Game Development Giant

Logically speaking, the sales volume of such a game should not be too high, because there are only a few gamers who like this style and can accept it. Generally, the best ACT game on the market can only sell one million copies. It is already very good. The work of Itagaki Tomonobu, a master of ACT games with many fans, is only of this order of magnitude.

However, Jester's game can be measured by this theory. It is only one of the three versions of the pre-sale. Five days before the release, the number of pre-sales reached an astonishing 400,000. share!

Based on this pre-sale figure, if we speculate on the digitization after release, the sales volume of this game will be at least 1.5 million to 2 million copies.

Moreover, this is only one version of the three versions.

If all three versions can reach this sales figure, a game with a total sales volume of 6 million will not be considered a niche work anyway. In fact, there are no games that can sell 6 million units in a year. None will appear.

In a conference room at the Mars Entertainment headquarters.

...Let's go back to the nature of this type of game. An RPG game - an MMORPG game is also an RPG. What is the most important thing, what do players want to see most?

This is a discussion about how MMORPG games should be developed.

The supporter was Jester, and the participating members were the people who were instructed by him to participate in the testing of EA's game that day.

Of course, the testing of EQ has not yet started, but they can discuss in advance how an MMORPG should be in line with the RPG in their minds.

In other words, if you were responsible for the development of an MMORPG, how would you develop it?

Everyone was expressing their opinions, but Jester did not participate in the discussion. He just listened quietly. Then while silently taking notes, in the imagination of these most elite developers or designers of Mars Entertainment, a game with various possible or impossible ideas is constantly taking shape. In their imagination . Jester discovered that they were actually much crazier than the WOW he wanted to do.

Of course, this is a good thing.

The most important thing is that we have to create a world - it's a bit abstract to say that. To be more specific, the biggest difference between MMORPG and traditional RPG is not in the content and method of the game, but in the construction of the environment. We must create a social system where people must constantly cooperate to play games more conveniently.”

This is not a game with a lot of content that can be played by one person. Of course, I am not saying that one person cannot play it. What I am saying is. This is a game that requires social interaction and interaction. Moreover, this It’s crucial in this game.”

When hearing this speech, even Jester himself nodded silently.

Then he quickly wrote it down in the notebook in his hand.

In fact, this is the biggest difference between MMORGP and traditional RPG. If traditional RPG needs to build a world as real as possible, allowing players to play a role in this world, then MMORPG games need to What is built is a society. He needs not only players to play this role in this world, but also different players to interact with each other like in society.

And this is also the greatest charm of MMORPG.

After listening to everyone talk about their understanding of MMORPG games, Jester suddenly thought of a very special question that he wanted to know. If this problem were put in front of these outstanding designers, how would they solve it?

Therefore, Jester did not evaluate the pros and cons of what these people said before, or whether it was in line with his own ideas.

He just stood up, clapped his hands, and asked a question.

MMORPG has such a difficult problem to solve, that is, as the number of players in a server increases. There may be many players who want to kill a certain monster, explore a certain area, or complete a certain task to obtain a very rare Drops or rewards, but the problem is, it is very likely that some people are always killing these BOSS, while other players cannot kill them no matter what. This is likely to create a vicious competition. If you let If you go to design, you will think about how to design?

Jester asked this question with a smile.

Then look forward to their answers.

In Jester's world, this matter already has a perfect solution, and that is a copy.

The emergence of dungeons is also due to the needs of players. When Blizzard mentioned their ideas about WOW around 2001, they mentioned the concept of dungeons. It is very likely that they did encounter this in EQ games. Things need to be solved with dungeons, and EQ also completed the first real dungeon area in the history of MMORPG in the game around 2003.

Of course, Blizzard likes this kind of thing where I announce a concept first and then let others explore whether this concept is feasible or not. When WAR3 was released, Blizzard's approach to RPGRTS was more radical, and they announced it first. came out, and then asked a Japanese company to make a game with a similar idea. It turned out that the market response was not satisfactory, so Blizzard asked Blizzard to redesign the WAR3 mode.

So what is a copy?

In fact, the concept of dungeons appeared very early. It was first introduced in the board game Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, people who have never been exposed to dungeons may think it is a bit mysterious and lofty when they hear it, but in fact Yes, to put it bluntly, this is a copy.

To be more specific, the procedural explanation is that a map can be copied in a limited number according to player needs and assigned to each team or group, becoming exclusive to them for a period of time.

In other words, any player, squad or team, as long as they want, can treat a certain area as an area that belongs entirely to them and only they can explore. It's called a copy.

To illustrate with a specific example, team 1 entered dungeon XX. What they entered was Copy A of Dungeon XX. Team 2 also enters Dungeon XX. They will not enter Copy A, but Copy B. And A and B will not interfere with each other. At this time. Both A and B are called copies of Dungeon XX. More teams can come and enter their own copy of the dungeon at any time (for example: D, E, F) without any negative impact on other teams. This way everyone can explore and benefit from the dungeon without having to queue up to kill the same monster.

Because I already know what the best answer is, so. Jester had a very special feeling when he listened to his subordinates discussing how to end the question he just asked.

Of course, the concept of replicas is not a particularly difficult concept to think of.

Especially when almost everyone present is a senior DND table game enthusiast.

They quickly thought of this setting on DND, and then began to discuss whether they could move the concept of this copy into the game.

Jester was very pleased. He had actually thought of it before. After some thinking, these people would definitely think of the concept of dungeons, but what he didn't think of was this. They will think of it so quickly - of course, thinking of it is one thing, but how far it is done is another.

The concept of dungeon is not difficult, but it is not easy to make the dungeon excellent. For example, Jester knows that at the same time as WOW, a certain domestic company's Game World 2 was also included in the game. The concept of copy was added, but their copy was not very satisfactory. Later, Jester learned that their chief designer admired Blizzard even more when talking about copies of WOW.

No one in China can write the kind of AI in the WOW copy.

Such an evaluation cannot be said to be low.

It's also thirty or forty minutes. The designers present unified their ideas, and copy was indeed the best solution.

So how should we design a copy? The number of people it needs, its size, the time it takes to pass, their drops and rewards... Jester asked more questions, actually. The essence of MMORPG lies in the dungeon, which is also the core of PVE content. Basically, all the settings of the entire MMORPG are centered around the dungeon.

The question Jester asked this time was much more complicated than the previous simple copy.

Even if the world's best designers were in front of him, it would be difficult for them to answer so many questions in such a short period of time. Of course, Jester did not expect them to answer them right now.

You can go back and discuss it. We are basically discussing it in a week or two weeks. We are just discussing how to make an MMORPG type game. Of course, everything discussed here is strictly confidential. I also signed a confidentiality agreement... Jester once again emphasized the issue of confidentiality when the meeting ended.

In fact, in the production of an MMORPG, all aspects need to be solved immediately.

For example, what is the art style like? Realistic or cartoony?

If you are not sure about this problem, then the painter will have no way to work.

Of course, this is not a problem for Jester. He must choose the cartoon style, because the success of WOW has proved this. Compared with the realistic style, the cartoon style is more timeless, that is, Say, after many years, let’s not talk about the picture quality, but just the style of the picture. The cartoon style may still be accepted by players.

Jester replayed a very famous WOW level 60 private server in 15 years ago, the French Nostalrius server, which is also the famous French N server and played for a period of time.

He found that even though he had been exposed to games with graphics quality like The Order 1886 in 15 years, he still wouldn't be interested in the original version that appeared in 2004 and whose graphics were far out of date. I feel bored with the WOW screen, but I find this screen very easy to accept.

In fact, Jester once watched a video by Blizzard reviewing the development history of WOW. In that video, Blizzard talked about the graphics and music in WOW, especially the graphics. At the beginning of development, they needed painters. When I came to complete the settings of some characters and original paintings, I was also faced with this kind of decision.

That is whether the picture should be realistic or cartoony.

In the end, Blizzard chose cartoons. The reason is that cartoon-style graphics are more easily accepted by players, and once accepted, this style of graphics will not easily become outdated.

The reality is exactly what they said.

Time passes day by day, and there is no disclosure of the release of the first version of Monster Hunter. The 1.8 million sets per week is not very dazzling among Jester's games, but when you think about it, it is a This is already a very impressive achievement, and the total sales volume of this game is likely to reach 2.5 million units.

This is an extremely astonishing number.

Moreover, this is only the first version. After the first version is released, the second version will be released immediately.

The most important thing is that the first version has very high ratings among the player community. This game has been wildly sought after by almost all ACT players. Many ACT game fans even call this game perfect. The works are perfect in everything that an ACT game can do.

Needless to say, in terms of action, the work of the world's top action game team has an extremely smooth hand feel, which can be called a textbook of strike feeling.

The most noteworthy thing is the collection system of Monster Hunter. Jester's experience gained from the Diablo series is perfectly reflected in this ACT game, and it does not appear obtrusive at all, hunting powerful monsters. , obtain materials, and then make powerful armor or weapons. This process can make all players enjoy hunting the same monster again and again.

And, most importantly, players are not bored at all.

This is incredible. (~^~)