Game Development Giant

Just before arriving on the mainland, Jester suddenly had more things to do.

In particular, the copyright for Hasbro's "Real Estate Tycoon" has been negotiated. Although Mars Entertainment is now very popular in the game market, because there are no other competitors, the copyright fee charged by Hasbro is not high.

Jester was surprised to acquire the exclusive rights to PC and home consoles of "Real Estate Tycoon" for only $200,000. He originally thought he would need a share, but he didn't expect that Hasbro didn't even mention it.

It may also be that the toy giant Hasbro saw that the sales of PC games have been low and the market for home game consoles is bleak, so they did not pay attention to the share. After all, it was not worth a few dollars at all, so they asked for it. Slightly higher amount for direct copyright grant.

But Jester doesn't have time to make this game right now.

It just so happened that the later stage of the game "City of Guild Wars" was almost finished. The three-person team he formed before was also free, and there was a tacit understanding between these people. In addition, Mars Entertainment still lacked a dedicated PC developer. Game development team, so Jester had a plan to form a new team with this team as the core.

And this time when I left, I just let them make a game setting of "Real Estate Tycoon" to see if these people have the ability to take on this important task.

Therefore, Jester recruited three people, an artist, a programmer, and a planner. They were just the standard iron triangle configuration of a game team, and they could just serve as the skeleton of a research and development team.

In fact, depending on the size of the game team and the level of responsibilities, the importance of the position of the iron triangle of the game team is completely different. It does not mean that game planning is definitely more important than programming, nor does programming necessarily have a higher status than artists.

In the game industry, there has never been a saying that a certain position is the most important. For example, Shigeru Miyamoto is an artist, Yuji Naka is proficient in programming, and Yu Suzuki is a master planner.

Of course, under normal circumstances there is still a ranking of positions. For example, at the grassroots level, procedures are more important than art, and art is more important than planning. But at the middle level, it is completely opposite. The importance of the chief planner is the most prominent, followed by the art director, and then the framework. Programmer, and at the most important level of a game, the status of the game producer is unquestionable. He coordinates everything, and the main programmer is much more important than the art director.

Of course, this is not absolute. According to Jester's understanding of the future gaming industry, this can all be summed up from the different salaries of different positions in gaming companies.

Generally speaking, a truly great game is the product of a compromise between these three departments.

Just imagine, if you want to complete a function in a game, even if your plan has been completed very clearly, when you hand over your plan to the art and programmer, their thinking is completely different from yours. , so when they look at your plan, they will inevitably discount it from your original idea. After two discounts on art and programming, how far will the actual effect differ from your original idea?

Therefore, whether it is now or in the future, the real top game producers are proficient in art, programming and planning, at least two of them. If you only know the same thing, you will not be a producer at all, because of this Such people simply cannot control the intensity of a game.

There is no such thing in this world as a producer who can lead a game team based solely on his creative ideas. To be honest, a person who can only pat his head but lacks sufficient understanding of the game industry cannot even do the most basic game planning. To give a simple example, for example, if you want to add a backpack system, this in itself is no problem. , but what if it conflicts with other projects? Simply put, what should you do if someone trades with you when you open your backpack? What should you do if someone or a monster attacks you? Wait, these are all things that planners have to do. If, as a planner, you have not thought of these situations before, then it will make the entire team suffer and work in vain.

Without understanding the entire game production process, it is impossible to have a specific simulation of the final product of the game in your mind before the game is completed. Of course, there is no question of controlling the temperature of the game.

The word "heat" can only be understood but cannot be expressed. Just like a chef cooking, it all depends on the producer's personal understanding of a game. Sometimes, the team is still the same team and the members are still the same members, just because they have been replaced. Producers, the games produced with the same theme will have completely different styles, and may even lead to a significant drop in quality. There are countless examples of this, such as Tomonobu Itagaki and Yosuke Hayashi.

Of course, producers are not omnipotent. If producers do not have an excellent team to assist them, they will not be able to make good games. There are many such examples. The most famous one is that Bill Robb, the father of Darkness, left Blizzard. The subsequent establishment of the flagship studio, and the tragic "Darkgate: London".

Therefore, the birth of a good game is like industrial production. It is the joint efforts of an excellent team, rather than the whims of one person.

Moreover, an excellent game R\u0026D team is different from the production team of industrial production. The number of people is very important to industrial production, but in the field of game R\u0026D, this is not the case. This is not to say that it is not important, but that it is not important. Not very important, this is a non-essential sufficient condition, not a necessary condition.

So, what is the most important thing for an excellent game research team?

In Jester's view, the first and most important thing is the professional ability of team members. This is the cornerstone of everything. Without this, nothing can be said. Judging from the abilities of several members of the research and development team he personally led during the development process of "City of Battle", Jester believes that they are fully qualified and their professional quality is completely trustworthy.

He was convinced of this.

The second is the control ability of the game producer. Of course, this time Jester still wants to test the team, so the producer of "Real Estate Tycoon" is still himself, and he will personally control the game. You can rest assured on this point. The third is the degree of tacit cooperation between the three major departments. As mentioned earlier, making a game is a work of team division and collaboration. Unless you are one person who handles all the planning of the art program, otherwise, what will the three departments do? It is very important to be able to work together in tacit understanding and understand each other's ideas.

Playing a game is actually like getting married, but when three people get married, the occurrence of conflicts is inevitable, and there are bound to be many conflicts, such as fights at the end of the bed and fights at the end of the bed, ranging from adding an effect to fine-tuning a function. It may cause disputes between the three parties, so a certain amount of patience and compromise are essential. This is a tacit understanding.

Then, there is the ability of the entire team to withstand stress. You must know that every game currently released by Mars Entertainment has been praised and praised. This can certainly bring extremely high profit returns to the company, but it will also bring huge benefits to the employees. At the same time as the bonus rewards, it also brought great pressure. When the slogan "Produced by Mars must be high-quality" was shouted, every employee of Mars Entertainment knew that the game they were working on would never allow failure. , otherwise the company’s signboard will be smashed.

This pressure is very great.

Jester doesn't have the ability to read minds or see through the eyes, so he can't see through the stress tolerance of his employees. Therefore, it will take time to test them.

Do you think this is enough? Not even close.

The development process of a game is an ever-changing process. You never know when you will find that the progress cannot keep up and you need to dispatch more manpower. But can manpower be dispatched at will? Just recruit a few people at random and let them join the team directly and they can coordinate perfectly with the previous members?

Don't be ridiculous, even if an industry giant like Blizzard disbanded the Titan R\u0026D team and assigned the personnel to the WOW R\u0026D team, after the number of the entire team increased by fifty percent, the result was that WOW's new expansion pack This is evidenced by the fact that the R\u0026D progress has declined instead of rising.

Sometimes, more people don't mean more power.

Therefore, it is also crucial to have enough talent reserves that can be integrated into the project as quickly as possible. This is why Jester requires all new employees to work together in the 'scavengers' he formed. The reason for this period of time is to develop their tacit understanding and become familiar with the company's working style, so that when additional personnel are needed in the future, some necessary running-in time can be omitted.

There are many factors that can affect the formation of a game team, such as the execution ability of the entire team, whether the project cycle is reasonable, and whether the project funds are sufficient and stable.

Finally, a very important point is whether the entire team is confident in the project.

Jester is not worried about these. He has personally led these three people, so he knows that their execution ability is no problem, not to mention the project cycle and stable financial support. These are all Jester can guarantee. As for whether the entire team is confident about this project, you only need to know that when I told them in front of them that I had decided to start the project immediately after getting the copyright of "Real Estate Tycoon", they were so excited and surprised that they couldn't be more excited. Everything is self-evident.

In other words, the three people in front of Jester now have the prototype of forming an excellent R\u0026D team. As long as they can pass Jester's test this time, then a new R\u0026D team will be officially formed. established.

Therefore, Jester told the three of them his decision.

After listening to this, the three of them also had bright eyes and promised that they would come up with an absolutely reliable and feasible game plan before the boss comes back.

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