America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 329 The Unusable Touchscreen

The true flourishing of this type of game may begin with a 94 DOS title.

Worms, developed by Team17

Team17 can be considered a prominent figure in the video game industry.

They started as a publisher in Britain and built their own development team.

In just a few years, it rapidly expanded into a leading company.

With a portfolio of hit titles, it has become a significant publisher and developer on the Amiga platform.

As for Worms—players from the mysterious Eastern forces are probably more familiar with another IP derived from it.

DDTank

Regardless of the circumstances, these cases are enough to prove that artillery games always have their own market.

At the same time, it also possesses the key qualities to be a launch title for NovaSwift.

Simple! Direct! Awesome!

The game design is WYSIWYG, based entirely on simple, instinctive controls, and aided by a physics engine.

All of these factors combined create a great game that even an 80-year-old can instantly enjoy.

"There have been a lot of hardcore games lately, it's time to switch things up with something more refreshing."

Lin Lixin grinned.

As the saying goes, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

This statement is perhaps the most fitting summary of the key to what makes this type of game so captivating.

"Hey Sam, here, I just made this on the spot."

Lin Lixin pulled a slingshot from his pocket and tossed it to Sam before continuing, "Artillery games aren't new, but if we want to do them well, we still have to take it seriously and give it our all."

"Like Hill Climb Racing, what we need is to subtract, to subtract a lot!"

The simpler and purer it is, the more captivating it becomes.

Sometimes, a simple, repetitive action can be addictive in itself.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Sam, who was sitting to one side, seemingly lost in thought.

This guy is unconsciously pulling the slingshot in his hand and firing it without a hitch.

Judging from his eyes, he seems to have already lost his mind.

With just this slingshot, without even needing to prepare any projectiles, you can easily smooth out the wrinkles in a person's brain.

In fact, the stress-relieving toys that become popular every now and then in later generations are pretty much the same thing.

Whether it's a fidget spinner, fidget blocks, or a card pusher, the underlying logic is the same.

Video games have a huge advantage over these stress-relieving toys.

Dynamic goals and challenges.

That is, they had already thoroughly grasped the flow theory back in the "Hill Climb Racing" era.

"But—why a slingshot?"

Will stared at the bouncy bow in Sam's hand, somewhat puzzled.

Based on their capabilities, they should theoretically be able to create the world's most advanced ballistic calculation simulator.

"If it's ballistic simulation, wouldn't it be better to make tanks or even warships?"

Imagine players piloting a heavily fortified battleship across the sea.

Players must actively calculate parameters such as ballistic angle, propellant type, and launch distance.

The two fleets continued to bombard each other.

Just thinking about it is so exciting!

However, Lin Lixin actually planned to turn it into a bouncy bow!

Who can hold their tongue like that?

"Battleships—I do have that idea, but the current technology isn't mature enough. I think we'll definitely do it when the wave of 3D technology really arrives."

Lin Lixin laughed heartily.

He's familiar with this; it's like making slop poop—something he'll definitely have to do sooner or later.

However, NovaSwift is not a machine with that kind of personality by nature.

Different gameplay styles and themes should be chosen to cater to different player groups.

He recalled what Jaakko, the producer of Angry Birds, said in an interview: "The only thing that can make players immediately understand how to operate it is the slingshot."

97

In the original version, Angry Birds actually had nothing to do with slingshots.

But when producer Jaakko showed it to his friends to try, none of them had any idea how to play it.

This situation is undoubtedly fatal for a casual game.

Keep in mind that this was in 09, when touchscreens and smartphones were already widespread; it was truly unacceptable that this situation occurred.

So Jaakko began to try various different methods.

The answer that ultimately stood out was—the slingshot.

An instinct etched into the human genome.

"NovaSwift is aimed at players of all ages. What we need is a design that players of different cultures and ages around the world can understand at a glance."

Lin Lixin reached out and snatched the slingshot from Sam's hand. "It's such a little thing, tell me, who could resist pulling it a couple of times?"

Third floor, hardware department.

Lin Lixin and Gerald conducted a simple verification of the technologies needed for the project.

-

The result was naturally without any problems.

The persistence of analog signals has once again proven its significance.

"On another note,"

After briefly understanding Lin Lixin's idea, Gerald had another solution in mind. "Lin, have you ever thought about whether we could try making a touch screen?"

"Touchscreen?"

"Yes, I actually wanted to talk about this when I was making 'Cut the Rope'."

Gerald nodded and flipped a palm-sized, semi-transparent panel from the table.

Two ribbon cables extend from one side of the panel.

With Lin Lixin's keen eye, he could recognize what it was at a glance.

Resistive touchscreens are a technology that was invented as early as 71.

This is a hardware technology that uses pressure to bring two conductive films into contact, and then determines the click location by detecting changes in resistance.

"Touchscreen" is not a new concept.

If you could interact with the screen by simply tapping it, wouldn't that be incredibly awesome?

While keyboards are powerful, they are not flexible enough.

While the mouse is flexible, it is not a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) system.

The joystick lacks precise positioning —

Every interaction method has its own area of ​​advantage and its own area of ​​disadvantage.

Judging from Lin Lixin's eyes, Gerald could tell that he definitely knew what this thing was.

"Indium tin oxide deposition film".

Gerald rubbed the translucent glass plate with his hand.

What reduces its transparency is the thin layer of indium tin oxide deposited on it.

Indium tin oxide, also known as ITO, is a highly transparent and highly conductive n-type oxide semiconductor material.

It is also a core material for optoelectronic components such as displays and touch screens.

Essentially, touch screens achieved a major technological breakthrough more than a decade or two ago, and the necessary technological prerequisites already existed on paper.

But what truly hinders its development is materials science and processing technology.

"Elographics recently built a factory in California, so I went there and ordered a few samples."

Gerald handed the touchscreen to Lin Lixin. "I mean, have you ever thought about making a touchscreen for the NS?"

Gerald already had a vague feeling about this when "Cut the Rope" came out.

As the head of GAMENOVA's hardware department and one of the core members who had spent the most time with Lin Lixin, Gerald and Lin Lixin had long developed an unspoken understanding.

Those who work on hardware are far more perceptive of interaction logic than those who are solely responsible for software.

This made him realize a problem that others might not have noticed.

The Cut the Rope project was probably not originally intended for joysticks and buttons.

Although Lin Lixin designed many operational optimizations for it, the experience of playing with the gamepad is actually quite smooth.

But for Gerrard, the moment he saw the project, a bold idea had already formed in his mind.

Touchscreens — is that even possible?

After this idea was born, Gerald went back to look at the interactive elements of Cut the Rope and always felt uncomfortable about them.

It's like—

It's as if Lin Lixin intended to use it for touch screens from the very beginning.

"Hmm? You sensed it? As expected of you."

Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow, surprised by Gerald's keen insight. "That's true, but due to cost and technological maturity, I didn't adopt this solution."

Touchscreens are still a rather immature technology.

Both its durability and clarity are far from ideal.

Lin Lixin looked at the seemingly inconspicuous touch panel in his hand.

Judging by visual inspection, the light transmittance is probably less than 70%, it looks hazy.

If you want it to integrate with the screen, this thing needs to be attached to the existing screen of the NS.

The current LCD screens are not ideal in terms of color and brightness, and there has been no revolutionary breakthrough in backlight technology.

If you then stick a semi-transparent board on top, you can forget about seeing anything at all.

"And—is this a resistive touchscreen?"

Lin Lixin carefully inspected its ribbon cable and gained a general understanding of the screen's specifications. "This thing isn't sensitive enough; you need to press it hard to get a response, which makes it very unsuitable for a handheld console."

Resistive touchscreens were the absolute mainstream in the 1980s and 90s, but they were quickly phased out after the turn of the millennium.

It's simply because this thing is too much trouble to use.

Its finger-destroying nature, lack of multi-touch support, and other reasons have made it unsuitable for the needs of modern consumers.

Of course, the biggest influencing factor here was actually a novel thing that one of Lin Lixin's good friends came up with in 2007.

In short, Angry Birds is indeed not a game that requires a touch screen.

Lin Lixin gently placed the touchscreen aside, but then changed the subject, "However, you're right, the development of touchscreens should indeed be put on the agenda. Even if NovaSwift doesn't use it, our next-generation handheld console will definitely use it."

In the upcoming fifth generation, where top players gather, no amount of preparation is excessive.