Game Development Giant

Three days later, Jester met Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu, who had returned from Hokkaido.

Jester had never met this master who would be worshiped by countless latecomers in the field of Japanese game soundtracks before. Nobuo Uematsu is only 26 years old now and is at the beginning of the golden age of a composer. He and Hironobu Sakaguchi The same, with a small mustache under his nose, a pair of round glass glasses, and his hair parted in the middle.

However, it seems that this type of artist is a bit unkempt. Jester could see that Nobuo Uematsu was wearing a somewhat wrinkled jacket, and the beard on his cheeks had not been shaved off.

The exchange time between the two was very short. Jester briefly told the other party the general style of the game he was going to make. Nobuo Uematsu only thought about it for a moment, then nodded and said he would go back and make a few. Demo, wait until he brings it tomorrow and let Jester listen to it first.

Then Nobuo Uematsu left, and even Jester's initiative to invite him to dinner was rejected.

However, Hironobu Sakaguchi did not leave. He still had to report the past few days to Jester, but Jester was more interested in the relationship between Nobuo Uematsu and Hironobu Sakaguchi. Logically speaking, one of them is from Kanto and the other from Kansai. It should be impossible to walk together no matter what. After hearing Jester's question, Sakaguchi Hironobu smiled sheepishly.

"Actually, Nobuo Uematsu and I have been neighbors for many years."

Then, at Jester's request, Sakaguchi Hironobu began to talk about the process of his acquaintance with Nobuo Uematsu.

"At that time, I was renting an apartment alone. Later, a young foreign musician moved across from where I lived. When we met and visited for the first time, he told me that he graduated from the Department of Physics of Kanagawa University, but When I saw that there were all kinds of musical instruments and equipment everywhere in his room, I was a little surprised. Does studying physics also need so many musical instruments?"

"Boss. I think you may not know that the Department of Physics at Kanagawa University is a very good major. Generally, students who graduate from here can work in some large companies or specialized research institutes. I originally thought the one opposite me was called Nobuo Uematsu’s neighbor was like this too, but when I came back from school I saw that he often only went out once every few days. I felt that his job was not what I thought.”

After taking a sip of water to moisten his throat, Sakaguchi Hironobu continued.

"And usually when I'm at home, I can often hear the sounds of various tinkling musical instruments coming from his room. They're all music I've never heard of before. They're very nice, so sometimes I'm a little bored. When I was young, I liked to listen quietly. Later, when I got to know each other, I realized that this Kansai native had no fixed job. He made a living by providing music to music companies or TV stations. After going back and forth like this, we became friends." "I The real contact with him was probably when I was making the second game..."

When talking about this, Sakaguchi Hironobu frowned and thought for a while, and said in an ambiguous tone: "I can't remember clearly here. I made many games in that small company at that time. Anyway, I just wanted to make one." It’s a relatively high-quality masterpiece. We worked on the game together and my colleagues were not very satisfied with the soundtrack several times. I also thought that my neighbor is a musician and I wanted to see if I could ask him for help.”

"Nobuo Uematsu didn't have much work at that time, and he was also very new to composing music for games. After hearing my intention, he immediately agreed - I originally thought it would take him at least a week, but I didn't expect him to He came to my house the next day to find me, and he also brought a tape with music he had recorded on it."

Speaking of this place. Hironobu Sakaguchi laughed unconsciously, as if he had thought of something funny.

"Speaking of it, I don't know much about music, so I made a joke about it. At that time, I saw Nobuo Uematsu coming to deliver the composed music, so I asked him to play it for me. I still remember it very much now. Obviously, it was a tape with sixteen audio tracks. After listening to it, I was quite disappointed. Because the music of the other party did not match the game style I told him before, so I had It’s a polite refusal.”

"But... he may have seen what I meant at that time. He didn't care. He just asked me carefully about my opinion on this piece of music. I also said it in detail. After listening to it, he didn't say a word and took it. I took the tape and left. I thought he was angry because I was dissatisfied with his music."

Then Sakaguchi Hironobu's tone became self-deprecating.

"Actually, he came to my house again the next day with the tape. This time I could tell that he was very excited. As soon as he came to my house, he couldn't wait to play his newly recorded tape for me. This time I couldn't wait to hear it. When I listened to it, I was immediately attracted by the music on the tape, which was simply the most suitable soundtrack for the game I wanted to make.”

"When I excitedly decided to use his music on the spot, Uematsu laughed and laughed at me. In fact, he just rearranged the order of all the music he listened to yesterday. This made me very happy. It was embarrassing, and I wanted to invite him to join the small game workshop where I was on the spot. At that time, Uematsu was a little moved, but he still refused. According to him, he still had some favors to repay. , when his favor is over, he can agree to my request."

"Then, before I could invite Uematsu, I left the previous game company, so this time when I heard you say that you needed a composer who could score a Western fantasy-style game, The first thing I thought of was Uematsu. Although I only had one or two interactions with him on games, I know that he is a very, very good composer who can be the composer you need."

When he said this, Sakaguchi Hironobu became a little sad, and his eyes dimmed a little: "In the past few days, I also took the time to visit the place where I worked before, and by the way, I also met Mr. Miyamoto Masashi. He was very impressed by my previous work." I was very angry when I left without saying goodbye. Now his game development department has also been closed. The continuous failures have also hit him hard. Originally he could still persist when I was here, but after I left, I negotiated with FC to join the royalties. When his plan was thwarted, he became disheartened.

Overhearing Hironobu Sakaguchi talking about this news, Jester also sighed in his heart. Square Enix, a legendary game development giant that has grown into a legendary game development giant in the history he is familiar with, is still in this world and has not yet officially The establishment disappeared into thin air.

After letting Hironobu Sakaguchi go out, Jester began to list the members of the development team he was about to form for the RPG game.

When the names emerged from his mind one by one, he immediately felt that all the heroes in the world were within my grasp, because every time he saw these names, Jester's mind would not stop thinking. He consciously recalled the achievements these people had achieved in his original memory. They were legends one by one.

Jester couldn't help but think in a wicked way, if future players study the history of video game development and see the R\u0026D lineup of "Fire Emblem", will they be so scared that they wet their pants - Producer, Jester Special Lee, planner Matsuno Yasumi, planner Kojima Hideo, planner Sakaguchi Hironobu, programmer Yuji Naka, programmer Nash Gebelli...

Jester was a little amused when he thought of Nash Gebelli. This programmer, known as the King of Bugs, liked to add some bug-like Easter eggs to the games he designed. He had planned to recruit him before. Originally, when Jester recruited Hironobu Sakaguchi, he also had the idea of ​​​​recruiting the second person who made "Final Fantasy" a huge success, but Jester only knew that his Chinese-translated name was the same as his. He is an Iranian-American, but nothing else is known about him.

Therefore, after asking for help to no avail, Jester gradually forgot about the matter.

But just a few days later, a call came from the US headquarters. It was the news that a programmer named Nash Gebelli had come to apply for the job.

Originally, it was impossible to call Jester directly with the news that one person was applying for the job.

But Mars Entertainment’s HR also knew before that Jester had asked someone to inquire about a programmer whose name sounded very similar. He had previously worked on games for Apple computers. He was an Iranian-American, and he was very consistent with the situation of the person who applied for the job. , and most importantly, his level is very, very high.

This is also recognized by many programmers in the company.

Therefore, the HR supervisor took the initiative to make this call to Jester.

It is very rare to be able to recruit programmers like Nash Gebelli who are rare but hard to find.

The first time Jester received the call from his HR, it was late at night in Japan, but after hearing the news, he who was still a little sleepy immediately woke up as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head. Come to think of it, for someone who is familiar with the game development process, the role of an excellent top programmer in game development is definitely not as simple as one plus one.

For example, a planned and designed system is completely achievable on hardware, but an average programmer may need 20 hardware resources to achieve the same effect, while a top programmer will need 20% to achieve the same effect. Only five or even one of the resources are needed, so that the saved hardware resources can be added to other systems.

In fact, some of the required effects may have reached the limit of the current hardware. If you ask an ordinary programmer to program this effect, he will only tell you that this is completely impossible and cannot be done at all. But a Top programmers will tell you this after research. It is not impossible to complete, but the hardware resources occupied will be very serious. It is better to cut off the effect by 20%, which is easy to do.

Not to mention, when you need some groundbreaking engines, you can only rely on the inspiration of top programmers.