Game Development Giant

This was the first snow in California in 1984. A month passes very quickly, especially when there is endless work to be done. When you are immersed in it, you basically cannot experience the passage of time.

In the middle of December, ten days before Christmas, the first snow of the year fell. The snow was still quite heavy. When Jester woke up from his sleep in the rest room of his office in the early morning, it fell. I saw that the outside was covered in plain white.

The shooting game "Chief Balotelli" that was originally expected to be released in November was not released as scheduled because many problems that were not discovered before were still discovered during testing, and the time for modification was also wrongly estimated. This is also Many Mars Entertainment players were dissatisfied, with words such as bounced tickets and cheating being used against their company.

Jester was still a little helpless about this. He also understood the thoughts of a game company that often delayed tickets and even regarded ticket bounces as a daily routine. After all, ticket bounces were to make the game better.

But it is always misunderstood by players.

After more than 20 days of delays, the game has completed the final revisions and is officially released today.

The external sale of arcade games is completely different from that of cassette games. After all, the buyers are completely different. The main buyers of cassette games are individual players, while the buyers of arcade games are arcade hall owners. In the past, Mars Entertainment has also cultivated a large number of cohesive arcade halls through one hot-selling arcade game after another. These arcade halls have also made countless benefits from Mars Entertainment, and recently they have owned games from Mars Entertainment. Fengxing Publishing, which owns the distribution rights, has launched an arcade franchise plan. Only arcades that join the Mars Entertainment Arcade Game Alliance of Fengxing Publishing can get the first batch of new games released by Mars Entertainment.

Jester also knows that he cannot cut off people's financial opportunities. Joining the Mars Entertainment Arcade Game Alliance does not prohibit him from selling arcade games from other game companies in his own arcade. Instead, franchisees must promote Mars locally. The obligation of entertainment, but also to place the games of Mars Entertainment in the most conspicuous place.

Of course, the rights they enjoy are to be the first to get the goods and pre-order with cheaper advance payment.

Moreover, in order to further ensure the interests of these arcades, there will only be two franchise stores in the same area. The franchise contract is signed every two years. The initial franchise fee is not high, but if you want to obtain franchise qualifications later, if you don’t have If there are other competitors, and the franchisee has the intention to renew, then it will automatically be eligible for renewal. If there are other competitors competing, then bidding is required. However, at present, there are not many places where bidding has occurred. After all, this plan has just begun. Even though it snowed heavily all night last night, it still couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the players. The day before, the game's substrates had been sent to all parts of the country, and then assembled into frames overnight. In these franchise stores that just opened today At that time, I saw a long queue outside my store.

These are players who want to experience Mars Entertainment’s new game as soon as possible.

There are also many people who come here because of its reputation. The annual subscription volume of "Game" magazine has exceeded 130,000 copies. Moreover, after Jester launched an event in which players named their consoles, the sales volume of a single copy of "Game" once again exceeded 130,000. reached a peak.

According to Jester's regulations, the name of the game console will only be valid if you order the current issue of "Game" magazine and fill in the name of the game console using the special filling form included in the magazine.

Even the sales volume of this issue is higher than that of the previous two issues when the demo of "City of Battle" was used to promote sales. After six additional printings, the total sales volume reached more than 400,000 copies, and the number of overseas orders exceeded He bought 100,000 copies, which surprised Jester. He didn't expect that a magazine that had just gone on sale for a few issues could have such a great influence.

To be honest, the game "Chief Balotelli" is a side-scrolling platform shooting game with a strong western style. When it was first reported on "Game", it aroused a great response from players. , especially California and Texas, where the cowboy atmosphere is strongest.

The arcades in this area also have the strongest purchasing desire, but the purchasing desire in the Eastern United States is much worse than that in the Western United States.

Jester's involvement in this game was not very large. Basically, he was just checking the level design and game style in the early stages of the game to prevent the game from deviating from the established game style. This is also the most common mistake for novice designers.

The rest are mainly handled by the new designer Cypher Dabowater. This is also the first game launched by Mars Entertainment that does not have Jester assuming important responsibilities.

Therefore, other employees of Mars Entertainment are very concerned about the success or failure of this game.

Although Jester has not officially announced it, it has been revealed from within that Mars Entertainment is currently preparing to implement a producer system. The person in charge of each game project can apply for their own game project. If the project is approved, Then the company will invest in the project and let it be responsible for research and development.

The most important thing, and the most attractive thing to these designers, is that after the review is passed, if the game can be released, then based on the sales volume, the R\u0026D team will share the profits with the company in different proportions. If it reaches If the sales volume reaches a certain level, the company will directly provide money to help set up an exclusive studio.

This is of greatest concern to the directors of the design team who are leading the R\u0026D team to develop the game. After all, if the news they finally got out of Mark Saini’s mouth is true, then they are The biggest beneficiary.

And other designers who have not yet been responsible for a single project are not discouraged, although they may not be like the newcomer Seve Dabowater, who can win the favor of the big boss just by relying on a planning copy. Thus, they can lead a new team to develop the game alone, but if the project managers above them become independent, they will definitely still be needed to top the cylinder.

Basically because of this measure, even if these project managers later set up their own studios, these subordinates who are conceited and have talents that are not inferior to theirs will not leave with them. After all, they will leave with them, although it may be short-lived. Get some salary incentives, but they don’t have the strength to set up a studio for you.

In fact, Jester has no choice but to do this. If he doesn't use this method of benefit sharing and keeps thinking about taking the benefits for himself, he will definitely not be able to retain people.

And this also has great benefits. Not only can it expand the type of games, after all, each independent game studio means there will be a completely independent and different series, but it can also be done without reducing the size of the company. This will greatly reduce the financial pressure on the parent company. After all, as the parent company grows later, it will only have more and more subordinate studios, and these studios are responsible for their own profits and losses, and hand over profits in proportion to the amount of profit.

This completely transfers the company's financial pressure to these studios. Although part of the profits earned must be shared, most of the risks are shared with the profits, and it can also win people's hearts. After all, no one Game companies can guarantee games that will never lose money.

Only in this way can the designers under them grow up quickly. The producers of a successful studio are trained completely differently from the project leaders of a company. Only by allowing them to grow up as quickly as possible can they become successful designers. In the future, the main force against Japanese manufacturers headed by Nintendo may even become the biggest weapon to counterattack the Japanese gaming industry. After all, the ability of those Japanese gaming companies that are legendary in the history of gaming is unquestionable.

I don’t know whether this news came out intentionally or unintentionally. Sean Dabbili was definitely the most enthusiastic among them. He was one of the first people to join Mars Entertainment. With Jester’s desire to make the best games at that time, Called upon, he rushed back to California from thousands of miles away. Originally, he had decided to take a break after leaving Atari, but after playing "American Cube", he was deeply attracted by this simple game. Attracting, but also full of expectations for the people who designed this game.

The speech Jester gave on his first day of employment also made him excited. He strongly agreed with Jester's concept of making games, which is to bring happiness to people, and to make good games is to bring more to people. of happiness.

Due to his outstanding performance later, he was appointed by Jester as the leader of a design team. Although he was not selected by Mark Saini to join the special R\u0026D team that was said to be composed of elites to carry out the project that was said to be top secret at the time. R\u0026D work, but also outstandingly completed the three elimination games designed by my own boss.

Thinking about it now, Dabbili is still a little annoyed. After all, the game "Avengers" is really shocking to him. From the perspective of a game designer, if he can choose, he still hopes that he can definitely The development of this game will go down in history, but fortunately, he later personally participated in the development of a game that is not inferior to "Avengers".

Although the development of this game has just begun, it still brought him a lot of gains, even much greater than those of the previous games. Only this time did he truly realize what his boss said, Why making a game is a team effort.

A person's power is very little inside.

After that, he had a research and development team named by himself, and as his boss's assistant, he successfully completed the production of "Snowman Brothers". Now this game is popular in North America. Every time I see others playing this game or hear about it, When talking about how to clear the game as quickly as possible, he always has a sense of accomplishment.

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