novelODS Chapter 210 The Eliminated Blizzard Trio
Chapter 210 The Eliminated Blizzard Trio
Chapter 210 The Eliminated Blizzard Trio
The phenomenal impact of "Rock Smith" has truly surprised many people.
A niche work that is completely unbelievable in terms of its entry barrier, gameplay, and subject matter, and does not contain any theoretically best-selling elements, has somehow become the work that has garnered the most fans outside the entertainment industry in GAMENOVA's history.
But this time, other competitors' attitudes toward GAMENOVA's consistently outstanding performance were much more ambiguous.
The reason is very simple —
Unlike Quake, which is purely a showcase of advanced alien technology, this thing—seems like it can be learned!
With just a powerful enough audio chip and sufficiently sensitive input, it seems possible that it's not impossible to learn.
This has certainly piqued the interest of many manufacturers.
If GAMENOVA can do rock, can we do J-Pop? Or what about anime/cartoon games, or drumming?
As long as you learn its design paradigm and try to add some of your own elements—
A brand new world is unfolding before us.
However, all these development needs ultimately converge on the same thing.
Where can we get audio chips?
Hey, isn't it a coincidence? Motorola just happened to have a CD-quality SPU suitable for arcade machines.
Developing rhythm games is not a simple matter.
Lin Lixin looked at the recent surge of new rhythm game projects and a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.
Today, GAMENOVA is a trendsetter in the industry.
A simple gesture can spark a new trend.
However, it won't be long before everyone realizes that this seemingly sweet cake actually hides a trap.
Millisecond-level audio-visual synchronization, optimized responsiveness, a user-friendly chart design tool, and a rich music library ecosystem —
Not everyone has a cheat code.
To truly understand these things, it would take at least a few months of practice.
Nobody enjoys playing a rhythm game with stiff controls and unpredictable timings.
Lin Lixin glanced at his fingertips, which had developed a thick layer of calluses from various tests and performances over the past period.
To design a suitable tolerance level for a real piano in a game requires much more effort.
I got up and stretched. Rock Smith's performance was better than I expected.
"Phew—speaking of which, how's the creative workshop's submission contest going?"
The competition was conducted using a weighted method of public voting and download count, without a formal judging panel.
"The top 16 have been decided, let me find them—"
Sam stopped what he was doing, went to the filing cabinet, rummaged around for a while, and pulled out a printout that had been sitting there for some time. "Here you go, this is the current list. All 128 entries are basically here."
Lin Lixin took the document.
Many of the works listed above have been marked with a red pen, indicating that they have been eliminated.
There are now only 16 high-quality works left that are about to make it to the finals.
At first glance, it turns out that more than half of these are auxiliary mods.
This is understandable, as things that directly improve the player experience are often the most popular.
After all, apart from the developers themselves, few others can create content enhancement packs that are truly "vanilla-flavored".
There will always be a slight sense of disconnect that players will not accept.
"Enhanced map pins, optimized policy card display, map pack —"
They are indeed all well-made modules, and it wouldn't be a problem for most of them to be directly absorbed into their main bodies.
However, as he scanned the area, a module highlighted in red caught his eye.
Orcs and Humans - Blizzard Entertainment
"?"
What the hell is going on?
Did Warcraft III accidentally cause this?
"Hey Sam, what's this 'orcs and humans' thing?"
"Huh? Oh, this."
Sam squeezed in, puzzled, then thought for a moment and suddenly realized.
He really had a deep impression of this name.
"It was a very interesting gameplay module that received quite a lot of player votes, but it was eliminated in the third round due to the weighting of download numbers."
Sam actually played a few rounds of this mod, and to be honest, the production quality is definitely excellent.
It takes a different approach by simplifying the original Civilization system, which greatly speeds up the game's pace.
Unfortunately, it is precisely because of this overly radical design that it has filtered out many players who are not into this style.
"It seems to be a local California group, the ID is Blizzard, it's run by three college students."
Sam admitted that he was a little disappointed that this module was phased out.
Because it is indeed very interesting to do.
UCLA?
"Yes, they're USC's old rival."
"—Prepare the car, I'm going to talk to them."
"Huh? But they were eliminated—"
"Do you understand what a pre-arranged deal is? I think they have a good chemistry."
The dorm room of Mike and his trio at UCLA was quiet.
The sky has fallen!
The game they had high hopes for, "Orcs and Humans," failed in the third round.
Although reaching this stage would already earn you a $1000 prize, it's still a far cry from the $100,000 prize for the champion.
"I'm doomed! If Grandma finds out I failed my finals because of playing games—ugh—"
UCLA tuition isn't cheap.
I was hoping to achieve financial freedom directly with this incredible bonus.
The other two were also somewhat disappointed, and their enthusiasm for playing the game was not as strong as before.
If they are far inferior to others, then they will just have to accept it.
But he made it to the third round and was eliminated again.
What's most unbearable is having hope dashed after it's been gained.
-
"We must have designed Medivh and Gul'dan to be too weak. We should have created a hero unit mechanic as I suggested."
"Come on, we shouldn't have entered it in the first place. Obviously, the ones selected are all gameplay enhancements—"
Suddenly, Mike heard what sounded like very fast footsteps coming from outside the door. The footsteps were hurried and approaching.
Then.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
A series of increasingly urgent knocks sounded on the door.
"Mike! Wake up! Open the door! Open the door! Something fucking terrible has happened!!"
"??"
Mike exchanged a glance with the two men, then got up and opened the door, puzzled.
The visitor was another good friend of theirs from school.
"What's wrong?"
I said—
He was panting heavily, his face flushed with excitement. "Are you guys Blizzard? The ones who make mods for Civilization."
"Yeah, but we were just eliminated—"
"Forget about that damn competition, guess who came to our school?"