Time flew by. After March, Pokeni went full throttle, working hard to finish "The Witcher" by May.
When the script and world-building of this game were drastically changed in February, the art team had estimated it would take at least another half a year to complete.
Unexpectedly, in less than four months, it was already about 70-80% done.
Shinji Mikami played a key role in this. It was precisely because of his coordination skills that he was able to split and integrate resources, saving a considerable amount of art-related workload.
For example, although some art assets had to be redrawn, the character animation could still use the original mechanism. They only needed to match the corresponding new assets. While the new assets could have changes, they were kept as close to the originals as possible in terms of size and texture mapping.
The programming team also took on a portion of the modification work.
For example, a 2D architecture that supports [swapping images] while adapting to actions.
For example, in terms of the allocation and integration of art assets, they adopted more reasonable distribution methods...
If we were to put it in Aoki Haruhi's words, what the programming team is doing now is equivalent to developing a game engine based on the Sega Mega Drive console.
This is a truly remarkable achievement; at the very least, it will help the team save a considerable amount of time on new projects for some time to come.
Moreover, the support this [engine] provides for new game images is absolutely unparalleled, far exceeding anything from this era.
Some people find it inconceivable—when did the programmers at Pokeni become so strong?
But Aoki Haruhi knows the truth better than anyone—
It's not the programmers' technical skills that have been holding them back, but their mindset.
Technological development is always preceded by [design] or, if you will, [theory]. There are some things you can't create simply because you haven't thought of them, but once the requirements and principles are clear, it becomes much easier for the programming side to implement them.
For example, Gaussian convolution, which is widely used in art engines, has existed as a Gaussian function for centuries. However, because the history of games and game development is still very short, no one had thought of it yet, and there was no related demand for it, so it did not appear.
But when Aoki Haruhi proposed it, they discovered that this thing was incredibly useful. Intuitively speaking, if you want to increase a certain color value in a texture and have it transition according to a specific curve, you can use a Gaussian function. By setting a few parameters, it becomes very easy to achieve the desired effect just by adjusting those parameters.
Before this, artists had to draw these things by hand. Not only did it take a long time, but it also wasn't guaranteed to meet the strict requirements.
If something was found to be wrong, it would lead to rework.
This was actually a huge waste of time.
The "toolization" and "modularization" proposed by Aoki Haruhi allowed programmers to share and support some of the art team's workload in advance, enabling the art team to focus their energy on creation, which greatly improved the team's efficiency.
It is precisely because of this that The Witcher has been able to progress so quickly.
This shows that Pokeni's overall team strength has reached a new level.
According to Aoki Haruhi's theory, Pokeni was nothing but a piece of crap last year.
Of course, now that both design and technology have improved, the biggest obstacle has become the hardware.
Aoki has lost his temper more than once over hardware issues.
Damn it, the hardware in the 90s really falls too far short. If they were 10 years in the future, Aoki feels they could already be making Elden Ring.
As it is, they are still here fussing over the Diablo series, and a 2D version at that, with textures that have a very dated feel—a bit better than pixel art, but not by much.
It completely captures the "Japanese-style future" feel that Aoki wanted.
Neither Old Xu nor Shinji Mikami are into the mecha genre, so while you can see a sense of technology in this game, it features more of that visceral, up-close combat, shattering kill effects, and various feedback from destructive impacts.
Shinji Mikami can be said to be quite talented in this regard.
You could tell this back when this guy was making Resident Evil.
Now, after the baptism of Diablo, Mikami's talent for destructive combat has fully awakened.
Aoki Haruhi just hopes that the combination of these two won't be too dark.
Sometimes he has to spend time giving them mental coaching, mainly for Old Xu, to prevent him from veering from his original "fated tragic romance" style into another extreme of "profound philosophy."
Games need to have depth, but that doesn't mean making products that are overly depressing and dark. Reality isn't necessarily more profound just because it's exposed; one also has to consider the players' psychological tolerance.
Don't just deliver a critical blow regardless of whether they can handle it or not.
The point is, Aoki Haruhi is genuinely worried that if they continue down this path, Gen Urobuchi's mind might become twisted.
Fortunately, the ending of The Witcher turned out quite well. Aoki Haruhi played through it himself, and so far, the game is well-balanced in terms of gameplay, narrative, and depth of thought.
Furthermore, Aoki Haruhi could deeply feel both Old Xu's and Mikami's styles in it.
It can be said that they have blended quite ingeniously.
In March, Pokeni published a recruitment notice in major newspapers.
[Game Test Engineer: 3 to 5 people
Responsible for quality control of games, identifying and reporting issues discovered during various stages of game development...
Education Requirement: High school diploma
Passionate about games, familiar with games
Candidates with a background in Computer Science/Semiconductors are preferred
Salary: 200,000 to 400,000 yen/month]
Yes, in order to ensure the smooth operation of game versions, Aoki Haruhi specifically created a new position in the company—
Game Test Engineer.
The legendary QA (Quality Assurance) specialist.
Some companies call them QC (Quality Control) specialists.
At P Corporation, Aoki Haruhi still followed his habits from his previous life and called them QA.
It sounds fancy, but the work is actually quite grueling—
It's equivalent to manual testing, where each person acts as a real player running through the game from beginning to end. They not only have to follow the normal gameplay flow but also play through it using abnormal methods, primarily to discover hidden bugs in the game.
For instance, in Diablo, there might be spots where a player can get stuck such that monsters cannot attack them, yet the player can still attack the monsters. In such cases, the numerical values designed by the planners become useless.
QA testers need to root out these scenarios and document them to provide feedback to the development team for fixes.
As for issues like screen tearing, game crashes, impassable terrain, or player stats overflowing, these are the highest priority bugs that must be fixed immediately upon discovery, as they would otherwise prevent players from playing the game.
Back in the day, the Atari console's massive crash in the North American market was caused by the game E.T., which was riddled with bugs and poorly made. Therefore, quality issues are something that cannot be ignored in game development.
Before this, to save money, Pokeni's project team members themselves acted as testers, running through the game to find and fix bugs.
Now, with a certain amount of financial stability, Aoki Haruhi has decided to hire a few dedicated testers.
It could be said that Pokeni is now at the forefront of professional specialization.
This kind of specialization has its advantages, namely that "professionals do professional work."
Division of labor is a crucial step in any industrial process; it allows every link to operate efficiently, ensuring that everyone can deliver higher value in the fields they are familiar with and excel at.
However, it also has its downsides.
The disadvantage lies in the lack of connectivity; employees might have outstanding abilities in one specific area, but their weaknesses in other areas can be just as pronounced.
The ultimate result is that it becomes very difficult to produce a producer.
This is because a producer needs to think holistically, considering all factors comprehensively—they need to be "well-rounded experts" who have their own specialties while also understanding every facet of game development.
That is why Aoki Haruhi requires Pokeni employees to not only achieve success in their own areas of expertise but also to learn more about others, especially what colleagues in unrelated departments are doing. He even occasionally has veteran employees from different fields hold short classes to introduce and explain their own work to everyone else.
Seeing the job posting for "Game Test Engineer" at Pokeni, many young people were stunned.
"What? Is there actually such a great job?"
"Not only can you play games, but you can get paid to do it!"
"It looks like there aren't many requirements; it's mainly about liking games and being familiar with them, so I'm a perfect fit. I've played well over a hundred games."
"Wow, is there a happier profession in this world than this?"
"Maybe, aren't there things like 'Hotel Sleep Tester' or 'Food Critic'? You get to stay in luxury hotels to experience the life of the rich, eat delicious food, and get paid for it too. Those are pretty happy jobs, right?"
"But the barrier to entry for those jobs is not low at all. To be a food critic, you need to have a tongue with absolute taste and a sharp writing style.
It's nowhere near as simple as what P-Corp is asking for, okay?"
"Playing games all day and getting paid for it—isn't this the most wonderful job in the world? And it's P-Corp's games, too.
It's equivalent to playing the games before they're even released. Pokeni's games are famous for their high quality!
Especially regarding the storyline—if you become a test engineer, doesn't that mean you get to know the script content in advance?"
"Heh, that's only if you can actually get hired!"
In this era, game QA had not yet become a well-established and valued profession.
Although many publishers had high standards for game quality, most game development companies didn't feel it was necessary to create such a position, instead relying on methods like the one previously adopted by Pokeni, where internal staff would simply play through the game.
The earliest forms of QA probably appeared around this time, though they weren't called QA. Many companies created roles where one or two people would experience the game from a player's perspective, helping to clear up blind spots from the developer's point of view.
Simply put, as game creators, they might be overly familiar with the game and, having developed it themselves, naturally held some emotional attachment that could distort their judgment, always leaning toward giving their own games a favorable review.
But it's hard to say what the reality is, so in such situations, you need "newbies" to conduct testing.
Later on, as things developed and changed, the requirements for the professionalism and scope of these testers became increasingly high, eventually evolving into the professional QA roles seen 15 or 20 years later.
They don't just take on some of the player functions and offer feedback to the designers; they also have to control product quality and perform performance and functional testing. The threshold in terms of knowledge and professional standards is actually quite high, and it's not as easy as everyone imagines.
Now, Aoki Haruhi has singled this role out and professionalized it.
As soon as Pokeni's job posting came out, it immediately sparked a wave of enthusiastic applicants.
There are a huge number of people who play games; after all, this is Japan, the land of games.
The number of resumes submitted by applicants reached tens of thousands per week.
And Koichi Tengen was one of them.
Even the young HR, Akane Ayase, hadn't expected it to be this explosive.
This was probably the first time she had ever encountered such a heavy workload. Since becoming the HR for Pokeni, she had never been this busy.
After layers of screening, she finally selected 3 people out of over 10,000 applicants.
One of them was Koichi Tengen.
This guy wasn't just a gaming fan; he was also a graduate of the University of Tokyo's semiconductor program, had a deep understanding of programming, and perfectly met Haruhi Aoki's requirements.
On his very first day on the job, a happy smile beamed across Tengen's face. At that moment, he felt like the luckiest person in the world.
To have stood out among tens of thousands of competitors, to be working at his beloved Pokeni, and to be making money while playing games...
Could there be anything more blissful in this world?
But a month later, Koichi Tengen regretted it.
"Ah~ I've been run ragged lately."
Doing work you enjoy is a happy thing, but doing the same thing you enjoy over and over every day turned out not to be as happy as he had imagined.
In the final stages of The Witcher, there were a considerable number of bugs. Their QA team had to report about a hundred bugs a week.
Furthermore, once the programming stabilized, as QA, they had to re-examine everything to see if those bugs were still there.
It was like having lobster on the first day at the company—it was delicious, and he even offered quite a few suggestions for improvement.
Who would have known that from then on, he would be eating lobster every single day, and checking every single day to see if the chef had made any improvements.
"I used to really love playing games, but now, I'm sick of them," another QA said with a frown.
Hearing his words, Tengen also felt a bit nauseous.
"Yeah, who could have guessed? This job is so different from what I imagined, isn't it?"
"Still, thanks to you all, the progress on The Witcher is coming along quite well."
Just then, Aoki Haruhi, who happened to be passing by, joined in their conversation with a smile.
The group was taken by surprise and quickly stood up respectfully. "President."
"There's no such thing as an easy job in this world, is there?" Aoki laughed, offering them some comfort. "It's tough, but because of you, the quality of our product is excellent."
"The good news is—"
"The Witcher will be ready for launch next month."
"Eh? Really?"
The three QA guys' eyes lit up, and they immediately became excited.
"The Witcher is super fun. It's definitely going to be a huge hit!" Tengen said, clenching his fist.
The QA girl beside him rolled her eyes. "Heh, why aren't you feeling nauseous anymore?"
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