Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 122 Contracts and R&D

Since Lucas was willing to let Ethan make a video game for his "Star Wars", and Ethan was happy to take over the cooperation, the next step was for everyone to sit down together to draft a contract.

Lucasfilm unconditionally licensed the "Star Wars" game development rights to Destiny. Although there is no time limit on the authorization, Destiny will not retain the game development rights indefinitely because the two parties agreed on the number of productions, namely "one".

After the electronic game launched by Destiny is on the market, the development authorization will be automatically terminated, and Destiny will automatically obtain all copyrights of the released games. At the same time, Destiny can only repair problems in the released games and sell them, and can no longer develop other games under the name of "Star Wars".

Since the "Star Wars" video game is considered a soft advertisement for the movie, Destiny needs to complete the production of the video game before the movie is released. The release date of the movie will be jointly decided by Lucasfilm and Fox Film, and is tentatively scheduled for May this year.

Of course, everyone knows that it is difficult to rush to produce a game, so when drafting this clause, Ethan also fought for the right to negotiate time. In principle, Destiny will cooperate with Fox Film's publicity and distribution plan, but if the game cannot be produced within three months, then Fox Film will also give him more time for research and development. As long as they produce Destiny within the normal development time in the industry, that is, within six to eight months, it will not be considered a breach of contract. At the same time, Ethan also requested that Star Wars could not be released during the production of the game.

Fox Films thought about this additional term for a while and then agreed.

After all, they were the ones who wanted to take advantage of Ethan's popularity.

In addition, Ethan also stated in the drafting of the contract that in order to cooperate with the film promotion, Destiny Game has the right to use various soundtracks, character and place names in the movie when making the game.

As for the cost...

The film makers will bear the responsibility.

Lucas thought this made sense.

If the game presentation is inconsistent with the movie content, then it’s just a shitty promotion!

In addition to these, the contract also contains provisions for the development of derivatives.

It has to be said that Lucas is the best money-maker in Hollywood movies. Before the movie was released, he was already thinking about the value of the IP. In the agreement between him and Ethan, Destiny Game does not have the right to develop derivative products of the "Star Wars" video game, that is, Ethan cannot develop clothing, accessories, toys, etc. in the name of "Star Wars".

To be honest, when this clause appeared, Ethan felt nothing at all. He had never thought about swallowing up the "Star Wars" IP.

But even so, he still had doubts in his heart.

Because he didn't know how Lucas could be so friendly with him one second and discuss interests here the next...

What this brother did is too superficial!
As if he saw Ethan's confusion, Lucas took the initiative to explain.

"Oh Ethan - I really don't mean this to be personal - I sold all the Star Wars rights before we even met..."

"Star Wars toys are already being made..."

"Star Wars clothes have also been produced..."

"so……"

"Fox will be furious about what my movie shows..."

Lucas smiled helplessly at Ethan.

The people from Fox nodded seriously.

'? ? ? '

Ethan was stunned by these words.

He really didn't expect that Lucas could feel so good about himself!
The movie hasn’t even been released yet, but the peripheral products are already being sold?
Is this self-confidence or arrogance?

Ethan couldn't figure it out.

But he didn't get tangled up in it. Instead, he smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. This is your movie."

Perhaps it was because both Lucas and Fox wanted to give Star Wars a try, so when negotiating the contract, the two sides decided on the power clauses very quickly, and when it came to the distribution of benefits, they just waved their hands and didn't want anything.

The three parties do not make any arrangements for any income. The money earned from the game belongs to the Destiny game, and the money earned from the movie will be negotiated by Fox Film and Lucasfilm in accordance with Hollywood rules for distribution and production. The three parties do not have any joint interests.

When the contract was signed, Ethan felt relieved.

'Melot? Atari?'

'Humph--'

"Wait for death!"

Since it was already early February, the best time for the movie to be released was at the end of May, and the actual time to make the game was only a little over three months. Therefore, knowing that time was tight, Ethan briefly said goodbye to Spielberg and Lucas after signing the contract, and then rushed back to Palo Alto.

After greeting his sister and reporting that he was safe, he went into his study room and spread out some paper to write and draw. Since he had already decided to make the game "Space Invaders", Ethan had recalled the game content in his mind many times when he had nothing to do, so even if he started at the last minute, his drawing speed was not slow. He finished all the content of the ten pages in just one night.

At seven o'clock the next morning, he knocked on the door of his sister's villa and sent her his idea.

"Oh Ethan - is this your inspiration?" After reading the creative manuscript of "Star Wars", Evelyn's pretty face suddenly showed surprise.

"Players control spaceships to fight against aliens?"

"Oh - why is your idea so similar to the story we talked about before?"

Evelyn was no fool, she could certainly tell that the storyline of Star Wars was almost the same as the casual chat they had last summer after watching the filming of Close Encounters of the Third Kind!
Ethan went out for a trip and then turned the previous story into a game?

What kind of brain is this!

Oh no!
What kind of movie is "Star Wars"?

Can Ethan turn a seemingly ordinary story into a game?
Evelyn was curious.

"Yeah! This is the story we talked about before!"

Ethan had no intention of hiding anything, and spoke out the story he had prepared long ago -

“The story we talked about at the beginning was not perfect, only a rough outline, and because the motivation was not clear, I did not make it into a game.”

"This time I went to Los Angeles and watched the movie Star Wars. The grand scenes were like a spring of fresh air, enriching the dry story."

“So, it was born.”

"So magical?" Evelin couldn't believe it.

"Of course." Ethan nodded with a smile.

“When the movie is finished, you must take me to see it.” Evelyn said, “I really want to know what kind of movie can give you such inspiration.”

"No problem." Ethan agreed immediately.

At the same time, he added: “Is this game difficult to make?”

Yes, the difficulty of game production is what Ethan cares about.

Because this means how much time it takes to make a game.

As for this question, Evelyn looked at the concept and thought for a while before saying, "Your concept is not as difficult as the previous Pac-Man, because in your design, the movement trajectories of the guardian played by the player and the alien played by the AI ​​are actually fixed."

“The Millennium Falcon controlled by the player can only move horizontally to attack enemies from above.”

"And the AI-controlled aliens can only try to break through the defense line from top to bottom."

"They don't have any more intelligent judgment, so in terms of production time..."

"It will probably only take eight to ten weeks."

Ethan liked this answer very much. "So, it can be completed by mid-April?"

“If nothing unexpected happens,” Evelyn added.

But before Ethan could get excited, she added, "However, eight to ten weeks is just an ideal situation. If Stephen can get involved and write the alien AI code with me, then I am confident that I can make this game within eight weeks."

“But if I were to write it alone…”

"That would probably be more than ten weeks."

"Although your idea seems easy, it still requires some logical reasoning. For example, the trajectory of the alien spaceship will gradually change as the number of alien spaceships destroyed by the player changes."

"Just this one variable would probably take me several days to write."

In the original version of Space Invaders, the designer's design of the alien spacecraft is actually very simple. At the beginning of the game, five rows of aliens will appear on the screen. As a group, they move left and right to avoid the player's attacks while moving forward. When they break through the player's defense line, that is, when they reach the bottom edge of the screen, the game will end and the player's guard will be declared a failure.

In that game, the increase in difficulty was not obvious. Every time the player destroyed a certain number of alien spaceships, their running speed would increase a bit. The specific manifestation was actually no different from the game "Snake", where the snake would speed up after eating a certain amount of food.

In Ethan's design, this monotonous setting of collective movement and only moving forward was slightly modified. When a certain number of alien spaceships in the same batch were destroyed by the player, several of them would break away from the main force and crash into the direction of the player at high speed.

In this way, players' thinking will not be rigid when playing, and they will not experience mental fatigue after playing for a certain period of time because the trajectory of each wave of enemies is the same. This occasional raid will keep players' nerves tense and give them a sense of excitement. Of course, the source of inspiration is "Bee".

Yes.

Ethan also borrowed from it.

And it is precisely because the AI's behavior trajectory also requires a certain degree of logical judgment. For example, the alien spaceship launching a surprise attack needs to lock the player's position, but the player's position is not fixed, so how to determine the impact location is what Evelyn has to consider.

If it was like Pac-Man, with movement locking, then the game would be over.

Because no player can escape the precision guidance deployed by Super Aim.

But if the player's coordinates before the spacecraft hits are used as the collision standard, then it will be very easy for the player to dodge. He only needs to move left or right to avoid it.

When the obstacles designed by the designer do not bring any obstacles to the players, then the existence of such obstacles is meaningless. Therefore, how to grasp the right degree so that players can feel excited but not directly end the game is what a developer needs to consider most.

And to solve this kind of thing...

It really takes time.

Therefore, when Evelyn said that she needed someone, Ethan nodded without hesitation.

"I've thought about this before. Let Damio follow you."

"Damio?" Evelyn thought for a moment and said, "Have you verified his skills?"

"No." Ethan shook his head.

"Then how do you know he can?" Evelyn asked.

Ethan would answer this question, "Because he came from Stanford."

“How did he get a degree if he can’t even write code?”

"Okay, let's try it first." Evelyn felt that there was nothing wrong with Ethan's judgment, but she also felt that when faced with such an urgent project, it might be better to let reliable people do reliable things.

"If you can, you'd better call Stephen over."

"His skills ensure that the game can be produced on time within two months."

"Then……"

"I think our company needs a group of R&D personnel."

Evelin blinked at Ethan and said, “You understand what I mean, right?”

Of course Ethan understood what his sister meant!
He had the idea of ​​recruiting troops as early as last year and was ready to put it into action.

But plans cannot keep up with changes, and some things happen too suddenly?

Of course, saying these now are just excuses.

As the president of the company, he did not manage the company well.

"I know." Ethan admitted his mistake. "After I'm done with this, I'll keep a close eye on the company's recruitment and set up a research and development team."

"Because we not only make games, but also consoles."

"As for why we are not hiring now..."

"I think you can understand, right?"

"Milova and Atari are targeting us. If we recruit a large number of people to start research and development at this time, it will be a signal of counterattack for them. We cannot send them such a dangerous signal because it may make them make more preparations. At the same time, I am also afraid that they will take the opportunity to stuff people into our company."

This consideration made Evelin nod slightly.

Then she winked at her brother again.

And that look made Ethan smile knowingly, "Okay, okay."

"Woz's side..."

"I'll go take a look."

In fact, when Ethan found out that he only had a few months left for research and development, what he wanted to do most was to bring over Wozniak, who had mastered the black technology.

He was hesitant before because he was worried about whether his calling would interfere with Apple's research and development progress. But when his sister repeatedly said that things would go more smoothly with Wozniak around, Ethan no longer hesitated and went directly to Cupertino where Apple was located.

And when Ethan walked into the three-story Apple headquarters...

He then realized that his worries did not exist at all!

Because after Apple was established, Jobs and Wozniak became hands-off bosses!

(End of this chapter)