Game Development Giant

"Is this the game?"

Jester's father still had that suspicious tone.

On the computer screen in front of him was a simple picture, with only a rectangular frame and a small box next to it. Below the small box was what seemed to be a scoring number. The number on it now showed zero. Below this string of numbers, level-1 is displayed.

At this time, the game has not started yet, and there are no various blocks falling down, so it is impossible to tell what kind of game this is.

"The game is only roughly completed, and there is still some additional work to be done later, but it is ready to play... This game is like this..."

Jester was not a person who was good at telling stories, either in this life or in his previous life, so he simply started the game directly, explaining the game to his father and Mark Saini while operating it.

The gameplay of Tetris may not seem like much in the eyes of later generations, and can only be regarded as a passable time-killing game, but in the eyes of people in this world, this game is almost a creative masterpiece.

Anyone who loves video games can't resist its excitement.

"...That's it!"

While Jester was talking about how to play the game, he demonstrated it and inadvertently turned his head to look at the two people beside him.

Unexpectedly, his father looked at him in disbelief, and Mark Saini's eyes shone, as if he had discovered something extraordinary.

"let me try!"

The tone of Mark Saini, a talented game designer, became a little impatient. His movements were very fast. As soon as Jester stood up from his seat, he sat down first, and then used his voice almost as fast as flying. Speed, start the game.

At the beginning, Mark Saini's operation was not very proficient, and he was even a little clumsy. The game often ended in just a few minutes.

But after trying a few games, he immediately figured out the tricks of the game and became more and more popular. The more skilled you become in playing.

When he accumulated two thousand points, the falling speed of the blocks in the game suddenly accelerated. This momentary change made Maxeni feel a little uncomfortable.

But he still tried hard to control the falling blocks, and he was so focused that he couldn't stop at all.

Jester looked a little bored on the sidelines. After all, he had played this game countless times. He glanced at his father who was watching with great interest and even a little eager to try it.

His eyes flashed, and he remembered that when he was writing this game, he added a two-player battle mode, which allowed two people to play and compete at the same time.

This is also the reason why he wanted to make Tetris into an arcade machine, because it is extremely confrontational.

To be honest, the most suitable platform for the game Tetris is handheld consoles, followed by arcades. As for home consoles and PCs, they are not very suitable for this game.

"By the way, I also designed a two-player mode for this game."

After hearing Jester's words, the two of them turned to look at him in unison, with excited expressions on their faces. It was obvious that they were deeply attracted by this game.

"Can two people play against each other?!" There was even a hint of surprise in Mark Saini's tone.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jester activated the two-player mode and told his father how to control 2p.

Jester's father, who had been waiting impatiently, quickly moved a chair and used the other side of the keyboard to play with Mark Saini like a child.

At this time, Jester discovered that although his father was much older than Mark Ceny, his talent in playing games was much better than that of his opponent. After several consecutive games, the final winner was It's his father.

And Mark Saini did not show the slightest hint of impatience or unwillingness to play. Instead, he challenged Jester's father again and again with high morale.

The two of them even lost track of time while playing.

Jester could only watch boredly. He really wanted to remind the two of them that he was hungry, he hadn't eaten for most of the day, and the two of you had been playing for more than an hour!

But seeing the expressions of the two of them playing like children, the innocent smiles on their faces, he thought it was better to let them continue playing.

This is the charm of video games.

Maybe it's inappropriate to say that the smiles of a middle-aged man and a young man are innocent, but Jester really can't think of a more suitable modifier to describe the expressions of the two of them at this moment.

until……

Jester's father's stomach was the first to make a growling sound, followed by Mark Saney's.

At this time, the two of them looked at each other and laughed.

"Amazing! Amazing! Jess! I can't even think of words to describe it! Masterpiece! In every sense of the word! It takes me right back to my childhood days of playing Space Invaders in the mall arcade. Fortunately, now my mother won’t spank me for this reason!”

Who would have thought that the first thing Mark Saney did when he stood up was to give Jester a bear hug. His whole body was shaking with excitement, and he hugged Jester tightly.

At the same time, Mark Saini continued to speak loudly in Jester's ears with his loudest voice, speaking so fast that Jester could only hear a rough outline.

"This game is awesome! It's the most fun I've ever played! Really! Really! A hundred times more fun than Space Invaders! I just love it!"

Jester struggled to get out of Mark Saini's embrace, and saw his father looking at him with eyes that he had never seen before in his memory.

It was a look of shock and disbelief.

It seemed like looking at a stranger.

"Jace, it's incredible! How did you come up with it? This game... Oh my god..." At the end, Jester's father even choked up a little, so excited that he couldn't continue talking.

He was so excited. He never thought that his son could make such an outstanding game.

As an arcade designer, he can be said to have played countless games, but he has never been so addicted to a game, not even Pong! nothing.

And this game is so simple, but so beautiful. It is just a simple pattern of seven blocks, and when cut randomly, it can evolve into such an unbelievable attraction.

It's incredible.

"Dad, I just came up with this idea accidentally. It's nothing special. It just came to me... Everyone is hungry. Let's eat first. I have some ideas that I want to tell you."

Jester smiled sheepishly. After all, the two people in front of him were the father of this body, a senior hardware engineer for Atari arcades, and the other was a real genius game designer. Master, and he was only able to show off his power in front of them with the help of prophets and copycats, but of course he knew very well how much he weighed.

A person must first have self-awareness.

The three of them saw that it was already close to two o'clock, and it was too late to cook at home, although Jester knew through his memory that his father was good at Sichuan cuisine.

Although Jester and his father are both Chinese, and Costa Mesa, a small town with a Chinese residence rate of 8.2%, also has a dedicated Chinese residential area, the family still lives in a place with better environment and security. of white communities.

However, the place where they live is very close to the Chinese restaurant that Jester's family often goes to, so they don't need to drive. The three of them only walked for ten minutes to their destination.

This is a Chinese restaurant called Jufulou, located next to an upscale Chinese community.

Jester's father is so familiar with the boss here that the two of them grew up wearing the same pair of pants.

Jester's father even called the owner of this restaurant his senior brother.

There is a reason for this.

Jester's family immigrated to the United States when his grandfather was a child. His grandfather, Li Yaoguang, was once a general in the Anti-Japanese War. He participated in the Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of Changsha. He had great military exploits and even won the Baoding Medal.

When the Anti-Japanese War ended, his grandfather anticipated that a civil war was very likely to break out. Not wanting to fight a civil war, he took his family across the ocean to the United States in 1945.

Before joining the army, Jester's grandfather's cooking skills were passed down to his family, and his family even owned a famous restaurant in western Sichuan.

Li Yaoguang has developed good cooking skills since he was a child. Later, after the September 18th Incident, Li Yaoguang was furious when he heard the bad news. He was still in the second grade of middle school at the time and joined the army with enthusiasm, hoping to fight the Japanese.

Later, when he arrived in the United States, Jester's father had just been born, and Li Yaoguang's family also needed to eat. He had good cooking skills and opened a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco.

Relying on his family's inheritance, Li Yaoguang changed the spicy Sichuan cuisine to make them more suitable for Americans' sweet taste. Unexpectedly, the business got better and better. It has opened more than a dozen branches and is now famous on the West Coast. The Chinese restaurant has an annual turnover of nearly 10 million US dollars.

The owner of Jufulou was an apprentice of Lee Kuan Yew at that time. Later, he came here to open this Chinese restaurant after his apprenticeship. Because his craftsmanship is authentic and he is good at Chinese tastes, he can make authentic Sichuan cuisine and is also good at American tastes. Improved Chinese food, so business is quite good.

The three of them came to the restaurant. The decoration inside was very Chinese-style. They found an empty table and sat down. Within two minutes, the restaurant owner, who was informed by the waiter in the store, came out of the kitchen with a face on his face. There was a warm smile on his face.

Jester knew that this fat-looking man was called Li Guobin. When he saw him coming, he was his elder after all, so he quickly stood up and called Uncle Li.

Li Guobin smiled and nodded, and then said with some complaint: "Xiaojie, you haven't come to my place for dinner in a long time."

Jester could only smile and didn't respond.

Jester's Chinese name is Li Jie, so Li Guobin would call him that.

Only his grandfather and uncle would call him that, but not his father. His father was born in the United States and received an American education, while his mother is a white woman who is also It was for this reason that his father had a falling out with his grandfather. He didn't even inherit the family business and simply left San Francisco and came here.

Jester's father introduced Li Guobin a few words and asked him to cook some of his specialty dishes. He originally wanted to let Li Guobin have a few drinks together, but he gave up because the restaurant had too much business and couldn't get away.

Mark Saini's taste is no different from that of ordinary Americans. He likes sweet food very much. In order to take care of his taste, Jester's father specially ordered his senior brother to cook more sweet dishes.

While waiting for the food, Mark Saini couldn't help but talk about the previous game again, full of praise.

Even Jester's father did not hesitate to praise this game and his son.

"If it weren't for this impact, not many people would still play games now. Otherwise, this "American Cube" must be worth tens of millions of dollars!"

Inadvertently, Mark Saini's words of regret silenced Jester's father.

yes! If it weren't for the damn Atari impact, the most conservative estimate of this game's sales would have been 500,000 units, or even 1 million units. Calculated at 40 US dollars per card, that's 20 million to 4,000 US dollars. million dollars in sales.

Judging from the share of distribution distributed by Atari, Jester can get at least several million dollars from it.

But now Atari doesn't even develop new games themselves, and the new boss has no interest in home consoles. It's impossible for them to help you publish this game.

Moreover, the current market response is so lukewarm, no one knows what will happen to this game after it is released.

Sometimes, when the market crashes, even excellent products cannot be sold because the market is gone.

What Mark Saini knew was that in order to regain the lost reputation, Atari quickly produced several well-made works after the Christmas boycott, but the players who had already had enough did not buy it at all. Sales were extremely dismal.

"hehe."

Seeing the two people's reactions, Jester just laughed softly, his laughter filled with disdain.

Mark Saini and Jester's father looked up at Jester at the same time. Both of them were a little confused as to why Jester could still laugh. Didn't he understand that he had probably just talked to millions of people? Did the dollar pass by?

"Father, you are an arcade designer, Mark, you are an excellent game designer..." Jester looked at the two of them, sorted out his words and tone in his mind, and spoke calmly and slowly.

"I just want to ask you one thing now, do you really think video games are dead?"

This extremely simple question, but pointed to the essence, was like a bolt of lightning, striking hard in the hearts of Jester's father and Mark Saney, causing both of them to freeze at this moment.

yes! Are video games really dead?

of course not!

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