"Blood Kill 2", the treasure of the open-world game
Recently, the most popular game works in the world are not Redstar Redemption 2 by Rockstar (Chinese: "Blood Kill 2", the following is called "RDR2"). More than 70 media outlets around the world gave an average of 97 points, and analysts also estimated that 25 million copies will be sold in the next six months, far exceeding the previous generation of 15 million.
"RDR2" is an "open-world" type game based on the western United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The so-called "open-world" is a type of design that is relatively closed to a linear level. Players will roam in a large virtual world and have the freedom to choose the time and method of completing the task.
As long as it is a game, "freedom" is an experience of limited design, not literally free. In order to enhance the player's sense of freedom, open-world games must be pondered in "details". These details can be more realistic physical, artificially intelligent virtual characters, hundreds or even thousands of customizations. Options, or simply a thick and thick amount of text.
RDR2 is highly regarded and is the most talked about in the industry. It is such an amazing and even incredible amount of detail, including:
- The hair and beard on the main face will belong to the game.
- Killed animals will be corrupted over time when placed in place.
- Too much protagonist will become fat and affect performance.
- If the protagonist does not take a bath for too long, it will keep others away because of the stench of the body.
- It can destroy enemy weapons.
However, behind the creation, assembly, and ensuring that these details work smoothly is the scale of mobilization you can't imagine.
The true cost of freedom
Rockstar is one of the most profitable developers in the global gaming industry. In 2013, GTA V, which invested $270 million in budget, became one of the best-selling games in history, with nearly 100 million cumulative sales and cumulative sales of more than $6 billion with the help of continuously updated online content.
At the same time, Take us Interactive (Rockstar's parent company) Rockstar CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed some key information in an interview in May this year, allowing us to imagine the scale of RDR2 development, including:
- Developed for 8 years.
- More than 1,000 developers.
- “RDR2” is the first time Rockstar has concentrated all of its development departments.
Rockstar co-founder and current creative vice president Dan Houser provided more amazing data in an interview with Vulture:
- The mainline script can be up to 2,000 pages; if all the scripts with the branch line are stacked, it will be more than 2 meters high.
- Dynamic capture mobilized 1,200 actors and took 2,200 days to shoot.
- The game ends with a total of 300,000 moves and 500,000 dialogues.
- In terms of sound, the number of voice actors exceeds 700, the number of soundtracks is up to 192, and even more than 200 animals in the game have their own independent sound effects.
- Each game trailer has more than 70 versions before it is officially finalized.
"Intensive overtime has destroyed my life."
Three days before the listing of RDR2, well-known game media Kotaku published a report titled "Rockstar's Intensive Crunch Culture Insider." The report pointed out that the two Rockstar co-founders of Sam Houser and Dan Houser are notoriously like "big change."
For example, in the case that the game is no longer postponed this year, in order to make the cutscenes in the game more cinematic, the producers ask the team to leave black and white on the top and bottom of the screen. This is not just a matter of adding a black border. In order to ensure that the original picture details are not stuck, all the pictures have to be re-examined or even adjusted.
No matter which country's game industry is prevalent in intensive overtime culture, it is common before the game is on the market, or the development process encounters major difficulties. However, many employees anonymously stated that Rockstar's intensive overtime often lasts for months, even years.
Another game industry media, GameIndustry, also recently published a special report, in which the quotes of several Rockstar employees were also in line with Kotaku's report.
I was burned out at the time. Even though the longest overtime period lasted only a few months, it still destroyed my life.
Dan Houser later told Kotaku that the company had never “forced” anyone to work overtime. Under the pressure of public opinion, Rockstar also announced to the British Guardian a record of working hours declared by employees from January to September this year. The record shows that on average, employees do not have excessive overtime:
- Average working hours from January to March: 42.4 hours
- Average working hours from April to June: 45.5 hours
- Average working hours from July to September: 45.8 hours
At the same time, some employees announced their working hours on Twitter: "RDR2 is much better. I work 40 to 45 hours a week. I used to work more than 70 times a week during the development of GTA V. hour."
Jennifer Kolbe, the global release director of Rockstar, has also repeatedly reiterated to Kotaku that there are indeed a small number of people working long hours, but at the same time some people are exaggerated, and the actual working hours in the company are much lower than the long-term claims. Working hours. But what is really interesting is the following passage she said:
I think people across the company are perfect, whether it's creative ideas, TV commercials, or even just the copy on the back of the game box. We are extremely concerned about the games we develop, and I think sometimes this will make people become somewhat paranoid about certain things.
Conclusion
The global game market continues to grow, but as the performance of home consoles or smartphones continues to grow, the enthusiasm of developers to achieve more ideas and the enthusiasm between the operators will never stop, which has pushed up the scale of the game products. And quality, but also enhance the player's requirements for products and appreciation.
However, behind the increasingly prosperous giant wheel, the real picture is that a large group of labor is desperately pushing. On the one hand, this case analysis is to praise the unparalleled achievements of RDR2, and on the other hand, to explore the cost behind this achievement, to arouse more people's attention to the game industry and practitioners.
After all, I firmly believe that there is no room for improvement in the labor environment of an industry.