Game Development Giant

In fact, the cards are a plot.

For many people, it doesn't matter what the card is used for. It is just used to stimulate a desire to collect - even if the collection itself does not mean much, but for a game, collection is That’s the greatest meaning.

Jester had this kind of card plot, so he decided to include it in his Monster Hunter.

Not because of anything else, just because he likes it.

Of course, the reason why Jester has the confidence to make a hunting and fighting game like Monster Hunter is that the new console can be connected online - at least in North America, this is possible. The second reason is that he has a deep understanding of Mars. Entertainment is confident in producing action games. Their development of action games is not inferior to Capcom at all.

Although Capcom's main focus in recent years has been on arcade beat-'em-up action games, it has gradually regained the atmosphere of the action god in the previous world.

However, Mars Entertainment, which was the first to launch beat-'em-up games, adopted the same action game design ideas as Capcom in history, and pioneered many beat-'em-up action games, is actually the world's best company. The king of action games inside.

But now action games are not very popular on consoles, so their reputation is not that great.

It can be said that Mars Entertainment’s current accumulation and foundation in action games is not inferior to Capcom. This is also the reason why Jester has the courage to carry out the research and development of “Monster Hunter”. Otherwise, a company without action game production If an experienced company or team rashly develops a game with such technical content, nothing will be left except a flying-like feel.

For an example of comparison, you can actually refer to Koei's Toukiden.

Logically speaking, after Koei has been making games for so many years, especially after making the Warriors series for so many years, it is impossible for it to have no experience in developing action games, nor to understand the operation of action games at all. . That is what many people say about the impact, but the Toukiden they developed is good in everything, but the hand feel is really crappy.

Of course, dregs will be dregs. It's not that it's completely unplayable. Another drawback is the monotony of collectible elements. There are too few types of monsters, basically just a few. Different monsters just have different skins. There is absolutely no sense of pressure like MH in challenging the ancient dragon and the sense of accomplishment after the challenge is successful. This may also be a big failure of Toukiden.

Despite saying this, Jester really likes the setting and system of Together.

Therefore, he was very much looking forward to the sandbox open world Toukiden 2 that Guangrong said, but unfortunately, he couldn't play it because of time travel.

In his Monster Hunter, Jester decided to adopt a completely different design idea from Capcom. He will divide the hunters into three to correspond to three different story backgrounds. The first one is naturally the Japanese style of the original MH, and the monsters are mainly in the style of the original MH. The monsters of various dragon species look tall and have a sense of conquest. The second one, Jester decided to use The setting of The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the monsters in it also choose the monsters and style of The Classic of Mountains and Seas. Naturally, it is the prehistoric style. The third type is the fantasy setting that Westerners like. It makes a lot of references to the style of Dark Souls and Cthulhu Bloodborne. These things are easy for Westerners to accept. And those who are willing to accept it, the monsters are mainly based on Western myths and legends.

In this way, one game becomes three settings.

After that, Jester was caught in the dilemma of integrating these three settings into one game, and then allowing players to make choices at the beginning, and choose the monsters they want to face.

The second one is naturally divided into three games.

The first option is naturally the best. But here’s the problem. If all three settings are integrated into one game, then there will be no need to mention the problem of homogeneity, but the capacity of the game will be very large. This is very difficult to solve. Now after all It's just a CDROM, not a DVDROM or a Blu-ray, so there shouldn't be a way to do so much.

If it is really done, it is not impossible, but the inevitable consequence is that in these three games with completely different styles, backgrounds, and settings, there will be a lot of similar content - similar fighting methods of monsters. And many other things are similar.

This is also something that can't be helped.

It's not just the capacity of the CD that limits these things, but more importantly, if you develop different things, you may need to invest more effort and cost than just three games.

After thinking for a long time, Jester decided to divide his Monster Hunter into three games, just like Pokemon, divided into different versions. However, unlike Pokemon, his Monster Hunter Monster Hunter will be three completely different games, not just a money-grabbing version like Pokemon that just replaces a few monsters.

Although this has resulted in a surge in investment, making games is no longer just for making money.

More importantly, I want to make better games.

As well as the games that you are more interested in, put some of your own ideas into the game and see if other players accept it. Is this a personal hobby of yours, or do many players like this? This is important to me. , is also a more interesting thing.

Moreover, when he reaches Jester's position and has been immersed in the game development industry for more than ten years, he no longer needs to use a successful game to prove that he is an excellent game designer. He has become a The symbol of video games.

There is a saying that says a lot, only when the capital is strong enough, can you do what you want to do unscrupulously.

In this way, Jester wrote for four days in a row, and more than twenty pieces of paper were densely filled with many of his thoughts about this game. Some places were sketched and written very sloppily.

Although this game was designed based on MH, after Jester added many of his own ideas, it has become a game that is completely different from the original MH. Of course, in appearance, It looks like this, but in fact, the core of this game is still hunting and fighting together. Especially the element of fighting together.

In the drafts of these designs, Jester devoted a lot of space to explaining the struggle together.

Say, this is the core of this type of game.

Although many MH players like to hunt independently. Collect materials and then make more handsome equipment. However, more players still like to play with friends. Work together to hunt monsters that are difficult to defeat alone.

This is also the reason why MH can make people addicted to it for thousands of hours.

Basically, for the game MH, there can only be two types of players. One type is those who play it for thousands of hours at night and still enjoy it, and the other type is those who dismiss this game. Basically, there will be no middle layer. , that is, for this game, you can also play it. There are players who are nothing if not playing.

Because this is how the game was designed.

For players who don't like the gameplay of this game, the designers directly excluded them during the design. They didn't consider what kind of gameplay these players liked at all, but specifically designed the game for players who like this type of game. Players consider what they would prefer.

Jester feels that this is the true idea and attitude of a team designing games. Trying to please everyone is not advisable not only in other industries, but also in game design.

Since you are not my intended player of this game. Then your opinions and ideas are not worth mentioning for my game design.

After writing it, it is submitted to the review committee for review.

Even Jester had to take this step. There is no rule without rules. This is the rule that Jester established right away. He takes the lead in obeying it, so no one dares to violate it.

Regarding the requested amount and team size, Jester suddenly became hesitant again.

Because the MH he envisioned before was probably an investment of one to two million US dollars. Then there are games with a development scale of dozens of people. The development scale is similar to that of today's large-scale games, but it is definitely not as good as our own top-level productions. In addition to the scale of our own Heroes with hundreds of people, such as Shigeru Miyamoto's The scale of Zelda is also close to a hundred people.

But now one game has been expanded to three. Although some things such as UI can be used universally, basically the content of two games needs to be developed. If one development team develops it, it will take too long. , it makes no sense, but if a development team develops it, it will require twice the development funds.

After thinking for a long time, Jester didn't have any good solution.

Simply, he filled in the demand for development funds of five million US dollars. How much can be negotiated in the end still needs final discussion.

Jester also has the confidence to convince his subordinates to vote in favor of his project.

After reorganizing the files, he called his assistant and asked for a recent investigation document on the promotion of his Dreambox 3, and then asked his assistant to hand over the newly organized draft of the game settings to Go to the New Game Review Office.

Just when he was about to take a look at the progress of the top priority that he had not paid much attention to during this period because it was related to Monster Hunter, Jester suddenly saw a magazine among these documents - it should be the assistant himself just now As he read, he accidentally got it mixed in. Jester didn’t pay much attention to it and just glanced at the magazine casually.

It is a magazine similar to domestic ship knowledge. It introduces some old ships from World War I and World War II.

Jester was somewhat interested in these, and he just wanted to look through them.

As a result, my assistant came back at this time.

She was still holding the document that she had just handed over to her in her hand, and was looking at herself with a worried look on her face. She was flipping through the magazine that he had accidentally sandwiched in the document just now.

Jester smiled after seeing it.

He shook the magazine at her and said, Is this yours?

Boss, I'm sorry...

The assistant nodded awkwardly. She also knew that she couldn't read these non-work-related books while at work.

nothing.

Jester didn't care much after all. He shook his head. In fact, this magazine, which was similar to ship knowledge, really gave him some inspiration about the game. Or to put it more accurately, he remembered it. A very interesting and time-limited game, but a game he likes very much.

Since someone else came to ask for it, Jester couldn't continue reading it, so he returned the magazine to his assistant and pretended to be serious and said to her: Don't read these things during working hours anymore.

After his assistant left, Jester shook his head.

I originally wanted to take a look at some recent files, but now that I have been affected by this game that I just had some ideas for, I am not in the mood to look at it.

To be precise, this game is not very suitable for appearing now, and there may not be many people who like it now. Of course, this is just some personal thoughts of Jester, but this game is really one of the favorite games of otakus. Well, as we all know, the games that otakus love, except maybe HGAME, are all kinds of time-killing games.

Such as P Club Four Meng, such as civilization, such as FM and so on.

If someone combines HGAME or the YY points of HGAME with the elements of a time-killing game in the next round, then the lethality to otakus will be too great.

This game is called Ship Girl. Jester can’t remember the exact name, but it’s probably some kind of joint fleet or something.

Jester had been addicted to it for a while, and especially for gamers, this game was very lethal. When he saw the ship knowledge book just now, Jester suddenly remembered this game. Thinking about it, how about making such a game in this era?

The technical content of this game is not complicated. It was originally a web game. In this era, it is natural that we are not willing to make it into a web game, but it is still no problem to make it into a client game. Moreover, this game does not involve operations, so no matter Whether it is a PC or a game console, it is perfectly compatible, and it is a 2D bear. The selling point is the exquisite three-dimensional paintings that evoke various emotions.

Of course, if Jester really wants to make this game, he won't just copy the ship girl, but also have some ideas of his own.

As long as the gameplay and selling points are established, it is not up to you to modify a game as you wish. (~^~)