American History 1988
Chapter 368 - 357: Three Steps

Chapter 368: Chapter 357: Three Steps

The lifespan of Flash games is too short, which was a common early industry problem.

After all, short production cycles doomed the gameplay to be brief.

Moreover, every time a Flash game loads, it occupies the browser’s cache.

This leads to a phenomenon where the longer the game time, the more likely the player’s computer will lag.

Although Explorer has added a cache clearing feature, very few players actively use it.

For these reasons, including current computer hardware limitations, Flash game designs intentionally shortened the process.

Thus, their popularity rises quickly and fades just as fast.

"The most direct way to ensure Toktok’s daily cash flow is to continuously develop new Flash games."

Dean thought clearly; without pursuing quality, this was the fastest measure to see effects.

"Constantly developing new games?" Thomas hadn’t expected Dean’s solution to the problem to be so simple and crude.

"I remember in the Toktok game center, there was a Sokoban game that took less than a week to develop?"

"Uh, that was an accident~" Thomas tried to explain, "It was just a small thing tinkered with by an employee in his spare time."

"But it’s popular, isn’t it?" Dean had a different idea, "We should encourage this kind of behavior.

Interesting games are not necessarily big productions. As long as they create value, they are good games.

Moreover, the Toktok game center currently needs more games to bolster its lineup.

So we need to hire more people to develop more Flash games; even if they fail, the losses won’t be too great.

We can also encourage employees to express their own creativity, and once a game is successful, they will receive a significant share of the rewards."

Until the Consumer Business Division built its own game production team, Flash games were a good transitional object.

"OK, I will set up a few more development teams, and also plan to recruit some teams with game production experience."

Thomas’s Consumer Business Division actually already had several hundred people.

Most of them were supporting the development of Toktok, the chat software, following the practice of big software companies.

A big team would handle a set of features in the menu, with each small team responsible for one function.

This clear division of labor and streamlined work mode ensured the development efficiency of the software.

And if a bug emerged, it could be quickly traced and traced back to the specific erroneous code.

But the production of Flash games was still quite amateurish.

The teams did not cooperate closely, and Thomas planned to thoroughly integrate the internal resources.

"This is Bit’s first foray into game production, and we might lack experience.

But establishing an independent game studio has become an inevitable choice in the future.

So let’s build our team according to this standard, which is also another measure I’m about to discuss."

Developing more Flash games was only a temporary solution to ensure the business flow at the Toktok game center.

Because this technology was destined to be phased out, trying to treat them as an evergreen money tree was almost impossible.

"Boss, are you saying we have a more long-term strategy?" Thomas now also understood that Dean had many plans for the Consumer Business Division.

But this was a good thing, indicating that Dean was really nurturing the Consumer Business Division as Bit’s core future business.

Facing Thomas’s hopeful eyes, Dean couldn’t help but smile.

"Thomas, you and I both know the limitations of Flash games.

Since that’s the case, we must certainly consider the future transformation."

"Praise your wisdom!" Thomas did not miss the opportunity to give a flattering compliment.

As the head of the Consumer Business Division, he was more eager than anyone for the company to invest more resources in his department.

"Don’t get too excited too soon, getting more resources also means you’re taking on more responsibility.

If you can’t deliver satisfactory results, even I won’t be able to stop the board from holding you accountable."

Dean deliberately pointed this out, making Thomas look much more serious, "So, Boss, your idea is..."

"Constrained by Flash’s technical reasons, we can only make some animated games.

In terms of quality, it indeed falls at the bottom of the disdain chain compared to professional game companies.

But Flash technology has not reached its end. With the advancement of computer hardware and updates in browser languages,

Flash’s graphic effects will also improve, and by then, we can try to make some longer online games."

If we consider Toktok’s current Flash games as fragmented small games, in the future, they could evolve into web games like "Mole Manor," "If You’re a Brother, Come Chop Me," and other long-term games.

So the mid-term goal is to fully tap into Flash’s potential, aiming to transition into the new millennium."

"Of course, this still belongs to a mid-term transition, and in the meantime, we should also start making some real client games."

"Client games? Boss, are you talking about PC games like ’Warcraft’?" Thomas’s eyes lit up.

Last year, Blizzard released its first milestone game since its establishment, "Warcraft," and its name was not unheard of.

"Thomas, do you think we currently have that kind of technical strength?" Dean’s counter-question left the latter choked up.

That was a game company’s accumulation over years, and Bit had even been in the field for less than half a year.

"Alright, Boss, so what exactly are you referring to when you say client-side games?" Thomas asked, slightly embarrassed as he shrugged.

"Don’t forget we have a new programming language—Java, which offers a better visual effect than Flash.

Most importantly, its environment and libraries support more complex graphics, movements, and sound effects designs," Dean said, as he fetched a document from his desk and handed it to him.

"This is...?" Thomas flipped through the document, his mouth slightly agape.

"Some game design inspirations that might be useful to you.

Although Java is often used in browser plugins, it can entirely function as an independent application on PCs.

Toktok games could be designed based on this client, and it would still be a kind of online game."

In later years, Java games usually run on mobile devices, but PCs can as well.

All you need is to download the corresponding language runtime library, and it operates even more smoothly on PCs than on mobiles.

"But Boss, Java games take up more memory. The current internet speed might struggle to support an online game based on this design," Thomas said.

Thomas knew about Java and that it was more suited for game project development than Flash.

But Java games were too large, often requiring dozens or hundreds of MB, which was a disaster for the current "drinking straw" analog phone lines.

Flash games didn’t have this problem, loading a few hundred KB at a time, slow by some ten seconds or so was enough.

It was normal for Thomas to have such concerns, for most households’ internet speed ranged only between 14~56KB/s.

It’s fine for loading Flash games, but Java imposes much more strain.

You can’t expect players to spend several hours waiting every time they turn on their computers, then play games.

That’s impractical, because when the computer uses the internet, the phone is temporarily disabled.

"The situation will be changing soon, Thomas, have you heard of DSL dial-up?"

"It seems to be Bell Labs’ patent," Thomas recalled vaguely.

"This technology will soon be commercialized. AOL there is getting ready to upgrade their network system.

With DSL technology, not only will network and telephone signals no longer interfere with each other.

Most importantly, the bandwidth speed will see a substantial improvement—it’s about 100-200 times that of traditional dial-up!"

Thomas gasped, "God, that speed is comparable to a dedicated line!"

"So we shouldn’t look at future internet speeds from the perspective of a small tube.

Its proliferation won’t take long, at most two years.

During this time, we can perfect Java game development.

Though it still doesn’t compare to professional game engines, it’s very close."

"By the time we gain enough experience with Java games, it will be the perfect moment for us to enter the PC game market,"

Dean’s planning for the game business involved a three-step strategy, with the first being entry-level Flash games.

They are simple to produce, low cost, and quick to develop, very suitable for training the team.

The second step would be Java games, which could be considered a kind of mini-client game.

With library support, Java games could be rendered using graphics engines like OpenGL.

So in terms of visual effects, they are much more realistic than Flash.

Of course, their development cycle and costs are a bit higher than Flash, representing a medium-scale project investment.

As a transition, it’s a very good choice.

The last step would be real PC games, which are often well-produced and attract large numbers of players to try.

Sometimes the release of an influential client game could bring about much media coverage from within the industry.

Of course, these are the most expensive among the three types of games to develop, with tens of millions of US dollars in production costs being quite ordinary.

A few years of production is also typical for the industry, a project only big companies could handle.

It was for this reason that Dean decided to attempt PC games last.

Moreover, Toktok’s goal was not standalone client games but interactive online games.

Playing using a free-to-play model, Dean was very adept at this.

All in all, this strategic transition period could last about 3-5 years, after which the Consumer Business Division would gradually start, investing in larger client game projects.

However, this doesn’t mean they would abandon web games, as long as they are profitable, there’s no reason not to engage in them."

"Hopefully, this DSL technology will become popular soon, I can hardly wait," Thomas said, now that he had tasted the sweetness of the game business, so his ambitions were gradually expanding, aiming at more professional client games.

"Never underestimate the speed of technological advancement; it’s usually faster than you imagine."

The DSL technology, using different communication frequencies from telephone signals, allows it to not interfere with one another while still using telephone lines.

And with download speeds up to 1MB/s, it can meet most online games’ communication needs.

AOL plans to gradually popularize this technology within two years, and by then, the internet will experience a revolutionary change.

And just as Dean and Thomas had finished discussing the future strategy for the Consumer Business Division, a call from Washington kept him busy once again.

Netscape was about to go public.