Chapter 1162: Racing Game!
MMORPG might have been impacted by MOBA games but a starving camel would still be bigger than a horse. There were still many loyal players at this stage.
Compared to standalone games, online games were more in line with mainstream players’ taste. Once the number of players increased, it would be easy to become a long-term money tree.
The sales volume of standalone games would decrease after a few months at most. Everyone would get sick of it after playing for a while. What’s more, those who had paid for standalone games did not have any follow-up expenses other than buying some downloadable content.
However, it was different for online games. There would be an endless stream of money entering the account even if it was a relatively conscientious time charge. If it became popular, it would be difficult to clean up in the future.
GOG and Ocean Stronghold were painful lessons.
Thus, Pei Qian was not willing to make online games unless there was an idea that could definitely incur losses.
It would be easier for standalone games to incur losses.
Previously, everyone had been talking at once and could not reach a consensus. One by one, they lowered their heads and thought carefully.
Indeed, what Boss Pei said made sense!
Everyone seemed to be able to do what they wanted, but it would be difficult to reach a consensus if they continued discussing like this.
It was better to follow Boss Pei’s train of thought.
In the field of standalone games, what game genre did Tengda make less?
This question was really difficult to answer.
Tengda had done many standalone games until now, some relatively popular themes, and many niche themes.
Repent and be Saved was an action-based game, Struggle was an interactive movie game, Mission and Choice was an outdated real-time strategy game. There were also difficult games like Game Designer and Animal Island.
What other game genres were there that Tengda made less of?
Everyone lowered their heads and started calculating.
Action games, shooting games, simulators, role-playing games, interactive games, strategy games, leisure games…
He seemed to have dabbled in most game genres.
That was mainly because Boss Pei never ate his roots. After a certain game type succeeded, he would not touch it for a long time. Instead, he would immediately develop another type of game.
Thus, it would be slightly difficult to find a field that Tengda had not stepped into.
However, more people meant more power. Someone still managed to find a game genre that had not been created yet.
“A combat game?”
“A music game?”
“We have never done a sandbox game before.”
“There’s also a racing game. There might be The Lonely Desert Road but this is obviously very different from a proper racing game…”
Pei Qian could not help but praise them.
Alright, this brainstorming meeting was not wasted!
Everyone had indeed thought of something that he had not expected.
Pei Qian silently noted down these types of games.
He would not think about music games for now. The main reason was that it would cost too little money. There was no point in making them.
What’s more, it was very difficult to mess up this thing. They could not possibly make it an out-of-tune sound game, right?
On the whole, the chances of losing money were not high. What’s more, even if they lost money, they would not lose much. That was because it was very difficult to invest more money.
Fighting games were a good choice, but it was still the same problem. It would not burn enough money.
He could use it as a backup if he did not have a better idea.
Forget about the sandbox game, the risk was too high. A successful sandbox game had a terrifying lifespan. Pei Qian did not want to take the risk.
A racing game?
Yes, that sounded like a good choice!
Among these game genres that had not been created before, racing games spent the most money and were more difficult to create.
If he wanted to create a racing game, the scenery had to be good, right? There had to be many maps, right?
Just creating these beautiful scenes would cost a lot of art resources.
What’s more, he had to make more cars, right? If he used real cars, he had to talk to the manufacturers of cars to cooperate and buy copyrights, right?
He had to have a radio to drive and listen to songs, right? He had to spend money on the copyright of the songs.
What’s more, it was relatively difficult to create speed games.
That was because players had a high requirement for hand sensitivity for speed games. If they did not adjust their driving sense well, they would definitely be scolded by players.
Many players could not tell what was wrong with the driver of a certain game, but they could clearly feel whether the car was easy to drive or not.
If it was not easy to drive, it would definitely be the manufacturer’s fault.
It was easier said than done to make it easy to drive. A long and meticulous process had to be done.
That was because most players used keyboards or handles to play racing games. These two types of input equipment and the steering wheel of the real car were very different.
Take the keyboard for example. Using the four keys of the WASD to control the accelerator, brake, and direction could only simulate four states: the accelerator to the end, the brake to the end, the steering wheel to the left or right.
There was no way to simulate a linear operation like the steering wheel with a keyboard.
Under such circ.u.mstances, in order to give players a better gaming experience, manufacturers had to achieve a certain level of auxiliary driving effect through complicated adjustments. Players could also use a few b.u.t.tons to drive on the keyboard. They could deal with various complicated turns without linear operations.
Whether or not this was done well would determine the player’s driving sense and whether the car in the game was “easy to drive” or “difficult to drive”.
The situation of the controller was slightly better than the keyboard. It could be used to simulate the brake and the linear nature of the accelerator with the trigger key. The joystick of the controller could also slightly adjust the angle of the turn. However, the controller could only change to the left or right by 90 degrees.
It was obviously impossible to use 90 degrees of change to simulate 900 degrees or 540 degrees change in the steering wheel.
What’s more, in order to make it realistic, racing games had to calculate the ground strength of the tires and a series of parameters to ensure that players could complete difficult movements such as drifting and turning in the real world using similar operations in the game. Otherwise, this racing game would become a leisure game.
In short, it was more difficult and easy to mess it up.
The official games platform might sell some templates for racing games but these templates could not be too outstanding. Most of the work had to be done personally.
What’s more, the employee who suggested the race was right. The Lonely Desert Road was not a racing game at all. It was an independent game at best.
Tengda could be said to have no experience in developing professional racing games.
At that moment, Pei Qian thought of a more deranged idea.
After developing a racing game, he could make a steering wheel, a simulated driving suit that included scaffolding, monitors, and seats. That made sense, right?
Wouldn’t that be able to spend more money?
At that thought, Pei Qian said, “I think racing games are not bad.”
Everyone nodded.
Indeed, among these choices, racing games were relatively reliable.
Combat games were outdated, and they were as niche as sound games. The sandbox game was not bad. The key was that one had to have a good idea to make a sandbox game.
Thinking about it this way, racing games were indeed a better choice.
On this point, Boss Pei and everyone’s motives might be completely different, but they had magically reached a consensus on the final outcome.
After deciding on the general direction for the racing games, everyone began to think.
“Racing-based games must be highly realistic! Why don’t we link it to some compet.i.tions in reality and create a pulley or regular compet.i.tion mode?”
“Can we buy the copyright of F1?”
“I don’t think there’s a need to make it realistic. Let’s focus it on being cool! Reduce the operating threshold and add a few more luxury cars. Let players experience the joy of land flying transport inside.”
“We can intensify the emotions! Aren’t there many movies about racing? We can also make more plots in the game to show our usual advantage.”
“Or should I create a futuristic racing game?”
Pei Qian listened quietly and shook his head slightly.
None of them sounded like good ideas!
First, he had to get rid of the copyrights from F1. He could consider buying a portion of the copyrights for the car and spend more money. However, if he bought the copyrights for the F1 compet.i.tion, the game would definitely naturally become popular and traffic would not do.
Reducing operational standards, focusing on cool, adding plot… These ideas sounded familiar.
Wasn’t that what Ocean Stronghold did back then?
Reality proved that it did not seem to work. It would easily become a popular game that could not be stopped.
As for the future theme… For some reason, he thought about Mission and Choice. Perhaps this group of people had been waiting for the combined event with Mission and Choice.
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and asked, “What can you think of the most popular racing game at the moment?”
Ye Zhizhou pondered for a moment and said, “That should be a tug-of-war, right? Everything in this game is very realistic. Many drivers are even practicing in the game.”
“However, it is precisely because it is real that many settings are rather unfriendly to newbies. For example, the ground strength of the different tires in the game is different. You have to choose different tires according to the different venues and adjust the car. There is also car damage. You have to repair it if you hit the car.”
“The worst-case scenario would be when the first picture clashes with the car and breaks the car light. The second picture would be the night road. The entire journey would be smeared and completed. It would be rather suffocating.”
“What’s more, other racing games can switch off car damages. This game cannot be closed off. It only allows newbies to repair cars for free. This is very hardcore.”
Pei Qian nodded subtly.
Yes, he cannot switch off car damages? That sounded like a good idea.
Many players played speed games purely to race to release the wildness in their hearts that they had nowhere to put. It was common for them to hit the roadside flowers.
Therefore, the first thing many people did when entering the game was to close the car tire and hit it at will.
Players had to think about repairing cars instead of switching the damage off. Obviously, this was a good way to dissuade players.
“However… The Rally Compet.i.tion is quite successful, right?” Pei Qian asked.
Ye Zhizhou nodded. “Yes, it was quite successful.”
“That’s because it was made very real, and it restored the original appearance of the tug-of-war very well. Even many professional drivers used it to train, so it was very popular among hardcore players.”
“Running a tug-of-war is very expensive. It’s common for ordinary drivers to burn a few million yuan a year. Ordinary people would not be able to obtain such an experience. Thus, playing such games became a good choice.”