Game Development Giant

"Sony has also announced that they will not give up."

Jester smiled and told Mark Saini that the break between Nintendo and Sony this time was beyond everyone's expectations. Anyone who is in the video game circle and knows a little bit about it is discussing it with his acquaintances. this matter.

Even late at night, Marka Seni, who was also working overtime, came to Jester's office with two cups of coffee and put one cup in front of Jester. He was tired from work and wanted to talk to Jester. Regarding the break between Sony and Nintendo this time, Jester also stretched himself when he saw Mark Cerney coming in. He is currently working on the framework of an RTS game that he has been conceiving for a long time, and there are many things to consider.

After much thought, he still gave up his idea of ​​borrowing the world view of "StarCraft" or "Warcraft". It was only temporary, because he felt that it was the first time to make an RTS game, regardless of his team's previous experience. No matter how rich and powerful the ability is, it is impossible to do your best when facing a completely unfamiliar type that you have never been exposed to before.

For Jester, who used to love RTS games, he really couldn't bear to destroy the two most magnificent monuments in the history of RTS games in his mind, so he chose a theme that was easiest to master. .

history.

The game that I drew inspiration from was, of course, Age of Empires.

Even for this game, Jester specially called in Sid Meier who was doing the final revisions and debugging for "Civilization". This game has been crafted by Sid Meier for nearly two years. , Jester has a very strong interest, and this "Civilization" is far richer than the first "Civilization" he remembered, whether it is in terms of system, gameplay, or game production. time.

It can be said that this game. It's almost Sid Meier's brainchild.

As for Sid Meier, Jester allowed him to spend two years to make this game that can only be released on PC, and because of the relationship between the game type and gameplay, the sales volume of the game will not be too high. I am grateful. Even during the two years of development, no matter how much development funds or technical support I applied for, Jester always approved it. I didn't even interfere with how I made the game.

For Sid Meier, making this game was extremely difficult. Halfway through the production, he even came up with the idea that it would be impossible for him to complete this kind of game. If Mars Entertainment had not made it for him, A lot of research and development funds have been invested in this game. If it weren't for Jester's respect and trust in himself, he might have given up the game long ago.

Finally, after two years of hard work, this game was released. Sid Meier has played his game countless times. Although due to some technical reasons, many of his ideas for this game have not been fully reflected in the game. Just completing this part makes me very satisfied.

It can even be said that he created a game that shocked himself.

When Sid Meier received a call from Jester. When there was a game that he needed help with setting up, even though "Civilization" was still in the final and most important stage of debugging, Sid Meier didn't even hesitate. He rushed directly from Los Angeles to Costa Mesa. Since he separated from Mars Entertainment and established a studio a few years ago, Sid Meier will come in every quarter except for high-level meetings. He stayed in the studio in Los Angeles and devoted himself to the development of the game.

In fact, Jester still admires the people under Sid Meier very much. As an American company, even if it is an emerging game development company where overtime is the norm, it has been developing for two years without holidays. process, almost as many as 300 days of overtime work every year, including working overtime until after 10 o'clock on Christmas Day. Under such intensity of work, Sid Meier's team can actually manage from the beginning to the present "Civilization" is basically complete, and it still maintains a personnel presence rate of nearly 90% or more.

This is very rare, and to put it bluntly, Sid Meier's personal charm is so powerful that it is impressive.

The setting draft that Jester was looking at just now was given to him by Sid Meier in the afternoon. It took Sid Meier three days to complete it. During these three days, he hardly slept a wink. , this kind of intensive work, when Jester asked, Sid Meier said that he was accustomed to it, and he had done this more than once during the two years of developing "Civilization".

These are all listed in accordance with Jester's requirements, some of the characteristics of various civilizations in history, architectural styles, units that can be gamed, etc., etc. Because of his experience in the design of "Civilization", for Sid For Meyer, writing such a manuscript does not require a lot of mental effort. In fact, these are almost all his accumulation in "Civilization".

And Jester is not worried that his players will think that his "Age of Empires" is a copy of Sid Meier's "Civilization". After all, "Civilization" is just a strategic war game, and "Empires" "Era" is a real-time strategy that has not appeared at this time - one is turn-based, and the other is real-time. Even the core game methods are different, so how can it be considered a replica?

Jester looked at Mark Saini who came to his room, said those words with a smile, then picked up the still steaming coffee, took a slight sip, and felt that the aroma was overflowing, and it seemed that it was not him. The kind of ordinary coffee prepared for employees to relieve themselves during the break.

Mark Saini smiled and said, "Lisa brought it back when she went to South America. Authentic Blue Mountain coffee." Lisa is Mark Saini's girlfriend. The two of them are engaged and preparing to get married next year.

"I think this Sony incident may not be a good thing."

Jester said thoughtfully.

"Isn't it a good thing?" Hearing what Jester said, Mark Saini was a little confused, because in his opinion, this was a good thing for them in every aspect, although they did not let go of Nintendo's strength. In their eyes, this is, after all, the replacement war of the next era. No one can predict the future battle situation. Being able to reduce one opponent is a good thing for them.

"Yes." Jester nodded, thinking about how to explain to Mark Saini.

After thinking for a while, Jester took another sip of coffee before continuing: "First of all, firstly, Nintendo may not withdraw from this next-generation competition. Secondly, I think this time Nintendo and Sony will fall out. On the contrary, it did Sony a big favor and gave Sony the most appropriate excuse to fully enter the gaming industry, their internal excuse."

"What's the reason?" Mark Saini frowned and thought for a while. He seemed to be unable to think of how to refute Jester's two statements. Of course, he might not even bother to answer these two statements, which can only be regarded as speculation. point of view, so he simply said this.

And Jester was not angry. He knew that Mark Saini was just joking. He pointed at his head, and then said with a relaxed smile: "It's just a hunch."

"I don't think you need to take it to heart."

It seemed that Mark Saini didn't care about Jester's worries at all. He laughed and said: "Whether Nintendo can continue to participate in this next-generation battle, I think it will not be difficult for us. , at least judging from our current market research, even Sega's MD console, which is currently performing extremely well in next-generation consoles, is far behind us in terms of research, let alone Nintendo. and……"

As he spoke, Mark Saini paused for a moment. He also took a sip of coffee, moistened his lips, and continued: "Moreover, even if the research cannot explain everything, then one person is far behind the third in terms of research. I don’t think there is any need to take the company too seriously.”

Mark Saini said these words very easily, and Jester was also unconvinced.

"Besides..."

It seemed that Mark Saini hadn't finished speaking yet. When he saw that Jester did not match what he had said before, he thought that what he said had not impressed him, so he continued: "Besides, even if Sony really wants to enter This industry is not too scary. It is no longer the game industry it was four or five years ago when it just experienced the impact of Atari. The game industry at that time was different from now. So what about Sony? PC- You have also seen the results of e. Nippon Electric is richer than Sony, and they also have the assistance of game developers with extremely strong development capabilities such as Namco and Hudson. In the end, they didn't even make waves, right? ?”

Jester still pursed his lips tightly and said nothing.

Mark Saini is still a little dissatisfied with Jester's mentality at this time. He really doesn't know what Jester is worried about. In his opinion, this time Nintendo will shed a layer of skin even if it is not dead, and as for Sony , even if they really roll up their sleeves, so what? Making games is not just about making game consoles. Maybe in the development of game consoles, they may not be as strong as Sony in hardware technology, but games are not just about hardware. . (To be continued...)