Game Development Giant

As for the streaking bet, Jester didn't care about it because the other person disappeared. Jester didn't hold this trial meeting to prove that he wasn't cheating, but to hype up his game. Well, even without this racial discrimination incident, Jester would have found other excuses to spark discussion on a hot topic.

Because Jester, who comes from the future, knows that no matter how good a game is, it still needs hype to promote it. In the field of games, there is no saying that the smell of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley.

Now, the two consecutive days of trial play have been a great success, and Mars Entertainment's phone number has almost been ringing with calls from buyers.

They are all dealers or numerous amusement arcade owners.

In fact, many people who came to participate in the trial session this time were the owners of amusement arcades who had made a lot of money from "American Cube" some time ago. Some of them may really like Mars Entertainment's games, but many still want to Let’s see if Mars Entertainment’s new game is worth their continued investment.

Unexpectedly, this time Mars Entertainment not only did not disappoint them, but also far exceeded their expectations.

They felt like they were seeing another American Cube coming out.

However, the distribution rights of the game have now been handed over to Fengxing Publishing Company. For these buyers, Mars Entertainment can only say that for specific purchase matters, please contact Fengxing Game Publishing Company.

This is news that makes many dealers curse, but makes many arcade owners cheer. Because after the distribution rights are handed over, dealers cannot make money like selling "American Cube", but the owners of these arcades can directly purchase the goods at the ex-factory price.

However, Carly is currently only planning logistics centers in three states. Only the California logistics center with the earliest construction time can be officially put into use. As for the flagship store in the central city, it is even more impossible. Margaret Whitman is only in San Francisco. We have negotiated a rental location with Los Angeles, but the renovation will take a month. As for the opening date of the flagship stores in the United States and the United States, it is still far away.

In order to speed up the establishment of direct sales channels across the United States, Carly couldn't help but think of the franchise store method she had discussed with Jester before. Unexpectedly, as soon as this plan was proposed, it received a lot of response, including many owners of amusement arcades before. They all asked about how to join.

In just one week, more than twenty Fengxing Distribution franchise stores were established across the United States.

However, it will take about a week for Sega's first batch of arcade baseboards to arrive. The frames are made locally in the United States, so even if you pay in advance, you will not be able to get them in stock until at least ten days.

However, franchise store owners and amusement arcade owners are still scrambling to pay in advance and place orders in advance.

Among them, "Bejeweled", "Zuma" and "Bubble Bobble" have about the same number of orders. Each game has been booked for about 5,000 to 6,000 units, and "Snow Brothers" has the most popular orders. , unexpectedly, in just a few days, the total order quantity exceeded 20,000 units. This is not a verbal order, full payment is required in advance.

You know, even with the popularity of "American Cube", it has only sold 20,000 units so far.

Although Jester has lowered the price of arcade machines a lot compared to "American Cube", the single price of "Bejeweled", "Zuma", and "Bubble Bobble" is 3,000 US dollars when distributed to franchise stores. The arcade price is four thousand US dollars, but Fengxing Distribution collects 20% of the profit from each franchise store, and the franchise store is responsible for local promotion. However, the price of "Snowman Brothers" is the same as the shipping price of "American Cube". The same price is 6,000 US dollars. Of course, without the exploitation of dealers, this 6,000 US dollars is also the actual selling price. Even if it is purchased at a franchise store, the unit price of "Snowman Brothers" is as high as 5,000 US dollars.

Moreover, the three games "Bejeweled" have already started production, and they will be available in a few days. However, the game "Snowman Brothers" has not even been completed, let alone suitable for production. Even if it is In this way, 20,000 units can be pre-sold directly after the first debut, which is really beyond Jester's expectation.

In just a few days, Fengxing issued more than 200 million US dollars in cash in its account. Of course, this money still needs to be split 50-50 with Mars Entertainment.

But this is just a left hand to a right hand for Jester.

The large amount of advance payments brought by the pre-sales of these four games also relieved Jester, who had previously been very nervous about his capital chain.

As long as he doesn't have to worry about his company's capital chain breaking and collapsing.

It was the end of July after Jester rushed back to California, and the next month's R\u0026D progress discussion began.

Jester first chatted with Seve Dabowater for a while and listened to his thoughts on game design. He felt that although he was young, he was still a promising talent, and he also had ideas for what he wanted to do in this discussion. A plan to formally establish a third core R\u0026D team with him as the team leader.

However, at this discussion, there were no major problems with other projects. For example, 'the-king' will continue to be responsible for the research and development of "Avengers" and is expected to produce three levels this month. The starting point is to complete "Snowman Brothers" After the level production of "", the post-game and debugging work was handed over to Scavenger, and then the whole process was devoted to the design of "Dawn", and Sid Meier also officially joined the Origin R\u0026D team at this meeting.

But when Jester proposed setting up a third core research and development team to develop a westernized version of "Chief Balotelli," Mark Saini put forward different opinions.

"Jace, what kind of style did you want to make this game from the beginning?" Mark Saini did not mention the shortcomings of "Chief Balotelli" modified by Seve Dabowater. Instead, he asked Jester directly.

As soon as Jester heard this question, he knew what the other party was going to say.

These are actually the two styles of later game production, and can even be said to be a confrontation between two genres - realism and cartoons.

"Chief Balotelli", which has been modified by Seve Dabowater, prefers a realistic style, and the specific background is also set in the west. The monsters or enemies in it are all real or existential. According to rumors, this can certainly make it easier for players to substitute.

but……

Mark Saini did not wait for Jester to answer, but said directly: "We will not talk about the target audience of the game. I will only give a very simple example in the design. This is how Sheriff Balotelli eliminates enemies. , he would jump up, jump higher than himself, and then step down, crushing his enemies. In Jace’s previous design, he stepped on mushrooms, which were monsters with a strong cartoon style like turtles. , so this seemingly funny and weird method will not only not be considered funny, but will be taken for granted. But if the monster to be defeated is replaced by an Indian, a Voodoo wizard, or a Western Robbers and escorts, you can imagine this scene, it is not only absurd but also weird."

"This is stupid."

"So, to play in this style of game, his style must be cartoony. The style that Jace designed before is very good. I like it very much, so I think there is no need to modify it at all. This is my point of view , I’m done.”

After Mark Saini finished speaking, he spread his hands to indicate to others if they had any other opinions.

"I also agree with Mark's opinion, and I think the most clear thing we should be clear about is the target audience of this game." At this time, Sean Dabbili, the leader of the Origin Design Team, also stood up. He said hurriedly, "First of all, this is a game made for our home game consoles. It is a first-run game released in such a deserted market environment to open up the game console market. And who will do it?" What about buying a personal game console? This is actually a very clear question. No matter how high-end a game console is, at least for now, it is essentially just a toy, and we must be clear about this."

"There is no doubt that our main consumers will be children at the beginning! Who will buy game consoles for children? It is their parents. I think as long as we understand this, we must choose to be relaxed, funny, happy and interesting. It goes without saying that the cartoon style should choose a realistic style of real violence. That's all I have to say, if this is an arcade game, then I will not object, Cypher Dabowater's The modification is indeed very western-style and very down-to-earth. If it is made, it will definitely be liked by some people with western plots.”

“And regarding the issue of sense of substitution, I know when we were kids, we thought John Wayne was great and Clint Eastwood was cool, and we all wanted to be a tough guy like them, a hero like them, but Think about it for yourself, when you were children, did you like Tom and Jerry and Mickey Mouse more, or did you like Golden Dead and Fit more?"

“Once you understand these, you will naturally know how to choose between styles.”

"Of course, like Cypher Dabowater's design, I don't deny the greatness of "The Golden Dead" and "Flight". The western style he designed is also something I like very much."

"Personally, I'm looking forward to this game."

After Sean Dabbili finished speaking, everyone turned their attention to Jester. After all, he was the one who made the original settings, and he was the first to propose modifications. Now, the two core R\u0026D teams None of the people in charge disagreed with his modification plan, and Mark Saini was still his partner and the director of the software research and development department.

Jester lowered his head and thought silently, and the scene remained silent for five minutes.

He raised his head and did not express his conclusion, but looked at Seve Dabowater who had been sitting there silently and asked: "Both of them disagree with your modification plan, don't you want to say something? "

"I..." Cypher Dabowater had just graduated, was just twenty-one years old, and was introverted by nature. When Jester asked this question, he was immediately speechless and didn't know what to say.

"Just say it. You can speak freely in our monthly R\u0026D seminars. Say what you want to say. Don't care about the identities of these two people. If they dare to embarrass you afterwards, I will support you." Jester said with a smile. One sentence.

This also made Mark Saney and Sean Dabili laugh. They both knew that this was Jester's joke, and they were not petty people.

Taking a deep breath, Seve Dabowater seemed to have calmed down before he said: "Actually, I thought about it just now. Director Mark Saini and Team Leader Sean Dabili said something very important. It makes sense. I did think the design of this game was a bit simple. Plus, I personally don’t like the cartoon style. I happened to see that the character of the boss is the image of a western police chief. Plus, I I like watching western movies, so I came up with the revised copywriting from before.”

Jester nodded, he was silent for a while, then stood up, bowed slightly, and said apologetically: "First of all, I apologize for my inconsideration. Because of my personal preferences, I I made a slightly hasty decision and ignored that this was a console game, but I don't want to take back what I said."

He first slightly expressed his ill-considered apology, then changed his tone and continued.

"I think "Chief Balotelli" with a strong western style has a certain audience. It is a very stylized game. Although it will limit its target group to a certain extent, it will also be able to Let his target group love this game even more. I call these players core players. These players will have a special liking for a certain type of game, and I think the members of our scavenger team are really There are too many, there are more than 40 people, and we don’t need so many people for post-production and debugging, so I plan to draw 30 people from them to form two core R\u0026D teams.”

"Moreover, our Mars Entertainment is not a company that only makes games for children. We should have the courage to make some games that are unique in style and are liked by a certain number of players, even if their sales may not be too high." He said while saying , Jester turned to look at Mark Saini and said with a smile, "One of the two core R\u0026D groups is in charge of your 'the-king', your deputy Will Wright, and the other …”

Mark Saini nodded at this point. He had no objection. In the more than a month of contact with Will Wright, he also found that the other person was indeed a talented designer with his own unique personal approach to games. Understand that this time he has the opportunity to independently lead a research and development team to produce games, which is natural.

Jester's eyes turned to Seph Dabowater, a smile appeared on his face again, and he said, "Seph Dabowater will be in charge."

As soon as Jester's appointment was announced, not to mention everyone else, even Seve Dabowater himself showed a look of surprise. After all, he was just a newcomer who had just joined the company less than a month ago. , I have only participated in the finishing work of a few games, and have never participated in formal game development. It is too hasty to let myself lead a team like this.

"I can't," Cypher Dabowater whispered.

Jester just smiled and waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, I'll check it for you. It can be seen from your revised copy that you have a deep understanding of the western style, and this is a western style, or rather It’s a game with a very strong personal style of yours, so it’s perfect for you to make it.”

First, he directly dismissed Seve Dabowater's words, and then Jester continued, "But in this way, the game method cannot be the cartoon-style Sheriff Balotelli game I designed before. At least the cartoon-style attack method of jumping around and stepping on monsters is no longer available, but the jumping can be retained.”

At this time, Jester thought of some settings in "Metal Slug", so he continued talking.

"First of all, this is no longer a home console game, but an arcade game. The attack in it can be changed to the built-in revolver. If you are far away, you can use the revolver to attack. The bullets are unlimited, but each time you shoot a certain amount After a certain amount of bullets, you need to change the magazine. When you are close, you can use a dagger. During the game, you can also add some props that can enhance the game character, such as various more powerful firearms. Since the style of this game is a realistic western style , so the firearms should also be realistic, and there should be no inexplicable things like laser guns, missile guns, etc. You can even add a vehicle system, but it should also have a western style - such as a horse equipped with a machine gun. After the player has finished destroying it, After defeating the enemy, you can choose to ride..."

"Of course, this is a scroll game, and it is very difficult to develop. However, some of the scroll technologies you need are available in the technical reserve department. They were developed by Mark and his team. If necessary, you can request their technical support. Help. I’ve seen the first level of Avengers that they’ve made, and it’s very smooth. It’s really a masterpiece that spans the ages.”

"Then, the name of the game remained unchanged and was still called "Chief Balotelli", while the name of the other cartoon was changed to "Balotelli's Adventures in Another World", directed by Will Rei A special team is responsible for this, because this is a home console game, and our home game console is still under design. You must follow the progress of the hardware development throughout the process, and you must fully understand the performance of the game console we are developing. , and then we must come up with a home console version of this game when our console is launched."

"As for the name of the group, you decide for yourself."

Finally, Jester made a summary of this discussion, which can also be said as a summary of Mars Entertainment’s R\u0026D tasks for the next month.

Origin completed the level production of "Snowman Brothers" and then fully prepared for the development of "Dawn". Sid Meier served as the deputy team leader of Origin. The-king was still responsible for the production of "Avengers" without any changes. Two new companies were established. The core research and development team of the game, one is responsible for the "Secretary Balotelli" gun battle in the west. The team leader is Seve Dabowater, the creator of this game, and the other is responsible for the cartoon direction of the home game console. , "Balotelli's Adventures in Another World" with the theme of relaxed entertainment, the team leader is Will Wright. As for Scavenger, he is still responsible for the post-processing and debugging of the game. Of course, this month is mainly about "Snowman Brothers" 》.

At the same time, Jester also serves as the executive producer of "Dawn", "Secretary Balotelli" and "Balotelli's Adventures in Another World".

ps: I also feel that the previous slap-in-the-face plot was written in the same way as Xiang, so I won’t write it in the future. I will continue my dry and tasteless expository style. If you don’t like it, you won’t like it.