Game Development Giant

Peter Molyneux was born in 1959, making him exactly thirty years old this year.

Ordinarily, given his age, in this era, young people in their early twenties are the main force in development, and many of them have just graduated from college, or even just graduated from high school, working on the front line, like him. Thirty years old is already an old man.

What's more, this is his first real game.

When he received the notice that Mars Entertainment Headquarters was planning to use his game as the main promotion of PC games after Quake, he was still a little unbelievable, because he and his Bullfrog, throughout the whole Mars Entertainment has no status in the studio system, but judging from the promotional projects he arranged after getting the game, this is simply not what a game produced by a studio of his level can get.

Why is this happening?

He asked the question in an unbelievable and unbelievable tone. He was speaking from the bottom of his heart, especially because one of the recommended projects was arranged during New Year's Day, when Quake officially released their online game. There was a press conference when the system's expansion pack was released. Not only the big bosses of the company @Wan @Book @Bar @.nsb.cm were directly present at this press conference, but also, this press conference was actually I also invited myself to prepare for this press conference to use the unrivaled popularity of Quake to promote it. And I and my own game God Is Crazy were the only games invited to this press conference.

Therefore, when people from the European branch heard this question from Peter Molyneux, they were very surprised and asked: Isn't that your relative?

Of course that's not my relative.

Peter Molyneux retorted like this after hearing the previous answer, and his mood instantly became depressed. He really didn't know it would be like this, but soon, he got the specific news. Claudia told him personally that the reason why this happened was because of the decision made by the boss of Mars Entertainment, Jester Lee, after watching his game. In short, Jester Lee believed that, Your game God Is Crazy is a very, very, very good game, and it is worthy of him spending the promotional expenses that originally belonged to his game to promote this game.

This also makes Peter Molyneux and the entire Bullfrog development team extremely excited. Because being recognized by Jester is a great sense of accomplishment for them.

No matter what the performance of this game is after it is officially sold, it can be recognized by Jester Lee, which means that this game is not in vain, and people like Pete Molyneux have their own A designer with ideas and pursuits, after developing God is Crazy, he discovered it from the bottom of his heart. He really fell in love with Mars Entertainment. To put it bluntly, the biggest essential difference between game companies and game studios lies in their attitudes towards games. A game company is a business group. The games they produce always have profit as the first factor, and the studio is the embodiment of the creator's will. It incorporates the creator's thoughts and beliefs about game development. They will try many things that have never been used before, and simply ignore them. Will such development be effective, or even if these things are developed, will anyone like them?

Other game companies, once they acquire a studio, will immediately reform the studio with the core purpose of commercial profit.

Several of Pete Molyneux's friends' studios have encountered this kind of thing, but Mars Entertainment seems to be dismissive of other companies' practices. They acquired this studio just because it is in There is a high degree of spirituality in developing games, and they will not obliterate this spirituality. This is also the rule set by Jester.

When Jester made this decision, there was still a lot of opposition within the company, because the essence of a game company is to make a profit. If it cannot make a profit, then no matter how big a company is, it can only continue to grow. It gradually died out due to chronic blood loss, but Jester still decided to do it despite all the opinions. In Jester's view, a game company with its own ideas and pursuits may not necessarily have a future, and a game company without its own ideas and pursuits may not have a future. A game company must have no prerequisites.

Mars Entertainment acquired a game studio precisely because it was different from other studios. That is because this game studio has an indescribable ability that other studios do not have. The spirituality described, if after the acquisition, the most important thing of the company is castrated for the sake of so-called commercialization, then why did it still acquire the company before?

It is not the purpose of Mars Entertainment to make them disappear from the crowd.

The online mode of Quake, Thor Arena, was only briefly shown at the Carnival. Since being accepted by players at the Carnival, this mode has been directly praised by various media. But the problem is that in the media We call this mode the greatest revolutionary system in the history of the game so far, and it has aroused the most enthusiastic interest from the majority of players.

In the first version of Quake, there is no such popular Thor Arena mode.

How is this going!

Therefore, many players immediately let out such angry roars. They did not even limit themselves to writing letters to newspapers and magazines, or to Mars Entertainment. They even went so far as to directly besiege the flagship store of Mars Entertainment. What's more, Some players who were far away from Costa Mesa formed a group and went directly to the headquarters of Mars Entertainment. They surrounded the gate of Mars Entertainment and demanded an explanation from Mars Entertainment.

Because in the eyes of players, this is a kind of deception.

The initial sales volume of Quake is extremely terrifying among PC games. Even compared with Jester's previous games on home consoles, which are now called legendary sales by many, they are not at all. It does not show weakness, of course, thanks to the fact that the United States accounts for almost 80% of the world's computer penetration.

This is the first game in the world that allows players to play on their own machines at home, and the effect is no worse than those in arcades with large and expensive frames. Even this kind of first-person vision shooting The game gives them more of a sense of immersion that previous platform shooting games like Contra could not give them.

All in all, when you see the character you control controlling a 12.7mm heavy machine gun to smash the enemy into pieces, and then the blood and flesh are flying, the feeling of shock and trembling is simply indescribable.

It's far from being able to be described by the word huang.

In fact, the realistic style of this game was the conclusion reached by the entire design team after a fierce debate. Some people, led by Carmack, insisted that this kind of game should be made in a realistic style. , it is through this realistic style to tell players that our technology is so awesome and can produce special effects that you have never seen before. This is what it would look like if you were hit by a bullet in real life.

But there are also many people who were transferred from the console game development team. When they were making console games, they still remember what Jester said at that time, the target group of our games is children, so our game style can be weird. But it must not be disgusting. In the eyes of these people, the previous style similar to Saloman Snake can only be called weird. This weird style can make players have a special feeling for this game. A rebellious inquiry mentality, especially for those children.

However, in the eyes of these people, the graphic style of Quake, which is described as realistic at best and bloody at worst, naturally makes players feel disgusted and disgusting. Picture style.

Both sides insisted on their own opinions and refused to give in to each other. In the end, no one could convince the other and could only let Jester make the decision.

For Jester, he definitely agrees with Carmack. It’s not that this realistic style has any advantages, but that he feels that a first-person shooting game must use this style of graphics. , the reason why he made this judgment is just because he has countless memories of FPS games in later generations, and Carmack's talent in first-person shooting.

You know, every game produced by Carmack uses bloody graphics as a selling point.

The most important thing is that the main audience for FPS games and those for home console games are not the same overlapping group. In this era, the overlap between PC games and home console games is not as high as it will be in the future.

This kind of picture style will be a great point of enjoyment when everyone is playing against each other. Jester remembers watching a video interview where a well-known game designer later talked about the game he was working with. Memories of playing DM online with friends in the house.

When I cut my opponents into pieces and watch their bodies fall into pieces, the feeling of accomplishment is indescribable.

Therefore, Jester chose to support Carmack without hesitation, choosing the slightly bloody style that Carmack insisted on - this is also due to the fact that there is no game rating system yet, no matter what kind of picture and content it is , can be sold to everyone. In fact, according to Jester's aesthetics, this style of picture is still a little too bloody.

But players don’t think so.

They thought this kind of picture was so cool. They had never seen anything so outrageous.