Game Development Giant

Such a versatile developer is rare in the world. Not only does he see further than others in game design, but he can also act like glue to join the various parts of game development. His extraordinary but highly effective The methodology has resulted in many of the most entertaining games. He is the best game designer since the birth of video games, and I can even add an attribute, no one.

As the host read out the speech for this year's GDC Lifetime Achievement Award loudly, everyone's eyes focused on Jester, who was sitting in the front.

Because everyone knows that only Jester can bear such a comment in the world - the best game designer in the world, almost single-handedly completed the structure of the rules of the modern video game world, and now The reason why this industry is so prosperous and why there are so many game articles full of various imaginations every year is not unrelated to the variety of game types that Jester has perfected.

It can be said that this award and this comment are well-deserved for Jester.

With the host Jester's name at the beginning.

Thousands of game developers, media and game company attendees from all over the world stood up and applauded in Jester's direction.

Jester, who had always cared little about what the outside world thought of him, felt a little flattered this time. He originally thought that he had reached the point where he could not change his face even if the mountain collapsed, but when he faced people from almost the entire industry at the same time, It was still difficult for him to control his mood at this time when he was greeted with reverence and admiration.

Thanks.

Saying words of thanks again and again, Jester came to the main stage.

At this time, Jester's mood had basically calmed down. The award recipient was a person who surprised Jester. The current head of Sony Computer Entertainment and the father of PS, Ken Kutaragi.

You truly are a legend.

Ken Kutaragi smiled and handed the trophy that symbolized the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award, which is also the highest individual award in the entire video game industry, to Jester's hand.

Excessive praise.

Jester also said something modestly.

Then came Jester's thoughts on winning the award, which Jester had never thought about alone before. Because this is unnecessary, it is commonplace for him to participate in such impromptu speeches. He can even give a two- or three-hour long speech without any drafts. Isn't it just bragging? He is also the best at this kind of thing.

But now. At this time, he felt that he didn't know what to say. After a slight pause for a second, Jester began his acceptance speech: Actually, I have said many things about speeches, but this time, it is The most special thing is that I mentioned this award to Mr. Kutaragi and Mr. Hayao Nakayama many years ago. They were very interested in my idea. I was not too excited about the many awards The Hero received before. , because this is something that should be taken for granted in my opinion. Heroes took five years and 200 million US dollars in development costs to develop. The total number of employees involved in the whole process is nearly a thousand years, and the development team maintained all year round exceeds Three hundred people...

First, he talked a lot. Jester also suddenly realized that this speech should not say too much, so he finally added: Actually, there are still many things I want to say, but I still have a thousand words to put into one sentence. Thank you very much for your support of my previous work. With recognition and recognition, I believe that the future of video games will be more brilliant and glorious...

Just when Jester said he was about to leave the stage after finishing speaking, the host suddenly asked a question.

Mr. Li, I don't know if it would be presumptuous to ask a question. But as a fan of your games, I am really looking forward to your next game, and Heroes is really too good. Brilliant, and you also said that he would never make a game that has already been done, but as your fan, I am really worried that you will never make a better game than The Heroes...

Facing this suddenly asked question, Jester also hesitated for a moment.

He looked at the industry colleagues in the audience and saw that they were also looking forward to it. Then he thought, it would be a good idea to just talk about his new game here.

this problem……

Jester deliberately pondered for a moment, pretending to be embarrassed, and then began to say: Originally, I planned to hold a press conference next year to introduce some aspects of my new game, but I think I will say it now. There is nothing bad at all... As for the game Heroes you said is the work of the entire Mars Entertainment, although I have some role in it, my role is far less than you think.

“Because of this game, I just proposed a somewhat bold and arrogant idea, and it was our artists and programmers who completed these ideas. To be honest, I think they are more qualified to win this game than me. Award, because I am just a person who has a whim, and they are the ones who make this whim come true...

The reason why I say this is because the project Heroes takes up almost a quarter to a third of the company's R\u0026D resources. I do this kind of thing just because of my willfulness, and I do it myself. I feel a little sorry for my company, so this kind of game may not appear again in my career-unless one day, a game with an investment of more than 200 million US dollars can earn There’s enough money to make it worthwhile for the company to invest in the game.”

When Jester said this, the artists and programmers at the scene naturally gave him the warmest applause.

Of course, they just laughed at what Jester said about investing 200 million US dollars and still receiving excess returns, because they only regarded it as a joke made by Jester. None of them would think that investing more than 200 million US dollars in a game would Two hundred million dollars and receiving a reasonable return on game development is a reality that could become a reality.

Because this is too fantasy.

Of course, Jester will not tell them that in the future, someone will really invest 200 million US dollars to develop games and make a lot of money.

But, here it comes. They also understood the purpose of Jester's words.

...Why do I say this? Why do I say this when talking about my new game? In fact, it is very simple, that is, the scale of my new game cannot be as big as The Heroes. This is an incredible game. Copied games are also a development model that cannot be copied. Of course, I am very proud to be able to develop such a game. But I am not too excited about this game winning awards because of its The investment is hundreds of times that of other candidate games. With such an unreasonable comparison, I think it is natural to win so many awards, and it would be an accident not to win.

The new game is a very personal game. The target audience of this game will not be everyone. That is why many people said before that they lack interest when they hear my description of the new game. To make It is difficult to create a game that is suitable for all ages. Even The Hero and Foreign Requiem can't do it. After thinking about it, the only games that can do this are actually Super Balotelli and Super Balotelli. Let’s follow American Cube...

For example, Quake is a game that all of you think is very good. Not everyone in our Mars Entertainment FPS development division supports or likes this game. Although this game It is the pioneer of FPS games and established how games of this type should be made. However, this game cannot represent such a large type of FPS games.

Before, we had an internal debate about FPS. The process was initiated by some designers who were dissatisfied with the design ideas of Quake. They called Quake an old-school shooting game. This The pace of this game is too fast and is extremely unfriendly to newcomers, so they feel that future FPS games should change.

I won't go into details about the process. Generally speaking, the reason why many people oppose old-school shooting games is that it is too difficult to master such games. They believe that a game that will become popular should When players reach the lower-intermediate level required by the game, they can gradually appreciate the fun and essence of the game. However, in the game Quake, the requirements for reaching the lower-intermediate level are too high. , almost the most difficult kind I have ever seen.”

When there was only one Quake in the world, they were one of the greatest games. But when all kinds of FPS games bloomed on the market, their advanced nature was not impressive, and the more and more games became available, The easier it is to get started, the bigger the player base will be, and the bigger the bottom of the pyramid will be. This will bring about exponential growth, and this is the market. This kind of market is life, and only life is the standard for defining 'success' in this era.

No matter how pure and excellent a game is, it cannot be called a success in the eyes of many people.

Quake is actually a very pure game.

As an example, if we call the FPS game currently being produced by our newly established FPS team a modern FPS game, and teach a person who has never been exposed to an FPS game how to play blindfolding game, and reaching a certain level to be able to appreciate the fun and essence of this game. If the difficulty level is 10, then teach a person who has a year of experience in this modern FPS game to play Quake to be able to appreciate it. The fun and quintessential level of this game is probably around difficulty level 500.

With such a difference in comparison, if we at Mars Entertainment do not change our FPS games and do not improve the creative thinking and concepts of our FPS games, then, at least on such a project, we will be far away from our competitors. We are left behind and cannot even catch up. In other words, we will not even be qualified to eat exhaust fumes in the future.”

Their views are not supported or welcomed by the designers of traditional shooting games, and the relationship between them is very tense. In the eyes of fans of traditional shooting games, their behavior is A betrayal of the FPS games they love...

In fact, what Jester said was that in his era, even in the era before his rebirth, there was such a fierce battle between old-school FPS games and modern FPS games. The final result It was the modern FPS game that became the final winner, but after years of silence, the improved old-school FPS seems to have the possibility of a second life.

At least, many years after the death of Quake, Overwatch has allowed many people to see the possibility of a revival of improved old-school FPS games.

The original Quake 3 and its developer ID software were defeated by CS in a very tragic way - CS instead of Half-Life.

It's very simple, because Half-Life is also an old-school FPS, but CS is a game that transitions from old-school FPS to modern FPS. There are actually many modern FPSs at the same time, such as Delta, which was brilliant for a period of time. force.

However, many people say that the Quake series died at the hands of CS.

That's not quite accurate.

The reason why the Quake series died in the end has nothing to do with any other game. With or without CS, this game will die. This is determined by the game mode of this game.

Even if there is no CS, Quake will still fade away at this speed, and the fading speed will not be faster or slower than the world with CS.

I won't talk about which view I support. The reason I use this as an example is that no matter what type of game, you must learn to advance with the times. I really appreciate the words of Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi, the outdated president of Nintendo. , this is what Mr. Miyamoto Shigeru told me. When he was talking about some games with me, he said that President Hiroshi Yamauchi had no other requirements for the games that Nintendo produced at that time, but there was only one requirement, which was Definitely have to do it.”

That's fun. The most important thing about a game is that it's fun.

Let everyone who is willing to play it experience the fun of this game. If you can't do this, then modify the game to make it meet this point.

This passage touched me a lot, and it also changed my game creation thinking a lot. Before, I always wanted to please all the players, but then I took a closer look and found that this idea was actually the result of a A taboo for game designers. (~^~)