Game Development Giant

In Jester's heart, whether it's the old top four or others, these are some very precious memories for him. They all belong to the period when his understanding of video games was still ignorant. Simple, just Judgment is made through the direct feeling of whether it is fun or not. It is essentially correct to judge the quality of a game simply by not being fun, which is too subjective, but sometimes, as mentioned before, for a game designer This simple way of judgment is not enough. For example, the dq mentioned before, is this game good? There is no doubt that a bad game can create an era of RPGs, can it become a national RPG, and is it even banned from being sold on weekends by Japanese regulations to avoid causing riots?

But such a work that is so popular in Japan has been ignored in Europe and the United States. Can this work be labeled as a bad work just because its sales in Europe and the United States are mediocre?

It's obviously impossible.

When a designer is designing a game, he needs to consider the target group, what type of games these people will accept, what kind of game experience they want, and what content they want to see in the game, such as Europeans and Americans like cars, guns and balls more, while Japanese people like more sophisticated Japanese RPGs. Although Jester has always called cars, guns, and balls the three major cancers, in his heart, this is just a joke that has become a habit. He does not feel that the plot is more like a game than mindless violence just for the sake of a cool car. Gunball needs to be high-end. These games, whether they are just for fun or Japanese RPGs with storylines, in Jester's mind, are just to bring happiness to the players who play this game.

It’s just that the audience is different.

Just like what Mr. Yamauchi of Nintendo said, games simply give people happiness.

That's why Jester asked people from the Japanese branch to actively recruit Hironobu Sakaguchi, a young man who has not yet shown his extraordinary potential in making games, because Jester knows that he has the ability to become a super-class gamer. The designer's potential is just like in history. At this time, he still needs experience. In the original history, it took three full years of failure before he understood how to make an excellent game.

But here, I believe that under his own guidance and the training of one game after another, he will mature in a shorter period of time. As for why Jester did this, in addition to his own love for the FF series, he also wanted to open up the Japanese market. Because only the Japanese can make Japanese-style RPGs that Japanese people like. Neither I nor designers like myself, who are mostly European and American, have the ability to make a Japanese-style RPG game.

Now that Nintendo has made a successful start in the Japanese market and has dominated half of Japan's home game consoles, what it is going to do is a challenger. Although it can make a side-scrolling game like Super Horse, Nintendo's games The development lineup is really too strong. Not to mention the game developers who are trying to cling to Nintendo's thighs, the six major game companies have R\u0026D teams covering almost all game types.

At this point, even if he has the ability to reach the sky, it is undoubtedly impossible to compare with it. Therefore, for Jester, he can only recruit those game developers who have not yet joined the Nintendo lineup, such as Glory. Jester had people recruit many of them who were still very young but had great potential in the future. Unfortunately, other than glory, there was no response.

Koei also agreed to port their "Nobunaga's Ambition" to the console that they will release in the next year.

This is also the first third-party game company to officially produce games for its own home consoles, and the only one so far.

Before he officially released his own console and proved that he could definitely succeed on home game consoles, Jester did not expect that those game developers would take the initiative to catch up, because this was a matter of course, and he still saw these things. It's very open, just like before Sony released the PS console, Ken Kutaragi personally went to ask a company to make games for the PS console, but was flatly rejected.

Are you angry when you are rejected? Jester doesn’t think so. After all, your verbal commitment cannot bring long-term benefits to the development of these games.

Although the greater the risk, the greater the reward, but gaming companies are not gamblers, they are capitalists, and it is impossible for them to give up the benefits they have obtained before they can clearly see that they can obtain greater benefits by participating.

Although Jester is also training his own game design team, Mars Entertainment has five or six completely independent R\u0026D teams, but these are still not enough, and the styles of these teams are mixed and they have not yet formed their own unique style. Their design styles, under such circumstances, are not suitable for them to separate and set up independent studios.

In other words, these people do not yet have the ability to independently design an excellent game.

Jester has already separated the game publishing rights of Mars Entertainment before, so now Mars Entertainment is actually just a game development company. The difference is that this game development company is bigger, and in Jester's In my eyes, a game development company that doesn’t need to publish its own games doesn’t need to be too big.

In his vision, the main body of Mars Entertainment will only retain three, and at most four design teams led by him alone to complete the games he wants to make, while the others will go out independently. A similar form is equivalent to the original Blizzard With Blizzard North, Mars Entertainment serves as the parent company, and these independent studios serve as subsidiaries. Of course, the heads of these subsidiaries are also game producers.

These subsidiaries, or independent game studios, except for the financial responsibility of the parent company, all other matters are handled by independent persons in charge. The parent company will not be involved in the specific affairs of these independent game studios, such as recruitment. What kind of personnel, what type of game to develop, what kind of content the game should have, Jester will at most give some suggestions on the game without directly intervening.

But of course, on the other hand, you have to be responsible for the quality of the game yourself. If the game is produced and fails to meet the requirements of the parent company, then the parent company will definitely not sell it to destroy the brand. The losses in research and development can only be covered by these The game studio is responsible for this.

Jester knows that truly successful game designers are very proud and independent. They regard their games as their own children. Under no circumstances are they allowed to allow other unrelated people to interfere - perhaps using children This title is not accurate. It may be better to use wife. No one likes to see his wife being touched by other people. This is an unforgivable violation.

And in Jester's memory, there are countless talented producers and their parent companies that fell apart due to one reason or another.

He didn't want that to happen to his studio.

After all, a thousand troops are easy to obtain, but a general is difficult to find.

This is actually a reference to the later Sony global studio plan. The studio is controlled by the parent company, but the profits are divided between the parent company and the studio in proportion. This also prevents outstanding designers from not getting the benefits of their works. Resentment in their hearts led to the idea of ​​​​leaving the company. Countless outstanding designers left angrily because of conflicts with the parent company over game revenue sharing.

For example, the two cod guys.

He doesn't want this to happen to his company in the future. The market for video games is so big that it's impossible for one person to have enough to eat.

However, if you want to go out independently and set up your own studio, you must prove your ability. And how can a game designer prove his ability? There is no doubt that it is to produce a best-selling game, and this can also be used as an incentive measure for one's own company in the future. Only the best teams can get funding from the parent company to establish their own studio.

After that, there was a matter of discussing profit distribution with the parent company.

Jester had mentioned this to Mark Saini before, and Mark Saini also agreed. He didn't think as much as Jester did. He just said it from the perspective of a game developer. A very simple truth: "No game designer wants to see the game he designed sell well without himself being able to benefit from it."

Jester also thinks that Mark Saini is right about this matter. There is no relationship in this world that is more solid than the binding of interests. Only when others can get benefits that are in line with their efforts when they rely on you can they be able to Let people continue to rely on you, and any other way to bind the relationship will be in vain.

Don't imagine that one person can eat for free while others will work for you for free. No one is a fool.

He pulled out a large pile of paper again, sorted out the plans he had written for the next step, put them in a folder, and then started his design for "Saloman Snake".

This is also his most important task today.

In fact, for a game that alternates between horizontal and vertical scrolls and has a lot of random elements, it is unrealistic to design the level directly. During the design, it is necessary to discuss it with the painter and the programmer, so Jester just While setting the framework of this game, he actually referred to some of the content of "Saloman" when designing "Dawn".

Regarding the weapon system, upgrade system, and monster settings in "Saloman Serpent", Jester didn't waste time thinking about it himself. It's not that he didn't want to, but that he didn't have enough time to redo these large-scale and highly unified styles. The setting is not something that can be done easily, it requires a lot of time. To save time, he simply copied the original setting of K Company.

Moreover, Jester really likes the heavy taste reflected in the setting of "Saloman Snake" by K Club.

When he first played "Saloman Serpent", the image of the creature's brain, the boss at the end of the first level, left a deep impression on him. While he felt sick, he also had a strange feeling. In his curious heart, the gorgeous and weird scene design with a bit of grandeur inspired Jester very much, and he had to admire the first-class designers in Japan at this time.

In this era, Japanese game designers are indeed much better than those in the United States.

Therefore, Jester does not intend to change the style and content settings.

The setting of "Salamander" is actually very high-end. The English name of Salamander is salamander. The meaning of this slightly lonely word is the elf representing the fire element in ancient European alchemy. The specific image is a lizard-like shape. Or lizard-like snakes with colorful spots on their bodies that emit flames and are born in high-temperature volcanic craters.

Such a setting can also give players who come into contact with him a sense of mystery from the beginning. You must know that the greatest original sin of mankind is curiosity about mysterious things.

ps: Soo was defeated by Taeja today, which is a pity. After all, he was a man with an aura of invincibility before the finals. I was looking forward to his road to the Six Asia Kings...

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