Mingyan could only nod in acknowledgment and remind him, "Hello, please introduce yourself first."
He stood on the stage and excitedly said, "My name is Yu Bing, I'm a junior in college, I'm the leader's junior, and I'm also a follower of the Ming Cult. Three years ago, after I played Minecraft, I became a huge fan of the chief designer, Ming, so I applied to study game design! I... I'm participating in this competition today because I want to emulate the leader, and I also want to make the best game in the world!"
He's still a very inexperienced student, and you can tell how nervous he is from his words.
The audience spontaneously applauded him as a form of encouragement.
Soon, the other members of the team had also finished introducing themselves.
Yu Bing then calmed herself down and began to introduce her entry for the competition.
This is a fun mobile single-player game where the main character climbs a tower and defeats all sorts of monsters.
A key feature is that the main character engages in combat automatically.
Players only need to click to make the protagonist release the corresponding skill, and occasionally add points to the protagonist when leveling up.
After all, it was a game that was completed in just three days, so the content was quite simple.
This game is already quite well-made, and it's currently ranked third among the top eight games.
To be honest, the "auto-battle" function is very uncommon in the interstellar era.
In the public's perception, "combat" is the most important core element of a game.
Therefore, this game still has some controversy.
Sure enough, the other judges were the first to ask this question.
Yu Bing then explained haltingly, "Our game isn't about players focusing solely on leveling up and killing monsters. I wanted to... provide a game that they can play while watching TV. Or, while waiting in line for something, it would prevent them from getting bored or becoming too focused, so they wouldn't miss anything..."
After hearing his explanation, the judges discussed it privately, somewhat bewildered.
Mingyan smiled and asked, "Did you have this idea when you first started designing it?"
Yu Bing blushed as soon as she saw him, nervously wiping her sweaty hands on her clothes, and said, "Yes, yes. I was imagining Dad sprawled on the sofa watching TV..."
Soft laughter began to ripple through the audience again.
Mingyan nodded and said gently, "In fact, this is a very correct design approach, which I call 'contextualized requirements analysis'."
As soon as he opened his mouth, the entire venue fell silent, and the audience stared in surprise.
—Oh, so there's a profound science behind this?
Mingyan explained, "Many people know that requirements analysis is an essential step before design. Many large companies conduct market research in advance to understand the playtime, play methods, and game types of people of different age groups... However, this is not the only way. Sometimes, the information mined from big data is cold and absolute; it can only be described as a mathematical tool, but it cannot bring inspiration to creation."
“True creation often starts with small things. Yu Bing is able to keenly discover the entertainment needs of people around him from a life situation, and use this as a basis to design a game that meets those needs—this is a combination of observation and action, and it can be said that he is quite talented.”
After Mingyan finished speaking, Yu Bing on the stage was so red that she was almost steaming, and sweat soaked her bangs.
Joy and excitement were evident on his face, and he almost choked up as he said, "Thank you, Master! Thank you!"
Mingyan thought for a moment and said, "Keep up the good work."
Then, he looked at the rating sheet in his hand and gave a high score to the "game design" category.
Just then, another voice suddenly appeared beside Mingyan.
I don't think so.
Zhu Wenshu said.
All eyes, both on and off the stage, immediately turned to him.
Yu Bing's expression became somewhat uneasy again, and she said, "Please give me your guidance, judges."
Zhu Wenshu said, "Regardless of the design concept, all I see is the result of the game design—what playability does this game itself offer us? The 'combat' itself is already handled by the protagonist, or rather, by the game itself. As players, what is there for us to do? Nothing, right? We can only stare at the game playing itself in boredom. Is this even a game?"
After he finished speaking, Yu Bing's expression turned pale again.
His teammates were also nervous, saying, "Actually, players can use skills and also add points to the main character..."
"A combat adventure game without combat is utterly worthless." Zhu Wenshu interrupted him. "I'd rather watch streamers play AAA games than play yours. At least the graphics are way better than yours."
The criticism in that statement was so strong that it left the nervous contestants momentarily speechless, unable to find the right words to refute it under the spotlight.
A judge next to him frowned slightly and whispered a reminder to Zhu Wenshu: "It doesn't have to be that way."
Zhu Wenshu didn't look at the people around him, but only wore his usual confident smile.
He said, "I can assure you, you absolutely must add a proper combat system, otherwise this game is practically dead. Adding a combat system is quite simple; I have a brilliant idea—why not replace all your skills with wizard cards, dealing damage based on the value of the card played…"
Wizards is a popular card game in StarCraft, which emphasizes playing cards in sequence to achieve combos.
No one had ever thought of incorporating card games into a combat system before... using card play to cause damage?
Two of the judges began to discuss the matter.
Another person said, "But if we do that, this adventure game will become a card game, essentially just a card game, and the adventure content will just be a meaningless performance."
Zhu Wenshu raised his chin and said, "As it is now, it's just an empty shell. It would be better to incorporate my gameplay and make it more practical."
Another judge looked at Ming Yan and asked, "What does Chief Designer Ming think?"
The discussion had developed to the point where it seemed to be subtly turning into a conflict between Mingyan and Zhu Wenshu's viewpoints.
Even the audience below the stage fell silent.