Game Development Giant

"Disappointed?" Jester asked back, and then Lian Shan showed a faint smile, "Sakaguchi, don't you know that your game's global sales are far higher than those of "The Brave Fighter"? "Dragon" is much better?"

As he spoke, he pulled Hironobu Sakaguchi to the window. The Mars Entertainment branch was on the 20th floor. Looking down from the window, his eyes suddenly opened up.

"We have to look at the whole world. Although I want you to make games that Japanese people like, I don't welcome games that are too Japanese. Our games cannot go to extremes. I don't mean We also do game types, niche game types, but it’s about the style of the game.”

Hearing what Jester said, Hironobu Sakaguchi understood a little, but Jester had no intention of stopping. The reason why he didn't like "Dragon Quest" in his previous life was because of the regional stylization of this game. It's too heavy and he's not Japanese so he doesn't like the game.

Finally = None = Wrong = .s. Sakaguchi Hironobu did not tell his next plan, and Jester did not take the initiative to ask. Through "Final Fantasy", he has seen that an outstanding designer has matured. , as long as such a designer with extraordinary talent can correct his mentality, such good works will be released soon. But he also heard that Jester seems to be making a game by himself recently, without asking for help, and making it all by himself.

To be honest, the only game Jester has made independently is "American Cube", and the others were made by him as a producer.

so. People in the company are also very curious about this, and Hironobu Sakaguchi is the same.

"Do you have any plans recently? I heard..." So, Sakaguchi Hironobu took the initiative to ask, and Jester was stunned when he heard it, and then burst out laughing.

He smiled and said: "Many people have asked me recently, including Mark Saini, but I have always said it should be kept secret. Yes, I am indeed making a very special game during this time. A very special game. An RPG or an AVG game, or even a text adventure game is more appropriate to call it." There was no unpleasant look on Jester's face. He just laughed and said ambiguously: "I can't reveal the specifics. This game can only be said to be a whim of my leisure time. It is a very small game. It is like the previous ones. The game has no relevance at all. When I finish it, I will show it to everyone, but even if I say it now, it doesn’t mean anything.”

Hear Jester say nothing. Hironobu Sakaguchi rolled his eyes and said insinuatingly: "Then you can always tell me the name of the game!"

Jester naturally knows the purpose of Hironobu Sakaguchi. Some games can tell a lot from their names. But the name of the game he is currently making can't be seen from it, so Jester didn't have any scruples. He just smiled and put the name of the game he was secretly making on his own. The name was spoken.

"clannad."

Jester's voice was as ordinary as the word he said. Hironobu Sakaguchi repeated the word Jester said several times, but he couldn't find such a word in the vocabulary he mastered, so he Then he continued to ask with some embarrassment: "Can you spell it out?"

Jester was naturally able to meet Sakaguchi Hironobu's request, so he spelled out Clannad's subtitles.

It's a pity that Hironobu Sakaguchi still doesn't know what this word means.

"Actually, it's normal to not know what this word means, because it is not an English word in the first place." Seeing Hironobu Sakaguchi's embarrassment, Jester took the initiative to explain to him, "The meaning of this word The origin is a Celtic root word, a dialect of Scotland, which means family. In Old English, this word expresses the plural form."

"family?"

Sakaguchi Hironobu said what Jester explained in a daze, and then he thought about what Jester just said was an adventure game, so he directly guessed: "Is it a DND game?"

After hearing Hironobu Sakaguchi's guess, Jester smiled, then shook his head and said.

"no."

But Jester obviously doesn’t want Hironobu Sakaguchi to continue making mindless guesses like this, because if he doesn’t give some hints, it’s impossible for the other party to guess what this game is from the name, so Jester Simply say it directly.

"This is a very niche game. I don't think there are many people who like this game. And I haven't seen any similar game on the market."

Jester didn't want to go into too much detail about this game.

Hironobu Sakaguchi left after that, and Jester didn't come to Japan for a long time. In addition to trying to get Hironobu Sakaguchi out of his depression, the most important thing he wanted to do was to watch "Metal Gear Solid" produced by Hideo Kojima. 》This game.

For Hideo Kojima, Jester is very clear.

This is a very, very unique designer with his own style. Jester discovered this when working on "Fire Emblem". In fact, there is no need to work with Hideo Kojima. Jester should know this. In the world he knew well, Hideo Kojima was originally the most maverick.

It is precisely because of his completely different style from others that makes his game so unique.

When Jester was experiencing this version of "Metal Gear" in Hideo Kojima's studio, he saw and experienced what he remembered from this real first work of Hideo Kojima. The island style is exactly the same, but the game performance is slightly greener.

But this was his first game after all, so Jester didn't say much.

But after finishing playing, he put down the controller, clapped his hands vigorously, and said in an admiring tone: "It's really good."

Hideo Kojima just smiled shyly. It was a great honor for him to receive such praise from Jester. However, after Jester finished speaking, he paused. Then he said: "However, the style of your game is too prominent. I personally like it, but it does not mean that other people can also like it."

As he spoke, Jester hesitated whether to continue speaking, but finally said: "And on a 2D plane, your style is not attractive enough. If it is a 3D style, then you This hide-and-seek game experience is very rewarding.”

Hideo Kojima obviously considered this matter when he was designing the game. When he heard Jester talking about 3D scenes, he couldn't help but think of some of the things he encountered when designing the game, and then he also echoed it. Said: "Yes, when I was designing the levels, I was also thinking about how great it would be if this was a 3D scene. I could completely transform this game and increase the playability by at least ten times."…

Hearing this seemingly exaggerated statement, Jester felt that Hideo Kojima was not exaggerating at all, because he knew how well Hideo Kojima did "Metal Gear" after 3D technology matured. It can be said that Kojima Hideo's game style can only be used as a test of his skills in 2D, but 3D is his real stage.

Jester's time was very tight. On the last day, he went to Yuji Naka's studio. His "Phantasy Star" was at the slowest pace and might even be later than the originally scheduled date. More than a month.

However, here, Jester is not able to truly experience this game like he experienced "Metal Gear", because this game is still being produced in divisions, and it is not yet possible to combine all the division-produced things into one. A program that can run completely is still some way off.

However, in this game, Naka Yuji specifically demonstrated to Jester the dynamic scenes and CG that he mentioned in the development plan he sent to Jester. This is a very rare technology, and Jester is I considered it when developing "Fire Emblem", but in the end I concluded that it was not possible, but that it was a waste of time, so Jester gave up in the end.

Yuji Naka himself is a programming genius. When developing Fire Emblem, he was one of the main programs of "Fire Emblem". At that time, he wrote down the abandoned proposal and returned to Japan to plan "Phantasy Star". 》, he thought about it again.

Moreover, Naka Yuji, with full firepower, really used just a few months to solve this task that was considered extremely difficult by Jester's entire development team at the time.

After watching the demo shown to him by Yuji Naka, Jester had not yet seen the final product of "Phantasy Star", but by virtue of this, compared with the previous RPGs, this can be regarded as the progress of the times. Technically speaking, this game is absolutely impossible to fail.