Otherworldly Architect

After a new game goes live, time always seems to pass very quickly.

In early March, the public beta version of "Dragon Hunter" has been online for more than a month, and the content of the game version has basically stabilized.

The total development took about half a year, and this small game focusing on VR has been completed, which can be said to be very fast.

Of course, the overall volume of “Dragon Hunter” is also very small. The initial download package is even less than 200 GB, which is extremely portable in the interstellar era, about the same as several mobile games from Dragon Sabre Studio.

Because of this, it is quite fast, and it may be the fastest development cycle in the history of Blue Star.

The official version of "Dragon Hunter" even had time to catch up with this year's Blue Star Carnival.

An annual event like the Carnival is, of course, already under preparation.

Different from the tense atmosphere that started at the beginning, everyone is already familiar with it now, and they are generally excited and looking forward to it.

\"The opening ceremony has been confirmed to be on May 21st, a very good number. Why don't we put a huge torch on the stage for the opening?\"

\"good idea!!!\"

\"Cough, I mean, let's put the red dragon and the fire-breathing dragon in the battle scene, can it stimulate the player's goodwill towards dragon hunting?\"

\"Take the opportunity to put two rare dragon eggs.\"

\"I think it's ok. How about putting a limited-edition dragon egg? I recently made an extra color palette for Lao Shan Long and distributed it directly to this year's carnival players as a reward?\"

\"Good idea, hehe, but those who are unlucky and can't draw invitations may have to mourn again...\"

The two designers walked to the office of the chief designer of Ming while chatting about their ideas.

They originally wanted to call Chief Master Ming in the little black room, but unexpectedly found that Ming Yan had just left.

The secretary smiled and said: \"The boss may be in another small dark room.\"

Two people: \"...\"No! boss! How many little dark houses do you have! is it necessary? ? This one is closed for a while, and then go to another one after coming out?

It's a big guy, you can't learn if you can't learn.

Well, Mingyan's other small dark room, of course, refers to the small dark room of the Tulong Baodao studio.

Originally, he had finished the final work on the "Dragon Hunter" side, and he thought that he could almost rest until the arrival of the Blue Star Carnival...

But unfortunately, the big map of the new game "Iron Horse Glacier" has been completed.

The size of this map may be comparable to the big world of "Xia Ke Xing", reaching a full 10 million square kilometers.

Mingyan went to check the results of these days. It is said that half of his original design draft has been realized, and the studio has even tested the demo version.

What about the other half?

Of course, it was clearly stated that he had changed his face beyond recognition. After all, the process of making the game could not be carried out according to the original plan.

Ming Yan doesn't come to Tulong Baodao Studio very often. In addition to the initial guiding lighthouse, his work in the overall development is more about controlling the direction of the entire game, so as not to gradually deviate from the original intention and go further and further. .

To put it another way: Dinghaishenzhen.

As mentioned earlier, a large part of the maps and extra NPCs in this era are generated by artificial intelligence.

Therefore, the scalability of a map can also be very good, and new maps can be expanded anytime and anywhere, while providing players with additional game boards.

So why does "Iron Horse Glacier" need such a large map, is it still not enough?

Because this game just wants players to fall into endless wars in order to compete for land.

In Ming Yan's design draft, the protagonist of the game "Iron Horse Glacier" is no longer a single player, but a city, or a territory that a city can govern.

The player exists as the lord of the city. When building a number, it is equivalent to building a city. On the initial big map, you will get your own territory—about 10,000 square kilometers, enough to lay down infrastructure.

The so-called infrastructure includes:

The City Lord's Mansion is basically used to record player data, store treasures collected by players, and where female NPC NPCs live.

The city hall, that is, the command center, is the most important building used to contact generals and NPCs, hold banquets, meet envoys, and command various matters in the city. All other buildings require the town hall to reach a certain level in order to continue to upgrade, as well as manage larger land and expand the entire city.

Residential houses are used to increase the city's population cap, and at the same time pay a certain amount of tax per unit of time.

Quarry, lumber mill, coal mine... are all used to collect basic resources.

Steel mills, blacksmith shops, tailor shops... These are all used to make basic equipment. Only with equipment can players recruit corresponding troops.

Barracks, used to research new units and equipment, use gold and resources to recruit already researched units.

Taverns are used to recruit generals of heroic units, and can also increase the happiness of residents.

In addition, there are other special buildings, which may be large markets that increase taxation, ornamental buildings that increase residents' satisfaction and attract more people, landmark buildings that can increase trade taxes and attract special people, etc. Wait……

After the above core designs are made, most people can roughly understand how the game works.

Yes, the core experience of the game is divided into two parts:

In the first part, as the lord of a city, the player continuously acquires resources, develops city facilities, and strengthens its own military strength;

The second part, of course, is the process in which the player leads the army, joins forces with other players, attacks each other, and continues to expand their territory.

Both of these processes are capable of simulating a high-level character's management, annexation, confrontation, and cooperation to a considerable extent, ensuring that while providing the freshness of the new background, they can also give their core players extra handy. of happiness.

Honestly, what man can resist the sense of achievement of the golden horse and the frontier?

Even Xia Cheng was quite curious about this game.

So when Mingyan used to watch the latest big map of "Iron Horse Glacier", he also ran over to visit the Dragon Sabre Studio - as \"the family of the chief designer\", and also wearing a mask.

Because Tulong Baodao Studio is rarely open to the public, their office looks a little more closed.

However, it is closed and closed, and the interior is still unique and orderly.

The responsibilities of each workspace are clearly guided by a sign on the head, and each zone has its own infrastructure and meeting space.

The Q-version image in "The Hero of Placement" can often be seen on the floor where the light can be seen, and the latest "Iron Horse Glacier" design concept drawing and initial posters are posted on the walls on both sides.

Compared with the simple, atmospheric and bright office decoration, the staff members have their own little world, which adds a touch of bright color.

A few bushes of orchids were hung on the top of the head, and a green streak slipped down playfully.

A designer with \"Yu Bing\" on the brand name was in charge of receiving Xia Cheng, and knowing that he was an important person, he arranged for him to go to the conference room to listen to the speech of the deputy chief teacher with a smile.

This conference room is now set up as a lecture, and there is a design draft by Chief Master Ming on the projector in front.

There are many people below listening quietly, taking notes in their hands.

Xia Cheng silently blended into it, and followed suit.

The deputy chief teacher just finished a speech, and then turned the page and introduced: \"The concept of the new map is different from before. It is not for us to carefully design the game's plot, content, and dungeon experience, but to leave it to the players. to create, to create their activities, histories, and even kingdoms.\"

He next showed a map.

Unlike the finished large map that Xia Cheng had seen before, this map was very small, with only five cities of different sizes on it, and the center looked riddled with holes, leaving several ruins.

\"This is the demo map left by our studio's internal testing. The final winner is \'Coffee Alliance\'. We can intuitively see from the map that three of the first eight cities were directly destroyed by the army. Now, all use fire. Among the remaining five, one is directly surrendered, and one is abandoned. All residents and resources have been moved to the capital of \'Coffee Alliance\'\'Milk Tea Companion\' in……\"

When he read these names, he couldn't help but laugh.

The employees below laughed even more and applauded while laughing.

Several employees who came up with such names hurriedly covered their faces with their hands, pretending that they didn't do it themselves.

\"The demo map itself is boring, we just randomly placed two mountains, an inland river and randomly generated mines...\"

The deputy chief went on to say,

\"But the player's participation made this map \'live\' at once. The city lord\'the pudding was taken away by someone\' used a water attack and dug a dam, so the inland river was diverted, originally The fields are completely unrecognizable, and the remains of the watchtower are still there. The city owner \'My cat wet the bed again\' in order to completely occupy the veins of the copper mine, spending a huge amount of resources to make a \'Great Wall\' to resist the enemy...

\"All these changes are recorded on the map, as well as in the game history. This demo map is now a mature map, full of stories, and can be directly used for the filming of the "Iron Horse Glacier" promotional film. \"

The camera quickly cuts in, and the entire demo map does become very deep.

Xia Cheng looked up with great interest, and heard the deputy chief say: \"The purpose of "Iron Horse Glacier" is this freedom in the sense of creation.\"

\"We will not restrict the player's behavior, and we will not let him build a city, accept the NPC's task to attack some monsters, and we will not let the player go to socialize, learn from teachers and apprentices, and there is no sense of existence to join one. guild...\"

\"What will happen here will be primitive competition with a high degree of freedom. In order for players to survive and grow their cities step by step, they must spontaneously explore, conduct diplomacy, and decide whether to ally or hostile with other players. Then they change the map to their heart's content, to make history, to have some horror or romance on our entire map...\"

\"We don't know what kind of kingdoms our players will create.\"