Game Development Giant

Yes, you heard it right. ↑Dian Dian Novel,.

The most famous arpg series in history was originally created as a turn-based RPG!

It is these that many people believe that Blizzard North, which has the orthodox pedigree of the Darkness series, actually wants to make this game a turn-based RPG.

Moreover, they didn’t just think about it, they actually did it.

They actually made a turn-based trial demo for Blizzard headquarters to review, but it was immediately called back by Blizzard headquarters. Blizzard headquarters demanded that it must not be made into a turn-based system, but must be made into a real-time system. Of course, this You can’t blame Vulture Studio. After all, real-time RPGs were rare at that time. The most popular Japanese RPGs at the time were all turn-based, and even the three major American RPGs were all turn-based.

When designers who were influenced by these games made RPG games, they naturally thought of making turn-based games themselves.

Of course, later generations say that the Diablo series is the first of its kind in the arpg game generation. In fact, Diablo is not the earliest arpg. The earliest one should be Shigeru Miyamoto's The Legend of Zelda. Of course, It really makes the arpg genre gradually become the mainstream type of RPG games, and I really have to attribute this credit to Blizzard's Diablo series.

Of course, the improvement of functions makes real-time combat less difficult to create, which is also a decisive factor.

Because making a fun turn-based game requires very high design skills.

As we all know, the biggest advantage of turn-based games is that they can save performance, but the biggest disadvantage is that the game experience is not smooth enough and there is no feel at all.

Therefore, turn-based games usually exploit their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, and they will completely abandon such metaphysical things as feel. And trying to take advantage of another one of the biggest advantages of turn-based games is the strategic nature of combat.

This advantage is not one that comes to mind when we first start doing turn-based systems.

I think the reason why I went to the turn-based system at the beginning was just because the function didn't allow it, so I had to use the turn-based system.

Later, many designers discovered that using the turn system, they could slightly change the rules, such as the order of combat actions. Becoming more strategic, we often see that sometimes through some strategic settings, we can defeat some enemies that are much stronger than ourselves.

Therefore, designing a fun turn-based combat system is a test of the designer's skills.

Most designers with such abilities are in Japan.

European and American designers, in Jester's memory, really can't think of anyone who can compare with the Japanese in terms of turn-based combat system.

There is something worth saying. The battle system of Sword and Sword 3 that many people have been touting is actually copied from a Japanese national-level RPG Grandia 2 released by Sega on the Saturn, preparing to compete with DQ and FF. This game is very classic, especially the combat system, which is one of the best in the history of turn-based games.

There's another thing Jester doesn't understand.

The combat system of ff13 has been criticized. Why did Yao Chongliang do it when he was working on Sword and Sword 6? Are you going to copy this failed battle system? Can’t you see that SE himself completely abandoned the previous system in ff13-2?

Back to business.

Diablo 2 is a game that can be praised with almost any praise.

Moreover, its design ideas are so eclectic.

Actually. At the beginning of the design of this game, it was really very similar to Jester's current situation. This game never had a formal and complete design document at the beginning, but of course there was still a draft.

Why is this so?

Very simple.

After Diablo i was launched, they spent three months gathering ideas for their next project, but with little success.

In subsequent discussions, opinions and ideas about regaining Diablo gradually emerged. After several months of recovery, they suddenly realized that they could no longer be burdened by Diablo's reputation. So they picked up a lot of ideas left over from the original work that had yet to be realized, and collected many criticisms and suggestions from critics and consumers, preparing to brainstorm on how to make Diablo II bigger and stronger in all aspects. Discuss freely.

In this case, how did Blizzard design it? It's very simple, that is to expand the content based on the original first game.

They wanted to improve on every aspect of the original.

For example, each character in Diablo I only has three different-looking armors, while Diablo II uses an ingredient matching system to produce hundreds of different variations; another example is that the armor in Diablo I has special skills. The monsters are all pre-set, and Diablo II has a generation system that can randomly generate hundreds of metal monsters.

The graphics have also been further improved, and special effects such as true transparency, color light sources, and quasi-3D perspective mode have been enhanced. Level loading is pretty much the same as before. The storyline has also been greatly enhanced compared to the original work, and there are more places that have yet to be explored. Undoubtedly, this is a big project.

There is one thing that remains unchanged between the previous and second generations of Diablo, and that is simple fun.

These simple pleasures are so basic and obvious that they are not mentioned in any reviews and reviews, but they are absolutely the basis of success. We can use the term, monster killing/reward to describe the most basic gameplay of Diablo. This term refers to the fact that players need to constantly kill monsters. to obtain treasures and experience points.

But that's not the key. In order to keep players interested in the game, they also provide a series of target tasks and the sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

Specifically, at any time in the game, there will be a task that is about to be completed, a transfer point that is about to be reached, the next level that is about to be reached, or a dungeon that is almost cleared, waiting in front of the player. , to induce them to continue playing happily.

Simply put, they tried to make every aspect of the game interesting, even the sound effects for moving items in the inventory.

In addition, the killed monster must also die spectacularly and uniquely - by the way, just like the spectacular sight of candy splattering when a pinata (a stuffed doll stuffed with gifts) is exploded, the scene is very bloody.

But, this is really coooooooooooooooooooooooooool.

We strive to always keep players on the verge of a big breakthrough—or in a loop that leads to a great experience with just a few clicks of the mouse.

This is really a great setting.

The reason why Diablo 2 is so successful is precisely because of their extremely open and free development environment. As we all know, the most important stipulation of Blizzard's recruitment is not how many big projects you have participated in or how high your skills are, but Yes, you are a player who really loves games.

Because the first criterion of the games they make is to conquer ourselves.

Every member of the team is involved in all aspects of game design, and conference rooms or lunchtime discussions have become important places to generate big ideas, which is what Jester now advocates.

He made this very clear just now.

This is a game of unprecedented scale, and everyone can give their input to make the game better.

In Diablo 2, there is a very famous system, which is also the first of its kind gem setting system.

If I didn't tell you, you might think that the person who came up with such a brilliant idea must be a senior planner. In fact, the person who came up with this idea was just an ordinary programmer in the team. He was having a meal. He talked about this idea like a casual chat, and then everyone's eyes gleamed.

This is just a very simple example.

Therefore, Jester believes that if everyone, including all programmers and artists, participates in designing an unprecedented game, the spillovers will definitely outweigh the disadvantages.

Of course, this requires your own control. Such a huge project can be discussed through collective efforts, but the final decision-making power still needs to be authoritarian.

Jester also has the confidence to be this dictator.

I think we can ask the players for their opinions. I think many of the players' ideas may be ridiculous, but some of them are very clever. I have had such an experience... At this time, a man of no age The big designer raised his hand to speak. His words made Jester's eyes light up, and then he nodded.

Rarely, a comment was added.

I very much agree with this proposal. Players can indeed think of many interesting things that we can't think of. Of course, we are also players. I have said before that we must develop a game with a player's mentality. We must Let the games we design conquer us. If we can’t conquer it ourselves, how can we use it to conquer others?”

In fact, in later generations, many game companies will refer to players' ideas when developing games.

For example, the famous Fallout 4.

There is a very famous mod made by the players of Fallout 3 called fallout. This is the most famous environment mod among all the fallout mods. When many players can't stand the bleak and depressing environment, it is fallout that saves them. them. fellout mainly removes the effects caused by the green filter (cold vision) in Fallout 3 and the orange filter (desert vision) in New Vegas. It also provides basic weather conditions to allow players to see farther. The visual effect is better.

B Club mentioned in the interview about Fallout 4 that they learned a lot from it. (To be continued...)