In Gao Yixiang's plan, the game "Steam Daming" will be a semi-open world.

By 'semi-open', we mean that the player can explore the entire game world, but there are certain limitations.

Fundamentally, these are actually mainly for the purpose of serving the narrative of the plot.

This so-called semi-open-ended probably means that the player can explore the world of the game independently, but there are certain restrictions on this exploration. After all, the purpose of such a setting is still to serve the narrative.

"Steam Daming" is not like "Taiwu Picture Scroll 2", this game will have a very clear main line.

In order for players to fully appreciate this main story, it is bound not to be like "Taigo 2", where the whole world is designed too freely. When players can explore the whole world completely at will, their understanding of the main story line will become very weak. That's a good thing for Taigo Picture Scroll 2, because the essence of its gameplay is to encourage players to fully explore every corner of the world.

But for "Steam Ming", that would be a disaster.

"Steam Ming" will have a clear main story, and the player's experience of this main story is the biggest source of experience for this game.

Just like "God of War", the main line of the story itself is also a huge charm.

Through this main story, the game will slowly present the appearance of the entire demonic transformation and the Ming Dynasty that has entered the steam age in front of countless players.

According to the current setting, the main story background of the generation of "Steam Daming" will mainly revolve around the battle of Salhu.

In the first half, the main plot will take place in the city of Beijing at the end of Wanli. The protagonist is a brocade guard, equipped with a mechanical left-handed shell, holding an embroidered spring knife, wearing a flying fish suit, and a single eye loaded with some magical mechanical functions, as well as a clear cultivation system.

Players control the protagonist and gain special abilities by collecting and crafting a variety of new mechanical accessories; By cultivating oneself, one gains more power to master the machine, so as to become stronger. Cultivation plus machinery, these are the two key lines of character cultivation in "Steam Daming".

In the whole process, through the main story and side quests, the 'Second World' studio will show all players a Beijing city in the early 17th century after the magic transformation of the steam age.

The design and narration of the whole world view will be full. Gao Yixiang plans to show all players who are interested in understanding the world in depth what the dynasty they designed should look like.

From the life of the common people, to what the ancient Chinese cities should have been like under the concept of steam, and how the rule of dynasties was carried out......

Even, Gao Yixiang also studied the history of the Ming Dynasty in depth, and even invited special scholars to serve as consultants, striving to produce a truly credible steam Ming Dynasty.

The background of the main story will start from Beijing in 1618, and the protagonist will gradually become stronger in the first half of the game, but also make some contributions, so as to become a Jinyi Wei Xiaoqi. Then, his credit was greedy for ink, and in a fit of rage, he provoked the upper officials, and in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, he was framed and sent to the front, and in February 1619, he participated in the Battle of Sarhu, witnessed the defeat of the Ming court's army in Sarhu, and returned from the Shura field alive.

At this point, the story is over. The entire plot arrangement is relatively complete, and at the same time, it also reserves enough meaning, leaving room for the production of the sequel later.

Of course, whether there is a sequel or not depends on the actual performance of this work.

In fact, this game is equally risky.

The investment in the entire game has reached 800 million yuan, which is also an investment of more than 100 million US dollars. Although, compared with the current game predators in the global market, the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars at every turn, the investment of "Steam Daming" is not so terrifying, but there is no doubt that this is definitely a triple-A level investment.

Moreover, unlike the original "Taiwu Picture Scroll 2", the game "Steam Daming" has almost no references.

"Taiwu" still has a predecessor, although the previous work is only a small-scale independent game, but it is also a work with millions of sales, and it can barely be regarded as a certain precipitation. In addition, the story told by this game is also 'martial arts'. This is undoubtedly the largest audience in China. And even in foreign countries, there is such a ready-made concept as 'kung fu', which can be relied on.

Don't underestimate these, when promoting the game, these things can clearly express to all potential audiences, intuitively express what kind of game it is.

However, "Steam Ming" does not have this characteristic, or this characteristic is not strong enough.

'Steampunk'? It's not a big deal. As for combining this thing with the concept of 'Daming', it is fresh enough, but it is very easy to confuse potential audiences - what is the combination of these two things?

Nobody figured it out.

In terms of publicity for foreign markets, it is possible to use concepts such as 'steampunk ancient oriental country' to do publicity, but how much attention it can attract is not necessarily promising.

However, in any case, since the project has been established, Fan Zhe has no intention of terminating the project because of these things.

What's more, compared with the original "Taiwu", "Steam Daming" is not without its own advantages. When I first made "Taiwu", no one had ever heard of the name of Dimension Entertainment in the game circle, and now, their name has resounded throughout the circle.

The brand appeal of game companies is much higher than that of movies and TV series. Very few people will watch this TV series and which company produced this movie because of it. Even if it's Disney and Warner, few people will be like this.

But in gaming circles, it's a different story.

For example, the so-called 'produced by Blizzard, must be a high-quality product', for example, Naughty Dog Studios has enjoyed a huge reputation in the gaming circle after making the "Uncharted" series and the "The Last of Us" series, and their new work, no matter what it does, as long as it is something that is done towards the triple-A level, then there is no doubt that it will get very natural attention.

R star also means.

Relying on the huge reputation brought by "Taiwu Picture Scroll 2" that swept the world last year, although Wedo Entertainment is certainly not as good as those game predators in the game industry, when they produce new works, it will inevitably attract a wide range of attention from game lovers.

As long as Wedo Entertainment announces the project, many people will take the initiative to pay attention to the project "Steam Daming", and the people who pay attention to it, no matter what the subject matter is, as long as they are not particularly disgusted, they will definitely try what the game is like.

Obviously, this is absolutely good news for "Steam Ming". When they can't use publicity methods such as themes to attract the attention of a large number of potential users, there are other ways to make up for this, and that's an absolute good thing. And when potential players get their hands on the game, it's time to compete for the quality of the game.

Of course, if the quality of "Steam Daming" is rubbish, then everything is not to be mentioned.

Therefore, Gao Yixiang's work is very important.

With Dimension Entertainment as the background behind it, the 'Second World' studio has absolutely no need to worry about the visual problems of the work when it is working on "Steam Daming". The picture effect must be leveraged.

Then, the most important thing that determines the quality of the work is the gameplay.

For "Steam Daming", a very important part of the so-called 'gameplay' is the main story.

In terms of game quality, Gao Yixiang is determined to strengthen the narrative in various ways, and even does not hesitate to give up the open world model that has been made very mature for Yodimensional Entertainment, but also to make the narrative more complete.

In this way, if there is no good main story, wouldn't all these efforts be nonsense?

Gao Yixiang would never let this happen.

'Second World' has set up its own story department, which is responsible for the improvement and design of the entire world view, and is also doing a lot of writing of main and side stories.

As the chief planner of the whole project, he is also the person in charge of the project, and he is very strict with these stories.

For those shorter side stories, he was able to lower his requirements a little, but despite this, seventy-five percent of the side stories given by their worldview writing department were all vetoed and killed by him, and he asked to delete them; The remaining stories in the early twenties, which are really good enough to be passed, all have to be sent back for further revision and polishing.

Even these side stories, he treats them with such a strict attitude, which can be seen how strict he will be in the main story.

In fact, most of the more than 20 game planners and world view designers in the world view design team of 'Second World' actually focused on writing the main story. They've been doing this since the project was built.

However, until now, they have not come up with anything that can satisfy Gao Yixiang and Fan Zhe.

During this time, they came up with more than 50 story synopses and 16 plot outlines, of which 9 were killed and the remaining seven were being revised frantically.

However, although it is still being revised, Gao Yixiang still feels dissatisfied with these seven main stories.

When you encounter difficulties, of course, you have to go to the boss.

After listening to what he said, Fan Zhe thought for a while, and then put forward a plan: "We can choose to go to the essay." We offer a high reward to solicit excellent stories, and we can even cooperate with Lewen Group and them to find some great authors to write, and there is no problem if the money is enough. ”

"But ......," Gao Yixiang scratched his head and said, "Those are all online authors, and the stories they are good at writing don't seem to be consistent with what we want, right?" ”

"That being said, you can try." Fan Zhe said, "Although there are some senior planners in your 'World View Design Team', and there are some screenwriters who have been dealing with words all year round, but compared to it, those so-called great gods are all writers who have fought all the way from the crowd. To be able to do their kind in an industry, they always have some of their own abilities. ”

Fan Zhe paused and continued: "We can give our request; We can increase the amount of the prize money by a large amount, for example, it can reach tens of millions, as long as it can really provide us with a good story, then it will work. ”

"In addition, it is even possible to introduce a competition system, so that authors who are very successful in the network of historical themes can deeply participate in the creation."

"This must be a good thing...... Gao Yixiang said, "but the tens of millions of bonuses, this attraction must be enough, but, is it worth it?" ”

"What's that?" Fan Zhe said, "I think it's worth 10 million to buy a good story." What's more, in this way, we also have a very good publicity stunt. The value of this propaganda may be worth a lot. ”

"That'...... This is the so-called tens of millions of funds...... We have a limited budget for this project, can it be included in the additional investment of the head office? When Gao Yixiang said this, his hands were rubbing unconsciously.

"Your little abacus is really ......" Fan Zhe shook his head and said with a smile: "Okay, no problem, this investment, even if it is done in the budget for copyright purchase, anyway, their copyright department takes a lot of budget every year, invests in copyright acquisition, and has nowhere to spend a lot of money, only hates the good works on the market and the works that can be bought." ”

"Hey, the boss is mighty!" After a slap on the back, Gao Yixiang happily returned to his side.

Looking at his excited look, Sun Yilang asked with a smile, "The trouble is solved?" ”

"Sort of." Gao Yixiang communicated him with Fan Zhe and Sun Yilang.

"That's fine!" Sun Yilang said, "Our game really needs a good story. ”

"Hmm." Gao Yixiang nodded, and continued: "However, the work of the worldview design team on our side still can't be stopped. In addition to continuing to complete the structure and design of the entire worldview, the main story should also be written, in case they can come up with a good enough main story, then there is no need to spend that unjust money. ”