章 206: Castlevania strategy
Takayuki led the Castlevania game development team, which was the sixth game development team.
Among them, about three or four people were transferred from other teams, while the rest were newcomers. However, these newcomers were all computer science students from well-known universities in Japan, and they quickly learned and got to work.
In just two or three weeks, they could start completing their programming tasks according to instructions.
As for the original artists and composers, there were no major issues this time either.
To avoid the previous incident of a composer strike, Takayuki directly began arranging for his own employees to learn composition, to see if he could find some talented individuals among the programmers.
Indeed, Takayuki managed to find a few among the hundred or so programmers he pulled over for composer training who had some talent for composition. With a little guidance from Takayuki on the composition style of the relevant games, they were able to start creating game music by following the game's context.
Composition requires talent, but it also requires effort. With Takayuki's help, these talented programmer-composers grew rapidly, and their composition quality quickly began to rival that of some renowned composers. This made the current composers in the companies feel a sense of crisis.
As for the original art, there was even less to worry about. Takayuki simply bought a animation company outright, which also allowed the company to produce some game-based animated series according to his instructions. The remaining task was to select a few talented individuals from there to join the various game development teams.
Takayuki personally allocated more than ten dedicated original artists to focus on several games targeted at the European and American markets, ensuring that the original artwork for these games reached the highest level of perfection.
The sixth game development team quickly entered the state of game development, and the overall development speed of the games was also very fast. If all went well, they might be completed in three or four months.
The original Castlevania game was originally released on the FC Red and White Machine, but at that time, Takayuki felt that only one Metroidvania game, Metroid, was enough.
But now it was clear that it wasn't enough. Making only one game in a category also made it difficult for that category to fully take shape. It was necessary to have at least two exemplary games in a category.
Not all categories could dominate like Super Mario games. Other categories also needed to be cultivated.
Moreover, Takayuki also planned to develop several equally famous platform jumping games next.
Such as Sonic, Kirby, and others.
The story of the Castlevania developed by the sixth team started with the mythological legends of the European and American systems.
This also increased the overall immersion of the players.
Firstly, in 1691, a sacrificial ceremony took place in a medieval town.
A group of fanatical devotees used a curse ritual to resurrect the ancient vampire count.
This vampire count had originally been destroyed by a hero named Christopher Belmont.
But the world always lacked a group of nihilists willing to destroy the entire world, including themselves.
As a result, the whole world fell into a dark age, and this region was immediately ruled by the terrifying vampire count. Many innocent lives were lost every day.
And as the descendant of the hero Christopher Belmont, Simon resolutely embarked on the path to defeat the vampire count.
He carried with him the family's ancestral treasure: a mysterious whip, and ventured alone into the Devil Castle, slaughtering his way through the complex structure of the castle, finally confronting and defeating the vampire count, restoring light to the world.
Simon also became the object of people's praise.
The overall storyline of the game had many similarities to previous games.
But with some modifications to the setting, such as replacing some of the past defeated big bosses like dragons with the more relatable vampire count, this game immediately became popular in the European and American regions.
Even though Castlevania was a newcomer compared to Metroid, it still became one of the unforgettable classics for countless people.
The original Castlevania game itself was only average in terms of gameplay.
With Takayuki's penchant for creating high-quality games, he definitely wouldn't allow an average game to be released.
So, he introduced some classic gameplay elements from Castlevania.
Firstly, he made it so that the protagonist could not only use the whip but also use some visually impressive weapons.
There was a relatively well-known Metroidvania game called Dead Cells in the future.
There were many aspects of that game that could be used for reference.
Such as the multi-weapon system and the popular roguelike game mode in the future.
Each time the player died, they would start from the beginning. However, in addition to starting from scratch, players were given some hope as they could inherit some abilities and weapons from previous playthroughs.
As a result, players could continue to grow in each cycle of death, increasing the overall length of the game.
Originally, this type of gameplay was relatively difficult, and Takayuki had not considered adding this attribute to Metroid.
Because whether it was Metroid or Mario, the games were aimed at children, who sought excitement during gameplay.
But it was different in the United States.
There was generally a bit of masochism there, and the more difficult the game, the more likely it was to be welcomed. They would consider it a fashion, especially among young people, who were eager to challenge difficult things.
This was also why Europeans and Americans almost dominated most of the speedrun game records; they had a special fondness for this aspect.
Takayuki supervised the entire game development process step by step to ensure that there were no problems. When the game console was officially released, Street Basketball, Need for Speed, and Street Fighter would lead the charge, with Castlevania following closely behind, leaving American players with no time to catch their breath, so they wouldn't have the time to focus on other companies' game consoles, or even other electronic products.
At the same time, Matsubashi Miho in the United States had negotiated with multiple advertising distributors, all of whom were willing to publish advertisements out of interest.
Miho also informed Takayuki of this good news as soon as possible.
Takayuki breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this news. It seemed that his strategy was successful, and these people were really willing to at least give it a try. If these advertising distributors were really timid and unwilling to provoke those big manufacturers, he would have some headaches.
However, Takayuki didn't plan to place all his hopes on these billboard advertisements.
"Matsubashi Miho, contact someone named Bob Wilson over there. This person should be studying at Harvard. I hope to get in touch with him to help promote our game console as well."
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