Chapter 357: Platformers and Mascots IV
It sure is intriguing. Having another platformer and mascot-led video game, which also happens to be blue.
As for the odds of it happening... quite high.
Alexander simply decided to do it. His whole thought process on it wasn't even that deep.
If Sonic was slotted because South Island has a summery feel to it, then the new game was decided on because it was blue.
It was as simple as that.
Of course, there's also that Worlds Collide comic book that got Alexander's attention a while back... in the past-future timeline, that is.
So yeah...
After the Blue Blur, up next was the intricacies of the Blue Bomber.
Which is none other than... Mega Man.
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Capcom's own mascot.
Not for console sales, of course. Just the representative for their early third-party video game development capabilities.
Not exactly at the level of the console mascots but should be quite a game and character in itself.
The Creed Chaos System may already have Sonic and its "Chaos" Emerald focus, however, it didn't hurt to have a complementary mascot alongside it.
Mascots for that matter.
These blue fellows are just patches of a plundered batch, after all.
In lieu of the upcoming line-up, Nintendo could have Mario for all that Alexander could care about.
Anyways, Mega Man.
Another platform game development process for the books.
Platform games. Often simplified as a platformer. Sometimes jump-and-run.
A gaming experience wherein the core objective is to move the player character from one point to another in a crafted in-game environment.
Environments, worlds, zones, levels, and whatnot... which are characterized by designs that consist of uneven terrain and suspended platforms of varying heights that require jumping and climbing to traverse.
Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay... such as swinging from vines or grappling hooks, jumping off walls, air dashing, gliding through the air, being shot from cannons, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines.
More often than not, these processes are needed to reach a goal. To mix it up some more, there are enemy confrontations and obstacle avoidance that happens along the way.
It's a rather played-out and "retro" genre during the gaming generation that Alexander had been from. However, it is quite the spectacle at this point in time that he is re-living.
Which is why after Sonic, Creed Games is currently on a streak to produce another one.
Consequently, Mega Man is a bit of an outlier to the traditional platformer. It's non-linear and might as well be a run-and-gunner than a jump-and-runner.
That is a distinction for later though.
"How is the progress on your ends, by the way?" Alexander couldn't swivel his chair, so he outright asked. "GameDev 1?"
"It's done and dusted, little boss." A game developer, who had the designation, straight-up answered. "The level designs and the sprites necessary for Robot Master Cut Man's stage are more than prepared."
"Does that count for all the other Robot Masters?"
"It's not just Cut Man. We've also gone through Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man, to Elec Man." GameDevel 5 answered.
"Including Dr. Wiley's boss finale elements, little boss." Another GameDev, GameDev 7, added. He just likes the topic of bosses especially when it involved the little boss. It's boss mania if you ask him.
"That's good to hear." Alexander only hummed at that.
With these guys done with their assignments, it meant that it was his turn.
Which might as well be coding magic in the eyes of these sprite designers slash programming minors.
Alexander's job was no magic though.
Then again, it might as well be. Especially with the way he's doing it.
At his designated desk, a three-monitor set-up of custom Pixar computers was in place.
And after a few bits of commands, the whole thing booted up.
Assets from the individual GD workstations were collated in a manner of seconds, which are all processed by the first monitor.
Coding lines and programs are then filtered at the second monitor, which happened to be the middle one and Alexander's expertise. Wherein he spots errors or compresses the unnecessary or redundant ones.
All in red and green-themed, just as he always preferred it.
As for the third monitor, it might as well be considered the rendering stage... with quite the flexibility. Showcasing perfected end results and strangely enough, it strategically plays out every possibility that a stage of gameplay can do.
When Alexander spots a display anomaly on the third monitor, he simply backtracks to the coding monitor to correct it.
When he finds something missing or out of place, he then picks an asset from the first monitor and assimilates it to the whole ensemble.
No one ever said that the integration of dubbing elements, animation sequences, 7 or so game stages, and then the whole gaming interface was going to be easy.
How come their little boss really made it seem like so?
It was a strange process that the onlooking game development team could never understand.
Especially when the little boss is just typing away on one keyboard and gracefully maneuvering through three outputs.
Ever since their participation in the Flappy Birds development, it was always the little boss that finishes everything up... and it was spectacular in every way.
It was development magic in their eyes and they almost always rubbed their sockets up to truly believe that an 11-year-old was the one who was doing it.
They'd probably get used to it at some point.
If not, their already computer-exposed sockets could really take a turn to the nerdy glasses that most people in their profession are known for.
Anyways, these 30 or so game devs, along with a spearhead like Alexander were the whole team that make up Creed Games.
Very non-traditional and very much breaks the usual development conventions that other companies go through.
With game ideas already lined up and the 1986 urgency to dominate the video game market, it was as streamlined to Alexander's preference as can be.
It was a rather interesting dynamic and probably not something that can be done by anyone else. Not without deep knowledge of code, gaming history, and especially not without Chaos.
Of course, someone so busy as Alexander can't be the lead developer all the time...
As such, when he does find that they're as self-sufficient as his Creed Comics team, the structure of Creed Games would most likely morph into the usual game development tradition and expand.
Via recruitment or cannibalizing other game development companies.
All in all, Creed Games was a rather interesting dynamic, in terms of how it currently is and how it will be in the future.
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"If you don't mind me asking, little boss." GameDev 2 voiced out and voiced out he did.
"Isn't Mega Man supposed to be released for August of next month? Why the rush to finish it now? July isn't even over yet. Is Mega Man rushed to be alongside Sonic so that it could double-team the Super Mario Brothers? So, is it going to be the Creed Blue Fellows versus the Nintendo Plumber Brothers?"
That sure was quite the barrage, so Alexander just succinctly answered. "It's actually for a convention showcase. Which should help build Mega Man's momentum for its widespread release."
"Is the hyper-advanced Creed Chaos System finally unveiling its prowess to the Consumer Electronics Show?" GameDev 2 muttered. "The timing is way off though. The summer CES should have passed already."
"It's a different type of convention than that trade show." Alexander supplemented, all the while supplementing an Elec Man lapse he spotted.
"I can't seem to name something that's happening this time of the year." The talkative GameDev 2 muttered on.
"It's actually just Comic-Con." Alexander sighed at himself for being roundabout. How he also hoped that that should have stopped his chatty-bot of an employee.
"Comic-Con, huh? That's exciting!" Can a chatty-bot even stop?
"Which reminds me..." Alexander unwittingly typed 'Effin Extroverts' in frustration. "GameDev 2, do tell the Pixar team from upstairs to prep their lamp for San Diego as well."
"Aye aye, little boss." GameDev did as told, not realizing the irksomeness of his ways.
Unfortunately, he's a skilled programmer that has a lot to offer, so Alexander could only make do with the guy... for now.