Game Development Giant

Jester heard an interesting story at Fengxing Entertainment, a place he hadn't been to for a long time.

Recently, one of their departments that accepts letters from external third parties received a very special package. In fact, regardless of everything else, this is just a very simple package for submission. Inside is the designer's name, address and The games they deliver.

Jester knows that there are actually many hidden talented designers in the United States, and there is no sound video game talent selection mechanism in the United States like in Japan, so in order to get rid of these hidden among private enthusiasts After finding Mercy, the other party launched this department to specifically accept submissions from these people. If the game is really good, then he will buy it out and give a share.

So far, in addition to Kashen, who has long been incorporated by Jester, there have been four personally produced games released through Fengxing Game Publishing Company. The most popular one has sold nearly 100,000 copies, and these people They all accepted Jester's invitation and joined Mars Entertainment.

However, this time the submission is a bit special. According to the review opinions of the review department, this game is pretty good. Logically speaking, it cannot meet the conditions for release. However, what makes them hesitate is because they made this game. The game called "Crazy Skiing" was created by two middle school students who had just entered middle school. "Two children of twelve or thirteen years old?"

Jester was quite surprised when he heard the news. He didn't think it was incredible that a child at such a young age could make excellent games. After all, there were examples of lag gods, but he felt that this was the case. Why do geniuses always hit themselves on the pole?

So Jester decided to see what the merits of the game created by these two twelve-year-olds were like.

Then make your own decision.

Originally, the department accepted the opinion and could proceed with the next step of cooperation with these two children, but it required approval from the superior department.

It happened that Jester came to the company today, so this matter was reported to him. After all, when it comes to whether a game has potential, there shouldn't be anyone with Jester's ability in the entire world.

This game runs on an Apple II computer, presumably. It is impossible for independent designers in this era to purchase expensive development machines to develop games for home game consoles, and even if they develop games, it is difficult to get the opportunity to sell them. Instead, it was developed on popular personal computers like the Apple II, which was very popular among these young first-generation developers. Of course, Fengxing Game Publishing Company not only publishes home console games from Mars Entertainment, but they also sell P games.

Jester inserted the floppy disk into an Apple computer and began to try out the game.

Half an hour later, Jester left the keyboard, and the slightly cartoonish game called "Crazy Skiing" was still flashing on the computer screen, and on Jester's face. But he showed a smile.

He picked up the phone and simply said: "Send the information of these two developers."

Not long after, after reading the information sent by the staff of Fengxing Games Publishing, Jester showed a look of surprise on his face. In fact, when he saw the two middle school students in the information, they were only 12 or 13 years old. When they had a company called Jam Software, Jester immediately realized that he seemed to have found a treasure. Sure enough, when he saw the names of these two people, he was even more sure that he had really found a treasure. .

Jason Robin and Andy Gavin, these are the names of these two twelve-year-old middle school students, their other identities. It was exactly what Jester remembered, the founder of the future famous Naughty Dog.

Jester had indeed never heard of this game called "Crazy Skiing", and he didn't know whether the two of them had ever produced such a game in their original history. However, after Jester tried it, he saw the talent of these two young people in the game. Although only from the perspective of the game, this can only be said to be a barely qualified rating. game.

Therefore, the previous evaluation made by the company that it cannot be issued is also very reasonable.

But considering that these are just two young people, if it were up to Jester to decide, he would give these two people a chance. This is not because he knows how great these two people will be in the future, but because he really never The talent of these two people can be seen in this slightly rough game. You know, this game was made by two kids who were only twelve years old. They do even better than the adults.

Jester personally dialed the contact number left in the package.

The voice of a mature man answered the phone. When he heard Jester saying that he was looking for Mr. Jason Robin and Mr. Andy Gavin who produced the jam software of "Crazy Skiing". There were shouts and screams immediately on the other side of the phone. Within a minute, a childish voice that could easily be identified as a child came through the phone.

"Hello, I'm Andy, Andy Gavin!"

From the child's voice, Jester could clearly hear a hint of anticipation amid the excitement.

"Hello, Andy, I'm Jester Lee from Fengxing Games..." Jester felt that it would be better for him to introduce himself first, but as soon as he said his name, he could call from the phone An obvious cheer was heard at the other end, and there was an incredible smell in the voice. And after the cheers ended, Andy Gavin continued to scream.

Jester could vaguely hear Andy Gavin's voice on the phone, as if he was shouting to his father: "Dad, dad, it's Jester Lee's call! It's Jester Lee. phone number!"

After nearly a minute, Andy Gavin seemed to remember that there was someone on the other end of the phone. He quickly shouted into the phone receiver urgently: "Li, Li, are you still there? I'm your fan!" I’ve played every one of your games!”

Naturally, Jester would not hang up the phone. When he heard Andy Gavin’s words, he just smiled and said, “Thank you, thank you for your support, but I didn’t call you today just to know that you are me. fans, although this excites me, the reason I am calling you is to tell you that your game "Crazy Skiing" is well made. After trying it out, I feel that you two are very talented in designing games. , so if possible, can you please come to California, to the headquarters of Mars Entertainment, I want to have a detailed and serious talk with you..."

This time it was the same as last time. Before Jester could finish speaking, Andy Gavin's exclamation came from the other end of the phone again. His tone this time was even more shocked and incredible than before. , "Is it true? Can I go to the headquarters of Mars Entertainment? Can I see Mark Cerny? Can I see Sid Meier? Can I see you?"

Jester said yes, yes to this series of questions without hesitation.

Many things cannot be discussed over the phone, so Jester did not talk too much about their games with Andy Gavin on the phone. Obviously, although Andy Gavin is very interested in their games, He is also very interested in things, but this interest seems to be far behind his interest in his idol. He has been dragging Jester to ask questions, asking some questions he encountered in the game, some even some Very interesting bug.

However, Jester just smiled and said about the so-called bugs in the game discovered by Andy Gavin: "Gavin, in fact, if you come to our company, you will clearly understand these problems. Some talented designers like to work in In the game, you can reflect your own understanding of the game. Some programmers do the same. They will sign some programs. How will the game programmers add their own marks to the games they write to show that this is what I wrote? ? They will deliberately leave some interesting bugs in the game that do not affect the game. These bugs are all kinds of weird and include everything..."

The phone conversation lasted for a long time, and Jester finally hung up the phone because he had something urgent to do and needed to leave.

The moment Jester hung up the phone, Andy Gavin still had a look of extreme surprise on his face. It took him a minute or two to recover from this look, and then he put his hand He threw the phone receiver that he was holding tightly to the side, and then he jumped up suddenly as if out of control, shouting while jumping, his face full of undisguised excitement.

After venting his emotions like crazy for several minutes, Andy Gavin seemed to remember what he had not done, and then he slapped himself on the head, "Oops! I forgot to notify Jason!"

While roaring like this, he hurriedly picked up the phone receiver he threw out from the ground and broadcast a phone number.

Maybe it was because I slept too hard last night, but the voice on the other end of the phone was still a little sleepy.

"Andy, what are you talking about on the phone? Didn't I tell you that I had to stay up late yesterday to solve a technical problem...what!" He must have heard some extremely critical words from the phone, and he was still drowsy. Jason Robin's eyes widened immediately, but his eyes were full of disbelief, "You said just now that Jester Lee, the greatest game designer in the world and my only idol, called you I got a call and asked us to go visit Mars Entertainment, and damn, you actually chatted with my idol for an hour without even being sure to call him over!"

At the end, Jason Robin's tone became less polite.

It could be seen from his almost hysterical roar that he was in a very bad mood at this time.