Game Development Giant

The scoring mechanism of "Game" was set by the magazine based on Jester's suggestion, and Jester's reference was "Famitsu", Japan's largest game magazine in later generations.

However, the details of the rating rules of "Famitsu" have never been announced to the public, so apart from the fact that four editors rate a game, and then add the ratings of these four people to get the result, there is nothing good. For plagiarism, Jester likes this scoring method, but is not very interested in the way that European and American websites later gave points for images, music, plot, etc., and then scored them on a ten-point scale.

Because this scoring method is too rational, and whether a game is excellent or not cannot be judged rationally.

There is only one reason to judge whether a game is good or not, and that is whether it is fun. Everything else is decoration based on fun. Jester agrees with Nintendo's game philosophy and always puts gameplay first. One person.

But Jester also believes that while the game is fun, a responsible manufacturer should also improve other aspects of the game to a level that can match this game. Always use graphics that are one era behind, even if your gameplay is world-class. Being invincible also makes players unhappy, especially when other manufacturers are slightly inferior in terms of gameplay, but the graphics will blow you away ten times in an era. Therefore, while the graphics of other game companies have reached the level of immersion, your graphics are still at the level of polygonal mosaic. Apart from true love and religious fans, Jester really can't think of any other reason that can drive these people to buy your game.

In the same way, the quality of a game has nothing to do with the quality of its graphics, because these are just some embellishments, so Jester is very annoyed when someone says a game is not good and asks him why it is not good. When talking about it, he said that the picture was too bad.

At that time, the graphics level of "Gu Jian Qi Tan" reached the level of Square FF10 nine years ago, but what about the gameplay? Needless to say, domestic games like "Gu Jian Qi Tan" boast excellent graphics. Even among the domestic games of the same era, can any of them even scratch the surface of the gameplay that was achieved when Japanese manufacturers were at their last peak nine years ago? ? By the way, "Gu Jian Qi Tan" is at 720p resolution, the effect is fully turned on, and the share of i7 is as high as over 70%. I said that the graphics can be compared with Square's ff10, but I just said that the CPU is higher. The simulation effect is more realistic with computing power. But compared to the pure art, it is really worse than Square 20 blocks... Why? It's very simple. Just look at what the hardware was like during the "Gu Jian Qi Tan" era. What level of hardware was the PS2 hardware during the FF10 era?

With hardware capabilities that are dozens of blocks beyond others, we can only make something similar to others. It’s not even as good as the graphics performance. It has to be said that the quality of domestic game developers is really not just as simple as game planning. Artists are not just able to draw a few original paintings and a few modeling drawings. Artistic. In the game industry, not to mention Europe and the United States, even compared to Japanese manufacturers who consider themselves five years behind Europe and the United States. There is also a gap of at least nine years.

This is still a conservative estimate.

Of course, what Jester couldn't understand the most at that time was what era it was in. Japanese RPGs had been beaten by European and American RPGs for many years. Domestic game developers were still producing turn-based game models that were reversing the course of history. For games, if Japanese manufacturers insist on making turn-based RPGs, it is because the entire Japanese RPG system, gameplay, and system are all based on turn-based games. They have accumulated countless development experience in this system and have a large number of local players. If this mode is supported.

But why do domestic manufacturers still insist on making only turn-based stand-alone RPG games? You know, the turn-based system is just a system that the original designers made compromises because the real-time system could not meet the design effect. It is not that this system is so superior, it is just because it is a last resort.

Ning Yuan being an eunuch rather than being a normal person is also the coolest idea of ​​some manufacturers.

In addition to this sample issue of "Game" on the table, there is also a document sent by Sega.

The research and development of "Hang-on" has been completed, and the hardware research and development team dispatched by Mars Entertainment has successfully participated in the development of the entire game. Sega has given high praise to the level and ability of these people. Of course, this is all Because Jester sent the game plan of the chef game "Cooking No Ichiban" to Sega more than two months ago, which he had perfected and designed based on the later Cairo game "Manga Oku no Hosomichi". reason.

Nakayama Hayao was very fond of this unique game designed by Jester. As soon as he saw the project, he called Mars Entertainment and asked Jester when to start production and how long it would take to complete it. , so that Sega can cooperate with the promotion.

The reason why they can't wait is because the sales of the new eight-bit host master-syste, which they just released and was re-developed based on the sg-1000, are too bleak.

It’s not because of functional issues. The performance of the master-system is much better than that of Nintendo’s fc. Even if it is better than Mars Entertainment’s dreambox, it is only not as powerful as the dreambox with dual PPU architecture in terms of picture processing, but it is not as powerful in other aspects. Not inferior at all.

But whether a game console can sell games depends entirely on whether there are excellent games on this platform. Sega's level of home game development is far inferior to their arcade game development. Needless to say, the quality of their home game console games It is far inferior to Mars Entertainment or Nintendo, even compared to the large number of third-party platforms attracted by Nintendo's royalty plan.

The most critical point is still here. Jester can't find any third-party game manufacturers in Japan because his game console has not been officially released in Japan. These Japanese manufacturers are worried about whether Mars Entertainment can compete in Japan. Nintendo is worried about whether their works can be accepted by American players. However, what is strange about Sega is that they have not actively looked for any third-party manufacturers to make games for them except Jester. Even Jester Special, also because the previous agreement only made this one.

Jester also has information about this period of history in his own memory.

Many people say that Sega's failure in the eight-bit console was due to its lack of attention to third-party manufacturers. After all, Nintendo's royalties had just been implemented in 1985 and were far from the authority they later had. However, at this time, Sega It has never taken the initiative to win over a third-party manufacturer. By the time Sega realized the importance of third-party manufacturers, the situation was over. The alliance formed by Nintendo relying on Super Horse and royalties was already unshakable.

Without excellent games to support it, it is inevitable that the sales of the master-system will be low. For this product that Sega has high hopes for and invested a lot of money in research and development, Sega obviously does not want to give up as soon as it is launched. Although there is now a plan within Sega to start the development of the next generation of consoles, that is, 16-bit consoles, as soon as possible, because both senior executives like Nakayama Hayao and R\u0026D cores like Suzuki Yuu understand that in the era of eight-bit computers, they will If you lose the first move, it will be difficult to compete with Nintendo or Mars Entertainment.

However, it is difficult for them to accept just giving up the master-system that has just been released, and the one-million-sales game that Jester promised has become the last straw they saw. , in the eyes of these people, as long as their share can be increased, they can still recover their R\u0026D investment from the master-system.

Faced with Nakayama Hayao's inquiry, Jester did not hide anything. He gave a clear reply. In a short period of time, he did not have time to develop two projects at the same time. The development of "Fire Emblem" made him more focused. He is exhausted, and Mars Entertainment has too many projects of its own and is seriously short of manpower, so he will not start the game "Cooking No Ichiban", at least until "Fire Emblem" is officially released.

After hearing Jester's reply, Hayao Nakayama pondered for a long time. It was difficult for Sega to wait until "Fire Emblem" was officially released before starting production. After all, they were in urgent need of an excellent game to reverse this situation. This is a situation where sales are bleak. If you wait until the end of "Fire Emblem" to start research and development, it will be next year until it can be officially launched. By that time, other markets dare not say that, at least in the Japanese market, master-system will be completely dead. .

It is precisely because of this that Hayao Nakayama had to come up with a compromise plan. Can Jester be the producer, but Sega can produce the people on the R\u0026D team, and even the development location can be in the United States.

Jester did not immediately agree when he heard this suggestion. It was not because he meant to embarrass Sega, but because the progress of "Fire Emblem" was very fast at that time, and he really couldn't squeeze out the time, so he could only say that it would be a while. He is making decisions about what is feasible or not feasible based on the situation.

Nakayama Hayao had no choice but to compromise.