Mei Fang saw the image of a girl with short black hair, a white triangle skirt and pencil legs in Guo Yun's portfolio. The color block design of this character was very simple.
The girl in the character looks up at the sky, with only her back visible, looking a little desolate and lonely.
"Guo Yun, where did you find the inspiration for this character?"
"This... I found inspiration from some picture books. They're fairy tale picture books. They're not very childish. They're just... well, how should I put it - I wonder if you've read them, Mei Fang."
Xia Yuan reminded, "I've read a picture book about The Little Prince before. It's the kind of book that has a very simple style of painting and tells a very healing story, the kind that..."
"Yes, yes... It's the kind that girls love to read. This one is just a little different in style. The characters in the picture book I read all have this kind of clear polygonal design..."
Mei Fang is now thinking about his next game. Although there is no clear design theme, he has a firm design direction.
Make an independent game that can be called the "ninth art".
He has countless design prototypes for hit works in his mind. Judging from the current situation of his collaboration with the team, as long as the art resources are in place, the project can be launched quickly.
But it is enough to have completed a few of those projects, and that is not what Mei Fang is really pursuing.
He has always hoped that the gaming industry he loves so much can receive more positive recognition in the country, rather than being viewed as a spiritual oppression by adults and elders.
The traditional educational philosophy certainly bears an unshirkable responsibility for the poor gaming environment in China. However, the developers’ enthusiasm for guiding players to spend money on games and their various profit-seeking project standards are all self-inflicted.
Games have always been called the ninth art because they have the potential for interactivity compared to works such as text, movies, and animation.
Players can play characters in the game world, complete the game character's mission or make choices themselves, and gain a high sense of immersion and involvement.
This interactivity should not only exist in the fighting and killing between players and the virtual world of fame and fortune, but should also exist in the real emotional communication and exchanges established between developers and players through the game.
The most important thing for an excellent independent game is interesting and creative gameplay, but independent game works that can be called the ninth art cannot lack the artistic expression of music and art.
These two are certainly not necessary and sufficient conditions. Many famous independent game works that have been passed down to later generations may have simple graphics, but the music can touch the soul.
For example, the famous IGN full-score masterpiece, Undertale, its 8-bit dynamic music design added a lot of points to it, and also ushered in a lot of secondary creation craze;
Even without talking about things that are so far away, the success of "To the Moon" is definitely not due to its visuals. The perfect plot combined with the beautiful and touching piano music is its winning magic weapon.
Mei Fang now has a lot of resources in the field of music. Not to mention himself and Yuanyuan, the producer of "To the Moon" Gao Gan, whom he knows, is a gifted game music designer. Now that Guo Yun's art has grown into an independent figure, Mei Fang naturally has higher aspirations for his first "ninth art" work.
"I plan to use this character designed by Guo Yun as the protagonist of the story. Her color scheme may need to be slightly adjusted. We will use her to make a platform jumping puzzle game."
"Platform jumping..." Xia Yuan scratched his head and said, "Fang, could you please not use such professional terms? I don't quite understand."
"Super Mario, we used to play it on Subor."
"Ah! Using this girl to make Super Mario? Why does it feel a bit funny... Weird..."
Lin Youxi added, "Afang probably meant the same control method as Super Mario, with buttons like left, right, and jump... The actual experience should be very different."
"So what kind of story do you plan to write? How many words do you plan to write?"
“This story is more of a story of self-discovery, and we don’t use too much text in the story… or, in other words, there is basically no text.”
Mei Fang explained, "This concept is called environmental storytelling. We use art-drawn scenes and some in-game interactions and cutscenes to show the story, allowing players to complete the purpose of our story themselves."
"It sounds a bit like a silent film, but wouldn't it be fun to write dialogues... Why can't we talk?"
"So... like Machinarium, right?"
"It's the robot that picks up junk, right? I remember now. We played it together at Ah Fang's house in the second grade of junior high school. That game was so difficult. I had to look up the guide in the game every time to pass it."
"Machinarium", which can be regarded as the ancestor of independent games, was released as early as 2009. Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan, who were in the second grade of junior high school at that time, played it at Mei Fang's house.
"To be precise, the game I plan to make is even more silent than Machinarium, because the protagonist often uses graphic text to communicate in the story, and there are actually quite a lot of dialogues."
Mei gestured to everyone:
“The heroine of the story is a princess from a black and white world. She embarks on an adventure in pursuit of the colors of her own world. Different colors represent different countries. Each color represents a chapter. Each chapter makes the heroine face different hardships, and these hardships have their reflections in the real world.”
"The real world is reflected..." Xia Yuan thought for a moment, "Ah Fang, what you mean is... on the surface you are writing a fairy tale, but in fact you are writing about the inner world of an ordinary girl?"
"As expected of you, you are our Chinese class representative. Yuanyuan, you understand things very quickly."
Mei Fang rubbed Xia Yuan's cheek to encourage her. "I actually want to tell the story of an autistic girl who opens her heart, strives to find herself, and finally reconciles with herself and reaches the other side of her dream. This is the spiritual core of our work."
The autistic girl opened her heart and tried hard to find herself and reconcile with herself...
As soon as Mei Fang finished speaking, the sharp-eyed Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi immediately turned their eyes to Guo Yun. Guo Yun also realized Mei Fang's intention and her face immediately turned red.
"Ah Fang... The prototype of the story of the protagonist of your game was not based on Yunyun, right?"
"Hmm... To some extent, there is definitely Guo Yun's shadow."
Mei Fang smiled and said, "And if we use this subject, I think Guo Yun has more artistic inspiration and expression. What do you think, Guo Yun?"
Mei Fang immediately encouraged Guo Yun after hearing this:
"Don't worry, your aesthetics are already top-notch in my eyes. But the workload for art will be huge, and I think we may have to outsource some resources. Or... your classmates are all studying painting, so if there are any who can help, you can look for them. It's easier to communicate when working together."
"I... look for one?"
Mei Fang nodded and said to Guo Yun, "You will be the chief artist of our Ximilu Studio in the future. You will definitely need helpers to make things together. I can help you pay them when the time comes. Then, I will tell you about the amount of art resources we need. Let me think about it..."
Um…
Jealous.
Seeing Mei Fang and Guo Yun chatting enthusiastically, Xia Yuan felt a little jealous, but she didn't really show her jealousy on her face.
She didn't want to disturb her beloved childhood sweetheart from pursuing his gaming dream.
Maybe Alfang likes music, or sports like roller skating.
But the only thing he likes from the bottom of his heart, and I even feel that it likes him more than me and Youxi, is games.
Like Lin Youxi, she rested her chin on her hand and watched Mei Fang talk quietly.
When Mei Fang and Guo Yun finished talking about art, Xia Yuan quickly handed him the milk tea as if he was feeding him.
"Afang, you are really amazing."
"We just decided on the game characters, but now we can immediately think of a long storyline."
"This... is just a preliminary idea. It will take a lot of time to implement it."
Lin Youxi looked at Mei Fang without saying anything, but just put his hand on Mei Fang's leg.
She seemed to just want to touch Mei Fang out of habit, and didn't do anything too bad. She just rubbed back and forth occasionally, and Mei Fang didn't say anything.
The moment Mei Fang saw the character of Guo Yun, she thought of [GRIS], which is the Chinese translation of the work "Gris's Journey".
It was a platform jumping adventure game. Although its puzzle design and script expression were also very good, in Mei Fang's opinion, it was still some distance away from the classic masterpieces.
However, its artistic style can indeed be called a great work of the "ninth art", and almost every interface can be called a wallpaper.
This time, Mei Fang did not crudely copy the game "Grace's Journey" based on his own memory. Apart from the impressive art, he himself had almost forgotten the process and story, but only had a vague impression of them.
The creative design of a game is often the result of the game creators combining their rich gaming experience with some life insights; both are almost indispensable.
Now, in the process of conceiving this work, Mei Fang has gathered in his mind the excellent cores of many works such as "Monument Valley", "Celeste", "GRIS", "Journey", "Sky: Children of the Light", etc. This is something he can do as a game player with many years of experience and his previous life's skills as chief planner.
In fact, this is also Mei Fang’s true golden finger—a talent that he himself did not have the opportunity to display in his previous life.
Now there is no boss who would order Mei Fang to make a crappy pay-to-win mobile game.
Mei Fang no longer has to work hard for a meager salary.
Mei Fang is now his own master.
"In addition to art, the design of music and sound effects will also be very important. I need your help here, Yuanyuan." Mei Fang looked at Xia Yuan with a serious face, "Excellent music and art, we can't do without both."
Xia Yuan nodded, her expression full of tenderness, "Fang, just tell me what you want, I will satisfy you in any way you want."
Lin Youxi, who had been resting her chin on her hand and quietly watching her beloved Mei Fang display her passion and talent, now spoke softly:
"C Station doesn't have much work to do recently. You can leave the programming of this game to me. Fang, you can just focus on the planning."
"That's what I was planning... Youxi, you really understand me."
Mei Fang turned to look at Xia Yuan and Guo Yun and said, "After we finish the midterm exam, we must work hard to start the project of this game."
"Yeah... there's still a midterm exam!"
Xia Yuan was surprised and a little anxious, "By the way, is there any mention in the school rules? I... If I don't do well in the exam... I shouldn't be expelled directly from Jiangcheng Normal School, right?"
"No... Just perform at your normal level and don't worry about the results."
Mei Fang gently patted Xia Yuan's head, then smiled and said, "Think about it carefully, isn't this the reason why we applied to Jiangcheng Normal University in the first place?"
The underworld is renewed with great victory.
In fact, I finished typing the words at 3:39. After thinking about it, I endured it for a while and decided to publish it on time.
(End of this chapter)