Game Development Giant

Yes, Jester certainly knew what questions to ask of a man who would go on to create a legendary company.

Although he may be just a player now and can only observe the game from the perspective of an ordinary player rather than the level of a producer, this kind of vision is sometimes valuable.

The most common thing Jester says is that he hopes designers can think more from the players' perspective when designing games, because the games you develop are for players to play, not for you to play yourself, so this There is also a fixed reason why Mars Entertainment’s external recruitment is unshakable.

First, you have to be an avid gamer.

Do you like video games?

Jester looked at the reserved Mike Mowaimi and asked with a gentle smile.

I... like it.

Mike Mowaimi also answered without hesitation. Although the tone of his answer was still a bit stuttering and nervous, from the gradually relaxing expression on his face, it was still obvious that he was My state of mind was already much better than when I first entered this room.

oh.

After hearing Mike Mowaimi's answer, Jester just said oh, as if he had already expected his answer, and he still asked: Tell me about your favorite game, no matter which one, It doesn’t matter if it’s not our game.”

As he said this, Jester smiled: At least one-third of the people in our company have a favorite game that is not our own.

Each interviewer does not have a lot of time, not only because there are too many people coming to interview, but more importantly, because Jester’s own time is also very precious, and the time he can spare is not very high. There are many, so it is impossible for him to interview all of them.

Just from resumes from previous applications. Select some of those who you think have a good first impression and have the greatest potential, and interview them in person. If you feel satisfied, ask the HR department, and then the rest will naturally be interviewed by specialized personnel.

Therefore, at the beginning, it was like a chat between friends, asking a few simple questions, allowing Mike Mowaimi to enter the state and no longer be so reserved. Jester finally began his real questioning.

Mars Entertainment’s attitude towards interns is not to recruit a few handymen. In fact, if they were recruiting handymen, they wouldn’t have to make such a big fight. Even the bosses of companies ranked among the top 50 in Forbes’ rich list Also have to interview a handyman in person.

Mars Entertainment attaches great importance to every intern, not just their abilities, even those from prestigious schools. But when it comes to actual abilities, unless they are as talented as John Carmack, otherwise, their so-called abilities are beyond ordinary people. In the eyes of these experienced developers from Mars Entertainment, who have earned enough experience from countless development projects, they are not worth mentioning.

What they value more is the potential of these people.

That is to say. Are these people suitable and capable? Become a unique game developer.

If you are a producer of Mars Entertainment now, and I ask you to design a home console game, and the platform the game is on is the just-released ddreambox2, how would you design it?

Jester's voice suddenly changed, and the difficulty of the question underwent an earth-shaking reversal in an instant. The previous question was as simple as a kindergarten child could answer easily, but the current question is difficult enough. To the point where even someone with his grades at a top school like UCLA would find it difficult to answer.

As a game enthusiast, he really has never designed the game he wants to make in private? Or when playing a certain game, you feel that the design is not good. If it were you, you would change the design.

Ninety-nine percent of players have had this thought, and this is why Jester asked this question.

When a person has the least experience in designing games, there is no marketization to cater to players. It is purely from the perspective of a player to consider how to design a game. There is no need to consider how much the game can sell. It doesn’t matter whether other people will like it or not. It’s just about describing a game that I or I like from the perspective of me or myself.

This can also see to the greatest extent whether the person being asked has any talent in designing games.

Jester has said more than once before that game design is a very subjective process, even similar to writing and painting. Sometimes, or almost all the time, the producer's ideas can create or Destroying everything cannot be ignored.

Talent is indeed very important in this industry.

Facing this extremely tricky question from Jester, Mike Mowaimi was silent for a long time, for more than three minutes. He seemed to be thinking, but also seemed to not know how to answer. Jester started from him It's impossible to draw a definite conclusion from his face.

Finally, Mike Mowaimi finally spoke after three minutes of silence.

I have thought about two games before, but the ideas are very messy and not systematic or organized, so I don't know where to start.

Mike Mowaimi's voice is not very loud, and judging from his tone, he still lacks confidence.

Jester's face still had a kind expression, and he still smiled and said: It doesn't matter, I just want to know what you think of a game. Before you really understand the development and design process of a game, , which is crucial for me to judge whether you are suitable or not suitable to work at Mars Entertainment.

Well.

After hearing what Jester said, Mike Mowaimi had no choice but to agree, and then took a loud breath, as if to organize his own words, and then said.

“I first came up with an idea while playing a racing game from Nintendo FC. At that time, I liked listening to rock music and watching some movies about earthlings vs. aliens. At that time, I had a sudden idea. Can I design a game like this? For example, the two sides of the game are divided into two camps, one is human and the other is alien...

Listening to Mike Mohuaimi's words becoming more and more proficient, Jester couldn't help but nod. In fact, he had heard of this game. After Mike Mohuaimi established Silicon and Synapse, The first independently developed home console platform game was this one. They named it Rock Racing at the time. At that time, in order to compete with the increasingly powerful Sega and the eyeing Sony, Nintendo was no longer so friendly to third-party developers. Harsh.

As long as Nintendo will allow them to develop games for Sega's MD and their own Super Nintendo at the same time.

As Silicon and Synapse, later to be Blizzard Entertainment's first home console game, this game called Rock and Roll Racing embodies the talent and temperament of a promising studio from the inside out. They are so unique that in many of their future games, you can see a strong shadow of Rock Racing.

For example, they creatively designed hundreds of different tracks, five different racing cars, two opposing races, and dozens of various weapons in this game. There are so many things filled in the large cartridge because they designed sixteen different runways and six planets with different environments and scenery for this game.

Note that the track and the track are different. The track is composed of different tracks. It is these sixteen different tracks and the six planets that make a racing game with hundreds of tracks possible. It has become a reality - does it sound familiar?

Yes, this is the prototype of the later completely random map of Diablo.

Some people are always curious about why Diablo's map is completely different every time it is entered. Are there so many different maps stored in the game?

In fact, this is not the case. In the game, there are many different small compositions that make up a whole map. That is, every time you enter the game, these small compositions or map elements are randomly selected in varying quantities, and then Make connection combinations randomly.

This will create a completely different map than before.

This game also shows that Blizzard is good at borrowing from successful games, just like they added dozens of weapons to it. This may be the inspiration they got from Nintendo's Super Mario Kart. will generate inspiration.

Of course, the most exciting thing is that this is a pseudo-3D racing game. In this game, you can complete some driving skills that will only be found in real 3D racing games in later generations, such as the famous , even if you don’t know much about racing, you have basically heard of a technique called drifting.

However, the current Mike Mowaimi is obviously not mature enough in game design. The racing game he is telling Jester is also related to rock and roll. It is not as good as the historical version of Rock and Roll Racing. It's very entertaining, and there are many gameplays that Mike Mowaimi may not have been exposed to yet, so he didn't mention it.

For example, adding a weapon system to a racing car turns a racing game into a more entertaining party game. (To be continued...)