Rebirth of America, this is my time

Since Lucas was willing to let Ethan make a video game for his Star Wars and Ethan was happy to take over this cooperation, then everyone sat down together to draw up a contract.

Lucasfilm unconditionally authorized the game development rights of Star Wars to Destiny Games. Although there is no time limit on the authorization, Destiny Games will not retain the game development rights indefinitely because the two parties have agreed on the number of productions. That is 'one type'.

After the electronic games launched by Destiny Games are launched, the development authorization will be automatically terminated. Destiny Games will automatically obtain all the copyrights of the released games. At the same time, it can only repair and sell the games that have been released. It can no longer be used as Planet. Develop other games under the name of War.

Since the Star Wars video game is considered a soft release for the movie, Destiny Games needs to complete the production of the video game before the movie is released. The release time of the movie is jointly decided by Lucasfilm and Fox Pictures, and is initially set at In May this year.

Of course, everyone knows that it is indeed difficult to rush into production at short notice, so when formulating this clause, Ethan also fought for the right to discuss the timing. Destiny Games will in principle cooperate with Fox Pictures’ publicity plan, but if the game is really If the game cannot be made within three months, then Fox Pictures will also give him more development time. As long as they make the game within the normal development time of the industry, that is, within six to eight months, that will not count. Breach of contract. At the same time, Ethan also requested that Star Wars cannot be released during the production of the game.

Fox Pictures thought about this additional clause for a while and then agreed.

After all, they were the ones who wanted to ride on Ethan’s popularity.

In addition, when drafting the contract, Ethan also said that in order to cooperate with the promotion of the movie, Destiny Games has the right to use various soundtracks, characters and place names in the movie when making games.

As for the cost...

It will be borne by the film producer.

On this point, Lucas thinks it makes sense.

If the game display is inconsistent with the movie content, then it is still called bullshit promotion!

In addition to these, there are also provisions on derivatives development in the contract.

It has to be said that Lucas is the most profitable person in Hollywood movies. Before the movie was released, he was already thinking about the value of IP, and in his agreement with Ethan, Destiny Game does not enjoy The right to develop derivatives of the video game Star Wars means that Ethan cannot develop clothing, accessories, toys, etc. in the name of Star Wars.

To be honest, when this clause came up, Ethan was not at all disturbed. He had never thought about swallowing the Star Wars IP.

But even so, he still had doubts in his heart.

Because he didn't know how Lucas managed to be brothers with him one second, and then be discussing interests the next...

What this brother did was too special!

Seemingly seeing Ethan's confusion, Lucas took the initiative to explain.

Oh Ethan - I'm not really targeting you - but I sold out the rights to develop Star Wars before we even met...

Star Wars toys are already being made...

Star Wars clothes have also been produced...

so……

Only Fox would be furious because of my movie presentation...

Lucas smiled helplessly at Ethan.

The people on Fox's side nodded seriously.

‘? ? ? ’

Ethan was stunned when he heard these words.

He really didn't expect that Lucas could feel so good about himself!

The movie hasn't even been released yet, but the peripherals have already started to be sold?

Is this confidence or arrogance?

Ethan couldn't understand.

But he did not hesitate, but smiled and said: It doesn't matter, this is your movie.

Perhaps it is because both Lucas and Fox have the intention of treating the dead horse of Star Wars as a live doctor. Therefore, when negotiating the contract, the two parties quickly decided on the power terms, but on the distribution of benefits, They even waved their hands and asked for nothing.

The three parties do not negotiate any income. The money earned from the game belongs to Destiny Games. The money earned from the movie is negotiated by Fox Films and Lucasfilm in accordance with the Hollywood rules of distribution and production. The three parties do not have any of joint interests.

After the contract was signed, Ethan's heart was relieved.

‘Mi Luohua? Atari? ’

'snort--'

‘Just wait to die! ’

Since it is already early February, the best time for the movie to be released is at the end of May, and the time to actually make a game is only a little over three months. Therefore, knowing that time is tight, Ethan, after signing the contract, met with Spielberg and Lu Cass simply checked in and then quickly returned to Palo Alto.

After saying hello to his sister and saying she was safe, he went into his study room, spread out papers and wrote and drew. Since he had previously decided to make the game Space Invaders, Ethan had already recalled the content of the game in his mind many times when he had nothing to do. Therefore, even if he started temporarily, his painting speed was not slow. After staying up all night, he completed all ten pages of paper.

At seven o'clock the next morning, he knocked on the door of his sister's villa and took a photo of the creative idea.

Oh Ethan - is this your inspiration? After reading the creative manuscript of Star Wars, surprise suddenly appeared on Evelin's pretty face.

Players control spaceships to fight against aliens?

Oh - why is your idea so similar to the story we talked about before?

Evelyn is not a fool, of course she can see that there is almost no difference between the storyline of Star Wars and the chat they had after watching the filming of Close Encounters of the Third Kind last summer!

Ethan went out and turned the previous story into a game?

What kind of brain is this!

Oh no!

What kind of movie is Star Wars!

Can Ethan turn a seemingly ordinary story into a game?

Evelyn was curious.

Yeah! This is the story we talked about before!

Ethan didn’t mean to hide anything, and said the words he had already prepared——

The content of the story we talked about at the beginning was not complete. It only had a rough context. Because the motivation was not clear, I did not make it into a game.

And this time I went to Los Angeles. After watching the movie Star Wars, the grand scene was like a clear spring, which made the whole dry story fuller.

So, it was born.

So magical? Evelin couldn't believe it.

Of course. Ethan nodded with a smile.

You must take me to see the movie after it is completed. Evelin said, I really want to know what kind of movie can inspire you like this.

No problem. Ethan agreed directly.

At the same time, he asked: Is this game difficult to make?

Yes, the difficulty of game production is what Ethan cares about.

Because this means how much time it takes to make a game.

As for this question——

Evelin looked at the idea and thought about it for a while, and then said: This idea of ​​yours is not as difficult as the previous Pac-Man, because in your design, the guardians played by the players and the aliens played by the AI The trajectory of his actions is actually fixed.”

The Millennium Falcon controlled by the player can only move horizontally and attack enemies from above.

The aliens controlled by AI can only try to break through the defense line from top to bottom.

They don't have more intelligent judgment, so in terms of production time...

It's probably only eight to 10 weeks.

Ethan liked this answer very much, In other words, it can be completed in mid-April?

If nothing else happens. Evelin added.

But before Ethan started to be happy, she added: However, eight to ten weeks is only an ideal state. If Stephen can participate and write the alien AI code with me, then I am confident Made this game in eight weeks.

But if I were to write it alone...

That would probably be more than ten weeks.

Although your idea seems easy, it still requires certain logical judgments. For example, the trajectory of the alien spacecraft will gradually change as the player destroys the number of alien spacecraft.

Just this one variable, I might have to write for days.

In the original game of Space Invaders, the designer's design of the alien spacecraft was actually very simple. At the beginning of the game, five rows of aliens would appear on the screen. As a group, they moved left and right to avoid player attacks while moving forward. hair. When they break through the player's defensive line, that is, when they reach the bottom edge of the screen, the game will end and the player's defense will fail.

In that game, the increase in difficulty is not obvious. Whenever the player destroys a certain number of alien spaceships, their running speed will speed up a bit. The specific manifestation is actually the same as Snake Here, there is no difference in whether the snake speeds up after eating a certain amount of food.

In Ethan's design, he made slight modifications to this monotonous setting of collective movement and only forward movement. When the same batch of alien spaceships are eliminated by players to a certain number, several of them will Break away from the large army and hit the player at high speed.

In this way, when players are playing, their thinking will not be solidified, and they will not suffer from mental fatigue after playing for a certain period of time just because the trajectory of each wave of enemies is the same. The sexual assault will keep the players' nerves in a tense state, giving them a sense of excitement. Of course, the source of inspiration is Little Bee.

Yes.

Ethan also learned from it.

It is precisely because the AI's trajectory also requires certain logical judgments. For example, the alien spacecraft launching the attack needs to lock the player's position, but the player's position is not fixed, so how to determine the location of the impact? This is what Evelin has to consider.

If it were mobile-locked like Pac-Man, the game would be dead.

Because no player can escape the precision guidance deployed by Super Target.

But if the coordinates of the player before the spacecraft impact are used as the impact standard, then it will be too easy for the player to avoid it. They only need to move left and right to avoid it at will.

When the obstacles designed by the designer do not bring any obstacles to the players, then the meaning of the existence of such obstacles is meaningless. Therefore, how to grasp a degree that can make players feel exciting but not directly end the game? This is the most important thing for a developer to consider.

And to solve this kind of thing...

It really takes time.

Therefore, when Evelin said that she needed someone, Ethan nodded without hesitation.

I have thought about this before, let Damio follow you.

Damio? Evelin thought for a moment and said, Have you verified his skills?

No. Ethan shook his head.

Then how do you know he can? Evelin asked.

That's a question Ethan knows, because he came out of Stanford.

“How did he get a degree if he couldn’t even write code?”

Okay, let's try it first. Evelin felt that there was nothing wrong with Ethan's judgment, but she also felt that when faced with such an emergency project, it might be better to let reliable people do reliable things.

If you can, you'd better call Stephen over.

His skills were able to ensure that the game was produced on time within two months.

Then……

I think our company needs a group of R\u0026D personnel.

Evelin blinked at Ethan and said, Do you understand what I mean?

Of course Ethan understands what his sister means!

He had the idea of ​​recruiting troops as early as last year and was ready to take action.

But why can't the plan keep up with the changes? Why do some things happen too suddenly?

Of course, these are all excuses now.

As the president of the company, he did not manage the company well.

I know. Ethan admitted his mistake, After I finish this time, I will pay close attention to the company's recruitment and form a dedicated R\u0026D team.

Because we not only want to make games, but we also want to make consoles.

As for why we are not recruiting now...

I think you can understand, right?

Mirova and Atari are here for us. If we recruit people on a large scale and start research and development at this time, then for them, this will be a signal to fight back. We cannot release such dangerous weapons to them. Signal, because this may make them more prepared, and at the same time, I am also afraid that they will take the opportunity to add people to our company.”

This consideration made Evelin nod slightly.

Then she winked at her brother again.

And that look made Ethan smile knowingly, Okay, okay.

Woz's side...

I'll go take a look.

In fact, when Ethan found out that he only had a few months for research and development, what he wanted to do most was to bring over Woz, who had mastered black technology.

He was hesitant before because he was wondering whether his call would interfere with Apple's research and development progress. But when his sister repeatedly said that things would go smoother with Woz around, Ethan no longer hesitated and went straight to it. I went to Cupertino, where Apple is located.

And when Ethan walked into the three-story Apple headquarters...

Only then did he realize that his worries did not exist at all!

Because after Apple was formed, Jobs and Woz all became hands-off shopkeepers!