"Hey, am I being completely ignored here?" Four employees shot cold glances, grumbled, and then returned to their work.
"Okay, then. I'll leave you to it."
The staff mber who had guided in the lobby nodded and returned to their seat.
What's going on here? I observed the employees at work amidst the awkward atmosphere of the developnt room.
In 2015, so massive projects would involve up to a hundred people, but back in the 1980s, the ga developnt scene only required a programr who coded, a graphic designer who created pixel art, and a director doubling as the team leader.
The remaining one was an assistant who worked on pixel art for backgrounds and items, or sothing like that.
"Hmm..."
I glanced at the programr's coding screen for a mont, accompanied by a fake cough.
"The coding is ssy... I can't even figure out how the flags and hit detection work."
Next, I turned my attention to the designer working on character pixel art.
On the monitor, a character in a gray military uniform with a black headband was making a determined expression.
"Is this a war-thed ga? Well, ever since Rambo 2 ca out last year, military-thed content has been popular..."
The person who seed to be the team leader, closely watching my actions, called .
"Hey there, Kang Junhyuk? Or should I call you Junhyuk? I'm Toyomoto."
"Ah, just call Kang. Please feel free to."
"Alright then, Kang. Have you ever done ga developnt? Or maybe you're familiar with our flagship titles?"
"Well, you've heard of Duck Hunt, right?"
All the staff mbers in the office turned their heads and raised their eyebrows. Well, who doesn't know that it was the first ga to implent a shooting ga with an electronic gun in a ho setting, right? At that mont, a young man who seed to be an assistant in one corner of the office spoke up.
"That's the one where Gunpei-san made the electronic gun famous. In reality, even a novice programr could implent a ga where ducks fly around using an electronic gun."
Geez, is this young guy openly belittling ? However, the team leader nodded in agreent with the young man's opinion.
"That's right, indeed. Gunpei-san's electronic gun was remarkable."
Ugh... I was the one who proposed that idea in the first place, and people can be so two-faced. I had no choice but to introduce myself, ntioning that I had served as a co-director on Super Mario Bros.
"Super Mario Bros., a masterpiece that shone with Shige-san's unique concept of side-scrolling and jumping."
Darn it! I also taught them the basic idea of side-scrolling! But well, the truth is that they were the ones who actually created those things. I couldn't take credit for much. Anyway, why is that assistant who's stuck in the corner so quick to counter everything I say? I managed to maintain my poker face and asked the staff.
"I'm not wrong. I've never released a ga under my na; I've only served as a co-director. However, I'm here to provide technical advice, and if there's a problem that even I can't solve, I'll send Shige-san from the headquarters. Please understand. Is there anything else I can help with?"
"Ahem... Well, we understand what you an."
The team leader cleared his throat and called out to Masaki, the programr. Masaki, who was 28 years old, wore a loose-fitting T-shirt that emphasized his round belly. He pushed up his glasses and glanced at , which didn't sit well with , but I decided to bear with it for now.
"Hey, Masaki, explain the ga we're working on and let's get so advice from Kang here."
"For now, take a seat over here."
I gazed at the ga proposal docunt laid out on the office table. On the thick stack of paper, the sowhat flashy title "Never Die Soldier" was written.
"It's definitely influenced by Rambo. Just looking at the title gives a sense of what it's about..."
As I showed interest in the proposal, a programr nad Masaki, wearing glasses and a sowhat serious expression, spoke to .
"Let briefly introduce the ga we're working on."
"Do you really need to? I could guess."
As I expected, the ga they were making, "Never Die Soldier," was a military-thed ga where a special forces rcenary infiltrated enemy territory and swept through the battlefield.
During our conversation, I learned a few more things. First, the initial concept for this ga, "Never Die Soldier," had surprisingly started with an idea from an assistant tucked away in the corner of this office. Unfortunately, the cheesy title seed to be Masaki's own creation.
Around that ti, it was common for programrs to also handle ga planning, and they did so to push the limits of their coding skills and create gas accordingly.
Of course, if a programr knew their limitations and created a ga accordingly, they could remove unnecessary elents from the planning stage and quickly create the ga. However, it wasn't easy to co up with a unique gaplay experience.
"I'm actually a military enthusiast. That's why I want to make players feel the battlefield's excitent through 'Never Die Soldier,' but it's been challenging to implent the technology."
Masaki's technical advice was a very simple question about how to display a multitude of objects on the screen. It seed like he wanted to portray the intense survival of a rcenary surrounded by nurous enemies.
So, I need to provide a simple answer.
"It's impossible."
"What?"
Masaki looked at in disbelief as the answer ca too easily from my mouth.
"If you're a programr, you should be aware of the limitations of the Family Computer. Our family of consoles has been designed to handle any type of ga with a custom CPU, but it's also responsible for sound processing. Therefore, devoting all its power to graphics processing is unrealistic. While we've equipped it with VRAM to assist with processing, it's only 2KB."
"So, isn't that why you requested technical advice from MinTendo? Shige-san's 'The Legend of Karin,' which was released last year, had various objects in a single map. Did MinTendo keep so secret technology hidden?"
"No, we've been creating gas from the early days of our family of consoles, so our expertise has accumulated. We didn't unlock the device's performance limits or anything like that."
"Then, what about the movents of all those objects in 'The Legend of Karin'?"
"Well..."
I paused for a mont and then replied with a smile.
"It's an illusion. If you look at the combat maps in 'The Legend of Karin,' you'll see that even though it appears that enemies are constantly appearing, the actual number of enemies that the protagonist fights is limited. The rest are prepared to create an illusion of enemies appearing from the surroundings."
However, it seed that Masaki didn't understand my explanation and looked completely lost. Oh well, this guy is really a programr, isn't he? He doesn't seem to have a flexible mindset. I had no choice but to nod and provide another hint.
"Having a large number of enemies doesn't necessarily create the tension of a battlefield."
"Hmm? Then how..."
"You need to change your way of thinking. Isn't it the director's job to find ways to provide players with fun and tension using limited objects? For example..."
"For example...?"
"Stealth?"
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