Having established the basic division of development responsibilities, Lin Lixin still had one important task to address.
Unlike previous projects, Metal Slug has a significant difference in its art design.
It is a highly stylized pixel-art game.
Pixel art?
In the conference room, Vivian was taken aback when she heard this request.
Because it involves using a brand-new generation of processors, she, as the project leader, naturally had to participate in the development work.
"Lin, ATHENA's performance is sufficient to resolve higher resolution images!"
This clearly indicates a doubt about the chip's potential.
Although the lack of a dedicated graphics card will inevitably limit its graphics output, this is not an insurmountable problem.
"We can assemble a SoC and integrate a Nova Radeon chip into it."
Sacrificing image detail for this reason is a very bad deal.
It's worth noting that back in the Quake era, they were already using top-tier high-definition textures.
Although it's far from reaching the level of a film or television production, through various post-production processes, it has begun to show signs of a future.
If we were to reverse our technological progress now in order to save performance, that would be unacceptable and not in line with GAMENOVA's style.
"ATHENA is the culmination of our hard work; you should know better than anyone that she absolutely can do it!"
"Of course I know, but you don't need to rush."
Lin Lixin pressed down on Vivian, who was eager to deny the idea, and his expression became serious. "Although it's pixelated, it's definitely not the same as the 8-bit era."
What's the difference?
"The difference between being able to do it and not being able to do it."
Lin Lixin shrugged. "The graphics in Contra looked like that because that was the best we could do with the technology at the time."
"But now we have the capability to create high-definition textures, yet we use that technology and performance to run pixelation. What difference do you think that would make?"
He turned on his computer, grabbed the keyboard, and quickly typed out a few lines of commands.
Vivian leaned over to look at the screen, puzzled.
This is a very common drawing software that they use frequently during development.
Lin Lixin quickly typed in lines of instructions, causing the software to drop blocks of color onto the canvas.
Before long, a pair of blue underwear appeared on the canvas.
Vivian also recognized what Lin Lixin was drawing.
This typical blue-shorts, shirtless tough guy is clearly a classic character from Contra.
"Look, we can create a character like this with just 816 pixels."
"But this was limited by the capabilities available at the time; we could only use symbolic methods to construct characters."
Why can we recognize him as " Schwarzenegger," or rather, why do we know he's a tough soldier?
Lin Lixin tapped on its head.
"The inclusion of classic elements such as straps, guns, and ammunition belts, along with the pixel art on the cover, allowed players to visualize his image."
Putting all that aside, looking at this character sprite again, it is indeed a complete mess of pixelated pixels.
Monotonous colors and low resolution are some of the problems with Contra.
Using the fewest pixels and the fewest colors to depict the most soulful image—this is the unique professional skill of developers in this era.
"And now, pixelation is an art style we've actively chosen."
"The most important point is that whether something is pixelated or not has no direct relation to its resolution."
Even at high resolutions, pixel art can still be achieved.
Aren't Minecraft and Terraria the most typical examples?
"We don't use high-resolution textures, not because we can't, but because it's unnecessary."
"Unlike high-definition textures, pixel art has a unique advantage: it can easily achieve what high-definition textures struggle to do."
Lin Lixin looked at Vivian, "We've already proven this. Guess what it is?"
Vivian blinked, finally realizing what Lin Lixin was trying to say.
I've also figured out which work he was referring to.
" The King of Fighters!"
Nova Radeon had a brilliant debut match.
Using the most exaggerated and magical stretching movements, countless exaggerated movements that are simply impossible in real life have been achieved.
Rather than trying to be as realistic as possible, it's more accurate to say that it's inherently cartoonish.
"Right, we don't need to simulate the character's skeletal movement or consider any realistic mechanics simulation."
"Everything was created according to the logic of animation, using hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation, rather than being generated by software."
Lin Lixin nodded in satisfaction.
The King of Fighters and Metal Slug are indeed from the same lineage.
Not only are they from the same mother, but their hardware specifications are also basically the same.
Both of these highly stylized works are from SNK.
In the 1990s, when arcade machines still reigned supreme, SNK created a terrifying arcade board that could be considered the king of boards.
NEOGEO-MVS.
Back in the day when everyone was still using the shabby PPU graphics coprocessor on the Famicom, NEOGEO-MVS, upon its release, possessed the incredible ability to process a full 380 sprites per frame.
Back in the NES era, if you wanted to process a large number of sprites, you had to divide the process into multiple frames to barely finish it.
This led to the most common image problem in the 8-bit era – screen tearing!
The motion in the scene is extremely choppy; the movement of a single texture often requires multiple loops to be transferred piece by piece.
In an era when processor clock speeds were already slow, such a gap was practically visible to the naked eye.
It was precisely because of NEOGEO's incredible overall performance that SNK was able to create so many outstanding and wildly popular titles.
Iori Yagami's ordinary special move, Yaotome, can be broken down into nearly a hundred frames, which is almost 100 hand-drawn pixel paintings.
"With higher performance, we can create arcade-level graphics like in ' The King of Fighters,' using higher resolution to create pixel art with richer details."
"At the same time, we can also allow hundreds or thousands of projectiles to move on the screen in real time, without the naked eye noticing!"
Of course, talk is cheap, but when it comes to actual development, there are still many problems.
The biggest issue is that GAMENOVA simply doesn't have a suitable department to handle this.
Although Lin Lixin also has connections with Industrial Light & Magic, and in the past, many of their images were indeed outsourced to Industrial Light & Magic.
But this time, Industrial Light & Magic really couldn't do the job.
Pixel art has been professionalized and commercialized for the first time ever.
After all, everyone is currently racking their brains to create visuals and try to keep up with the times, so suddenly going backwards to make pixel art is something only GAMENOVA could do.
Although Lin Lixin could learn to fill this hole in a few days, it was ultimately not a long-term solution.
A project can use a vast number of frames of animation, and even if someone works non-stop, it will still take quite a while to Kung-Fu Master.
With project management tasks including program development, hardware control, and policy management, he wouldn't have any extra energy left for anything else.
It is essential to assemble a suitable professional team.
To solve this problem, Lin Lixin decided to look to the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
In Japan, there is a remarkable company that has received a cease and desist letter from IBM, which can be described as the "breeding ground" of the Japan game industry, nurturing many producers who have had a profound impact on the game world in later generations.
Its name is --IREM.
Its founder was named Kenzo Tsujimoto.
After being sidelined by the office struggle led by Nanao Electric and Yoshihiko Takado, Kenzo Tsujimoto resigned in anger in 1983 and started a new game company.
The new company is called [ Capcom ].
At the same time, Kenzo Tsujimoto also recruited several young people from IREM, the former arcade giant.
Takashi Nishiyama, the Godfather fighting games.
This young man brought Capcom Bitch a Legend IP that will sustain Capcom Bitch for a lifetime.
Street Fighter
The name Takashi Nishiyama may be quite unfamiliar to players in later generations.
But anyone with even a basic understanding of the gaming world will be familiar with Ryu, the original Super Hadouken from Street Fighter Street Fighter who constantly spouts " Hadouken."
The character is based on this low-key young man who has a strong interest in martial arts.
Besides Takashi Nishiyama, Kenzo Tsujimoto also took many other excellent developers with him, including Yoshiki Okamoto and Tokuro Fujiwara.
Both of them are heavyweights. Yoshiki Okamoto and created Street Fighter II, truly ushering in the golden age of fighting games.
As for Tokuro Fujiwara ----
To put it simply, in 1994, he withstood the pressure from the entire company and handed over a stack of project proposals to a young junior colleague who had just entered the industry.
This young junior's name is Shinji Mikami.
The project proposal was called " Sweet Home Remastered Edition ".
Tokuro Fujiwara was Shinji Mikami's mentor, guide, and teacher, the father of biochemistry.
In a sense, it was IREM that nurtured many of Capcom's star producers in later years.
But besides Capcom Bitch, the man in IREM's upper echelons who drove Kenzo Tsujimoto out through office politics was also no ordinary person.
Yoshihiko Takado was the president of SNK at the time.
The love-hate relationship between Capcom Bitch and SNK was also forged during this period.
While IREM is indeed a Legend arcade company, what Lin Lixin truly wanted was not these two problematic large companies.
For Lin Lixin, what truly interested him in IREM was a little-known group.
Early November.
Satoshi Tajiri suddenly received a new order from Lin Lixin.
He was already used to this kind of thing.
Even though Sega is now in the transition phase, Game Freak remains GAMENOVA's office in Japan.
Lin Lixin is the chairman of Sega, but Game Freak is the department truly responsible for the handover of Japan business.
Therefore, many tasks that Lin Lixin was unable to handle personally were often delegated to him.
Take, for example, illusion Entertainment, which is currently making waves in the arcade gaming world.
Toru Muranishi has been having a blast lately and has completely accepted his new identity.
He was used to it, but today's instruction gave him a bit of a headache.
"Should we poach a few people from arcade giant IREM?"
Satoshi carefully browsed through the detailed list.
This covers almost all roles in game development.
From planning and directing to art direction, composition, and programming—it has everything.
"Is this... taking their entire development team with them?"