Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 257 Teacher Yi has started class!

Last month, when Ethan assigned the R&D department the task of producing "The Empire Strikes Back", he did tell them to write a specific design plan within one month.

Now that the time is up and the work is done, Ethan naturally has to go and inspect it.

Ethan came to the R&D department's meeting room with Damio Dean. After briefly greeting the dozen or so people in the department, he sat down on the swivel chair at the front and signaled them to start right away.

The first person to take the stage was Trip Hawkins. The guy, wearing a plaid shirt, black trousers and leather shoes, handed out a plan to everyone present and began to speak while standing in front of a whiteboard.

"Everyone, the boss said earlier that the movie "The Empire Strikes Back" can be made into two games. One game tells the story of Han Solo and Princess Leia breaking through the Empire's blockade."

"The other is that Luke Skywalker, who has received the guidance of Master Yoda, breaks into the Empire's trap alone, fights the Dark Lord Darth Vader, and defeats him."

"The game our group claimed was the first one. Since the core of this game is escape, our group decided to give the game a subtitle after discussion, called "Escape"..."

Since Ethan had already set up the production framework for the game "The Empire Strikes Back" and confirmed that the game type would be a scrolling adventure, Trip Hawkins' speech flowed very smoothly.

He followed Ethan's request and adopted a multi-character gameplay mode in "A Way Out".

In terms of character modeling, the setting in George Lucas's "Star Hope" was directly copied. Han Solo was a young man in a jacket, and Princess Leia was in a white robe.

Because both of them are armed with pistols, and in this age of pixel art, the details of the guns cannot be reflected at all, so Trip Hawkins decided to "cut corners" and use the same model.

The shooting method also draws on the mature design of "Starry Sky" and decided to make three shooting modes: upward, forward, and downward. However, the jumping of the two people is still different from the protagonist in "Starry Sky". In the original painting of the design, When Han Solo jumps, he bends his knees and straightens up, with his arms spread wide, like a roc spreading its wings, while Princess Leia ducks sideways, showing a ladylike posture.

"Uh... can this be considered a jump?" Someone interrupted here.

"Of course." A young man from Trip Hawkins' team said, "We set jumping for the characters in the game, which is to give players a way to dodge."

"Since the jump is not just for looks but has some special judgment, then the character graphics' display of this action is naturally irrelevant to the judgment."

“When Princess Leia jumps, although her action is a sidestep, and the graphic does not move up, we can modify her judgment position so that her judgment coordinates are in the air like Han Solo.”

"With this design, even if a bullet appears in front of her, it will just pass by her, which is consistent with the purpose of the evasion function we need. At the same time, this posture is also more beautiful."

Everyone at the scene understood.

The young man who asked the question asked curiously, "Is it a trouble?"

"It's not very difficult to operate." A member of Trip Hawkins' team replied, "The only thing you need to pay attention to is that when Princess Leia's coordinates are determined to be in the sky, if a bullet appears in the sky, it is very likely that Princess Leia has died even though she didn't jump, so we are still studying this action."

"Okay." The young man nodded, indicating that he understood.

After seeing that the other party was fine, Trip Hawkins looked at Ethan.

Seeing that he remained silent and just waved his hand, he understood the meaning and continued: "I have already introduced the characteristics of the game's protagonist. Next, I will talk about the specific game. Please turn to the next page. From that page on, the draft plan will print the game map and levels we drew. I will use them as a basis to introduce our ideas to everyone..."

Although the movie "The Empire Strikes Back" has not yet been filmed, George Lucas has clearly marked in the script what scene the protagonist will be in at each stage and each plot.

With this help, map design becomes very simple.

Since the place where Han Solo and Princess Leia hid in the movie is called Echo Base, the first level of the game takes place on a map full of technology.

In the original painting, Trip Hawkins used the same design as "Starfield", designing a straight road for the level, but the background was not as lazy as "Starfield". Instead, it was composed of a steel sky that covered the sky, connected steel barriers, and scientific instruments that flashed light.

Because this is a trial level for the first time in the game, players need to face some storm soldiers who are the first to break into the base. They are dressed in white armor and have only one way of attack, which is to shoot with blasters. All players need to do is to dodge the bullets and kill them.

The boss of this level is a base gate occupied by storm soldiers. Its initial health is thirty drops, which means that the player needs to attack thirty times to break through.

Its means of counterattack is also very simple. There are two openings on the top of the steel gate. They are small fortresses built by the storm soldiers. When the player appears, a steady stream of bullets will be fired from there.

Not only that, it has two stages. In the first stage, for every five drops of blood lost, three storm soldiers will rush out of the gate to attack the player. In the second stage, when its blood volume drops below fifteen, a huge turret will appear on the top of the base gate, and terrifying red lasers will be shot out from there.

The attack here is not a point-by-point attack like a bullet, but a continuous attack that sweeps everything.

When attacking, the turret will shoot a hot laser in front or behind the protagonist with the protagonist's position as the center point. The laser will continue to move towards the protagonist within the next two seconds. The method of dodging is also very simple. The player just needs to run in the opposite direction of the laser.

As soon as this setting appeared, there was a commotion in the conference room.

"What do you mean by 'shoot a blazing laser in front or behind him'?"

Some people didn't understand Tripp Hawkins' description.

"Your laser is released randomly?"

Some people found the highlights like Lee Sin.

"Uh... can I understand it as rolling the dice?"

Some people were full of imagination and speculated about how the game works. "Every time you release a weapon, the program will detect a random number and determine the direction of the attack based on the size?"

"This idea of ​​yours is really brilliant!"

"If we do this, the players won't be able to figure out the boss's movements at all!"

The exclamation triggered a burst of laughter.

That's a well-meaning compliment.

"Yes, the random release here is a pseudo-random test."

Tripp Hawkins was very satisfied with the reaction on the scene. He nodded with a smile and said, "In our concept, when the Boss's health drops below 15, it will change its form within two seconds and reveal lasers."

"When it completes the transformation, it will make a judgment. If its remaining health is an odd number when attacking, it will shoot a laser in front of the player. If its health is an even number, it will shoot a laser behind the player."

"The purpose of our design is very simple, that is, we want to add some fun to the player's game process through some seemingly random things, and make the monster look more alive. However, because this design is not truly random, and computers cannot achieve true randomness, when players master certain rules, such as counting blood grids, they can still find the secret to pass the level."

"Oh--"

Most people at the scene understood.

“This design is amazing.”

They praised.

“When first-time players don’t know how to play the game, they will be caught off guard by this boss, but as they get to know the game better, they will be able to get rid of this boss. The idea of ​​adding puzzle elements to the game is really great.”

These words made everyone in Tripp Hawkins' team laugh.

The joy that arises spontaneously is the happiness that comes from being recognized.

When Trip Hawkins turned his gaze to Ethan again, Ethan, who had listened to the whole thing and witnessed it all, still did not speak. He raised his right hand and made a gesture to move forward.

The guy who got the clear instructions took control of the situation again and introduced the follow-up content.

Since the setting of the game is that Han Solo and Princess Leia, who are in the base, need to escape the pursuit of the Imperial army. They are blocked in the base by storm troopers and must fight their way out of the base. Therefore, the map of the second level is related to the ascending channel. In Trip Hawkins' design, this is still a scroll map, but it is not a horizontal board, but an upward impact in the shape of a reverse Z.

After the player appears at the spawn point, he needs to move from left to right to the end of the map. There is an upward staircase there, but this is not a climbing ladder, but a landslide-like staircase extending to the left. Players can control the character to step directly onto the stairs, and when they climb the stairs, the character in the game will also flip, and when they walk to the end, they can reach the second floor.

Then they could see a new passage and continue to the right.

And so on. After rising three times, you will be able to see the exit.

Since this level is related to the passage, the background map is all built with pillars similar to scaffolding. The monsters in the level are still storm soldiers, and the boss at the end of the map is a huge mechanical creature.

This monster has three horns, four limbs, a cylindrical body and a semicircular head.

In the boss battle, it will take steps to charge the player, and it will also swing its limbs to beat the player.

Like the Boss in the first level, it also has thirty drops of blood. When its blood volume drops by half, it will angrily tear off its semicircular head and use it as a frisbee to bombard the player.

When the roles were reversed and the Boss's ruthless killing appeared at the same time, everyone present immediately applauded. The novel setting made them very excited, but before they could be happy for a while, they looked down and saw that the design of the third level made them even more amazed, because -

"The third level is a pure escape level."

Trip Hawkins, standing on the podium, pointed to the design in his hand and said, "In our conception, the movement of the map in this level is not driven by the player, but the map itself is updated at a fixed speed. The player's progress will not speed up its refresh rate. Not only that, in this level, in addition to the stormtroopers that appeared earlier, the player needs to face the Imperial robots..."

After the battle in the base and the escape in the corridor, the third level shows the snow-covered planet Hoth, where the Echo Base is located.

The white snow-capped mountains are the main background here, which seems to hide mystery.

The Imperial Walkers that appear in the background from time to time are Galactic Empire walkers that stand on all fours like war horses. They depict the dangers lurking behind the mystery in front of the players.

In the design of Trip Hawkins and his team, the map of the third level is still a long strip from left to right, and the main monsters are still storm soldiers. However, while players are killing the soldiers, they also have to avoid the lasers falling from the sky - every time the Galactic Empire walker in the background of the map moves to one-third of the screen, their eyes will emit red light, and then a white beam of light will appear above the head of the character controlled by the player. When this beam of light gathers, a bowl-sized laser cannon will fall from the sky. All the player can do is dodge when the laser appears.

The idea of ​​using the background to attack left the members of the other team stunned, but Ethan Jones, who was listening carefully... he finally showed some expression, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and nodded continuously.

Although this kind of semi-automatic map will be very common in the future decades later, it is really the first time it is proposed in this era. More importantly, using the semi-automatic map to trigger stable monster attacks can bring a great sense of oppression to the players.

Because when players find that they cannot control the character to update the map, the setting that they have to hide will make players feel mentally oppressed. This has nothing to do with the difficulty of the avoidance method. It is purely because the player's emotions are mobilized and they have a sense of participation.

The design of the boss of the third level is also very interesting. When players reach the end of the level due to the automatic movement of the map, they need to face AT-AT, which is the Imperial walker in the previous background.

This thing's attack method is very simple, which is to shoot lasers out of its mouth. After its health drops to half, its abdomen will open, and five miscellaneous soldiers will drop from the sky to interfere with the player.

After defeating it, the player's Han Solo and Princess Leia will be able to enter the Millennium Falcon, leave the Hoth asteroid belt that is being invaded by the Empire, and hide in the abdominal cavity of the space slug set by George Lucas in the script of "The Empire Strikes Back."

Next, there is a plot with white text on a black screen, which tells the story that although the Millennium Falcon has avoided the pursuit of the Empire, when Han Solo took Princess Leia to the planet Bespin to look for his old friend, hoping that the other party could help him, Darth Vader had arrived first.

Then, they entered the abyss again and started a new battle royale.

The fourth level is a chase with a weather nebula as the background. Although the stormtroopers appear again this time, they are covered in red and need two bullets to kill them. Not only that, because Darth Vader arrived first, there are also many bunkers on the map, and the way they are presented is consistent with "Starfield".

The bosses of the fourth level are two humans. They are bounty hunters who were attracted by the interstellar hunt order issued by Darth Vader after Han Solo escaped. One of them has a strong body and the other is an accurate shooter. They will cooperate to attack the player in a combination of long-range and short-range methods.

This is also the most difficult level in the entire game.

Because after finishing the fourth level, the fifth level will be fought by the Dark Lord Darth Vader himself. According to Trip Hawkins' design, this will be a battle that the player is bound to lose.

Commonly known as plot killing.

Players in this level have unlimited health points. As long as they hit Darth Vader thirty times, they can enter the plot. Darth Vader will show his true strength and freeze Han Solo in a crystal.

During this process, Darth Vader will wield his lightsaber to tease Han Solo. According to Trip Hawkins and his team's conception, this level mainly shows the power of Darth Vader. What he wants is for players to feel the oppression from the Dark Lord through the screen...

"Boss, I'm done."

When Trip Hawkins put down the design draft in his hand and looked at Ethan with a nervous face, Ethan, who had been silent since the meeting, laughed and said, "Okay, don't be nervous."

“You gave a great talk, so I want to hear another group’s thoughts first.”

Since there were two games to be made, the R&D department of the Destiny game divided themselves into groups of two.

As Ethan glanced around, the team responsible for the Luke Skywalker game suddenly looked at each other in confusion, because at this moment they didn't know how to evaluate this game.

They had expressed their delight earlier during Tripp Hawkins's narration, but each of their exclamations had failed to provoke a response from Ethan.

This fact made them somewhat confused about Ethan's attitude.

When Ethan discovered that his employees were embarrassed, he immediately waved his hands, signaling them not to be nervous, "Just say whatever you want to say."

"This is not an exam, and there is no penalty."

Naked words made everyone laugh a few times. After seeing that the boss's words did not seem fake, someone took the lead and expressed his thoughts, "Boss, I think Tripp and his team designed it very well." "They perfectly restored the description in the script while ensuring the gameplay."

"This will definitely make Star Wars fans very happy."

"Yes." Another person nodded and said, "What caught my eye was the pursuit in the third level, which is the automatic refresh of the map. This mode will make players feel immersive and helpless."

"Before, players might have felt that they were playing the game outside the screen, but now, players will definitely feel that they are Han Solo and are being hunted."

"Also, I think the mirror image in the second level is also well done." Others also became interested and said, "Tripp's mirror image design will make players think that we have made the character very complete."

"Because before, players could only see the right side of the character's body, but now, they can see the whole thing. But they don't know that the two sides they see are actually the same side."

"Hahahaha——" These words caused everyone present to burst into laughter.

"The first level is great too!" someone shouted.

“That random laser is a genius idea! Although it looks hard to dodge, it encourages players to use their brains and discover the inner process of game design!”

You and I talked back and forth, and Ethan nodded continuously.

After they had spoken their minds, Ethan, who was listening attentively with his arms folded, smiled and said, "Very good, you all have eyes that can discover beauty."

"I know you like this game very much. In fact, after seeing Tripp's design, I was also surprised. Their creativity made me realize that even if I am not in the Destiny game, you can still produce excellent works continuously."

"but--"

"There is one thing I personally think is not well designed."

"I wonder if you have discovered it?"

Ethan's words made everyone frown.

Almost everyone was looking around, wanting to know what question the boss was asking.
Unfortunately, even if they looked around, they couldn't find the answer from their companions.

Because they all think that "Star Wars 2: The Empire Strikes Back - A Way Out" is perfect and does not need to be changed.

And when they couldn't find the problem, guessing became the best way to answer it.

Someone asked carefully, "Is the game process too short?"

The design of the five maps took no more than fifteen minutes.

"No." Ethan shook his head.

After learning the storage prices of this era, he would not say anyone was short.

"Is it because there is a certain discrepancy between the game design and the movie plot?"

Trip Hawkins didn't actually follow the script exactly.

For example, the boss in the second-level passage was created by him.

But this——

That's not what Ethan wanted to say.

"No." He smiled and shook his head.

"Is that because the game ends in failure?"

No matter what kind of art it is, ending with the protagonist's failure is a defensive defense.

After spending their time and money, people only want to see success.

There is no way, life is hard enough, and you have to suffer after spending money? Isn't that stupid!

"No, that's not what I meant to say."

Ethan shook his head and said, “If we only release one game, I definitely cannot accept this failed ending. But when our other game tells the story of how Luke Skywalker saves Han Solo, and the two games will be released at the same time, the failure of a single game is acceptable. Or, it will arouse the players’ desire to explore.”

"After playing Han Solo and seeing the ending, players will definitely try to complete Luke Skywalker's game, because they will be eager to control Luke Skywalker to fight back."

"And players who played Luke Skywalker will definitely want to know how Han Solo, who is extremely cunning, was caught, so they will also play forward."

"In this case, the failure of a single game is an excellent setting."

The comment came as a relief to Tripp Hawkins.

When the boss says his ideas are excellent, then his settings must be excellent.

After all, no one in the world understands games better than the boss.

At the same time, he became more nervous.

When all the guesses of my colleagues are wrong...

So what went wrong with this plan?

"Boss, if you don't decrypt it, you might have to call an ambulance for me."

Tripp Hawkins couldn't hold it in any longer.

The joking words made Ethan smile, "It's not that exaggerated." He said: "The problem I mentioned is actually related to the ending of the game."

"Since you all know that players may not be able to accept the result of failure after working hard for half a lifetime, then don't you know that players also cannot accept the fact that the difficulty is too high and they keep failing?"

"Personally, I think this game is a little too difficult."

"For example, the boss's health and the boss's attacks."

"The first level's boss is made into two stages? When the boss is at full health, the minions will appear five times, and the laser attack method is not fixed. Is this necessary?"

“You may think that players find the game fun because they have overcome one difficult level after another? But I want to tell you that this is not the case.”

"You are the elites, Steven Spielberg, Steve Wozniak, they are all elites. You can persevere when you encounter difficulties, but there are countless ordinary people in this world."

“The source of happiness for most players is completing a game after working hard!”

"Instead of going through so much trouble to beat a difficult level, the next level is like a chasm!"

“When designing a video game, our core idea is to make it easy to play!”

"The advanced requirements are what make it difficult to master!"

“Let everyone be able to complete the game! Let all players appreciate the charm of this game! That is the greatest meaning of a designer’s existence! And then, how to surpass yourself? How to challenge your limits?”

"That's the players' own business!"

That's right, when Ethan heard Trip Hawkins introduce the first Boss, he felt that the design of this game might be a little difficult, which is actually not in line with the creative concept of video games.

If this argument were put forward in the future, it would probably cause a lot of people to refute it.

Because the Souls series sells very well.

The sales of "Sekiro" exceeded 10 million.

"Old Man's Ring" even reached 20 million.

but--

How many versions of Sekiro are there in this world? How many versions of Kabuki?
The games that sell more are those that are easy to get started but difficult to master.

Take It Takes Two, for example. When the maximum configuration for this game was a friend who could play with you, it still sold 10 million copies.

This is not only because the game is fun, but also because it is easy to get started.

Unless you are really handicapped.

Unless you are really not interested in the game.

Otherwise, your girlfriend will definitely accompany you to complete the game.

As a consumer entertainment product for the general public, taking care of the public's feelings is the most important thing. If an operation can only be described in words and cannot be achieved with hands, then -

Sorry, the public will definitely vote with their feet.

So, when using a national IP like Star Wars...

Allowing more people to complete the game is the core of the production.

As for the fact that games with mass difficulty may not satisfy the needs of all players?
Oh--

This is just bullshit.

As long as the game is fun, players can do everything they can to increase the difficulty of the game!

As long as the game has a wide enough audience, vanity will allow players to add their own rules!
For example, clear a level with one life!

For example, speed racing!
As long as the audience is broad enough, you don’t have to worry about players being unable to pursue themselves!

When Ethan told all the facts——

A look of enlightenment appeared on the faces of everyone present.

"Boss, I understand."

Tripp Hawkins, holding the plan, promised: "I will reduce the difficulty of each level in the next work. As for the laser in the first level——"

"Personally, I think it might be more appropriate to remove it."

Trip Hawkins' tone was filled with reluctance.

After all, it is the greatest cruelty in the world to castrate one's own work with one's own hands. What is even more cruel than this is that there is nothing wrong with one's own creativity, but it does not meet the requirements of the market.

Ethan could understand all of this because his sister had behaved in the same way when he was editing "Starry Sky".

This is actually a good phenomenon.

Without reluctance, how can there be love?

Without love, where does the passion come from?

If the creator himself doesn't have passion for his work, how can he expect others to like it?
With the courage given to you by Fish Leong?

Note: ① I made up the game, it doesn’t exist in reality. ② Easy to learn but difficult to master is the production principle of popular games. This is not my theory either, it was proposed by Nolan Bushnell in reality.

PS, regarding the issue of using 6502 in the handheld game console in the previous chapter, that was required by the plot description. The real Game Watch uses a -bit Sharp processor, but this is defective. Gunpei Yokoi knew when designing that the -bit processor could only run small games, but there was no way, they didn't have an -bit processor. And the -bit processor was so bad that Casio directly castrated some scientific calculator formulas in order to make games. This behavior caused their computers to be questioned by the market, and finally they had no choice but to give up the game calculator. According to the planning ideas of those people at that time, the most suitable CPU for handheld game consoles was an -bit CPU with a cost of about one dollar. Only when it really couldn't reach -bit would it reach -bit. I didn't write this wrong. There is a gap between the plan and the final product of a product.

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(End of this chapter)