After a tactical water break, Akanishi Ken told the President, "It seems the current demands are not very clear. Mr. President, I suggest we do some preliminary research first. The programmers can try to understand it on their own."
"Then, let's quickly set up the project team."
"If the planners can provide more clear and specific requirement documents, we can also start development."
"Right now, we probably don't have much confidence."
As a veteran of the company and Aoki Haruhi's senior, Akanishi Ken was already a seasoned pro.
Decisions made by the President were almost non-negotiable, unless you had very strong reasons to convince him.
However, Akanishi Ken had carefully considered this problem when he went to get water. Almost every time he discussed issues with Aoki Haruhi, he was the one who ended up being convinced.
Moreover, after the series of actions just now, Akanishi Ken already understood Aoki Haruhi's strategic intent. At this point, refuting the President by claiming that the 'programmers lack ability' would undoubtedly be asking for trouble.
Aoki Haruhi's coding skills were not low. If the President were to point out exactly how to implement things, Akanishi Ken, as a programming big shot, would lose face.
So, after this tactical water break, Akanishi Ken had pretty much sorted out the future work flow.
Instead of going against the President, it was better to go along with him and then offer some specific small suggestions—
For example, proposing that planning should come first, and only after specific requirements are in place can the programmers begin work, which was a tactical delaying tactic.
"Hmm, alright then."
Aoki Haruhi nodded.
Akanishi Ken's attitude was impeccable; you couldn't really say anything more.
Moreover, planning first was a consensus within the industry.
Even building a house requires drawing blueprints first, let alone making a game.
Today, Aoki Haruhi called Akanishi Ken and Sakata Taiji mainly to give them a general idea.
After seeing off the programming and art directors, Aoki Haruhi didn't idle either. He immediately called Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi into the meeting room.
…
"A shooting game?"
Hearing this name, Shinji Mikami immediately perked up, his eyes shining.
Shooting game's actually originated quite early.
It can even be traced back to Duck Hunt on the Nintendo Famicom in 1984.
At that time, to simulate a hunting scene, Nintendo even developed a special light gun for this game to be used as a target-attacking weapon.
However, the principle was completely reversed: what was aimed at was not the duck but the gun itself. When the cursor overlapped, an electronic signal was sent to the light gun to complete the shot.
This game had a milestone significance. Although it was originally intended to simulate real-life skeet shooting, it achieved unexpected success.
This also showed that there was a large potential user base who liked shooting game's, but so far, there hadn't been a very good shooting game to tap into this group of players.
And now, what Aoki Haruhi was going to do was precisely such a thing.
After hearing Aoki Haruhi's vision, Shinji Mikami felt the flame in his heart instantly ignite.
"Mhm, mhm, controller shooting isn't very convenient. A lot of the time, you have to predict where to wait for monsters to enter the shooting range. But with a mouse… sensitivity and accuracy will be greatly improved."
"We might even be able to make a pretty good shooting game," Shinji Mikami mused.
Seeing that this guy was interested, Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Aoki Haruhi also intended to hand it over to him.
After all, Shinji Mikami was the master of Hydra who developed the resident evil series in his previous life.
However, Shinji Mikami only thought for a moment before quickly coming up with many questions.
"Will the programming department agree to us doing this project?" Shinji Mikami said, "This platform jump is a bit big. The game's we've made before were all adapted for consoles."
"Actually, it's pretty much the same," Aoki Haruhi said. "From Nintendo's FC to Sega MD, and then to Sony PS, now developing on a computer isn't really a big deal."
And for many programmers, developing on a computer is easier.
"Hmm, then I'm relieved."
Shinji Mikami nodded.
"So, Mr. President, do you have any requirements for this shooting game?"
"Mhm, there are a few requirements. You can just elaborate on the basis of what I say."
Don't be fooled by the talk of starting a project; the projects the President initiates are never simple. Many times, they have a huge scope, almost jumping from one game genre to another, or even cross-platform.
The programmers were all complaining bitterly.
Now, it was just a preliminary idea. Even Shinji Mikami himself intuitively felt that making a shooting game on a computer was a good idea, but when it came to actually starting, he didn't know where to begin for a while.
For Aoki Haruhi, getting people on board was the first step, signaling that the game could begin preparations.
But there were still many remaining issues.
First, Counter-Strike was definitely out.
Aoki Haruhi also didn't want to completely copy half-life. More importantly, he didn't even know what the main plot of half-life was, as by the time he grew up, that game was already considered an ancient game.
So, the game needed to be repackaged.
But that was good too, a brand new game.
"There are a few very clear features," Aoki Haruhi said, tapping the whiteboard.
"First, this is a shooting game."
Mhm, mhm.
Shinji Mikami nodded.
Beside him, Gen Urobuchi muttered to himself, "Isn't that obvious?"
"You've already decided to make a shooting game, so if we don't emphasize that point, are we going to turn it into a galgame?"
"And it has to be 3D, first-person shooter mode," Aoki Haruhi said, raising his hands and gesturing, "It's like the camera is at our eye level, what we see is the gun and the scene in front, the field of view can rotate, but it should also try to simulate a realistic human perspective."
"Mhm, Wolfenstein is like that," Shinji Mikami interjected.
In 1992, an obscure game swept across 386 computers worldwide—this was the progenitor of FPS game's, Wolfenstein 3D.
This game pioneered a new way of playing, exploring maps and killing enemies from one's own perspective. This method was later called FPS, or First-Person Shooter game.
Of course, although this game was touted as a 3D game, it was actually just a pseudo-3D true texture effect created using a ray-tracing algorithm.
Many classic game's like DOOM and Duke Nukem were born from this algorithm, and FPS game's took this game as their origin point.
Computer game's from '92 were relatively recent, and Shinji Mikami, being someone who had a keen interest in Western game's, naturally wouldn't miss it.
Moreover, knowing that the company was going to develop 3D game's, and with Wolfenstein 3D having '3D' in its name, Shinji Mikami would definitely study it.
One could only say that Shinji Mikami was thoughtful.
Aoki Haruhi paused for two seconds, then nodded, "Yes, that's right."
Although he didn't know if the Wolfenstein in his memory was the same as the one Shinji Mikami was talking about, it was certainly true that the Wolfenstein series was a very successful FPS game.
"Secondly, the technological level in the game should be modern. Firearms and shooting feel should strive for realism."
Things like Overwatch with skills, or future battle royales… current hardware levels simply can't support them, and for players, the learning curve is too high.
Players haven't even gotten the hang of proper, smooth FPS game's yet, and you want them to deal with flashy skills or run from the poison circle? Isn't that just making things difficult for Pudge?
So, it's better for the company's first shooting game to be simpler.
"Okay, Mr. President."
Shinji Mikami was jotting notes in a small notebook.
He fully agreed with Aoki Haruhi's ideas.
The world itself has its unique charm. Firearms, as objects, must be realistically made as a foundation. To accurately reflect the functions and feel of existing firearms in the game, and do it well, is already quite difficult.
Shinji Mikami was taking notes, and Gen Urobuchi was also taking notes.
However, the more he wrote, the deeper his frown became.
Gen Urobuchi looked at the bullet points in his notebook:
[First-person shooter game.]
[Realistic weapons]
There wasn't much room left for him to be creative.
To be honest, Urobuchi Gen didn't really like this kind of restrictive prompt, especially with a modern setting, so tightly defined.
He preferred boundless imagination.
Even the previous The Witcher gave him much, much more room to play with than this.
But the President explicitly requested 'simple' and 'realistic'.
What was a script Author to do?
"Just do the most basic shooting combat, and then add some campaign modes as tutorials and plot groundwork. The core part should be that different players can team up for shooting combat."
Aoki Haruhi said.
"Eh?!"
Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi looked up in unison.
"You want to make it player-versus-player, Mr. President?"
"Yes, the core of this game has to be multiplayer online combat."
Nani?!
Both were shocked at the same time.
While the number of shooting game's developed so far isn't large, and there are relatively few high-quality ones, it doesn't mean there are none at all.
But no shooting game had ever done a multiplayer online mode.
Even the idea of online combat, Shinji Mikami had learned from Aoki Haruhi.
Pokémon's online combat currently only supports two players.
As for the multiplayer online combat the President was talking about, especially for a shooting game, Shinji Mikami couldn't even imagine it.
Just thinking about it had already exceeded the limits of his comprehension.
Seeing the two of them looking bewildered, Aoki Haruhi patiently explained:
"To put it simply, this game is meant to simulate real war, just on a small scale."
"Look."
Aoki Haruhi had Urobuchi Gen stand up and assume a gun-holding posture, ambushing behind him, while he himself crouched in front, making a shooting motion.
He looked up at Shinji Mikami, "Shinji Mikami, what does it look like from your perspective?"
"My perspective…"
Shinji Mikami thought for two seconds and answered truthfully, "The table, the President, and Urobuchi crouching behind you. I can probably see that much, and you're taking up more of the field of view in front."
"Urobuchi behind you looks a bit small."
"Exactly!"
Aoki Haruhi nodded seriously, then smiled and asked Urobuchi Gen, "Urobuchi, what about your perspective?"
Urobuchi Gen paused, then replied, "I can only see the President's backside, and Shinji Mikami mostly blocked by you. Beside me is the table, and in the distance against the wall are two chairs."
"Excellent!"
Aoki Haruhi stood up straight and asked with a smile, "So, do you understand?"
"Different computers, different fields of view. To put it simply, it's still the same phrase—
Simulating realistic human vision."
"And it must follow the 3D principle of 'closer objects appear larger, farther objects appear smaller.' If something is blocked from view, it's genuinely not visible. And in the game, there must also be some clear 'realistic unwritten rules'."
"Unwritten rules?" Shinji Mikami and Gen Urobuchi frowned, asking in confusion.
"Mhm," Aoki Haruhi explained, "For example, a wall. A wall inherently has a blocking function; it blocks the player's vision, and it also blocks the player's passage. At the same time, bullets cannot penetrate it."
"This, is called realistic physical collision," Aoki Haruhi said.
"And then, there's the table."
"A wooden table can be broken, and it cannot withstand bullets, so bullets can penetrate the table and hit enemies."
"And so on, there are many more. Summarizing and detailing these physical rules is a very important task for the project planners in the coming period."
game's, they look simple, but they are quite complex to make.
It's not like God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
First, you have to define what light is, what its properties are, its speed, vibration frequency, wave-particle duality… all of these must be fully fleshed out before it can be realized.
And developing a new game is the process of filling in these contents.
Shinji Mikami nodded, he understood.
However, just thinking about 'field of view,' 'occlusion,' and 'physical collision' made him break out in a cold sweat for the programmers.
How to implement it?
Just a glimpse in that direction already revealed a daunting level of difficulty.
…
Terrifying.
Too terrifying.
Is this something a human can do?
Shinji Mikami couldn't help but doubt if he really had the ability to do it well.
However, after glancing at the President, his heart immediately calmed down.
It didn't matter if he lacked the ability; as long as the President had it, that was enough.
Moreover, from the day Shinji Mikami joined the company, he had a faint feeling—
There was no game in this world that the President couldn't make.
Even down to the specific programming functions, the President could solve them with ease, as if he already had the answers and was just waiting for you to be at your wit's end before suddenly lending a hand.
The unfathomable President was even more terrifying.
On the other side, Gen Urobuchi's face was twisted like a chrysanthemum.
Goodness, 'shooting game,' 'realistic,' 'simple,' and now 'multiplayer combat' were added.
He didn't have to consider how to implement things or how to make demands on the programmers like Shinji Mikami did, but—
These conditions were too restrictive. It wasn't just dancing with shackles on; it was like being nailed into a coffin and then asked to dance.
"The rest is the game's packaging. Although it's gun combat and shooting, don't use a real-world setting, and it's best not to have any faction of players portray utterly evil villains."
"This really tests the script Author's skill."
Just then, Aoki Haruhi's gaze fell upon the silent Gen Urobuchi.
The latter couldn't help but clench his buttocks.
"Emmm… it seems there's very limited content I can write," Urobuchi Gen bit his pen, not daring to look into Aoki Haruhi's eyes.
Pain, oh pain.
Kill me, Mr. President.
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