Game Development Giant

"outstanding."

When leaving, Sid Meier said kindly when sending Jester off.

Jester smiled and said nothing.

"Even I, from what you said this time, can understand many details that I usually don't pay attention to at all, and I have benefited a lot..."

It seems that the previous compliment was not enough for Sid Meier's harvest today.

He continued to say a few more words.

"To be honest, at the beginning, I thought it was just a very ordinary speech. You can just talk about some experience or interesting things in game development. I didn't expect that you would prepare so seriously this time... a lot of things, a lot of things The theory, even for me, is extremely overflowing..." Sid Meier was very sincere when he said this.

This actually made Jester a little embarrassed.

In fact, some of what he said before actually has something to do with Sid Meier.

This is a very famous speech given by Sid Meier in 2010. The name of the speech is the same as the one Jester said before, "Everything You Know is Wrong." , in this speech, Sid Meier summarized his game development experience by responding to his thirty years of game development experience.

It can be said that this is almost the crystallization of Sid Meier's lifelong game development experience.

Therefore, when Jester spoke it at this time, Sid Meier felt deafening and enlightened.

"Just some simple thoughts, nothing like that."

Of course, one should be modest. Finally, before leaving, Jester asked Sid Meier about his development plan for the next game. After all, he had not developed a new game for almost a year. Sid Meier's development team was not idle before. They were developing other games under the leadership of others.

Hear Jester ask him this.

Sid Meier pondered for a moment and said: "What I want to do most is the "Civilization" series. This is basically a plot of mine. However, with the current hardware conditions, even at this time, I When making a sequel to "Civilization", I won't be able to complete some of my ideas for the game, and I still don't understand a lot of things you just mentioned, so I still hope to take a break during this time."

Maybe Sid Meier himself felt that he hadn't made a game for too long, so he said after hesitating for a while.

"Well, in a few months, after I complete this teaching task, I will start a new project, but it will definitely not be "Civilization". I plan to select a few from my students in this period. , join my project team, the game will probably be a sequel to "Pirates", or it may be a sequel to "Age of Discovery". Anyway, it is a navigation game, and I happened to be watching "Humans" during this time "History of Navigation", I have some inspiration that I feel can be used."

Jester had no objection after hearing this.

Originally, this kind of independent studio had quite a lot of independence. As long as it can maintain its own survival, the parent company will not care.

However, Sid Meier is, after all, a banner figure under Mars Entertainment. You can't go too long without participating in any game, so that's why Jester had the same problem before.

Now that Sid Meier has agreed to start the development of a new game after a while, Jester has nothing to say, so he nodded and said: "You report the development funds to the parent company. The parent company will contribute capital in proportion to its shares.”

Although it is an independent studio, it decides what games it develops.

But, after all, the parent company occupies a proportion of independent studios, and this proportion may vary. For example, Sid Meier's studio does not have a controlling interest, but the establishment of a new project is Investment is required, and the amount of investment needs to be shared between the studio and Mars Entertainment, so that's what Jester said.

The two just chatted casually for a few words.

After that, Jester drove away. After he rushed back to the headquarters of Mars Entertainment, there was a group discussion meeting in the afternoon.

It is about the 'Era' project, and it is relatively important. It is the largest discussion meeting since the beginning of the 'Era' project, because in the past few months, one-third of the entire development team's energy was actually on We are preparing for the e3 exhibition, but the preparations are only used to show off our technology and means at best.

There are very few things that can be used in game development.

It’s not that it will never be used, but at least according to the current level, in its original history, this belongs to some technologies in the early days of the ps2 era. To complete such a picture, it is just like what people from Sega and Sony said That's not impossible, but the cost requirement is too high.

Making a console with such a cost is really the path to self-destruction for Mars Entertainment.

And Jester also knows that the console game industry is different from other industries. In other industries, as long as you are ahead, you can clear patent barriers or patent alliances and other means, creating a one-step lead and a step-by-step lead. However, in the console game industry, one generation is a generation, because the technical requirements for console development are not too high.

After all, what the host wants is not high performance.

Moreover, it should be cost-effective.

There is also the cost of publicity. Don’t think that you can dominate one generation in the previous generation, just think that the next generation will be able to.

Jester discovered that this was happening in Mars Entertainment, but there was nothing he could do about it. In his memory, Nintendo was a 'small business' with more than 1,000 people, and its operating profit exceeded 100,000 employees. When Toyota was the giant of Toyota, why weren’t the people at Nintendo doing the same?

However, Jester knew that Nintendo would later lead to its own destruction.

If you don’t want to make progress and don’t know how to make progress together, what can you do even if you can make the best game?

The n64 was really beaten by the Sega Saturn and PS.

However, there is no doubt who made the best game in that era? Ask anyone and they will tell you that it was Nintendo. In that era, "Mario" and "Zelda" were the most perfect games. (To be continued...)