Game Development Giant

It's very rare for you to have this experience.

Mr. Sid Meier is an absolute master in the development of strategy games. Even I can learn countless things from his experience...

Okay, let's get down to business and talk about our principle of mutually assured destruction.

Jester smiled.

The audience below the stage was also very interested in this very abstract name. They all pricked their ears and wanted to hear it more clearly.

I don't know if you still remember the Cold War. It was the Cold War that just ended. As the victor, we defeated the most evil empire in human history... This rule comes from the Cold War. His rule is this: We have a They have a pile of nuclear weapons, and the Russians also have a pile of nuclear weapons. We can blow up the other side at any time, but the reason why we don’t do it is because we know that the other side can also blow us up.”

Jester saw the original look on many people's faces, and he smiled: Yes, it is the so-called nuclear bundling.

But what we are talking about now is the principle of mutual destruction between players and designers. The relationship between game designers and players is also very similar to the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Players can destroy their own games at any time. experience. They can quit the game, they can use cheats, etc. We designers can mess up the game too...

A few years ago, I was discussing a game like this with my colleagues, an adventure game where you have to follow the road and have various adventures until you reach the castle and meet the king. But after meeting the king, the player will know The king is actually a bad guy, not a good guy. So the player must return to the starting point along the original path and start the adventure again... This was just a small brainstorming discussion at the time. We even had time and made a very rough trial version. Come try it out.”

Believe me, it was a terrible experience.

I can tell you why we made such a game, because when we were discussing it, a very young designer said this, 'The expressions of the players will be particularly wonderful by then. All their efforts will be It’s all in vain, what a surprise this is! What an amazing design!’, this sentence moved many of us, so we went to give it a try.”

That's bullshit. Players just feel like they've wasted eight hours on a stupid game. That's how I felt at the time.

Players and designers have achieved mutual destruction in this way. We must be loyal to the story told by the game, and we must also value the players' efforts. The efforts must be rewarded. You cannot play your game when the players have spent an afternoon, Tell him after you clear the level that you won't get anything, which will ruin the game experience beyond anything.

Do you understand what I just said?

There may be some abstraction.

After Jester finished speaking this long paragraph, he asked the people sitting there again.

After seeing that no one expressed incomprehension, he nodded: Then let's continue. This time I have prepared a long speech. As he spoke, he raised his hand to everyone. A thick stack of manuscript paper.

We talked about a lot of abstract things before that you may not like to hear. Now I will talk about things that are not abstract at all.

“For example, another aspect of our alliance with players is style. There are many factors that reflect the spirit of the game. If the game opens with relaxing music and cartoon-style graphics, and then suddenly there is a scene of exploding heads, then You broke the covenant. Because you didn't give players what you promised to give them.

On the other hand, if the art style of the game is scary and the content is simple and mindless, then you are also fooling the player. At this time, the player will regain their suspicion and exit the game. Let the player continue to suspend doubt and stay in The only way to do it in the game is to make everything at your disposal - including music and atmosphere - consistent with each other.

This is crucial though.

When he said this, Jester deliberately emphasized his tone.

There is another very interesting point. This is what we discovered when we were developing Civilization, that is, players have no IQ when playing games. It seems that it will offend a lot of people, so I will put it more tactfully. The argument is that player psychology has nothing to do with rational thinking. Maybe you may wonder, this is obviously a strategy game, how come it has nothing to do with rational thinking?

Let me give you an example.

This is something we clearly recognized when setting up the system for Civilization 2.

I studied engineering, and Mr. Sid Meier studied mathematics and statistics. In our design team, especially planning, 80% of the majors are similar to ours, so we think We are a very logical team, so our games are also very logical.”

So, in the battle system of Civilization 2, we will give the probability of victory or defeat before the war starts. For example, the winning rate of the attacking team is 1.5, and the winning rate of the defending barbarians is 0.5. In fact, the winning rate of the barbarians is 1.5. It was quite big at first, but because they were uncivilized, they had to accept a 50% penalty, so only 0.5 was left - the biggest advantage of being a game designer is that you can kill and kill in the game: Barbarians have a 50% penalty, You deserve it!”

In short, the winning rate of both sides is 3:1. Generally speaking, for every three attacks by the attacker, the defender should be able to win once. But players don't see it that way. In every battle, players will feel certain at some point. We can win, so when we were testing, many testers said to me, why did I lose this battle? Three to one!

I will answer it very naturally, yes, three to one, you will always lose every three to five.

Jester paused for a moment before he said this, and then smiled: I don't think there is any problem with my thinking, but that's the problem. Players don't think so.

They would say: No, you don't understand. Three to one, three is so big! One is so small! My number is big, how can I lose?

Hearing what Jester said, many people laughed.

Jester didn't smile much.

Mr. Sid Meier also knew about this matter. I discussed this matter with him, and in the end it was Mr. Sid Meier who solved the matter. It was very simple. He changed the combat system. ( To be continued.)