Chapter 42: A Mixed Bag of Games

  This game must be running on that high-end eight-bit motherboard with dual PPU, which has not been released yet. Only this motherboard's color processing capability can barely meet Jester's requirements.

  The game's content will be very large, just a rough idea, Jester set up nine completely different planes for this game, all of which are designed based on the historical fighter jets during World War II.

  In Jaster's memory, there has never been a 2D shooter with as many aircraft settings as this one in the history of vertical scrolling shooting games.

  Current games of the same type, such as "Iron Plate Matrix" and "1942", even the extremely classic "Salamander" can only control a single lonely plane, without giving players any autonomy.

  Moreover, Jester recalled an interview he had read before about the history of game development.

  He recalled that a guest mentioned "Super Mario" and talked about the player's sense of substitution.

  "People are tired of playing as a cold spaceship, a pixelated paddle and an unknown bean-eating circle in games. They want to play as humans."

  Jester knew that Super Mario wasn't the first game to feature a human as the main character, but it was the first one to achieve huge success. The success of this game made many designers realize that humans are the characters with which players most easily identify.

  Although it was just a very small detail, Jester thought it was crucial.

  Even with today's games, even if you use a 16-bit PPU for graphics processing, the fineness is not possible to surpass that of later generations. Moreover, it is much more difficult for ordinary people to distinguish between two different aircraft than between two different people.

  Players are not military enthusiasts, they won't like an airplane without any life, and it's a backward World War II aircraft.

  They aren't Transformers, why should players like them?

  But if it's a person, especially a handsome man or a beautiful and charming woman with big breasts, then it's completely different.

  Humans naturally like good things.

  So, in this game, Jest set it up so that players choose a driver rather than directly choosing an aircraft.

  The driver, Jester, chose the aesthetic style of Japanese manga. He really couldn't appreciate the American comic book style, and in the future, it was proven that the aesthetics of Japanese manga are universal, while the aesthetics of American comics are only liked by fags.

  However, Jiest himself had no experience in this area, although he had seen many comics from later generations. He knew a lot of classic characters, but he still felt that it was not too much trouble to find a professional comic artist to do a character design based on his character settings.

  For this game, Jester's goal is to pursue perfection.

  After selecting the driver, go to the hangar to select the aircraft type - there are nine different types of aircraft to choose from: three American: F4U Corsair, P51 Mustang, F38 Lightning; two British: Mk9 Spitfire, Mk1 Hurricane; two Japanese: N1K1-J Shiden, Zero Fighter; and two German: FW190 Wurger and BF109.

  After selecting a good pilot and aircraft, Jest also prepared for players a system that has become a common gameplay in many flight games in the future, but currently no game has had a similar setting - a self-selected weapon system.

  This is actually a very ordinary humanized setting in later games, but it was extremely shocking to players at that time.

  Players no longer pilot planes that are well-designed by designers, but instead set their own - optional engines, optional standard weapons, and optional special weapons.

  This DIY setting is an irresistible attraction for players who are in contact with it for the first time, because in the process of self-design, players will pour their emotions into it, and with emotions, they naturally have a sense of substitution.

  When players think about flying their own designed plane to save the earth and flying someone else's designed plane to save the earth, it's a completely different mindset.

  In terms of specific gameplay, Jester referenced many later games of the same type, such as engine skills, charging systems, and bomb systems.

  Engine skills vary depending on the engine chosen, some engine skills can accelerate breakthroughs after use, others can quickly descend to avoid emergency dodges that are difficult to dodge, and some can make the plane produce a reverse flight effect.

  Of course, the engine skill will enter a cooldown period after each use and can only be used again after the cooldown is over.

  This was just some common settings in later generations, but it was pioneering at that time.

  The bomb system, not to mention, is one of the most important settings in flight shooting games, first appearing in the sequel to 1942, although a similar setting also appeared in 1942, where the player-controlled aircraft can perform an emergency evasion once.

  Jester's bomb system is a special weapon that players can choose, including laser cannons that can clear a straight line path, some can perform indiscriminate attacks within a fan-shaped range in front of them, and some can produce a protective shield that will not be damaged for a certain period of time.

  There are many more, such as deputy system, gold coin system, reward point system, reward life system and so on.

  These specific settings are mostly referenced from the classic air combat game "Strikers 1945", which came out ten years later, at a time when this type of game had already reached its peak, with setting perfection that is far beyond what can be compared to now.

  Jester wrote a few pages on paper and drew several illustrations.

  As for the level design, Jester hasn't started yet. He wasn't very good at playing this type of game before, and he didn't memorize any versions of this type of game, so his memory isn't particularly clear. He can only vaguely recall a few levels, and even those are just rough outlines, with many specific details unclear.

  He just queried the system in his mind and tried out two games, "Raiden" and "1942: The Pacific Air War", each requiring 4 points to play, which he had exactly 8 points left for.

  The system in Jester's mind is still relatively humanized, playing once means passing through once, with infinite lives and infinite continues, otherwise, for Jester, "Strikers 1945" is fine, but "Raiden" can only sigh.

  This game is really not for human players.

  With his own well-written settings in hand, Jester headed towards Mark Senny's office. He wanted to discuss it with him and hear his opinions, despite having great confidence in this game that combined countless classic settings from later generations.

  Mark Sennett has been feeling frustrated lately because the progress of his eagerly anticipated "Avengers" has almost completely stalled.

  Mark Sweeney nodded at Jester's intention, thinking that it wouldn't be bad to change the setting temporarily and think about it. After all, he had some ideas on how to solve the problem of smooth action under low memory, and the high-end version of the motherboard was not yet completed, so he didn't rush for the time being.

  With the rough setting written by Jester, which didn't even have a name, Mark Sena carefully browsed through it several times, his eyes still shining with excitement as he read.

  "Every time I see your design, it gives me a lot of inspiration. For example, this bomb system, I can completely add it to "Avenger" and let the characters in it have a defensive move like this - of course, I also need to make restrictions. Your restriction that each plane can only be used three times in one game is very good for flight games, but not suitable for my fighting game."

  Mark Sen put the design draft in his hand on the table and said thoughtfully.

  Jester was also somewhat surprised by his words, Mark Senny said that this kind of setting would definitely be in the clear version of the game in later generations. Jester remembered that before he was reborn, they called this move "Big Treasure", which would deduct a portion of blood bars when released, but could knock all enemies around him flying, it was a very useful lifesaving skill.

  If I'm not mistaken, this setting of Jet Set first appeared in "Jet Set Radio 2". Unexpectedly, Mark Cerny just saw his own bomb system and was able to come up with this idea. He is indeed a legendary figure who can win the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award.

  Mark Sen said, then took out a pen and immediately started writing and drawing on the table.

  It wasn't until he finished writing that he remembered Jester was still in his room.

  Mark Sweeney said with some embarrassment: "The inspiration that suddenly came to mind, if not written down immediately, might be forgotten in an instant, the recent work has been too busy."

  Jester also sincerely admires Mark Cerny's passion for making games.

  He himself was almost a figurehead for several games under his name, especially "Snow Bros.", he basically just did a rough draft of the game, drew all the level setting diagrams, listed the detailed settings, and then handed it over to others to take care of the programming.

  This also made him feel somewhat ashamed.

  In his view, he had hardly made any effort in this game, but was able to enjoy all the fame after its success.

  And Mark Cerny was completely different, not only did he complete the initial setup by himself, but also the setting diagram, level design, and even participated in solving difficult problems encountered during programming.

  At this point, Jester is far inferior.

  "Extremely original." Mark Sennett praised with admiration the initial setting of the game that Jester had just shown him, and although the content was rough, he could also see those ingenious design ideas.

  Apart from the bomb system he saw earlier, Mark Sennett was also impressed with this initial DIY idea.

  He just thought of this and couldn't wait to play this game. This feeling is simply too difficult to express.

  Mark Sweeney's face suddenly showed a puzzled expression as he spoke.

  He picked up the setting draft on the table and pointed to the large section of world introduction at the beginning of the game, asking Jest: "Why do you have to be so detailed?"

  Jester smiled, nowadays designers, even geniuses like Mark Cerny haven't realized that the future development of electronic games has shifted from simply playing a game to experiencing a story.

  This is also the core value of game immersion.

  "A starting point for a worldview, I plan to find someone to write several books based on this setting, with the four characters of this game as the main characters, two males and two females. This will make it easier for players to recognize this world, and later we can add new works based on this worldview to perfect the setting of this world. Who knows, after a decade or so, as we produce more games under this worldview, this world will gradually become more complete, and this worldview will become a truly recognized world for players. At that time, when they look at this world, it will be like looking at the Star Wars universe."

  Jester explained in a teasing tone, and as he spoke, his mind automatically associated it with Blizzard's Warcraft series.

  Mark Sweeney nodded slightly in surprise as he listened.

  He suddenly realized that his "Avenger" world could also be operated in this way, and he suddenly remembered that Jester had recently purchased a comic book studio. Could his game be made into a comic?

  Mark Sennett's eyes lit up at this point.

  This seems like a pretty good idea.