Top game producer

Inside the conference room, Wang Jian was explaining 'Civilization' to the group of planning staff. (っ◔◡◔)っ

Upon hearing that the theme of the new game was human civilization, the planners were somewhat bewildered.

The subject matter was too grand and too difficult to grasp.

After listening to Wang Jian's introduction, a planner immediately questioned, "How should the game balance between historical accuracy and gameplay? How should the game rules be designed? Like 'Sunset War'?"

'Sunset War' was also a very famous 4X game, its theme taken from the Second World War of Blue Star, and its design idea was 'history is event', driving the game process through events to restore history.

In the game, the pure text of various historical events alone amounted to a staggering amount, recreating all kinds of mobilization, reactions, and battle events in the war. In order to ensure that AI-controlled countries would not deviate from the historical trajectory, even various remote small countries had a huge number of corresponding events.

And if players want to change history, such as allowing a defeated country to win, they have to put in a lot of effort, everything will go wrong, there will be constant rebellions in the country, and the enemies encountered on the battlefield may inexplicably increase. However, as long as they return to the historical track, everything will become easier again.

Wang Jian smiled and said, "'Sunset War' does restore history, but it leaves much less room for players to maneuver, which is also what it is criticized for. 'Civilization' wants to be a fun game, so in its production, history is our inspiration, but don't take restoring real history as the goal."

Seeing the planners seeming to understand, Wang Jian gave an example: "The wonders in 'Civilization' all come from historical reality, such as the Hanging Gardens, the Great Library, Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Roman Colosseum, Petra, the Forbidden City..."

"The wonder of Petra increases money, food, and production in desert tiles of the city it's in, turning barren and arid desert plots into treasures. If a player chooses Hua Country and is born in the desert, although this wonder is not historically from Hua Country, they can still build it. Why? Because the desert is mixed with Jin Ke La fertilizer, and the wheat yield is 1,800 per mu."

"The same goes for Sakura Country being able to build the Hanging Gardens, and Jin Yuan Country being able to build Stonehenge."

"Players research chemistry technology because this technology can unlock the production of grenadiers, rather than needing to solve the pressure of domestic industrialization."

"There is a list of great people in the game, but whether this great person is called Confucius or Newton has no impact on the game."

The planners were all shocked!

Apart from the fantasy games with fictional history, previous realistic historical games were all heading in the direction of 'Sunset War', adaptation is not random editing, pursuing the word 'restoration'.

Therefore, although there are many fans of this kind of historical game, very few game companies dare to take action, from selection to production, they will be very cautious.

Wang Jian's novel idea sounds incredible at first, but it's quite interesting when you think about it!

The planners all looked like they had a sudden inspiration.

Wang Jian then explained the key points of the game's production: "Because the content of 'Civilization' is too huge, we need to make some appropriate simplifications in the game's design."

A planner immediately asked, "How should we simplify it?"

"If it is oversimplified, will it weaken the content of the game? What principles should we follow when designing?"

Wang Jian said: "First, a single screen ensures the game's smoothness, and second, the stay time on any interface should not exceed 30 seconds."

He then explained in detail.

In 'Civilization', players spend most of their time facing a large map, and the game basically does not switch or load scenes. Combat, construction, internal affairs, and city management are all carried out on the large map, which can provide players with a smooth experience without fragmentation, which is also one of the reasons why the game can be played for a long time without realizing it.

If combat requires entering a scene, and internal affairs requires entering a scene, the sense of discontinuity from frequent switching will unconsciously remind players, are you tired of playing? If you are tired, go take a rest first.

'Civilization' has other independent interfaces, such as the technology tree interface, the policy interface, and the diplomacy interface, but it is only an interface and does not belong to an independent system. And 'Civilization' still tries to simplify each interface as much as possible, simplifying it to the point where you don't need to think too much on each interface, and you can make decisions with a few buttons, and then quickly return to the big map.

For example, in the technology tree interface, the time players spend thinking about the next few technology branches basically does not exceed thirty seconds.

This belongs to the category of game rhythm, although subtle, it actually affects the game experience.

A planner then raised a question: "Boss, according to what you said, a game of Civilization may be very long, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of turns, is this pace too slow?"

"There's no way, the game content is too rich, it feels like it's not appropriate to cut it down."

"Perhaps we can make the battle more intense? Increase the AI's desire to attack."

Wang Jian said: "There are different modes in the game, such as standard, fast, and marathon, so players who like intense battles or slow development can find their favorite mode. In addition to adjusting the basic game speed, there is also 'Eureka' to accelerate the game's rhythm."

Wang Jian then explained the concept of "Eureka" to the planners.

Legend has it that in ancient Greece, the king gave the scholar Archimedes a difficult problem, which was to let him judge whether his crown was pure gold. Archimedes pondered hard and could not find a solution, and he was also thinking about this problem when he was taking a bath. When he saw the water overflowing after he entered the pool, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration, thought of the buoyancy theorem, and excitedly shouted "Eureka" and rushed out of the bathroom.

"Eureka" means "I know!" or "Aha!", expressing a feeling of inspiration.

In 'Civilization 6', almost all technologies and civics will correspond to a separate Eureka or inspiration. When a player's civilization meets certain conditions, it will trigger a Eureka moment, increasing the research progress by 50% or even more depending on the civilization's characteristics.

For example, if a player builds a quarry, it will trigger the Eureka of the Masonry technology; if they cultivate a resource, it will trigger the Eureka of the Irrigation technology. This design is also in line with the development laws of various civilizations in history.

The addition of Eureka not only accelerates the rhythm of the game without reducing the content, but also brings more possibilities and certain guidance to the player's game.

……

Under the leadership of Wang Jian, the team of tool people quickly started operating.

Designing various different civilizations, and setting up action logic that conforms to their historical image for different leaders.

For example, Gandhi of the Divine Cow Country is a very famous pacifist, and his war-mongering index is set to the lowest.

Then design wonders based on those famous attractions, and choose representative BGM for different civilizations. The BGM of Hua Country is the famous 'Jasmine Flower'.

Months later, 'Civilization' was finally almost done!