……

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is August 14, 1999, which is the day of POKENI's internal presentation before the launch of the new game according to the custom.

In addition to the games that have been booked to be released next year, there is also a game called "Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos" that is being developed by Blizzard Studios.

However, judging from Qing Zhiyuan's understanding of Blizzard's group of Blizzards, if it doesn't take two or three years to make it, I'm afraid it won't be possible to jump tickets a few more times.

In the previous life, the initial release time of Warcraft 3 was 2002, and Qing Zhiyuan only asked them to release it in 2001.

At that time, Warcraft 3 will be integrated with the dandelion game platform and become an exclusive game, which can help the game platform pull another wave of sales.

It doesn't matter if the game is released on DC or PC.

Warcraft 3 is actually a very typical game suitable for keyboard and mouse operation, and it is almost impossible to put it into the console to perform micro-operations on multiple units at the same time, and the effective operation is as high as two or three hundred per minute.

The most recent of Pokeni's upcoming games is-

Monster Hunter

Finally waited for this day.

The Monster Hunter team is located in the main conference room of Pokeni on the Ginza side, which is still a certain distance away from Sega.

However, when Hideki Kamiya was giving a demonstration, many colleagues from Sega came to watch.

The entire large conference room was full of people, to be precise, many people stood against the wall, densely packed, blocking the entire conference room.

This shows the influence of this game within the company.

The in-game demo is also the last rehearsal work done for the shelf, and in addition to the usual testers of the project team running the game, the internal display has also become a reserved program.

It is very likely that the demo version or unfinished version, also known as the trial version, will be displayed in the electronics show for publicity purposes, and the warm-up work will also act as a façade to keep players looking forward to the company's games.

Therefore, it is still necessary to demonstrate the company internally.

On the one hand, the main purpose is to allow colleagues from other departments, especially Sega students who have joined the POKENI family, to observe and learn.

On the other hand, there is a little sense of ritual in it, just like the oath meeting, before the expedition, you must strengthen your morale, and review the game content through the demonstration, Qing Zhiyuan's heart is also more bottom-up.

If something goes wrong in the field, it's time to take the time to review.

However, in general, there are no major problems.

……

Countless people came here, and even squeezed out the positions that the original colleagues in the Monster Hunter project team should have.

After all, the space in the conference room is limited, and it can accommodate about 40 people at most, which is still under the premise that everyone has to stand.

Although you have a certain understanding of "Monster Hunter" at the E3 Electronics Show or through online media and paper newspapers, you know what a great game it is, which can almost be described as glamorous and shining at the E3 Electronics Show.

However, I haven't seen much of the actual experience, so I came here to see what this game masterpiece that has been blown into the sky by media magazines and has high hopes for the company is like.

Seeing that the time was about the same and the boss was already in place, Hideki Kamiya turned on the game console and began his demo process.

The Monster Hunter icon is specially designed, and the image of the old mountain dragon is blended with the font of Monster Hunter, which looks very freehand and tall at the same time.

Hideki Kamiya launches the game.

He followed the process, starting with a cutscene, then cutting back to the real scene, and when the other party was talking to the character you were playing, this was the first time he entered the corner screen.

Because of the limited time, and the current engine has not yet developed a face pinching and mouthparts system, the game model is 4 to 1, two men and two women, plus about 10 sets of hair and hair color matching, players can choose a limited number of combinations to splice into their own character image.

The benefits of this are-

Save the difficulty of game development, otherwise it will take a lot of manpower and energy to make a face pinching system, which is one of the goals of the future engine, and there is no need to implement it now.

Then, the several models given by the art are carefully selected and carefully designed, so no matter how the player matches them, the aesthetics of the characters are also guaranteed, and there will be no image of a strange old cadre pinching his face like in the previous life in "Monster Hunter: World".

But Qing Zhiyuan was not disgusted with [old cadres] pinching his face, but felt that this was a very good marketing method.

Some players spontaneously provide their own face-pinching parameters on the Internet, whether it is beautiful or ugly, it is always a good gimmick that can cause conversation.

There are even many players who may not have played Monster Hunter in the first place, and they just want to try it after Wang Laoju's ugly old cadre pinching his face video before buying it.

On the one hand, there is topicality, and on the other hand, topicality will bring drainage.

So in the future, if you have time and energy, you will definitely have to pinch your face.

And another important appearance system -

The mouthpart system, as the name suggests, means that when the game character speaks, the mouth will open and close to imitate a normal human, and the tongue inside can be faintly seen.

It's to add realism, but it's the same problem—

The cost-effective system of the mouthparts is very low, and it takes a lot of time to develop the system.

When the mouthparts system is perfect, it is actually necessary to capture the person's facial expression through the motion capture system in advance, and then match the pronunciation with the mouth shape.

In this way, after the player has pinched his face, when he enters the game and the character speaks, you will find that the shape of his lips actually matches the voice.

It's not hard to do this, just take the time to polish it.

Technology also needs to be accumulated.

But it doesn't matter much even if Monster Hunter doesn't do this, because Monster Hunter didn't have it either.

In terms of graphics, Monster Hunter can now complete the original Monster Hunt.

Qing Zhiyuan's inner evaluation is-

Although affected by the hardware, the number of faces of the character must not be too much, which leads to the fact that the refinement of the character cannot be high.

But judging by the level of this era, the level of what Monster Hunter can do now is definitely the world's leading.

In the case of a limited number of faces, it is quite remarkable to be able to improve the picture sense to such a good picture.

A large part of this is the credit of Qing Zhiyuan, whose art design has largely made up for the lack of faces, although the improvement is limited, but it is already much ahead of this era.

After matching the character image, Hideki Kamiya operated his character, first ran through the novice process, and then simply took over the main quest and started the first inevitable plot event.

After the events of the story, Hideki Kamiya had a battle with the Blue Speed Dragon King, which ended with the player winning and the Blue Speed Dragon King escaping.

The optimization of the program is very in place,Judging from the battle process with the Blue Speed Dragon King demonstrated by Hideki Kamiya just now,The whole process is very smooth,And the monster's reaction is very agile,The battle process can be described as hearty,Moving。

The colleagues around me have been substituted for it, and this is an excellent proof:

Prove that this game is really well done.

The whole process lasted about half an hour, and Hideki Kamiya did not continue to demonstrate the rest of the content.

Due to the limited time, it is estimated that it will take more than 40 hours to complete the main process, and it is certainly not realistic to present the complete process in the conference room.

……

Monster Hunter has developed a large world so far, which is divided into 4 different map sections, each with its own characteristics, and the entire ecosystem is very well structured.

There are nearly 50 kinds of monsters, and although half of them are distinguished by different colors, they are quite diverse.

There's also a variety of ways to play with each other – such as collecting plants, which can also be used to set traps and craft items.

There are different hunting methods according to the attributes of different beasts, and players can rely on their skills to be hard, or they can outwit according to the characteristics of monsters......

The richness and fun of the game is certainly guaranteed.

Players will experience the world in the larger world as if it were real.

Moreover, the drops of different parts of the monster itself are also different, and there are more than 40 kinds of equipment that players can use to make matches, and the equipment itself can trigger the appearance of the performance.

You can also use the parts of these monsters for cooking, medicine, and more......

The game system is very diverse, and the goal is to allow players to experience an almost real monster hunter world.

After the presentation, the entire conference room was silent.

Even when Hideki Kamiya raised his head to look at them, these people hadn't come back to their senses.

After a few seconds, I don't know who took the lead first, and the room resounded with deafening applause.

"Oh my God, this is the game that was blown into the sky at the E3 electronics show, I thought it was a bit exaggerated when I read the newspapers and magazines, and now I see the actual effect, I can only say that my imagination is still too poor.

The game is completely much better than what was reported, right? ”

"This game is amazing."

BUT WHEN EVERYONE WITNESSED IT FOR THEMSELVES, MONSTER HUNTER GAVE POKENI EMPLOYEES A LOT OF SELF-CONFIDENCE.

EVERYONE BELIEVES THAT POKENI WILL GET BETTER AND BETTER, AND THERE WILL BE MORE AND MORE PROJECTS LIKE MONSTER HUNTER IN THE FUTURE.

……

After the internal demo, the next month or so was the promotion period for Monster Hunter.

At the end of August, the PV of the monster hunt was broadcast on major TV stations and on the official website of Pokeni.

In addition to the promotional videos previously shown at the E3 Electronics Show, P also edited several different promotional animations and actual demonstrations.

In order to let players know more clearly what kind of game this is, Qingzhiyuan asked several of the company's more powerful colleagues to record the battles in the game from their perspectives, and the final results were quite good.

When the big scene of the game came out, the huge guys in the monster hunter world appeared one after another, accompanied by the magnificent BGM of "Hero's Proof", which directly shocked the players when they saw the PV.

Just hearing the music, I felt that the Heavenly Spirit Cover had been lifted off.

"Wow, that's too big, isn't it? Is this the legendary Monster Hunter who caused a standing ovation at the E3 Electronics Show? ”

"I originally read the reports and publicity, and I thought that it was similar to the insect master, but there were just a few more battles, but now when I saw the demo animation of the battle, I suddenly felt that this game was much more interesting than I imagined."

"Indeed, it seems that there are really few monsters of this size in other games I've seen before."

"But don't you think the fighting moves in the PV are a little stiff? I always feel that the weapon is very heavy and heavy, and every time I attack, the movement is quite exaggerated, and it looks bulky. ”

"Well...... It's hard to say.,But the action of the previous combat type games of the P Society was quite agile and smooth.,Especially the Diablo series.,It's like a convulsion after stacking the attack speed.。

On the contrary, I think this display of monster hunting is quite real. ”

Monster Hunter's action strike sense design is indeed very distinctive, and it is not the same as the current mainstream pursuit of fast and gorgeous, agile and action-oriented games.

In Monster Hunter, players use different weapons to attack, and their movements are different.

The larger the weapon, the heavier it is, and it takes a long time to swing forward and backward, for example, when a sledgehammer wheel goes out, from carrying it to smashing it to the ground, you can't interrupt it by operation, and you can only take on the next action after the whole set of actions is done.

The so-called forward swing is the time between picking up the sledgehammer and smashing it out, while the back swing is the time between when the hammer hits the ground and the player lifts the hammer to take the next action.

In fact, it is not very friendly to players, and sometimes it will even lead to very negative benefits because of the wrong timing of your attacks, but this is the characteristic of Monster Hunter, and while pursuing realism, the requirements for players to grasp the timing have become higher.

It is not a game that can be cleared by simply stacking attributes, but it is necessary to apply more commands and make effective and accurate reactions, and master the characteristics of different monsters in order to become a qualified monster hunter.

"I wonder if that's what people want. We'll have to wait until the game is released. ”

"Uh-huh, yes."

“POKENI！ Hurry up and sell it, Uncle Ben will definitely buy it! ”

"When Monster Hunter is released, I'll definitely get one and have a good experience."

"ANYWAY, POKENI, HURRY UP AND POST THE GAME, I'M ALREADY."

"Ahh What to do, why did you give me a promo for Monster Hunter so early and why?! Without Monster Hunter, I feel like I'm going to die! ”

"DIE TOGETHER, POKENI, HURRY UP AND SEND IT! I will definitely support you, I just ask you to send it quickly! ”

……

……

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There is no update tonight

Thank you

See you tomorrow (end of chapter)