Game Development Giant

Jester talked to Mike Mowaimi and Rob Pardo about his idea for diablo.

Historically, it was not Mike Mowaimi who came up with the idea for this legendary game, although it was him who made the final decision. Moreover, it was Mike Mowaiimi who finally made this game into a real-time game. The decision was made, but it was also when he heard Bill Rogge from Vulture mentioning the idea of ​​this game, his eyes immediately lit up.

It was precisely because of this game that Blizzard North was born.

It was the same this time. When Mike Mowaimi heard Jester talking about this gothic dark style, which combines many factors of action games and role-playing to develop a game idea, his His eyes immediately lit up.

Many people in the company know that he is a deep-rooted RPG game enthusiast.

He was full of complaints about not being able to participate in Jester's "Planescape Torment" before, but there was nothing he could do about it. At that time, he had just applied to join a development team of Will Wright, which was something Will Wright attached great importance to. A game, and Will Wright also valued him extremely, and he couldn't give up the opportunity that Will Wright gave him at that time.

However, he really likes RPG games.

Therefore, when he heard that Jester asked him to develop such a unique RPG game, he immediately became excited.

Hearing what Jester said, the more he listened, the more he felt that this was his perfect RPG game. It was not a turn-based battle, but a real-time battle, with rich career and skill systems, powerful monsters, and rich Almost everything about the equipment and item system spoke to his heart.

Although there have been some real-time RPG games before.

but. These RPG games are much simpler in terms of system than turn-based RPG games. They are far less interesting to play than turn-based games. Moreover, although the real-time game experience is smoother than the turn-based game, there are many turn-based games. The gameplay is based on turn-based strategies, and there are many things that can be studied, especially the extended war RPG, such as Jester's "Fire Emblem" is one of the representatives. Therefore, many people also call real-time RPG mode without any gameplay.

Of course, this is just what some people think.

Many people also have completely different ideas. They believe that turn-based systems are a regression of RPG games. In the beginning, turn-based systems were used because the technology was immature and there was no other way. As a result, this kind of technology can be completely abandoned now. It's a helpless move, but there are still many people who miss this way of playing and feel that this way of playing has gameplay.

It's just nonsense.

Mike Mowaimi is this type of person. He believes that still developing turn-based RPG games is going backwards in history. Moreover, Jester's "Foreign Land: Torment" has proved that real-time RPGs can be done very well, but those Japanese game producers. Because they spent a lot of time and experience on the turn-based system, it would definitely be impossible for them to give up their advantages.

Not only game producers from other companies, but even Japanese game producers within the company do not agree with this concept.

This is also the biggest contradiction between many European and American designers and Japanese designers.

European and American designers also dislike Japanese designers in this regard. Some designers in Europe and the United States admitted that indeed, the Japanese were not greatly affected by Atari. Therefore, they have accumulated a lot of game development experience, and even before the impact of Atari, Japan's game development level was not inferior to them. Therefore, over the years, they have always viewed Japan with a catching-up attitude. of the game industry, and of game developers.

However, Japanese designers have one of the biggest shortcomings, and that is that they are conservative. This may not be accurate. To be precise, they are conservative. They always think that the old is good and mature, and do not recognize new technologies. New technologies are unstable and prone to failure. They would rather use mature old technologies than new technologies.

European and American designers are exactly the opposite.

They are crazy about pursuing technological progress. Of course, the deeper reason for this is that Japanese designers and design teams have too sufficient technical reserves in old technologies, old systems, and old game methods. It is completely impossible for them to Start from scratch and surpass the Japanese, so we start with technology, although we can't see any results yet.

Especially in terms of RPG games, Japanese RPGs are almost the only one, and European and American RPG games can only survive.

However, European and American designers believe that in ten or twenty years, they will be able to surpass these stubborn and conservative Japanese designers.

Jester has no prejudice against turn-based and real-time systems.

After all, he has developed both games.

If he had to choose one, Jester would probably choose the real-time system, because he is really not interested in turn-based games. Although there are some turn-based games with very creative and interesting combat methods. But he still likes the free and unrestrained gaming experience of real-time games.

"This is a real-time role-playing game."

Jester quickly explained his basic settings for this game, while Mike Mowaimi and Rob Pardo listened attentively with excited expressions on their faces.

They all know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.

After all, the example of Itagaki Tomonobu was not long ago. Like them, he was just a dispensable small role in the company. Although he performed well in some projects, he was just an assistant. However, in "Shadow Blade" "After being nominated as the first producer along with Jester, he is now the hottest young producer in the industry.

Even the "Tekken" project, which the company attaches great importance to, was handed over to him.

If he can successfully develop "Tekken", then his status in the company will skyrocket, perhaps second only to those meritorious veterans who followed Jester from the beginning.

Who wouldn't want such an opportunity?

Any young designer with ambitions and ideals in Mars Entertainment would want such an opportunity.

But the chance of being entrusted with such an important task by Jester as Itagaki Tomonobu is really slim. (To be continued...)