CH149 - Woz

Evelyn pondered for a moment before responding, "Your concept isn't as challenging as Pac-Man because, in your design, the movements of the player-controlled guardians and the AI-controlled aliens are fixed."

"The player-controlled Millennium Falcon can only move horizontally to attack enemies descending from above."

"Meanwhile, the AI-controlled aliens can only attempt to break through the defences from top to bottom."

"They lack further intelligent decision-making, so in terms of production time..."

"It should take about eight to ten weeks."

Ethan was quite pleased with this answer, "So, you mean it could be finished by mid-April?"

"If all goes well," Evelyn added.

But before Ethan could start celebrating, she continued, "However, eight to ten weeks is an ideal scenario. If Steven could join and write the alien AI code with me, I'm confident we could finish the game within eight weeks."

"But if I were to write it alone..."

"It might take longer than ten weeks."

"Your idea may seem simple, but it requires certain logic, such as the trajectory of the alien spacecraft changing as the player destroys more of them."

"Just this variable alone could take me several days to code."

In the original Space Invaders game, the design of the alien spacecraft was quite simple. At the beginning, five rows of aliens would appear on the screen, moving as a group from left to right to dodge player attacks while advancing forward. If they breached the player's defenses, reaching the bottom edge of the screen, the game would end, and the player's guardianship would be declared a failure.

In that game, the difficulty increase was not very noticeable; the aliens' speed would increase slightly after a certain number of them were destroyed, similar to how the speed of the snake in Snake accelerates after consuming a certain amount of food.

In Ethan's design, he made a slight modification to this monotony of collective movement and forward progression. After a certain number of alien spacecraft from the same batch were destroyed by the player, a few would break away from the group and charge at high speed towards the player's position.

This change meant that players would not become mentally fatigued from encountering the same movement patterns from each wave of enemies after playing for a certain period. The occasional surprise attacks kept players' nerves on edge, providing a thrilling experience, inspired by Galaga.

Indeed.

Ethan had borrowed this idea.

Because the AI's movement patterns also required logical decision-making, like launching a surprise attack by locking onto the player's position, which is constantly changing, determining the point of impact was a challenge for Evelyn.

If it were like Pac-Man, with movement locking, the game would be over, as no player could escape the super-aimed precision guidance.

But if the point of impact were based on the player's position just before the ship's charge, then dodging would be too easy for players, requiring only side-to-side movement to avoid.

When the obstacles designed by the designer fail to pose any challenge to the players, their existence becomes meaningless. Thus, finding the right balance to make the game exciting without directly ending it is a crucial consideration for a developer.

And solving this problem...

Really takes time.

So, when Evelyn mentioned needing someone, Ethan did not hesitate to nod in agreement.

"This task, I've considered it before, let Damian work with you."

"Damian?" Evelyn paused, asking, "Have you verified his skills?"

"No," Ethan shook his head.

"Then how do you know he can do it?" Evelyn inquired.

Ethan had an answer, "Because he's from Stanford."

"If he couldn't even code, how did he earn his degree?"

"Okay, let's give it a try then." Evelyn felt Ethan's reasoning was sound, but she also thought it might be better to have reliable people handle reliable tasks, especially on such urgent projects.

"If possible, you should still call Steven over."

"His expertise could ensure the game is developed on time within two months."

"And then..."

"I think our company needs a team of developers."

Evelyn winked at Ethan, implying, "You get my point, right?"

Ethan certainly understood his sister's hint! He had been thinking about recruiting since last year and was ready to take action.

But plans don't always keep up with changes, and some things happen too suddenly.

Of course, these are all excuses now.

As the CEO, he indeed hadn't managed the company well.

"I understand," Ethan admitted his mistake, "After this busy period, I will closely monitor the company's recruitment and specifically form a development team."

"Because we're not just making games; we're also making consoles."

"As for why we're not recruiting now..."

"I think you can understand, right?"

"Magnavox and Atari are targeting us. If we start recruiting massively for development now, it would signal a counterattack to them. We can't send such a dangerous signal because it might prompt them to prepare more, and I'm also afraid they might take the opportunity to infiltrate our company."

Evelyn nodded slightly at this consideration.

Then, she winked at her brother again.

And that gesture made Ethan smile knowingly, "Alright, alright."

"About Woz..."

"I'll check on that."

Actually, when Ethan realized he only had a few months left for development, his top priority was to bring in Woz, who possessed revolutionary technology.

His hesitation was due to concerns about disrupting Apple's development schedule, but after his sister repeatedly assured him that having Woz on board would make things go smoother, Ethan no longer hesitated and made his way to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.

And when Ethan walked into the three-story Apple headquarters...

He realized his concerns were unfounded!

Because after Apple was established, Jobs and Woz had completely taken a hands-off approach!