Chapter 223: Chapter 157: The Loser Leaves Behind a Marble (2)
"Alright, alright..."
Chen Ba waved his hand to stop everyone’s nostalgia, thinking that if they continued reminiscing like this, the eting wouldn’t end until the early hours of the morning.
While he also cherished the carefree days of childhood, the reality is harsh; no matter how wonderful childhood was, it can never be returned to.
People must learn to face reality.
And the reality at hand is, since Ba has decided to make a marble ga, how should they actually do it?
"The rules!"
Chen Ba pointed out the crucial issue: "First, we need to clarify what the specific gaplay and rules are?"
Marbles have a long history.
If you trace back its history, its developnt can fill a thesis of over ten thousand words, with docuntation as thick as a dictionary.
But that history doesn’t really matter.
The ga they want to make, since it’s based on childhood nostalgia, definitely has to follow the gaplay and rules from those tis.
But that presents a problem as well.
Marble gas are very widespread. Not even talking about abroad, just within China, there’s a big difference between the playstyles in the north and south, and the gaplay may vary between provinces as well.
"It’s not just between provinces..."
"The gaplay and rules might be different between counties, or even between villages," Lu quipped.
This is a fact!
Unlike table tennis or rubber band jumping where there’s a clear set of rules, marble gas have a lot of freedom in their play.
Kids in one village might like to roll marbles and see whose marble rolls the farthest.
anwhile, in the next village over, they might draw a line, dig a small pit, and see who can roll their marble into the pit...
There’s no clear gaplay system!
As long as you agree with your friends, and both parties have no objections, you can play however you want, and no one can say you can’t.
"That’s right..."
"The only common point is probably that even though everyone’s ways of playing differ, the rules for winning and losing—where the loser leaves their marble—stay the sa."
Chen Ba explained, "In terms of gaplay, there are likely only a few mainstream styles?"
One is pool-style.
You define an area and use your marble to knock the other person’s marble out of bounds. If it goes out, you lose.
Another is golf-style.
It’s popular to dig a hole or a small pit, and whoever’s marble can enter the hole wins and takes the marbles that didn’t.
Another one is distance.
The farther the marble goes, the better.
"There are more than just these types..."
Zhong Shengwei frowned and said, "There’s also a simple play style where you just collide with the other guy’s marble. I forget the specifics, but basically, you aim directly at the other person’s marble, and if you hit it, you take it."
"Yes, yes!"
"I also rember this way of playing, it’s really straightforward, but also more widely known than the others," Lu agreed.
When it ca to gaplay, everyone had sothing to say.
Employees of the Tianba Studio, coming from all over the country, have vastly different marble ga experiences from their childhoods.
Chen Ba listened to them for a while.
He ca to a general conclusion, which is that no matter the playstyle, aside from the distance-marble gas, the others all emphasize "aiming accuracy."
The more accurately you shoot, the better your advantage!
"Indeed, most of these varied playstyles focus on the precision of marble aim,"
Yang Dong agreed, saying, "The collision between marbles, or the precision of shooting a marble towards a target area, is the core gaplay of the ga."
What you’re testing is vision and skill!
No need to ntion vision; if you’re not good at eyeing the marbles, then really, you shouldn’t be playing marbles — you’re just handing out free wins.
Skill is also very important.
The force with which you launch a marble determines its power and travel distance. Back then, there were no tools; control was entirely reliant on your own hands.
"Vision is easy to discuss!"
"But if we want to make this into a ga, how do we simulate that real tactile feel of launching a marble?" Chen Ba asked.
This is a tough challenge.
Force, being quite subjective and based on sensation, is difficult to describe with words, let alone simulate in a ga.
Without it, you can’t make a marble ga, because if you can’t even simulate the basic feeling of force, there’s no point in making a marble ga.
"How about learning from those pool gas? I rember in pool gas, there is a relatively controllable shooting force chanism."
Zhong Shengwei suggested.
He thought they could borrow the pool ga’s elastic shooting by controlling the force through a mouse or keyboard to achieve the player’s desired effect.
"Elasticity?"
Upon hearing this word, Chen Ba instantly thought of the physics engine from Speeding Frenzy.
This physics engine should be able to simulate a similar elastic effect, right?
But speaking of which,
Even if the ga can realistically replicate elastic effects, how can the devices players use, like a mouse and keyboard, perceive it?
This is not like a gapad...
A gapad can provide force feedback, vibrations, and other sensations, but mouse and keyboard players expecting this is pure fantasy.
"Never mind, let’s talk about it later."
Chen Ba shook his head and said, "Let’s first discuss what the basic frawork would be if we decide to make this ga!"
It has to be Player vs. Player!
Not only Player vs. Player but also support multiplayer online, aning multiple players can participate in one ga session.
It’s similar to a match or room chanism.
The host creates a room, which can be public or private, and other players can join the room to participate in the ga session.
Apart from this,
The host can also select the ga mode and decide the room’s maximum player limit, etc.
"CrossFire?"
"Pretty much!"
Upon suddenly hearing the na CrossFire, Chen Ba was montarily stunned, then laughed and said, "If you want to see it that way, there’s nothing wrong with that; the logic is the sa anyway."
After players enter the ga, they will see a lobby page similar to CrossFire, then choose a room that suits them to enter and play the ga.
They can also create a room themselves and be the host.
The difference is, this ga doesn’t have an automatic session end.
When you create a room, even if no players join, you can still amuse yourself. And other players joining doesn’t lead to the session ending over ti; you can play as long as you want.
The key to whether a session ends is actually the number of marbles!
If you lose all your marbles in the end, isn’t it ti to skedaddle?
"How do you acquire marbles?"
Lu raised a crucial question, which is the source of the marbles.
If you can only receive a small amount of marbles each day and must recharge to get more once you lose them, that’s a free-to-play ga model, similar to gold coins or happy beans in board gas.
Otherwise, if it’s too easy to acquire marbles and doesn’t require recharging, it’ll lead to another problem...
No one cares about losing or winning!
When marbles are endless, losing a bit and winning a bit doesn’t feel significant; you don’t experience the feeling as a child when you lost a few marbles, you went ho after school with a green face.
"Give a fixed amount each day!"
"If they co too easily, nobody will treasure them. But no need to introduce microtransactions, as we’re going the buy-to-play route, not the free-to-play model."
Chen Ba thought of a good solution.
Include a little shop in the ga. If you lose all your marbles, you can go to the shop and buy more, provided you have ga coins.
How to get ga coins?
It’s not possible to work a job; would you have kids playing marbles work a job? Don’t you know employing child labor is illegal?
You can get them through other ans!
For example, doing howork, getting a perfect score on exams, which could earn praise from parents, increase the allowance, and buy more marbles.
Of course, herding cattle is also an option...
But now, whenever Chen Ba thinks of herding cattle, he thinks of the persistent specter of the Cowherding Sect, which has given him a ntal wound.
This ti, no matter what, he’s not including cattle herding to completely annihilate the hope of the Cowherding Sect’s growth, giving them no opportunity to exploit.
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