Almighty Game Designer

In the conference room, Su Jinyu and several other members of the Famine project are brainstorming about some fun in the game.

“It's a survival game, as the manager suggests, right? So, all settings should be built around survival. ”

“The two most critical factors are the materials that support survival and the negative factors that threaten survival. ”

“What kind of material, what kind of negative factors should there be? Think of the real world, temperature, climate, monsters, food… these can all be game content. ”

“That is, the core fun of the game is that the player manipulates the protagonist to survive in a completely strange world. He must explore the negative factors that threaten survival by continuously collecting material throughout the map. ”

“Well, given that level, the game's prototype is already there, and the kernel is pretty good, and it looks fun. ”

“So here are some specific designs. Players need certain values to feel intuitively about their own state of existence. For example, the simplest example, the HP. ”

“When attacked by a monster, frozen, burned, etc., the player's HP drops, falls to 0, dies, and the game ends. ”

“What else is there? This game is called Famine, and apparently the manager also wants us to add the attribute of Hunger Value. Players have to search for food, and if they starve, it slowly lowers their health, and possibly their speed of movement, etc. ”

“Looks like the goal is clear. ”

“But there are flaws, and it always feels like there's something missing beyond these two factors. ”

“Yes, two factors are not abundant. Weather such as rain, snow, hail, and heat will certainly affect people in real life. But how does it work in games? If it rains, it bleeds? Or if it rains, it's worth the hunger? It doesn't feel right. ”

“Moreover, if there were only two attributes, it would make people feel that the character is not a living person, but only a fake person who eats and drinks Lhasa, and it would be very uninterrupted. ”

“Yeah, it seems like there should be another attribute...”

Everyone was thinking about it, and Chen Qiao came in.

“Add another attribute, spiritual value.” Chen Jiao said.

Su Jinyu's eyes lit up: “Spiritual value? To show the player's mental state? ”

Chen Nodded: “Yes, bad weather and some bad events can cause the player's spiritual value to drop, as well as the spiritual value can be answered by some props. ”

“When the mental value drops to zero, the character falls into a state of mental breakdown, when he starts hallucinating, the tone of the whole world starts changing, and some nightmare-like monster starts attacking him. ”

“If the player is able to defeat the nightmare, a certain amount of mental value can be restored. If the player is killed by a nightmare, then the game is over. ”

Su Jinyu thought about it: “This is a good design! In this way, the three attributes of hunger, health, and spirituality can basically represent the state of the character well. Wow, the manager is still good. ”

Chen smiled and laughed: “Actually, it's nothing. If you think about it for a while, you can definitely come up with it. It's basically an inevitable design. ”

Su Jinyu said: "Dear store manager, join us in the brainstorming. I thought about it and found out that the game" Famine "really has a lot of interesting places. If you enrich the settings, it must be a great game! ”

Chen Jiao turned a white eye: “Bullshit, if it doesn't mean anything to you, what do I ask you to do? Complete your homework independently, this game is for you to think, don't always count on me to teach you everything. ”

Su Jinyu whispered: “Ow. ”

Chen Qiao turned his head and said in a derogatory manner: “The Emperor Dynasty entertains each other and prepares to play the VR version of the" Dark "game. ”

Su Jian froze for a moment and was surprised: "Ah? So what do we do? Boss, why aren't you in such a hurry? ”

Chen Qiao leaned against the chair: “What's the hurry? People are playing VR games. I'm in a hurry. I can't do it right now. ”

Su Jinyu hurried: “What should we do? The Imperial Emperor entertains these people, and he knows how to steal us! ”

Chen Qiao tells her to calm down a little: “It's okay, calm down. Can a subject like" Dark God of Destruction "be changed to VR? It's hard to say, it will probably take a lot of time to pave the way, and it will take as soon as a year to make it. ”

Su Jinyu said: "Well, let's speed it up, let's do a simple VR game for six months, and turn Dark Destroyer into a VR game for another six months! ”

Chen Qiao said without a word: “If you think too much, you can't do it so fast even with chicken blood. It's okay, I'm telling you this is just a reminder that Famine should go a little faster, because I want to use this game to test the players' reactions. ”

“Whatever games I play back there, I have a corresponding development plan, which may be a little reordering. It is very unwise to disrupt our deployment just to entertain and kill each other with the Emperor. ”

“My plan is for Famine to go live in two months, the end of September. Of course, this is the first version, and after it goes live, you'll have to add a lot of new content based on player feedback, opening up various MODs for players to play freely. ”

“The Sickle of Souls was developed three months later, and two to three more weeks were set aside for testing, which was launched in mid-November. Thereafter, the Dark God of Destruction was temporarily released. ”

“By November, the feedback gathered by players on the side of Famine was similar, and everyone was free to prepare a VR game to compete with a new game that the Imperial Dynasty entertained. ”

“Yes!” said Su Jinyu, “Then my side will speed up the progress and try to get the famine DEMO out early. We'll all work together as staff officers. ”

Chen Jiao nodded: “Well, don't worry, two months is plenty of time to guarantee quality. ”

……

About Famine.

Its success no longer needs to be repeated, both in terms of sales and reputation, it is a stand-alone game that can be written into the classic.

In addition to considering the suitability of this game for divergent thinking, Chen Jiao chose this game to give some insight into the world's players and their acceptance of sandbox games.

The so-called sandbox game is a game type that evolves from sandbox games, often with larger maps, more elements, more freedom, and more creativity. Creativity is at the heart of this game, which is allowing players to make what they want using the objects provided in the game.

There are also some free-flowing games in the world, but in Chen's view, they are not particularly successful sandbox games.