Game Development Giant

Almost all online forums related to the game are discussing "Foreign Land: Requiem".

And pretty much everyone talking about this game.

They all used words like great or masterpiece to express their praise for this game. In the evening, after Jester hung up the phone about the first-day sales of Fengxing Publishing, he also appeared on several boards. A forum that was relatively famous, had more players, and was usually quite lively, he lurked and observed it. When he saw these comments, he was still a little proud of himself.

But soon, he felt that he was not generous enough.

This game was originally going to be the pinnacle among similar games in the future, and now it is well received. It is natural and natural. There is no need for you to be complacent when you see some expected things. This is completely unnecessary.

Sales on the second day were much hotter than on the first day. Although the specific sales results could not be calculated until the evening, Jester inspected the queues at several flagship stores in Los Angeles. He can also draw this conclusion by comparing the number of people he purchased with what he saw yesterday.

After there were no problems with sales, Jester became less concerned about the sales of "Foreign Land: Torment", because it was already destined for the game's reputation and performance to explode, and besides, he had a lot on his plate. It was impossible to focus all his energy on this. For example, just now, he received a call from Fengxing Publishing to report to him.

There was a batch of old games that unexpectedly sold well during this year's Christmas period, and he hadn't saved much before, so Jester received a notice that they were sold out.

There is no other way, Jester can only urge orders from domestic or Japanese foundries.

Simply because these old games don’t require much, they can send the required quantity in a few days at most.

There is also the gdc, the global gamer development conference to be held next month, which requires the speech of his opening speech. It also needs to be prepared. Although Jester already has the main body of the speech, which is to support independent games and the development of games with their own ideas, however, the main body is the main body, and a manuscript still needs to be written.

The wording and other things also need to be polished.

Otherwise, problems are likely to occur during the speech. There are indeed many talented people who can give speeches without scripts, but Jester is not included in them. He has given many speeches before, but most of them have prepared speech scripts in advance and have already read them well, and then they can let him trust them. Do some free play.

But fortunately, the concept of crowdfunding does not exist yet, so. Jester is not afraid of criticism.

In fact, crowdfunding mainly supports independent games.

The comparison between independent games and commercial games is a bit similar to the comparison between commercial movies and art movies, but. Far from being as extreme and irreconcilable as the two.

In his previous life, Jester had read many commentaries on this aspect, including many well-known figures in the industry, as well as some unknown players. That includes himself and the many friends he knows who love video games, in this regard. He also has his own views that are completely different from others.

In Jester's mind.

There is a movie about video games that actually discusses this issue.

The name of this movie is "The Independent Game Movie". It is a documentary-style film about video games in recent years. It was well shot and introduced many outstanding independent games.

In this film, it puts forward such a point of view.

"Commercial games try to smooth out all the edges of a game in order to gain popularity from the largest audience, while independent games retain the edges."

In fact, in Jester's opinion, this sentence is a bit too thin. In electronic games, the difference between commercial games and independent games is far less than that in the film industry. After all, whether a game can To be successful, one must-have characteristic that cannot be ignored no matter what, is that it must be fun. This is something that both commercial and independent films must achieve.

And art films don’t need to be good-looking.

This sentence in "The Independent Game Movie" completely separates commercial games from independent games. Of course, he wants to highlight the theme of the movie. This is understandable. After all, the name of the movie is "Indie Game Movie".

In reality, in the gaming world that Jester knows and comes into contact with, this is not the case.

It's only a matter of seconds for one or two people to insist on the spirit of independence, but those who have made greater contributions are those who conquered the noisy business world with the spirit of independent production.

In fact, although mature techniques based on market research and data analysis may achieve a certain degree of commercial success, those works that have achieved great success both culturally and commercially, whether they are movies, novels, or games, are precisely They are all produced by the operation of an independent spirit and a healthy business model.

"Star Wars" is Lucas's childhood dream, "Avatar" is Cameron's persistent pursuit for ten years, and "Harry Potter" is the bedside story single mother Rowling tells her children.

In the gaming world, there are countless examples like this.

For example, "Final Fantasy" is a desperate work that Hironobu Sakaguchi poured his heart and soul into.

Things created to cater to all audiences may get a pretty good review from most people, but those works that are crazily pursued by some people and regarded as masterpieces must have been developed through persistence and self-thinking. produced.

This is a broad sense of independence, a spirit that does not change with capital, scale, market, or anything else. It is a firm belief that I will do this.

From this perspective, even Steve Jobs’ classic saying “Follow your heart” is no exception.

Jester thought a lot, because the main target of the crowdfunding he planned to do was actually those who have an independent spirit and want to make games like this. So, what is the independent spirit and how to choose independent games? , is crucial, so what is an independent game?

This is something that Jester must clearly define in his speech, what is an independent game.

Indie games are exactly what the name suggests.

That is, a game that is independently completed by one or a few people without the influence of commercial funds is usually a game that can better express the creator's intention.

So how should you choose when creating an independent game?

Jester thought for a long time, and then he came to a conclusion with some uncertainty. He didn't dare to say whether it was right or not, but at least it was based on some of his experience in game development over the years. In short, if you want to make an independent game, you have to Market, that is, it absolutely cannot be popularized.

Why do you say that?

The simple reason is that an idea is very good and you think many people will like it, but there are no games of this type on the market now.

Then you do it.

I hope it will achieve great success, but I'm sorry, this is very difficult to do, because if your game is really creative and really liked by many players, then those industry giants, Just like a greedy crocodile, it pounces on you and snatches away every bit of the market that originally belonged to you.

There is such an example in Jester's memory.

There was once a very famous game called "Mount and Blade". This was an independently produced game with a very independent spirit. After the game was released, it was loved by many people.

Then Ubisoft also produced a game of the same type and showed it at the E3 exhibition in 2015.

Whether it's the graphics, smoothness, sense of impact, or everything else, this game called "For Glory" is crushing "Mount and Blade" in all aspects.

Although "For Glory" has not yet been released, and it is said that "Mount and Blade 2" has not yet completed production, Jester can guarantee that after these two games of the same type are released in the future, whether it is word-of-mouth or sales, , including the quality of the game, Ubisoft's "For Glory" is a complete victory, and it is a complete victory without the slightest suspense.

So, make an independent game.

You must make it that way. Even if the big manufacturers see it, they will not be able to copy it, copy it, or use your creativity. With more money and more people, they can make better games than yours. game.

For example, "Master", such as "Wanda and the Colossus", such as "Journey".

You must have a strong personal color that others cannot imitate. If you think you can make it, the raw materials will still be the same, and the kitchen utensils will still be the same, but once the thing is made, it will not taste the same at all.

The most famous example is the "Ninja Dragon" series.

The acid-faced "Ninja Dragon 1" and "Ninja Dragon 2" were both rated as the strongest acts in history, but after the acid-faced left, Hayashi Yosuke, whom the acid-faced nicknamed his younger brother, still used the acid-faced ninja team, and still used those People still use that money, but the "Ninja Dragon 3" produced is not the flavor of the "Ninja Dragon" series at all, and the sales volume of the final game also fully illustrates the players' lack of the "Ninja Dragon" series. A game with a unique independent spirit.

They won't buy it.

In fact, Jester thought that something he once said about the creation of Naughty Dog is also very useful here. After all, Naughty Dog started from a small studio of independent games, one by one, relying on each game. Only games with unique styles will achieve future success. (To be continued...)