Game Development Giant

However, the negotiation with Ubisoft will have to wait until he and Claudia return from that country, so there is no need to rush it.

Taking advantage of Claudia's handover of things in the past few days, Jester also wanted to take care of some things, not personal matters, but some official matters. In fact, he was discussing with Claudia a few years ago about setting up Mars Entertainment. When he was in the European branch, he planned to do it, but because he was pressed for time and was in a hurry when he left, he couldn't do it.

In the past few years in Los Angeles, he didn't have time to come to the UK often. Even if he came, it was only to get together with Claudia for a short time and then return immediately.

Games Workshop, or games-workshop in English, is now a well-known studio in the UK. Its most famous product is, in the eyes of some game enthusiasts, a world rules system that is comparable to the DND rule book, Warhammer. .

Jester originally wanted to poach the designer who had completed the Warhammer setting in this company from Game Workshop.

Although this plan was successful, I found out through inquiry that the idea of ​​​​the Warhammer world structure has actually been produced within Game Workshop for a long time. He is only one of those who participated in improving the world structure. Although he is the more important one, , is just one of them.

Seeing that he had no way to incorporate the rules of Warhammer like the rules of DND, Jester was still a little regretful, but his hard work could not be said to be in vain. After all, the designer he hired , even in my own company, the world view structure of participating in various games is very outstanding.

Game Workshop was established very early. In the earliest days, they were just a manufacturer of tabletop games, producing miniature models commonly used in tabletop games.

As more of this kind of miniature model was produced, the designers of this company also became interested in the rules of tabletop games, or they had some opinions of their own. They felt that the dnd rule book was too conservative, and the real The fun tabletop game rule book should be a little more radical.

This radicalness is equivalent to the fact that the DND rule book always stubbornly limits its background to the middle world or the world described in Tolkien's novels. There are only dragons and magic or princess dungeons, in the eyes of these young and outstanding designers from Game Workshop.

Why is it like Asimov, like Heinlein, like Frank Herbert, like Howard Philip Lovecraft, like Mike Moorcock, like a lot of baroque and surreal The art of ism is like the historical descriptions that many players like to see, such as the two world wars. Victorian Britain, the Roman Empire, the Inquisition, Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union and so on.

Why can't these things be added together like the middle world of DND to create a diverse world and formulate a brand new rule book?

Warhammer World Thoughts. That's how it came about.

When Jester wanted to recruit people from Game Workshop, they had already started working on the Warhammer world architecture, which was a very complicated task. It may take a long time, and many of Game Workshop's designers even complete this work in their spare time.

It wasn't until 1987, more than two years ago, that the first edition of the Warhammer rule book was officially released.

In such a new world they call Warhammer.

It reflects that history often spans thousands or even tens of thousands of years. Active among the grand and desolate backgrounds are the battle nuns with strong medieval Gothic style; the Chaos Legion deeply influenced by the post-war Western apocalyptic plot; the hip-hop and hip-hop of black North American people. The greenskins influenced by street culture; the Eldar, who are like the projection of elegant elves in the fantasy setting; the Imperial Guard, which is loved by military fans and World War I history fans; and the Tyranids, which pay tribute to the aliens, and the Oriental-colored T’au Empire, droid style Necron.

This mixture results in this fictional galaxy becoming an entirely separate entity, with each side being evil, at most, in varying degrees. For example, the Human Empire is often considered to be the "just" side. Although there are many good people within it, as a whole, it is a militaristic and extremely corrupt empire. However, from another perspective, it is better to work all day assembling a rifle than to work all day and then be killed by aliens.

Originally they didn't have much idea about the hodgepodge game rule book they produced, but many board game players who were tired of playing DND saw this for the first time, even if it was even better than the DND rules. When I saw a new rule book with a completely different style, I immediately fell in love with it.

Then, Warhammer sold like crazy in the UK.

Recently, the Warhammer rule book was officially released in the United States, which caused a huge response. Even the most experienced DND enthusiasts could not find any major faults in the Warhammer rule book.

Naturally, many game companies have already taken advantage of the DND rules. Of course, they have seen new business opportunities from the Warhammer rules.

Jester is no exception.

EA had discussed with Game Workshop before about acquiring the copyright of the Warhammer rules. Moreover, according to the information obtained by Jester's own channels, EA offered a very high price, more than five million US dollars. You know, This is just a new rule that has just been released for more than two years.

Although he now has many supporters.

But this is also a new rule.

As a result, Game Workshop refused without hesitation, and they even refused very decisively. They were not bargaining at all. They called Warhammer their child, and they would never sell it no matter how much money they paid. .

Such attitudes and statements immediately frightened many other game companies with ulterior motives or different intentions.

Of course, they sneered at Game Workshop's statement that they would not sell it for any amount of money. In their view, there was no such thing in this world that they would not sell for any amount of money. The only reason why it would not be sold was One, that is, the money paid is not enough.

Jester thought so too.

So he wants to give it a try - for him, money is not an issue, and of course, he doesn't want to be taken advantage of. It is true that the Warhammer rules will be valuable in the future, but it does not mean that he will be worth the future price now, and , in Jester's heart, the current situation of Mars Entertainment is already very good.

He only needs to slowly digest the part of the market he currently occupies and stabilize the control of the World Electronic Games Association over the world's electronic games industry. Then he is not so urgent about whether he owns the Warhammer rule book. All he wants is It would be enough to get the authorization from Game Workshop to make a game based on the Warhammer rule book.

Game Workshop took Jester's request to meet him very seriously.

Their influence in the tabletop game field in Europe is very large, but in the field of electronic games, they are just a small and insignificant company. Even saying it is insignificant is a bit exaggerated. The number of video games they have produced so far is equivalent to one You can count them on one hand, and the sales are not that great.

It's not that they haven't thought about making a game with a Warhammer background, but the problem is that they are not willing to just make a simple game, but if they want to make a masterpiece like "Genesis", they are afraid of the Warhammer background. The current audience is too small. You must know that to produce such a large-scale production, a lot of money needs to be invested.

If you fail, you will lose a lot of money.

Therefore, they have been hesitant about making games with Warhammer background. Although EA immediately made a request to make games using Warhammer rules after the acquisition failed, although Game Workshop was very interested, but They were also worried that if the first Warhammer game failed, it would destroy the future of the rule book in video games.

Just at this time, they received a call from Mars Entertainment.

On the phone, people from Mars Entertainment said that Jester Lee, the best game designer in the world, and all the games he participated in were high-quality, that legendary figure in the video game industry was very concerned about their Warhammer rules. Interested, he wants to meet your people.

Even, in order to show his sincerity, Jester can even come to the UK to have further discussions with you.

As for whether Jester is interested in the copyright of Warhammer, or if he just wants to make a game based on the Warhammer rules, Mars Entertainment did not say clearly. Although Game Workshop asked, Mars Entertainment's reply was that this was done by Jester It was decided by Mr. Jester Lee. They just conveyed Mr. Jester Lee's words.

The meeting place agreed upon by Jester and the people from Game Workshop was at the Four Seasons Hotel in London.

This is also the hotel that Jester booked when he came to London this time. Although he has been staying in Claudia's manor, he wanted to meet some people, so why couldn't he be in Claudia's manor?

Although Claudia didn't have any objections, Jester couldn't help but have his own objections.

The people from the Game Workshop arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel's coffee shop very early, where Jester had already reserved a seat. As soon as they arrived, the staff of the Four Seasons Hotel immediately led them to Jester to reserve a seat.

Jester didn't arrive that early, but he wouldn't be late either.

It’s just that the people from the Game Workshop came too early. (To be continued...)