Reboot the age of gaming

Chapter 410 Comprehensive Optimization Plan

Next, Hu Bin asked a few more questions.

But Zhong Ming all replied with "this is part of the plot".

Hu Bin was speechless, this is really a universal answer!

Why are there giants who can only be killed by chopping off the back of the neck? Why are human beings' technological points crooked to such an extent that they can use gas but have not invented weapons of mass destruction? Why are there three inexplicable high walls blocking them? Giants Beyond the Wall...

This world view is full of irrationality and doubts from beginning to end, but no matter what questions Hu Bin asks, Zhong Ming just answers with a smile: This is part of the plot.

God damn part of the plot!

If it was someone else, Hu Bin would definitely feel that he was being tricked, but the other party was Zhong Ming, so Hu Bin believed it for the time being.

Anyway, I will always get the entire script of this game when I develop it, and I will naturally know what these plots are.

For Hu Bin, although he only saw a few concept drawings, there are still two aspects of this game that left a deep impression on him.

One is the combat system, and the other is the world view.

The development of the combat system by Shimmer Studios and Zhong Ming has always been a topic that players talk about.

Before Zhong Ming joined the game industry, the game industry already had some established rules.Such as attacking, defending, rolling and dodging, using skills, etc. Many designers have gradually formed a set of specifications in the process of exploring the combat system.

This set of specifications is so perfect that most games can get a passing score as long as they strictly follow this set of specifications when making combat systems.

Under such circumstances, it is very difficult to make further innovations to the combat system.

However, Zhongming made three revolutionary innovations precisely on this basis.

"Guardian of the Zodiac" established the battle mode between humans and giant monsters. This climbing + fighting method makes "Guardian of the Zodiac" a paradigm of similar combat mode, which has been used for reference by countless 3A masterpieces.

"Ink Cloud 2" establishes a combat mechanism for interacting with the environment in 3A games. Whether it is painting or calligraphy skills, it has greatly expanded the boundaries of combat.

As for "Sekiro", it is the first time that the fighting in the game has the feeling of a swordsman or samurai duel in reality through the design of perfect parrying.

These three games have an indelible influence on the combat system of the current 3A masterpieces, so many players will feel that the combat system similar to action games has almost been excavated?
And now the answer sheet given by Zhong Ming is in Hu Bin's hands.

This answer sheet is "Attack on Titan".

Of course, "Attack on Titan" may not be as groundbreaking as the first three games in terms of combat system, but it is also extremely unique.

In "Attack on Titan", the player moves through a three-dimensional device, and then uses the blade in his hand to chop the back of the giant's neck.It is also a battle between humans and super-large monsters, but it is obviously different from "Zodiac Guardian".

In "Guardian of the Zodiac", the player reaches the weak point of the large monster by climbing. Although there may be a risk of being thrown off by the monster during the climbing process, in general, the player's spirit does not have to be so tight stretch.

But "Attack on Titan" is different. After the player uses the three-dimensional mobile device to hook the key parts of the giant, it is only rotating around the monster with iron wires. It must be accelerated and approached at the right time to strike a fatal blow to be effective.

In this process, players are in danger all the time.

The timing of acceleration is wrong, the back of the neck is not cut, and it fails;
The flying process was delayed for too long, caught by the giant's throwing skills, and failed;
In the air, he made a mistake and fell to the ground and was injured and failed.

Although it is still a battle with super-large monsters, for players, the operation is more refreshing and intuitive, the confrontation is more intense, and the fault tolerance rate is lower.

This combat system is very suitable for the suffering mode of "Sekiro".

The combat system of "Sekiro" is not complicated. It is nothing more than seeing and dismantling moves, parrying, seeing through or jumping according to the way the enemy attacks. Under the enemy's high desire to attack, the player's game experience is both tense and exciting. The rookie will be beaten out of breath, but the veteran will beat the enemy to the end with sparks flying all the way.

The same is true for "Attack on Titan". Its combat mode is very simple. It uses a three-dimensional mobile device to hook the giant, uses an iron wire to surround the giant to target the back of the neck, and uses the three-dimensional mobile device to accelerate and attack the back of the neck and kill it.

In this basic combat mode, the player has some other options, such as attacking other joints of the giant to make the giant kneel on the ground or lose the ability to attack, or replace the part in the hook of the three-dimensional mobile device to avoid the attack when the giant grabs it. wait.

It is conceivable that a rookie playing this combat system is likely to make a random hook and then be slapped on the ground by a giant, while an expert playing this combat system is like chopping melons and vegetables. Flying in the sky, the movements are as smooth as flowing clouds and flowing water.

In other words, "Attack on Titan" has achieved similar effects to "Sekiro" through this special combat system. different solutions.

In addition, there is the world view of this game.

Obviously, "Attack on Titan" has given all players a difficult to understand from the very beginning, or a worldview full of "loopholes" and "irrationalities".This is obviously a fantasy world, and the giant is more like some kind of fantasy horror creature, but the people in this world don't seem to have extraordinary power, and can only rely on an extremely limited level of technology.

Under this worldview setting, the horror of giants is magnified without limit, creating a sense of despair that is completely powerless to resist.

For players, the most interesting question is: How will this game explain this world view?How to be logically self-consistent?

This is also a hot topic that "Attack on Titan" will inevitably trigger.

"Some detailed setting drafts, combat system documents, and plot content, I will give you one after another." After showing Hu Bin the content on the bracelet, Zhong Ming put his hands on the screen, stood up and prepared to leave.

"I have a request, can you show me the script first?"

The bunch of previous questions still exist in Hu Bin's mind, which makes him very hopeful that they can be answered now.

Zhong Ming smiled: "Don't worry, you'll see it soon. The plot of this game is very important, so think carefully about the level design and the storyboard of the cutscenes. This time there is plenty of time, so we need to be meticulous."

……

In Zhong Ming's previous life, the "Attack on Titan" comics were popular all over the world, and two games with good reputation were released.

But the popularity of these two games is not too high, and the players' evaluations are relatively average.Most of the positive comments are: It reproduces the original work very well.

But obviously, to become an excellent game work, simply reproducing the original work is not enough.

In Zhong Ming's view, there is only one reason why the game "Attack on Titan" in the previous life was not popular enough, and that is roughness.

Not well made!

On the one hand, this is due to the lack of strength of the producer, and on the other hand, because there is a dimensional wall between the two art carriers of animation and games, it is natural to encounter some setbacks when breaking through.

In terms of combat system, although "Attack on Titan" has a unique combat system, it is far from being comparable to games like "Sekiro".

In terms of plot, the plot of the original "Attack on Titan" is regarded as a masterpiece, but the plot expressiveness of the game version is far behind that of games such as "The Last of Us".

In other aspects, such as level design, painting style, character modeling, action, derivative system, etc., "Attack on Titan" did not achieve the average level of 3A masterpieces.

Therefore, Zhong Ming's previous life "Attack on Titan" is just a work for comic fans. For players who have never read the original anime, this game is not very attractive. From the screen to the battle to the plot, it gives people an objective There is a clear gap between the feelings and the 3A masterpieces.

And these are exactly what Zhong Ming wants to change.

"Attack on Titan" is considered to be a genre that is very suitable to be changed into a game among anime works. For example: its combat system is relatively pure, and the numerical balance in the battle is easy to control; the settings in all aspects are very complete, including technology, humanities, Combat tactics, etc., have been elaborated in great detail.

But if you want to change it for the better, you still need to make great efforts and bold attempts.

What's more, in this world, Zhong Ming has not released the original "Attack on Titan" manga. To make players accept this brand new IP, it needs to be perfected. The characters and subtle feelings must be perfectly displayed in order to truly make this game the ultimate.

In terms of painting style, Zhong Ming decided to adopt a realistic painting style instead of sticking to the animation style.

In other words, the scenes and character models inside may be closer to the style of "Sekiro", turning the two-dimensional anime characters into real human modeling.

The original work of "Attack on Titan" is indeed an anime work, but first, Isayama Tsutomu is not a manga artist with a good style of painting; second, the style of manga can well express the atmosphere of despair, but once it changes If it becomes a 3D model, this sense of atmosphere will be greatly reduced, and it will even give players a feeling of playing house.

Zhong Ming's previous game "Attack on Titan" had such a problem. The 3D model was made completely according to the anime image. Watch more and more.During the battle, the house was like paper, and there was no excitement and tension like fighting a giant.

Through high-precision modeling, the painting style of "Attack on Titan" is reversed. This realistic painting style is more conducive to highlighting the realism of the world. Then, when being eaten by giants, players can more clearly Feel this hopelessness.

Of course, the face shapes, features, etc. of the original characters will still be retained, so that it will not be completely unclear who is who.

In terms of the combat system, Zhong Ming's "Attack on Titan" game in his previous life was made into a game that cut grass, but in Zhong Ming's hands, it will become a suffering game.

Fighting with giants is extremely dangerous. Even experienced scouts may die instantly if they are not careful.

In the original work of "Attack on Titan", there are many scenes of sudden sudden death of human beings:

The confident trainee graduates went to perform the mission, but the first time they saw a giant, all of them collapsed, and they were eaten without effective resistance at all;
The seasoned scouts had already killed several giants, but when they encountered giantesses and ape giants, even if they had played many scenes, they died suddenly on the spot and left the scene with their lunch.

Every time the survey corps came back, the people asked them what they had gained, and the survey corps could only answer in despair: they paid a huge price, but they still had nothing to gain.

This is exactly the charm of the work "Attack on Titan". Humans are absolutely weak when facing giants. Except for a few human beings who have opened up, other people, even experienced investigators, will die. It was only because of a momentary negligence.

If "Attack on Titan" is made into a mowing game, the difficulty for players will indeed be reduced, but the atmosphere created by the original work will be completely destroyed.Imagine how terrifying the giants are and how powerless humans are for so long. As a result, the player manipulated them casually, killing more than a dozen giants in a battle, how can the player feel this desperate atmosphere.

Therefore, Zhong Ming's goal is to make "Attack on Titan" similar to "Sekiro", where newcomers suffer and veterans mow the grass.

In the presentation of the plot, a lot of real-time calculations and cutscenes will be added to show many details in the animation.

For example, in the original manga, there were many foreshadowings for the three people Reiner, Bertolt, and Ani: when the city wall was destroyed and people were displaced, the refugees were given relief food. A refugee is Ani, and Reiner and Bertolt appear in the background not far away; when Reiner was training soldiers, he had many conversations with Bertolt about returning to his hometown.

These well-buried foreshadowings from beginning to end are the embodiment of Isayama's strong control over the plot, and it is also one of the reasons why "Attack on Titan" is so popular.

And in the game, if you want to do a good job in the plot, you must also show these details inadvertently to the players, so that the players can experience a kind of heartfelt shock when the answer to the mystery is revealed.

In addition, in terms of level design, character actions, derivative systems, etc., the original "Attack on Titan" in the previous life also had many problems. For example, the structure of the level was poorly grasped, basically just randomly throwing in a few giants in a semi-open scene for the player Cut, unlike "Sekiro", the route is strictly planned, and customs clearance requires skills; the character's movements are not smooth enough; many cutscenes do not use a motion capture system, and all NPCs stand like wooden stakes in the dialogue scenes, which greatly affects the sense of substitution...

In these aspects, Zhong Ming will produce according to the standards of 3A masterpieces, and fully optimize this game.

(End of this chapter)