America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 334 uses Angry Birds as a teaching tool

GAMENOVA, reception room.

"Mr. Honig, I never expected that the people from the state Department of Education would be interested in a small video game company like ours."

Lin Lixin gestured to Sam to prepare coffee and tea.

The visitor was Bill Honig, the chief of the California Department of Education.

In this loosely federal state, he is considered the highest-ranking executive in charge of California's local education department.

Bill Honig gently put down his briefcase, looked around the reception room, and then sat down somewhat awkwardly.

Compared to GAMENOVA, a true business giant that holds significant influence throughout the United States, his own status was really of little value.

"Mr. Lin, I apologize for the intrusion. I have been following your and GAMENOVA's actions."

Honig bowed slightly in a polite manner, displaying a humble attitude.

Whether this was just a show or it was his true personality, at least Lin Lixin found his actions quite pleasing.

"It's such a big holiday, I thought only Sam and I didn't get a day off."

Lin Lixin smiled, exchanged a casual pleasantry, and then cut to the chase, "I bet Mr. Honig isn't here to inquire about our annual report, is he?"

Lin Lixin didn't really have any impression of this California superintendent of public education.

After all, he's not exactly a figure in the gaming world.

However, after learning that the other party was coming to see him, he still conducted a simple background check.

This is a rather radical education reformer who has strongly promoted several education reform proposals this year.

This includes Order No. 98, which raises the minimum level of financial support for education.

Bill Honig was a key figure in the reform of the curriculum, in particular.

How to shift from rote memorization to understanding-based learning, and to fun and engaging education, is the problem they are currently working on.

"Of course, of course."

Honig nodded repeatedly. "To be honest, I did see—or rather, I played—GAMENOVA's Angry Birds, which is why I decided to pay a visit."

Upon hearing this, Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow, already having a guess as to what he was here to do.

Sure enough, after a brief pause, Honig reached into his briefcase, took out a document, and gently placed it on the table.

"Mr. Lin, believe me, as California's Superintendent of Public Education, I've seen my fair share of terrible software that uses the 'edutainment' label."

As the wealthiest state in the US, California's Treasury is a highly coveted prize that everyone wants a piece of.

Hearing about the proposed reforms to integrate education with entertainment, many software companies have jumped on the bandwagon.

In order to implement this policy, they did indeed seek out many partners to test the waters.

"Our first partner was Davidson & Associates."

"7

Honig showed the contents of the document to Lin Lixin.

It was a DOS software with a rudimentary interface and graphics, a messy and aesthetically unappealing program, so much so that you couldn't even tell at a glance what it was for.

"This is the result they delivered."

Honig sighed helplessly. "Frankly, this is a complete waste of money. I've tried the software, and it's not even as fun as reading a book directly."

Davidson & Associates —

Lin Lixin narrowed his eyes slightly.

Although he didn't know much about the Ministry of Education, he did have some impression of this company.

This company has some connection to them, strictly speaking, it has some connection to the Blizzard trio who are currently focusing on their training in Southern California.

According to the original timeline, Mike Morhaime and his two colleagues would not have been able to set up Blizzard until 91.

Of course, its original name was "Silicon & Synapse", but it was later officially changed to Blizzard because everyone felt that the name was meaningless.

By 94, three years later, Blizzard had already produced quite a few early works and was already somewhat well-known.

In an era where big fish eat little fish, it wasn't long before someone set their sights on this young startup.

The person who made the move was naturally Davidson & Associates.

In the same year, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was officially released.

However, just the following year, the big fish, Davidson & Associates, was devoured by an even bigger fish.

"Find a publishing company to make the game—you've got guts."

"Hahaha————"

Honig gave an awkward laugh.

He doesn't know anything about these things; these are things that the people in charge of bidding and tendering are responsible for.

Looking back now, I realize I was really badly scammed.

"Later we contacted Broderbund, and the result—I'm sure Mr. Lin can guess what happened."

"Good heavens—"

This is also a heavyweight, another giant in the PC game publishing industry.

Honig seemed to finally realize how outrageous the person he had hired was, and his expression was incredibly awkward.

Looking at him like this, Lin Lixin chuckled softly.

"So, Mr. Honig means he wants Angry Birds to do this?"

"Yes----"

Bill Honig nodded.

"GAMENOVA has managed to get hundreds of millions of players to willingly figure out the physics principles, even though they have been simplified in many ways."

"This is an absolute miracle."

"If we can use this to get students to actively study parabolas and angles, that would be the best course."

Having gotten through to him, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The fact that Lin Lixin was willing to bring up this matter means that it's not necessarily impossible to reach an agreement.

"Mr. Lin, we have no intention of having GAMENOVA make any changes that would damage Angry Birds, but I do want it to be—more flexible."

"How so?"

"Could we design a mechanism that would allow teachers and students to freely design level objectives—or something like that?"

He cautiously probed, glancing at Lin Lixin with slightly raised eyes, intending to quickly distance himself and apologize if there was any problem.

Upon hearing this question, Lin Lixin paused for a moment, exchanged a glance with Sam, and then suddenly burst into laughter.

"That's it? I thought you were planning to commission us to develop an educational version or something."

"Uh, yes, Mr. Lin, as long as this mechanism exists, it will be fine."

Honig didn't understand, but he nodded nonetheless.

"If that's the case, I think we should sign the documents as soon as possible, because we can get what you need today."

"Huh? Today?"

Honig was startled.

What kind of work efficiency is this?

He clearly remembered that when he arrived, Sam had given him a special tour.

During this major holiday, most of the development department staff have gone back to their own lives. Apart from the necessary office staff and security personnel, only Lin Lixin, Sam, and Carmack are in the company.

With just a few people, what can they possibly accomplish?

"What, you think it's too slow? If you're in a hurry, you can wait a few minutes. You can also take the demo with you when you go back."

"??"

"Sam, bring the things over here."

Sam nodded, went straight to the development department, took out a disc, and then quickly returned to the reception room.

Level editor? Levels have been a standard feature in GAMENOVA games ever since they started!

"Oh my god!"

Bill Honig never imagined in his life that a company could be this efficient.

There was no dawdling or wasted words.

From the moment I entered this reception room, things proceeded smoothly and quickly.

"Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Lin! Now—shall we talk about the benefits?"

"No need."

Lin Lixin waved his hand, "This project is sponsored by GAMENOVA, let's go through the charity program. We'll arrange for the factory to provide you with a batch of pre-testing equipment later."

This kind of cooperation is a complete revolving door; there's no reason not to do it.

Being able to get closer to the California state government would be very beneficial for future project planning and could also reduce a lot of unnecessary trouble.

For example, the official endorsement from non-profit organizations such as the ESRB and W3C.

After seeing Bill Honig off, Lin Lixin returned to his work.

Gerrard is quite old, so naturally he can't stay at his post for a few more days like the younger guys.

With the mindset that he had nothing better to do, Lin Lixin simply took the initiative to pick up the touch screen project.

On his desk sat a NovaSwift development machine used for testing.

He has now attached the resistive touchscreen to it.

As usual, I forcibly connected the ribbon cable with a jumper wire.

With a simple design, a small piece of software can be put into testing.

"Transformation between screen coordinates and spatial coordinates — matrices —"

While testing, Lin Lixin quickly corrected the data on the computer.

The process is not complicated; the main purpose is to match the points on the screen with those in the game.

This thing is essentially an external board that's attached to an existing LCD screen, so positioning it is actually a bit tricky.

Of course, this is the easiest of the many bottlenecks that touchscreen technology faces to solve.

Ten minutes later.

Lin Lixin stopped what he was doing and shook his hands, which had become somewhat stiff.

"Dude—this is completely impractical!"

Even if the positioning problem is solved, or even the light transmission problem is solved, this thing still has no practical value.

The biggest drawback of resistive touchscreens is that they require extremely strong force.

You have to tap hard with your fingertip for the screen to give you feedback from time to time.

This experience is so smooth, it's impossible to even feel the touch.

Seeing him like this, Sam simply took a toothpick from the drawer and tossed it over.

"Duh, can't you use tools? We can just make a stylus later."

"ha?"

Lin Lixin caught the toothpick, somewhat bewildered.

Using a toothpick to scratch the touchscreen? Won't that just break it?

"Hiss—wait a minute?"

I just swiped it around a couple of times, and to my surprise, it actually worked!

It's at least better than him poking at it with his finger.

But why is that?

In my memory, for a touchscreen to respond, even when using a pen, it had to be a dedicated conductive stylus.

It often requires the use of fingers to operate.

"—It's not a resistive touchscreen, it's a capacitive touchscreen!"