Reboot the age of gaming

Chapter 229 Problems and Modifications

Zhong Ming briefly finished the design concept draft of "Taiwu Painting Scroll", including the various systems in it, as well as some relatively shallow design concepts.

After answering a few more questions, the meeting adjourned.

Although the meeting ended, it can be seen that the doubts of most people have not been completely resolved.

Everyone else left, and Zhong Ming left the art team alone to make simple arrangements for future work.

On the design team, Zhong Ming was basically the one who came to catch it himself. Taking a step back, the three of them had problems understanding the functions, and Zhong Ming himself could explain the program clearly.

But for the art group, Zhong Ming will begin to assign most of the management work to Jiang Wanna. At that time, he will directly contact and communicate with Jiang Wanna. In principle, he will not ask other people about the specific work.

But in this way, there may be certain loopholes and problems, which must be prevented in advance.Of course, no matter how we prevent it, it is difficult to completely avoid these problems. After all, this is also a kind of pain that the company must experience in the process of expanding from small to large.

In the meeting room, Zhong Ming determined the workflow, priority of needs, etc. with everyone in the art group to ensure that these people could cooperate and work efficiently.After all, although the current manpower of the studio has experienced a round of skyrocketing, the number is still incomparable with the key projects of many large companies. It is necessary to eliminate the internal friction caused by some meaningless links as much as possible, and promote the development cycle as much as possible.

……

Zhong Ming stayed in the meeting room and had a meeting with the art team.

The current design team consists of 3 people besides Zhong Ming, world architect Fu Xing'an, numerical designer Jia Jia, and a functional designer named Wu Mingliang.

The division of labor between the three is also very clear. Fu Xing'an is mainly responsible for the game's plot, packaging, and copywriting, including the function of the large map. In addition, there is also a very important job to promote the progress of the project; Jia Jia is responsible for the game's values ​​and some values ​​closely related system functions, such as the combat system; Wu Mingliang is responsible for other large-scale system design, such as martial arts, skills, npc and so on.

In short, those related to the plot belong to Fu Xing'an; those related to numerical values ​​belong to Jia Jia; other things belong to Wu Mingliang.

The work of the three of them is not light, and each of them is under a lot of pressure.

The first thing I do when I get back to my work station is to quickly find out the design concept draft on the intranet, and compare it with Zhong Ming's explanation that I wrote down before, so as to quickly understand the gameplay.

Because the specific design documents are written by them.

However, the content that needs to be created by myself is not too much, because Zhong Ming's design concept draft is very detailed, including most of the interface layout diagrams. The main work of the three of them is to smooth out the logic and improve some details.

After all, from Zhong Ming's point of view, these three people are still a bit short on design, so it's okay to let them be responsible for such complicated functions alone, but it will definitely slow down the progress of the project.Therefore, in the early stage, let them focus on laying hands, and learn while laying hands, and gradually they can be independent and complete the design by themselves.

Among these three people, Fu Xing'an has been in the industry for more than a year, mainly doing plots and some functional design; Jia Jia just graduated this year and has a lot of experience in games, but he has not written design documents by himself; For a long time, I have more than two years of work experience, and I have also been a functional designer for previous projects from an intern. I estimate that there are dozens of documents written, and I am the most experienced of the three.

But relatively speaking, Zhong Ming is most worried about Wu Mingliang, probably because he has stayed in the previous company for too long, so he has some thinking inertia, which may take some time to reverse.But Fu Xing'an and Jia Jia are more like a blank sheet of paper, with more room for shaping.

All three are looking at the design concept draft.

Wu Mingliang scratched his head while reading the concept draft.

Sorrow!

He has written a lot of design documents, but this kind has never been written.

Just looking at it gives me a headache!
Various systems, too complicated!In particular, the various systems are still connected to each other, and the logical details inside it, it is estimated that it will make people want to die.

Although he has rich experience, it is all experience in bracelet games. If you want to talk about some common game systems in bracelet games, such as drawing cards, challenging chapters and levels, and building equipment, it is all within your grasp.But now this game is too stupid, and there is really not much experience available.

Fu Xing'an, who was sitting next to Wu Mingliang, was also scratching his head.

For him, too, there was little ready-made experience to draw on...

This kind of feeling is like walking at night. You don't know where there is a pit in front of you, and you are stuck in it. You can only move forward by feeling in the dark.

Wu Mingliang leaned over and whispered to Fu Xing'an, "This is a design concept draft, but it's really floating. Did our boss write design documents like this before?"

Fu Xing'an also whispered: "I don't know, but the previous few independent games all look quite normal."

"Hey, I feel a little vain." Wu Mingliang said, "This game is really a little unstable. It's not the first project we made, so it's cold..."

Wu Mingliang did not say that the game is unreliable. In fact, he felt that these people in the project seemed to be quite reliable, so he said "unstable".

That is, in the design draft, there are too many risky designs.

In other words, the entire "Taiwu Painting Scroll" itself is a complete adventure (zuo) risk (si)!

Fu Xing'an nodded: "Yes, this game feels different from the games I've seen before. It's very fresh. However, the boss must also understand the risks here. Risks and opportunities coexist. Let's try it, maybe It’s a niche product.”

Wu Mingliang nodded: "Well, I hope so."

Wu Mingliang knew it himself, is there any problem with this design draft?

Actually, can't find any problem.

In other words, let him design these current elements, he is sure that he is not as good as Zhong Ming.

In other words, Zhong Ming wanted to force so many complicated gameplays into the game "Taiwu Painted Scroll", and it is already a very remarkable thing to be able to achieve the current level of gameplay and interface.

Look, the problem is big, but if you are really asked to pick and change it, you don't know where to start.

Therefore, the problem Wu Mingliang was worried about was not actually a problem of level, but in the final analysis, it was a problem of game content.

Zhong Ming made up his mind, he had to do so much complicated content, and all of them had to be stuffed into the game, so the system and interface of the game could only be as it is now, which inevitably looks a bit bloated.

Want to lose weight?Sorry, it's really hard to do.

Therefore, Wu Mingliang was worried, but in fact there was nothing he could do about it. He could only do some optimization as much as possible and write his own design documents.

……

The "Taiwu Painting Scroll" that Zhong Ming is going to do is somewhat different from his previous life, mainly in terms of art resources.

The "Taiwu Painted Scroll" in the previous life was limited by manpower and investment, and it was indeed a bit eye-catching in terms of art resources, including character portraits, battle scenes, large maps, etc., in fact, there were some shortcomings.

Now that Zhong Ming has money in hand, of course he needs to comprehensively update and upgrade these art resources, at least make the surface layer beautiful and attractive to players.

In addition, some links in the game that are too time-consuming are appropriately shortened, such as some repetitive battles, catching crickets, etc., most of the time is just going through the motions, which can be regarded as boring repetitive labor, which is too unfriendly to the liver.

There is also the character generation link at the beginning. Although players can customize some attributes, the specific qualifications, talents, etc. can only be seen in the game. Many players who play multiple games in order to follow a specific genre want to make a good start. It is often very troublesome. For this reason, Zhong Ming directly added an attribute preview interface and a [Random again] button in the opening. Players can directly choose the opening that they are satisfied with by clicking the button.

In fact, similar functions have also appeared in games such as "The Legend of the Knights". For games like this kind of random talent that have a great impact on the early, middle and late battles, it is still very necessary to add a similar function.

In the final analysis, "Taiwu Painted Scroll" is a stand-alone game that sells well, and we should try to sell as many copies as possible.In the case that it is difficult to get started and unfriendly to novices, it is difficult to change the fact that it is difficult to change, and it is necessary to give players as much convenience as possible in various functions.

This is not a point card game. It is actually useless to prolong the player's game time, and it will not have any impact on the sales or even word of mouth of the game.

Of course, the changes in art will result in a substantial increase in art resources.

Zhong Ming's "Taiwu Painting Scroll" in his previous life saves a lot of art resources. All the battles are two black figures fighting, thus saving a lot of art resources.It is also an anecdote that the crickets occupy the most resources in the game.

According to Zhong Ming's modification, the characters and battles in the game will take up a large amount of art resources.

In terms of characters, a larger and more complete face pinching system can be made through various costumes and characteristics. At the same time, according to the intelligent algorithm of the system, the NPC can be reasonably evolved in the state of youth, middle age, and old age. For example, young people with more hair , bald in middle age, bald in old age and so on.

And these face-pinching data will be reflected in the model.Combat is a battle between two characters. Players can clearly see the appearance of themselves and the enemy, and some special states, such as bleeding, poisoning, etc., can also be displayed on the character model.

There are also some derivative gameplays, such as building a house, catching crickets, etc., and the art resources have also been fully upgraded.

For example, Catching Crickets is an original painting with a large background, with grass, stones, ruins, etc. on it, and different crickets call from different places.Compared with the previous "dot grid" picture, it is much more realistic.

The same is true for building a house. It is no longer a grid full of building icons, but a large original painting. The buildings are still distributed according to certain rules, but the grids are hidden. Players If you feel that the original painting is not intuitive enough, you can still enter the special editing mode and build it by filling in the grid. After the construction is completed, return to the original painting mode, and you can see the whole picture of the village more intuitively.

In addition, there are some special changes, such as descriptions and tips for each system, simple initial strategy, etc., to help players get started faster, while reducing the amount of player operations and lowering the cost of understanding.

Moreover, due to the experience of several main creators, some interaction methods are very illogical.For example, mail in the game is almost useless. Whether it is repairing a wheelbarrow or increasing resources, it is all achieved by dragging, which has stuck a lot of players.In fact, you only need to right-click to pop up an option menu, which can be solved better.

For these contents, Zhong Ming has also made supplements and modifications to make the interaction of the game more reasonable.

In Zhong Ming's previous life, the development team of "Taiwu Painted Scroll" had only three people, and even the program was designed by self-taught, so there must be many problems.Now that Zhong Ming's team has completed the expansion, and the world's technology and development tools are more developed, it is natural to carry out a wave of comprehensive optimization.

However, the optimized "Taiwu Scroll" is still just a 2D game.

In fact, Shimmer Studios basically has the ability to develop 3D games. In terms of art and programming, they actually have some experience in using 3D engines. If they want to change to 3D, it is not impossible.

But Zhong Ming has two considerations. First, the current team is still in the running-in stage, and there are already some communication and cooperation problems. If you use an unfamiliar 3D engine, it may cause some difficulties and slow down the progress. 3. The feature of "Taiwu Painting Scroll" is the gameplay rather than the picture performance. Compared with the exquisite 2D picture, the cost of making it in [-]D is much higher, but the effect is not necessarily so obvious.

Therefore, the optimized version of "Taiwu Painting Scroll" produced by Zhong Ming still chooses the 2D version, but optimizes the gameplay, and at the same time greatly strengthens the art resources.

In addition, "Taiwu Painted Scroll" will be released on both the computer and the wristband at the same time. Some special optimizations will be carried out on the screen on the wristband so that players will not be so tired when watching it. These are also in the development plan .

……

"Taiwu Painted Scroll" soon entered the intense development phase. Zhong Ming's plan was to complete all design documents in the first week. The development cycle was 7 weeks, and the test was completed and launched in two months.

This time, in this world, is not too fast.

The "Taiwu Painting Scroll" in the previous life was polished by a three-person team for three years. After all, the number of people is too small, so many things can be polished in three years. It is a miracle.

The main creator of Eggplant once used RPG Maker to independently produce a magical RPG "Doomsday Document" with extremely complex settings in 5 to 1 hours of spare time every day for 2 years, and thus gained more than 300 people. fan base.Later, he hoped to set up a small team to make a product that can face the market and more players.

So he pulled a few supporters from the group in different places, responsible for art, program and music, and then showed them more than 100 complex design drawings drawn by himself in CAD—his main business at that time was architectural design .

In Eggplant’s own words: “I don’t think this game is too difficult, but I told other members about this blueprint for a week, and they all seem to understand it.”

I gave up my job and worked hard for three years without even having a programmer. The program was written by the creator of Eggplant who taught himself the code. It took three years to grind it out, which is not easy.

Of course, Zhong Ming's current group of people are all regular soldiers, and the number is more than several times larger. Coupled with the advanced black technology and perfect engine in this world, of course, there is no need to stay for so long.

At the same time, there have been two pieces of news that have caught Zhong Ming's attention recently.

One is the internal test news of "Yi Jian Tian Ya", which is said to be "a huge success" and "completely sold out", and a large-scale publicity will soon begin.After another month of optimization and repair, the public beta will be launched and officially launched.

Second, Chanel's artificial intelligence module has also begun to advertise and publicize on a large scale. This little black box is selling like crazy!

　add later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)