Game Development Giant

"You will definitely have great achievements in action games in the future."

Jester first said something in a sighing tone, and then he changed his tone and said: "Okay, I am very satisfied with your answer to the second question, but these two questions are too simple. We need to be more careful. For something a little more profound, let’s use the two previous questions as examples. In fact, do you know why Capcom made these two settings?”

"Why are these two settings made?"

This problem makes Tomonobu Itagaki feel a little baffled, because Jester said it before, this setting is to give players a smoother feeling when operating, to offset the disadvantages in the design of this type of game. Is that unavoidable feeling of stiffness? Why am I asking myself such a redundant question now?

So Itagaki Tomonobu was stunned for a moment, then raised his eyes to look at Jester.

But he saw Jester still looking at him with the same sharp eyes as before, with a faint smile on his lips.

"There must be something I didn't think of."

For Jester, Itagaki Tomonobu has unlimited trust, because Jester is not only his first teacher in game design, but also the real top authority. However, it seems that this question is too difficult, Itagaki Tomonobu thought. For a long time, I couldn't think of any reliable answer.

"Okay, my time is limited today, so I won't let you continue thinking. I will simply tell you some of my previous experiences when studying Capcom's action games. For example, why Capcom is in The reason why so much effort has been put into the details of direction changes is that they want to give players an absolute advantage in this way.”

When he heard Jester say the words "absolute advantage", Itagaki Tomonobu's eyes suddenly lit up. He felt that he seemed to have seen something, but he always felt that there was still a layer of window paper blocking his face. . I can't always see clearly what is in front of me, I can only see a blurry shadow.

However, Jester did not give Itagaki Tomonobu time to continue thinking.

After a short pause, he continued: "For example, have you ever played the racing game "Rally Tour America" ​​produced by our company?"

Itagaki Tomonobu nodded. He had played this game before, but he didn't know why Jester suddenly asked this question. In his subconscious, it seemed that there should be no overlap between beat-'em-up action games and racing games. .

"Actually, in this game, during development, we applied this production concept to give players an absolute advantage. Although it is not obvious, you will find this if you play more, ai The absolute speed on a straight line is definitely faster than yours. Your "absolute advantage" is drifting in corners. You need some practice to drift in corners, but the process of this practice should not make people feel desperate. And in corners Tao drift can make people feel pleasure and pleasure.”

"The same is true for action games, especially our learning object, Capcom. Their understanding of this game concept is very profound in the production of action games."

After hearing what Jester said, Itagaki Tomonobu suddenly noticed the layer of window paper that had always been in front of him, and he didn't know when. Having been exposed by himself, he already understood the absolute advantage of players that Jester said. What exactly did he mean? Naturally, the change in his expression could not be hidden from Jester.

Therefore, Jester made an inquiry immediately.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes." Itagaki Tomonobu was a little excited and nodded without hesitation. He had indeed figured it all out just now.

"All Capcom flight action games, if you put aside all other elements, such as graphics, music, plot, just say one thing, running-------this is the 'absolute advantage', doing nothing, Just by running, you can feel the comfort and pleasure brought by the freedom of running. The enemy's blood is thicker than yours, there are more people than you, and the attack is higher than yours. You can defeat it in one or two hits. I'll kill you, but in front of your 'absolute advantage', you can only get beaten, and running doesn't require much practice..."

Facing Itagaki Tomonobu's talk, Jester nodded again.

"I'm really not wrong about you, Itagaki. Your talent in action games can be said to be the best among the people I have ever seen."

Jester said somewhat sincerely.

"This is the core element of Capcom's action game that we have analyzed. Other charging operations, delay operations, double-click operations, rhythm changes, move settings, or connections, or move movements The excavation, the coherence of the action, the number of action frames, whether the key frame performance is appropriate, whether the intensity of the action can be expressed through key frames, the beauty of the action, etc., are these things important? Of course they are important, but these , can be steadily improved through the accumulation of technology, and Capcom’s creative thinking will not be so easy to put in front of you if you don’t study it in depth.”

Facing Jester's teachings, Itagaki Tomonobu nodded sincerely again.

However, Jester's problems are obviously not over yet.

"Okay, my next question is, what do you think of bugs?"

"Bug? Needless to say, if it is discovered, it must be fixed as soon as possible. Otherwise, once it is released, won't it greatly affect the player's experience..." Faced with Jester's question, Itagaki Tomonobu answered almost without thinking, but before he could finish speaking, he raised his eyes and glanced at Jester. When he saw Jester's half-smiling smile, he felt that he seemed to have said something wrong. What.

But when he thought about it carefully, he found that there should be no mistakes in his answer.

Just when Itagaki Tomonobu was still a little confused, Jester spoke: "Itagaki, I remember that you like playing "Street Fighter" very much, right?"

Itagaki Tomonobu nodded. Indeed, he really liked action games and fighting games.

"Then do you know that there is a very famous setting in "Street Fighter", which did not exist in the original design idea. The reason why it appeared was because of a flaw in the system, that is to say , which is something that didn’t exist at the beginning of the design.”

But no matter what Itagaki Tomonobu thought, he couldn't figure out what Jester was talking about that didn't exist in the design idea of ​​"Street Fighter" at the beginning.

Jester didn't make things difficult for him, he just let him think for more than ten seconds. Seeing Itagaki Tomonobu shaking his head and saying that he couldn't think of it, Jester smiled and said an answer that surprised Itagaki Tomonobu.

"Actually, in the original "Street Fighter", the combo of jumping forward with a heavy hand followed by a standing heavy hand and then followed by Shoryu was a bug that did not exist in the design idea." This answer really surprised Itagaki Tomonobu. , he opened his eyes in disbelief, because he couldn't believe that the most attractive thing in "Street Fighter" was just a bug at the beginning.

"How can this be!"

Itagaki Tomonobu even screamed in disbelief.

However, Jester didn't seem to consider Itagaki Tomonobu's current mood. He bluntly told everything he knew about the game "Street Fighter". After all, he participated in the development of this game. , although he is not the main producer.

"It is indeed a bug, Itagaki. In the initial design of "Street Fighter", there was no such gorgeous combo setting. It is precisely because of the bugs in the system that some of the gorgeous and ornamental combos are made. Pleasant combos appeared, and we also found that players seemed to like this bug very much, so we added it as a real game design in subsequent games, instead of getting rid of it as you thought. .”

After Jester finished saying this, his words changed.

"Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Itagaki Tomonobu finally got out of a secret about the design of "Street Fighter" that Jester told him before, and heard the question that Jester asked him. He thought of what he said at the beginning, and understood what Jester had said. The meaning of ster.

"Boss, I understand. When we encounter some bugs, as designers, the first thing we have to think about is whether this thing caused by the bug that is not part of the design idea can make the game more fun. If it can make the game more fun, If it’s more fun, then we might as well regard it as a real game setting..."

Listening to Itagaki Tomonobu's answer, Jester couldn't help but nodded.

The reason why he wanted to explain this in particular is because there are too many interesting gameplays that have appeared due to bugs in the history of the game.

In Jester's memory, there are many others that he remembers. For example, in "Famous General", there is a very famous bug, where he punches to death, and was used in later Capcom action games. The infinite stepping in the masterpiece "Devil May Cry 4", these are the kind of bugs that are benign and interesting, but have a certain degree of difficulty and can enhance the game experience.

These bugs cannot be treated in the same way as other bugs.

This requires designers to examine and consider it themselves.

After finishing speaking, Jester looked at his watch and saw that the time was almost eleven o'clock. The morning was almost over, but he still had many things that he had not told Itagaki Tomonobu, a young man he was very optimistic about. clear.

But time is limited.

Jester could only talk long and short. (To be continued...)