America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 402 How can medicine be made into absurd and ridiculous parodies?

[Bullfrog Studio]

The sign at the entrance is newly made; they didn't have a proper sign when they were in Surrey.

After all, it's just a new studio that's only been established for two years and doesn't even have a decent product yet.

On a sunny day like this, Magic Cow and his team are probably happily planning the sequel to the famous "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

Thinking of this, Lin Lixin smiled and gently pushed open the door.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Lin Lixin felt a warning in his mind, and his reflexes immediately snapped to the limit. His body instinctively turned to the side to dodge.

Several BBs grazed past his body.

In an instant, the studio fell silent.

Lin Lixin ignored the BB pellets hitting the wall behind him and glanced around the studio with a slightly speechless expression.

It looks like this place has been bombed!

The air was filled with the smells of snack wrappers, empty pizza boxes, and even leftover pizzas, as well as coffee and soda.

The house looked like it had been hosting parties for several days in a row, and it was a complete mess.

Producer Peter Molineux, also known as Magic Bull, stood barefoot on the table, his shirt nowhere to be seen, but thankfully his underwear was still on.

He was wearing goggles, holding a BB gun, and staring at Lin Lixin standing in the doorway with a frozen expression.

The others didn't look much better; by comparison, Magic Bull was the most presentable.

In the awkward silence, Magic Bull coughed lightly, breaking the stillness.

He pointed to the BB gun in his hand and looked at Lin Lixin.

"Uh...want to play? We have extra goggles."

Ah! The cradle of art!

You are so ridiculous!

Absurd and chaotic, yet full of vitality.

How should I put it? Surprisingly, it fits the art style of Bullfrog Studio very well.

Lin Lixin ripped the goggles off the head of a developer next to him and snatched the BB gun from his hand as well.

"You have five minutes. If you can hit me, I'll have the cleaning staff come and clean up. If you can't, you have to clean up the studio by today."

Ten minutes later, Lin Lixin sat on a hastily pulled-over chair, with the shirtless Magic Bull standing in front of him.

"A hospital-themed simulation management game?"

Magic Bull nodded thoughtfully, taking seriously what Lin Lixin had said.

Simulation management games are not a new concept. As early as the 1960s, there were already simulation management games such as "The Game of Sumer" and "Hammurabi".

Although it is purely a word game, the core concept has long been very well-established.

Players must make decisions, balance land, food, and population, manage natural disasters and man-made calamities, and attempt to lead their civilization to prosperity.

However, what truly popularized it was Gamenova's SimCity.

"Is this theme a bit inappropriate? I think we should do something like an amusement park or a zoo instead."

Magic Cow thought about it and wasn't too optimistic about this topic.

If someone else suggested this idea to him, he would criticize it without hesitation.

That sounds so boring.

Hospitals are serious places, with dark tones and monotonous rooms that offer no inspiration whatsoever.

To be honest, he felt somewhat depressed just thinking about going to the hospital to conduct on-site research.

That's not a place where you can relax at all.

Hospitals are solemn places filled with illness and death.

"That's why I approached you guys, instead of letting Blizzard or Gamenova do this project themselves."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"British humor, aren't the British very good at that?"

Lin Lixin laughed heartily, saying that these cultural differences are the most difficult to learn and imitate.

Humor cultures vary greatly from region to region, and British humor is one of the most unique.

At its core is a kind of deadpan humor.

When telling jokes, they often have no expression, and may even deliberately put on a cold performance to create a contrast that makes the joke more bizarre.

The line "Please don't let the patient die in the corridor" is the pinnacle of this work.

"Huh? Humor? In a hospital??"

"Yes, what we're making is a simulation game, but it's not realistic. Who would want to play a real disease simulation and make fun of patients? That's pointless."

Lin Lixin simply quoted the original statement made by the producer of "Two Point Hospital".

"You mean a fabricated illness that doesn't exist?"

Magic Bull was a genius who grasped things quickly and reacted promptly.

"Yes, we can even exaggerate it further. The more exaggerated and absurd the symptoms are, the further they are from that uncomfortable feeling."

Lin Lixin thought for a moment and wrote down a few words that were not meaningful. "Look, for example, glossopharyngeal dysplasia, where the tongue swells and becomes elongated, drooping outside the mouth, so he will speak unclearly and slurredly when receiving treatment."

"For example, there's the 'superstar syndrome,' where patients transform into the likeness of pop icon Michael Jackson; and the 'transparency syndrome,' which makes patients invisible—"

Once a few representative symptoms were mentioned, Magic Cow immediately understood Lin Lixin's meaning.

I finally understand what he meant by incorporating British humor.

"Ah, I get it, this is actually a nonsensical parody game, right?"

"Yes, the degree of humor needs to be carefully grasped. We're not making a frivolous work that jokes about illness and death, you understand?"

This is very important and is a fundamental principle that every game should follow.

If a game's theme feels frivolous and offensive, then the game was problematic from the outset.

It can choose its audience and is not popular with everyone, but it also needs to work hard to avoid making fun of others.

"Therefore, we must completely abandon real diseases and medical equipment and fabricate everything."

However, even though it is completely fictional, some basic logic still needs to be followed.

For example, the establishment of positions such as doctors and nurses.

If even the most basic elements disappear, it will actually reduce the sense of immersion and engagement to some extent, and lose...

The biggest advantage of simulation games.

Thinking of this, Lin Lixin suddenly remembered an old friend who also lived in this park.

JVC, also known as Joe Van Kamholm, was still working on its monumental work.

"Hey? Have you guys met Kanheim yet? He's a producer at Infocom. Let's bring him into the project team later. He had a PhD in medicine before he joined us, so he can offer some advice."

Lin Lixin still remembers the first time he met Kanheim, whose medical expertise was unparalleled.

If he hadn't crossed over into the gaming industry, this guy would probably be a top doctor at some hospital by now.

"And Will, let him come and play around. The JAZZ system can directly handle the character's action logic in the game, saving a lot of development time. Oh right, I've also spoken to Cedarsena. If you need any material, just go there."

"————?"

"Don't just stand there, don't forget what we agreed on earlier, clean the studio by today. I have some things to do, I'll be back later."

In August, the entire GAMENOVA organization, from top to bottom, was mobilized in an unprecedented manner.

It's impossible to keep such a large-scale mobilization a secret from the media.

Especially since MicroNova had just spent a huge sum of money to acquire ARM, a project that was not initially favored.

However, Lin Lixin did not intend to hide anything about this new project.

After all, laptops aren't exactly a new thing.

The US has its own national circumstances that prevent it from doing this; it's not something that needs to be kept secret.

Tired of being harassed by the media, Lin Lixin simply gathered a group of writers and reporters and held a small press conference in a banquet hall in the Bay Area.

"Does anyone else have any questions?"

"Yes, Mr. Lin, why did GAMENOVA choose to develop laptops instead of desktop PCs? Was there any personal market prediction involved?"

"As I've already said, Dell is the one making laptops, and Gamenova is only responsible for providing the necessary hardware and technical support to our allies."

"Mr. Lin, we've noticed that GAMENOVA has submitted several new Pokémon copyright applications for this year's Christmas season—"

"Today's press conference is about our collaboration with Dell and the acquisition of ARM. We'll discuss the gaming aspect later."

Lin Lixin waved his hand, signaling everyone to stop making a fuss. "If there are no more questions, let's end today's press conference here."

His gaze fell on a middle-aged man, about 50 years old, sitting in the front row.

Their eyes met briefly, and they nodded in tacit agreement.

Then, Lin Lixin turned and walked backstage, officially ending the meeting.

A few minutes later, the two met again backstage.

Lin Lixin had met him before, at the launch event for Global Information Network technology.

He was sitting next to Steve Jobs, next to Bill Gates.

"John Scully —"

The current CEO of Apple is also the mastermind behind getting Steve Jobs, that troubled teenager, out of Apple.

However, he clearly didn't come to cause trouble by finding me today.

In fact, Lin Lixin was well aware of what he wanted to do.

It's simply because of a collaborative project that was transferred from ARM in a package deal.

"The low-power processor chip that Newton PDA will use, right?"

PDA, or personal digital assistant, is a product line that has died out in the history of consumer electronics.

One of the key projects John Sculley spearheaded, and also the project that brought him down.

Simply put, this thing is a handheld computer, and in a sense, it is the father of the iPhone.

If Apple wanted to make this, the only partner it could find was Gamenova.

LCD screen, resistive touch screen, low-power chip, memory chips, flash memory chips —

For everything, I need to ask GAMENOVA for help.

"Yes, we hope that MicroNova can continue to advance the research and development of ARM chips."

John Sculley didn't hide anything.

Although he had a grudge against Steve Jobs, he had no animosity towards Gamenova.

At least at this juncture when Wintel is aggressively expanding its market share, their interests should be aligned.

"That's no problem at all, trust me, Mr. Sculley, ARM will progress even faster than before, because we need it too."

"Does Mr. Lin believe that laptops have a brighter future than PDAs?"

Although Lin Lixin had repeatedly claimed at the press conference that the project was led by Dell, Sculley did not believe it.

Dell isn't that kind of person. If he had the resources, he would probably choose to open up new branches and capture more regional markets.

"Who knows? Handheld devices might be the future trend."

Lin Lixin said ambiguously.

That makes sense, but it's hard to say exactly when this "future" refers to.

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