Rebirth of America, this is my time

Since Ethan had previously drawn a practical example of "Northland Cube" for Evelin, Evelin also respected Ethan's 'design' during production. Therefore, at this moment, the handheld display of "Destiny Cube" is in line with Ethan's The Game Boy that I played in my previous life and was equipped with "*** Cube" is roughly similar.

On the left side of the screen is the game progress area, where various blocks will continue to fall from top to bottom.

All player controls will be displayed here.

On the right side of the screen is the game functional area. The score is displayed at the top. The second line is the number of eliminated lines. The third line is the difficulty of the game. The fourth line is a preview of the upcoming blocks. The fifth line is also the last. At the end, the current time is displayed.

The first two and the last two need no elaboration, they are all literal meanings.

The difficulty of the game in the middle changes based on the number of lines eliminated.

The initial value at the beginning of the game is one, it will increase as the number of eliminated lines increases, becomes two, becomes three, and as the difficulty number increases, the falling speed of the blocks will also increase.

Once the basic settings of the game are very similar to the block games I played in my previous life, the next review will be very simple. Manipulate the cross keys to control the movement of the block, and press the confirmation key to make it fall instantly.

When the crisp dingding sounds continued to appear, each block also found its suitable position. After waiting for the sound of kuangkuangkuang to appear...

The blocks connected in a row will disappear in the flash.

Although the special effects and sound effects of the game are very good, Ethan was not attracted by them.

because……

"Eve——"

"ah?"

"Did you miss some squares?"

Ethan pressed the pause button, waved the thick handheld device in his hand, and said, "If I remember correctly, when we discussed it with you before, we set a total of seven different blocks for this game."

“Respectively, they are long strips that can be represented by an ‘I’.”

"The small square represented by an 'O'."

"Dislocated trapezoid represented by 'S' and 'Z'."

"The 'J' and 'L' represent mirror right angles, and a 'T' shape."

"but now……"

"Are we missing a block?"

"If I read it correctly, there should be a trapezoid missing?"

"'Z'?"

"Where did it go?"

Yes.

After playing the game for a while, Ethan discovered that there seemed to be some problems with the game.

Because when he was playing, the game progressed very smoothly.

Although success is the norm, after all, he has a rich foundation in his previous life, but if a game continues to have those easy-to-play blocks, all success will have nothing to do with personal skills.

It's all a matter of design.

And his question also made Evelin laugh.

"You want to know where 'Z' went?" the girl asked.

"Of course." Ethan nodded.

"It's very simple." The girl shrugged, "I deleted it."

"What?" This answer stunned Ethan on the spot.

"Why?" He didn't understand.

"Because when I tested the game, I found that if the game is designed according to your ideas, the difficulty of the game will be greatly increased, and all the characteristics of the product will be erased."

Evelin picked up the scratch paper in front of her and explained——

"Although all blocks are composed of four grids, the number of layers they can eliminate is different. The 'I'-shaped strip can eliminate up to four layers at a time, and the 'O'-shaped block can only eliminate one or two layers at a time. , 'T'-shaped blocks can only eliminate up to two layers due to design characteristics, 'J' and 'L' can eliminate three layers when stacked, and up to two layers if not stacked."

"And 'S' and 'Z'..."

"No matter how we move them, we can only remove two layers with them at most, and it is very easy to create missing holes. This difficulty will make countless people face a high threshold when they first come into contact."

"So, after some thinking, I decided to delete one of the 'S' and 'Z' that can easily cause a threshold. Since they are mirror images of each other, it doesn't matter which one I delete, so I chose 'Z'."

"Because the 'Z' comes after the 'S'."

"Of course, this is the first edition."

“In the future, when we need to increase the difficulty, we can add ‘Z’ back.”

“That would make it the full version.”

"As for why I think so...that's what you said. The greatest significance of the existence of video games is to bring happiness to people, so it must be easy to learn and difficult to master."

Ethan suddenly understood after hearing this explanation.

If it is to reduce the difficulty for players and make the game more acceptable to ordinary people, then deleting a block that can easily cause holes is indeed a good choice.

Nod slightly and continue playing. After knowing the inside story, Ethan, armed with the answer, wanted to see what it felt like to play the game with the 'Z' deleted.

At first, Ethan did feel that the game process became smoother.

When only the 'S'-shaped blocks among all the blocks in the game cause trouble, holes that hinder the player will appear regularly, and they will all appear on the left.

This will make it easier for players to eliminate blocks.

But after Ethan played for a while, he felt that something was wrong.

Because the lack of ‘Z’ shaped blocks makes the game too easy.

Now he can easily eliminate hundreds of layers in ten minutes.

This situation changes the flavor of the game.

It turns out that "Northland Cube" is a puzzle game.

But now, it has become a competition of hand speed and eyesight.

This is simply putting the cart before the horse.

At the same time, the simplicity of the game also makes the accumulation of scores faster, which in turn causes the level difficulty to increase very quickly. When the numbers in the functional area on the right side of the screen soared crazily, the rapidly falling blocks and unskilled checking and filling of gaps made this game lose the meaning of calculation.

Especially when the difficulty value soars to 'eight'...

That was not a speed that ordinary people could control, at least not a speed that Ethan could capture, which made him put a big 'X' on Evelin's modification.

As the Game Over logo popped up, he also put down his handheld device and said——

"No, no, no, Evelyn, I still need 'Z'."

"I think you may have misunderstood me."

"'Destiny Cube' is not 'Snake', it does not test the player's reaction ability. It is a puzzle game, and the area involved is the player's logical thinking."

"In this case, there will definitely be a certain degree of difficulty. We cannot artificially lower the difficulty, because once we lower the difficulty, the meaning of the entire game will change."

"And, when you were making the game, didn't you find that the two squares 'S' and 'Z' are actually complementary? They can be perfectly combined with the inverted 'T'."

"This is already a reflection of the difficulty reduction."

"Not to mention, we made the most commercial design from the beginning."

"As the game progresses, the speed of the game will gradually increase..."

Happiness and business have never been able to coexist.

If a game can create infinite possibilities and allow players to play it day after day and year after year, then there is a high probability that this game will not become the most successful commercial product.

Because no matter whether you use a buyout system to charge, a point card system to charge, or even a buyout plus point card plus mall method to charge, you can only earn a certain level of profit.

Compared with those who open brothels and casinos in the virtual world, the turnover created by these methods is really too little. Therefore, if you do not touch these messy things, if you want more people to be your own If the product is paid, then the threshold for the game needs to be lowered to a minimum.

This was Evelin’s motivation for deleting the ‘Z’.

She is eager to attract more players with simple games.

The deeper meaning is also very simple, to make players pay twice by launching advanced versions.

But it's a pity...

Her attempt was unsuccessful.

If lowering the game threshold would make the game lose its original meaning, then Ethan would rather not make changes.

What's more, in his previous life, countless players have proven that "*** Cube" is the most successful video game in the world, bar none.

Since the original version is the best, then the changes...

It seems a bit redundant.

Of course, thinking is a good thing.

"Okay, let's use your version." Evelin is not the kind of person who likes to be more serious. Since Ethan thinks her design is not good, she will give up decisively.

"Then I'll weld the version with 'Z' into a handheld console?"

"I still have the corroded circuit board. It will take about a day to assemble it?"

"Okay." Ethan had no objection.

He could still afford to wait for these hours.

And his belief was rewarded. On the morning of the third day, Evelin handed him the newly welded handheld console. After a simple test, he was very satisfied with the game that was not much different from the previous game.

After playing it for a while and not finding any problems, the next thing to do is to assign testers to the game, use mechanized play to detect whether there are any running failures in the game, and try to find possible code vulnerabilities. After all, there is no perfect software in this world.

And when Ethan came to the R\u0026D department with "Destiny Cube" and showed the handheld console belonging to Destiny Game to the guys inside, the scene that was originally clouded by Nintendo's release suddenly ushered in its own spring... ...Oh no! It has become a passionate summer!

"Oh! Sxxt! Boss! So you also developed a handheld console?"

Tripp Hawkins looked at the machine made of wood with a blank expression, and shouted with his mouth wide open: "MFxxk! I have been worried these days! I thought Nintendo had taken a path that is unimaginable for ordinary people! But I didn’t expect, boss! You actually did it too?”

"..." Ethan choked for breath.

The words that sounded like 'Shaq did it too' made his head full of black lines.

It even gave him a taste of accusations of plagiarism.

And just when he raised his eyebrows and was about to teach this young man a lesson about what trouble comes from his mouth, David Crane, who was standing next to him, took action first and gave Tripp ·Hawkins made a big ass, and then said loudly: "Oh, my brother, what are you talking about!"

"What do you mean the boss also did it?"

"Although inspirations are invisible and intangible, it takes a certain amount of time to turn them into reality. It cannot be done by just tapping on the forehead!"

"So, if the boss can take out the handheld console at this time, it must mean that the boss has been secretly developing this product with the chairman a long, long time ago!"

Tripp Hawkins was stunned for a moment when he heard the machine gun-like words.

After he noticed that David Crane kept blinking at him, he finally understood that his words were full of ambiguities. Ever since, the next second, his face was instantly filled with smiles.

"Ah, yes, yes..."

"We all know that game development is very time-consuming. Especially when we are working on creative and interesting games, it will take more time."

"If I remember correctly, boss, was your last game still "Starry Sky"?"

"That was all two years ago?"

"Oh my God!"

"You actually spent two years developing this handheld console?"

"Oh! I believe this game will be amazing!"

The unabashed words of dog-licking made Ethan's head full of black threads, and the fact of his decisive surrender made him roll his eyes and throw the handheld device in his hand to Tripp Hawkins.

This behavior made Tripp Hawkins open his arms and accept it with a face of joy.

The people around him gathered around him like migratory birds returning to their flock.

Under their gaze, Tripp Hawkins also turned on his handheld device. When the dynamic electronic music played, DuangDuangDuang's keystrokes also sounded crazily.

That's a sign of eagerness.

It is even more of a display of desire.

Since Ethan did not introduce them to how to play the game, Tripp Hawkins spent some time fumbling around when he first started playing. The sound of failure sounded one after another in the huge office.

But after he mastered the trick and passed the novice stage, the continuous eliminations made him discover the fun of the game, and made everyone around him look at him——

"Is this another infinite streaming game?"

"Looks like a jigsaw puzzle."

"The player controls the puzzle pieces, puts them together, and can they be eliminated if one line is met?"

"Oh! It's not that simple! Because the puzzle pieces here can also be flipped!"

"What?" Someone didn't respond.

The guy who had already seen the problem said loudly: "This is not an ordinary jigsaw puzzle! Because normal puzzles have position restrictions, each small piece must be placed in a predetermined position. Only in this way can a pattern be harvested, but now , the blocks inside can be flipped, and all blocks have no position restrictions. This setting means one thing, that is, no one knows which level they can reach and how many points they get before the game is over! "

"It also means that players can use their imagination to spell out whatever they want!"

"What's more, it's a truly unlimited game!"

"Although the "Snake" game made by my boss before was also an unlimited game, that game was not actually infinite in the true sense because when the snake overlord's body occupies the entire screen, it will enter its final death state. ! But it’s different now, the disappearance of the puzzle can make it truly infinite!”

"This special code is a miracle!"

"Oh! Boss! You are so awesome!"

When the guys in the R\u0026D department screamed with excitement, Ethan, who was leaning aside with his arms folded, also laughed, and when the guys in the company had seen the magic of "Destiny Cube"...

"Then the testing of this game will be left to you."

“It will be available in six months’ time, which is Christmas this year.”

"No problem, boss!" The guys present agreed.

At this moment, they are gearing up and vowing to experience the magic of cubes.

And when they looked at Ethan with excited faces, eager to get more machines...

They found that the boss turned around and wanted to leave?

This situation made them confused and asked, "Boss, where is our machine?"

"Ah? This is the prototype."

"What? One? How do we test this?"

Everyone was immediately dumbfounded.

There is no way Ethan can solve this matter.

"If you want machines, go to the chairman."

"She can weld one piece a day now, so..."

Before he could finish his words, the group of bastards rushed out like arrows chasing the wind.

Looking at the suddenly empty office and listening to the bang-dong-bang-dong going up the stairs, the smile on Ethan's face became even brighter. This situation made him clear that "Destiny Cube" was only one step away from success. .

At the same time, he knew better that there was not much time left for Nintendo.

And just when he was leaving the R\u0026D department with his hands behind his back, about to return to the office, and thinking about how many opponents he still needed to deal with, a fat figure suddenly jumped down from upstairs.

"Boss? You're here!" Ballmer shouted suddenly.

"What's wrong? Do you have a problem with me?" Ethan looked confused.

"Something's happening! Something big!" Ballmer nodded repeatedly and said excitedly: "You may not know, but a breaking news broke this morning! Disney has been sued!" (End of Chapter)