Time flies very quickly.

As the 2006 GD Annual Game Developer Conference, everyone attending this year knows that Jester Lee, who has not participated in this conference for several years, will attend the conference again.

It is said that he will give a speech again.

This may be the last time he gave a speech at this conference.

Because just over a month ago, Jester officially resigned from all his positions in Mars Entertainment, including serving as the O development team director who has been serving for more than six years. His current position has been served by Robert Pardo, who is qualified as the creative director of Mars Entertainment, and this is also an excellent designer promoted by Jester.

Since Jester officially resigned from all his positions at Mars Entertainment more than a month ago, everyone in the industry knows that, as he said back then.

He is really going to retire.

Pulling the video game that is about to die back from the edge of the cliff and creating a generation of legends in the video game, the president of the greatest game company, the helmsman and the greatest game designer, Jester Lee, is about to really leave the industry he has fought for for twenty-two years.

Jester's speech was put at the closing meeting of GD.

After the awards are over.

Previously, Hideo Kojima had just won his Lifetime Achievement Award, and the best game of the year was won by Rock Star's masterpiece "Red Dead Redemption" after GTA3 with unquestionable votes.

Everyone is looking forward to Jester's final speech.

The whole audience was quiet.

Jester was wearing casual outfits, his favorite outfit slowly walked onto the stage.

Casual clothing is his favorite clothing, and he once talked about the reason why he wears casual clothing in almost all occasions in an interview, because he thinks that the most important thing for a game designer is freedom. Don’t be bound by anything. Casual clothing can be worn as you like, and you can do whatever you want. A suit is OK, and he joked that since he founded Mars Entertainment, the only time he wore a suit was at his wedding.

Even if he attends Citibank's annual board meeting every year and subsequent charity dinners, he will only wear casual clothes.

Of course, no one is qualified to argue with people of Jester at the level of his level.

"Hello everyone, the last time I stood here and spoke, it was about eight years ago."

Jester's speech always likes to start with a humorous way. Sure enough, with his joke, the scene was originally quiet and serious atmosphere suddenly became relaxed.

The last time Jester was here, telling about his somatosensory game plan, O's development plan, and his retirement plan.

And eight years later, he will also be here, and he has been fighting for the electronic game career for twenty years. Say goodbye, everyone is curious about what Jester will say.

"I've been thinking about what I should say today. I thought a lot, but I thought it was not appropriate. In the end, I still thought that it was the last time, so I just said something from my heart. So, I had the first draft of this speech, and the title of this time. The name I gave was very simple, 'I'm just a player'."

Jester smiled and talked.

"Many people will add a label to me. These labels are diverse. They call me the chairman, they call me the president, and they call me the director..."

"But in my opinion, I am just an ordinary game developer, and I have thought of a little insignificant idea and was recognized by my peers."

"Deep in my heart, I'm always just the most ordinary player."

"Same as the 100 million players in Mars Entertainment, players."

"Today, I want to introduce our work and industry here. It may be a bit verbose or annoying, but it's the last time, I hope everyone can forgive it."

"I can't remember when and which game I played for the first time, maybe Odyssey, or maybe not. In my memory, the first game that left a deep impression on me was Atari's "Pong". I like this game very much. The first time I knew that the game could be made so fun. I was very curious at the time, curious about how such a magical thing was made."

"At that time, I was in junior high school, my father gave me an Apple computer. This computer was a second-hand product that a colleague of my father didn't use. But despite this, I was very happy because I was the first in the class to have my own computer, which belonged entirely to my own. It was not because I could use this Apple computer to play many games that directly published codes in magazines that seemed interesting."

“But I can use this computer to learn programming.”

"My first game that belongs entirely to me was done in my third grade of junior high school. It was a tennis work. I don't expect anyone to say now, 'This game's graphics are so bad' because it doesn't have graphics effects and the game is just a few numbers. However, my friends like this game. This makes me very proud."

"This inspired my vitality and passion for the game. This passion for the game finally determined my life path."

"In 1982, I went to the University of California, Los Angeles, which was a very outstanding school. I chose electrical engineering and a minor in computer programming. After class, I did not go back to the dormitory to rest, eat and sleep like other classmates. Instead, I rode my bike through more than ten kilometers to the place where my father worked and see how Atari's arcade was produced."

"When I was in my second grade, something very unpleasant happened in the industry. As everyone knows, the ET incident and the Atari impact were really a disaster. Everyone seemed to lose interest in video games in an instant. My ambition at that time was to be able to work at Atari after graduation and become a developer like Eugene Jarvis."

"If you have experienced that era, you will know how *Eugene is. "Defender" is really an extremely magical game. It completely changed my view of the game. The best game I thought before was just like "Donkey Kong". But "Defender" let me know that the game screen can also move!"

"Yes, a lot of people know about this game. Horizontal Scroll, Mr. Eugene's masterpiece. That was my idol at that time."

"But the situation at that time made me wonder, is there still a future for video games?"

"There is always a voice in my heart that reminds me that, yes, I know that there was a company called Nintendo in Japan at that time. When everyone was not optimistic about the game industry, they released their game console. The console was called, and our North American model was called nes. I asked my father to help me get it in advance because the machine was not yet available in North America."

"There are only three or four game plates. I was playing it all the time. One thing I suddenly realized, that is, if the games are as fun as the games above, how could the games be a promising industry?"

"I convinced my father, and my father, Mr. Mark Seney, at the time, that he was my first partner."

"I completed the development of "American Square". The inspiration I got from a graphic game. This game is very successful. I still remember the first five arcade machines of this game. How my father and I used hand-made them. Then I went to the arcade shop in Los Angeles to sell them. Now these five consoles are in our Mars Entertainment exhibition hall. If you have the opportunity to visit, you can go and see it."

"It is worth mentioning that these five arcade machines are still available now because of our good maintenance!"

"Of course, I founded Mars Entertainment at this time. Twenty-two years ago, I developed my first host Dream Wave. And now the host with this name is about to be released in the fifth model, with a total sales of more than 280 million units. It is the best-selling host in the world, no doubt. I am proud of this host."

"To be honest, the game development work at that time really made me and my colleagues grow a lot. Now it seems that the images at that time were much worse than they are now, and they were very rough. So we would often think about how to make players' imaginations exceed the limitations of the screen."

"It's a bit abstract, let's give an example. For example, we often think about it. If one day the game's image effect cannot be further improved, what should we do?"

"There are other growths, such as because of capacity, we have to make our code extremely refined and accurate, and we can't have any extravagance. In fact, our best programmer now started working at that time."

"There are still a lot of growth in this way and that, and the space is limited, and I don't want to tell it in detail."

"The story later was actually a bit old-fashioned. Many people know that the fierce console war, one game after another, one developer after another, one game company after another, and one game company after another. What I want to say is that although many things have changed over the years, there is one thing, from the day he was founded, to the current position, even if I have left the management position of Mars Entertainment, it has never changed."

"That is, the first element of our development of games is always fun."

"Why doesn't change? It's very simple, because human entertainment nature will not change. Like other media, our gaming industry also needs to create an "emotional response" in order to achieve success. Laughing, fear, pleasure, emotion, surprise, etc. Finally, whether our products can arouse the "resonance" of players will be used as the criterion for judging whether the product is successful. At the same time, this is also the lowest line of success in the "measurement"."

"In fact, there is another thing that has not changed."

"It is that we need to weigh the challenges set in the game and the impact of the rewards on the players. Different players can accept different levels. A 'heavy' player can accept more challenges, but an ordinary player can bear relatively fewer. We think it is the responsibility of Mars Entertainment to develop a game that suits all players. Of course, the 'all players' I mentioned here also includes friends who have not played our game yet."

"I can't stop talking about this. I originally wanted to say that there was one thing that had not changed, but I immediately came up with the second one, but before I finished talking about the second one, the third one popped out of my mind again."

"Then let's talk about the third one that remains unchanged."

"The third type of creativity that will not change is the 'importance' of creativity. Of course, this also includes providing a new development idea for existing games. But the most valuable thing is to be able to propose a brand new game idea. I am sure that there are such geniuses among the audience today. What our game industry needs is this kind of genius!"

"The fourth thing, which I always insist on. And will never change is the sales model of 'rely relying on software to sell hardware'. People buy games to play the games they like. I like to speak bluntly. Maybe what I say will make Mr. Ken Kutaraki unhappy. I look down on the sales strategy adopted by P3 to attract players by relying on DVD functions."

"Indeed, ps3 did sell a lot of units by this method, but looking at their game sales, we all know that the total sales of our Dream Wave 4 were 130 million units as of the third quarter of this year. And ps3 also had 120 million units, which is not much different, but our total sales of games are more than twice theirs."

“At this point, I agree with Steve Jobs’ view that ‘software is the user’s experience’, ‘software will not only promote the development of computer technology, it will promote the development of the entire consumer electronics industry’.”

"After speaking, what remains unchanged, then we can talk about what can be changed or what has been changed."

"When I was thinking about this question, one word immediately 'jumped' into my mind, that is 'bigger'. In the Western Hemisphere, the game industry has become 'bigger'. In North America, the value of game retail stores alone is close to $17 billion. Last year, American game sales once again achieved an 8% growth rate. Now games are everywhere. It is in your living room, in your office, in your pda, in your phone, and of course in your handheld. Maybe in your phone in the future."

"Many media reports show that young people now spend much more time playing games than watching TV. At the same time, the game itself has become 'bigger' in different directions."

"In turn, a larger development team, a larger development budget and a greater challenge when facing the release date. In addition, 'bigger' also means that the original large development companies have become 'bigger' by destroying relatively small peers. We are all very clear that the development budget for the next generation of games will be at least three times the current one. The development cost of any game will reach 8 digits. Such a huge budget can only be afforded by those 'bigger' developers. The 'bigger' investment in key games will bring them more profits. This is very normal for everyone."

"But I don't know if you noticed it. The books, movies and TV shows provided by developers to every consumer are the same. To this end, we will make our own 'not-out-of-the-straight' style. In the game, we will help players achieve their dreams and create their own wonderful endings."

“On the other hand, it is more obvious that the industry’s 'reduced' trend. Now, the risks we can encounter are getting smaller and smaller. It is easier for us to define ‘what is a video game’.”

"The types of games are also very clear: shooting, sports, puzzle, etc. However, who remembers when we last created a new type of game? It was probably when I released my somatosensory feeling? Did you suddenly realize that our games are getting more and more and more money and we are using less and less ways to interpret games?"

“Are the games we develop suitable for everyone?”

"Do you have friends and family who don't play games? So what do they like to do?"

"I will ask everyone here: Have you ever challenged yourself to develop a game that you don't want to play? I think these questions are a very important challenge for everyone who earns them."

"I can tell you that I have never been, and I never do things that I am not interested in. The games I make must be able to bring me enough passion."

"What kind of game can bring me enough passion?"

“I summarize it into four i.”

“The first i, the truly innovative vative, has something that hasn’t been in our game before.”

"The second i, intuition, in-leg tive. How to control characters naturally and position gameplay during game development all comes from intuition."

"The third i. The charm of the game, i girl i support. What will make you willing to spend time on the game? That is the charm of the game."

"The last i, interface, what kind of interface can attract players? Can players start the game in a completely new form? In fact, there are almost no games in the gaming industry that can do well in these four aspects at the same time, including all the games I made before."

"But this is my standard for making games, in actual work. We actually use this standard for our software and hardware development. A recent example is the O I developed. Many people here may have played this game. There are many interesting stories about the development process of this game, but now it is not about this time."

"After saying so much and wasting everyone's time, I think it's time to end it."

"Everyone has a time to say goodbye. Twenty-two years ago, I was nineteen and released my first game. This year, I was forty-one and a father of five children. With my wife who loves me, I spent almost all my energy on the game for the past twenty-two years, so I think it's time for me to do something else."

"Of course, it was not just the complaints from my wife that made me leave, but I felt that I had lost the inspiration for the game. I had no choice but to come up with unique ideas that would make me excited as before."

“I’m not a person who likes to walk the path I’ve walked.”

"I've done countless games. But I've only done one sequel."

"Okay, there is still a lot to say. Maybe it can't be finished in a few days or nights, so let's just say so much. It's time to end."

"I like everyone here, even though we come from different places in the world, some are South America, some are North America, some are Asia and even some are from Africa."

“Even if we speak different languages, even if we eat different foods, even if we have different experiences in the game, even if our views are to the left.”

“But everyone here today has a very important similarity.”

"That's what I want to say."

"The similarity is that we all have a 'player heart'."
To be continued...