《SNG trial score 9.9! Call it a "work of art"! 》
"Industry alliance triggers widespread discussion in the industry, Aurora Games praises Golden Wind's GDC speech"
《SLGamers forum player average score is 9.8! Another great creation from GW!》
"Continuing the popularity of Battlefield, Golden Wind's new game Dark Souls has set off a fire in the player market!"
"Yunwei has not yet made any comments on Golden Wind's invitation to be the main guest, and CEO Kodick refused to be interviewed."
《……》
The size of the trial version is not very large.
Although the difficulty is indeed not low, and the first addition of the energy bar has caused considerable trouble to players who have already become accustomed to Sekiro.
But after all, the size of the demo was there, so the next day, reviews of the "Dark Souls" demo were everywhere.
The overall score is as high as 9.8.
Although this time, Dark Souls does not have the kind of game genre-breaking performance that "Sekiro" had.
But compared to Sekiro, Dark Souls is superior in terms of both artistic and technical aspects of the game.
The "industrial alliance" praised by the media allows the Golden Engine and Phoenix to combine their strengths and weaknesses to create the world's top visual performance.
In addition, there is Gu Sheng’s personal direction and the dedicated collaboration of the National Symphony Orchestra.
It makes this work, which is already full of obscure and profound beauty, reach the level of a work of art.
Such performance not only attracted the attention of the media, but also attracted the attention of many colleagues in the industry.
"Impressive work, very stunning, I am looking forward to its official release..."
The next day, GDC continued in full swing.
During lunch, Maher, the chief art director of Poland's Aurora Games, took the initiative to contact Golden Wind.
"Mr. Maher is overrated,"
Hearing this, Shen Miaomiao smiled politely:
"We are also making progress bit by bit through trial and error, and we still need to continue to learn from international giants like yours."
Because Gu Sheng came to GDC this time, in addition to being the main guest and having to speak on stage, he also had to serve as the host of the entire five-day offline exchange meeting of GDC.
Therefore, during the lunch and dinner sessions, he went with the organizers and the conference project team, and did not participate in the exchanges between the manufacturers.
The task of conducting friendly exchanges with the manufacturers naturally fell on Shen Miaomiao.
But fortunately!
Today's Shen Miaomiao is no longer the mascot who knew nothing about the gaming industry and only knew how to stand next to Gu Sheng and pretend to be a mute when she first participated in the gaming exchange festival hosted by Yiyou.
After so many years, she has been exposed to the world and although she still doesn't have as thorough an understanding of the gaming industry as Gu Sheng, she is no longer a complete novice who knows nothing about it.
What's more, the other party is an internationally renowned company like Aurora Games.
As a game manufacturer in Eastern Europe, Aurora Games has been working diligently in the game industry, and has its own representative works from PC to mobile platforms to somatosensory platforms.
Although its size is not as large as that of CloudWare, which dominates the gaming industry in the Western Hemisphere, it is still comparable to Konami.
In fact, to some extent, Aurora Games is a more powerful manufacturer than Konami.
As we all know, Konami's huge size does not only come from the game industry.
As a "comprehensive game manufacturer" like Yunwei, Konami actually has many economic pillars.
Not to mention anything else, the Steel Pellet project alone can bring Konami huge revenue every year.
In comparison, Aurora Games is much purer.
Although they are also involved in related peripheral industries, the overall proportion is very low and cannot be regarded as a pillar revenue project.
As for the "pillar economy" of the level of small steel balls, it is even more out of the question.
That is to say!
The reason why Aurora Games has grown to such a large scale today is almost purely due to its deep cultivation and accumulation in the gaming industry over the past 28 years since the studio was first established.
A manufacturer obsessed with games can be comparable to Konami, a company with multiple economic pillars.
This is enough to show the purity and power of Aurora Games.
Thank God.
Shen Miaomiao sincerely thanked Mr. Gu for the popular science he gave her on a daily basis, which allowed her to have a certain understanding of this manufacturer that she had not had much dealings with before, so that she would not be like a little fool who only knew "Huh?"
"...No, no, we are unworthy of it,"
After hearing Shen Miaomiao's politeness, Aurora Director Maher waved his hands repeatedly:
"Your company's creativity and pioneering ability in the gaming industry are recognized by the industry,"
"Speaking of which, many of our games have borrowed Mr. Sam's ideas to some extent."
"Even when we are studying, we learn from each other and make progress together,"
"As Sam mentioned in his speech yesterday—"
"Industry exchanges and integration, sharing market opportunities, and seeking cooperative development,"
"This is the mainstream of the future coordinated development of the gaming industry."
Speaking of which!
Maher seemed to have another meaning when he said sarcastically:
"Industry blockades are not advisable, and facts have proven that a single-minded blockade will lead to unprecedented failure."
Why--!
Shen Miaomiao nodded repeatedly!
This comrade has a very high level of ideological awareness!
The boy can talk!
Glancing at Maher approvingly, Shen Miaomiao smiled:
"Aurora Games is indeed a leader in the industry. With the insightful opinions of Mr. Maher, I believe it will become even stronger in the future."
Although at this point, Shen Miaomiao was very clear that Maher had come to them for a purpose.
But you agree with me and support me at this time.
Then at this moment, you are my friend.
Besides, that's how business works.
The world is bustling with people seeking profit, and the world is bustling with people seeking profit.
Only two parties with a profitable relationship can sit together.
Although people say there are no eternal friends, only eternal interests.
But now, what Golden Wind needs is friends based on a community of interests.
After all, ever since they formed an alliance with Phoenix, the clarion call for a counterattack against Yunwei, Konami, and even Vivendi Group has been sounded.
Only by cooperating with more well-known and influential international manufacturers can we occupy a greater advantageous position in future international competition.
"Thank you for your good words,"
Upon hearing this, Maher laughed loudly, thanked Shen Miaomiao repeatedly, and then changed the subject:
"Having said that, this time your company's cooperation with Phoenix has indeed given the gaming industry a surprise,"
"Even from our professional perspective, the reason why Dark Souls has such amazing expressiveness is that,"
“It is inseparable from the support of the engine.”
"Indeed," Shen Miaomiao nodded in affirmation: "To some extent, we have learned from Phoenix and achieved the artistic style of this game, or in other words..."
Speaking of which!
Shen Miaomiao paused.
After organizing the language in my mind, I said something else:
“To some extent, it can now create works of various art styles, further enhancing the players’ sense of immersion,”
"From the perspective of the somatosensory cabin, a stronger sense of immersion will definitely make the game more competitive in the market,"
"What do you say, Mr. Maher?"
Hearing this.
Maher's eyes lit up involuntarily.
He and Shen Miaomiao exchanged a glance, and both understood each other, as if everything was self-evident.
That’s right!
Just as Shen Miaomiao thought, Maher came to them Golden Wind not just to express praise and admiration!
The success of Battlefield made people realize the potential of the Golden Engine.
And then the emergence of "Dark Soul" made people marvel at the quality of the game presented by the combination of the Golden Engine and Phoenix.
So, under such circumstances, Aurora Games naturally set its sights on the Golden Engine.
Indeed.
As one of the world's largest companies, Aurora Games has its own self-developed engine.
But now, with the rapid progress of the motion-sensing gaming industry, their self-developed engines are more or less struggling to achieve gaming industry performance.
After all, if the technical strength of the "self-developed engine" does not take a different approach, it will be difficult to catch up with the mainstream "commercial engines" on the market.
Even Golden Wind, which has been growing extremely strong in recent years and has never lacked money for its projects, has to admit this.
Was the development of the Golden Engine a big deal?
A cost of $ 120 million , a team of 2,000 people, and the joint efforts of most of the Chinese gaming community in research and development.
What does the final result look like?
If Sam hadn't taken a different approach and focused on making a breakthrough in the physical destruction effect.
Then there is no doubt that this grandly produced engine is definitely not comparable to the Dream Engine.
Even Gu Sheng himself had to admit that even if the Golden Engine wanted to catch up with the current Fantasy Dream 5, it would still have several years to go.
But if they really catch up with Fantasy 5 one day, Fantasy may have already entered the next engine era.
And that's it!
This makes the combination of Golden Wind and Phoenix seem even more powerful.
Obviously.
Golden Wind also knows its own weaknesses and knows that if it focuses on the independent research and development of the golden engine, it will not be able to compete with Fantasy Dream 5.
It remains unknown whether the Golden Engine can meet their increasingly high gaming technology requirements in a timely manner.
then!
They decided to overtake on the curve!
Doesn’t it take time to develop skills?
Then I will exchange money for time!
Go directly to the path of industrial integration, and use the experience accumulated by others over a lot of time to make up for my current shortcomings!
This means that today's Golden Engine is no longer a simple engine, but has become a platform!
It is like a huge puzzle base, constantly filling and perfecting itself with ready-made pieces!
It is actually difficult for Maher to define what kind of engine the Golden Engine is.
Today's engines can be roughly divided into three categories: free engines, commercial engines, and self-developed engines.
Is it a free engine?
Obviously not.
Although it was originally claimed to be jointly developed by the entire Chinese gaming industry.
But in fact, all the R&D expenses from the beginning to the end were paid by Golden Wind, so Golden Wind naturally enjoys all its copyrights and provides it to other Chinese manufacturers for a fee.
However, in terms of price, manufacturers who have participated in research and development enjoy preferential policies.
So is it a business engine?
It doesn't seem to be the case.
Because in theory, commercial engine R&D companies usually do not involve the development of game projects.
Moreover, the commercial engine has a great feature - in addition to being used in the gaming industry, it is also provided to industries such as architecture, design, film and television.
But the Golden Engine only serves the gaming industry, and all upgrades are for the sake of gaming performance.
But in this case, it seems to be a self-developed engine?
It's weird, but it's not!
Because self-developed engines are usually tools produced and sold by a certain manufacturer.
Developed, upgraded and used by game manufacturers themselves.
It is not open to the public at all, and no usage fees will be charged for sales.
so!
What type of engine tool is Golden Engine?
Maher didn't know.
If he had to give a definition, he could only say that the Golden Engine is a "self-developed commercial engine master that only serves the gaming industry independently"!
That’s right!
It can't even be narrowly defined as an "engine"!
It is a comprehensive "master version"!
Because of the industrial integration with Phoenix, its nature has changed!
God knows how huge Golden Wind's ambition is!
This is an unprecedented business development model in the engine industry!
This model also allowed Aurora Games to smell opportunities for new development.
Although it is difficult for them to define the business development model of Golden Engine.
But there is no doubt that its potential is absolutely unprecedented.
This thing is a patchwork.
God knows how terrifying the ultimate golden engine would be if one day they were allowed to sew up the entire engine industry.
so.
They want to strike first.
After all, there are ready-made examples right in front of us!
Can you imagine how happy those manufacturers who decided to participate in the research and development of the Golden Engine at the beginning of the project are now?
What they are enjoying now is the service of "paying an internal base price close to that of a third-rate engine while enjoying the dual technical support of the Gold Engine and Phoenix Engine"!
What does this equate to?
This is equivalent to spending the money for a single room in a guesthouse, but staying in a five-star presidential suite!
The reason why they have this treatment now is only because when the developer was building the guesthouse, they went to the construction site to help!
Although opportunities never come again.
Today, Golden Wind has passed its most difficult time, and in the future it will definitely not open up such preferential policies that only meritorious veteran manufacturers can enjoy to more manufacturers.
But for Aurora Games, if I can't enjoy a third-rate price, you can at least let me enjoy a second-rate price!
Although I am not helping you in times of need.
But icing on the cake is still a flower.
"Industry alliances improve market competitiveness,"
Maher nodded repeatedly:
"In fact, that's what I wanted to say."
Hearing this.
Shen Miaomiao raised her hand and motioned for Maher to continue.
Maher sorted out his thoughts and said:
"The collaboration between your company and Phoenix can be said to have opened up a new path for the collaborative development of the gaming industry,"
"And at this year's GDC, your company's Dark Souls is the best demonstration of the results of collaborative development,"
"You should have seen that just yesterday, our official Twitter account, including the CEO's personal Twitter account, expressed absolute affirmation and support for the new ideas, new models, and new prospects proposed by your company,"
"This is not only our attitude, but also our expectation for the practice of a new model of industrial joint development..."
Listening to Maher's words, Shen Miaomiao couldn't help but sigh in her heart, people are right -
When you are weak, there are the most bad people around you; when you become famous, there are good people around you.
Looking back to the past, when they were still weak, ridicule, contempt, mockery and doubt were everywhere.
Look at the present.
The phrase "cooperation and coordinated development" attracted support and cooperation requests from internationally renowned first-tier manufacturers in less than 24 hours.
Shen Miaomiao signaled Chu Qingzhou beside her to write down the following content, because she was beginning to feel a little confused.
Maher saw that Shen Miaomiao did not have much knowledge of the industry's professional knowledge, so he tried to use more popular terms to explain the need for this cooperation.
Simply put, Aurora Games wants to participate in the upgrade and construction of the Golden Engine, just like Phoenix, and add new colors to the puzzle of the Golden Engine.
Everyone knows.
A game engine, as a software framework that assists in the design and development of electronic games, is a tool that includes multiple subsystems such as graphics rendering, physics simulation, sound, input, artificial intelligence, etc.
It can help developers create game scenes, characters, animations, sound effects, etc., thereby realizing the functions and effects of the game.
Generally speaking, an engine usually includes multiple components such as "rendering engine", "physics engine", "sound engine", "input engine", "output engine", "augmented reality", "artificial intelligence engine", and "network interconnection framework".
Maher first took out the two major components: the "physics engine" and the "artificial intelligence engine".
One of these two components is responsible for simulating physical effects, including gravity, collision, friction, etc.; the other is responsible for the AI ​​in the game, including AI behavior, decision-making, feedback, etc.
There is no need for much discussion or explanation on these two items.
Because in these two aspects, Golden Wind has reached the first-class level, and can even be called unique in the world.
And with the addition of Phoenix, there is no need to elaborate on the "rendering engine" that is mainly responsible for rendering game scenes, including graphics rendering, lighting, shadows, special effects and other visual effects.
In terms of visual effects presentation and image quality rendering, Phoenix ranks second, and no one dares to claim to be first.
As a result, there are only five main components left: "Sound Engine", "Augmented Reality", "Network Interconnect Framework", "Output Engine" and "Output Engine".
"And among these,"
Maher said:
"The sound engine is the biggest advantage of our self-developed engine."
Sound, as an extremely easily overlooked component of the game process, often does not seem to be that noticeable.
But in fact, it is the most indispensable part of a complete game.
After all, as a form of virtual reality, the most intuitive form of gaming is “seeing” and “hearing”.
As for the "smell", "taste" and "touch" that developed with the advent of the somatosensory cabin, they are ranked after hearing and seeing.
but.
Because people's sense of "listening" is not particularly keen, or the requirements are generally not that high.
Therefore, the sound engine has always been a rather unimportant part of various game engines.
No one pays attention to it, and no one studies it.
But Aurora Games is different——
They are the first company to release a music game in the motion sensing cabin game.
Similar to the "Beat Saber" in Gu Sheng's previous life.
The simple setting of cutting blocks according to the rhythm, supplemented by 3D surround sound music effects, caused quite a sensation when it was released. Its sales crushed a number of other games such as gun, car and ball, and it won the TIGA (International Game Awards) Game of the Year. It is also the only music game to have won the TIGA Game of the Year award to date.
As a result, Aurora Games never looked back on its research on sound engines.
Even now, Aurora Games is no longer obsessed with music games, but has turned to RPG, FPS and sports games.
But in terms of the presentation of game sound effects, it still maintains a unique level.
“Games cannot do without the assistance of sound”
Maher said:
"Especially in motion sensing games, the more subtle the sound, the more it can enhance the player's gaming experience,"
"In this regard, I think our experience can provide strong support for the further enrichment of the Golden Engine."
Um……
Hearing this.
Shen Miaomiao's little brain started working.
According to Maher, for this cooperation, they hope to adopt the cooperation model that Golden Wind used with many Chinese manufacturers in the early days of the Golden Engine - the mercenary model - Golden Wind will hire Aurora Games' self-developed engine team to upgrade the engine's technology and give Aurora Games a relatively reasonable engine licensing price.
Very reasonable.
Fairness, justice and mutual benefit.
You share your technology with me, and I will give you preferential authorization.
It sounds good.
But the problem is——
Sound upgrade?
Wow.
Shen Miaomiao grinned in her heart.
That sounds like a really useless improvement.
Although Maher talked a lot of nonsense, based on her gaming experience, this thing seemed unimportant.
Unless the boss of a manufacturer is running out of money.
Otherwise, this kind of improvement is really useless, or it is just a tiny improvement and is really unnecessary.
So!
Who feels uncomfortable holding the burning money?
Hi, hi, hi! Me!
Shen Miaomiao smacked her lips.
What a sucker deal!
Isn't this just throwing money away?
Moreover, due to system limitations, simply upgrading the engine is not enough to start the project. After the engine upgrade is completed, she will have to spend more money to make a game and release it.
I spent two sums of money, but ended up with a game that didn't improve my technical skills much.
Roar!
Shen Miaomiao clapped secretly.
Thank you Vivendi, thank you Kotick, and thank you Huanmeng.
Without your blockade, there would be no Golden Engine, no 1.8 billion of mine, no guaranteed rebate for Dark Souls, and no more opportunities to waste money.
If we continue to play like this, there’s no way we can escape Vivendi’s covetousness.
Reverse takeover is just around the corner!
That’s it!
Think of this!
Shen Miaomiao had no reason to hesitate and made the decision on the spot!
How can you refuse the rebate that is delivered to your door?
I, Shen Miaomiao, lost this money!