game development designer

Chapter 95 Business Theory of Style and Background
Inside Tianhe Network, it has been decided to start a new project, and it is a brand new host platform, and the expansion of personnel is also in progress.

At the same time, the core staff of Xu Chang and other teams, in addition to being responsible for the daily update and operation of "Jianghu", are all devoted to the research of the new platform.

The reason why I chose to develop console games at this time is not only because I want to conquer overseas, but also because Sony and Microsoft have launched their latest console platforms at the same time.

At present, although many projects of the new generation of consoles have been announced, they are still in the enlightenment stage. Whether it is a large factory or a small factory, the functions of the new platform are still in the experimental stage.

The new host platform, how much is the upper limit of the function, what level can the game reach, the game producer does not know, even Microsoft and Sony only have a conceptual result, as for the actual situation, they themselves do not know .

The improvement and adaptation of the game engine and the difficulty of platform conversion are all things that everyone has to face.

Of course, compared with them, Chuhe's own project is much easier, and the plan for the road to survival has basically been completed.

Moreover, with the improvement of the project team, he no longer has to think about the numerical things, but all of them are left to the numerical planning part for research and setting.

In the end, he only needs to come to review and control is enough.

In terms of art, Li Zhen and the others are also the main style controllers, and most of the projects for the original painting design of the main characters are still handed over to the outsourcing team.

In the office, looking at the original painting Li Zhen gave himself, Chu He shook his head a little dissatisfied: "No, you have to make it clear that the Road to Survival project is not aimed at the domestic market, not even the Asian market, what we are really targeting It’s the European and American market, and the characters’ aesthetics are too Asian.”

After finishing speaking, Chuhe picked up another original painting from the table, looked at it and nodded: "There is nothing wrong with the shape of the zombie."

To be honest, it is difficult to have a problem with the shape of the zombies.

After the movie "Night of the Living Dead" appeared, as well as a variety of zombie culture movies, and in 1996, with the appearance of Capcom's first-generation Resident Evil, the entire series immediately became popular all over the world. In games, movies, or novels, their images have basically been finalized.

It is difficult to see any major innovations and changes, except of course the femaleization of zombies.

"Find more games or movies about zombies during this period of time. The art style should be as dark as possible." Chuhe made his request to Li Zhen.

The general style of game art is that it tends to be dark, but this darkness also has a certain degree. It does not mean that all the scenes are very dark. On the contrary, according to Chuhe's requirements, more than three quarters of the art materials in the entire game are all dark. Don't give people that dark and depressing feeling.

It is enough for players to experience that this is the end of the world and not just a play.

As for the horror and loneliness brought about by the dark atmosphere, Chuhe didn't consider this kind of thing at the beginning.

Because of the definition of games given by Chuhe, Road to Survival is definitely not a horror game like the first generation of Resident Evil.

Left [-] Dead is a pure FPS game, or it should be a mowing game in the FPS category.

What players experience when playing Left [-] Dead is not the thrill of being chased by zombies.

It's the exhilaration brought about by killing zombies.

So most of the scenes, according to Chuhe's requirements, are not only not dark but rather bright.

Of course not all, because in the road to survival, Chuhe also proposed to introduce the weather system and time system, so sometimes it may be rainy and snowy at night, and sometimes it is the daytime of the sun.

These are all optional for the player.

After discussing the perfect art style, Chuhe found Luzhou. Although he said that he chose the theme of the end of the world, and according to the game settings, there would not be any plot development, but the basic story background and the text of the monsters in it. , still need Lu Zhou to design.

The detailed settings, of course, Luzhou can't come up with now, so what Luzhou and Chuhe are talking about is only the basic ideas and ideas.

Judging from the investment, the investment of Left [-] Dead can definitely be said to be high, and there is no need to compare it with domestic games, because basically there are no stand-alone games that can be as bold as Tianhe Network in terms of investment.

Needless to say, small and medium-sized companies, if you say that you want to invest tens of millions of dollars in a stand-alone computer like Tianhe Network, then the board of directors will probably remove you immediately, and the project will not pass at all.

Even if Penguin and Wangyi's Lao Ma and Lao Ding proposed to make a game of this scale, although they were able to overcome all the consensus in the end, they still had to bear a lot of pressure.

Especially for these listed companies, once the project fails, it will only be a big loss for them with sufficient cash reserves, but the loss in market value and stock price can reach dozens or even hundreds of times of the project .

So this is why it is basically difficult for domestic companies to want to build large-scale stand-alone machines. Even if there are, these large companies will not do it in the future. It is more likely to set up an unrelated subsidiary company and invest money in it.

Those capable of making 3A masterpieces are basically listed companies with sufficient funds. For these companies, the failure of a game not only means that a 3A production cost cannot be recovered, but also the consequences of game failure. Considered.

As for a game that causes the company to go bankrupt, it is basically impossible except for a last-ditch fight. As for Atari in the last century because of the failure of a game, it caused slow sales, and finally the famous Atari collapsed. From various factors, not just the failure of game projects.

Even if Atari's ET aliens were a big success at the beginning, it would only delay Atari's lifespan. If it doesn't fundamentally change, the big crash that should come will also come.

"Veterans, unemployed vagrants who like to race cars but are kind-hearted, ordinary programmers in the workplace, and college students; with the same background, choose a virtual city in the overhead world, so that you can avoid some troubles as much as possible." Lu Zhou gave his ideas to Chuhe Said.

He has been the screenwriter of martial arts puppet shows before, and he has learned more about Lu Zhou in the game industry after more than a year of study.

It can be seen from the character setting, why not set all the characters as veterans?

Obviously, that is to give players a sense of substitution.

Veterans who have retired from the army, unemployed people who like racing cars but are kind-hearted, ordinary office workers, and college students may not care about these things, but for game producers, they cannot be ignored.

A good sense of substitution comes from every detail of the game.

(I’ve read some game-making novels before, and I’ve read a lot of them, and I’ve all thrown the Atari crash on the failure of ET aliens. I feel a little speechless. ET aliens are just a lead. There is no ET. There will still be AT, CT, and DT, unless Atari’s project games can be sold and successful forever, but it is impossible at that time, no game company can guarantee this, no matter how big the investment in the game is, there is risk. If a 3A project fails and the company is wiped out, then I dare say no one will dare to invest in 3A games.)
(End of this chapter)