Game Development Giant

In fact, it is very simple to use a few simple words to summarize the meaning of the hero that Jester wants.

It is to be a knight for the sake of anger, and to establish the world with strength.

These things are clearly stated in Tai Shigong's Biography of the Knights, and Han Feizi also said that knights use force to break the ban. If you read it with immersion, it is actually not difficult for a Chinese to understand.

Time passed very quickly.

Especially when you put all your experience into work, unless you supervise Itagaki Tomonobu's Shadow Blade from time to time, even after supervising it for several months and discovering that Itagaki Tomonobu has done a very good job in difficulty control, Jester spent a lot less time going to the development team of Shadow Blade. He just asked Suifian to take care of the two young people from China.

Then he became less interested in the development of Shadow Blade.

In addition to his trust in Itagaki Tomonobu, it is also because he really does not have much time, because of the 'Era' project, the world's first truly 3D open world game, or using Jester's special A word invented, the game with a name like Total Vision Entertainment has entered the formal development stage.

Time is very busy.

By the end of 1991, the entire development team had grown to more than 240 people, with 13 development teams spread across five cities in California.

Because there are many outstanding designers who were inspired by Jester's large-scale project and took the initiative to contribute.

And Jester doesn’t refuse anyone who comes.

Because he knew that the plan to be carried out this time was so difficult that it was absolutely impossible for Mars Entertainment to do it alone. Moreover, Mars Entertainment had seven or eight games to develop at the same time, which required a lot of research and development. With manpower, it is impossible to mobilize everyone to use him, not even one-third.

Actually. Jester almost gritted his teeth before recruiting more than a hundred people from Mars Entertainment.

This has caused Mars Entertainment to cancel four development teams internally, and even the teams that have not been canceled have further reduced the number of staff. At the beginning, even the research and development was somewhat stretched.

With no other option, Jester could only conduct a large-scale recruitment. This time, more than 40 new employees were recruited at one time, almost all of them except for the recruitment just after the establishment of Mars Entertainment. The largest crowd ever, though. Water from afar cannot save those who are near thirsty. Among the more than 40 people, less than one-third have previous experience in the game industry.

Most people have to start training from scratch.

For almost half a year, it is difficult to form effective combat effectiveness, and even after the half-year internship training period, the abilities of these people are still the same as those of Mars Entertainment that Jester transferred from the major development groups. There is no comparison at all.

I don’t know if these new employees can persist in development work for the next few years.

Not to mention, years later. Become a unique elite in the game development industry.

Jester misjudged the size of the team needed to produce such a game in this era at the beginning. He felt that more than 200 people would be enough in the later stage, while one to two years would be needed in the early stage. When making the main framework of the game, maybe more than 100 people, and no more than 150 people at most are enough, so. During his first R\u0026D meeting, he only prepared a team of more than 90 people. At that time, he felt that it would be within the first half year. These people were more than enough, but when he actually started doing it, he realized that they were really stretched thin.

After the background settings were completed with various domestic experts, the character settings began.

After the character design drawings were completed and the 3D model was built, the first problem encountered by the Era project team really came.

That is, Jester was not very satisfied with the tools created using the previous 3D modeling tools of Mars Entertainment. He thought the precision was too low, so he had to re-develop a 3D modeling tool that could perform higher-precision modeling. Use the mold tool to re-model.

The same is true for other high-definition textures. They almost all have to be manufactured by themselves starting from the lowest level of tools.

The efficiency is very slow.

But there is nothing that can be done about it, especially talents in 3D modeling, which are absolutely scarce now, not only in Mars Entertainment, but also in other game companies. The same is true. Large-scale recruitment is simply possible. Because there are simply not that many such talents for you to use, so you can only train yourself from your own art talents.

It will take a lot of time for these people to form a certain combat effectiveness.

Even Suzuki Yu's motion capture team is not going smoothly. You must know that Jester's combat requirements for his game are much higher than VR Warrior, which is now popular in the United States.

Jester wants to make the battles more realistic, the movements smoother, and give players a real sense of feedback from the sword to the flesh and the punch to the flesh.

Although the development experience of VR Warrior can give Suzuki Yu a lot of experience of the same type, there is still a long way to go before Jester's requirements are met. He must work with his team to further Further writing the action logic and action determination programs is a very heavy workload.

Not to mention motion capture.

Jester spent a lot of money to hire equipment and unarmed fighting masters from all over the world to participate in motion capture, almost to the point of detail. Even Suzuki Yuu joked with Jester in his spare time. I have said that even the discarded motion capture materials can complete at least five top-notch fighting games with completely different styles.

Jester smiled and said nothing.

In fact, he really had this idea, but because Itagaki Tomonobu was in the final sprint of the development of Shadow Blade at the time, it was impossible to have time to develop another game.

Therefore, Jester has not started the plan for a 3D fighting game that can compete with VR Warrior.

Even apart from Itagaki Tomonobu, Jester has not told anyone else his specific ideas. Although everyone in the company knows that the company will definitely develop a game that can compete with VR Warrior, it's just a matter of time. The problem.

Even Suzuki Yu is very curious. He wants to know what kind of game Mars Entertainment will develop to compete with his most proud work so far, VR Warrior.

However, according to Suzuki Yu's observations over the past period of time, it seems that Mars Entertainment lacks a character who can control 3D fighting games. There is still a big difference between 2D fighting and 3D fighting. 3D fighting, in Suzuki Yu's eyes, is especially It needs to be realistic, and it is best for the designer to be a senior fighting enthusiast. For example, he himself has been fond of Chinese culture and Chinese boxing since he was a child, especially Bajiquan.

This is why he designed Yuki Akira, who uses Bajiquan, as the protagonist of VR Warrior. In fact, Yuki Akira is an incarnation of himself.

Although Suzuki Yu was very curious about this matter, he did not really ask Jester. Doing so would be too rude, and it seemed that he was too unconfident. Could it be that something he had worked so hard to create would be afraid of others? A challenge?

Suzuki Yu is not such a person.

The agreement with Sega is to complete the development of Shadow Blade before the end of 1991. Of course, if it is not completed, it can be postponed to February of the next year according to the agreement. If it is not available in February of the next year If a product is produced that satisfies Sega, then Mars Entertainment or Jester will have to lose money to Sega, which is something Jester doesn't want to see.

And Itagaki Tomonobu is very fast in making games.

Not to mention, the development time of Shadow Blade is extremely generous. When the 1991 Mars Entertainment Carnival is about to open in one week, the game has been completely produced, and the remaining work is testing. Talk to the technical staff about debugging and optimization.

Speaking of which, the production speed of Shadow Blade is not very fast.

It took almost a whole year. At almost the same time last year, Jester handed over the task of developing a Sega-style beat-'em-up action game to Itagaki Tomonobu, and Jester also guaranteed Itagaki Tomonobu. The conditions for independent production made him, who could only work as one of n deputies in some development teams at that time, ecstatic.

Even after he knew that in addition to his name, this game would also bear Jester's name, he was even more grateful.

You know, if he screwed up this game, it would be a huge blow to Jester’s face.

And if this game is a big success, for Jester, such a game is really not something important, but for him, that is not the case at all.

When Itagaki Tomonobu completed all the development work, he immediately reported to Jester. At that time, Jester was still worried about the 3D modeling of his new game, but he was still very happy to congratulate him. Itagaki Tomonobu informed him, and then asked him to finish the finishing work of the game, and then there was a month-long vacation, but Itagaki Tomonobu obviously wanted to know some other things.

For example, before developing Shadow Blade, Jester promised him that after the development of Shadow Blade, Jester would let him develop a work to compete with VR Warrior.

And Itagaki Tomonobu's favorite game is VR Warrior by Suzuki Yu. (To be continued...)