to allow players to comfortably listen to the story the game tells.

To put it more vividly, this is a pseudo-sandbox open game. Although it seems that players can explore the western world of the game without restraint, but at the end of the exploration, players will definitely return to the main plot, and slowly guide Clear the entire game.

Probably because the entire team has watched too many movies, novels, and documentaries about the West. The game is also full of plots about politics and comparative philosophical issues. There are also a lot of Easter eggs, most of which are It is a tribute to some classic western movies or plots in novels.

……

One month after the Cologne Game Show, the progress of Red Dead Redemption has been very impressive. About a quarter of the lines that have not yet been produced for Chinese dubbing, most of the lines have already started post-production.

At the same time, the completion of the entire Red Dead Redemption game is already very high. Although it cannot be said that it will be released in two or three months, it is not a big problem to provide a version for review and rating.

As for the level, Chuhe is not surprised that Red Dead Redemption will be rated M-level, and in addition to the actual production of the game, in order to successfully pass the rating and then release it in some countries, a special version is required. As for the domestic environment Quite special, Tianhe Network will also make a special version, but it will not modify too much to change the taste of the game.

After all, there are still many sensitive elements in the game.

In the black light studio, Chu He leaned on the small stool with his legs on the side, and leaned on the sofa, holding the handle with both hands and experiencing a plot in the game on the development prototype.

In a small town, the gang he belonged to borrowed a usury loan, and now he was going to ask for the money.

Not only the environment, but also the industry. It’s probably like this. When the boss experiences something in his company, there will always be a group of people standing behind him. He probably wants to see how the effect is, whether he will be praised by the boss, or When there are bugs and other situations, I was scolded bloody.

Play the game, then reset the plot, and continue to experience.

After experimenting with several different methods, including other options, Chuhe nodded.

There is no big problem, whether it is the performance of the plot, the battles that occurred during the plot, or the AI ​​performance of the enemy, Chuhe is satisfied.

In addition, they are probably old fritters in the workplace. When Chuhe is playing games, the crowd behind him will always come up with a word or two of praise unconsciously, especially when Chuhe used an abnormal method to pass this part of the plot. Sometimes, they will even make an exclamation tone like "wow", and it is very natural to lick it without losing embarrassment.

Of course, although there are no major problems, there are still some details and flaws.

"The enemy's AI processing can make them more clever. When performing missions during the day and night, the guards at the door will find me at the same distance. This is obviously a problem. For example, at night, the night guards sleepy. The alert range will be smaller, and it will be easier for players to hide and sneak in." Chu He said to the programmer in charge of the battle AI.

"Although it is already great, I hope to do better. We need to constantly break through ourselves." Chuhe continued.

Although Plott is responsible for the AI ​​design of the entire game, it is impossible for him to do everything alone, and the AI ​​​​in the game is also divided into various types.

"Okay, BOSS, I will redesign the plan and algorithm for the dynamic AI." The other party nodded and said.

"In addition, the hidden elements of the game, including Easter eggs, are provided to the marketing department. We need to delete some sensitive elements." Chuhe looked at Gabre and said.

Adding easter eggs in the game is something that any game company will do. On the one hand, it is to give players some surprises and let them find something worth exploring and discussing. On the other hand, it is also the working group's own preferences. It shows the uniqueness of their works and their personal creative emotions. For example, when developing Red Dead Redemption, many people watched a lot of movies and novels about the west. In order to pay tribute or express their emotions in the game, they will add some Small easter eggs.

There are all kinds of messes, such as a wanted notice somewhere in the game, and they will add a short line from a certain movie or novel.

Or make a poster and stick it in an inconspicuous location, or let some NPCs who have no plot connection perform a classic performance of a certain movie or novel.

What's more vulgar, for example, Chuhe personally dug an easter egg before. If you throw the ignited explosives in front of the dung pile at the gate of the town, it will explode and those indescribable things will fall on the ground. Spell out a map.

According to the guidance on the map, the player will arrive at a cave, and then in the cave, the player will find that it is an abandoned base, which is full of various broken measuring cups, as well as the dead bones of animals and even humans.

If the player discovers it, they will definitely feel that this is a prophecy easter egg, such as the biochemical mode that may appear later, or other modes.

In fact, this is an ordinary easter egg, as for the cave, it has nothing to do with the plot of the game at all.

But these easter egg spoofs are spoofs, and if they contain something sensitive, such as politics, race, or sexism, then it's a big problem.

Therefore, when all programmers add easter eggs in the game, they need to register with their responsible supervisor for later retrieval.

(End of this chapter)