Almighty Game Designer Chapter 107: 10 years of making games, 9 years of making CG
The core players of domestic RTS games are also discussing such a brand new RTS game.
in a certain "legion conquest" player group.
"I heard that there is a new RTS in China, and it has been very hot recently, and there are discussions everywhere."
"I heard that it is called "Warcraft", which is a Western fantasy theme."
"...Really? Are Western Fantasy and RTS not the two major restricted areas of domestic games? The two major companies, Emperor Dynasty and Zen, have met with bloodshed, and which designer is not afraid of death Dare to touch? Touch two if you give it back?"
"Thunder Mutual Entertainment, the company of Chen Mo."
"Chen Mo? Never heard of it."
"You have always heard of "Plants vs. Zombies" and "My name is MT"."
"Ah? Isn't that a mobile game company? Transformed to PC? What else is RTS?"
"I'm really not afraid of death..."
"But it is said that this guy is very evil, he can do any type of game, and he is a popular one. I am already downloading "Warcraft", and I will share my experience with you in a moment!"
"Go hero! The villagers are waiting for the news that you are back alive!"
……
This group of players are all fans of some RTS games, and most of them are playing "Legion Conquer".
A group manager whose nickname is Kaiser asked in the group: "Really? New RTS game? Send me the address, I will download one and see."
As soon as he spoke, many people were exploded in an instant.
"Wow, is God going to test the poison himself? Yes, I will be blessed by the rookie."
"K **** bubbled up, wow, awesome, take a group photo."
"K God, "Warcraft" has to be downloaded on the Thunder game platform, you can search for it."
This ID is a guy from Kaiser, and he is also a well-known figure in the domestic RTS game circle. The game "Legion Conquest" has several very famous gods in China, and Kaiser is one.
But Kaiser is not among the top players. He ranks in the top ten at most in China. The reason why he is famous is that he often complains on the forum about the shortcomings of the game "Legion Conquest", and often writes The letter of recommendation to foreign developers, of course, has not been adopted.
Kaiser is also considered as an opinion leader in the domestic RTS player circle. There are a group of fans. The teaching video of "Legion Conquest" he made has also influenced a large number of RTS players.
Originally, this guy had been diving in the group all year round, which was in line with the image of the great god, but today he heard that a new RTS game came out, and he couldn't help but bubbling.
In fact, the so-called God K, who has a large number of fans on the Internet, is nothing more than a second-year high school student.
Xue Kai, game ID: Kaiser, 17 years old, a great player of "Legion Conquer".
Xue Kai has a wealthy family background and is very keen on RTS games. He has captured a large number of fans through video and live broadcast, but he has always had great opinions on "Legion Conquest".
has written a lot of suggestions, but after all, this is a foreign game. Even if Xue Kai finds someone to translate the suggestion letter into English, it will not attract the attention of the developers of "Legion Conquest".
Therefore, Xue Kai has also been suffering from the lack of a better RTS game. I heard that a domestic designer has developed an RTS game. He tried it with luck.
In case, I mean in case, is this game fun?
Find the Thunder game platform, register for Thunder Game Pass, and download "Warcraft".
soon, the download is complete.
The icon of the game is a young man with a three-pointed evil spirit. Although a small icon does not show much, it feels great.
Xue Kai double-click the icon to enter the game.
is a cutscene CG first, and the Thunder game's LOGO flashes by.
The whistling wind blew by, and the camera swooped down from the clouds, like a bird flying freely.
A melodious melody sounded with the sound of wind whistling in the ear.
A crow flies over the continuous snow peaks, flies over the barren valley, and finally comes to a prosperous human city-state.
Human Palace, the royal capital of Lordaeron.
Countless voices were talking, and the old king Terenas was meditating on the throne.
At this time, the crow flew in from nowhere, landed in the middle of the hall, and landed in front of the old king.
The background sound turned low, and this strange crow attracted the attention of the old king.
Just as everyone was arguing, a strange green light suddenly appeared on the crow. In the eyes of everyone's stunned, the crow turned into a person.
Medivh.
His face is hidden under his hood, but his voice resounds throughout the hall.
"Humanity is in crisis. The tide of darkness will strike again, and the world is on the brink of war!"
"Your people, the only hope is to move to the West, to the forgotten continent, Kalimdor!"
The old king looked serious, and he stood up from the throne: "I don’t know who you are and don’t know your beliefs. But now is not the time to make predictions. Our country is being harassed by war, but it should We decide how to protect our people! It’s not you!"
The melody at this time has become a bit sad.
Medivh’s voice seemed a little lost: "I lost my humanity once, but I won’t do that again."
"If you can't solve this problem, then I will find another one who can solve it."
Medivh turned and left, leaving only a whisper like a self-talk.
"I have given a warning, now their fate is in their own hands."
The screen is black, the CG is over and enter the game screen.
This CG is very short, but the amount of information contained is very large. Xue Kai didn't pay attention to Azeroth-related stories before, but from this CG, he still learned a lot of information.
At this time, the human kingdom is being invaded by orcs, and the unknown plague is also spreading. A mysterious prophet came to the human palace, but his words did not attract the king's attention.
A short CG highlights all the suspense of the whole story. Although Xue Kai doesn’t know who Medivh is or what the human kingdom is, this CG successfully evoked him That’s enough.
Moreover, the CG production is very good.
In this world, it is not that there are no good animation and CG companies in China, nor is there no good sound effects companies and voice actors. All of these are available. The only thing that is lacking is money.
As long as the money is paid, you can make great CG works, even if you can't fully reach the CG level of top foreign masterpieces, it won't be much worse.
But the only problem is that most game developers are reluctant to spend the money.
After all, CG usually only takes 2 to 3 minutes. The money for making a CG is about to catch up with the development of a boutique mobile game.
How much did Chen Mo spend to make these CGs?
There is no final conclusion about how much Blizzard spent on CG in the past life, but it is widely spread that the CG cost of WLK is 5 million dollars in 3 minutes.
In the parallel world, animation and CG technology is more developed, labor costs are reduced, and more advanced real-time calculation technology is added, and the price is reduced a lot.
Chen Mo did not choose the highest level of CG, but chose a cheaper and relatively affordable CG level.
But even so, Chen Mo still spent more than 37 million.
That's it, it's the result of crazy cutting the plot. Chen Mo has already cut and deleted those not-so-classic plots, almost frantically compressing the budget, and finally compressed it to 37 million.
Like the opening animation of "Warcraft", it was directly replaced by Medivh’s warning to the old king. The CG in front was cut.
In order to make these CGs, Chen Mo basically lost all the money he had pitted in the previous period. Even in some places, the budget was not enough, so he could only use real-time calculations to make do, or replace shady narrations. The province is the province.
To be honest, if there is no money-making game support at the level of "My name is MT", Chen Mo really has no money to do this kind of money-burning thing, at most it is a castrated version.
From Chen Mo's own feeling, if you open up and do these CGs, the cost is really easy to break 100 million, and he can't get so much money to play now.
The cost of the game itself, including art resources, etc., is nothing compared to the money for CG. Now Chen Mo can understand the sentence: "I made games for ten years and CG for nine years."
Su Jinyu and the others don’t know about this, only Chen Mo and Guo Feng, the head of the Xuandong Aurora Studio, know it better. If Su Jinyu and Qian Kun knew about it, they would definitely be surprised.
After all, this is too risky, what if no one buys "Warcraft"? Wouldn't it be tens of millions that have been lost?
If all these money were used to make money-making mobile games like "My name is MT", how much money would you make!
But Chen Mo knows himself, does he burn money for CG value?
Other CG is not necessarily, but the CG of Warcraft is too valuable! You know, every CG here will become a classic in the history of the game, even if the money is doubled, it is worth it!
Chen Mo dared to burn all the money in, because he knew that this was almost a profitable business, and he could stand up the golden sign of Warcraft, and there would be places to make money in the future.
What's more, 37 million dollars are converted into US dollars, which is only more than 6 million dollars, which is quite cheap!
……
At this level, Xue Kai looks very, very amazing. Few domestic game companies spend so much money on CG, and even foreign companies are willing to do so.
What's more, this CG has not only quality, but also content!
Xue Kai was shocked instantly, click to start the story mode.
After a few exchanges between the human prince Arthas and Uther the Lightbringer, the battle officially began.
Here is a relatively simple operation prompt, guiding Xue Kai to select the unit with the left mouse button and move with the right mouse button.
"Huh? The mode of operation is different from "Legion Conquer"?"
Xue Kai was a little surprised, because "Legion Conquer" is the benchmark of RTS games, and few RTS games dare to change its settings in terms of basic operations.
As a senior player of RTS games, Xue Kai did not start the battle right away, but first studied the operation mode of "Warcraft".
Left-click to select, right-click to move, and after selecting a unit, there are many command buttons at the bottom right, including move, stop, stay in place, attack, patrol, and hero skills.
Moreover, these operations have shortcut keys.
"Keep in place? Patrol?"
Xue Kai clicked the [Patrol] button, and then selected a location on the map. Alsace immediately ran back and forth between the two points~ IndoMTL.com~ It’s a rich operation type, better than " Legion Conquer is much richer. "Xue Kai was very surprised.
Moreover, the setting of hero skills makes him feel very special. In "Legion Conquest", although there are some special units, there is no concept of "hero".
In "Warcraft", the hero has become one of the game settings. The hero's portrait will be displayed in the upper left corner. The hero will also have special skills that play a very critical role in the battle.
In addition, there is an inventory at the bottom right. Although there are no items yet, it is clear that this game supports the setting of obtaining and using items.
"Interesting, there are innovations in so many places."
Xue Kai controlled Arthas and began to challenge plot missions.
In the process of completing the plot, Arthas also kept talking, responding to Xue Kai's instructions.
"Of course."
"For the glory!"
"May the Holy Light protect my people."
This is similar to "Legion Conquest", but the localization of "Legion Conquest" is not perfect, and many translations are a bit awkward.
The character lines in "Warcraft" are personally checked by Chen Mo, with previous translations as a reference and reference. These lines give Xue Kai a very natural feeling, both the taste of Western fantasy, and the removal of the strong Strong translation tone.
Xue Kai controlled Arthas and quickly cleared the first level.
, after all, has a very deep RTS foundation. Xue Kai played these plots without difficulty at all, and quickly passed the level easily.
After completing the first level, Xue Kai did not continue to play the next level, but cut to the desktop and sent a message in the group.
Kaiser: "Is this game really his bunker? Kill "Legion Conquest" in seconds!!!"