The phenomenal impact of " Rocksmith " has truly surprised many people.
A niche work that is completely unbelievable in terms of its entry barrier, gameplay, and subject matter, and does not contain any theoretical elements of a bestseller, has somehow become the work in GAMENOVA's history that has garnered the most fans outside the entertainment industry.
This time, however, other competitors' attitudes toward GAMENOVA's consistently outstanding performance were much more ambiguous.
The reason is simple----
Unlike Quake, which is purely a showcase of cutting-edge, asteroid-like technology, this thing—it seems like it can be learned!
With just a powerful enough audio chip and sufficiently sensitive input, it seems possible that it's not impossible to learn.
This has certainly piqued the interest of many manufacturers.
If GAMENOVA can make rock music, can we make J-Pop? Or can we do anime/cartoon music, or play drums?
As long as you learn its design paradigm and try to add some of your own elements----
A brand new world is unfolding before us.
However, all these development needs ultimately converge on the same thing.
Where can we get audio chips?
Hey, isn't it a coincidence? Motorola just happened to have a CD-quality SPU suitable for arcade machines.
Developing rhythm games is not a simple matter.
Lin Lixin looked at the recent surge of new rhythm game projects being announced and a slight twitch appeared on his lips.
Today, Gamenova is a trendsetter in the industry.
A simple gesture can spark a new trend.
However, it won't be long before everyone realizes that this seemingly sweet cake actually hides a trap.
Millisecond-level audio-visual synchronization, optimized responsiveness and tolerance, a user-friendly chart design tool, and a rich music library ecosystem----
Not everyone has a cheat code.
To truly understand these things, it would take at least a few months of practice.
Nobody enjoys playing a rhythm game with clunky controls and unpredictable timings.
Lin Lixin glanced at his fingertips, which had developed a thick layer of calluses from various tests and performances over the past period.
To design a suitable tolerance level for a real piano in a game requires much more effort.
I got up and stretched; the performance of " Rocksmith " was better than I expected.
"Phew—speaking of which, how's the Workshop writing contest going?"
The competition was conducted using a weighted method of public voting and download count, without a formal judging panel.
"The top 16 have been decided, let me find them—"
Sam stopped what he was doing, went to the filing cabinet, rummaged around for a bit, and pulled out a printout that had been sitting there for some time. "Here you go," he said, "This is the current list; basically all 128 entries are listed here."
Lin Lixin took the document.
Many of the works listed above have been crossed out in red, indicating that they have been eliminated.
There are now only 16 high-quality entries left that are close to making it to the finals.
At first glance, it turns out that more than half of these are auxiliary mods.
This is understandable, as things that directly improve the player experience are often the most popular.
After all, apart from the developers themselves, few others can create content enhancement packs that truly have a "vanilla flavor".
There will always be a slight sense of disconnect that players will not accept.
"Enhanced map pins, optimized policy card display, map packs----"
They are indeed all well-made modules, and it wouldn't be a problem for most of them to be directly absorbed into their main bodies.
However, as he scanned the area, a module highlighted in red caught his eye.
[ Orcs and Humans - Blizzard ]
What the hell is going on?
Did Warcraft accidentally cause this?
"Hey Sam, what's with this ' Orcs and Humans ' thing?"
"Huh? Oh, this."
Sam squeezed in, puzzled, then thought for a moment and suddenly realized.
He really had a deep impression of that name.
"It was a really interesting gameplay mod that received a lot of player votes, but it was eliminated in the third round due to the weighting of download numbers."
Sam actually played a few rounds of this mod, and to be honest, the production quality is definitely excellent.
It took a different approach by simplifying the original Civilization system extensively, significantly speeding up the game's pace.
Unfortunately, it is precisely because of this overly radical design that it has filtered out many players who are not into this style.
"It seems to be a local California group, the ID is Blizzard, run by three college students."
Sam admitted he was a little disappointed that this module was phased out.
Because it's really interesting to do.
UCLA?
"Yes, they're University of Southern California's old rival."
"----Prepare the car, I'm going to talk to them."
"Huh? But they were eliminated!"
"Do you understand what a pre-arranged deal is? I think they click."
The dorm room of the three Mike at UCLA was silent.
The sky has fallen!
The game they had high hopes for, " Orcs and Humans," surprisingly failed in the third round.
Although reaching this stage would already earn you a $1,000 prize, it's still far from the $100,000 prize for the champion.
"I'm doomed! If Grandma finds out I failed my final exams because of playing games... ugh..."
UCLA tuition isn't cheap.
I was hoping to achieve Fortune freedom directly with this incredible bonus.
The other two were also somewhat disappointed, and their enthusiasm for playing the game wasn't as strong as before.
If they are far inferior to others, then they will just have to accept it.
But even after making it to the third round, he was eliminated again.
What's most unbearable is having hope dashed after it's been given.
"We must have designed Medivh and Gul'dan to be too weak. We should have implemented a hero unit mechanic as I suggested."
"Come on, we shouldn't have entered it in the first place. Clearly, the ones selected were all enhancements to the gameplay—"
Suddenly, Mike heard what sounded like very fast footsteps coming from outside the door. The footsteps were hurried and approaching.
Then.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A series of increasingly urgent knocks sounded on the door.
" Mike! Wake up! Open the door! Open the door! Something fucking terrible has happened!!"
Mike exchanged a glance with the two men, then got up and opened the door, puzzled.
The visitor was another close friend of theirs from school.
"What's wrong?"
I said—
He was panting heavily, his face flushed with excitement. "Are you guys Blizzard? The ones who make mods for Civilization?"
"Yes, but we were just eliminated—"
Forget about that damn competition, guess who came to our school?