On February 18, just after the Chinese Spring Festival, Forty-two released a player recruitment announcement on his official website.

Recruiting 100 players around the world for some content testing of the "City of Good See" project.

This is also the first time that Forty-Two has conducted this form of closed test to obtain experience feedback and adjust the game content.

In the environment where various EA versions are rampant around the world, Forty-Two has always had a high standard of self-requirement since "Wujian": as long as they are online and start selling money, the lowest completion rate is the first version 0.8 of the Chaos Era. A version with very high completion features has sufficient playability.

Instead, like most independent manufacturers, although there is no content in the EA version, they will be released early and let players buy it first. Only after they buy it will they have money to do subsequent functions.

As an independent game company, Forty-Two's unique attitude is also one of the reasons for its popularity.

However, the selection criteria for this test were particularly special.

The official specifically states that you must be a player with game development experience, preferably an independent game developer, and you need to attach your own works, explain in the application form which part of the development content you were responsible for, be able to use English communication skillfully, and sign a confidentiality agreement.

Someone just wanted to give some rhythm of admiring foreigners and fascinating foreigners, but was beaten up by a bunch of people to the point of being speechless. It was obviously a global test. You have to have a language to communicate with the test players. You can't let foreigners speak Chinese.

However, the strange request of game developers completely stunned players, and also discouraged the "ordinary" players who were eager to try on major game forums.

"Is this...is it... to find someone to test games or to recruit people to develop games?"

"Is it possible to recruit free employees in the form of players? Forty-two shouldn't be able to do such a thing, right?"

"What are you thinking? Is Forty-Two short of this little money for recruitment?"

"Then why?"

"Isn't it necessary to have sufficient gaming experience? I'm ranked in the top 10 of the Ladder World Servers in the new season of "Pale Temple". Isn't this okay?"

"They haven't done this before the technological advancement of 2D to 3D from "Chaos Era" to "Soul". Could it be that they think this time "Good View City" is even more difficult than "Soul"?"

"Didn't you notice the 'part' in the announcement? This word is quite interesting."

"What do you want to do again forty-two?"

Everyone has seen a lot of things about recruiting players for early testing, but no one has seen this requirement for game development experience. The suspenseful color of this announcement also makes him one of the popular topics in the game circle.

Even so, within three days after the announcement was released, Forty Er had received more than 1,400 "resumes" from 27 countries and regions around the world.

Then 100 were carefully selected from them.

An independent game producer from Fulan Province also submitted his application materials with a try attitude, and he sprinkled more than 10,000 words, and he consciously achieved the ultimate sincerity.

From his own game experience to game development experience, and his understanding and outlook for the "City of Good Knowledge" project, although he has never played a game and doesn't know what it looks like, he has also put forward some suggestions on gameplay from the perspective of being a game producer, a fan of Forty-Erth and Mr. Lu.

All the things that should not be written are written.

The young man's name is Ji Jing. He once worked in a domestic game company. Since "Wujian" and the Marge platform became popular in China, he resolutely resigned and started making his own independent games.

At that time, he gave himself 18 months because his personal deposit could support his willfulness for as long as possible.

Six months later, his personal project was completed, a puzzle game, and some art and music sound effects resources were purchased online, saving him a lot of work. Marge online is not a hit, but at least it was still sought after by some players. With sales of more than 40,000, he also received more than 400,000 personal income from it.

It is not realistic to say that getting rich is rich, but supporting himself is enough, and it also strengthens his determination to continue on this road.

Later, Marge was forced to leave China, but the overseas income was not affected much. Fortunately, the domestic FG platform continued to rise. Although the revenue declined, it was still a little bit.

Ji Jing waited anxiously for three days. To be honest, it was even more difficult to bear than the wait after the interview when he was in the workplace.

This is the first time that Forty-two people have recruited test players to the outside world. It is a special thing in itself... It may be a bit of a glory, let's experience it.

Three days later, Ji Jing received a reply email from Forty-two, congratulations on passing the review and joining the special testing team of the "Safe City" project.

He immediately announced to his fan group: Brothers are sorry, I don’t have time to make a new version yet, so I’ll go and help the Forty-two test "The City of Good Views" first!

The complacent feeling is beyond words.

His limited fans were also free and easy, and all replied: It is important to do serious things, don’t be delayed by trivial matters like the update of your own game. Go to Forty-two and give us a face.

Then Ji Jing discovered an electronic confidentiality agreement in the attachment, which restricted all content such as text, screenshots, videos, etc. that the participants could disclose to the outside world, and clearly stated the liability for breach of contract.

Fortunately, this does not include the fact that it indicates the identity of the tester to the outside world... It's very dangerous.

After signing the confidentiality agreement, Ji Jing received another compressed package. Ji Jing immediately entered the beta version of the game, but he was very surprised that he had entered, but can this be called a beta version? This is a demo?

A scene, an NPC, a small number of monsters, the UI is complete, and the character attributes and backpack bar can be opened, but a character has nothing except limited attack actions and a set of skills.

He once again determined the size of the folder. Not to mention the full version, the beta version is enough, and it is impossible to have just such a little content.

What's the best way to test this thing?

Ji Jing opened the test instructions and understood it at a glance. Well, he was really anxious and should read the documents first.

It turned out that this test was not for them to test the ontology of "The City of Good Knowledge". The "partial content" originally mentioned in the announcement originally referred to another executable file, which was an editor...

It is to let them create content for themselves...

He just said that in terms of game Forty-two has always been very confident and will not ask outsiders to test it.

The compression package includes a lot of art and sound resources for them to use, and of course they can also create and add them by themselves. The "game" itself allows them to verify the content they designed.

No wonder we need to find someone with experience in game development.

Ji Jing immediately read the editor's technical documents, Guigui. In this beta version of the editor, 42 have already opened 21 categories, a total of 113 API interfaces.

From global variables to character and NPC lists, from scalable feature animations to map items, from dynamic shadow lighting to environmental influencers, from cameras to skills, tasks, particle effects and even other basic game modes.

With the interface, players can obtain data in the game and make changes.

In human terms, players can change the character model, UI interface, equipment icons and appearance images on their bodies, map scene objects, sound effects and BGMs in the game, etc., to create another world.

You can also customize tasks and change the main content to write another brand new story.

In battle, they can also build brand new equipment and skills, set brand new enemies and bosses, and develop their ideal suits and BDs.

In terms of gameplay, many gameplays can be realized only in other games.

You can even create a "City of Good View" in the editor of "City of Good View".

Forty-two has provided three small demos made by the project team for reference by the testers in this test package, such as snake eating, goji and gopher fighting...

Ji Jing couldn't help but complain, this can no longer be called an editor, it's completely a game development engine for players!

The implementation situation is that he really complained about it. Forty-two is to create this editor according to the engine's ideas.

Yang Haitong led the development of the entire editor according to Lu Qi's idea, and Hoover and his Insomnia engine group were also added, providing the "Hongtu" function that has begun to be partially implemented on the Insomnia engine.

The so-called Hongtu is a visual programming model that allows even artists and planners without a code base, or even ordinary players, to realize some of the already encapsulated functions in the engine.

Most of the logic in game development is related to or non-than these. For example, the execution condition is that it rains, and the logic is that the protagonist confiscates clothes. If it is, he will be praised, rewarded, and increase favorability. Otherwise, the execution will be scolded by his mother.

Most people understand that the difference is that you have to type it out through code, while the Hongtu can be completed through several graphical blocks and connections.

Of course, the disadvantages are also obvious. For example, being praised, receiving rewards, and increasing favorability must be encapsulated into the engine in advance. If it is some special functions, it still has to be built by yourself through the code.

After Hoover and his team joined Forty-Two, Lu Qi asked them to explore visual programming, but the completion so far is far from enough. With the current specifications and complexity of Forty-Two projects, it is a dream to use the Great Picture to complete it.

As for completing the prototype design to verify and issue it? Sorry, Forty-Two doesn't need this.

However, it is okay to put it in the editor for ordinary players to try it out, so that they can get rid of the basic requirements of code language and do some simple designs.

So Ji Jing, as well as other test players and practitioners, continued to flip through the documents and discovered the Hongtu function in the editor, the deep shock was goosebumps.

From their perspective, it is obvious that we can perceive what impact this function will have on the gaming industry.

The popularity of games from non-engine to engines is a great advancement, liberating programmers and allowing them to avoid a lot of tedious and repetitive work.

As for the emergence of Hongtu, it seems that Forty-two is going to break through the barriers between technology.

If this function is truly mature in the future, an ordinary person can also quickly complete the development process of a game, and the threshold for game development will be further pushed very low.

What impact do you think this will have on the entire gaming industry?

...

According to a link address given in the email, Ji Jing joined a web-side encrypted instant discussion group called "Shanjian Town". The members of this group were all participants participating in this test.

He looked through the technical documents for a long time before he saw the last link of the email. When he added it, many people had already started chatting here.

Many are independent game developers from all over the world.

Of course, most people are still discussing this function called "Hongtu", which makes them crazy.

A small number of people also focused on "The City of Good Knowledge".

"I checked the editor and the included game resources, guess what I found, some combat strategy skills and suit attributes, and the characters' actions."

“Is there anything wrong with these resources?”

"I discovered how Mr. 42 fought against the boredom of the late stage of the Temple Like game."

"Do you still need to say this? Isn't it an editor?"

Ji Jing suddenly realized that he had been paying attention to the editor functions and the map, and had forgotten about this.

Is this editor originally created for this?

Yes, manpower sometimes ends. No matter what, the design creativity and production capacity of the game company are limited, but the wisdom and initiative of the player group are endless.

This editor is simply playing Tai Chi, not playing Tai Chi like playing the ball, but refers to Forty-two If the rules and components can be set in the editor, then a chemical reaction between the rules and rules will lead to new content. This is the so-called Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.

Players create game content by themselves through the editor. Even if they are too lazy to do it, they can download content produced by others.

Do you think they are still boring?

As more and more homemade contents may become more and more fun, and the more you play, the more you can’t live without it.

This... Mr. Lu is simply cheating!

The players' worries are left to the players to solve themselves.

I only saw the buddy and said, "I found that the sets in the game are very strategic, and they are not the numerical increase in "Pale Temple", just like the frost attacks slow down and lightning attacks in "Infinite" are dizzy. I think the numerical and strategy of "City of Good Seeking" may be an equal relationship."

"Yes, the game combines equipment and other props and generates strategies, which will add many possibilities to the later content of the game."

"There are still actions, have you discovered it? The actionability of this game is much stronger than other temple likes, and there is even a combo system, which I found in the API. I adjusted some parameters and tried it out for a while. I could even hit it to the air. I can bet with you that this is definitely completely different from other temple likes games you have seen."

"Look carefully at the resources in the compressed package and analyze those APIs, and you will find a lot of interesting things."

Ji Jing was shocked. It turned out that it was not just an editor. Mr. Lu had done so many things to solve this problem.

This is a multi-pronged strategy. I don’t know how many surprising things there are in the game. Unfortunately, this test... Stop talking about it, he really wants to play it to the official version as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!