Takahashi, who was at work, was surprised to receive a call from Richie.

In addition to being surprised, I also have some emotion, sometimes this is how I meet my old people.

"John, what kind of game do you think I should make? Now the real-time strategy game is the hottest, I want to make a real-time strategy game, but ......"

Rich's speech was somewhat illogical and somewhat verbose.

Takahashi listened quietly, and after listening to him, he said, "Have you played any games lately?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while, and he said, "I've been playing Civilization lately. ”

"Sid Meier's Civilization?" Takahashi asked.

"Yes. Richie nodded.

"And what do you think of Sid Meier's Civilization, is it fun?"

"It's fun, a day and a night pass before you know it, and I don't know why time sneaks away. Richie said with some embarrassment.

As a game producer, but addicted to other people's games and can't extricate themselves, not to mention the problem of self-control, even if it doesn't sound good.

Takahashi didn't laugh at him, the Civilization game did have that kind of magic.

Sleep on the next turn and end on the next.

Civilization is a game that steals players' time from turn to turn.

"If I were to suggest that you combine Civilization and real-time strategy, what kind of gameplay would you come up with?" Takahashi asked.

"What kind of play ......" Richie was silent for a moment, as if thinking.

Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based game with features similar to a wargame.

This game can be said to be suitable for players of all ages to play, he does not operate, and does not look at reaction time. Every step can be thought through.

The reason why it is so time-consuming is that the map is large, there are many opponents, and there are many problems to think about.

And when people are concentrating, they often feel that time flies quickly.

Richie thought about it for a long time, but he still couldn't think of a good way to organically combine Civilization with real-time strategy.

"I can't think of ......"

Takahashi then said, "You may be able to let go of your mind a little. There will be many differences between a civilization from the age of barbarism, to the ancient era, to the Middle Ages, to the modern era, and then to the modern era, right?

From the style of construction, from the way of production and labor, to weapons, and so on.

Why don't you make a game that is categorized by the civilizations of each country, and little by little evolves from primitive times to modern times?

To reach the next generation, you can use a tech tree system similar to Civilization. Only when key technologies are triggered can we evolve to the next era.

And different countries, in different eras, have different roles.

For example, some were more powerful in primitive times, some horse herders were more powerful, and some were even more powerful in farming.

If you can make a real-time strategy game set in history like this, I'm sure many players will enjoy it. ”

After Takahashi's reminder, Rich felt suddenly enlightened, and he suddenly asked, "Then the name of this game is ......"

"The name of this game?" Takahashi asked rhetorically, "It's called Age of Empires." ”

"Age of Empires? Okay! It's called Age of Empires! I'm going to make a game! Bye-bye!" Richie finished and dropped the phone.

Takahashi was not immersed in the conversation just now, but carried out the task at hand.

Now, he is promoting one thing in all the game departments of Wanhu.

That is, whether it is a two-dimensional or three-dimensional game, it will be made in three dimensions in the future. Even if it is a 2D game, a 3D model must be built during the production process.

Although it may seem a little crazy to outsiders, it is also a little early in the eyes of people inside Wanhu.

However, the cost of 3D is much lower, both in the development process and in the final effect.

In the past, if you want to achieve a fairly smooth performance, you need the artist to fine-tune it countless times.

In 3D conditions, you only need to interpolate to get cheap and smooth animations.

This is especially true in the iteration of the development process, if you want to change the actions of a character, the traditional hand-drawn scheme in the past almost needs to be redrawn, you must know that many games are still in the stage of pixel painting, and redrawing can exhaust the individual.

But under three-dimensional conditions, it is quite easy to solve this matter. You just need to change the binding of the bones.

In the end, the actual output of the game needs to be a lattice drawing, which is converted into a lattice drawing.

This is a huge saving in terms of time and labor costs in the game production process.

If it's such a good method, why don't other companies use it?

One is that video game companies such as Ben's vote, although they are in a technologically innovative industry, they are not sensitive to the latest technology.

In addition, they have given up on the future, and they have not recruited new employees in the past few years, and the old employees are already very comfortable with the old ones.

If they change rashly, these people will not be able to accept it, and their work efficiency will be greatly reduced.

And Wanhu has always had new people joining, and the difficulties encountered in this regard are much lower.

And once Wanhu completes this technological revolution, they will make regular games faster, and this faster, for traditional video game companies, it is self-evident what kind of blow it will bring.

You know, for example, at this year's North American Game Show, Vulture Studios, which has been in contact with Blizzard, is still using clay modeling.

The whole game is also a game made of clay animation.

If we talk about the game industry, they are far less mature than those of 10,000 households.

The turn-based game they originally made was almost in the middle of a lack of funds.

However, they contacted Blizzard, who decided to give them financial assistance. However, the game production also needs to be relatively modified.

The original turn-based combat has been changed to real-time combat.

The clay animation has also been adjusted accordingly to be less clay.

And the name of the whole game has been slowly determined, and it is called "Diablo".

Before the game was about to be released, Blizzard directly acquired the small company called Vulture Studios and renamed it Northern Blizzard.

The game Diablo, produced by Blizzard in the North and published by Blizzard, hit the market.

The game was originally played on a platform-based PC platform.

Then, it landed on several home computer platforms.

At this time, the founder and president of Electronic Arts left Electronic Arts and established a new company, united with Microsoft and Panasonic, to launch a host called 3DO.

It can be seen with the naked eye that the times are still moving.