Game Development Giant

Just thinking about Shigeru Miyamoto's Zelda: Ocarina of Time that is currently in production makes Jester's heart feel hot.

He had previously discussed the game with Miyamoto.

During the discussion, the prototype in his mind must be based on the original historical Zelda Ocarina of Time that he was familiar with.

However, the development of this world now is very different from the one he was familiar with, especially in video games. In the original history, Zelda Ocarina of Time, which can create history, in this In the world, especially when compared with The Heroes which Jester spent five years developing, even the original Zelda: Ocarina of Time cannot be said to be a sure winner.

Because this game is so great, so great.

But the great thing about Shigeru Miyamoto is that he doesn’t need to be like Jester at all. When he needs countless games in his mind for reference, he will have unlimited inspiration. There will always be countless strange ideas in his mind. Wonderful ideas, especially when developing games, sometimes even make Jester feel overwhelmed, which also makes Jester admire Miyamoto Shigeru greatly.

The plot of Zelda Ocarina of Time is still similar to the one Jester knows. It is the fifth work in the Zelda series, but it is set in the timeline of the first four Zelda films. Previously, the plot was still a seemingly clichéd story in which players controlled Link, the consistent protagonist of the Zelda series, to save the world and defeat the big devil in a world called Hyrule.

But when it comes to actually playing it, it's not the case at all.

Especially in terms of the operation method of 3D games, it set the precedent for all 3D games in future generations.

In addition to the famous visual locking setting - yes, in later 3D games, people think that it is normal to be able to visually lock an enemy or a certain target. This is the first example in Zelda: Ocarina of Time 》Started by, some people may think, isn’t this a matter of course? Do you need a certain game to start?

Indeed. Zelda: Ocarina of Time is not the first 3D game. There are many 3D games before it, but it is the first time that the setting of targeting is incorporated into the game, and it has almost become a 3D game design guideline for later generations. system. But it was started by him.

Moreover, Zelda: Ocarina of Time contributes more than just that to 3D games.

In addition to the target lock setting, there is also a 360-degree spatial visual rotation. Of course, this was started in Mario 6~4. But Zelda Ocarina of Time actually uses the same engine as Mario 6~4. This engine is very good, but when developing Mario 6~4, the functions of this engine can be used , but when it came time to develop Zelda Ocarina of Time, which has a much more complex system than Mario 6~4, Shigeru Miyamoto and his development team found that the original engine was no longer enough.

Therefore, they made a very big change based on the engine of Mario 6~4. Make the performance of this engine even better.

It is for this reason that although the published information shows that Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario 6~4 are developed with the same engine, in fact, they are not the same thing at all. Shigeru Miyamoto has also explained this situation in several interviews, because when Zelda: Ocarina of Time was being developed, the engine of Mario 4 was greatly activated.

Therefore, during development, it is generally treated as a new engine.

Actually. This was also the approach of many later game companies. The development team of Zelda and Shigeru Miyamoto gave many game companies this inspiration.

After all, developing a new 3D engine is very expensive and time-consuming. However, it is relatively simple to make magical modifications from an old engine to make it perform better. The most famous engine modification may be the engine of Bethesda's Fallout 3 in future generations. . After some magical modifications to the original engine, Bethesda used this modified engine to develop Fallout 4.

Another point is that not all game companies will develop a complete engine to develop games. For example, the famous Blizzard uses the bottom layer for a large part of their games.

In addition to the demonstration of magic modification of the engine.

Shigeru Miyamoto also pioneered a 3D game setting in Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is the scene-aware user interface.

This is a setting that simplifies operations for the operator.

It sounds very high-end, but it is actually very common. Basically, this setting and target locking have become standard features in later 3D games. Specifically, the key effects in the game will automatically change according to different situations, such as If you press the action button while holding the sword, Link will swing the sword; but if Link presses the action button while holding a bomb, it will throw the bomb. Another example is when Link is standing in front of a box. If you press the action key instead of the direction key, Link will push the box; if you press the up direction key and the action key at the same time, Link will climb up the box. The screen will display the effect of the current button and change as the protagonist performs different actions.

The so-called visual lock is set like this in Zelda Ocarina of Time.

The game also features an aiming system called Z-Aim. When using Z to aim, Link's focus will be locked on the enemy or other object, and the game screen will follow the target. Link will always face the target, swinging his sword at the target or using throwing weapons (such as bombs, slingshots, etc.) ), it will become automatic aiming.

There are many great settings in this game. Not only that, its music and its decryption system are perfect, including one of the best and most balanced game systems ever designed, which achieves great combat The perfect harmony of reconciliation and mystery. Both require you to actually use your wits to advance the game - something that's rare in many modern games anymore.

Later generations' evaluation of this game was incredibly high.

For example, it was the first game in the history of FAMI Pass to get a perfect score. The FAMI Pass at that time was not the FAMI Pass after Nintendo Dogs. Their ratings were quite strict. It was considered unfair to get a perfect score from them. It's possible, and it was from Zelda: Ocarina of Time that the first FAMI Pass full-score game was launched.

A reviewer from GAMESPOT, who later became as famous as IGN, said that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a game that cannot but be called 'flawless'.

And IGN directly called this game a new benchmark for interactive entertainment that can shape the future model of action role-playing games. As for the best game by other game websites and media. There are countless titles of the most influential games, for example, Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Um. It was the former king of game journals, Electronic Game Monthly.

Ocarina of Time was a groundbreaking game. It was incredible that a game like that was released at that time. Since then, the Zelda series has been divided into two routes: 2D and 3D. Its achievements are so high that when talking about the history of ARPG, Ocarina of Time cannot be avoided.

certainly. Later Zelda series also produced many excellent works, such as Skyward Sword released in the Wii W era. This is a comprehensive work, in which the sword and shield are restored using the Wii's body feeling. This idea is very touching. The plot is the origin of Zelda's world view. Jester has a friend named Zelda who once sighed like this after playing Zelda: Skyward Sword on WII.

If Nintendo releases another game like Zelda: Skyward Sword, then he will buy a Nintendo console without hesitation.

However, Jester deeply hated Nintendo's style in his previous life. I like Nintendo's games, but I hate the decadence of their style. I don't know what it means to keep pace with the times, for example, in Seven Languages.

The result is no Chinese.

Even Sony is doing its best to open up the domestic game market and actively adds Chinese to their PS4 games for free.

Not to mention Ubisoft, they even have a dedicated Ubisoft domestic studio. Eighty or even ninety percent of their games come with Chinese, and they are still in Simplified Chinese.

Activision. One or five years later, in order to open up the domestic market, an official Chinese version was added to COD for the first time, not to mention Blizzard. The quality of their translations is among the best in the gaming industry.

All of this is explained.

The domestic market is vast, and the domestic market represents the future.

On the other hand, Nintendo was unwilling to make progress and was decadent, even though it was because of the unfortunate death of Nintendo's legendary president Satoru Iwata. Jester also felt sorry for Nintendo, but with the conservatives coming to power, Jester felt that Nintendo had almost no way out in the future.

Especially what mobile game strategy is.

You must know that when Satoru Iwata was alive, he said firmly that Nintendo would never enter the mobile game industry.

Is it because Satoru Iwata is so smart that he cannot see the changes in the market and that mobile games are gradually cannibalizing the handheld game market? And the encroaching share is so shocking!

He is not a conservative president. After taking over the reins of Nintendo after Hiroshi Yamauchi, he has been committed to reform. Whether it is the dual screen of NDS or the motion sensor of WII, they are regarded as epoch-making great achievements in the history of game hardware. Achievements, not to mention the amiibo toys that directly helped Nintendo turn a profit, are all masterpieces of Satoru Iwata's tenure.

But he still insists that the reason why Nintendo will never enter the field of mobile games is that the reason why Nintendo still has a pivotal position in the gaming industry is because they have a closed system of their own. In this system, They can be self-sufficient and don’t need to look at anyone’s face to speak. In other words, Nintendo’s survival model in the gaming industry is very similar to Apple’s.

Once they break through their own closed barrier.

Then their voice will fall very quickly. From now on, no one will regard them as a host company anymore.

After Jester hung up the phone with Shigeru Miyamoto, he continued to contact a few people. Capcom's Resident Evil is no problem. It can even be released now, but there is no console. Kazunori Yamauchi's car game won't work, at least not when Dreambox 3 is launched in December. According to Kazunori Yamauchi, it won't be until the end of January next year at the earliest.

Jester also expressed his acceptance of this.

After all, even if it is a launch game, it is not worth putting a large number of games on the shelves at the same time on the day the console is launched. This will greatly affect sales, and players rarely have so much money to buy so many games. .

Therefore, generally speaking, six games of various genres are the most suitable. However, because his console was released a year late this time, six games are still a bit small. Jester is planning to do it at the same time Ten games will be released with the console, and the remaining games will be released at a rate of two per week or every two weeks, which will also make it easier for players to choose.

After contacting several people, and all of them said that they had no problem and could complete it on time, Jester called Hideo Kojima.

Kojima's studio is in Los Angeles. His studio is one of the few Japanese that is extremely international. From his choice to place his studio in Japan, we can know that he has a great relationship with other Japanese people. different.

Japanese designers such as Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hironobu Hironobu, Yuji Naka, etc. It is true that they are talented, but it is also true that they are conservative. They do not like the way Americans work, so they all chose to go back to the design industry. Japan opens its own studio to develop games.

Hideo Kojima is different. He seems to particularly like this atmosphere.

At that time, he was also different from traditional Americans, especially in games. Kojima was quite authoritarian, but relatively speaking, at least compared to other Japanese designers, he was relatively free, at least allowed Others put forward their own opinions. As for whether to adopt them or not, it depends on Kojima's own understanding. Therefore, Kojima calls his games works.

This also makes sense.

The receptionist was a girl and she didn't speak English fluently.

Moreover, the Japanese accent was very strong, and Jester knew immediately that he had just arrived in the United States from Japan.

Jester asked if Kojima was there. The girl was afraid that Jester wouldn't understand, so she slowed down her speaking speed and talked about Kojima's current whereabouts. It turned out that Kojima was studying for a directing course at the University of Southern California, to be precise. , is a film and television production course. The reason for this is that in game development, Kojima can never find the kind of camera feeling that he wants that the game should give players.

So he wanted to read a book to recharge his batteries.

When Jester found out, he could only express his helplessness and told the girl who answered the phone that when Xiaodao came back, he would ask Xiaodao to come to the headquarters of Mars Entertainment to find him. (~^~)