game trailblazer

Chapter 49 Urban Dynamics

Zhang Lexing noticed that Lucas's expression was gradually different from the beginning, and he couldn't help feeling a little uneasy, so he asked carefully: "Mr. .”

Lucas waved his hand and said, "It's okay, what you said is very good. If you come to be a screenwriter, I believe you can achieve very good results."

"Really? Then I don't know if you can use what I said?" Zhang Lexing was very happy to be praised by a famous director.

"It's a pity that I can't use it for the time being," Lucas said regretfully, "You may not know that my cash flow is very tight now. Most of the money I earned from Star Wars back then was invested in industrial light and magic and Skywalker sound effects. The two companies went, especially Industrial Light and Magic, which ate up the vast majority. As a result, the Lucas Art company established later was also affected. Last year, it even sold its animation production department to Apple in order to raise money. The young man who left just now came to discuss the acquisition. Although I need cash now, I don’t want to transfer my hard work to others. Under the current conditions, the conditions for filming the prequel are not yet mature. Maybe when my kids are older and the ILM and Skywalker sound effects aren’t all about the money, I’ll think about it then.”

Zhang Lexing, the sound effect of Skywalker, had never heard of it before, but Industrial Light & Magic was quite famous in Zhang Lexing's previous life.Industrial Light and Magic (ILM, full name Industrial Light and Magic) was born during the filming of "Star Wars", and then gradually got involved in computer special effects, from the first use of computer 2D characters in "The Abyss" to the breakthrough liquid deformation robot T- in "Terminator 1000". [-], became an instant hit after the release of "Jurassic Park", thus creating a new era of computer special effects. It can be said that many Hollywood movies that use computer special effects are inseparable from the behind-the-scenes work of Industrial Light and Magic. It's open.

Zhang Lexing is not interested in making movies now, but the future development of computer games and console games is inseparable from computer CG images. This is in line with the computer special effects of Industrial Light and Magic, and in the future, more and more games will be produced, and occasionally one or two will be produced. For the movie version, the help of Industrial Light and Magic will be indispensable at that time.Now that the opportunity is in front of him, Zhang Lexing certainly won't let it slip away.

"Mr. Lucas, I don't know how big your fund gap is? You may not know that my Red River Fund happens to have a lot of funds in hand. If you don't mind, I am willing to make appropriate investments."

"You don't want to buy my company, do you?" Lucas' eyes became vigilant, and the same young figure in front of him gradually overlapped with the same young figure before him.

"Of course not. Even if I think about it, you won't agree. I just think that the current business situation is not good. There may be other shareholders of Mr. Lucas's company who are unwilling to persist. I can take over from them. In addition, I am taking part of the cash to alleviate your current predicament, and I hope to obtain appropriate shares in return."

"If you can come up with [-] million U.S. dollars, maybe it can be done." Lucas threw out a sky-high price, maybe he hoped to scare Zhang Lexing away.

"Mr. Lucas, it's still too early to say this. I need professionals from Red River Fund to analyze whether it needs [-] million US dollars. We will discuss this matter after a while. Can you leave me your contact information? "

Lucas hesitated for a while, but still took out a business card and handed it to Zhang Lexing, perhaps because the financial pressure he faced was really too great.Zhang Lexing also took out a business card of the Red River Fund and handed it to Lucas. After exchanging the business cards, the two parties continued to chat, but Zhang Lexing felt that the atmosphere was not as harmonious as it was at the beginning, and Lucas' words seemed more perfunctory.

"Mr. Lucas, it's a great honor to talk with you today. I look forward to your early preparations for filming the prequels of Star Wars. If you need investment, I am very willing." Since the words were not speculative, Zhang Lexing decided to leave first.

"Mr. Lucas, I'm sorry, the contracted designer of our company is here. We went over to say hello first." Hawkins was very polite, and immediately made an excuse, and pulled Zhang Le away.

Hawkins didn't lie either. After leaving Lucas, he really took Zhang Lexing to greet the contracted game designers of EA.Under the introduction of Hawkins, Zhang Lexing met Joan Freeman, the designer of "Archon", and Tang Bang, the designer of "MULE", who is known as the founder of the concept of simulation games and real-time strategy games. Dayton, Mike Abbott of "Worms", the ancestor of casual battle games, Eric Hammond, the designer of "Dr. J vs. Larry", the pioneer of sports games, and the future of Britain Richard Garriott, the designer of Wang's "Genesis" series, and others.For these legendary figures in the game industry, Zhang Lexing has been fascinated for a long time, but he didn't expect to be lucky enough to gather together today, so naturally he won't let them go easily.While chatting with Don Bunton about the application of modem (Modem) online communication in games, Zhang Lexing noticed a man who looked like Sid Meier, the chief designer of MicroProse, passing by in a hurry, and was about to go to He said hello, but was stopped by a voice from behind.

"Mr. Levi, don't rush away. This game is different from the ones you often see. City construction is not accomplished overnight..."

"A game of city construction?" Zhang Lexing felt that he should have heard of this word, but unfortunately he couldn't remember it for a while, so he turned around to see who the owner of the voice was.

A man wearing a gray shirt and black-rimmed glasses appeared in front of Zhang Lexing, and a sense of familiarity emerged spontaneously. "The game of city construction... black-rimmed glasses..." Zhang Lexing kept thinking about these two elements, but he couldn't grasp the key points. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to Zhang Lexing's mind, and Zhang Lexing remembered who the person in front of him was— — Will White, chief designer of The Sims.

Thinking of this, Zhang Lexing couldn't help but stepped forward to say hello: "Mr. White, nice to meet you!"

"You are?" Will White was puzzled. He had never dealt with an Oriental before, but why did the Oriental in front of him seem to be very familiar with him.

Zhang Lexing resisted the urge to slap himself, and said with a smile: "I am Zhang Lexing, an investor in EA, and we have never met before. Because I like to communicate with some well-known game designers, sometimes Hawkins will introduce, and this time, too."

"Mr. Hawkins? It seems that we met once, but..." Will White still felt very strange, but Zhang Lexing interrupted him before he finished speaking.

"Look if you don't believe me." Standing beside Will White, Zhang Lexing deliberately waved to Hawkins in the distance. The unlucky Hawkins noticed it and thought that Zhang Lexing was greeting him. As for Will White next to him, he was automatically posted On the label of the human flesh background.Unknown Hawkins smiled and waved his hand, and it fell into the eyes of Will White, a caring person, and finally dispelled his suspicion temporarily.

"Mr. White, I'm sorry, what exactly is the city-building game you mentioned just now?" After clearing Will White's doubts, Zhang Lexing was finally able to get to the point. This time he did not make the same mistake as before. up.

"It's a long story, and it has to start in 83..." Will White gradually fell into his own memories, "That year I developed "Raid of Bungeling Bay" on the Commodore* platform. )”, in fact, this is a very common helicopter shooting game. Players drive a helicopter in the game, fly around the city and destroy fixed targets to achieve tasks. The main scene of this game is on an island. Designing various buildings destroyed by players on the island, I wrote an island editing software, and use it to build various levels in the game every day. During the process of island design, an idea gradually emerged, and I found that each level The process of building is much more interesting than the process of destroying. After finishing the development of the game, this idea has been lingering, and I can't help but think, why not make this idea into a game... Sorry, Mr. Zhang, said so What nonsense, you don't mind."

"Mr. White, it's all right, just say it."

"You can just call me Will." Will White was in a much better mood, and continued to talk about the topic just now: "When I really studied the gamification of city construction, I realized that it is actually not simple. In the game I made, the city is very rigid and lifeless, which is far from my own imagination. Fortunately, there have been many previous research results in this area, and I have collected a lot of information, including some cities. Books on construction and planning, especially Professor Forrester's urban dynamic theory, have benefited me a lot. Gradually, I understand that a city is actually a dynamic composite system, and its development and evolution process is the joint action of many factors As a result, its development mechanism is quite complicated, and if it is to be fully realized, it is simply not what the current computer system can bear. I have referred to such a theory as dissipative structure theory, synergetics, hypercycle theory, catastrophe theory, chaos and fractal theory. A series of system self-organization theories, studying the self-organization evolution mechanism of complex systems from the microscopic process of phylogeny and development, and then simplifying a set of urban operation models, and adding traffic models and growth models to it..."

Will White's words slowly diverged from a professional perspective, and Zhang Lexing was a little dizzy at the beginning. No wonder the guy who was talking to him in front ran faster than a rabbit. If Zhang Lexing didn't know Will White With White's achievements, it is estimated that he will run faster.

For his own safety, Zhang Lexing had no choice but to act, "Will, why don't you tell me about your game."

"Cough..." Will White cleared his throat, and finally began to introduce his game, "After consulting a lot of materials, I finally designed a city construction game. In the game, the player is the god of a city , can formulate various policies of the city like the mayor, and can also directly carry out the planning and construction of urban roads, traffic, water supply, power supply, functional areas and other projects. Sometimes there will be various disasters in the city, ranging from fire, Floods, air disasters, tornadoes, and even monsters appear occasionally... This game can be said to be quite interesting.”

"Will, has your game been published by a company?"

Will White's face darkened, and he sighed and said: "I haven't found a company willing to act as an agent. I wanted to talk to Jimmy Levi from Activision just now, but unfortunately it didn't work. They don't understand the game I designed at all. , I still look at it from the old perspective. I have actually explained many times that this game is different from the previous ones. This is a city-building game. But they always ask me when this game will end and how to calculate wins and losses. It’s impossible. There’s no winning or losing in city construction, and this is a simulation game, just like real city construction. Players can keep playing as long as they want. Why do they have to set a time limit for the end? But I won’t give up Yes, I believe there will always be someone who appreciates the game."

"I'm very optimistic about your game. If you don't mind, I can recommend it to Hawkins."

"Really?" Will White had an unbelievable expression on his face.

"Yes, please trust me. But Will, you can't do it alone all the time. Have you considered setting up your own studio?"

"I thought about it, but I have never had any conditions."

"I'm willing to sponsor you to set up a studio, and I can help you find someone, but I have a small request."

"Just say it."

"I hope you can set up this studio in Hong Kong."

"Why did you go so far away?"

"Since you designed a city-building game, why didn't you expect to see more about the development of cities in other regions. There is an old saying in China, read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles, and see more about the appearance of cities in other regions. I believe it can help you Game design helps."

Will White showed a thoughtful expression, and he seemed a little moved.

(End of this chapter)