Game Development Giant

If you don’t agree, there is no need to learn.

Everyone has their own understanding of games, and different designers will have different design ideas for a type of game.

This cannot be called right or wrong, it can only be said that the two ways are different and they do not work together.

It cannot be said that Blizzard has forgotten its original intention of making games for the sake of money, then Jester will also forget its original intention for the sake of making money.

Although he mentioned to his subordinates when instructing them to make games that sometimes when designing games, designers need to make some compromises in the face of the market, because designers also need to eat.

But the fun nature of the game cannot be changed.

Games have to be fun.

This is also a standard that Jester has set for himself, because he firmly believes that fun games will be liked by people. Even MMORPG cannot escape the restrictions of this rule. He does not need to deliberately set the rules at all. Players must spend time to do things, and some tasks are stinky, long and meaningless - this is not to deny that long-story tasks are cheating money and time, because WOW in the 1960s has things like love and family. There are still many classic time-consuming tasks.

What I'm saying is that there is no need to deliberately set some disgusting settings to keep players online for a long time.

While Jester was thinking about WOW and the content of several expansion packs in his mind, he was thinking about what he could learn from and what he didn't need to learn from.

I wrote a lot eloquently.

He has been doing this for a while, and it is also the most important thing for him. For his last game, he also wants to make it perfect.

The team is gradually being formed. Although the development of Super Balotelli Galaxy has not yet been completed, Jester is not prepared to spend too much time now that the core gameplay and the general framework of the levels have been completed. Put it on this, and Shigeru Miyamoto is personally responsible for this game. He knows the level of Miyamoto Shigeru.

If it's just about some understanding. As for the grasp of the fun of the game, to be honest, I really admire Miyamoto Shigeru, and I really can't even compare to him.

so. Instead of wasting time on Super Balotelli Galaxy, it's better to seize the time to prepare for the next game.

After all, in its original history, WOW was officially launched in the United States at the end of 2004. The project for this game was almost established before 2000, and no later than 2000. It took five years and more than a hundred people to jointly develop the first version of the game, which was not perfect. Version.

Since I plan to make WOW even better, although I can provide more people and more funds, it will also require more time.

Doing the math now, it will take at least half a year, or even an extra year.

So, start now. It should be just in time.

As for other things, you can put them aside for the time being. After all, WOW will be your last game. This is something everyone knows both inside and outside the company.

Therefore, at the end of the year, Jester suddenly held a rare meeting of all directors as chairman of the board of directors, not only those with voting rights, but even those who did not vote. But the top executives of the company with dividend rights also gathered together.

They all know that Jester will announce a big event today, because the top leaders of the European, Asian, and Japanese branches have also returned to the headquarters.

Of course, there is no airtight wall in the world.

In fact, they generally knew the reason why Jester convened this high-level meeting, after all. This is not a secret thing. Jester has said it many times in the past few years that he is preparing to retire. Although they will persuade each other in every meeting, Jester always uses this It is not the topic discussed in this meeting as a reason to avoid it.

In fact, for them, they really don't want Jester to make the decision to retire.

Because Jester was creating Mars Entertainment and was in charge of Mars Entertainment for more than ten years. What he did was truly outstanding, and all his decisions looked absolutely correct now, as if he could really see through the future.

Not to mention his stabilizing role in the entire game development community. His games can be said to be the best guarantee for the company's hardware sales.

Even a niche game like Monster Hunter can sell super sales of other people's popular games, which is simply beyond everyone's expectations. Before the release of Monster Hunter, no one expected this kind of uncompromising The highly difficult game actually triggered a wave of excitement. Many people even took the initiative to look for similar games after playing this kind of action game.

As a game designer, Jester is someone who has reached the pinnacle and can support a platform by himself.

No one wants to quit such a figure who is like a sea-fixing needle.

However, as the leader of Mars Entertainment, if Jester insists on retiring, there is nothing they can do.

They can only hope that today's meeting will not discuss this matter, but they also feel that their idea is somewhat unlikely, because apart from this matter, Jester really has no need. At this time, suddenly to convene such a meeting.

Everyone was waiting for Jester's arrival in the conference room. No one was talking. They were all silent, as if they were thinking about something.

Iwata himself is weird.

Because according to his previous status, he was actually not qualified to participate in this level of meeting, because he was not the person in charge of Japan, but one of his deputies. However, this time it seemed that Jester called his name alone and asked Asked whether he was willing to work in the United States - Iwata thought about it for two days and gave Jester an accurate answer, saying that he could work in the United States.

Therefore, he had handed over the work in Japan and rushed to the United States according to Jester's instructions.

However, as soon as he arrived in the United States, he had to inform himself to attend this meeting, and Jester said that he was going to make specific arrangements for his next work at this meeting.

Originally, Satoru Iwata thought this was just an ordinary high-level meeting.

But when I came here, I realized that the level of this meeting was very unusual, because some high-level officials who would not usually attend the meeting were also here. It can be known that this time Jester was preparing to announce or wanted to discuss something very special. Same thing.

While everyone was thinking randomly like this.

The wooden door of the conference room was pushed open. Jester and his personal friend Claudia walked into the conference room together.

At the same time, everyone in the conference room quickly stood up and nodded to Jester, and Jester nodded in return.

Then, Jester and Claudia sat at the head seat of the conference table together.

Everyone saw Claudia also appearing in the conference room. They all felt a little strange. Although they knew that Claudia had become the second shareholder of the company after marrying Jester, she had not participated in the company's operations for many years since she married Jester. The European branch of Mars Entertainment, which was originally relatively independent, has also merged with Mars Entertainment Corporation.

There is no difference from other branches.

This time, in addition to some shareholders who rarely appear in such memories, some people from studios who generally do not participate in headquarters matters were also present.

These are very independent studios. Although they belong to Mars Entertainment, apart from publishing games, Mars Entertainment is not involved in the daily operations of these studios at all, such as Will Wright and Sid Meier. 's studio.

They also came to attend this meeting this time.

After Jester took his seat, he looked around the audience and saw that everyone looked a little serious, so he smiled at first. Seemingly wanting to lighten the atmosphere, he said: Don't be so nervous. In fact, I convened this meeting suddenly this time mainly to announce a few things that have something to do with me. Maybe you have guessed it before, but, I I think it would be better to formally announce it to everyone.”

After hearing what Jester said, the more than 100 people present gathered their attention, and the conference room was completely silent.

I said before that I would retire after the last game I made, and a few years ago I said I still had two games left. One was Super Balotelli Galaxy, which was more than half done, and now I Basically, I am no longer involved. Miyamoto Shigeru is mainly in charge, and I feel very confident about him. I agree with all his ideas.

And WOW, which I am preparing now, will be my last game.

Actually, what I was thinking about at the time was indeed these two games, but I also left myself a way out and gave myself some time. If I have anything new to say about new games in the past few years, If I understand, maybe I will change this idea, but unfortunately, in the past few years, I feel that I have made no progress, and my current understanding of the game and my ideas are still at the level of a few years ago.

I have reorganized my thoughts on WOW during this period. After sorting it out, I completed a design outline of almost 300,000 words.

Of course, it's just an outline. There may be millions of words that need to be refined, but this is no longer something I can complete alone. It requires the wisdom of many people.

After finishing this, I once again thought about my retirement.

I think it's time to make a decision.

As everyone knows, I made my first game more than ten years ago, in 1984. The situation at that time was very special. My father was a hardware designer. Because of the impact of Atari, After all, the company he worked for was Atari. At that time, everyone was saying that video games were dead, and that this thing would only appear in encyclopedia entries to be remembered.

As Jester spoke of this, many people in the room had lived through that era.

It can be said that that time was the biggest crisis in the entire history of video games, and everyone lost confidence in the video game industry.

...My father also has a sad face every day, saying that the issue of home consoles has also affected arcade machines, especially the brand Atari, which basically no one wants to buy... To be honest, I grew up playing games, because my father Due to work, I was able to get the latest games almost immediately, and I got FC in 1984, when FC had not yet been released in the United States.

The games on it are really fun. It's like opening a new door for me, allowing me to see completely different games. I think, if the games are so fun, then how can the game die?

I don't believe in this evil, so I made American Cube, a game that is still a best-seller on handheld consoles.

The success of this game gave me courage and made me feel that there is still a market for video games. Therefore, I felt that I should do something for this industry, which is to make the best games and let people return to the game. I understand this industry, this is not a dying industry, this is a booming industry, and I love video games.

Jester's words were very touching.

The people present were also very moved when they heard it, because many of them had experienced it from that era. Whether they were producers or players, they all knew how pessimistic the entire United States was about video games at that time.

I established Mars Entertainment. I still remember the scene when it opened. I sent out recruitment, and many colleagues who had not given up on gaming came to my company. Now many of them, some have left. Some of them are still working in our Mars Entertainment, and there are even many people from that time in this room.

When Jester said this.

Some in the room laughed.

To be honest, the development of Mars Entertainment to this day is the joint efforts of everyone. I am not the only one who deserves the credit. Although many people like to attribute these achievements to me, I know that I do not have such a big responsibility. Work hard, I'm just an ordinary game developer who wants to make fun games, that's all.

I have been making games for more than ten years and have made too many games to count. I feel that my inspiration is about to run out, so I want to be serious in the last time, focus on it wholeheartedly, and eliminate all distractions. I want to make a game - WOW, an MMORPG that I have planned for many years, so I decided to hold today's meeting as the chairman of Mars Entertainment.

I would like to submit my resignation application to everyone. In order to make this game with peace of mind, I want to resign as the chairman and chief administrative officer of Mars Entertainment, and I propose that my wife, who is also the second shareholder of the company, take charge of the game. Claudia holds the position of chairman of the board of directors.

Although it was expected, when Jester actually said it, the whole audience was still moved. (~^~)