game trailblazer

Chapter 150 Game Advertising
After Chen Zishan returned to school, Zhang Lexing shifted the focus of attention to the creative workshop again. Of course, other industries were also included, and they were all collected, processed and given feedback through the Beijing office of Orient Holdings.

The current focus of the creative workshop is six newly developed games, including Ren Haoqiang's real-time strategy game (RTS) "Three Kingdoms", An Xintong's simulation business game (SIM) "Happy Farm", Yan Dali No.1 It is said that the shooting game (FPS) "Blood Battle on the Bund" and Zhou Zhehan's card game (CAG) "Myth" have officially entered the development process after approval, while Chen Shunde's adventure game (AVG) "C + Detective" and Zheng Hongwen's shooting game The game (S**) "Fury Tank" was also approved after modification.

Under Zhao Yuanhuan's overall planning and coordination, the distribution of the initial personnel requirements of each project team (mainly planners) was completed, and the six projects began to move forward in an orderly manner.The difference from before is that Zhang Lexing also arranged a game supervisor for each project this time, with two main responsibilities: one is to control the financial expenditure during the development period, and prevent the development cost from getting out of control; the other is to control the overall situation of the game, to prevent The final developed result is completely different from the original application. Of course, if the game needs to be significantly modified due to market or other reasons, it is still allowed under normal process conditions.

After nearly a month of hard work, the six project teams have come up with their final version of the plan. This plan is different from the plan submitted when the game project was applied for before. The planning materials of that period can be called The planning draft only describes "what kind of game is this", "what are the fun places", "estimated development cycle", "what age group is suitable for it", and "the main composition screen sketch of the game", etc. The work at this stage can also be called creativity.However, the planning book that is produced now needs to take into account the details of the game, and needs to include all aspects involved in the game.

Zhang Lexing is most interested in these six plans for the final version of "Three Kingdoms", because the production of this game is the most difficult. Compared with the initial application, the proposal for the final version of "Three Kingdoms" has changed a lot, and not only in the description of details, the biggest change is actually the addition of online mode.

The currently popular "Dune II" does not have an online mode, that is, you can only choose the computer as the opponent. This is also a commonly used mode in computer games today. Ren Haoqiang's inspiration for the setting of "Three Kingdoms" also comes from this.At this time, many people would never have imagined that if the computer opponents were replaced by human beings, it would bring about great changes to real-time strategy games. It would not only make traditional real-time strategy games more prosperous, but also create a bigger stage like e-sports , and also produced real-time strategy games in the hero squad mode such as "Warcraft 3", and even DOTA (Defense of the Ancients, based on the RPG map of "Warcraft 3") that carried forward the hero mode.

Zhang Lexing knows that the "Command and Conquer" and "Warcraft 2" that will be released next year will have the function of online battles. It is no longer the simple Modem (modem using a telephone line) online, but will join the future of LAN. The new online mode is in full swing.Zhang Lexing doesn't want his company's game to lose at the starting line, so he will naturally ask him to join the online battle mode. Of course, with the backing of the game research institutes in the United States and Hong Kong, there is no need to worry about the need to start from scratch in terms of technology.

The biggest difficulty of real-time strategy games is not the graphics technology, not the online data exchange, but the balance of the game. If you don't pay attention to this, the final product may become a tank battle like "Red Alert". Xin Other game units that have been painstakingly produced have become decorations, and if they continue to develop like this, they will definitely miss e-sports.Therefore, at the beginning of the "Three Kingdoms" project, Zhang Lexing put the balance of the game at the most important position, but whether these newcomers can understand it, and whether they can implement it well after understanding, Zhang Lexing has no idea at all. I can take one step at a time.

The development of six new projects has already started, and the Alpha version of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" has also been sent back to BJ, ready to be tested by the QA department.At the same time, advertisements for "Legend of Sword and Fairy" also began to be placed in the "Home Computer and Game Console" magazine.

"Home Computer and Game Console" magazine...

Chen Jingyi handed the promotional materials of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" to editor A of the magazine, and said: "This time, our company plans to put a color page advertisement on the back cover, plus an introduction similar to the game preview. This stack is An introduction to the game."

Editor A took the file and glanced at it, and was stunned for a moment. He pointed to a picture in the file and said, "Are you sure this is a game screen?"

"That's right, it's the game screen, and it's directly captured without modification." Chen Jingyi nodded, then took out a floppy disk and handed it over, saying: "If you don't believe it, there is an electronic version in this floppy disk."

"It's not that I don't believe it, I'm just a little curious." Editor A smiled, took the floppy disk and stuffed it into the floppy drive of his computer, first scanned it with virus-checking software, and then retrieved the contents of the floppy disk.

Chen Jingyi pointed to the screen and said, "Here it is, the screenshot of the game under the PIC directory, and a relatively short game demo under the DEMO directory, you can take a look."

Xiao Bian A copied the two directories on the floppy disk to the hard disk according to Chen Jingyi's prompt, then started a picture viewing software, went to the PIC directory, selected the file and pressed Enter, accompanied by bursts of hard disk running Sound, a screenshot of the game is slowly displayed on the computer screen from top to bottom.

When the picture was fully displayed, editor A gasped, pointed at the screen and said in surprise: "You guys, what resolution is the game in your company?"

"Beyond the picture quality of VGA, **0×480 resolution, 256 colors." Chen Jingyi explained.

Editor A pressed the page-turning button and went through the remaining few screenshots of the game, and he was amazed again and again, especially the few character setting pictures that made him drool.After exiting the picture viewing software, editor A remembered that there was a game demo program, so he went to the DEMO directory and started the only executable file under the directory.

The screen went black, and then slowly appeared a group of misty mountains, and several cranes slowly flew from the right to the left of the screen, and then the words "Legend of Sword and Fairy" gradually appeared on the right like writing with a brush.The screen froze for about five seconds, and then turned to the Demon Town Tower. The protagonist on the screen was wandering in the maze in the tower according to the pre-set procedures. Occasionally, he would encounter enemies blocking the way and enter the fighting state, and then you would come I go, sword light and sword shadow, sword spirit vertical and horizontal.

Editor A who watched this demonstration was very excited, and even attracted two passing editors to stop and watch.After the demo program finished running, the three of them asked the same question at the same time: "Where can this game be sold, and how much does it cost?"

Chen Jingyi smiled: "This game is still undergoing internal testing, and it is estimated that it will be officially launched in January next year."

"Oh," the three of them sighed in unison again.

"By the way, I also have a demo disc of the opening animation of the game. Are you interested in taking a look at it?" Chen Jingyi took out a disc in a sleeve from her bag and shook it.

As soon as the words fell, the CD in her hand was snatched by the second editor.But when I took out the CD and was about to put it in the computer, Xiaobian B discovered a serious problem. Xiaobian A's computer didn't have a CD-ROM drive. The three of them looked at each other and sighed.

At this time, editor C suddenly remembered something, and said, "I remember that there is a CD-ROM drive on Mo's computer, why don't we go to his place to have a look."

The other two editors naturally nodded repeatedly, so the three of them took the CD and walked to Ah Mo's desk together.Coincidentally, the poor Mo just left his seat for convenience, and when he came back in a comfortable state, he found that someone had already occupied his seat, and even pushed open the CD-ROM that he bought with his own money. I don't know what is stuffed inside, it's too much.

Ah Mo rushed over with a few strides and shouted: "Stop!"

The editor B who was sitting in front of the computer was so frightened that he almost bumped his head against the screen, and the three of them immediately turned their heads and asked, "What do you want!"

"Hey, this is obviously my seat. If you don't use it, why are you so confident?"

"I'm sorry, Mo, we don't have an optical drive, so let me borrow yours."

"What kind of CD are you guys?" Mo asked curiously, "Game?"

"Not exactly, this is the opening animation of the game."

"Oh, get it out and have a look." Ah Mo also became interested.

Chen Jingyi also came over at this time, and pointed out: "The CD comes with a playback program, which is the only executable file."

Editor B started the program according to the prompts, but the screen was still black, and then after the CD-ROM read light flashed crazily for a while, the red "O&G" logo of the creative workshop first appeared on the screen, and then under the clouds all over the sky, Among them, one person and one sword rushed straight out...

20 days later, a new issue of "Home Computers and Game Consoles" with an advertisement for "Legend of Sword and Fairy" came out...

Wu Yufei is a sophomore student and a senior player who has been playing for a long time. He used to play alone at home, but only after he came to BJ to study did he find out that there are professional game magazines. I will buy it in the future, and this year I added a copy of "Home Computers and Game Consoles".

After the National Day, Wu Yufei started looking for the latest game magazines at the bookstalls he frequented as usual, and sure enough, he saw the latest issue of "Home Computers and Game Consoles" within a few days.Putting down the money, he picked up a magazine that still smelled like ink and left.After walking a few steps, he couldn't help turning over.As usual, he looked at the color pages on the front and back covers first. The inside page of the cover was an advertisement for a computer company. It is a picture of a game called "Legend of Sword and Fairy". There are four pictures in total. Although the printing effect is not very ideal, it can be seen that the game picture is very beautiful.

The name of the game is very strange, and the screen of the game is also very strange. Wu Yufei thinks that this may be a new game. Unfortunately, there is only a red "O&G" logo on the inner page, but no company name printed on it. It is really impossible to judge where it came from. He secretly made up his mind in his heart that he must go to the old place to look for it tomorrow when there is no class, maybe he can find this game.Thinking of this, Wu Yufei flipped the magazine to the catalog, ready to see if there were any attractive articles, but he didn't expect to see a line of words "new army of domestic games...", he quickly flipped through according to the page number.

The article reads: "With the expectation of countless sincere eyes, domestic games are gradually rising. Our magazine has reported the news of Jinpan Electronics' upcoming "Condor Commando". In September this year, a domestic game The Game New Army Creative Workshop sent their game under development - "Legend of Sword and Fairy", which really surprised me compared with the Hong Kong and Taiwan games I have played...

This is a brand-new role-playing game. Compared with those common computer games before, the resolution of the game is as high as 0×480, coupled with the rendering of 256 colors, it brings an unprecedented world...

The game first started in Shengyu Village, Yuhang Town, Yangzhou. Li Xiaoyao, an ordinary inn boy, met Zhao Linger, a descendant of the Nuwa tribe, by chance. Later, the fairy island where Zhao Linger lived was attacked unexpectedly. Miao Jiang's important task of finding her mother...

It is worth mentioning that, according to the employees of the creative workshop, the officially launched game will use full Chinese voice. At that time, players will no longer have to face one dumb player after another in the game, but can directly hear the voice recorded by a special person. The dubbing, coupled with high-fidelity music recorded on CD tracks, will give players a different experience...

The game environment is Kylin4.0, above 486SX/33/4, CD-ROM is required..."

After reading it, Wu Yufei realized that Ganqing is a game developed by a domestic company called Creative Workshop. It has not been released yet, and even the price has not been announced.However, since it is a domestic game, and the game screen looks so good, Wu Yufei is interested in spending money to support it, just like the "Condor Commando" introduced by the magazine before, he has already pre-ordered it. It is said that in the past two days can get it.

A few days later, Zhang Lexing's office in Orient Holdings...

Looking at the thin disc case in front of him, Zhang Lexing asked again: "Are you sure this is the genuine version of "Condor Commando?"

Wang Mengyao nodded with great certainty, and said: "Boss, this is definitely a genuine one. In order to prevent mistakes, I went directly to Jinpan Electronics to get the goods, and I can't go wrong."

"Okay then, go ahead." Zhang Lexing waved his hand and sent Wang Mengyao away.

Picking up the thin disc case on the table again, Zhang Lexing looked it over carefully.The disc case is a very common plastic disc case, similar to those used in pirated discs.The cover of the CD box is also the cover of the game manual. It looks like it has been designed, but Zhang Lexing looks a bit like a pile of pictures. The most conspicuous ones on the cover are the "Condor Commando" Chinese characters, below the Chinese characters are "MagicEAGLE" written in two fonts, which seems to be the English name of the game, and below the English characters are the logo of Jinpan Electronics and the company name "BJ Jinpan Electronics Co., Ltd."Open the disc case, the disc inside looks good quality, and the disc cover is printed in color.Pulling out the manual from the CD box, Zhang Lexing flipped through it casually. It was really simple, just a few thin pages, and briefly introduced the process of entering the game. The manual is very simple, but the game looks pretty good. Complicated, first you have to choose the battlefield, and then you have to choose the weapon.After Zhang Lexing actually entered the game according to the instructions, he realized that this is not so much a game as a war chess simulation, but it is also accompanied by a Chinese voice, which is relatively rare in domestic games, even after many years.

Just because of this game that can’t be called a game, Zhang Lexing felt that the 98 yuan he spent was basically thrown into the water, but what makes people wonder is that such a game was actually acquired by LG The copyright in South Korea made Zhang Lexing suspect that the Korean games at this time might still be in the prehistoric period.

In fact, the history of Korean game development is similar to that of the mainland, maybe a little earlier. It is said that in 1994, the sales volume of the RPG work "Astonishia Story (Astonishia Story)" launched by Korean manufacturer Sonnori on the PC platform for the first time exceeded 10 Jang, also won the first Korean Game Awards.Korean online games also started in 1994. The first work is said to be the MUD game "Jurassic Park" operated by SAMJUNGDATA, and it has cultivated many paying users.

After the Asian financial turmoil, due to the support of the government and the rise of Internet cafes, Korean games began the whole process from accumulation to take-off, and pushed the games developed by them to foreign markets, especially in China, which occupied a considerable Market share, South Korea's game industry has thus become one of the pillars of the economy.At the same time, the mainland games that started to develop at about the same time have repeatedly collapsed, and one famous game development company after another has closed down. If it were not for the period of great development of online games, perhaps the mainland computer game industry would have It might even die out completely.Although online games have saved many game companies, they cannot save themselves. The game industry is also the mainstay of the economy in South Korea, but it has become "electronic heroin" aimed at children under the promotion of some people in the mainland. It is really embarrassing. is speechless.

Zhang Lexing hopes that he can change all of this, bring more high-quality Chinese games to the poor players in the mainland, help the game get rid of those crimes of chasing after the wind, and make the game industry a truly healthy development in China. One day, domestic games will be "Britishized" and "dailyized", turning South Korea into a dumping ground for domestic games.

(End of this chapter)