Ultimately, Richman isn't that complicated.
Even with the addition of new mechanics such as events, cards, vehicles, and even deities, it cannot change the fact that its core mechanics are simple and straightforward.
This makes its development surprisingly simple.
Especially now that GAMENOVA has added two new members.
Within half a month, the game demo had been successfully launched.
All that's missing is for GameFreak to finish producing the art assets.
However, faced with this demo where the functionality was already fully implemented, everyone was stumped.
Simply put, it's not fun.
This conclusion was reached by Lin Lixin, Sam, Will, and Sid after testing thousands of games in a four-player online game.
"These mechanics are very interesting, especially the card design, which is simply a stroke of genius."
Sam spoke first, explaining that in his experience, the presence of cards transformed the game from a pure contest of luck into a more sophisticated strategy game.
The choice of which card to buy and when to use it are all particularly interesting new elements.
These elements combined create a level of gameplay that the board game version can hardly match.
"The stock market and inflation are perfect too, things that the board game Monopoly can't do."
"The computer replaces the tedious calculations of traditional Monopoly, allowing its numbers to inflate to an exaggerated degree without affecting the smooth gameplay experience."
Will and Sid's focus was more on numbers and logic.
Several people talked on and on, listing all the advantages of the game as if they knew it by heart.
But the core problem remains unresolved.
It's not fun.
But why?
Everything about it is incredibly fun; both in appearance and gameplay, the experience is great.
However, once you consider the overall experience of a game, the experience drops drastically.
A variety of infuriating situations arise one after another, preventing players from enjoying themselves and keeping those in a bad situation from getting crushed.
This results in a situation where, even though you win, you don't really enjoy the game.
And the loser will have a terrible experience.
Of course, saying it's not fun seems a bit extreme.
If it's released with its current quality and backed by Gamenova's reputation, it will undoubtedly become a blockbuster.
However, in their opinion, this was far from perfect, nor should it be considered GAMENOVA's standard.
Lin Lixin frowned as he looked at the spinning dice on the screen, and an answer came to him.
"It's a random problem."
This is an eternal dark cloud hanging over video games.
A purely mathematical problem, unaffected by advancements in software and hardware technology.
Even in many games that followed, a perfect solution has yet to be found.
The group looked at Lin Lixin, their eyes flashing with understanding.
"Now that you mention it—it does seem to be true."
Sam recalled the events of the previous few games.
Whether it's the results from dice or cards, they rarely satisfy anyone.
Lin Lixin remained silent, lost in thought for a long while.
To implement mechanisms such as dice and random events, they developed a random number generator module in the game.
This wasn't the first time he'd made this.
Random numbers are widely used in calculating hit rates and special attack probabilities in Fire Emblem.
Going back further, the random upgrade drops in "1942" were also achieved through this kind of randomness.
Random number generation in computers is a required course for computer science majors.
Even Sam, whose technical skills were the worst among them, could easily handle it.
This system has always worked very well in the past.
But things are different now.
When faced with a game where randomness is the primary gameplay element, its weaknesses are fully exposed.
"It's too chaotic; it simply won't produce results according to our wishes."
Sid, being a veteran designer, immediately grasped the key point. "Overly extreme results will make the experience of objectively 'unlucky' players absolutely terrible."
People tend to remember things that break the mold.
Even if only one out of ten games goes very badly, it will still be unforgettable for the player.
Fairness in a large objective sample does not necessarily equate to fairness in the actual player experience.
Not to mention the Matthew effect, which leads to the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker.
"But—shouldn't random numbers be random?"
Sam their words, somewhat puzzled.
The current chaos and disorder, in fact, proves the perfection of the random number generator they designed in the game.
"No, Sam, true randomness is the least random thing in the world."
Lin Lixin's brows relaxed.
Now that we've identified the problem, we're about 99% done with it.
"Huh? Why?"
"Because randomness requires the player's perception of it as random, not its objective randomness."
Will picked up the conversation and offered to explain for Sam.
After this brief exchange, he had realized what was going on.
" Sam, imagine we have a lottery box where one out of 100 balls wins. What are our odds of winning in this scenario?"
1%?
This is a math problem so simple it couldn't be simpler; Sam doesn't even need to think to give the answer.
"That's right. Ideally, we hope to win at least once out of 100 draws."
"HolyCow! I understand!"
Will's example was so vivid that Sam immediately understood what was going on.
Yes, true randomness is counterintuitive.
If you're unlucky, it's possible to go 100 times without winning—an extreme situation indeed.
Random results are discrete.
But humans are not beings that live in a single moment.
This results in randomness, which is supposed to be absolutely fair, actually being unfair to the players.
"Markov chain."
Lin Lixin silently uttered these words, then helplessly rubbed his temples.
Mathematics, the eternal stern father of video games.
The Markov chain, a stochastic process model, can be considered the core of various random algorithms in modern video games.
It is even indispensable in machine learning.
In a more immediate sense, the various actions of an NPC in a game can be viewed as a simple Markov chain.
Each state transition depends only on the current state.
" Will, let's work on this project together. Let's design a PRD algorithm."
"PRD?"
"Hmm, pseudo-random distribution. Didn't you say you wanted to try simulating life and society in your next game? That would be very useful."
Lin Lixin's lips curled up. If this thing could be done well, it would truly benefit him for life.
It can last for a hundred years without any problem!
The role of numerical design only truly gains value when the random results are in the hands of the designer.
A controlled randomness is a randomness that feels natural and fair enough to the player.
This is the most ingenious deception born from mathematics.
They trick players into willingly being deceived and accepting their schemes.