Game Development Giant

Because he was discussing ff7 with Hironobu Sakaguchi, Jester actually stayed at his place for three days in a row.

These are all unplanned times.

However, under Hironobu Sakaguchi's repeated requests, Jester could only postpone his plan to return to the United States, and patiently discussed with the entire ff7 creative staff from the inside out about the game they were going to make.

Jester really admires these people's plans. Although he knows that ff7 is a game with extremely noble intentions, these people really want to make this game into a real art. It was made with the mentality of a good product, so Jester tried his best to tell them some of his plans, for example, some outstanding settings that would appear in the subsequent ff version.

In fact, you don’t need too many things in a game. Too many things will make it seem unfocused and messy, making players wonder how to play or even what you want to say.

Of course, sandbox games are the exception.

Because the gameplay of sandbox games means that there is no gameplay. Just like what Suzuki Yu said when developing Shenmue, we can give a definition to sandbox games, that is, what we have to do is not to design What we have to do in a game is to create a world, and how to play in this world is up to the players themselves.

Jester approves of this development concept.

Three days later, Jester once again proposed that he would return to the United States. After all, he had been out for more than a month, and things in the United States had piled up, waiting for him to go back and deal with them. Besides, your stuff about ff7 can be That said, the past three days have been enough, and there is no point in staying any longer. So, he decided to leave.

Although Hironobu Sakaguchi and the entire creative staff of the ff7 project still want to continue talking with Jester.

In just three days, they had benefited a lot from their exchange with Jester about ff7. They knew before that their boss was a great and unique genius in game development. Even their boss The immediate superiors also worked with their big boss for a period of time before they achieved what they have achieved today.

This is something Hironobu Sakaguchi often says. It was precisely because of the time when he was developing Fire Emblem with Jester that he understood what an excellent game looked like and how it should be made.

Even when he was developing ff7 alone, he also borrowed a lot of settings from Fire Emblem.

For example, Jester added a systematic career setting in Fire Emblem.

Even more so in Final Fantasy. It has been carried forward.

On the plane flying to the United States, Jester didn't really want to sleep. Although he had less time to sleep in the first three days, he was talking to Hironobu Sakaguchi about ff7. In fact, he himself gained a lot. He used these few days to systematically recall his entire understanding of the game. He also kept asking himself.

What exactly can players get from the game?

This is a crucial proposition for Jester, and he can help Jester solve many problems. Development questions.

Although the games he has seen are many years ahead of this era, seeing them is one thing, and reproducing them perfectly is another thing. In fact, if you yourself lack enough experience in this type of game Impact, even if you know this game and have played this game, can you make this game?

The simplest example, so many people have played wow.

There is a second person, a second team, a second company or something else, but how come no one has ever been able to develop a game of the same type that can even be compared with wow?

When thinking about this question, you cannot look at it from the perspective of a third party. You can only get the answer that suits your own needs by really going deep into it. In other words, you can truly treat yourself as a player and experience it. game to understand why the designers designed this game in such a way.

Such substitution may start like this.

Jester is a player.

Go back to the essence of the game and forget about this or that, the rules and regulations about designing games.

When players enter the game world and are crazy about it, what does the game give the players, and what do the players pay?

Jester began to recall his childhood, not the childhood of this world, but another one. The childhood he had really grown up and experienced was a long time ago. However, for Jester, there are some things. It’s becoming clearer.

Jester was a child living in the city during his childhood. At that time, the most vehicles on the road were buses, and snacks cost 15 cents. At that time, the soda industry was dominated by Jianlibao. The next time you go to a restaurant, it will be a particularly luxurious affair.

The children would gather in the courtyard of the community to play after school every day. At that time, everyone was very happy, chasing each other and being curious about all the new things. We don't care, because we already have happiness and that's enough.

However, everything changed when he saw the red-white box.

nintendo.

At that time, the logo on the box was still red, full of vitality and vigor. However, by the time Jester switched to the Sony camp, Nintendo's logo had turned into a dull, old gray.

Jester remembers that it was when he was 5 years old. His uncle gave him a set of red and white consoles, also known as fc, on his birthday. The logo of Nintendo at that time was the red nintendo. At first glance, it looked like He was very energetic and hopeful. At that time, Jester didn't know what this thing was, so he turned over and over with the machine, which was very heavy for him at the time.

The uncle would naturally demonstrate how to use this bulky thing. He plugged a lot of wires into an old-fashioned color TV set that was the most valuable in his family at the time. He took out an orange thing with a picture on it and plugged it into the fc. , pushed the power button on the fc, and then there was a ding sound, the TV flashed, and then a picture that seemed very rough now but was very stunning at the time appeared. The 8-bit picture instantly conquered me.

Yes. It is conquest.

That game is Super Mario.

Jester also believes that this is also the childhood of many current veteran players, and it is also his childhood. At that time, Jester was still a child, and he was very stupid and uncomfortable with the operation, but he just took the trouble to do it over and over again. Playing, failing again and again, enjoying the victory after countless failures. Every time he came home from school, he would turn on the FC and plug in the TV. The young hands were callused due to countless repeated operations on the handle.

My uncle also brought me new games to play from time to time, including many classic games, such as Red Fortress, Green Corps, Contra... Their pictures are still fresh in my memory.

But it finally happened. My grades were declining. I used to be number one in my class, but I couldn't even get into the top ten. The kid downstairs had already been replaced by another kid. Parents put fc away. And told himself to study hard and stop letting himself become a bad boy. Jester cried and made trouble. However, he finally succumbed to the majesty of his parents and kept studying hard. He tried to go downstairs and mingle with the children. But they no longer listened to my orders, so he could only leave sadly.

Until two thousand years later, which year specifically. Jester couldn't remember clearly.

Anyway, it was either 2001 or 2002. It was always a very unexpected situation at the time. Jester saw the ps2. To be honest, after Jester later fc was confiscated, the results were restored, but there was no After discontinuing his gaming career, he often went to friends' houses and game arcades, and basically invested all the money he saved for meals in his usual frugality.

Therefore, the players who have experienced that era are all very skilled, not because of anything else. At that time, unlike later, everyone had a console. Playing console games was very expensive at that time. In the mid-to-late 1990s, PS The price is three yuan per hour, Sega's 16-bit machine costs one yuan and a half or two yuan, and the hourly price of the high-end DC is much more expensive than the PS price.

It is precisely because of such harsh conditions that players in this era have developed good skills.

Because those with poor skills were eliminated—they simply couldn’t afford to play.

Jester would like to thank his father very much. Like himself, his father is also a game fan, a bit like an old naughty boy. Although Jester was not allowed to play FC by himself at that time, Jester's father did play it himself. It's incredible.

Of course, Jester later despised his father.

He was even a little careful about himself. He felt that if he had not been banned from playing FC by his family, he might still be far away from access to SS and PS, which are much more advanced machines than FC.

Later, the family bought a computer, and Jester's father also became addicted to computer games, especially Diablo.

Later, Jester's father heard that there was a new game console called ps2. The graphics were amazing and they looked just like the real thing. Jester's father was very greedy. He happened to have a classmate studying in the United States, so he asked him to The other party brought back a machine, a very expensive Sony game console at the time - ps2.

Jester was born in a small town.

This is also the first time he has seen PS2 in person. When he played in some game console stores before, he heard people talk about it. He was envious of it, but it was expensive and the bosses didn't want to buy it.

The ps2 was another impact on Jester's view of games. It was at this time that Jester came up with the idea that Nintendo was not as good as Sony. Of course, this seemed a bit childish for the future and Jester, who had an in-depth understanding of games. , after all, game development cannot only focus on the good-looking graphics, but the graphics of the PS2 at that time were really too bad.

But after all, the best Nintendo console that Jester had ever been exposed to at that time was SFC. The gap between SFC and PS2...

Jester really can’t remember how many PS2 classics he played at that time. In short, there are so many, including Crash Bandicoot, FF, Metal Slug, Water Margin, and Dynasty Warriors. Ah, I can’t remember the names of many, many games, and some of these names were only known to me after I heard them.

Of course, Jester has to learn a lot better this time. He will always do his homework well, and then he will play with his father for the controller. Some games can even be played by two people.

And, most importantly, Jester remembered at the time that his family had moved.

Went to a very quiet neighborhood.

Basically, no one knows anyone, and no one comes out to play with him, so the social aspect is basically blank. Only game consoles can bring me happiness, but this happiness is only limited to that small box, slowly. Slowly, I closed myself in that small space, became withdrawn and lost my soul.

At the time, it was joyful.

It was a real joy, and even Jester recalled his entire gaming career. This experience may have been the happiest time in which he played and was able to appreciate the fun of the game the most.

Happiness is what Jester finally got from the game.

Later, in school, Jester made a few friends. They all liked to play games, and they also played home console games that are rare in China, so they got along well with each other. Through them, Jester learned that besides Sony, In addition to the incredible ps2, there is also a game console that is much more fun to hold and play in your hand than the Nintendo Gameboy, called the psp.

Then, this 4.3-inch screen became the game console that Jester played for the longest time.

At that time, the PSP was expensive, and it was obviously impossible to ask family members for money. At that time, Jester had to save money for a long time to buy this thing. This thing was extremely precious to him.

It was also from that time that he no longer simply played games and derived happiness from the games, but began to think about the deep meaning of the games and explore the deepest things in the games. It was these that made Jester start to think. , what the game brings.

Sometimes Jester sits in someone's home with his few friends who speak the same language, not to connect, but to simply communicate with each other, which can be considered to open up his heart and speak openly, Jester's The world is no longer a 1-meter square place, but an iron triangle formed by three people. It even begins to radiate outwards. He becomes extroverted and good at talking.

Just like that, Jester arrived in high school.

Studying became more and more intensive, and Jester had to squeeze out as much time as possible to play games. He had no time to use the computer, and he was really addicted, so Jester took out his PSP and played for a while to satisfy his craving.

Thinking of this, Jester did not continue to recall.

He suddenly discovered that the plane was approaching Los Angeles and was preparing to land.

He stretched.

In fact, he already had the answers he needed.

This answer is not very complicated. In addition to the most essential happiness brought by the game, in fact, for him, it is more about making him mature.

This kind of maturity allows him to bravely pick up swords, guns, and other weapons like the protagonists in those games when he encounters some difficulties, some darkness, and some other bad things. Something, bravely continue to stride forward - he just came to this world and saw the Atari impact in history.

In addition to knowing in his mind that the gaming industry will inevitably be revitalized, what made him unswervingly enter this industry.

Or is it the experience brought about by his gaming career.

Because of his passionate love, he is fearless. He knows that as long as he works hard, he will eventually achieve success. Now ten years have passed. In these ten years, the entire game industry has undergone almost earth-shaking changes. The changes are completely different from the depression in the gaming industry after the Atari impact. (To be continued...)