Chapter Seventeen: Maxine's New Game

  This is Jester's third day back in Costa Mesa, Mars Entertainment (Mars-Eai) was officially established.

  Jester's mother shut down her thriving supermarket and merged it with Jester's newly formed entertainment company.

  This wasn't what Jester meant, but rather his mother volunteered, according to her, although the supermarket business was still good, it was too tiring.

  And these days have also brought a great shock to Jester's mother.

  In terms of the proportion of area occupied, the sales and profits of this Cosco in Costa Mesa are not even one-tenth of those of these five street machines.

  So Jest set up the original supermarket's ground floor as a dedicated Mars Entertainment game trial area.

  Although there are only five lonely "American Block" arcade machines now, Jie believes that it won't take long for him to add more and better games.

  And as the company's reputation grows, this place will inevitably become a holy land in the eyes of players.

  The office is located on the second floor of the supermarket, and the third floor was originally intended to be rented out by his mother, but was stopped by Jester. Now there are fewer people, and the third floor is temporarily not in use, but that doesn't mean it won't be used in the future.

  In fact, Jester's plan is to use the second floor as a software development area and the third floor as a hardware development area.

  "Mark, take a look at this agreement."

  On the wall behind Jester in the Mars Entertainment office is a line of text.

  Be the best game!

  Mark Senni sat on the sofa, looked up at the sentence on the wall of Jester, and a smile appeared involuntarily at the corner of his mouth.

  This is also his ideal.

  Then he looked at the contract that Jester had placed on the tea table in front of him.

  "Game Development Director?"

  Mark Sena revealed a playful smile upon seeing the contents of the agreement and continued reading on.

  "Five percent of the shares!"

  Mark Senn suddenly raised his head, looking at Jester with a somewhat shocked gaze. He didn't understand why the other party would give him such a high share. If it were an ordinary small company that found him and gave him 5% of the shares, he wouldn't even bother to take a look, but this company...

  It is clearly stated in this agreement that the copyright of "American Blocks" belongs to Mars Entertainment, and Jester also invested with this, holding 70% of the shares of Mars Entertainment.

  The remaining twenty-five percent is owned by Jester's parents.

  Jester's father served as the hardware development director of Mars Entertainment, while Jester's mother was in charge of the company's finance and human resources management.

  Of course, this three-story supermarket originally belonging to Mother Jester was also formally assigned to Mars Entertainment.

  After that, the 5% stake will not be small. After all, at this rate, "American Blocks" is likely to be a game with profits exceeding $100 million, and 5% is $5 million!

  And I just helped assemble a few arcade machine cabinets with a screwdriver throughout the whole process!

  Dig your own grave at the cost of at least 50 million?

  Mark Senyi shook his head, he still had a sense of self-awareness, and he felt that he himself was not worth five million.

  He put down the contract and was about to say something, but he wasn't going to refuse to join Mars Entertainment, it's just that the treatment given by the other party was too high, he felt guilty.

  But Jester was the first to speak up.

  "Mark, this is buying your future, I think your talent is worth the price!" Jester looked into Mark's eyes, every word spoken with utmost sincerity. "I hope we can do it together, make the best game, and create an era of our own! We're going to make home consoles, arcade machines, handhelds, and tell all of America that they were wrong, video games are not dead!"

  Mark felt his eyes itch at this moment.

  A gentleman would lay down his life for a friend; although Mark didn't know this saying, he was in that state of mind at the moment.

  He nodded heavily and said nothing, putting away the share transfer agreement in his hand.

  Then he pulled out a thick stack of white paper from a black leather bag beside him, which was densely filled with words or various illustrations.

  Then Mark Sen handed it to Jester and said, "Didn't I say when I went to San Francisco that I would give you a surprise after I came back? This is it. It's a game I've been designing recently. I've already completed a large part of it. The rest is mainly programming, but I haven't had time yet and haven't had a chance to do it."

  Jester took it with some curiosity as he watched Mark Senni's confident expression.

  "Huh?!"

  Looking at the file header written with the game name 'Avenger', Jester had no impression of this game.

  So this is an entirely new game?

  "Is it an action pass? An intercept punch? A horizontal scroll?"

  Then Jester continued reading, nodding his head constantly as he looked on.

  Very much like "Double Dragon", extremely alike!

  This is how Jester felt after reading Mark Sennett's design proposal.

  The same heroic rescue, the same plot of striking down evil forces, the same core elements of Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do, the same ability to pick up items from the ground to attack enemies, the only difference is in character settings, move settings, and location settings.

  Mark Sennett's design is more humane and perfect.

  For example, in the original Double Dragon, A is a forward punch and B is a backward kick, which is actually very inconvenient to operate.

  Actually, when Jester first played Double Dragon for the first time, the biggest feeling was, what kind of people would design something so inhumane?

  But Mark Cerny's design of this 'Avenger' is very much in line with human habits, A is punching, B is kicking, AB pressed together is jumping, and the attack direction is controlled by the directional keys.

  And Mark Sennett's character setting is more in line with American aesthetics, the two characters, this time not two gay men, but a man and a woman, the woman is a blonde bombshell, set as the younger sister of the male protagonist's girlfriend, also the male protagonist's junior.

  The location became a fictional place called Sin City.

  To be honest, if I didn't know that Double Dragon was a game to be released in '87 and that Technos Japan is currently busy with their Kunio-kun series, it's possible that they wouldn't even have plans to develop it yet. That Jerkster would definitely think this is just another Mark Serni knockoff game.

  Although in the eyes of Jester, who has seen countless scroll-fighting games, this game still has many functions to add, but it's just a debut work, and there is no need to say so early.

  It's not too late to talk about it when the sequel comes out.

  Fighting game - This is a genre that has not been cleared so far, and Jester also knows very well the sensation caused by the release of Double Dragon at that time.

  If this game were made according to Mark Cerny's vision, it would absolutely open up a new era for arcade games.

  Directly transition from a static screen to horizontal scrolling action scenes.

  This is also the beginning of the brilliance of arcade games.

  The problem is that this is a game with extremely high production values, not something like Tetris that only requires one idea and can be done by a single decent programmer.

  This is a game that tests the design team's hard skills, composition, music, attack judgment, level design, AI and so on.

  "What a great setting!"

  Jester first praised Mark Sennett, then paused for a moment to choose his words carefully, hoping to refuse more tactfully. "But Mark, have you thought about it? This is a massive game that involves handling a large number of images, sounds, and actions. It's possible that the final product will be over 100KB or even 200KB in size. It's not something that can be completed by just one or two people."

  Mark Senn nodded, not denying Jester's words, and added: "At least a team of six or more is needed, ten is best, and they must all be elites."

  Jester saw that Mark Sennett didn't understand what he meant, so he continued: "Moreover, this is a horizontal scrolling action game. Horizontal scrolling games are a type of game that not many companies can do well."

  Mark Sen nodded silently, this time he understood what Jester meant, and he also understood Jester, but he still didn't give up his idea.

  "Jesse, side-scrollers aren't as hard as you think they are. I worked on many of them at Atari and know a lot of people who have experience with this type of game. And it's really an attractive game - players can easily get into the role - everyone has a super hero story." Mark Cerny's eyes shone brightly, his words were extremely sincere.

  "Mark, this is a great setup, I won't deny that." Jester waved the proposal written by Mark Sennett, titled "Avengers", in his hand. "But so far, our company only has four people, you, me, my parents."

  Maxseni thought Jester would come up with another reason to refuse him and had prepared his own words in response.

  Just as he was about to speak, Jester's face suddenly broke into a smile: "But if you really want to carry out this plan, you are my game development director, and I will support all your proposals - so now what you need to do is go find the people you need, then tell me how much money you need, and how long it will take to finish. However, before doing these things, you should go to my father's place and ask him what the parameters of our next arcade motherboard are, otherwise, how can you program?"

  Mark Senye was also amused by Jester's words and laughed, after which he opened his mouth and said: "What excuse will you use to refuse me in the future? I didn't expect... all the settings are done, including the levels. Even drew a lot of rough sketches, may not be drawn well, but professional painters can find again... time doesn't need to be too long, from finding people starting to count, I probably need at least four months' time, no later than half a year."

  "Half a year? That means by the end of the year? That's a good day, just in time for Christmas sales! Alright then." Jester nodded and added, "But it has to be after I've squeezed those merchants dry, otherwise I won't have that much money."

  Mark Sen said somewhat disdainfully, "A friend of mine who sells entertainment equipment told me that they can't sit still anymore. It's just these few days, if you keep shipping like this, those retailers will have eaten your heart out."

  "Haha!" Jester burst out laughing uncontrollably after hearing Mark Senny's words, then pointed to a stack of files on the table beside him and said in a cold tone, "You asked for it! And I have a big surprise waiting for them here."

  After he sold those sixty arcade machines in major cities of California, the market around these cities thoroughly exploded.

  Everyone who has played Tetris is captivated by its charm.

  The fans of this game are spreading like a virus.

  Those arcades with these games are making a killing, packed to the brim every day, while those without can only watch enviously as others rake it in, their own arcades deserted.

  Countless people who couldn't buy "American Block" from those vendors called him through the phone numbers he left on the arcade machines.

  Jester's mother was at her wit's end and finally hired a receptionist on a temporary basis.

  But what Jester didn't expect was that through this phone-ordering method, in just three short days, he received a staggering 900 orders, not only from California but also from neighboring states, and the number is still rising.

  Moreover, he had explicitly stated that he would only ship after receiving full payment, and these buyers were not stingy. In just a few days, Jester's account had already accumulated nearly five million dollars in cash.

  "Mark, do you have any friends in Japan? I want to set up a branch there. It won't be busy for a while, but just help me collect some information about Japan, especially the game industry - after all, the market is hot there, and I'm sure our future competitors will come from there." Jester's smile disappeared, replaced by seriousness.

  Mark Sweeney also nodded in agreement with Jester's point of view.

  As a game designer, he can naturally distinguish the strengths of Japanese people from games.

  He thought for a moment and said, "I do have a few friends in Japan. This time Sega was able to find me and invite me to work in Japan, thanks to the help of my friends in Japan. I can ask them, but it shouldn't be a big problem. After all, collecting information isn't that complicated - even a high school graduate can do it."

  "Alright, keep me posted," Jester said.

  At this time, the phone on Jester's desk rang out, and Jester made an apologetic gesture to Mark Sennett before answering it.

  Listening to the phone, Jester curled up a cold smile at the corner of his mouth, and then bluntly said into the receiver: "Let them wait, I don't have time now."

  Then, Jester hung up the phone directly.

  He smiled at Mark Sennett, a hint of coldness in his smile: "Let's hang them for a while!"

  "Has Fat Sheep arrived?" Mark Senny's eyes also lit up.