Without disturbing Carmack's reverie, Lin Lixin made his way to the third-floor hardware department's laboratory.
Gerald wasn't there; only a few maintenance personnel remained to monitor the servers.
Although he wasn't there, the things Lin Lixin planned to research might actually be useless if the other party did it.
My major doesn't match my job.
He reached out and picked up an electric bass guitar leaning against the wall.
This is one of the musical instruments purchased along with the piano.
The instrument has a circular audio jack, but it's not the 3.5mm jack that Sony's Walkman recently popularized; instead, it's the 6.35mm jack commonly used in musical instruments for transmitting analog audio signals.
Without this thing, my electric bass is basically no different from fluffing cotton.
His earlier conversation with Koshiro at the Grammy Award reminded him of several interesting IPs.
Or it could be described as an entire enduring game genre – music games, also known as rhythm games.
This game genre dates back to the late 1990s, during the PlayStation era.
The animated series " PaRappa the Rapper " released at the end of 1996 can be considered the progenitor of this genre.
However, it was Konami, an old friend of Gamenova, that truly popularized the concept of rhythm games.
The earliest falling-note rhythm game, Beatmania, was Konami creation.
This game pioneered the enduringly popular falling-note rhythm game mechanic, which remains the most mainstream gameplay style in rhythm games even after more than two decades.
If you had to choose the game genre that best represents music lovers, rhythm games would undoubtedly be one of the most suitable.
However, Lin Lixin was still somewhat hesitant about what type of product to choose.
Each gameplay style has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Considering that players in this era generally prefer a hardcore style, and combined with the characteristics of arcade games, the answer that ultimately stands out is clearly the falling-note game.
However, Lin Lixin plans to conduct a small experiment on this.
"We can make some more radical attempts in terms of playing style."
He looked at the bass in his hand and tried strumming it a few times.
The sound is deep and full, clearly not a cheap one.
If you could play with a real bass or electric guitar, and also have a slider-based judgment system like in a rhythm game, that would be wonderful.
Thinking of this, Lin Lixin immediately thought of a famous rhythm game IP under Activision Blizzard.
Guitar Hero
Of course, it's not the username of some pink-haired person with autism, but a legitimate rhythm game.
Compared to other common falling-note rhythm games, Guitar Hero has a unique feature: its gameplay is simulated using a specially designed guitar-shaped controller.
This design was considered a stroke of genius at the time, and it immediately became a trend.
The entire series has achieved a total sales volume of 62.12 million units!
Keep in mind this is a rhythm game, not one of those other popular game genres; this data is almost catching up with Civilization.
The total sales volume for the entire series has reached [amount missing].
However, the heyday of Guitar Hero did not last long.
As players' tastes changed, the Guitar Hero IP was eventually shelved by Activision around 11 years ago.
Lin Lixin familiarized himself with the feel and chord progression of the bass, and then casually played a slap.
The speaker emitted a low-frequency sound with extremely strong penetration.
"The experience of Guitar Hero taught rhythm game developers two things."
His gaze lingered on the proper bass in his hands. "First, the realistic playing experience is indeed loved by players."
"Secondly, the mimicry controller is far inferior to that of a real musical instrument."
The Guitar Hero IP is great in every way, but it has one extremely awkward problem.
The cost of peripherals.
I bought its dedicated guitar controller, but it's completely unusable for anything other than the game series.
As times have changed and players' aesthetics and tastes have evolved, holding this thing in your hand has become somewhat embarrassing.
So, a company that was particularly good at growing potatoes learned from the experience of Guitar Hero and came up with its own version.
Rocksmith
A music game developed by Ubisoft in 2012.
Unlike Guitar Hero, Rocksmith takes its already radical approach a step further.
It needs to be connected to a real guitar or bass to be played!
Back when Ubisoft was a game developer with dreams, soul, and warmth, this Ubisoft showed the world: music is really fun!
"A very clever idea----"
Lin Lixin stopped playing and gently placed the bass aside.
Ubisoft's approach seemed more radical and absurd than that of Guitar Hero, but it succeeded.
The reason is actually very simple.
A player might get tired of playing a toy guitar, but if he really loves guitars, he'll never get tired of playing a real one.
Rocksmith incorporates a dynamic difficulty adjustment mechanism.
Even beginners can clumsily attempt to play the basics.
And true masters can freely display their talents.
This game, the world's first and only one that requires the use of a real guitar or bass, even became a tool for enthusiasts to practice their instruments.
"Okay, let me see how to solve the interface problem----"
The next day.
When Gerald arrived at the company, he saw Lin Lixin holding an electric bass guitar and facing the screen.
A connecting cable connects the bass to a circuit board without a casing.
The other end connects to the PC's MIDI interface card via a 5-pin MIDI cable.
As Lin Lixin plays, a corresponding message will appear on the screen.
[2nd string, 3rd fret]
[2nd string, 4th fret]
Gerald approached, puzzled, and stared at this utterly outlandish contraption.
It only took Gerald, who was familiar with Lin Lixin's thought process, a mere second to guess what he was planning to do.
"Jesus----Do you want to develop a game played with a guitar?"
"----This is the bass."
"You even named your guitar?"
"----Ahem, anyway, that's right, I'm planning to develop a music game."
Lin Lixin pointed to another cable on the Table.
Unlike the one he had, that cable was missing the connecting part in the middle.
Or rather, the intermediate conversion part was integrated into the cable interface, miniaturizing it as much as possible.
This makes it look like a 6.35 RPM MIDI cable.
"Could you help me sort out the cabling? This thing might even work with the host machine. See if you can make an NX universal interface version as well."
Gerald didn't understand, but Gerald was deeply shocked.
Did I get Grammy yesterday and have some kind of delusional episode?