In an interview with Fox, legendary designer Li Shiqi, one of the three production directors of World of Warcraft, first laughed when he recalled the day, and then his face showed a rare look of reverence for the designer known for his arrogance.

"Jester Lee was my mentor and my mentor, and I didn't know anything but my love for games. I didn't know how to design a game, how to set up a script for a game, and I didn't know how to program a game. It was he, the training base of DreamWorks, who taught me little by little. All of us are fans of him!"

"Tyrant? is the nickname we gave Mr. Li Yixuan at that time, he is very easy to get along with when he is not working, and his words are kind...... But when it comes to designing games, he's basically going his own way, anyone can talk freely when discussing design before development, and he listens very carefully, but after finalizing the design plan, he never allows any individual to put forward a different opinion, and he doesn't allow anyone to say, 'Sorry, I can't do it', and if you do, he won't hesitate to let you out...... He's a tyrant, a dictator in this regard!"

"Arbitrary? no, no, no, actually, we call him a tyrant, but it's just a private joke, but he actually has a real nickname at DreamWorks - you know, he's a very special designer, and he seems to have a lot of ideas in his head, and he's even the most special one, Mark Saini called him 'all-the-best,' and that's what we all called him— It's not a smooth ride, it's just a literal meaning: he's the best, the best of all!"

I was very influenced by him, he was my life coach, and all my knowledge of how to design a game came from him. I still remember the scene, and his speech was deafening to me, it was a game designer's bible. It's fair to say that I, and even every designer who comes out of DreamWorks, is his student, and every single one of them is no exception!"

Let's turn the clock back to this March of 1978.

Li Yixuan and Mark Saini play "Chinese Cubes", a kind of elimination game. This game is arguably the world's first true computer game. Although it has appeared before, compared to "Chinese Cube", the previous games are simply scum in terms of creativity and design.

It's a great game with extremely simple gameplay, but it's just such an ordinary game that it keeps everyone hooked.

When Li Yixuan and Mark Saini played "Chinese Cubes", more than 30 new employees gathered behind them, vying to watch.

even put forward his own suggestions on how to pass the test here. Compared to "Tank Wars" and "Squirrel Wars", "Chinese Cubes" is too simple, but it is such a game, but everyone is watching it with relish.

played until the sixteenth level, and Li Yixuan died. Mark Saini was a little better and fell to the nineteenth hurdle. The two then quit the game.

Just when someone asked them why they didn't continue to play, Mark Saini was the first to speak, "This is the designer of "Chinese Cube", and also the designer of "Tank Wars" and "Squirrel Wars". It's also your boss, Jester Lee, and Li Yixuan. ”

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then I don't know who reacted first, and the audience burst into warm applause.

They kind of don't believe that great games like Tank Wars and Squirrel Wars were made by people of your age. In addition, the "Chinese Cube" just now seems to have been designed by him, although which game is a lot worse than "Tank Wars" and "Squirrel Wars" in terms of graphics, but the playability feels no worse than those two games.

Li Yixuan stood up, and after the applause was smaller, he said: "I am Li Yixuan, as Mark just said, I am the author of "Chinese Cube", in fact, this is just an idea born of an idea, for how to make a game, although you have not studied it systematically, you should also see that the technical difficulty of this game is not too big. ”

What he said made the more than 30 people nod silently, "Chinese Cube" is indeed not technically difficult.

Although many of them are young, even novices, they can also see the quality of a game, "Chinese Cube" is not technically difficult, and it is by creativity to win.

The scene just now was specially arranged by Li Yixuan, and the first lesson for these young people who have just joined the company is that games are a very creative profession.

After all, no one can make the high-resolution 3D realistic picture of later generations, and can only be simulated in a limited way on a two-dimensional plane.

And the game "Chinese Cube" is simply perfect in terms of creativity and gameplay. Enough to be a textbook model for these game designers of them.

He is not prepared to follow the textbook outline and teach everyone step by step like a robotics engineer. In terms of textbooks, that's a robot instructor's business.

He plans to teach them another way, that is, to enlighten them with the methodology commonly used in the West in the future, so as to stimulate their creativity in games.

"You don't have to be so restrictive, we are a game company, not a professional law firm or a financial company, there are not so many rules - just sit down, I just want to have a brainstorm with you today to discuss how to make a good game. ”

Li Yixuan glanced around at everyone and started the topic he had prepared a long time ago.

In fact, this question has been explored and summarized by all game designers since the birth of video games, but so far, no one has been able to come up with a widely accepted conclusion.

When he asked this question, everyone fell silent.

A young man who was mixed up in the workplace saw that the scene was a little cold, so he spoke first, "I think that the evaluation of a game is good, the first thing to look at is sales, good sales are good games, and bad sales are bad games." ”

Well, this is a typical market economy theory, and the quality of a game is measured by sales.

The young man's words were echoed by many. However, some people agree and some people oppose, and one girl stood up, "I am against this idea that all good games and bad games are judged by sales." ”

Seeing that everyone was staring at her, the girl was a little frightened, turned her head to look at Li Yixuan, only to see him nod his head of encouragement to the girl, and finally the girl mustered up the courage and said, "I think the game is like a movie, through which we can tell people a story." The difference is that in the movie, we passively accept the story, while in the game, we can actively participate in the process of the story, and even affect the ending of the story. A good story doesn't have to be a bestseller, and a bestseller isn't necessarily a good story. Just like movies, literary films are not as popular as commercial films, and although commercial films are popular, they can never become classics. My words played, thank you. ”

Damn, this one is even more awesome, and he actually wants to make the game a movie. Cinematization of games is a trend in the future, such as the famous "Doomsday Survivor" (also called "American Doomsday" and "Uncharted" are the best in cinematic games.

However, such a game cannot be demonstrated by the current hardware function, but it can be achieved in another way, and that is RPG.

After the girl sat down, the scene actually became cold, everyone looked at her like a monster, and looked at Li Yixuan from time to time.

Li Yixuan was wondering, and suddenly understood what was going on. They were afraid that he would be angry. Because Li Yixuan has produced three games, "Chinese Cube" is not known yet, but "Tank Battle" and "Squirrel War" are selling well. According to the girl's logic just now, the better the game sells, the worse the game, so Li Yixuan is not making a bad game.

I can't do it if I don't speak," in fact, the girl is right, the cinematization of games is the trend of the future. In addition, it is true that good games and bad games cannot be simply distinguished by sales. Okay, who wants to speak now? It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, I won't blame everyone, it's just brainstorming. ”

Someone else began to speak, but in view of the girl's lesson, he was much more careful in what he said.

What is gratifying is that he doesn't blindly look like people or sycophants, he still has his own things, but when he expresses himself, he pays more attention to ways and means.

Although I didn't speak freely as expected, I still didn't find fault with someone who could have my own things. There is no way that Easterners are like this, they have to go through their brains before speaking, unlike Westerners who are direct.

A few more people stood up to speak one after another, and there were all kinds of remarks, but Li Yixuan didn't hear anything that could go straight to the core, most of them were clichés.

Listening to a little boring, he slapped his face, the audience fell silent, and moved his eyes to him, "Then I'll just say a few words, you have some thoughts when I was working on "Chinese Cubes". ”

Wave your hand and let everyone sit down. He stood up after playing the game just now, and he still feels quite tired.

He then opened with Mark Senney's later concluding remarks at the DICE (Design, Innovate, Municate, Entertain) summit in Las Vegas in 2011: "I think a game can't be a good game if its most basic ideas don't impress, no matter how much effort you put into it." ”

"So, I think a good game has to have something that moves people — that can be anything, the characters, the story, the gameplay, the graphics, even the music, and you have to make your buyers feel like I'm getting the best value for my money, and not make them think, 'Oh, I'm like paying sixty dollars for a lump of white gold-encrusted!'"

Many people fell into deep thought, but some people showed a confused look on their faces, including a young man with long brown hair and glasses, "Boss, my name is Will Wright, I am of mixed Chinese and German descent, from Singapore, and I used to be an architect. I want to ask, what you just said is very idealistic, is there anything materialistic?"