Game Development Giant

The development of "Monster Hunter" is very different from some previous action games.

These require Jester to conduct further discussions with specific team members.

After all, such a game requires a very high technical content, especially in terms of the feel of the action game. You cannot make people feel like playing paper dolls, and you cannot go too far. Just right.

In a previous interview, Jester said that he would announce his next game at GDC, and this matter still attracted a lot of attention.

However, due to the previous release of Dreambox 3, the outside world did not have time to pay attention to this. Now that the release of Dreambox 3 has come to an end, it can be said that Mars Entertainment has got a very good start. In addition, the GDC is now basically held There were only a few days left, so some media found out what Jester had said during the interview.

Regarding Jester's games, especially after countless players saw Jester's "Heroes", they are extremely looking forward to the new games that Jester said. After all, when Jester said , he will not make games that others have already made, or that he has already made, because such games are not new to him.

What he wants to do is what no one else has done.

Big ones, such as "Gallant", which is the first game of the game generation, small ones, maybe some very good innovations in gameplay, which will make people feel refreshed - in short, Jester's games have always been It will make people’s eyes light up. Whether you like it or not, you will admit that it is a good game. In addition, Jester was also asked before. If he couldn’t make a game that would make people happy, What to do when you think of a refreshing game.

Jester also answered this question decisively.

"If I can't continue to make games that make others feel different, then I probably won't continue to make games... My personal personality is like this. I always repeat what I have done or what others have done. It’s something boring and unchallenging. It’s better to do nothing than to do something like this.”

Such an answer not only surprised the reporter who interviewed him at the time. It also made players who read the reports later feel extremely shocked.

After all, the name Jester and the games he produced have been with all players in their gaming careers since the rebirth of video games at Atari Impact, and you can even say this. In the past ten years, when it comes to video games, Jester is a name that is almost impossible to avoid. To use a more exaggerated statement, he itself is a video game.

When they heard Jester say that if he could no longer develop a different game, then he would not develop another game, they were both shocked by Jester's decisive words and also shocked by Jester's decisive words. Faintly worried.

Especially after playing a game as incredible as "The Heroes" that completely transcended an era. They were even more unwilling to see that they would never be able to play the games produced by Jester in the days to come. However, when they heard Jester said that he still had many ideas in his mind, and for the next game There are times when he can't wait for the game.

He was also secretly relieved.

At least for a short period of time, they will not be unable to play the games developed by Jester.

This is already very good news for them. As for the future - that can only be considered in the future.

Therefore, the media always asked about this matter when interviewing him during this period, because during this period he still needed to promote Dreambox 3. Therefore, Jester also accepted interviews with several relatively high-profile media, and they all asked him about his new game.

According to his original idea, Jester wanted to keep it secret for the time being, but then he thought again. Anyway, he planned to talk specifically about his game at GDC. Now there is no need to keep it secret. He simply shared a little information, which can be regarded as a warm-up for his new game. First of all, Jay Sturt denied the statement he made in a previous interview that this was a small-scale game.

Jester admitted that some of his ideas were wrong when considering the new game. For example, when he first conceived of this game, he thought that this game would be much smaller than "Heroes". At most, it would only require a team of twenty or thirty people. They would definitely be able to come up with a game within a year. The finished game, but later, he thought about the game carefully.

If he wants to make this game what he wants, he will definitely need to increase the scale of development.

Hearing what Jester said, the interviewer immediately asked, is it this time or a game of the scale of "Gallant"?

But Jester just smiled and replied jokingly: "For Mars Entertainment, it is impossible for Mars Entertainment to play the game "Legend of Heroes" a second time, because our goal with this game is just not to lose money. That's all. Of course, when we developed this game, we didn't want to make money from this game. We mainly wanted to promote Dreambox 3. Now we can see that the effect is very good. But for me, in addition to promoting Dreambox 3, There is another meaning, that is, I want to prove how far we, or the current game, can achieve."

Although these words are not a direct answer to the question just now, if you think about it carefully, Jester has actually made it very clear through these words. Later, on a game forum, when analyzing Jester's paragraph When I said this, I also thought that Jester was saying that they have now proven how awesome we are through "The Heroes", so we do not intend to continue to prove how awesome we are in the next game. ——Because we have proven it.

But after much hesitation, Jester still revealed a little bit about the scale of this new game whose name is unknown to the outside world in this interview - it is definitely not as scary as "The Hero", but The total number of people added up is enough to rank among the top three development teams in the entire Mars Entertainment.

It should be second only to the team behind the latest "Zelda" series that Shigeru Miyamoto is producing, and the team behind Hironobu Sakaguchi's latest FF.

Of course, Jester still revealed a little bit.

This game also encountered some troubles during Mars Entertainment's internal game review. Not all reviewers are optimistic about the future of his game, so they will definitely not devote all their efforts to research and development at the beginning.

You should first make a DEMO that is more representative of the gameplay and essence of this game and show it to the dissenters in the review department, and then make a final review of whether it passes the review.

for this. The media or players who understand the internal game development process of Mars Entertainment are no strangers.

Even they have sung praises for this review model of game development, especially for company founders like Jester or Mark Saini, who want to develop new games, they also need to conduct Review. Although Jester has one vote to veto or one vote to pass, but in the ten years since Mars Entertainment was established,

Jester never used this power.

But this time, they were still a little dissatisfied when they heard that Jester's new game did not pass the preliminary review and needed to develop a DEMO for the second round of review.

In their view, this is simply some people from Mars Entertainment making unreasonable troubles - how could Jester's games not be successful? Since the establishment of Mars Entertainment, none of the games Jester has produced has been a huge success. And Jester can produce even extremely popular games such as "The Heroes" which are extremely incredible.

What kind of games are there that he can't make?

They feel that it is very good for other producers to adopt the review mechanism of Mars Entertainment, which can effectively avoid the emergence of some junk games. However, in terms of game development, people like Jester can already be blocked. A man of God, this way of review. It would be too inefficient.

Of course, Jester agrees with this.

His explanation also explains why the final review committee did what it did.

"How should I put it... This game is very different from some of the games I have made before. It is a game that is relatively thin in terms of plot or content. In other words, this is a game that you are all excited about when you play it. You don’t need to know what story the game is about. All its essence lies in the gameplay. This is a game method that I like very much. If I have to give an example, I think the Diablo series can be used. To make a comparison - of course, these are two completely different games."

When Jester used Diablo as an example. Players also have a more intuitive impression of the game that Jester said has relatively thin content and the essence is in the gameplay.

Because Diablo is such a game. When playing this game, you don’t need to think about what this game is about. You just need to kill all the way and you can only get equipment. This is Everything about this game.

But for a game like Diablo, people who like it will like it very much, but those who don't like it will always look at it with disdain.

Those who like Diablo's gameplay will certainly support Jester's game, and those who don't like Diablo will definitely oppose Jester's development of such a game. In their eyes, Jester The games developed by Stern are definitely deep and highly game-playing. They will not be mindless games that are just about swiping.

Jester never answered this question.

In other words, after this discussion on the Internet, no one has had the opportunity to interview Jester.

Since there is no chance to interview, there is no time to ask Jester this question. Of course, everyone is curious about this question and want to know how Jester will answer it, because there are very few Jester games. This is a very extreme approach to game development.

However, when GDC was approaching, when Jester went to Chicago, the host city of this year's GDC, he was still caught by some reporters and successfully interviewed him in the hotel.

Regarding this issue, Jester did not avoid talking about it.

On the contrary, he was very interested in this question. After some simple thinking, he answered the question positively. You must know that Jester rarely answers questions directly. His habit has always been Answered from the side.

"How should I put it... Actually, I like "Diablo" very much. It has such a simple but rich gameplay. Many people say that the content of this game is thin, but I don't think so. A game - of course he There are many development methods and different emphases. There is no need for you to be unreal. I think any game that is not like this is not a good game. I personally think that video games are similar to movies. They are very personal. Things, he actually doesn’t have anything in common with them.”

"In other words, there may be a situation where you think this movie is very good, but I find it boring. You think this kind of game is boring, but I can have a great time playing it, just like the game two years ago Just like the Oscars, many people are complaining about "The Shawshank Redemption". I think this is completely unnecessary. Just like, I don't know how much higher "Forrest Gump" is than "The Shawshank Redemption". Not only that. , I don’t think “Pulp Fiction” that year was any higher than “The Shawshank Redemption”. Even if “Forrest Gump” wasn’t awarded the Oscar that year, it wouldn’t be “The Shawshank Redemption”’s turn to win the award. …”

"But I can be sure that countless fans of "The Shawshank Redemption" will criticize me for my thoughts, but this does not hinder my views on these movies - it is actually the same reason. You can't say that this kind of game is not good if you don't like it. If you do this, what will you do to the players who like this kind of game?"

"Furthermore, I only used "Diablo" as an example and a reference. I did not say that this is a Diablo LIKE game. I have made it very clear before that my game will never be used to pick up items. Something with a spike of human teeth.”

“If I can’t make something new, then I’d rather not do it.”

"I will talk about the new game in detail at GDC. There are only a few days left. I hope players and others who are looking forward to this game will wait for a few days." (~^~)