Horrible! Actually playing this kind of game!

Chapter 155 59. I’m going to throw up

Time flies by so fast. After March, Pokeni worked at full capacity and finished "The Witcher" in May.

The game's script and world view were significantly revised in February. According to the assessment of the art team at that time, it would take about half a year to complete.

I didn’t expect that in less than 4 months, I would have already done a lot.

Shinji Mikami played a key role in this. It was precisely because of his coordination ability that he split and integrated some resources, saving a lot of art work.

For example, although some art resources need to be redrawn, the character's actions can use the original set of mechanisms. They only need to match the corresponding new resources. The new resources can be modified, but the size and texture should be as close to the original as possible. Come.

The program also shared part of the modification work.

For example, a 2D architecture that supports [changing pictures] but adapts to actions.

For example, in the deployment and integration of art resources, a more reasonable allocation method is adopted...

According to Qing Zhiyuan, what the programming team is doing now is equivalent to developing a game development engine based on the Sega MD console.

This is a pretty great thing, and it will help the team save a lot of time on new projects, at least for a period of time in the future.

Moreover, this [engine]’s support for new game images is absolutely unique, far beyond this era.

Some people find it incredible, when did pokeni programmers become so powerful?

But Qing Zhiyuan knows best——

What restricts them is not the skills of programmers, but their ideas.

The development of science and technology always comes first with [design] or [theory]. Some things cannot be done because you have not thought of them. But once you understand the needs and principles, it will be much easier for the program to implement them.

For example, [Gaussian convolution] is used a lot in art engines. The Gaussian function has been around hundreds of years ago, but because the development process of games or game development is still very short, no one can think of it for the time being. , and there is no relevant demand so it will not appear.

But when Qing Zhiyuan proposed it, they found that this thing is really easy to use. Intuitively speaking, you want a certain color value in the texture to be larger, and the transition is distributed according to a certain curve. Then use a Gaussian function and after setting some parameters, you only need to adjust these parameters to easily get the effect you want.

Before this, these things had to be drawn manually by artists. Firstly, it took too long, and in addition, they might not be produced in strict accordance with the requirements.

Once something is wrong, it will lead to rework.

This is actually a huge waste of time.

The [tooling] and [modularization] proposed by Qing Zhiyuan allow the program to share and support part of the art work in advance, allowing the art team to focus on creation, which greatly improves team efficiency.

It is precisely because of this that "The Witcher" can progress so quickly.

This shows that the overall strength of pokeni's team has reached a new level.

According to Qing Zhiyuan's theory, last year's pokeni was a piece of shit.

Of course, when the design and technology have improved, the biggest obstacle now becomes [hardware]

Qing Zhiyuan often gets angry because of hardware issues.

Damn it, the hardware in the 1990s was really far behind. If it were placed 10 years later, Qing Zhiyuan feels that they can even make old people's bracelets now.

As a result, I am still tossing the Diablo series here, and it is a 2D version. The textures also have a sense of age, which is better than mosaic, but not much.

It completely created the Japanese future feeling that Qing Zhiyuan wanted.

Laoxu and Mikami Shinji are obviously not in the mecha category, so this game can be seen that although it has a sense of technology, it is more about fist-to-flesh combat, shattering killing effects, and various powerful Destructive feedback.

Mikami Shinji can be said to be quite talented in this area.

You could see this when this guy was doing Resident Evil.

Now after being baptized by Diablo, Mikami's destructive fighting talent has been fully awakened.

Qing Zhiyuan just hopes that the combination of these two people will not be too dark.

He sometimes has to spend time on psychological construction for them, mainly for Lao Xu, to prevent this guy from going from the original [fateful sadomasochism] to the other extreme of [profound thinking].

Games need to have a high level of thinking, but it does not mean making a very depressing and dark product. Reality does not become more profound the more it is revealed, and you must also consider the psychological endurance of the players.

Don't just give someone a critical hit regardless of whether they can endure it or not.

The key is that Qing Zhiyuan is afraid of Xu Yuanxuan's psychological distortion if he goes in this direction.

Fortunately, the ending of The Witcher is not bad, Qing Zhiyuan ran down by himself. So far, this game has been well guaranteed in terms of gameplay, story and ideological depth.

Moreover, Qing Zhiyuan can deeply feel the styles of Lao Xu and Mikami.

It can be said that the integration is quite clever.

…

In March, pokeni published a recruitment notice in major newspapers.

[Game test engineers: 3 to 5 people

Responsible for quality control of the game, discovering existing problems through game testing at each stage of the game and reporting them...

Education requirements: high school graduation

Love games and be familiar with games

Computer/semiconductor majors are preferred

Salary: 200,000 to 400,000 yen/month]

Yes, in order to ensure the smooth operation of the game version, Qing Zhiyuan also specially created a new position in the company——

Game test engineer.

The legendary QA (Quality Assurance), quality assurance specialist.

Some companies are called QC (Quality Control), quality control specialists.

In the P club, Qing Zhiyuan still calls them QA according to the habit of his previous life.

It sounds very high-end, but when you say it, the work is very hard——

Equivalent to manual testing, everyone is equivalent to a real player running the game from beginning to end. Not only must the game be run according to the normal game flow, but also abnormal routines must be followed to play the game, mainly to discover the game. Hidden bugs.

For example, in Diablo, there may be situations where a stuck point prevents the monster from attacking the player but the player can attack the monster. In this case, the planned and designed values ​​are of little use.

QA needs to run out these situations and record them and provide feedback to the development team for them to make modifications.

As for those game screen glitches, freezes, inaccessible terrain, and player value overflows... these are the highest priority bugs and need to be fixed immediately after being discovered, otherwise players will be unable to play the game.

At that time, the Atari game console had too many bugs and was too shoddy, which led to the collapse of the North American game console market. Therefore, quality issues cannot be ignored in game development.

Before this, pokeni, in order to save money, the members of the project team acted as test runners themselves to discover and correct bugs.

Now that he has a certain financial strength, Qing Zhiyuan decided to recruit a few specialized testers.

It can be said that Pokeni is now at the forefront of the times in terms of professional differentiation.

This kind of professional differentiation has certain benefits, and the benefit is [professional people do professional things].

Division of labor is a very important step in the industrialization process. It allows all links to operate efficiently. Everyone can definitely play a higher value in the fields they are familiar with and good at.

But there are also certain disadvantages.

The disadvantage lies in the lack of connection. Members may have particularly outstanding abilities in one aspect and may have shortcomings in other aspects.

The end result is that it is difficult to find a producer.

Because producers need to think holistically, consider all factors comprehensively, and must be [comprehensive professionals] who have expertise and understand all aspects of the game.

Therefore, Qing Zhiyuan will ask the employees of P Company to not only make achievements in the fields they are good at, but also learn more about other people, especially what colleagues who have little relationship with them are doing. Occasionally We will also ask veteran employees in different fields to give small classes to introduce and explain their work content.

…

Many young people were shocked when they saw pokeni's [Game Test Engineer] recruitment advertisement.

"Nani, you actually have such a good job?"

“Not only can you play games, but you can also make money by playing games!”

"It seems that there are basically not many requirements. The main thing is that I like games and are familiar with them. I am very suitable. I have played more than a hundred games."

"Wow, is there a happier profession in the world than this?"

"Yes, isn't there something like [hotel sleep testers], [food review specialists] and the like? Not only can you stay in high-end hotels and experience the life of rich people, eat delicious food, but you can also make money. These are also very Happy, right?"

"But the threshold for those professions is not low. The prerequisite for becoming a gourmet is that you really have a tongue with an absolute sense of taste and a sharp writing.

It's not as simple as what P Club requires, okay? "

"Playing games every day and getting paid for it, isn't this the most wonderful job in the world? What's more, it's a game from P.

It's like we can play the game right away before it's released. Pokeni's games are famous for their high quality!

Especially in terms of plot, if you can become a test engineer, wouldn't it be equivalent to knowing the content of the script in advance? "

"Haha, then you must be able to apply for the job!"

…

In this era, game QA has not yet become a very stable and valued profession.

Although many publishers have high requirements for game quality, most game development companies do not feel the need to set up this position, but instead use an internal staff-wide approach like pokeni used before.

The earliest QA probably also appeared in this era, but it was not called QA. Many companies set up positions that allowed one or two people to experience the game from the player's perspective, thus clearing the blind spots from the developer's perspective.

To put it simply, as a game producer, you may be very familiar with the game yourself. After all, you have developed the game yourself. There are some emotional factors in it that will distort your judgment and always tend to give your own games good reviews.

But it’s hard to tell what the real situation is. In this case, [Xiaobai] needs to be tested.

Then in the subsequent development and changes, the professionalism and scope requirements for these testers became higher and higher, and finally evolved into professional QA almost 15 or 20 years later.

They not only have to undertake part of the player functions and provide opinions on planning, but also control product quality and conduct performance and functional testing. In fact, there is a high threshold in the field of knowledge and professional level, and it is not as easy as everyone imagines. .

Now Qing Zhiyuan has taken it out and made it professional.

As soon as pokeni's recruitment advertisement came out, it immediately triggered a wave of competition.

There are many people who have played the game. After all, this is Neon, the country of games.

Applicants submit tens of thousands of resumes every week.

And Koichi Tengen is one of them.

…

Little HR Akane Ayase didn't expect it to be so popular.

This is probably the first time she has encountered such a heavy workload. She has never been so busy since she became the HR of P Company.

After layers of screening, 3 candidates were finally admitted from more than 10,000 applicants.

Among them is Tengen Koichi.

This guy is not only a game fan, but also a semiconductor graduate from Dongda University. He has a relatively in-depth understanding of programs, which perfectly meets Qing Zhiyuan's requirements.

On his first day of employment, Tengen's face was filled with a happy smile. At this moment, he seemed to be the luckiest man in the world.

He was able to stand out from tens of thousands of competitors, and it was his beloved Pokeni. He could make money just by playing the game...

Is there anything happier than this in the world?

…

But a month later, Teng Genkoichi regretted it.

"Ah~ I've been really beaten to death during this period."

Doing something you like to do is a happy thing, but doing something you like to do repeatedly every day does not turn out to be as happy as he imagined.

During the final stage of The Witcher, there were quite a lot of bugs, and their testing team probably reported hundreds of bugs in a week.

And after the program has converged, as a QA, you have to check it again to see if these bugs are still there.

It was like having a big lobster meal on the first day I came to the company. It was very delicious and I also made many suggestions for improvement.

Who knows that I will be eating lobster every day from now on, and I will have to see if the chef has improved every day.

"I used to like playing games, but now I feel like throwing up when I play games." Another QA said with a frown.

After hearing his words, Tengen also felt a little nauseous.

"Yeah, who would have thought? This job is so different from what you imagined, isn't it?"

…

"However, thanks to you, the production progress of "The Witcher" is quite good."

At this moment, Qing Zhiyuan, who was passing by, took over their words and said with a smile.

Several people were taken aback and quickly stood up and said respectfully, "President."

"There is no easy job in the world, right?" Qing Zhiyuan laughed and comforted them, "Although it is hard, the quality of our products is quite good because of you.

The good news is——

The game "The Witcher" will be available next month. "

"Huh? Really?"

The three QA guys’ eyes lit up and they immediately became excited.

"The Demon Hunter is super fun. It will definitely sell well!" Teng Gen clenched his fists.

The QA girl next to me rolled her eyes, "Haha, why don't you vomit now?"

…

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No updates tonight

thank you all

See you tomorrow