Game Development Giant

After thinking for a long time, Jester suddenly felt that he had thought too much.

In other words, he was a little too greedy.

As an irresistible event, the Great Hanshin Earthquake cannot be predicted. It would be unwise to use this event to operate Nikkei futures.

Although I am somewhat reluctant, I still need to make a choice. As a capitalist, greed for money is naturally a very important attribute. However, distinguishing when to be greedy and when not to be greedy is more important than money. Greed is a more important attribute.

Greed for money is only related to the amount of money, but the choice of trade-offs is directly related to life and death.

After Jester understood this, he made the decision to abandon his plan to obtain large profits from the collapse of the Nikkei Index caused by the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

After that, Jester didn’t do much in Japan, just visiting two development teams.

I have already visited Itagaki Tomonobu's development team before. His development team is in Osaka, where Mars Entertainment Japan is based. Next, Jester will go to Tokyo, where Yamauchi Kazunori's development team is here, but Jester When I was going there, I just learned the news that John Carmack also arrived in Japan yesterday and was visiting Kazunori Yamauchi.

It is said that Kazunori Yamauchi took the initiative to contact Carmack after he learned that he was interested in modifying his sports car. Don’t forget, in addition to being a fan of game engines, Carmack is also a loyal fan of car engines. He likes Everything that can make him run faster.

Therefore, this time when Jester went to Kazunori Yamauchi's studio, he could still see Carmack.

Carmack is a person who is easily 'empathic'. If he loses interest in one thing, he will devote himself to other things without hesitation.

so. Jester was also a little worried when he learned that Carmack came to Japan to visit Kazunori Yamauchi's studio. He was afraid that Carmack would lose his interest in 3D engine development and game production without warning, just like in the original history. Because of his interest, he turned to the field of rocket research and launch and was unable to extricate himself. The best ten years of his life were wasted in vain.

Jester asked people from Mars Entertainment Japan, and they didn't know the reason, but some people said that it seemed that Kazunori Yamauchi organized some kind of event with some car companies. It seems to be some kind of racing competition...

Now Jester understood.

Although the specific things are not clear yet, it should not be difficult to make a rough guess.

Basically, Kazunori Yamauchi, a fan of racing, in order to develop a racing game for Dreambox 3 that he was most satisfied with, prepared to conduct a racing competition among his own studio's internal staff. This may be because he did not know before that. Who knew that Carmack was also interested in racing, so he also extended his invitation to Carmack.

As for the reason why Carmack was invited, Jester can guess almost exactly.

Generally speaking. Maybe Yamauchi Kazunori might want Carmack to help him solve some technical problems, especially engine development problems.

In fact, Kazunori Yamauchi's team is quite good at engine development, as far as racing engines are concerned. It’s not something you can develop just because you want to. For example, a new company suddenly says it wants to make a racing game. No experience with similar racing games before.

The most important thing about a racing game is the engine.

A good racing game engine can give players an unparalleled driving experience, as well as other things. In racing games, it can only be ranked second to the engine.

As for the development of a racing engine, what is most needed is the accumulation of experience. It is only made from one racing game and one racing game. When making these games, you constantly enhance your own racing engine. Only in this way can you make a racing car The game engine has become as perfect as possible, so racing games are a very strange type of game. For almost all such games, the best one is not the first one.

Of course, there are also companies like Sega, where Nohiro Nagoshi was responsible for the first time he was responsible for making Sleepwalking in America ​​and it became a hit, but don't forget that Sega has accumulated a lot of technology in the development of arcade games.

The same is true for the current Kazunori Yamauchi team. Although they have never made a racing game for home consoles, they all have experience in developing multiple arcade racing games, and they now have accumulated experience in racing game engines. A lot of technology and experience.

Maybe Kazunori Yamauchi wanted his racing engine to be better. Maybe he wanted to add some difficult-to-complete functions to the engine and needed Carmack's help. That's why he took the initiative to invite Carmack to participate in this time. Racing competition within their studio - when Jester contacted Kazunori Yamauchi and told him that he would go to his studio to inspect, Kazunori Yamauchi was very excited and told Jester that it would be best for him to bring one of his own A sports car is coming.

The reason is the same as Jester guessed.

Kazunori Yamauchi was indeed organizing a racing competition within his studio, and the date was very coincidental, it happened to be set for tomorrow, the day that Jester passed.

This matter is indeed due to Jester's own negligence. Originally, his idea of ​​going to these studios was random, and there was no way to contact or arrange in advance. Moreover, the time he arranged himself was relatively tight. Originally, he was in The time he plans to stay in Japan is not long, and there are still a lot of things in the United States waiting for him to deal with when he returns.

And he and Li Fuzhen spent a few days in hot springs together in Hokkaido. For reasons of confidentiality, he did not notify the branch headquarters in Osaka about this matter.

Even the branch thought that he had only arrived in Japan the day before yesterday.

Today I just spent a day in Itagaki Tomonobu's studio showing off his awesomeness. I originally planned to do it for half a day, but because I was too involved when I was doing it, and several of Itagaki Tomonobu's new game ideas were indeed It was a bit attractive, and Jester couldn't help but blow it for a while longer. By the time he realized what he was saying, it was already past mid-afternoon.

Therefore, the original plan was to go to Tokyo at noon, but I had no choice but to give up.

When he arrived in Tokyo, Kazunori Yamauchi came to pick him up personally. The car he drove was a Ferrari. As for the specific model, Jester wasn't too clear about it.

When he was in college, he often paid attention to some sports cars. Later, he didn't have the time to pay attention to these cars often. But judging from the car, it should be a new car, and. Jester is also aware of Ferrari's status in the sports car world.

Whether it is now or in the future, Ferrari will always be the leader in the sports car world. Lamborghini and Maserati are not on the same level as Ferrari. Or Koenigsegg. Not to mention the Ferrari Lafa, one of the three major supercars, the unit price of Ferrari's antique car 250gto is as high as 220 million yuan.

It is the most expensive sports car in the world.

Jester's entourage took the official car arranged by Yamauchi Kazunori, and Jester went directly to Yamauchi's Ferrari. This was also what Kazunori Yamauchi requested. Kazunori Yamauchi strongly requested Jester to get in his car and let him experience the driving skills of a semi-professional driver. Jester and Kazunori Yamauchi were not in the same industry. Went to a studio in the city center.

Instead, we came to a suburban racing track.

When Jester got out of Kazunori Yamauchi's car. His legs were a little flaccid. If the people next to him hadn't paid attention, Jester might have fallen to the ground.

Then. Jester looked at Kazunori Yamauchi's Ferrari with some fear and swore that he would never ride in his car again.

After arriving at the racing track, Kazunori Yamauchi continued to complain to Jester, saying that if Jester hadn't asked him to slow down, he would have driven faster, and he also complained about Jester not doing something on his own. It's a pity that I brought a sports car to the competition.

Jester also saw Carmack, who was wearing a racing driver's uniform and standing next to a white Ferrari. He obviously also saw Jester and was waving hello to Jester.

To be honest, this so-called racing competition is more accurately described as a party than a racing competition.

This time, except for Kazunori Yamauchi and Carmack, a few people prepared supercars. Most of the cars used by others were sponsored by Kazunori Yamauchi after he contacted Mitsubishi and Honda. Details Just borrow a few sports cars for temporary use, and the competition is not a racing race, but a time trial. In this race, no one will run three laps, and the best result will prevail.

As for the prize, it is not precious, but it is special. In the future GT Racing, an NPC with the same name as the champion can be added. The identity of this NPC is the car god in the game.

Carmack came here because he thought Kazunori Yamauchi's event was very good and interesting. In addition, he had just solved several technical problems with the new engine of Quake and was going to take a period of vacation for himself. , just as Yamauchi Kazunori invited him, he came. Yamauchi Kazunori also told him before that he invited him to participate in this car racing competition for his own entertainment.

I also want him to help optimize the engine of their racing game, preferably to deal with several newly added features, such as the rain system.

Carmack agreed.

For Carmack, there is an inexplicable attraction to solving problems that are difficult for others to solve in the code.

I think that a designer who makes a racing game must drive a racing car himself and experience it for himself on the track. Only people with this kind of experience can create a car that is truly fast and furious. A fun racing game. Jester was watching the employees of Kazunori Yamauchi's studio while driving a sports car sponsored by Mitsubishi on the track. Kazunori Yamauchi didn't know when he came to his Someone beside me said this.

Jester did not comment on Yamauchi Kazunori's words.

After all, he has never had such an experience, and he indeed has no experience in developing such a highly realistic racing game. On the other hand, Kazunori Yamauchi will be the best racing game designer in the world in the future. The GT racing series he is responsible for, namely Sports Roadster, is the best racing game in the world, if not one of the best. The total sales of the series exceed 70 million copies, making him the veritable number one game of its kind.

All participating vehicles used sports cars provided by Mitsubishi or Honda. It seems Kazunori Yamauchi or Carmack, and several others also brought supercars with better performance, but in the spirit of fairness The principle is based on the performance of the cars provided by Mitsubishi and Honda this time.

Of course, after that, several of them can use their own cars to start a new race.

However, they have not yet decided whether it will be racing or timing. Looking at it now, these people are more in favor of a racing competition.

Jester had heard Kazunori Yamauchi say before that when his studio recruits people, there is a necessary restriction, which is that they must be able to drive, and they must also be very skilled in driving. Of course, for driving a racing car, Being interested is also a must.

Because Kazunori Yamauchi said when he recruited them, before officially developing the game, they must personally drive a car on a real track to experience this feeling.

Carmack just completed his first lap. In fact, it was not considered the first lap. When he was familiar with the performance of the car, he had driven it for seven or eight laps, but the lap just now was considered the first lap in the official calculation of time. One lap, the result was not very satisfactory, just over one minute and forty seconds, ranking third, but only eight people, including Carmack, had run it before.

However, Carmack was not very depressed. Jester could see that he was still very excited.

In fact, Jester is now a little worried about whether Carmack will suddenly resign and start his other interest journey after the current Quake engine is developed. After all, for the current Mars Entertainment, in the game In the development of the engine, Carmack is the well-deserved number one figure. Others, even the most powerful, will never be able to compare with Carmack.

Of course, looking at the entire world, Carmack is still the leader in 3D engines.

Therefore, Jester suddenly had an idea. Should he talk to him about virtual reality first? If he can be interested in virtual reality, even if he loses his passion for 3D engines, he can transfer his energy to virtual reality. on real devices.

This is better than wasting energy on car engines and rockets. In Jester's opinion, it is a much better choice. (To be continued...)