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The Years of Senior Gamanian, Steve Tsay in the Fight of R&D
SDG-GD-Steve Tsay(蔡岳峰)
Employee: Tsay, Yue-Feng (A.K.A: Steve Tsay)
Started from: October 1st, 1998 (FullSoft era, located in Yi-an Road, Chunghe)
Total employees then: 20+
Position then: responsible for the main route of ‘Fast Food Shop’
Current position: Manager of Game R&D department, SEEDO Game
Steve manned multiple tasks on his own, and Albert also involved in every step
G!VOICE: During the FullSoft time, ‘Convenient Store’ helped establishing the foundation of Gamania, please share the working experience while producing ‘Convenient Store’ with us.
Steve Tsay: That was my very first time and I had to learned by mistakes and errors. Yu (Yu, Jin-Hong), who started at the same time with me, have taught me a lot. He was responsible for ‘Warring States 2’. In the early development of ‘Convenient Store’, I was the only one who was in charge of planning and programming. There was no protocol during the design. I just managed to realize my ideas and test them by myself. There were only a dozen of workers in R&D department with the owner running the final test. I made sure every detail was fine.
What impressed me the most, was 60 crazy working hours right before the launch of ‘Convenient Store’. We worked our ass off to the next day and went home, had some sleep, and back to the office in the afternoon.
Grand Launch of ‘Convenient Store’ on July 1st, 1999
Input Communication Time, Establishing a effective team
G!VOICE: What are the differences of R&D between the FullSoft time and now in 2012.
Steve Tsay: The greatest difference was stand-alone and online games. Stand-alone version could be launched right after the production, thenwe could just sit back and relax until the start of next project. Online game is another story though, the real tasks start “after” the launch of game. We have to consistently update the game to keep up with the market and you never know when the end is.
When there were fewer projects, we had to play multiple roles. It was okay to have messy codes as long as it was understandable for oneself. The approaches didn’t have to be specific, either. Now, there are more than a dozen of people working on a single project and there are even more than 40 workers assigned for ‘Bright Shadow’. One –man project no longer exists. The problems of co-operation started to emerge then and the coding required certain standards as well. We have to devote time on making communications while the functions changed mildly.
G!VOICE: So there wasn’t much change regarding the technology?
Steve Tsay: Mostly on graphics, before 2000, most games were 2D and it is 3D market now. The methods are different and tools are different. There are some assisting software and new faculty for the motions of characters exclusively.
Early games were like ‘Warring States2’(left) made in 2D. As the development of technology, recent games are made in 3D as ‘Core Blaze’ (right).
3D graphics no longer require output 2D graphics piece by piece. Editors can be used to assist inputs after the character is established.
With larger scale, each system inclines to manufacture with editors, such as map editor, paper doll editor, motion editor, task editors…etc. We would also develop or purchase game engine, these were all void back then. ‘Convenient Store’ had only one map editor then.
(Source of picture: http://udk.com)
The Orient-styled 3D master piece of ‘Core Blaze’, by RedGate, Gamania, was developed with the the Unreal Engine 3 purchased by Gamania.
There were not much change on the development environment for programmers and planners. However, the emphasis of teamwork stands out. There would be more than one person editing the file, so the original coding software becomes crucial and the old habits of development shall be changed.
Platform Integration, stride for the future of diverse entertainment
G!VOICE: Are you always working on PC Games? Ever switched the channel?
Steve Tsay: Actually I tried out a lot. I started with pure stand-alone PC games. After ‘Lineage’, I was focused on MMORPG as well as Casual Games. I was planning for my own game platform back then and RAS was launched in 2004, then the Dophin, and the beanful! now, which is the latest platform greatly promoted by Gamania. In the future, all the games will be operated on beanfun! In the year of 2010, Gamania Taiwan achieved the tough mission to integrate all the GASH accounts of players in Taiwan as the beanfun! account.
We started to be involved in mobile games long ago, we are also producing Web Games, animation, comics, and even the establishment of digital reading platform –Batteread. We started to make diverse R&D since 2002 and different departments and sub-companies are responsible for various projects. SEEDO is still focused on games and the main R&D is oriented toward Online PC Games.
Consistently improving working manners, establishing the consensus among different groups
G!VOICE: Do you think you’ve had any changes so far?
Steve Tsay: This is my first job. I didn’t think much at the beginning. I just considered producing games was fun. Friends and relatives also had no clue what I am doing. They had a vague idea of me being a programmer – which was nice – but they have no idea how a game was produced.
I had the chances to interview job applicants and I was astonished when I read how they played ‘Convenient Store’ during junior high school on their resumes. I then realized it has been so many years.
My job description is completely different now. Instead of coding, I now focus on administration and management as the manger. I deal with more people than computer programming.
The technical process has also changed, there was no standard nor method. We only cared for the results. Now, there are standards for all the methods and organizations. There were transitions occurred during the development. 2004, Gamania R&D consistently make improvements for SEEDO projects and projects thereafter based on the accumulated experiences for years.
SEEDO projects held by Gamania R&D in 2004 with the purpose to establish the trust and consensus among all the participants for better communication and teamwork. A working protocol was therefore established. SEEDO was actually named after this project.
The working atmosphere changed as well. Small team communicates more easily and responds faster. The game scale now requires teamwork and the pace is quite different too. However, as the emergence of mobile and web games, small team may come into play once again. We never know!
Business trip in Korea when the Korean version of ‘Convenient Store’ was launched in 2000. (on the left: Steve Tsay, the middle: Albert, the right: Juan-juan)