"Materialistic?"

Li Yixuan smiled when he heard this, and then took a closer look at the young man named Will Wright, which overlapped with the image of a certain person in his memory, and then he thought for a moment and continued, "I have a little bit of an idea. ”

Then, Li Yixuan began to use his own words to shamelessly plagiarize the 'Saini theory' proposed by Mark Saini in later generations, which was regarded as the bible by countless game designers.

In the future, Mark Saini also won the GDC Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor for game designers, for this theory.

Of course, in the future, this will be called 'Li Yixuan's methodology'.

"Before I do that, I want to ask you a very fundamental question, are you making a game, or are you designing a game!"

This question caused a lot of discussion among the 30 designers, who all understood that production and design are completely different words, both superficial and internal.

Production, which is generally considered to be an industrial product on the assembly line, may be qualified, but cookie-cutter and lack creativity.

Designs, on the other hand, are generally considered to be elaborate works of art, and they may be bizarre, but they are full of all kinds of whimsical ideas.

In other words, Li Yixuan's question is torturing these designers, what kind of mentality are you making a game.

Seeing that almost everyone was discussing in a whisper, but none of them came out to answer their questions head-on, even Mark Seni, the original creator of the question, was silently thinking about something with his head down.

Li Yixuan was not in a hurry, just smiled slightly, and continued his question, "Then let me ask a more direct question, if you design a game and it has been completed by 90%, your feeling or the opinion given by the players who tried it is 'not bad', if it is released immediately after the completion is done, it can earn fan money, but the evaluation may not be too high, then the question is- Are you going to redo the game and make it a classic that can go down in history, or will you just sell it and earn back the R&D costs?"

As soon as Jester finished asking this question, the expressions on the faces of those designers were simply wonderful.

If it is sold directly, what about the decline in brand value due to poor reputation? But if it is said to be redone, what about the R&D expenses consumed for it?

Neither of these issues should be considered by a game designer in nature, it is something that the owner of a game company needs to consider.

But Jester asked anyway, because he knew that the designer was responsible for the quality of a game, not the boss of the company.

A qualified game designer must be responsible for his own work.

This is in terms of the quality of the game. But it may not be true from an economic point of view. In the early days of the development of video games, video games are relatively simple, the development cycle of games is not long, and the development cost is not high. But in the later stage, especially large-scale 3D games, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, are commonplace.

Making a game is the equivalent of making a blockbuster, and if you want to start all over again, it will be a disaster for any game company or game studio. Even if he's a big gamer.

Even if the big guy goes to set up a game studio by himself, he has to consider the production cost, and he can't be capricious, otherwise he will finish the game.

Seeing that everyone was speechless, Li Yixuan didn't intend to give an answer, because this kind of thing is a matter of opinion, and there will never be a correct answer, how to choose depends on themselves.

Continued to smile and asked the next question, which was still related to the previous question, "Then let's look at this question in a different direction of discussion - why do we wait until a game is almost 10% complete to know that this game is just just-so-so, can't we find it when we did it before?"

These words made the eyes of the more than 30 designers light up, as if they thought of something critical, but they couldn't grasp it for a while.

"Maybe ......"

Mark Saini is worthy of being the original author of this theory, and after hearing Li Yixuan's inducing question, he also had some thoughts of his own.

However, this theory is the result of his nearly 20 years of experience in game development, through the development team of Sega, Universal Entertainment (Vivendi Games), Sony Entertainment, and countless game development experience.

He only said the word 'maybe' and there was no more to follow.

Like everyone else, he seems to have touched the door, but it will take a long time of experience in game development to pierce that thick layer of window paper.

That's why Mark Saini's 'Saini Theory' has been so popular in the first place, because his theory explains how to make a great game in an almost methodological way.

For the designers who stand outside the door, push open the door that can lead them to success.

Jester continued his speech, and everyone listened silently, they were indeed attracted by Jester's theory.

"We continued to dig deeper on this issue, and when we were designing, we thought, 'This is a great idea,' or maybe it's a beautiful way to play,' but when we programmed them, it turned out to be 'average,' so I asked how far we needed to finish the game to realize that we were wrong at the beginning: it wasn't a great thing, it was a piece of. ”

"How much of the core elements of a game occupy the content of this game? Take my "Chinese Cubes" as an example, after digging out all the unnecessary background patterns, matching electronic music, and some text that players may not read, only the core gameplay of this game is retained, which is to eliminate the seven different blocks that appear randomly, how much capacity is left in this game?"

As he spoke, Li Yixuan stretched out a hand, but his thumb was retracted by him.

He shook his palm, which showed four fingers, at everyone, and then said his answer: "Forty percent." ”

Then, Li Yixuan said the three most important of the four cores of Saini's theory, "For a game, a designer must have a pre-product concept, and this pre-product must be the first releasable demo version that contains all the core gameplay of the game by the designer, and I assume that it will be called the alpha version." ”

"In addition to focusing on the core of the game you're going to make, the alpha version has to be releasable, not a simple patchwork of bits and pieces of game content — that's why I call it a replayable version. Then, by understanding whether players buy or don't buy this "first releasable demo" trial, we can complement and optimize our own development process. ”

In other words, when we first conceived it, we were not right. As a game designer, the first thing we need to understand is that it's not whether we think it's good or not, but whether we want to think about whether players should make a game - I asked you earlier, do you make a game with the mentality of making or designing a game, in fact, this is a very interesting question, we produce products - so should we also do it with the mentality of making products?

Li Yixuan said very seriously, he has experienced the explosion of games in later generations, and the audio-visual enjoyment is far more than the current pixel era, at that time the game was called the ninth art, making a game is not much easier than making a movie, but now, except for Li Yixuan, no one will have the idea that games are art.

Going back to the previous question, when a game is 90% developed and not satisfied, does it need to be redone? On the surface, Saini's theory seems to give the ultimate answer, but there are still all kinds of problems in game development to torture game makers whether they need to redo it.

While not necessarily a full redo, a partial redo is inevitable. This brings another problem, the production cycle of the game is infinitely extended, and it costs to redo even partial rework, which adds up to an astronomical amount of money if it is redone a little, and that redo a little. The person in charge of the game will still be shot by the company.

The biggest advantage of Saini's theory is that at the beginning of the design, the game can be examined holistically, so as to reduce the behavior of deviating in the game production process. Although he cannot solve all problems, in fact, there is no theory to solve all problems in this world.

"Do you know what art is? I know a master artist, he explained it this way. Say, 'Art is a very subjective thing, and what I thought was art might be thought that it was just a lump of air, so there may not be a precise and normative definition of this subjective thing, but I think art should be something that someone and something combine in an attempt to produce a response in a certain group.'" This sentence was said by Leonardo da Vinci. If we follow Leonardo da Vinci's theory, then when we make games, are we also combining certain things together in order to generate a response in a certain group?"

Seeing someone nodding his head, Li Yixuan continued to smile and said, "In the face of the previous problems, everyone can have a different mentality, I personally believe that we are not only game designers, we are also artists, I am passing my thoughts to the players who play my game, I want to get their response, their feedback." So, games are art in my mind. ”

"But the essence of the game is a commodity, it needs to be sold, it is completely different from the general idea that it is just a work of art for appreciation, it does not need to be a maverick and does not need to be alone, it needs to be popular, universal, and can be accepted by ordinary people,—— so I think we should use the thinking of designing artwork to make a product. ”

"But our essence is to be an artist, not just a designer, to put our thoughts into our work. A game that doesn't have a designer's mind is never going to succeed. ”

After Li Yixuan finished speaking, the audience suddenly burst into thunderous applause, and everyone clapped their palms vigorously, Li Yixuan's words were enough to make them deafening.

Waiting for the applause to be almost over, he raised his two hands, pressed them down, and continued to smile and said: "Then let's have a real brainstorming session next, I have a game type here, you can use your brain as a game designer to help me perfect this game, it must be special, unique, for people to see, or even just know such a way to play, so I am interested in it, and have such an idea - I want to play this game!"

Looking at the people below who were eager to try, Li Yixuan said his title: "Let's have a "Genesis" that you all played, Richard Garrett made on the Cowherd Star computer in 1975. I think you all know this game, my topic is RPG, you can help me perfect this type of game. ”

RPG role-playing, one of the most popular genres, has a wide audience, but it is very difficult to do well.

"I think we can make the plot more moving!" someone said.

"I think it's possible to design a powerful artifact that players desperately want to get!" someone else said.

"I think we can build a growth system where the player can feel the heroes he controls growing. ”

All kinds of sayings filled Li Yixuan's ears, he just smiled and didn't make any comments, and then waited for everyone's opinions to be almost finished, before he spoke: "In this way, I'll give you an example of another game, and then you can think about how to make an RPG have new ideas in gameplay, for example, what is the core gameplay of my "Chinese Cubes"?"

"Eliminate!" someone immediately replied.

"It's a sense of accomplishment that goes up with points!"

"It's the superiority that beats others!"

"It's elimination, but it's not just elimination. Mark Saini, who had never opened his mouth at this time, suddenly said, "To be precise, this game is essentially a puzzle game, and what players like is that it is not difficult, but it is endlessly varied to consider the process of elimination, and every time a block falls, he needs to constantly think - what should I do." As for the points and the sense of accomplishment of beating others, those are all add-ons, and as Jester Lee said before, these are not the real core gameplay of this game, but just bits and pieces. ”

Li Yixuan applauded, and he was not surprised by this, Mark Saini was the kind of designer who could get to the heart of a game.

"Then I'm going to continue to redesign a few games with this core gameplay of 'not too difficult but endlessly varied consideration process to eliminate'. For example, there is such a game...... "There are many match-solving games he has played in later generations, and just a few of them are enough for these designers to worship now."

"That's how I set the rules of this game. ”

"Suppose there is a 10x10 square, and there is a gem in each compartment, and these gems come in many types and colors, it may be seven or eight, and we will not discuss this for now. ”

"What you can know is that they don't have three identical connections, whether horizontal or vertical, and all the player has to do is to arbitrarily exchange two adjacent gems, horizontally and vertically, to achieve three identical gems connected - As long as such conditions are met, then these three gems will be eliminated, and the places vacated by them will be filled by the gems above them in turn, and new gems will fall from the top to fill the vacancies, and when these gems fall, if they can form a new triple, then they will still be eliminated......"

"I've set it up to three, a normal mode, in which the player can keep eliminating the gems in the square until the gems can't be eliminated - of course, the elimination of gems is to be scored, and the more you eliminate in one operation, the higher the score. ”

"The second is the time mode, when the player eliminates, there will be a countdown bar, at the beginning this countdown bar is very slow, the player can supplement the countdown by eliminating the time to get the reward by successfully eliminating, but as time goes by, the countdown will get faster and faster, and the player needs to eliminate as many gems as possible before the countdown ends, so as to get more points!"

"The third is the competitive mode, which is no different from the time mode, but it is a game in which two people play the time mode separately, and whoever finishes the game first loses the game. ”

The game Li Yixuan said was the idea of "Bejeweled" designed by popcap in 2000, and the eyes of many designers in front of him lit up, and they all heard the incredible playability contained in this simple game like "Chinese Cube"!

Even in the past 2,000 years, Bejeweled became a sensation upon its release, selling 25 million copies on all platforms, and two years later it was inducted into the IGN-sponsored Video Games Hall of Fame, while only two match-matching games were selected, in addition to Bejeweled, there was also Tetris.

This shows how good this game is, not to mention in a video game desert like seven or eight years.

The impact Li Yixuan has brought to them is indescribable.

And the way they looked at Li Yixuan also became different, some people originally thought that he was able to produce "Chinese Cube" just by luck and inspiration, but now judging from Li Yixuan's performance, it is not the same thing at all.

Otherwise, how could he be able to say such a dick of game ideas as casually as drinking water and eating? And it has the elimination style of "Chinese Cubes", which is completely comparable to "Chinese Cubes", but it is completely different from the gameplay of "Chinese Cubes"?

Then, in order to deepen his shocking and tall image and status in front of these designers, Li Yixuan continued to say the design ideas of "Zuma" and "Bubble Dragon", two equally excellent elimination games, which made these young designers worship directly.

Each of them had a look of fanaticism on their faces, and the way they looked at Li Yixuan was like seeing a god of game design, as if he didn't need to think, just a thought to be able to say a game idea that they couldn't think of anyway.

And these ideas sound so much fun!

Even Mark Saini looked at Li Yixuan speechlessly, and then he sighed deeply, ashamed of himself.

However, Li Yixuan's face did not show the slightest smug look, but still had that faint smile, and he continued to say the question just now, "Then, now you use another angle, just like the way I just analyzed the core gameplay of "Chinese Cube", to design a completely different, but can make people's eyes shine, and they can't help but play it." ”

Then, as soon as Li Yixuan's words were finished, everyone fell into deep thought.

To be honest, RPGs like Genesis are still too difficult for these rookie designers, and RPGs like Mazu, Bubble Ball, and Bejeweled are just the right ones to practice, and RPGs can be used as a medium- to long-term goal. After the development of the first few games, their foundation is almost laid, and the development of RPGs will be much smoother.