Game Development Giant

After reading this post, even Jester came out to reply.

Because of the recent carnival, Jester has been too busy, and Jester has not appeared in the forum often. Therefore, many players in the community who like to discuss things with others in the forum think that this is Jester's interest. , will not come again.

Jester replied after this post, and he himself agreed with this view: ""Planescape: Torment" and "Monster Hunter" are different in every way, except that they are a designer and a game In addition to the company's products, to be honest, when designing "Monster Hunter", I myself hesitated for a long time - whether to design it to be so core."

"For this issue, or doubt, I discussed it with many people, my colleagues, friends, etc. I even flew to Japan and asked people like Itagaki Tomonobu for their opinions. Their opinions were different. Miyazaki Mr. Motomo's idea is a bit like my previous development idea, which is that it is easy to get started, but difficult to master. He believes that this is the basis for ensuring both quality and sales. And Itagaki Tomonobu told me that he believes that ACT games, Make it more difficult to create a sense of fear, and as soon as people see this game, they will have the idea that it is an ACT game."

"Moreover, Mr. Itagaki Tomonobu also told me that ACT games are really difficult to make simple. If you can play it with one click without thinking, what kind of ACT game is that? Is it an ARPG game disguised as an ACT game? ?Then why should I do ACT instead of ARPG?"

"Besides, players who like to play ACT games do so because they like challenges..."

“At that time, I hesitated between these two choices for a long time. In the end, I adopted Itagaki Tomonobu’s point of view. Therefore, I don’t think this game will be too popular, because it is really not suitable for those who have not been exposed to this type of game. How friendly - if I talk about my other games, some light players can still get a lot of fun from the easy-to-play games."

"So in "Monster Hunter", some light players may have a very frustrating gaming experience. Yes, I used the words "very" and "frustrating" to express it, because that is the fact, no matter what we are doing Internal alpha testing and some players previously invited to our headquarters for trial play. Some players who don’t like ACT games very much, such as an avid fan of Mr. Sid Meier’s “Civilization” series, said, He can't get any enjoyment out of this game."

"The same is true for us internally, and many people. To be precise, more than one-third of the people who participated in the alpha test expressed the same view, that is, they have no way to have fun in this game, even One-third of them can't even pass the lowest level hunting certificate at the beginning, let alone the more powerful monsters that follow."

"This issue has also caused a lot of discussion within us."

"Because as we all know, our first principle for recruiting players is to come and work with us. No matter what kind of job it is, you must be a fan of games. If you are a fan of our games, then You have a greater chance of being hired - this is a necessary condition, unlike other companies, where you only need to have outstanding abilities."

"We are a gaming company, not any other company, so this is particularly important to us."

"We always believe that only a person who is passionate about games can design passionate games. And no matter how good a person's ability is, if he has no interest in games, then what he designs will be more like A commodity rather than a game.”

"This is not allowed in our view."

"Our company is basically different from other companies. For example, there are a lot of otakus. Really, if you want to sing, everyone will hide around and drink Coke. If you want to say N years ago, Which game is on which console, who made it, and which one is better? Countless people jumped out. Everyone has their own answer. Even if you don’t agree with his answer, he can still talk to you about it. All day long. Trying to reverse this 'mistake' of yours - yes, it's a mistake in their eyes that you like this game and not that one."

"Let me talk about something I encountered when I was wandering around the headquarters recently. In front of the building near area B, because we have banned smoking in the building, a group of people squatted at the door to smoke and discuss the next architecture of Intel. I was unhappy. At that time, a Latina girl from the logistics department jogged past, but no one even looked at her..."

"Okay, back to the topic, this time a lot of people internally called our game very frustrating to play. They didn't say it wasn't fun, but they used an even worse word to describe it, that is, it's not fun to play - but with At the same time, there are also many people who say that this game is really great and that they have an unparalleled sense of accomplishment after every successful hunt."

"As this post said, there are two kinds of evaluations of a game: incomparable and useless. At that time, we ourselves were confused. Many people didn't know whether we should continue to design like this or change the style. Makes the game a little easier.”

"We had a very heated discussion afterwards."

"The whole discussion process lasted for several days. We basically didn't do any work during those days. We were just discussing, starting from our initial plan, re-discussing it one by one to see where we were. Something went wrong - but after we re-examined the entire development process, we were surprised to find that we did a very good job, and everything was carried out according to our plan from the beginning."

"However, this brings us to the biggest problem. How to redesign a game when the game is basically taking shape?"

"Redoing this kind of thing is not a new thing within our company. We have projects that you know or don't know that have gone through reworking. Some of them are a whole game directly reworked, and more often some The revival of small projects.”

"At this time, I said, since we didn't make any mistakes, why should we do it again? I thought about it myself, what kind of game are we going to make? Is it a game like "American Cube" And a game like Super Balotelli that everyone loves and can be played by everyone?"

"of course not."

"What we are going to do is a challenging ACT game. Being difficult to get started is its characteristic and its advantage, not a disadvantage. I think we are a little too nervous. In fact, the development idea of ​​​​this game at the beginning Just make a type of game, consider one type of players, and not consider others. This is the core of the development of this game."

"We do not develop games for all game types. We only develop games for players of one type of game. I once said this to some niche game developers, that is, there is no need to Make a game that hundreds of people want to support, but a game that firmly captures the hearts of 100,000 people. Then, we hope to pass on the fun of this game to the next generation..."

"You also know the story that follows. Of course, the version you played at the carnival was a version in which we have weakened the difficulty a bit. Our internal alpha version is about 100% more difficult than the one you played. thirty……"

Jester's long post received crazy likes from players as soon as it was posted.

This answer perfectly answered the previous dispute about this matter, although Jester did not explicitly state his expectations for the sales of this game.

But it can be seen in Jester's eyes. A fun game, a game that fits his characteristics, is much more important to Jester than a game that sells better.

This is also part of what Mars Entertainment has always been adhering to in making games.

"Why do we sell the best games? That's because we make the best games."

Since Jester likes to answer questions on forums, many game media, other game forums, and even some game websites will arrange special personnel to collect records. Of course, it is not just collecting and recording Jester’s posts. Because this can be regarded as a tradition of Mars Entertainment. They have their own dedicated game forum, which is certainly not a display.

On this forum, they have a dedicated team of account managers who will answer players' questions. Designers will also go to their own forums from time to time to reply.

Therefore, many people who want to get first-hand information need to wait at all times, but now some different media will join forces. For example, one media is responsible for several sections, and then notify each other when there is new news. one time.

It is different from the heated discussion caused by "Monster Hunter" among the player base. After all, "Monster Hunter" is only roughly completed now. According to the development team's answer at the carnival, the game is only 60 to 70 percent complete. It can be played if it is playable. , but they have not yet reached their perfect form, so it will take at least half a year to perfect and test.

In the real world, after the announcement of the expansion pack "Brood War" of "StarCraft", it quickly ignited the passion of RTS game players. This expansion pack played a very important role in balancing the entire game. After two months passed, players' enthusiasm for this game reached its first climax.

Because whether it is GDC or VGA, their selection of games of the year is actually quite strict in their selection.

For example, only original games will be selected, but expansion packs will not be selected.

This year's candidate games were announced by the organization in January, because "StarCraft" is an expansion pack this time. Although this expansion pack directly improves the game, it still cannot be a candidate for the game of the year.

This makes many RTS game fans extremely dissatisfied.

In desperation, VGA is a selection made up of media after all, and their response is also the fastest. After all, they have the most contact with players. They have temporarily added a new award to this award. Then It is the best expansion pack. Of course, everyone knows that this award must be specially set up for "Brood War".

This situation has also attracted great attention in the gaming industry. After all, this is the first time that a game has been completely transformed with just one expansion pack.

Coupled with the original version of StarCraft, it was already an extremely good game.

This is even more valuable.

In the past, game companies in the industry have never paid such attention to expansion packs. It can be said that this time Pardo has taught many people a lesson. As for WAR3, it has also attracted a lot of attention, but because of the leaks revealed at the carnival The information that came out was really sparse, so there wasn’t much to discuss about the carnival.

Pardo said what is the difference between WAR3 and other RTS games such as "StarCraft"? He summarized it in a very simple sentence.

"When I was discussing with BOSS how to make this game, BOSS was studying how to merge different types of games. For example, "Tomb Raider" did very well, although it was a little later than expected, but You will be able to play him by Christmas, which is a great example of combining action and adventure, but other than that, how else can we combine it?"

"For example, one of our teams is thinking about whether we can combine FPS or TPS with elements of Darkness LIKE?"

"Then, can we imagine what would happen if we connected some of the most unlikely game types? Then, BOSS came up with an idea of ​​​​a combination. He looked at me at that time, his eyes glowing, He said to me with a happy face, "Rob, what do you think about combining the two genres of RTS and RPG?"

"To be honest, when I just heard these words from BOSS, my head suddenly went blank. RTS and RPG? Can they be connected even if they don't want to shut them down? Is this a joke?"

"But, I immediately had an idea, what if there is really something promising?"

"Soon, when I was thinking about how to combine these two genres, my boss, Mr. Jester, had already begun to introduce to me endlessly how to combine "WAR3" with RPG and RTS elements. designed……"

"Believe me, my mouth was so open that it could fit two eggs!"

In an interview with the development team at the carnival, Rob Pardo shared some of his experiences in developing WAR3 with players. (~^~)