Game Development Giant

As the opening of GDC approaches, Mars Entertainment and Jester himself, as the biggest favorites to win the annual award, are naturally the focus of attention.

The reputation of this newspaper is not small. Although it is not as good as "GAME", the number one journal in the gaming industry that is published across Europe, America and Asia, in an era where periodicals have not yet declined, this magazine called "Game Art" , still has a sales volume of close to 100,000 copies, which is a very good number. You must know that even the circulation of "GAME" in North America is only 400,000 copies.

This time, "Game Art" does not specifically introduce Jester.

Because this GDC has added a new award. In addition to the well-known highlight Game of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award, a Best Contribution Award has also been added. The object of the award is the greatest contribution to the development of electronic games. There are some game companies or teams, and the two favorites in this year's first session are Atari and Mars Entertainment.

But now Atari has been acquired by Verizon. It is just a small company under Verizon. It only develops one or two games a year. They are basically forgotten by new players in this era. So this time Mars Entertainment has the highest voice.

This time, "Game Art" conducted a comprehensive introduction and exclusive interview with Mars Entertainment.

Of course, the interview with Jester and Jester's thoughts on his new game are of course the top priority.

“The Twelve-Year Road: From Obscurity to the Legend of Our Time.”

This is the title on the cover of this issue of the journal given by "Game Art". Behind this title are the character images of some classic games of Mars Entertainment. It can be clearly seen that what is said here starts from Who is the legend of the times talking about?

At the beginning of this journal, there is an article introducing Jester.

First, he praised Jester fiercely, basically calling him the god of games. Of course, in fact, Jester's status in the video game industry is similar to this.

"...Jester Lee once again became Time Magazine's Person of the Year this year. Of course, this time he did not become Person of the Year like the time many years ago because he revived the dying United States. The video game industry, but because of the rapid growth of his personal wealth in the past few years. He is thirty-one years old this year and is the youngest person in the world with a personal wealth of five billion..."

Sales of this magazine were very good after it was released, because Mars Entertainment was a hot topic during this time.

"Mars Entertainment changed everything."

In the main text of this magazine, the editors of the magazine praised Jester in the previous preface, and then unceremoniously added their praise to Mars Entertainment. Of course, Mars Entertainment is also worthy of such a title. They have gone through a total of 16 years from their birth in 1984 to 1996. They have indeed made real changes under the leadership of Jester. entire video game.

In fact, they completely changed everyone's view of video game development.

Especially e-sports, which Jester began to promote ten years ago, has developed over the past ten years and was included in last year's Mars Entertainment World Grand Prix. The ratings of the TV show completely surpassed the focus of the NBA's contemporary games - of course, the ratings of basketball in the United States are not high to begin with, but after all, this is already a very big improvement for e-sports.

It can even be described by what Armstrong said after landing on the moon. Although this is just a trivial thing, it is a milestone event for the cause of e-sports.

In the magazine, "Game Art" continues to boast about Mars Entertainment, as if it is unreasonable not to give them the Greatest Contribution Award at this year's first GDC.

"No matter where you stand, this statement is hard to argue with. If you are a gamer. The games you have played in the past decade or so almost certainly borrowed some elements from Mars Entertainment games. If you are a gamer designer, then you or the friends you work with must have played Mars Entertainment or Jester's games and absorbed inspiration from them. Even if you don't care about games at all, the video game culture represented by Mars Entertainment It has become a very common phenomenon around the world..."

"Few would disagree with these statements. This is a company that has been established for twelve years, starting with a few dozen employees. It now employs close to nine thousand employees around the world, although their sales figures have never been published. However, according to outside speculation, their annual profit is even more than the entire box office revenue of Hollywood in a year. More importantly, the box office figures of their own movies based on game characters are very high. Very good..."

"We have previously interviewed members of a mysterious team called 'Sons of Mars' in Mars Entertainment. Many media magazines have introduced this team many times. This is the most elite team of artists and screenwriters in Mars Entertainment. An art team is formed, and only the best one can become a member of it.”

"The person we are interviewing this time is Chris Mason, the youngest member of the Sons of Mars."

"Chris Mason was only nineteen years old when he joined Blizzard Entertainment. Mason hilariously described his state at the time - he was probably a 'silly little kid who loved to draw and make things,' and At the beginning, I never even thought that I would work in video games in the future. I just submitted my resume to Mars Entertainment because I was bored, and they took a fancy to me..."

"As an energetic, creative and rebellious young man, Mason thought he would move between various walks of life to pursue his dreams, whether it was movies or comics, and of course he might also be involved in the gaming industry for a while. He He described to us that what initially attracted him to the game was the unlimited creativity it showed. He said this. At that time, there were all kinds of things that attracted him to do it. There were no rules to limit what type of games he was playing. It’s really crazy that the game will be successful... In different games, you can fully demonstrate your imagination and design characters full of fantasy tension. When the characters you design are recognized by others. Then It’s a great feeling and experience!”

"... Of course, I know about Sons of Mars. This team is really famous among our group of artists. Many of the artists in it can be said to be my idols... I originally just wanted to get a signed sketch of my idol. But I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to join them and fight side by side with them! You know, there are hundreds of artists in the entire Mars Entertainment. If you include those painters in Europe and Japan, there may be thousands of painters, but Sons of Mars There are less than thirty members..."

"To be precise, there are only twenty-seven of the Children of Mars including me. This is the best team of painters in the entire industry. When I was told that my ability was recognized by the members of the Children of Mars, I became one of them. When, I almost went crazy with joy..."

"It is said that this time Mason, a 23-year-old young man, will serve as the art director of Jester's new game. I am also very excited about Mason. He has been responsible for the art work of "Diablo" before. It was precisely because of his outstanding performance in "Diablo" that he was successfully recognized by the 'Sons of Mars' and became one of them..."

"Mason is also a little excited about being the art director of Jester's new game, although he also knows that he will face a lot of pressure. After all, this is Jester's game. Previously, Jester Ste's games are all done by the best people from the Sons of Mars who are responsible for the art work. Although he is only one of the three art directors this time, according to Mason, the three art directors all have the same power... "

"Of course. Our editors are also very curious about how three art directors with the same power can unify their styles, but based on Jester's long-standing approach, there must be a reason for him to do this..."

This issue of "Game Art" contains a lot of interviews with people within Mars Entertainment, especially some artists or programmers who don't usually accept interviews. Of course, they are basically interviewed. It is basically confirmed that they will participate in Jester's new game. It can be regarded as taking advantage of the opening of GDC to do a comprehensive promotion and advertising for their new game.

However, later in the article, the editors of "Game Art" were also a little dissatisfied, because although they interviewed a circle of people from Mars Entertainment, they still did not ask what type of Jester's new game it was. They didn't even ask what kind of gameplay or even the name of the game, which made them complain that Mars Entertainment was too careful.

Anyway, Jester said it would be made public after GDC.

Why are you still secretive now? Even your name is not openly shown to others.

Jester’s interview mainly talked about his development for the major awards of this year’s GDC. Of course, Jester is a very confident person. He basically has no idea that the game “Heroes” swept GDC. With a hesitant attitude, he was noncommittal about his Lifetime Achievement Award. He said that it was recognition of workers in this industry by others. As for whether his company would win the Greatest Contribution Award, Jester had a few words. Very intriguing words.

“I think the companies that can be nominated this time are all very great + including Nintendo, Atari, and of course my own Mars Entertainment. These game companies all regard it as having made huge contributions to the development of electronic games as a whole. We have worked hard, but for us, whether we can win this award is not the most important, and we don’t need to rely on this award to prove ourselves.”

"In fact, what we have been doing is no different from what we did 12 years ago."

"Although our current scale and our current capital are countless times greater than that of that time - however, we must firmly remember that over the past twelve years, our original intention - to create what we love with passion and fight for our beliefs .”

"And what do we believe in?"

“The moment Mars Entertainment was founded twelve years ago, we decided to make the best games possible.”

Jester's words were quite emotional, and he later talked about his new game. Of course, he also wanted to answer some questions that many players had about this game.

During GDC, Jester will meet with some friends who don’t meet often, such as designers from other game companies and some friends who have worked together before - Mars Entertainment has never been a dictatorial company, and he will not limit The flow of personnel. In fact, the outstanding industry talents trained by Mars Entertainment are the most sought-after in the industry. Many game companies often come to Mars Entertainment to poach people.

Jester didn't do much to stop this, and he didn't issue any harsh contracts to restrict employees, such as industry prohibition clauses.

Someone has also raised it in internal meetings, but Jester’s statement is very simple. He believes that if a person wants to leave your company, there are only two situations. One is that he is in your company. Living an unhappy life - feeling wronged or unable to see your future. The second option is that you don't give me enough money.

In both cases, it would be reasonable for an employee to ask to leave.

There is absolutely no need to ban them from the industry.

Mars Entertainment is not such a courageous company. Our success is not achieved by restricting our opponents, but by having the strongest strength in the entire industry. We have the most powerful creative team, the most powerful technical team, and There is no strong art team.

Jester also used this point to convince many people in the company. It is precisely because of the extremely free atmosphere of Mars Entertainment that it attracts outstanding talents to join.

Although there is an outflow of talent within the company from time to time.

But some elites from other companies will come to Mars Entertainment to apply for jobs from time to time.

"What do you think Jester's new game will be like?"

One day before the start of the GDC conference, on the Mars Entertainment official community, another official suddenly announced such a physical post. This is a post with prizes for answers. As long as you can reply before the start of the GDC conference tomorrow, and answer The closest player will have the opportunity to visit the Mars Entertainment headquarters and participate in the development of Jester's new game. (~^~)