Game Development Giant

Compared with most game crowdfunding projects on Begong.com, the crowdfunding promotion of Koji Igarashi's "Bloodstained" is definitely generous.

First of all, in terms of time, the promotional live broadcast lasted for a long time. In the crowdfunding promotion live broadcast, players can not only see the crowdfunding promotional video shot by Koji Igarashi himself, but he himself also talks freely with many fans in the live broadcast room. Among these fans are many well-known game editors - some of them are genuine " A huge fan who grew up playing your games.”

Of course, there are also rising stars who have completed various metroidvania games together on the spot.

It may be necessary to explain here what a metroidvania game is.

For people who don’t know much about the historical development of video games, the metroidvania game may not be familiar or known.

Even if you look in a dictionary, you may not be able to find this word.

The reason is very simple. This is a coined word used specifically for video games. Those who know the history of video games may remember "Metroid", one of Nintendo's three treasures before the advent of PM. The name of this game is "Metroid", and Konami's legendary game "Castlevania" will also be very familiar. The English name of this game is "Castlevania".

The metroidvania game is a new word made up of the English words of these two games.

It can be understood as a game like Metroidvania - Castlevania.

It has the same meaning as what many players often say about Diablo games, which means that this game has created a new game type. Of course, this is just an example to facilitate understanding. Diablo games are diablo-like and metroidvania games. It doesn't matter.

This is a proper term in the gaming industry.

To put it simply, it is an act game with a little exploration, collection and development elements. To be more specific, it refers to a special type of game that adds RPG elements such as freely explorable 2D sandbox maps, equipment, props and ability upgrades to the traditional side-scrolling action game. This type of game, in the game market, is Extremely rare.

During the promotion of "Bloodstained", Igarashi shared in detail his ideas and creativity when designing "Castlevania", and gave a detailed forward-looking description of the game content of "Bloodstained" - this series of actions It not only evoked the memories of many old players, but also gave everyone full confidence in this game and attracted widespread attention.

From the first day the project was launched, the crowdfunding amount of Qiaofan.com has increased by leaps and bounds. In the evening of that day, even Sony personally sent a congratulatory wallpaper on its official Twitter and announced that the game would be launched on PSN.

Big money brings big profits, because the early rewards are rich, the crowdfunding goal is clear, and the expected quality of the game is high. "Bloodstained" finally raised 5.55 million US dollars-in fact, it is still the largest game crowdfunding project on Kickstarter to this day. one.

As a crowdfunding target, this game will be available on almost all current platforms, with extremely rich modes, including roguelike dungeons. Multiplayer online mode and who-knows-how three-player mode - Igarashi promises that they will all be made. Even so, many people think that the amount of crowdfunding is still too generous for a Castlevania game. Regarding this doubt, Jester can only say that since feelings are so valuable, then sincere feelings obviously have a higher value. Gold content.

Actually. It was Jester who thought of the two successful independent new IP crowdfunding projects of Keiji Inafune and Koji Igarashi that made him decide to actually build such a crowdfunding website, which would not only assist many new The producers were able to complete some of their existing creative ideas, of course. It also allows top producers who want to be truly independent to get the best sources of funding.

After all, it doesn't matter how you invest. Investors all want a share or a proportion of the copyright.

There is no need to worry about the funds obtained through crowdfunding, because this is just a group purchase similar to a large discount in advance. Players who participate in crowdfunding can only get a game at a lower price, but not To share the profits after the successful development of the game, as well as the IP version of the game.

This is of course very tempting for any aspiring producer, and that's not all Jester had in mind.

Game development is, after all, a business activity.

Investment is required and employees need to be paid. Like other R\u0026D projects, if the products produced do not receive the previously expected benefits, then the project may not continue.

At that time, game development was completely different from other product development.

A game, to a designer, is his or her own child. Naturally, the designer is extremely concerned about the future of this game.

And crowdfunding sometimes gives niche games a way to survive.

Sometimes, the failure of a game is not only due to quality issues, but also due to the audience, the market, and various other reasons that lead to the final failure of a game, but it may be that the game’s The quality will be very high. There are too many examples of this in history, for example, Jester’s current copycat of “Planescape: Torment” and the studio that produced this game.

Black Island.

It is precisely because of thinking of this that Jester's determination adds a second heavy code to the scale of the crowdfunding website, because crowdfunding can still make players extremely want it many years later. What you want to play is that the game series that died due to various reasons is resurrected.

Among them, this is crucial for American RPGs.

Because, in a few years, with the advent of new consoles, Japanese RPGs will have an unstoppable trend and will leave no trace of American RPGs behind. Even with "Baldur's Gate" and "Planescape: Torment" "There is no way to save this masterpiece. This is the choice of the times, just like the 3A-level 3D sandbox game eventually replaced the Japanese RPG to dominate the video game world.

They are all choices of the times.

However, there are still many fans of this type of game, and they are extremely eager to play "Baldur's Gate 3", but unfortunately, Black Isle is no longer available.

However, when everyone gave up on this, Begif.com was born.

Many people are talking about the sentiment of "Shenmue 3" on the begging network. In fact, American RPGs have been selling emotions on the begging network much earlier than Japanese producers. Among them, Keiji Inafune, Koji Igarashi, and Yu Suzuki Before selling feelings, they have already started their feelings.

Except for the crowdfunding legend Ouya a few years ago, a console game development plan based on mobile systems, the three giant crowdfunding projects in the past were these three projects: "Tribulation: Tides of Numera", " "Eternal Plan" and "Wasteland 2", these three games are all American RPGs, that is, the three major American RPGs such as "Genesis", "Witchcraft", and "Magic Gate" and "Border" "Gate", "Planescape Torment" and American RPG games such as "Icewind Dale".

Speaking of these three games, we naturally have to talk about Black Island Studio and Interplay, and the era when European and American RPGs came out together.

Whenever we talk about the destruction of Black Island, everyone always sighs for a while and laments the golden age. Although it seems that Europeans and Americans are still lagging behind the Japanese in making games, European and American RPGs that have inherited the core spirit of trpg are already amazingly awesome. Many works from that time are still unsurpassed by others. The combination of bioware and black-isle almost represents the highest peak of European and American RPGs.

Although they lost to the Japanese in the market at that time, without their extremely creative games at this time, European and American manufacturers would not have completely defeated Japanese game manufacturers later.

Of course, how Black Island left "Fallout: Van Buren" to end with hatred, and how Interplay was so embarrassed and sick that he rushed to seek medical treatment at that time. This story is not within the scope of Jester's recollection. The protagonist here is someone else after Black Island. Another company founded by the core staff: Obsidian Entertainment.

Many people may still remember the game "Alpha Protocol".

This is an early experimental work of Obsidian Entertainment, in which the exploration of RPG performance mode influenced New Vegas. While Alpha Protocol showed ambition, it also exposed Obsidian's technical shortcomings. These qualities have also continued in New Vegas, but Jester will not have in-depth memories of Obsidian Entertainment's ups and downs.

I can only briefly say that for a long time, Obsidian has been undertaking sequels everywhere. Although there have been many excellent works during this period, there is only one independent brand of its own - the experimental work "Alpha Protocol", which always seems a bit... Displaced. Most of their games before 2010 were related to bioware. It was not until 2010 that Bethesda used their technology to allow Obsidian to create "Fallout: New Vegas" based on the immortal Black Island Soul, which made a The gangster RPG veteran was so happy that he was foaming at the mouth, and then he straightened up in a real sense.

It is worth mentioning that Obsidian's "Fallout: New Vegas" is a better work than B's own "Fallout 3". There is no doubt about this.

The quality of this game is terrifyingly high.

You can even bluntly say that this game is the pinnacle of wrpg games.

Even Jester doesn’t know whether Bethesda’s own “Fallout 4” can reach the heights of Obsidian’s “Fallout: New Vegas.” (To be continued...)