In 1991, let's make a black and white game!
Although the black and white imagery has only recently been replaced.
But in this era where everyone is frantically chasing after high-quality 3D graphics, afraid of falling behind the times, this approach is practically suicidal.
So, here's the question.
Why?
Lucas knew Lin Lixin's abilities, and so did everyone else present.
He must have had his reasons for choosing to do this.
"Gentlemen, I think you probably know the answer to this question better than I do."
Lin Lixin looked at the lead developers at Infocom.
Although Infocom is relatively unknown and usually quite inconspicuous.
It also lacks the diverse portfolio of proprietary IPs that Blizzard and Activision possess.
However, they've been with Gamenova for quite some time, having joined the company around the same time as Activision. There's really no need to question their capabilities.
Zork was an absolute gold standard in early PC Adventure games.
This group holds considerable authority in the field of Adventure games.
"I want to ask... are computers like the Apple II, C64, and IBM compatible machines really incapable of producing visuals?"
Lin Lixin suddenly asked a question that seemed to have no context.
Early Adventure games shared a common characteristic: they almost never had graphics.
At most, you could use ASCII art to Close-Up a close-up.
"It's possible, but... there's no need."
Tim shook his head.
The answer is obvious.
As one of the core developers of "Zork", he and several colleagues created this great work that changed the history of gaming in the 1970s on the PDP-10 mainframe computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the PDP-10 era, creating impressive graphics might have been challenging. But once Zork entered the commercial market and began selling copies to players in large quantities, the situation changed.
How is the graphics performance of Apple II?
It has a resolution of 280x192 and supports 4-bit color and even 8-bit color.
At the same time, IBM-compatible machines, under the CGA specification, had already generally achieved 320x200 resolution and 4-bit color display.
The conditions were tough, but we wanted to create a visually appealing scene.
It's not impossible.
However, they still chose to keep Zork on a traditional path.
There may be visuals, but at most Close-Up; for the vast majority of the time, the narrative and environmental construction are left to the text.
They have their own " Tolkien," their own " Glass Adams."
Of course, it also has its own natural language interpreter, which it is most proud of, replacing traditional command input.
Under such conditions, the power of text far surpasses that of rudimentary visuals.
"The human brain is the most powerful renderer, right?" Lin Lixin nodded in agreement.
Through human imagination, simple text can create an experience far exceeding the visual limits of this era.
This is where text truly excels, replacing what images cannot.
"But it's a different concept from black and white; ultimately, we still want to create a true 3D space."
Tim pressed on.
He probably knew what Lin Lixin was trying to say.
It's simply a matter of having a good enough story; any shortcomings in the visuals can be filled in by the player's imagination.
The reduction in color actually gives players more room for imagination.
As long as it's mentioned that the character is Spain, players will automatically imagine the details of his skin and so on.
This certainly reduces a lot of graphic design work.
But it still feels a bit like taking off your pants to fart.
"That's right. The real essence of this system is what follows; optimization is just a byproduct." Lin Lixin smiled and patiently explained.
In addition to numerous Game of the Year Award, Return of the Obra Dinn boasts tons of art awards, much of which is thanks to its uniquely stylized visuals.
" Return of the Obra Dinn is not an action game, not an RPG, it's a mystery game where the only action the player needs to take is... to observe."
Observe the scene of the incident, observe the clothing of the people, observe their faces, observe the structure of the ship's cabin...
"Throughout the entire process, the player remains merely an observer; they cannot intervene in the events because everything has already happened and is over. We are simply investigating and trying to deduce what happened."
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Lucas called out several times, but Lin Lixin's explanation only confused him more, instead of dispelling his doubts.
"If that's the case, then isn't the level of detail in the graphics even more important? Only with more beautiful images can players absorb enough information, right?"
If it were just plain text, that would be fine, since detective novels aren't anything new.
But whether it's a graphical game or a 3D game makes a difference.
According to Lin Lixin, if the footage is cut too much, it's impossible to obtain enough information.
"No, Mr. Lucas," Tim said.
Lucas usually works with movies and CG, so he has a high sensitivity to visuals, but Tim and his team are different.
Their usual work environment meant they were able to understand Lin Lixin's meaning in the shortest amount of time.
"Nearly 90% of the information received by the human eye is noise, and it doesn't help us deduce the whole case at all."
Tim suddenly understood the perfect closed loop of this system, and his mind opened up instantly.
The more clearly I understand it, the more astonished I become.
damn it!
How could such a brilliant solution exist in this world?
While allowing players to focus more on the game itself, it also improves optimization and significantly reduces rendering costs!
He's an artist!
The art of code!
The art of game design! "Hmm? What do you mean?"
"It's a feature! Mr. Lucas, eliminate all the unnecessary noise. Those things don't help players deduce; they just keep distracting them."
No one in this kind of game would carefully examine how beautiful the textures are drawn, how detailed the wood grain is, or how excellent the reflective texture of the metal is.
This is a game with a completely different positioning from " Myst ".
Myst aims to immerse players in an otherworldly Adventure with stunning visuals.
The game uses a series of interconnected puzzles and breathtaking scenery to keep players engaged and playing.
Even without solving the puzzles, you can still enjoy exploring the scenery.
This is also a major reason why Myst- like games are now being imitated by various Adventure game developers.
This approach truly makes it stunning at first glance.
But The Return of the Obra Dinn is different.
What it needs is to allow players to fully focus on the event itself.
Apart from that, anything else is merely noise that interferes with reasoning. Under such requirements, 1-bit image quality actually becomes an advantage.
"In the absence of color, the human eye is more inclined to actively search for outlines."
Tim grabbed a hat and gestured to Lucas.
If there is no color, players will quickly focus on the outline details of the hat.
Is it a captain's hat? Or some kind of distinctive ethnic costume?
This character is holding a matchlock gun, and that person is holding a flintlock pistol...
Once the designer actively removes unnecessary noise from the information received by the human eye, the features naturally become apparent.
Its recognizability has increased rather than decreased!
This is what top-tier game design should have.
"That's exactly right."
Lin Lixin nodded in satisfaction and continued,
"As you may know, I also have a partner animation company in Japan, Gainax." "Of course, who doesn't know the name of the Pokémon anime series?"
Lucas immediately responded.
In the field of animation, Japan is more authoritative than Hollywood.
Although he desperately wanted to snatch this contract from Lucasfilm, Lucas was also aware of his own limitations.
It's likely that Lucasfilm today doesn't possess the OVA animation capabilities of Gainax.
"Getting back to the point, I just wanted to say that when the project ' Tokimeki Memorial ' was first being conceived, I discussed this with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto."
Characteristic design.
The human brain is not a camera; it excels at remembering features rather than complete images.
In a 1-bit color space, these characteristic designs are much easier to implement.
Lin Lixin tapped the small planning board.
It's time for Little Lin's psychology class to begin again.
"Just as video games and psychology are inextricably linked, Gamenova has always advocated designing its works from the perspective of behavioral psychology." "But..."
"This time, I want to try a different school of thought."
Psychology is a very broad discipline. Throughout its long history, its researchers have established countless different schools of thought from different perspectives.
The five most typical schools of thought are probably behaviorism, structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalysis, and... Gestalt psychology.
Mark Wertheimer, one of the founders of Gestalt psychology, proposed the concept of the "law of closure."
"The human brain is inherently averse to incompleteness. To make itself feel comfortable, the brain will actively attempt to complete the task, even if the process relies entirely on imagination."
" The Return of the Obra Dinn " is an extreme application of Gestalt psychology.
The game isn't incomplete; it's intentionally made incomplete.
Game consoles themselves do not require high-end graphics chips.
Because the player's brain is involved in the rendering process throughout.
It may even participate in logical processing.
Even the animation dynamics, the events between two scenes, and everyone's movement paths and directions can be filled in by the brain. In a sense, it's as if the designer has pulled a bus and shoved it directly into the player's head.
This is a process of spiritual communion.
If Gamenova can be considered a representative of behaviorist psychology in video games...
Lin Lixin hopes to use this opportunity to guide Infocom onto the path of Gestalt theory.
Adventure games are really perfect for this kind of gameplay.
The ultimate wet-processor, evolved over thousands of years by humankind, is far more powerful than outdated silicon-based circuits.