Written in front: First of all, let me take a precaution. This article is a bit headline-grabbing, and at least the first half is quite off track – although it will involve the causes and consequences of the cross-border mobile game by JJ, the director of "Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens", but before that We will spend a certain amount of time talking about his partner, Chairman, the developer of the "Infinity Blade" series, who has transformed from console games to mobile games, launched the much-talked-about "Endless Trilogy", and contacted JJ and brewed a new game. The process of traveling. Although it’s quite off topic, there are many Secrets of Chair’s development of “Infinity Blade”.
Going back to an ordinary weekend in January 2010, the co-founder of Chair and the producer of "Shadow Empire" entered the routine gaming time after watching football in the living room. Logically speaking, he should open the role-playing game that had just been released. "Mass Effect 2" – This is also one of his favorite game series of all time. To his surprise, he did not go to the Xbox 360 upstairs. Instead, he took out the classic tower defense game "Hold Your Ground" () produced by Microsoft and started playing happily. "I can't believe I decided to play mobile games so easily and gave up a high-quality console game at the same time," he lamented six years later. It was such a subtle choice that made him, as the head of a game company, sensitively aware of the rapidly expanding smartphone market and the growing number of mobile games in it, and an unprecedented idea emerged. Water surface – maybe it’s time to think about whether it is necessary to transform into mobile games.
Screenshot of the classic tower defense game "Hold Your Ground"
But after all, it is related to the future development direction of the entire company, and it cannot be changed immediately by a simple idea, not to mention that they were already in the early development work of "Shadow Empire 2" at that time. Chair's philosophy is that an ambitious and cautious game maker (whether responsible for design or development) can only focus on one game at a time. In other words, they do not perform multi-threaded work. In this way, even if you want to make a mobile game, it seems that you can only rank behind "Shadow Empire 2". After all, this 2.5D side-scrolling shooting game that combines the characteristics of "Castlevania" and "Metroid" was released in August 2009. After the Xbox 360 exclusive was launched, its performance in all aspects was quite satisfactory. Making a sequel was also a matter of course and what people wanted. However, we gave up this excellent project for a mobile game that was still in the emerging stage and the company itself had no development experience. No matter how you look at it, it is a bad deal, and the idea of transforming into mobile games has been temporarily shelved.
At almost the same time, while he was sitting on the sofa of his apartment in Utah, fighting enthusiastically in "Stand the Ground", Apple's R&D department in California was intensely developing 4, which would later rewrite the entire story. Apple's pinnacle product in the history of the smartphone market; and Chair's parent company Epic Games, which is located in North Carolina and owns the world's top game development engine, has also realized that the increasingly strong performance of mobile devices has had a negative impact on the development of countless PC and console-level masterpieces. Unreal Engine's desire, and quietly produced a version of Unreal Engine adapted to the iPad operating system.
The epoch-making project was officially released in June 2010.
Sometimes success is achieved by countless opportunities and coincidences, just like the obsession with "Stand the Ground", Apple's, and the Unreal Engine version developed by Epic for iOS. The three finally collided in July 2010. Sparks: I had some communication with an Apple executive at the time, and that person said that the company firmly believed that the new generation of Apple will allow game developers to do a lot, allowing players to not only play more basic games like "Stand the Line" , you can even experience stunning 3D masterpieces. Of course, the words were unfounded. Chair then got a 4 engineering test machine. After experiencing it, he immediately recognized this statement. At the same time, he also received a proposal from Apple that later changed their fate: if Chair could do something for 4 A new game, then it will be unveiled as a showcase game at Apple’s new product launch in September!
This tempting proposal was like the last straw, putting the mobile game plan that had been hanging in Chair's mind for several months into reality. They resolutely terminated "Shadow Empire 2" that had been in development for a while and put this game away. A project was permanently postponed, and I turned around and devoted myself to a new platform to complete a work that I had never dabbled in before. The only problem in front of me was: how to develop a refreshing game in 5 weeks. game?
and his team first raised a seemingly simple but far-reaching question: "What features are unique to mobile games and cannot be achieved by games on other platforms?" It was based on this way of thinking that the popular game was finally born. The short-lived "Infinity Blade" series, and the secret of its success is nothing more than that they did the right thing at the right time – at the critical moment when mobile games urgently need to build a reputation, they used the profound skills of Unreal Engine to create games for iPad and mobile games. A satisfactory answer sheet was produced, but of course this is all a story later.
In short, the Chair finally concluded that the biggest feature of touch-screen devices demonstrated through the iPad is that clicking and sliding the screen are its main interaction methods, and the mobile games they are going to make should also start here. After some research, the production team found that there seemed to be no truly cool sword fighting game on the existing platforms. In fact, there are also action games on the console platform that use long swords as weapons, but in terms of operation, the player presses buttons to trigger the character to perform movements that look like sword dancing, which does not allow you to experience the immersive feeling of fencing. However, the emergence of iOS gesture operation has made a true sword fighting game possible. In addition, they are also tasked with showing people the excellent image shaping capabilities of Unreal Engine, owned by their old club Epic. Although Epic has adapted the Unreal Engine according to the iOS operating system, due to limitations of hardware devices, the image processing capabilities of the Unreal Engine for mobile platforms are obviously far inferior to those of the console version. In order to present the most ideal picture effect, developers The team decided that the sword fighting in the game could only be limited to two characters (the player and the behemoth). If there were more, it would be unbearable.
More than 4 weeks later, the co-founder of Chair made the most appropriate decision at the best time by showing the world the "Infinity Blade" that looked quite amazing at the time at the 2010 Apple autumn new product launch conference. Choice, Infinity Blade was predictably a success. In September 2013, "Infinity Blade 3" was officially released. After successfully completing Apple's new product launch conference/Epic Unreal Engine graphics technology demonstration game, and its own mission of transforming into mobile games, the "Infinity Blade" series came to an end. , Chair is about to embark on a new journey, yes, that is a collaboration with JJ, the director and screenwriter of "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens".
The first generation of "Infinity Blade" at the Apple press conference
Speaking of JJ, Xiao Shaobai heard about it for the first time last year when the cooperation project between him and Chair was just announced (forgive me for watching movies and always pay attention to the actors and forget about the director). At that time, I casually looked through his resume. Shocked: Director and screenwriter of the American drama "Lost" series, director, screenwriter, and visual effects of "Mission: Impossible 3", producer of "Mission: Impossible 4" and "Mission: Impossible 5: The Unknown Country", 2009 "Star Trek" " and the director of "Star Trek Into Darkness" in 2013, the director and screenwriter of "Super 8", as well as the screenwriter and director of "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens", which is currently in theaters and has broken box office records. I believe that most people even if not I know JJ’s name and have definitely experienced his works. Because they are both Jewish, JJ is regarded as Spielberg's successor. Although some public opinion thinks that his works are too commercial, it must be admitted that being able to commercialize them so that everyone rushes to buy them is definitely a success. Such ability, not to mention that JJ has indeed shown extraordinary talent in movies. Of course, if we insist on comparing him with directors who take the purely artistic route, we can only say that they are not on the same track.
What’s interesting is that it seems that movie directors all have an implicit desire to cross-border games. For example, John Woo once launched the mobile game “Blood Angel” which clearly promoted his violent aesthetic style; “Pacific Rim” director Guillermo Del ·Toro had previously worked with Hideo Kojima on the new "Silent Hill" project. Of course, the relationship between Kojima and Coke Girl turned sour later, and the project was dropped; in addition, "The Grudge" director Shimizu Takashi joined the production of "Clock Tower" Hiroyuki Kono's new horror game "Devil May Cry" (which was shamefully delayed). JJ, who is a director, screenwriter, and producer, is no exception. In fact, he secretly worked on a game project with Valve as early as 2013, but unfortunately it failed in the end, so neither party has ever been on a formal occasion. Mention this failed collaboration.
It’s a shame that Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima’s “New Silent Hill” project has been shelved
And how did JJ get connected with Chair, the developer of "Infinity Blade"? It turned out that Apple was actually pulling the strings: Because of "Infinity Blade", Chair had a very close cooperative relationship with Apple, so the latter quietly introduced the famous film production company Bad Robot to the former, which was the company JJ founded. . The two managers with completely different work backgrounds had a great conversation at their first meeting, and there was a feeling that a hero cherishes a hero and regrets meeting each other. On the one hand, JJ had already planned to expand his career in the entertainment field by entering games. The plan of the territory, the stunning debut of "Infinity Blade" that year also gave him a lot of shock; on the other hand, for Chair, they have long been fascinated by JJ's series of outstanding film works, hoping Being able to use his meticulous observation and shaping of people and the world in movies to bring a work that is more shocking than ordinary games is like falling asleep and encountering a pillow. Apple has achieved this intentionally or unintentionally. A partnership made in heaven.
JJ and the person in charge of Chair
Before "" was officially released in mid-November last year, Chairman and JJ had actually been secretly developing the game for more than a year. In terms of division of labor, Chair's game team is undoubtedly responsible for the technical development work and will continue to use their unique Unreal Engine to bring exciting and bold visual presentation to the game; while JJ will mainly use his outstanding skills as a director. The narrative ability and world-building talent help the game create a fascinating world view setting, and make the characters full of character tension, accurately and effectively grabbing people's attention.
Obviously both parties are quite satisfied with this cooperation. The person in charge of Chair praised JJ as a smart and talented gamer, and it was very easy and pleasant to work with him; on the other hand, JJ also showed considerable sincerity to Chair's game team, even though During the intensive filming of "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens," they were still invited to the set to discuss various issues in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." In short, there are various signs that JJ is not just a name. He does have the ambition to integrate the moving essence of Hollywood movies into game production, rather than treating games as a promotional tool like many Hollywood blockbusters-the copyright owner sells them. For an IP, the game developer changes its skin and hurriedly puts it on the shelves as a gimmick marketing model. Of course, it is this serious attitude that makes this cooperative game even more exciting.
As for "", it is a unique game that combines action strategy, world building and RPG character development. It is set in the dangerous and dangerous world of espionage. Considering that although the "Infinity Blade" series is classic, many Android players have passed it by because of its exclusiveness on iOS. In order to allow more players to experience the unique game "Infinity Blade", Chair finally decided to The game is launching on PC, mobile phones and mobile tablet devices, and this time there should be Android players.
In fact, it is not just a coincidence that movie directors have shown more and more interest in games in recent years. The qualitative leap of the game industry from hardware to content is the basis for this fact. Players are gradually becoming more and more interested in games. The taste of "tricky" has prompted game developers to continuously optimize their works in the fierce competition in order to win a place. Therefore, increasingly exquisite high-definition graphics, CG trailers comparable to movies, impressive world view settings, and The ups and downs of the plot all point to the development trend of "filmization". To a certain extent, all of this is a reserved place for film directors to prepare for crossover. They have demonstrated the ability to strategize in all aspects when making a movie – from selecting a good enough script to be exciting enough, to guiding the actors on the set, giving guidance on photography, and post-production refinement, editing, and embedding to complement each other. background music, and even promotion after everything is completed.
If directors who can be called all-rounders can agree with the concept of the game team and integrate all their efforts into the production process of the game, they will undoubtedly be a big help. Regarding this, the cooperation and division of labor between JJ and Chair in "" have been mentioned above It's very clear. In addition, "Clock Tower" producer Kono Kazusan originally invited "The Grudge" director Shimizu Takashi when he created the "Scissors Plan" for "Devil May Cry", and he roughly expressed this meaning: "Director Shimizu Takashi I am mainly responsible for grasping the general direction and basic settings of the game. Specifically, by understanding my inner vision of the game world and settings, the director will give valuable feedback (such as "What should the life experience of that monster be like?" , "Which mysterious characters should appear" or "What plot should be developed in this story"), so that the world of the game continues to grow. Director Shimizu Takashi and I may be in different fields, but there is no doubt that we Both have a deep understanding of the world of horror, so I got a lot of solid input from him.”
Then again, so far, "" is indeed exciting. Its behind-the-scenes team and its story background are quite attractive. Of course, all this still needs to wait until the game opens for beta testing or even goes on the shelves. But if If JJ can start a good sign through cooperation with Chair, we may be able to experience more true "film and game combination" game works in the future, wait and see!