Huh?

I didn't expect it to be like this......

"What, don't believe me?" Tsuda stared into his eyes.

"Nope."

Qing Zhiyuan shook his head, "It's just that in this way, it makes people feel more precious and pity." ”

"What?" Tsuda bowed his head shyly.

In Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood", there is such a description:

[It was dark at night, and I could hear the gloomy sound of flowing water.

There is also an old-fashioned tiling water gate.

There is a large handle on the water gate that can be turned open or closed.

It's not a big river.

It's just a small river, and most of the river is covered by aquatic weeds on its banks.

It's pitch black, and if you turn off your flashlight, you might not even be able to see your ankles.

And there are hundreds of fireflies flying on the water gate. The light was reflected on the surface of the water like a burning spark. 】

At this time, the lights were turned off in the house, and only the moonlight outside the window was visible.

Qing Zhiyuan inexplicably saw fireflies flying on the river and lake in front of him.

……

The sun rises for the first time in the new year, and the neon people attach great importance to it, and they will pray to the newly rising sun and make wishes for good luck in the coming year.

Especially at the top of a particularly high mountain, the first rays of light cast from the sky are called "Miraiko", which is a rare image.

Qing Zhiyuan opened his eyes and looked at the sleeping Nao Tsuda in front of him.

I couldn't help but feel a stir in my heart.

This is probably-

It's the [Imperial Light] in my heart.

……

At the same time, in Qing Zhiyuan's home.

The two girls rubbed their eyes and got out of the covers.

The sunlight outside is just right, and the interior is bright.

"Ale? What happened yesterday? How did I end up sleeping here? Akane Ayase frowned.

"Hmm...... I don't quite remember either, I just remember having a little drink. Mika Ishino covered her forehead, which was a little painful.

After two seconds, the two men looked around and looked at each other.

"Where's the president?!"

……

January 4, 1991.

The construction officially started after the Pokeni Festival.

As a tradition, Cheongji-won took the members to Sensoji Temple to pay homage en masse, mainly to pray for the blessings of the gods, hoping that the game would be a big hit this year.

The company is booming.

It's also interesting to say, the neon people are quite superstitious in this regard.

What the hell, what a god, Qing Zhiyuan didn't believe it for a long time, but these people were like they were in trouble.

……

On the first day, everyone seemed to be immersed in the festive atmosphere and had no intention of working.

Qing Zhiyuan didn't say anything, and the reaction to resuming work after the holiday was like this.

In the evening, the members were gathered for dinner, and two new faces were added.

One is Atsushi Shirakawa, and the other is Shinji Mikami.

The new members are obviously very motivated.

The main topic of concern during the dinner is what the company will do in the future and what I can do.

Qing Zhiyuan waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to worry.

You'll know tomorrow.

……

Early the next morning, Qing Zhiyuan convened a meeting of the members.

As for the content, it is the goal of the two games that have been planned before.

"The first game,Or continue to do galgame.,This time by Xuyuan Xuanlai as the main script planner.,The name of the game is "Mermaid Heart""

The heart of the mermaid, the content of the project is not much, and the difficulty of development is actually very small.

It's basically a text process.

It's probably like a little bit of a dot, where multiple options are presented and then selected, and these options will have a certain impact on the subsequent process in the future.

In a sense, this game is the company's first literal romance game.

Also known as a visual novel.

"The producer of the project is still Tsubaki Furuhara."

Hearing the name Gu Yuan Chunyu, everyone couldn't help but cover their mouths and laugh.

"Then this time, Mikami-san is also involved." Qing Zhiyuan looked at Shinji Mikami.

"Hayi." The latter seemed unusually excited.

To be honest, he doesn't think he has any talent for making games, and he has been brushed several times in the previous written exams.

However, if the youth president can give him a chance, Shinji Mikami feels that he must go all out and take advantage of it.

Qingzhiyuan also has its own considerations.

Genius is not achieved overnight, even if it is a future god like Shinji Mikami, it is impossible to make him a producer as soon as he comes up.

Starting from the planning at the bottom, Qing Zhiyuan slowly took him one or two projects, and it is estimated that he will be able to grow.

When the time comes, it would be better to let him take charge on his own.

……

The second game, naturally, is the company's blockbuster work, and it is the ambition that Qing Zhiyuan used to go ashore -

Diablo

It's just a little different from the big pineapple series in the previous life.

In this work, Qing Zhiyuan hopes to make most of the bosses in it into a girl image.

Once the teacher is unfavorable, you can turn around immediately.

Keqing Zhiyuan believes that such a possibility is almost non-existent.

During this period of time, Qing Zhiyuan has nothing to do and works overtime in the company every day.

In fact, he is working on a plan book for Diablo.

He handed out the proposal to the main conference attendees, then pulled over the blackboard next to him and explained the game as he wrote.

"Huh?" After listening to Qing Zhiyuan's explanation of the gameplay content, Akanishi Ken frowned and expressed deep worry, "We have never had such a foundation to develop a real-time battle game." ”

Oh, yes.

The most popular games on the market now are also turn-based games.

It's not that there isn't a game of real-time combat, but there are too many parts to process and judge at the same time.

Especially a real-time combat game of this level as Diablo.

The program is computationally intensive.

It's not an order of magnitude with turn-based at all.

……

"This question is actually not difficult, and we will discuss it together when the time comes." Qing Zhiyuan said.

In terms of real-time games, Super Mario is actually a side-scrolling real-time game, but Diablo is much more complicated than that.

"Okay, President." Ken Akanishi nodded.

But my heart is full of doubts, the president's words are good, and you are not a program ape.

Didn't you lose it to us in the end?

Qing Zhiyuan said that in fact, the most difficult thing is not the so-called instant combat.

The build of the combat system is complicated, but if you handle it well, it is not too difficult.

"In fact, the biggest difficulty in this game is the AI." Qing Zhiyuan said.

"Huh? AI？ Akanishi Ken was slightly stunned, it was rare to hear such a standard pronunciation of a neon man.

This AI is not the kind of artificial intelligence that later ChatGPT, it mainly refers to the in-game monster [IQ].

To some extent, it can be described in terms of "behavioral strategy".

For example, when the player will be attacked by monsters, and if it is a group of monsters, how they work together.

Different monsters, behavior patterns, and coping strategies are also very different.

For example, if you attack one of the monsters, you may trigger a group of monsters to pounce on you.

For those with lower IQs, such as skeletons, their patterns are relatively simple and independent, and their support effect will be weaker.

Even something that seems to be used as decoration, such as a swing hanging from a tree in the dark, will sway when the player gets close, which is actually the AI performed by the [Swing].

Of course, these are all set up for the monsters in different levels and difficulties according to the planning needs.

"Hmm...... Truly. Ken Akanishi clasped his hands and thought carefully, "If this game is to be done well, AI is a crucial part. This kind of top-down view of the plane real-time game, no more than the side-scrolling version, needs to deal with too much content. ”

"And the player's behavior is not so fixed, and the president wants to realize the freedom of the maze and the modular splicing, which is a very terrible problem in itself." Next to the program Sasaki Fumita added.

In this era, there is no such meticulous work as the client and the server, and everyone is a program ape.

It is not until the Internet is popularized, there is the concept of server, and after distinguishing between local and server, the difference between the front and back ends will gradually appear.

Yes, as they say, it is not an easy task to do Diablo well.

There's so much to think about in between.

Even because they have never done anything like it, they still can't even think about what the problems they will face in the future.

But it doesn't matter, Qing Zhiyuan said, as long as I think clearly.

Are you kidding?

Lao Tzu is also a person who has led large projects, and has also developed particularly powerful game engines.

These contents are like being engraved in his mind, and he can take them out casually and say them for three days and three nights.

At that time, he only needs to sort out the requirements document and the content process to be developed, and the program apes can implement it according to his plan without brains.

To put it bluntly, the difficulty of the program is not the process of writing code, but the difficulty is to figure out what is needed and how to implement it.

As long as you can do that, then there's nothing to be afraid of.

……

"By the way, when I was developing, I wanted not to have Hard Code." Qing Zhiyuan said.

"Huh?!" The main program, Ken Akanishi, was a little confused, "If it's not Hard Code, how will it be developed?" ”

The so-called Hard Code does not mean literally hardcore, but refers to the realization of game content through dead code.

Of course, if the whole process is implemented by the program through code, the final file, or cassette size, is minimized, but in this way, the scalability is lost.

The figurative explanation is -

Be a robot.

Hard Code is a robot that is welded directly according to the drawing.

In other ways, it may be by making parts of the robot first, and then splicing the robot from these parts.

What Qingzhiyuan hopes to do is to develop tools by program, and then hand them over to the planner for use.

At the same time, it is up to the planner to create the level and all the game content through tools.

In the future, the program ape only needs to maintain the game tools, not the game content, and separate them from each other, which is very beneficial to both the program and the planning.

This tool, put into the future, is the so-called [editor]

Qing Zhiyuan gushed at the meeting.

The apes below were dumbfounded.

[Nani? Is this really the president, not a youkai possessed by something strange? 】

[As an art original painting, how did the president think of so much program content? 】

The most important thing is that what Qing Zhiyuan said is very advanced, like a key that opens the door to everyone's brain.

The whole world has been completely renewed.

……

At this moment, the program apes were all impressed by Qing Zhiyuan.

The president's thoughtfulness, his advanced thinking, and his knowledge of code are so deep that it is simply unheard of.

It is much beyond everyone's imagination.

Terrible.

Ken Akanishi was stunned.

Terrible.

When did the president go to study programming?

No, you can't just learn to program.

Because many concepts, such as monster AI, editors, including the [Behavior Tree] that the president later proposed, are not currently available.

It's hard for you to imagine that an original painting can disassemble the program logic to such a point.

Terrible.

It's horrible.

……

Qing Zhiyuan discussed with everyone for a long time, and everyone had a little bottom in their hearts.

"Uh-huh, if you can really do this." Akanishi's eyes sparkled, "Then we are equivalent to providing a tool to build the world." This tool does exactly what the president asked. ”

"No, it's not just that, there may be a lot of scalability in the future."

It's wonderful.

What a genius design!

And, for the programmers, it's a great thing.

You must know that before this, whenever there was a change in the requirements of the plan, the program ape would almost have to change the code again.

Not to mention the time and effort, it also accumulated a belly of fire.

The contradiction between planning and programming apes is really getting more and more intense.

Now, the apes only need to develop the tools, and the planners can adjust what they want to change in the future.

The program ape can be freed from the complicated implementation of requirements and spend time on program optimization.

What could be happier than that?

"Yes, that's right." "However, in this way, it will inevitably lead to a higher cassette capacity than expected, and we have to be mentally prepared for future optimization." ”

"Okay president!"

……