Game Development Giant

In the game "The Witcher 3", almost most NPCs have Gwent interaction options. The Gwent game is simply poisonous. In addition to the fact that all NPCs in the game carry a deck of cards in their pockets, outside of the game , players are also crazy about Gwent. Gwent has a variety of physical cards, and some players even set up a Gwent battle website. If you don't play cards for a day, you will feel uncomfortable!

Gwent card patterns are based on the world view of "The Witcher 3". They can be roughly divided into four types of cards: weather, units, heroes, and leaders. Each card has its own special effects.

The gameplay is a best-of-three games, each card has its own attack power, and some special cards also have their own skills. In each game, both sides take turns playing cards, until one side has no cards to play or gives up playing cards, the attack power of both sides is calculated, and the one with the higher attack power wins. Cards are also divided into camps, and all of these camps also appear in the game. The rules are simple but extremely interesting. Collecting Gwent cards and studying decks have become two major hobbies of many players in the game.

The Witcher 3's design of embedding a mature card game into the game is great. It would be even better if Blizzard could embed "Hearthstone" into WoW.

For example, if "Hearthstone" is added to WoW, there will be opportunities for such funny dialogues.

Player: Lieutenant Thorne, I'm here to assign tasks.

Thorne: Gilneas will not perish! Well, Commander, I'm afraid you can't assign tasks today!

Player: Why? By the way, where is Alona? I was about to go to Tanaan with her to do our daily routine. She used to be waiting for me here.

Thorne: Oh, she should be over there in the mines now.

Player: What is she doing there?

Thorne: I'm playing Hearthstone with Rante Sori. She just bought 50 card packs from Benjamin yesterday, and we want to show off!

Player: ...Okay, then why didn't you go?

Thorne: Their level is too low and they are not interested. Speaking of Commander, how about Gwent?

Player: Are you sure there is no copyright issue?

Thorne: That makes sense, then let's play Hearthstone. Your guild president quietly said: Go, continue to open up wasteland today. Hellfire sent to your guild president: Go away and don't disturb me, I want to play Hearthstone!

You have blocked your guild leader.

In fact, this whole set of mature card games is directly embedded into the game and exists as a mini-game. This was not done first in The Witcher 3. It was in Jester's memory and in ff8. There is this kind of scum-falling setting. Of course, the most famous one is definitely The Witcher 3.

Of course, it's not just "Yakuza 0" and "The Witcher 3" that have taken great pains in mini-games. Other games, such as "GTA5" that has sold all over the world, the free map editing mode he added can also be used. Change the game into various racing games. Even in FPS games, you can see the enhancement of mini-games in the game.

Of course, the mini-game settings in GTA5 are not just this kind of free editor, strictly speaking. The game style derived from this kind of free editing is contributed by players, not game developers, but in GTA5. There are also things similar to mini-games designed by game designers—that is, stocks.

Stock trading... is really too simple. This may be the impression of those who have played the stock trading game in GTA5.

In gta5, stock trading is also a very fun thing.

There are various properties in the game. The ultimate life goal of many players is to buy all the buildings - and buy them all within the second ring road! Of course, just relying on the little money you make from robbing and making trouble every day is not enough. If you want to make money, you still have to speculate in stocks... Of course, in the game.

The trick of stock trading in gta5 is to obtain accurate timing. Although it is generally similar to stock trading in reality, in the plot of the game, Lester, a member of the brain trust behind the protagonists, will obtain some inside information through hacking methods, such as some assassination missions. Killing the target may affect the trend of the stock. If you follow Lester's tips and buy them one by one, the profit rate will be quite considerable.

Of course, in addition to stock trading, there are also many mini-games in GTA5, ranging from target shooting, dart throwing, golf, tennis, bicycle racing, skydiving, to flying airplanes, driving submarines, and even smoking marijuana and stock trading. They are almost normal. There are all the little games that one can think of. Even if you enter the game and do no tasks, you can spend a whole day just playing these mini-games.

There are also a variety of classic mini-games in other games, such as Texas hold'em poker in "Red Dead Redemption", arcade poker in "Far Cry", nine-piece chess in "Assassin's Creed", and chess in the "Fallout" series. There is also a very famous game such as poker and gambling machines, and its mini-game settings should be the first of its kind.

This game is called "Taiko Rizhiden 5". Maybe not many new players in the future have played or heard of this game, but this game can be said to be the pinnacle of similar games. It is almost unparalleled. The twenty or thirty mini-games added to enhance the playability are all classics. There are many later games that are either tributes or plagiarisms.

For example, in "The Legend of Knights", the mini-games paid homage to "The Legend of Taige 5". Of course, after the difficulty of the mini-games was reduced, the fun dropped significantly.

These are a bit far-fetched. Jester talked to Carmack about the development direction of future game consoles. Carmack knew that the company had a very confidential hardware development department, which was developed after he joined the company. It existed at the time. It was previously thought that it was set up for the next generation of next-generation consoles, but later the development team of Dreambox 3 was established, and this statement was unfair and self-defeating.

In short, this development team is extremely mysterious. The people involved in the development have signed very strict confidentiality clauses, and their remuneration is very high.

Later, as his status in the company improved, Carmack knew and vaguely knew what this mysterious hardware development department was doing-the development of somatosensory gaming equipment.

Carmack is still curious about this department.

He heard Jester casually ask him what he thought about the development direction of future game consoles. Carmack happened to be interested in the new technology of motion sensing, and he knew that there was a researcher within the company who had been developing it for several years. The development department of somatosensory hardware exists, so he also smiled. He said without hesitation: "I think the future home game console will gradually develop into an entertainment terminal in the living room. It may not only be used to play games with a controller, but can even be connected to some somatosensory devices... …”

Jester listened and nodded. Carmack was thinking quite profoundly.

Home entertainment terminals, to be honest. Sony wanted to make the ps3 such a thing in the ps3 era, but unfortunately, due to various reasons, they failed. Even the absolute contribution of the ps game console, Kutaragi Ken, resigned. After the ps4, Sony proposed The slogan was Just a Game, and it turned out to be a huge hit. Because in the eyes of players, game consoles are used to play games.

What kind of home entertainment terminal, we don't need this thing at all.

However, Microsoft does not believe in evil. Their xbo is actually following the old path of Sony's ps3. As for what kind of home entertainment terminal it is trying to make, Jester dares not predict the final outcome of Microsoft's plan, but judging from the sales of the new generation of consoles, the sales figures of ps4 are twice those of xbo. It is enough to show how players agree with their two concepts.

Of course, later it seemed that Apple also wanted to develop this home entertainment terminal. Trying to get involved in the business of living room games.

In Jester's opinion, this is simply reckless.

Carmack talked about his affirmation of the future of motion-sensing gaming devices, and believed that home game consoles with motion-sensing devices will definitely become mainstream in the future, and handle operations will also be replaced by motion-sensing operating devices - Jester did not comment on the other party Whether these are correct or not is not necessary. After all, somatosensory can only exist in the laboratory now.

No one can say what his potential will be in the future.

However, as Jester, who has experienced the hottest era of motion-sensing gaming devices, he knows that motion-sensing devices do have a future, but the future of motion-sensing devices is far from as promising as many people think now.

In fact, for many people and many players, somatosensory equipment is just a novelty. Those who have never played it want to try it very much, while those who have played it will quickly lose interest in this type of game. Just like the fate of Wii, when it was first launched, it had somatosensory devices and almost swept the entire army. XB360 and PS3 were no match at all.

It seems that the entire gaming world has seen another renaissance of Nintendo.

However, in the battle for consoles in that era, Wii's performance was extremely weak in the middle and late stages. Of course, they had established an advantage that was almost impossible to defeat in the early stage. Although in the final console sales, Wii's sales were higher than those of 360 and 360. The sales volume of ps3 is high, but that doesn’t mean that this era belongs to wii.

Since the somatosensory game console experienced the popularity of Wii, it has quickly fallen silent. Even if Microsoft's console is good enough, it is still useless.

Even Sony's somatosensory device is as good as Yi Tuo Xiang.

It didn’t delay the crazy sales of ps4, and the sales volume was so high that even Microsoft’s mother didn’t recognize it.

Carmack talked for a long time about the future prospects of somatosensory equipment, but it seemed to him that Jester, who had been listening carefully to what he said, didn't quite agree with what he said in his eyes. This made Carmack a little angry. .

So, he immediately shut up.

Jester soon discovered Carmack's anomaly, and then he asked with a smile: "Do you think I don't agree with your idea?"

Carmack nodded.

Then Jester pondered for a moment and said: "Actually, you also know that there is a development department for somatosensory equipment in the company. The density of this department is relatively high, but depending on your level in the company, you can also contact it. I got some information about this development department, although it is only peripheral, but I also know what this department does."

"You seem to think that since I attach so much importance to somatosensory equipment and even spend so much money to develop this equipment in secret for so many years, then I must be very optimistic about the prospects of this equipment - you are right to think so. , but my opinion is still very different from yours or other people’s opinions.”

Jester said calmly.

"In my opinion, if the somatosensory thing can be miniaturized, that is, it can be put into a small box, that is, in our home game console, it will indeed be very marketable at the beginning. , and can even achieve certain ideal sales figures, but in my personal speculation, this craze will last for a very short time, and may not even be able to last for a console era."

As he spoke, Jester shook his head: "The reason why I attach so much importance to somatosensory equipment now is not that I think this thing will have much potential in the future. It's just that I don't want our competitors to lose in this regard. , walking in front of us, although I am not optimistic about the long-term potential of somatosensory equipment, but I still have a cautious attitude towards their explosive power in a short period of time."

Hearing what Jester said, Carmack finally understood Jester's attitude towards somatosensory equipment.

He also nodded: "So what you are saying is that you think that the future replacement of home game console hardware will definitely not be about motion sensing?"

Faced with Carmack's question, Jester pondered again. He said: "To be precise, it has something to do with physical sensation, but physical sensation is not the main reason. In my opinion, in the next half generation, , there may be a place for somatosensory, but the real next-generation console will definitely be closely related to VR equipment.”

Hearing Jester talk about VR equipment, Carmack's eyes also lit up.

vr, as the name suggests, virtual-reality, is translated as virtual reality. This is a comprehensive integration technology involving computer graphics, human-computer interaction technology, sensing technology, artificial intelligence and other fields. It uses computers to generate realistic three-dimensional visual and audio , smell and other senses, allowing people as participants to naturally experience and interact with the virtual world through appropriate devices.

Of course, this is just a description of VR technology. I don’t know whether it can be achieved in the future, but it is definitely not possible with current technology. (To be continued...)