Game Development Giant

Later, legendary designer Sean Dabbili, one of the three production directors of "World of Warcraft", was interviewed by Fox. When he recalled this day, he laughed out loud, and then his famously arrogant personality appeared on his face. The designer has a rare expression of reverence.

His words changed from before and suddenly became very respectful: "Yes, that was the first time I met 'tyrant'. It is still so unforgettable when I think about it now. You know? It was only when he made "American Cube" Nineteen years old, he was still a student at UCL, and all of us were a little bit in disbelief! You know, all of us were his fans at the time!"

"Tyrant? Yes, that's the nickname we gave Jester at the time. He was easy to get along with when he wasn't working, and he spoke kindly... But he was very overbearing when it came to designing games, and basically went his own way. When discussing the design before development, Anyone can speak freely, and he listens carefully, but after the design plan is determined, he will never allow any individual to put forward different opinions, nor will he allow anyone to say, 'Sorry, I can't do it.' If you do that, he will tell you to get out without hesitation...He is a tyrant and a dictator in this regard!"

"Arbitrary? No, no, no. In fact, although we call him tyrant, it is just a joke in private. In fact, he has a real extra number in our Mars Entertainment - you know, he is a very special person. designer, he seems to have countless fantastic ideas in his mind. He can even be said to be the most special one. Mark Saini called him 'all-the-best', which later became the way we all regarded him. The title - it doesn’t mean smooth sailing, it just means literally: he is the best, the best of all!”

"Yes! I was greatly influenced by him. He is my life mentor. All my knowledge about how to design a game comes from him. He understood the game thoroughly when he was nineteen years old. Essentially, I still remember the scene at that time, and his speech was simply deafening to me, and it was simply the bible of game designers."

"It can be said without any hesitation that I, and even every designer who has come out of Mars Entertainment, are his students, and every one of them is no exception!"

Let's go back in time to the early summer of 1984.

Jester and Mark Cerney were playing "Mario Bros.," a still-frame puzzle game somewhat similar to "Donkey Kong."

This is a great game. Although the gameplay has not deviated from the static screen pass game defined by "Donkey Kong", it has the best graphics in this era, smooth operation and various joyful elements. , still attracted considerable attention in Japan.

I said earlier that this game is old-fashioned and not very popular, which is actually wrong.

"Mario Brothers" really didn't make any revolutionary innovations. It may be said to be old-fashioned, but it is not popular... Well, it can indeed be said that in the United States, but in Japan, this game caused a sales frenzy .

Because fc was so popular after its release that many stores were sold out. Many crazy players settled for the next best thing and bought the game "Mario Brothers" for comfort.

Hypnotize myself and I have fc!

This also produced a strange phenomenon at the time. At that time, FC only shipped more than one million units, but the game "Mario Brothers" sold a full 1.6 million units, creating a situation in the history of games. A unique event - the game actually sold more consoles.

So the playability of this game is still there.

There are some games that you find boring when you play them yourself, but they are very interesting when you watch others play them.

When Jester was playing "Mario Brothers" with Mark Saini, more than thirty new employees gathered behind the two of them, vying to watch.

They even put forward their own suggestions on how to get through here.

For most of them, fc is still very rare.

"This game is pretty good, very much like "Donkey Kong"."

"Well, it has many similarities with "Donkey Kong", but it seems to be more fun than "Donkey Kong"."

"I just saw the Japanese title at the beginning. This is a Nintendo game. Their games are all in this style. They are fun, durable, and interesting!"

"What! It's just that "Donkey Kong" has been reskinned. I've played "Donkey Kong" enough. What's the point of this game? Nintendo knows how to make a fool of itself, and one day it will end up like Atari."

Comments like this are common.

Until the end of the sixth level, when Mario controlled by Jester was killed, he gave a strange smile to Mark Saini and then immediately closed the game.

Mark Saini rolled his eyes when he saw Jester being so shameless. His twosomes can still play Louis!

At this time, just when someone was curious and asked why he didn't play, Mark Saini was the first to speak.

"This is the designer of "American Cube" and your boss, Jester Lee." Then he paused for a moment, showing a malicious look, "He is only nineteen years old this year, and he is still Study at UCL."

Then the entire audience burst into exclamations, and many people even looked at Jester Lee with suspicion.

They couldn't believe that such a great game as "American Cube" was only completed by a nineteen-year-old college student.

Jester could only look at Mark Saini helplessly and cursed secretly.

Then he said in person: "I am Jester Lee. As Mark just said, I am the author of "American Cube". In fact, this is just an idea that came from a sudden inspiration. Many of you have programming skills that exceed I, I believe, can also see that this game is not technically difficult.”

What he said made the more than thirty people nod silently. "American Cube" is indeed not technically difficult.

Although many of them are young, they are very experienced game designers. They know that in fact, the technical gap between each game company at this time is not particularly large-the most important thing about the quality of a game is to look at it. Its creativity is gameplay, not technology.

After all, no one can create high-pixel images now, and can only perform limited simulations on a two-dimensional plane.

The game "American Cube" is simply perfect in terms of creativity, gameplay, and even the setting of the easter egg.

It's enough to become a textbook example for game designers like them.

"You don't have to be so formal. We are a game company, not a professional law firm or a financial company. We don't have so many rules - sit down wherever you want. I just want to have a brainstorming session with you today to discuss how we can Make a good game.”

Jester looked around at everyone and started the topic he had prepared for a long time.

The question he asked was not a tricky one. In fact, this question has been continuously explored and summarized by all game designers since the birth of video games. However, so far, no one has been able to come up with a widely accepted answer. in conclusion.

After he asked this question, everyone began to speak freely.

There were all kinds of comments, but Jester didn't hear anything that went straight to the core. Most of them were clichés.

He clapped his hands as he listened a little uninterested, and the whole place fell silent and turned their attention to him.

"Then I will just say a few words, and you can take them as my thoughts when I was making "American Cube"."

Jester waved his hand and asked everyone to sit down.

He just stood up after playing the game and still feels quite tired. \u003cain)’s concluding remarks at the summit as his opening.

"I feel that if the most basic idea of ​​a game cannot impress people, then no matter how much energy is spent on it, it will not become a good game."

Then, Jester continued to speak.

"So, I think that a good game must have something that can move people - it can be anything, characters, plot, gameplay, graphics, or even music. You have to make this The buyer of this game feels like it’s worth the money I spent on this game, rather than having them think, oh, I just paid fifty bucks for a platinum-encrusted shit!”

This made many people fall into deep thought, but some also had confused looks on their faces. Among them was a young man with long brown hair and glasses who asked: "Boss, my name is Will Wright. I used to be an architectural designer, and I would like to ask, what you just said are very idealistic things, is there anything more materialistic?"

"Materialist?"

Jester smiled when he heard this, and then took a closer look at the young man named Will Wright. It overlapped with the image of a certain person in his memory. Then he thought for a moment and continued. .

"I have some ideas."

Then, Jester began to use his own words to shamelessly plagiarize the ‘Saini Theory’ proposed by Mark Saini in later generations and regarded as the Bible by countless game designers.

Mark Cerney will also rely on this theory in the future to win the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor for game designers.

Of course, this will be called ‘Jester Lee’s methodology’ from now on.

"Before I do this, I want to ask you a very essential question: Are you making a game or designing a game?"

This issue caused a lot of discussion among the thirty designers. These people all understand that production and design are words with completely different meanings, both superficially and internally.

Production is generally considered to be industrial products on the assembly line. They may be qualified, but they are the same and lack creativity.

Designs are generally considered to be finely crafted works of art. They may have strange shapes, but they are full of all kinds of whimsical ideas.

In other words, Jester's question is to torture these designers, what kind of mentality do you have when making a game.

I saw that almost everyone was discussing in low voices, but no one came out to answer their questions directly. Even the original author of this question, Mark Saini, was lowering his head and thinking silently.

Jester was not in a hurry, just smiled slightly and continued his question.

"Then let me ask a more direct question. If you have designed a game and it is 90% complete, and your feeling or the opinions of the trial players are that it is 'not bad', if it is done well If you release it immediately after finishing the game, you can earn money from fans, but the evaluation may not be too high. Then the question arises - are you going to rework this game and make it a classic that can be recorded in history? Or should we just complete the sale and earn back the research and development expenses first?"

As soon as Jester finished asking this question, the expressions on the faces of the designers instantly became dull.

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