On the matter of dual versions

"Squeak--"

The car performed a drift and came to a precise stop in the parking lot of the Southern California campus.

Lin Lixin jumped out of the car and arrived at Blizzard Studio in a few steps.

"Boys, I just had a great idea."

Upon hearing this, the group, who were still engrossed in figuring out how to improve the original C&C engine, looked up in bewilderment.

Weren't we previously figuring out how to cram in enough content while saving storage space?

As Lin Lixin spoke, he walked over to Mike and the others, casually glancing at what was on their screens.

"Oh, this part is no longer needed. Let's scrap it and redo it entirely."

"Nooooo!!!"

To be honest, perhaps it's because this kind of thing has happened countless times before.

When Lin Lixin walked up to them, the group already had a premonition of what was going on.

This is a situation unique to Blizzard. Now that several studios are located so close together, Mike and his team often visit the other studios.

Judging from Mr. David's arrogant demeanor, Lin Lixin rarely seems to Activision this way at Activision.

Getting it right in one take is common.

"Alright, do you understand the importance of striving for perfection?"

Lin Lixin laughed heartily, pulled up a chair, and sat down in front of Mike.

"We don't need to keep all our content on one disk, Mike."

"You mean... split it into multiple installation discs, like computer software? Install it on the hard drive, and then play the game completely?"

"Of course, that's possible, but NX doesn't have a native hard drive ecosystem, so the answer is definitely no. We have a simpler solution."

As he spoke, he magically produced a cassette tape from behind his back, a grin spreading across his face.

Pokémon Gold

We'll sell them in different versions.

"Huh?" Mike's mind immediately went blank.

Selling it in two versions like Pokémon?

This isn't a collectible game; the disadvantages of having multiple versions far outweigh the advantages.

If players discover that they've paid for a reduced version with only half the content, they might really lash out at headquarters.

Especially with the new project "Command & Conquer: Red Alert", which features a native dual-faction design.

If you were to sell both of them separately as two separate packages, it would definitely create a strong sense of separation.

This is... not good.

It's bad in every sense of the word.

"Don't worry, everyone, we're not splitting the game up. In fact, both versions will have the complete game content, exactly the same."

"So?"

"Disassembling the animations and campaign, the Allied version includes all story animations and campaign levels for the Allied storyline, and the Red version is similar. However, the multiplayer mode, skirmishes, selectable factions, and the gameplay itself will remain unchanged."

Lin Lixin explained, "So... it's a difference in perspective?"

"That's right. Not only that, thanks to NX's persistent caching capabilities, we can also share archived data between the two disks, allowing for seamless disk switching."

This is the key to the new plan.

In theory, players could complete a single disc and then decide whether to complete the other disc based on their own experience.

Even if you only buy one copy, it won't affect any of the main game content.

Of course, you won't be able to play the story campaign.

It's less like buying a game and more like... buying movie tickets.

"The same game, two versions, two movies. For competitive gamers, it doesn't matter which one they buy; for story-driven players, they can first smoothly and completely experience the route that interests them."

Because the plot is essentially the same, only the perspective is different.

Want to use the Allied forces to outmaneuver the Russian faction in multiplayer battles? Sure, no problem.

Okay, actually, besides that reason, having two versions obviously has another clear advantage: making more money!

As long as the storyline and exclusive campaigns are engaging and exciting enough, there will always be people willing to pay for them.

And in this respect... it has Hollywood backing.

With the connections Lin Lixin and Lucas have, and the top-notch sound system of Hans Zimmer Studio, they have the advantage.

With a good script, you can easily make an epic war movie.

Westwood Blizzard's role is simply to collaborate with the writers, assisting with plot and campaign design.

"It's like an expansion pack!"

That's pretty much the idea, but we can do it better.

Lin Lixin nodded.

This solution has a very significant advantage in capacity optimization.

If both sides were originally crammed onto one disk, the campaign and animations would consume a lot of resources, crowding out other parts.

But now, simply splitting it into two parts reduces the capacity by almost half. Please bookmark the only website for this novel: www. deqixs. org. The site owner only has this one website; other websites may be discontinued at any time.

Many campaign-limited units, buildings, and textures can be reused repeatedly and do not need to be one-time resources that are wasted space after use.

Eastern Europe has its Eastern Europe landscape, and Western Europe has its Western Europe landscape.

This way, a lot of storage space can be saved.

The space saved can be used to add more campaign levels, or even more cutscenes and background music to the game.

Anyone can pile up materials.

But how to stack them beautifully and attractively is a skill in itself.

This is a... giant American pizza.

The solid core gameplay is its substantial foundation, while the storyline and campaign levels are the rich toppings.

It may not be as exquisite and beautiful as some modern works that are cleverly simplified, but it is definitely plentiful and filling.

"You're different from David and the David, Mike. Learning to add is the path you need to take."

Different studios have completely different inclinations, and naturally, they will have completely different characteristics. Gamenova focuses on flagship masterpieces; as long as they are cool and fun enough, that's enough.

Activision will take over the "smaller projects" that Gamenova is currently unable to develop.

Lucas Arts, on the other hand, took over the Adventure game route.

Bullfrog Studio makes simulation games.

Blizzard, or rather Blizzard + Westwood, is doing addition.

Whether it's Diablo, Command & Conquer, or the magnificent Azeroth that will surely be born in the future.

A sufficiently large size will never go wrong.

Having set this general direction, it seems that the entire structure of the project has been completely changed, but in reality, the workload has not changed much.

Although it's called two versions, it's essentially the same game; the only differences are the story files and campaign files.

These tools are generated by the development tools themselves, so they don't even need to write any additional new tools.

The only thing that requires special customization is probably preparing different main interface UIs for the two versions.

"Lin, we've contacted Mr. Christopher and plan to integrate a simple physics engine into the main engine."

On Blizzard's side, Mike explained to Lin Lixin the engine upgrade process.

Huh? Why?

Lin Lixin was taken aback, not understanding what he meant.

"Uh? Didn't you say you needed a more complete air force system than in C&C? Considering the helicopters and close Support aircraft on both sides, wouldn't a dedicated simulation be better?"

Command & Conquer uses an engine that Blizzard developed themselves.

A fully customized version, with an engine specifically designed for RTS games.

The core functions are multi-unit flow field pathfinding and 2.5D pixel Tile Map.

This technique uses fully 2D pixel tiles to construct a pseudo-3D world that appears to have varying heights.

Combined with high-performance multi-unit pathfinding and flow field navigation, these are the keys to the exhilarating large-scale battles in RTS games.

But it is not perfect either.

At least in terms of 3D, it's incredibly difficult to use. Because it's essentially still a 2D world, any changes in 3D space require a huge amount of computation.

"Hey, I thought it was something serious. Our old engine is perfectly fine for this kind of thing."

Lin Lixin waved his hand, shoved Mike aside, picked up the keyboard, and casually typed a few lines.

Then, during the test, a static texture of a small airplane appeared to fly up from the ground and began to hover on the map.

After spinning twice, it landed steadily back in the same spot.

What's this?

What did Lin just do?

Mike scratched his head, suddenly realizing he might need to scrap the current module and start over.

"Avoid creating unnecessary entities; if something can be done simply, don't complicate it."

Lin Lixin offered an explanation.

Mike's approach wasn't entirely wrong. Adding more engine features would indeed make it more flexible.

But the question is... does Red Alert really need it?

"What you want is to get the plane flying, right? Intuitively, we definitely need to introduce a new altitude axis for the engine to do that."

This modification is tantamount to a complete overhaul of the underlying system.

This gives the original 2.5D pseudo-3D engine the ability to truly handle 3D space.

If Gamenova can do it, Blizzard can do it too if they spend some time.

"That doesn't make sense, Mike. If you want the plane to fly, just increase the y-axis of its texture."

As Lin Lixin spoke, he directly manipulated the aircraft to move upwards by several units.

"Huh? Fuck, it's that simple!"

A simple displacement.

The aircraft's physical form is still at those coordinates, but its texture has been shifted upwards by a few grids.

Visually, it looks like it suddenly took off. "Add some shadows to the ground, Mike. What we're trying to do isn't make the plane fly, but make the player think it is."

Adding any physical property or introducing more axial space is a waste of performance.

They never intended to create a completely realistic super strategy simulation game.

This is an RTS game, not a sequel to Battlefield.

What they need are fast-paced, action-packed popcorn war movies.

A unit that requires complex calculations is neither elegant nor healthy.