Other games can be given less attention by Takayuki, but The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and New Super Mario Bros. must be taken more seriously.
Takayuki really doesn't want The Legend of Zelda series to falter under its leadership. It's a legendary series from the previous gaming world, with almost flawless reviews. If it falls into their hands and doesn't meet expectations, it would be quite embarrassing.
So, Takayuki is putting most of its efforts into these two games.
The sixth development team is best at solving various technical challenges, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the most technologically intensive game.
Real-time combat, the ability to lock onto enemy characters, and the textbook-quality over-the-shoulder perspective are all tasks that Takayuki confidently entrusts to the sixth development team.
Then there's New Super Mario Bros., a game originally released on the NDS world, which Takayuki also wants to improve in quality.
The original game was already good, but it's relatively less famous among all the titles. To improve the overall quality of this game, there needs to be some innovation in gameplay.
And the first innovative feature that Takayuki can think of is the Creative Workshop.
This later became the Super Mario Maker series.
Takayuki roughly estimated its current technological level.
At present, their technological level is just enough to create the foundation of Mario Maker, but to perfect it like Super Mario Maker, there's still some way to go.
But they can use this new Super Mario Bros. game as a trial run.
With the foundation of the original game, the overall quality won't be too bad. Then adding the Creative Workshop gameplay where players can customize their own levels, they can also gain some experience in developing this kind of Creative Workshop. Takayuki already has many games in mind where the gameplay can be changed through Creative Workshop, so it's indeed something that can be started early.
However, the development of this new Mario game can only be handed over to other game development teams.
Building such a Creative Workshop is also a technical task. The sixth team, led by Takayuki, is preparing to work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so the only one Takayuki can think of to manage this new game project is Aya Tsukino.
But it seems that there aren't enough hands available at the moment. Takayuki needs to talk to her later. For now, he'll go find the sixth development team.
After making the plan, Takayuki immediately went to find the current head of the sixth development team, Fuyuki Tohjiro.
Fuyuki Tohjiro is a talent that Takayuki accidentally discovered. Previously, he was just an unknown salesperson in a shopping mall.
One day, while browsing in a shopping mall, he happened to be helping out with on-site repairs and demonstrations of gaming machines in a store selling game consoles. After repairing them, he could even directly modify FC machines with his ingenuity, making the picture quality on the TV screens better and more appealing to players, thus increasing sales.
At that time, Takayuki thought he was a talent in electronic engineering development, so they recruited him into the initial engineering development team to become one of the employees and develop new game consoles.
But after the release of SFC, he voluntarily requested a position change. He felt that compared to developing game consoles, he preferred developing interesting games, and he believed he had the ability to manage a team.
At that time, Takayuki happened to lack someone like him who was willing to take the initiative, so they simply assigned him the task of developing games for a temporary team of over twenty people. The result was quite good. At that time, the original leader of the sixth development team was showing some weakness in managing a team of over a hundred people. So Takayuki decisively appointed him as the new leader of the sixth development team.
Later on, Fuyuki Tohjiro participated in the entire development process of Final Fantasy 7 shortly after taking office, allowing him to quickly grow into a responsible person with outstanding management and creativity.
If he had resigned at that time, there would have been countless invitations from other companies offering him executive-level producer positions. But he was very grateful and appreciative. He thanked Takayukifor recognizing his talent and allowing him to grow from an ordinary salesperson to the leader of a team.
And people in his position don't need to worry about money at all. Takayuki has always been quite generous in paying its employees, and being employed by the top gaming company in the industry comes with very generous salaries. Not many people are willing to leave even if the salary offered elsewhere is higher because there's still a sense of disparity between coming out of a Fortune 500 company and going to work for a small, unknown company.
Until now, Fuyuki Tohjiro has become a core member of the sixth development team.
Summoned by Takayuki, Fuyuki Tohjiro immediately responded. They had been waiting for Takayuki's call at any moment.
Game development leaders like them are also fully involved in the design and development of handheld consoles. They can provide a lot of advice from the game development perspective to the engineering development team, making the development of the gaming machine more conducive to game developers.
Fuyuki Tohjiro had long known that he would be summoned by Takayuki sooner or later.
With over ten core members of the sixth development team, along with Fuyuki Tohjiro, they came to the small meeting room. Takayuki had been waiting here for some time.
After they were seated, Takayuki straightened up slightly and said, "Everyone, I apologize for the delay. You will have very challenging tasks ahead, and I hope you can handle them as usual."
Takayuki held the prepared plan in his hand, looking directly at everyone.
Everyone's spirits lifted. Whenever Takayuki personally summoned them, it meant that a big task was coming. Moreover, Takayuki's serious expression now indicated that they needed to be fully focused.
Takayuki had the assistant distribute the prepared materials to everyone, then began to explain his ideas and considerations for this new game personally.
"The Legend of Zelda series is a relatively old one. This time, I want this series to become the launch title of the gaming machine. I believe you all understand the significance of a launch title for a new gaming machine, right?"
A launch title for a new gaming machine is basically the face of that gaming machine.
As the face, it must be flawless.
Any flaws would be deeply regrettable.
This era is not yet a time when game developers can slack off. Game developers of this era also have their own beliefs. They hope to create excellent works and unleash their passion. Slacking off? That's not an option.
Of course, occasional slacking off is normal, but the quality of the game must never be compromised. This has always been the corporate philosophy that Takayuki instills in every employee, and it's precisely because of this reason that every game released by the company becomes a talk of the town.