Yes, you heard it right.

The most famous ARPG series in history was originally made as a turn-based RPG!

It is these that many people believe that Northern Blizzard, which has the orthodox pedigree of the "Dark" series, actually wants to make this game a turn-based RPG.

And they didn't just think about it, they did.

They really made a turn-based demo for Blizzard headquarters to review.,The result was immediately beaten back by Blizzard headquarters.,Blizzard headquarters requirements,It must not be made into a turn-based system.,It must be made a real-time system.,Of course,This can't be blamed on Vulture Studios.,After all,Real-time RPGs were rare at that time.,The hottest Japanese-style RPGs at that time were all turn-based.,And even the three major American RPGs are turn-based.。

When designers who were influenced by these games made RPGs, they naturally thought that they would also make turn-based games themselves.

Of course, later generations said that the "Diablo" series was the first generation of ARPG games, in fact, "Diablo" is not the earliest ARPG, the earliest should be Miyamoto Shigeru's "The Legend of Zelda", of course, it really made the ARPG genre gradually become the mainstream genre of RPG games, and it really has to be attributed to Blizzard's "Diablo" series.

Of course, the improvement of function makes real-time combat less difficult to control, and it is also a decisive factor.

Because in order to make a good turn-based game, it requires very high design skills.

As we all know, the biggest advantage of turn-based games is that they can save power, but the biggest disadvantage is that the game feels not smooth enough, and there will be no feel at all.

So. Turn-based games tend to play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, and they will completely abandon the metaphysical thing of feel and try to take advantage of another turn-based game. The biggest advantage is the strategic nature of the battle.

This advantage. It's not an advantage that I thought of when I first started doing turn-based.

I thought that the reason why I went to the turn-based system in the first place was only because the function did not allow it, and it was necessary to use the turn-based system.

Later, many designers found that the use of the turn-based system could slightly change the rules, so that things like the order of the battle shots became more strategic. It is often seen that sometimes with some strategic settings, you can defeat some enemies who are much stronger than yourself.

Therefore, to design a fun turn-based combat system, it is very necessary to test the skill of the school designer.

Most of the designers with such skills are based in Japan.

European and American designers, in Jester's memory, really can't think of a turn-based combat system that can compare with the Japanese.

One thing worth mentioning is that many people blow a lot of the combat system of Sword and Fairy 3, which is actually copied from a Sega released on Saturn. Ready to compete with DQ and FF.,Another Japanese national RPG "Grandia 2",This game is very classic.。 The combat system, in particular, is one of the best in the history of turn-based games.

There was another point that Jester didn't understand.

ff13's combat system has been spewed out by people, why did Yao Bang cheat when he was making Fairy Sword 6, and he still had to copy this failed combat system? Can't you see SE itself completely scrapping the previous system in FF13-2?

Straight to the point.

Diablo 2 is a game that can almost be praised with a qiē word of praise.

Moreover, its design ideas are so eclectic.

In fact, when the game was first designed, it was very similar to Jester's current situation, and the game never had formal, complete design documentation in the beginning. Of course, there are still drafts.

Why is this so?

Very simple.

After Diabloi went public, they spent three months gathering input for their next project. But it didn't work much.

In the discussions that followed, the views and ideas of the regained diablo began to surface, and after a few months of recovery. They suddenly realized that they could no longer afford Diablo's fame. So they picked up a large number of ideas left over from the original work that had yet to be realized, and collected many criticisms and suggestions from critics and consumers, ready to brainstorm and discuss freely how to make diabloii bigger and stronger in all aspects.

How did Blizzard design in this case? It's very simple.,That's based on the original first work.,Expand the content.。

They wanted to improve every aspect of the original.

For example, each character in Diabloi has only three different armor pairs, while Diabloii, which uses a composition system, can produce hundreds of different variations; For example, in Diabloi, the gold monsters with special skills are all pre-set, and Diabloi has a generation system that can randomly spawn hundreds of gold monsters.

The graphics have also been further improved, with enhanced effects such as true transparency, colored light sources, and quasi-3D perspective mode. The level loads pretty much the same as before. The storyline is also greatly enhanced compared to the original game, and there is more to explore. Undoubtedly, this is a big project.

The previous and second generations of Diablo have one thing that sticks to the same, and that's the simple fun.

This simple pleasure is so basic and obvious that it is not mentioned in any review or retrospective article, but it is definitely the basis for success. We can use the term "kill/reward" to describe Diablo's most basic gameplay. This term refers to the player's need to kill monsters constantly. to gain Treasure and XP.

But that's not all, in order to keep players engaged in the game, they also offer a series of objective tasks and the sense of accomplishment that comes with them.

Specifically, at any point in the game, there will be a quest to be completed, a waypoint that is about to be reached, the next level that is about to be reached, or a dungeon that is almost cleaned up, waiting for the player to keep them entertained.

Simply put, they tried to make every aspect of the game fun, even the sound effects of moving items in the inventory.

In addition, the monster that is slain has to die a spectacular and unique death - yes, like the magnificent sight of candy splattered when a pinata (a kind of puppet stuffed with gifts) is burst, and the scene is very bloody.

However, this is really l.

We try to keep players on the verge of a big breakthrough - or a loop where they can have a great experience with just a few clicks.

It's really a great setting.

The reason why Diablo 2 is so successful is precisely because of their extremely open and free development environment, as we all know, one of the most important rules in Blizzard's recruitment is not how many big projects you have participated in, how skilled you are, but that you are a player who really loves games.

Because the first criterion of the game they make is to conquer ourselves.

Every member of the group was involved in all aspects of game design, and the conference hall or lunchtime discussion became an important place to give birth to the idea of a heavy dà, which is what Jester is now advocating.

He made this very clear just now.

It's a game that has never been done on a huge scale, and anyone can have their opinion to make this game better.

In Diablo 2, there is a very famous system, which is also the first gem-setting system of a generation.

If I didn't tell you, you might think that it must have been a veteran planner who came up with such a brilliant idea, but in fact, it was just a very ordinary programmer on the team who came up with the idea during a meal, and then made everyone's eyes shine.

This is just a very simple example.

So, Jester thinks that the fact that everyone, including all the programming and art, is involved in designing a game that has never been done before, must be more spillover than harmful.

Of course, this requires its own gatekeeping, and such a huge project can be discussed with collective wisdom, but the final decision is still dictatorial.

Jester also has the confidence to be this dictator.

"I think we can ask the players for their opinions, and I think a lot of the players' ideas can be ridiculous, but there are some, very clever, and I've had that experience......," at this time, a young designer raised his hand to speak, and his words made Jester's eyes light up and he nodded.

Rarely, added a comment.

"I agree with this mentions, players can indeed think of a lot of interesting things that we can't think of, of course, we are also players, I said before, we have to use the mentality of the player to develop a game, we have to let the game we design conquer us, if we can't conquer ourselves, then how to take it out to conquer others?"

In fact, in later generations, many game companies will consider the ideas of players when developing games.

For example, the famous "Fallout 4".

There is a very famous Fallout 3 player-made zuò mod called, Fellout, which is the most famous environmental mod of all Fallout mods, and when many players can't stand the bleak and oppressive environment, it is Fellout who saves them. Fellout mainly removes the effects caused by the green filter (cold vision) in Fallout 3 and the orange filter (desert vision) in New Vegas, while providing a basic weather state, allowing the player to look farther away and see better.

And B Society mentioned in an interview about "Fallout 4" that they learned a lot from it. (To be continued) R466