After confirming the story details with Anna, Lucas stretched and looked at the company's current situation.
Basically, there were no problems to worry about. As for the various game companies and studios that had been bought, they still kept their original operation styles.
They would keep their own brand names and develop new games.
Of course, technical exchange was currently the main focus, since that was the reason for the buying.
Besides that, a message from NetDragon surprised Lucas.
NetDragon wanted to launch a new "Warzone" mode in Rainbow Six. Clearly, NetDragon was very eager after seeing "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" being so successful.
However, Lucas directly refused.
Because the Rainbow Six mode itself conflicts completely with the battle royale gameplay.
The core of Rainbow Six is information gathering and tactical planning.
Also, the character movement speed in Rainbow Six, including the inability to jump, is designed to focus on indoor combat.
"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" is different. Various smooth sliding and climbing actions make the pace very fast and exciting.
Combined with the battle royale gameplay on a large map, it's a perfect fit.
If Rainbow Six were turned into a battle royale, the experience would definitely make players feel awkward and frustrated.
That's why Ubisoft announced in his previous life that Rainbow Six would never add a battle royale mode.
Because the core attributes of the game are completely opposite.
Unless they just put a new name on it and make a battle royale, but then Rainbow Six's own unique features would be lost.
However, although a Rainbow Six version of "Warzone" isn't suitable, some simple promotions could be done.
Of course, this would need to be carefully considered later. Right now, the work on "Red Dead Redemption" is more important.
Coming out of the office, Lucas called Hector, Edward, and other core team members to the meeting room to talk about some game ideas for the upcoming development.
"Boss Lucas, what kind of game style will the new game have?" Hector asked Lucas with some curiosity.
If it were up to him, the new game would follow the style of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare".
But Lucas had previously mentioned a very new term, "open world," which made Hector unsure.
"Actually, open world games are a middle ground between sandbox and box garden," Lucas said with a smile.
The keyword "sandbox game" became well-established after the birth of "Minecraft".
Including the game industry's understanding of sandbox games, it was basically the same as in his previous life.
As for "box garden," similar games and understandings already existed in other worlds. It's about creating a beautiful and delicate garden scene for viewing and enjoyment. The scenery of the box garden will form a stable structure, showing the unique beauty of a small world.
And open world is a perfect balance point between sandbox and box garden.
In his previous life, open world games were strictly divided into three main categories.
One is like "Red Dead Redemption," which is more inclined to a movie-like style, and various detailed content allows players to feel the world's real existence.
The second is focusing on openness, along with map elements and level designs, such as the various level and ability combinations in the shrines of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," and the concept of attracting points.
Finally, there's the formulaic open world that Ubisoft is good at, with numerous collectibles and perfectly repeatable task level designs. This is also a mainstream open world design style. As for why it's mainstream?
Because it's easier to make than the other two styles.
Of course, further down, it's also divided into types based on the game content, such as the strong story quests of the Witcher series.
But in general, an open world basically has one element.
A large, open, and free map, a world for players to explore.
"The upcoming 'Red Dead Redemption' will take the movie-like style, but it won't be like 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare'. It needs to be more relaxed," Lucas said, looking at the team.
In his previous life, many players said that "Red Dead Redemption" was too slow.
The main reason is the difference in transportation.
Because in 1899, especially in the West, the pace was very slow.
Lucas continued, "Also, like 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare', the visuals can't be neglected. They must be the best visuals available right now."
"Every scene in the game should be able to be used as wallpaper posters, and there should also be various detailed interactions."
"At the same time, there's the presentation. Like in 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare', we need to pay attention to facial details. I won't repeat that."
"Mirrors and water surfaces will reflect opposite scenery under light, clouds in the sky will move with the wind direction, and sunlight will also change with the weather and time."
"Rain will also move with the wind direction, and the size of raindrops and blizzards can't be the same all the time."
"The player's character will appear fatter or thinner depending on how much they eat. Players will feel cold if they wear less clothing, and they will feel hot if they wear more clothing."
As Lucas spoke, everyone on the team was shocked.
"That's right, it's about showing off! As a game to promote Cosmos VR, we need to show the powerful performance of the new-generation VR machine. Showing off is very much in line with Game Division's plans," Lucas said as if it were obvious.
"But Boss Lucas, won't these things have much impact on the game's gameplay?" someone asked.
Some players might not even notice these details after finishing the game.
Hearing the other person's words, Lucas smiled, "If players don't actively discover them, won't we actively reveal them?"
"As for why we're doing these things? Because 'Red Dead Redemption' is a story-driven open world game."
"A vivid Western world, and in this world, a story once happened to Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang in this land."
"We're telling this story, but this world needs to give players a feeling of real existence," Lucas explained with a smile.
In his previous life, many big-name designers in the game industry, as well as players, all had their own opinions.
But at least on this game, there is a very clear statement, that is, this is a story telling game. From some angles, "Red Dead Redemption" is not free at all, because when you are doing the main quests, you can't do other things.
You can't leave or do anything halfway, you can only do the quests, which is more like a linear game.
But the production team insists on creating a world before telling the story.
And this also makes this originally should be linear story, become seemingly free all of a sudden.
Listening to Lucas's words, everyone also understood, but new problems followed.
"But Boss Lucas, doing this, creating a seamless world, is a big demand on the current machine performance," everyone said, looking at Lucas.
This is a very critical question.
Because loading scenes are hidden in the cutscenes.
But "Red Dead Redemption" is different. According to Lucas, this will be an open, seamless world.
So the game will definitely not be able to use the method of showing cutscenes.
"Loading at the beginning and loading resources in the game, according to the player's game progress, read and load a certain range of resources, and slowly load the rest in the game. The player's main means of transportation is horses, which is completely enough in terms of speed."
"And riding carriages and trains or fast travel, you can use playing animations mode, to load a certain range." Lucas said, looking at everyone.
He had thought about this for a long time.
"But Boss Lucas, this way, before the game starts, players need to spend a lot of time loading the game content, a minute or even maybe two minutes." Hector and the others were all shocked.
It's not that they don't know this can be done, but the most important point is that no one dares to do it at all!
Make players load and wait for so long before the game starts?
"For the quality of the game, we must make some trade-offs," Lucas said, shaking his head.
Will it have an impact on players?
It definitely will, but in Lucas's opinion, this impact, compared to the overall quality of the game later, is obviously more important.
And it's not completely without a way to make up for it.
(End of The Chapter)
---
Read +100 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
Free Tier can read 3 advanced chapters
---