May 10, 1993.
Tokyo.
Pokeni Co., Ltd.
In a small meeting room that could barely hold ten people, it was packed with employees from Pokeni Company.
Today was a very special day for Pokeni Company.
Because the producer, Shinji Mikami, was going to demonstrate the upcoming new game in the meeting room—
"The Witcher"
Even employees who were not on this project were full of curiosity about this game.
Pokeni Company was not large, and everyone usually worked together. Although they had seen this game many times, this was the first time it was being presented so systematically.
Shinji Mikami had sweaty palms.
He had never been as nervous as he was today.
After all, "The Witcher" was the first game he was launching as a producer, which could be said to be very significant in his life.
The internal company demonstration was an idea proposed by the president, Aoki Haruhi.
One reason was to give the company's employees a learning opportunity; even if it was just observing and nitpicking, perhaps some design problems could be discovered during the demonstration.
This was a very rare test; after all, everyone was in the game industry, had experience, and thought from a completely different perspective than players, allowing them to view the game itself from a more professional standpoint.
Of course, even if design flaws were discovered at this stage, it was impossible to change them unless they were particularly major vulnerabilities that required a complete overhaul.
Another reason was that it served as a source of internal honor, allowing the project team members to showcase their achievements to others.
If done well, it would undoubtedly be a strong confidence boost.
If done poorly...
Aoki Haruhi could only hope they would learn from their mistakes.
In his previous life, there was such a tradition within NetEase; once a game reached a certain stage of development, internal company personnel could experience it, and this test was called an internal company test.
Many very valuable opinions and suggestions would be collected.
If the internal company test did not pass, then the project would most likely be cancelled.
It would never even reach the PR test stage (small-scale release test).
Aoki Haruhi could handle situations that wouldn't cause problems during internal tests, unless Pokeni Company's employees were already capable of creating works that transcended the era by 30 years.
Otherwise, with his knowledge of the future and professionalism, the possibility of a failure did not exist.
Of course, "famous academy" was an exception.
...
In the small meeting room, only Aoki Haruhi was sitting on a chair.
It was mainly because it was truly too small, there was simply no extra space, and to make it convenient for other employees of the company to come and watch, except for necessary equipment like game consoles and televisions, the tables and chairs in the meeting room had been cleared out.
Even so, some of the people squeezed into the corners couldn't see.
So the people in the front were basically sitting on the floor, and those in the back were standing against the wall.
Aoki Haruhi was given a chair because of his status as president, which looked particularly strange, but everyone was focused, and no one cared about this point.
Now there was no good viewing equipment, like large screens or projectors that could connect to game consoles; if they really wanted to make sure everyone could see clearly, they would have to use filming equipment to do a live broadcast like a television station.
The problem was that Pokeni Company was a game company, and there was no need to do such things.
Everyone just had to make do and experience what a "game demo" was.
...
The television was not large, only 32 inches, but it was already the largest television of this era.
This was because Pokeni Company was a game company, and for the sake of daily testing and demonstrations, they bought ones much larger than ordinary household televisions.
This thing was like a big box, and Aoki Haruhi even missed the LCD TVs from his previous life.
However, the momentum of LCD material development was currently very rapid, and it was possible that in a few years, he might be able to see them.
He didn't know if his arrival would trigger the so-called butterfly effect.
At least in the game industry, Aoki Haruhi had given it a push, like "Diablo" which was released a few years early.
The same went for galgames.
...
After organizing the equipment, Shinji Mikami held the game controller, ready to demonstrate to everyone.
Starting the game, the television screen went black.
Then the Pokeni Company logo appeared.
Followed by the words "The Witcher".
Selecting a new game from the initial menu meant it had officially started.
"New Era Year 206, the battle between humans and the Blood Clan has reached a white-hot stage..."
"Wow."
Everyone let out a low exclamation.
They wanted to see what the opening of this legendary big production was like. It was rumored that "The Witcher" was particularly impressive in terms of action, a lot of hard work had been put into it, and the president had even specially asked the programming team to write a support architecture for the new actions.
Zzz...
Just then.
A mosaic pattern appeared on the TV, and the game process froze.
The legendary screen glitch.
"Eh?!"
Everyone was dumbfounded; no one had expected the game to glitch at such a critical moment!
Aoki Haruhi's eyes widened slightly, thinking that Shinji Mikami's luck was truly something.
Shinji Mikami's brow furrowed tightly.
Who could have imagined encountering such a problem during an internal company demonstration.
He hurriedly cast a look of help toward Akanishi Ken, the head of the programming department.
Akanishi Ken immediately became nervous.
He coughed and stood up, looking around, "Everyone, don't worry, the game hasn't been officially released yet, and the yield rate isn't actually 100%, let's swap the cartridge and try again."
...
After replacing the cartridge, "The Witcher" finally ran smoothly.
Akanishi Ken finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Out of the corner of his eye, the president was quite calm.
As expected of the president, one really couldn't hold this position without some courage and a big heart.
Aoki Haruhi indicated that these were all minor situations; in his previous life, when Microsoft demonstrated operating systems in public, the number of blue screens was not small either.
Stay calm, stay calm.
This was only an internal company demonstration.
"However, Akanishi-san, remember to go back and re-examine it later to see what caused it. The yield rate cannot be 100%, but it must be controlled as much as possible. If players receive such a cartridge, their mood will be terrible."
"Okay, President."
Akanishi Ken silently broke out in a cold sweat.
...
This demonstration went much smoother; Shinji Mikami controlled the female protagonist and began hacking and slashing, with Blood Clan of various shapes attacking in twos and threes.
The female protagonist held two sci-fi guns in her hands, in a semi-crouched posture, and her entire walking and attacking movements were very beautiful.
When she ran, to accommodate the visual experience from a top-down perspective, the art team specially added a long red scarf tied around her neck, extending backward.
Coupled with the female protagonist's long swallow-tail coat hem, it was truly heroic when she fired.
Shinji Mikami performed a combo directly.
Instant dash, thrust, shoot, roll...
Pop-pop-pop-pop...
The monsters that were hit flashed with gold outlines all over their bodies and then burst apart one after another.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa..."
Warm applause rang out from the front row, and colleagues from other departments of the company were stunned.
This set of actions was incredible; even side-scrolling fighting games couldn't reach this level, right?
"How is this done?"
The programmer for "Diablo" asked.
"The Witcher" had not just taken a step forward in terms of hit feel and action fluidity; it was clearly based on "Diablo", but now it was like two different games.
"Is it using that action detection set from fighting games?"
The judgment mechanism of fighting games was relatively very mature, using attack boxes and hit boxes to determine if it was a successful hit, and the damage caused by hitting different parts was also different.
The programmer for "The Witcher" shook his head, "No, this is done through range detection, it's actually not as precise as fighting games."
Are you kidding?
Fighting games only need to make a background, and all game performance is used to support combat.
If we did that for this game, the memory overhead would be too large.
It would be impossible to fit so many monsters and levels, so it was impossible to use such precise hit detection.
"However, one thing is the same as fighting games: the damage coefficient in this game has bonuses for different parts."
"Eh? Then how is it determined?"
"Hehe, guess?"
The programmers' expressions changed.
Because they realized a terrifying fact—
There was a Z-axis in "The Witcher".
Because only in this way could the torso and head be distinguished.
Ordinary 2D flat games only need X and Y axes.
That is to say, although "The Witcher" was a 2D game in appearance, in the underlying logic of the program, it was already a 3D game.
What the hell is this?
A 2.5D game?
"If I had to say, it's 3D converted to 2D," Akanishi Ken explained, "You guys observe carefully; in the game, we made a knock-up effect. When the monster is knocked up, it offsets towards the positive Y-axis from a 2D plane perspective, but if there is a Z-axis, then it should actually fly towards the Z-axis."
"We made a projection to make it look like a 3D piece standing on a 2D chessboard."
"Nani?!"
Akanishi Ken curled his lips.
Do you guys think this is my credit?
This was all provided by the president, heaven knows how his brain grew to be able to think of such a complex method.
It was simply terrifying.
In short, under Aoki Haruhi's guidance, the team of "The Witcher" created an incredible product, at least unique and far ahead among 2D action games.
Aoki Haruhi crossed his arms, the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
First-class action feedback.
There would be a little distortion, but it wasn't a big problem.
After iterating on the game for a few more versions, it would probably be possible to make action games quite well.
Just this hit feel alone, top game manufacturers around the world would have to spend several years catching up.
"Can't see, can't see..." The colleagues standing in the back became a bit anxious.
After the first wave of monsters was cleared, Shinji Mikami continued to explore forward.
Just then, a line of bats jumped out from an ancient tree in the middle.
Everyone was startled.
Shinji Mikami himself was also startled.
As if asking—
Did I even design this?
But just as his line of sight was distracted by that line of bats, a Blood Clan suddenly rushed out from the corner, fiercely pouncing over.
Pop~
Shinji Mikami's health bar dropped by more than half immediately.
But before he could react, a gunshot suddenly appeared in the shadows.
The muzzle flashed, and the light pierced the protagonist's body.
Only a scream was heard from the TV, and the female protagonist knelt on the ground clutching her chest.
The screen turned black and white, and a large line of "Game Over" appeared.
Shinji Mikami's face was pale, as if he couldn't believe this was the game he designed.
"Eh?"
Everyone let out another low exclamation.
"What just happened?"
"It seems like Shinji Mikami got killed by a monster, right?"
"Eh? Really? Is the game's numerical value this terrifying?"
"You know it just by looking at him holding the gun; hitting monsters also drains health instantly, it feels similar to modern warfare."
This could also be considered one of Shinji Mikami's creative numerical designs—
To let players experience the thrill of adrenaline surging, the game had been greatly strengthened in terms of attack power.
That is to say, although this game was an ARPG, the experience would lean more towards a shooting game.
The benefits were obvious: every hit had considerable satisfaction, and one could kill a large group of monsters instantly.
At the same time, the requirements for the player's operation became higher.
If one didn't dodge and heal in time, it was possible to be killed instantly by monsters.
Shinji Mikami was ashamed, indicating that today's demonstration was really too much of a failure.
If he had known, he should have designed the values to be simpler.
However, this situation was also within expectations, and Shinji Mikami and his team had an ace up their sleeve.
So he controlled the joystick and quickly pressed Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, A, B.
Infinite health.
It was usually for QA to run tests, otherwise if they encountered powerful monsters and couldn't handle the operation themselves, it was easy to die.
This was the legendary "game cheat code".
Sometimes developers used it for internal testing, but it was discovered by players after being released, becoming an Easter egg.
However, this also added a lot of fun to the game.
...
Shinji Mikami finished the demonstration, showing off the creative "action combo" part of the game, as well as some monsters and bosses. Although the process was full of twists and turns, it could be considered a completed mission.
Action combos were a very unique creation in "The Witcher".
A controller had 6 buttons, and players could choose to freely combine 6 skills, each of which had action transitions.
For example, an uppercut, followed by a horizontal slash in the air, then a jump slash, and after landing, follow up with a ground-splitting slash...
This was a very cool set of actions; although each was an independent skill, connecting them created a miraculous chemical reaction.
Don't underestimate this design, because it annoyed the art students to no end.
Because players wouldn't necessarily use skills in this order, it was very likely to become an uppercut followed by a ground-splitting slash, and at this time, it was very easy for the player to flicker in the air.
The action would be distorted.
Aoki Haruhi actually had a way to solve this problem, but he felt that the timing was not yet mature, and it would be better to wait for software and hardware to develop further in the future.
In the end, everyone let it be; frame drops were frame drops, and if it couldn't be linked, it couldn't be linked. After all, the Butcher in "Diablo" often had glitchy hands, so why would we care about this?
...
Pop-pop-pop...
Warm applause rang out in the meeting room, and colleagues expressed that "The Witcher" was truly wonderfully made.
"I'm convinced, completely convinced. Is Producer Shinji Mikami too strong?"
In just over a year, being able to achieve this level, Shinji Mikami could already be considered a top-tier producer in the country.
"This is already the pinnacle of action games, right?"
"When 'The Witcher' comes out, I don't know how the outside world will evaluate it; I think the Platinum Hall of Fame of Famitsu has already been booked."
"Mm-hmm, I am looking forward to the players' reactions."
"Shouldn't be sent razor blades this time, right?"
"Hahahaha, hard to say. The razor blades have nothing to do with Shinji Mikami's demonstration just now; it mainly depends on Urobuchi."
...
Hearing their words, Gen Urobuchi frowned deeply nearby.
Aoki Haruhi, however, was a troll the whole time, laughing very happily.
The most important thing was—
The effect of "The Witcher" was very good.
Next was waiting for the market's verification.
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