Chapter Twenty: Jester Lee's Methodology

  One of the three producers of World of Warcraft, legendary designer Shawn Dabiri, laughed when recalling that day in an interview with Fox, and then a rare look of reverence appeared on the face of this notoriously arrogant designer.

  His tone changed from before, suddenly becoming very respectful: "Yes, that was my first time meeting 'tyrant', and even now it's still unforgettable, you know? He made 'American Block' when he was only 19 years old, and at the time he was still a student at UC, all of us were a bit unbelievable! You know, at the time we were all his fans!"

  "Tyrant? Yes, that was the nickname we gave to Jest at the time. He's actually a nice guy when he's not working, very kind and gentle... but when it comes to game design, he's extremely overbearing. It's basically his way or the highway. During discussions before development, anyone can speak freely and he listens carefully, but once the design plan is set, he absolutely won't allow anyone to express a different opinion, nor will he permit anyone to say 'Sorry, I can't do it.' If you did that, he wouldn't hesitate to kick you out... In this regard, he's a complete autocrat!"

  "Arbitrary? No, no, no. Actually, although we call him a tyrant, it's just a private joke nickname. In fact, he has another real title in our Mars Entertainment - you know, he is a very special designer, with countless fantastic ideas in his mind. He can even be said to be the most special one. Mark Senni calls him 'all-the-best', and later this became everyone's nickname for him - it doesn't mean everything goes smoothly, but literally means: he is the best, the best among all!"

  "Absolutely! I was deeply influenced by him, he is my life mentor, all my understanding of how to design a game comes from him. At the age of 19, he had already grasped the essence of games. I still remember the scene at that time, his speech was like a thunderclap to me, it's simply the Bible for game designers."

  "I can say without hesitation that I, and even every designer who has come out of Huo Yan's entertainment company, are his students - not a single one is an exception!"

  Let's turn back time to this early summer of 1984.

  Jester and Markiplier are playing Mario Bros., a side-scrolling platformer similar to Donkey Kong.

  This is a great game, although the gameplay has not yet deviated from the static screen clearing game mold defined by Donkey Kong, but with its top-notch graphics in this era, smooth operation and various joyful elements, it still caused quite a stir in Japan.

  What I said earlier about this game being old-fashioned and not very popular is actually incorrect.

  Super Mario Bros. didn't exactly revolutionize the industry, it's a bit cliché to say so, but not quite... Well, in America that might be true, but in Japan this game caused a sales frenzy.

  Because FC was too popular after its release, many stores were sold out of stock, and many crazy players had to settle for buying the game "Super Mario Brothers" to comfort themselves.

  I also have FC in hypnosis myself!

  This also created a strange phenomenon at the time, when FC had just sold over 10 million units, but the game "Super Mario Bros." had sold exactly 16 million copies, creating an unprecedented event in gaming history - the game actually sold more than the console itself.

  So this game still has some playability.

  Some games are not interesting when you play them yourself, but watching others play can be very entertaining.

  Jest and Mark Sweeney were playing Mario Brothers when more than thirty new employees gathered behind them, watching intently.

  Even going so far as to offer their own suggestions on how to get through here.

  For most of them, FC is still very rare.

  "This game is pretty good, it's got a lot of Donkey Kong style."

  "Yeah, it has a lot of similarities with Donkey Kong, but it seems more fun than Donkey Kong."

  "I just saw the Japanese opening, it's a game from Jigokuraku, their games are all in this style, fun, playable and interesting!"

  "What the! It's just Donkey Kong with a different skin, I've played enough of Donkey Kong, what's the point of this game? Ren Tianxiang only knows how to rehash old games, one day they'll end up like Atari."

  Comments like this have been pouring in nonstop.

  All the way until the end of World 6, after Mario's defeat under Jester's control, he let out a maniacal laugh at Markiplier before immediately shutting off the game.

  Mark Xinyi saw Jester so shameless, and his 2P could still play Lewis!

  At this time, just as someone was curious and asked him why he wasn't playing, Mark Senni spoke up first.

  "This is the designer of 'American Blocks', and your boss, Jester Lee." He paused for a moment, revealing a mischievous grin. "He's only 19 years old and still studying at UC."

  Then the whole field was filled with exclamations of surprise, and many people even looked at Jester Lee with suspicious eyes.

  They were a bit skeptical that something as good as "American Block" was made by a 19-year-old college student.

  Jester could only helplessly glance at Mark Senny and cursed silently.

  Then he spoke up himself: "I am Jest Lee, as Mark just said, I'm the author of 'American Blocks'. Actually it was just an idea that came to me in a flash, many of you have programming skills that surpass mine, and I believe you can also see that this game is not technically difficult."

  His words made more than thirty people nod silently. "American Blocks" is indeed not difficult in terms of technology.

  Many of them are young but very experienced game designers, they know that at this time the technical gap between each game company is not particularly large - what matters most to a game's quality is its creativity, or gameplay, rather than technology.

  After all, now who can also make high pixel screen, only in two-dimensional plane for limited degree of simulation.

  The game "American Block" is perfect in terms of creativity, gameplay, and even the setting of the Easter egg.

  Enough to be a paradigm for these game designers' textbooks.

  "Everyone doesn't have to be so formal, we're a game company, not a professional law firm or financial company, there aren't that many rules - sit back, I just want to brainstorm with everyone today and discuss how to make a good game."

  Jester scanned the crowd with a glance and began his long-prepared topic.

  His question isn't particularly sharp, actually this issue has been continuously explored and summarized by all game designers since the birth of electronic games, but so far no one has come up with a widely accepted conclusion.

  After he asked this question, everyone began to speak freely.

  There were all sorts of remarks, but Jester didn't hear anything that could point directly to the core. They were mostly clichés.

  He clapped his hands, and the whole room fell silent, with all eyes on him.

  "Then I'll just say a few words, you can take it as some thoughts when I was doing 'American Blocks'."

  Jester waved his hand and everyone sat down.

  He just got up after playing games and still feels quite tired now.

  Then, he used Mark C. Sena's closing keynote at the 2011 Dice (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in Las Vegas as his opening.

  "I think that if a game's most basic idea can't move people, then no matter how much effort is put into it, it can't become a good game."

  Then, Jester continued speaking without stopping.

  "So, I think a good game must have something that touches people - this thing can be anything, characters, plot, gameplay, graphics, even music. You must make the buyer of your game feel that it's worth spending money on it, rather than making them think: Oh, I just spent fifty dollars on a pile of crap with gold inlays!"

  This left many people deep in thought, but some had a look of confusion on their faces. Among them was a young man with brown long hair and glasses who stood up to ask: "Boss, my name is Will Wright, I used to be an architect, I'd like to ask, what you just said were all very idealistic things, do you have anything more down-to-earth?"

  "Materialistic?"

  Jester chuckled at this, then took another close look at the young man named Will Wright, overlapping with an image of someone in his memory. After a brief moment of contemplation, he continued speaking.

  I'm slightly lost in thought.

  Then, Jester began to shamelessly plagiarize Mark Cerny's "Cerny's Method", which was proposed in the later generations and is considered as a Bible by countless game designers.

  Mark Cerny also won the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award in the future with this theory, the highest honor for game designers.

  Of course, from now on this will be called 'Jester Lee's methodology'.

  "Before this, I want to ask everyone a very fundamental question: are you actually making a game or designing a game?"

  This issue has caused a great deal of discussion among these thirty designers, all of whom understand that "making" and "designing" are completely different words in meaning, both on the surface and internally.

  Manufactured goods, generally considered to be mass-produced on an assembly line, may be competent but are often unoriginal and lack creativity.

  Designs are generally considered to be exquisite works of art, perhaps bizarre in shape but full of ingenious ideas.

  That is to say, Jest's question was interrogating these designers about what kind of mentality they had when making a game.

  Almost everyone was whispering to each other, but no one came forward to answer my question directly. Even Mark Sennett, the originator of this question, was thinking silently with his head down.

  Jester wasn't in a hurry, he just smiled slightly and continued his questioning.

  "Then I'll ask a more direct question, if you designed a game that's already 90% complete and your feelings or the opinions of players who tried it are 'not bad', if you polish it up and release it immediately, you can earn back the fans' money, but the evaluation might not be very high. So here's the problem - do you rework the game to make it a classic that will go down in history, or do you just finish it as is and sell it, first recouping the development costs?"

  As soon as Jester finished asking this question, the expressions on those designers' faces suddenly froze.