America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 40 Bruce Lee, Fighting Games

"Sam, don't think, just name three Chinese people you know."

Sam opened his mouth, his mind racing, and then he managed to squeeze out a few words:

"Bruce Lee... uh, uh... Lin Lixin, He Guoyuan."

Lin Lixin rubbed his temples, never expecting that he would one day be ranked behind him.

However, this also demonstrates just how terrifying Bruce Lee's influence was in North America.

Even those who know nothing about the mysterious Eastern power have the name 'Bruce Lee' in their minds, and it is even consistently ranked first.

Even Lin Lixin, who had lived and worked with Sam for so long, was not ranked first in his subconscious.

Amidst the laughter and conversation, Li Guohao had already finished reading the game draft submitted by Lin Lixin, and for a moment he was at a loss for words.

"Fighting games... are practically like martial arts duels on a video game console."

Li Guohao now fully understood why Lin Lixin had specifically asked him for help.

This character named "Feilong" is clearly a fighter designed based on his father.

As his successor, who had received martial arts training from his father since childhood, he naturally knew everything about Bruce Lee.

Brandon Lee's gaze remained fixed on the character design for "Flying Dragon".

After a long while, he suddenly raised his head and looked at Lin Lixin with a serious expression.

"Mr. Lin, I don't know what the final outcome of this game will be, but we can make a deal."

"An agreement?"

Lin Lixin was slightly taken aback, but he already had a guess in his mind.

"If this game is really as fun as you described in the documentation, then we won't need any 'flying dragons'."

Li Guohao pointed to Feilong's name and said, word by word,

"You can use the name 'Bruce Lee,' and I will try to persuade my mother to accept it."

【Ding! 】

[Task Release]: Brandon Lee's Approval

[Note]: Develop a recognized and excellent work.

[Reward]: All attributes +20

[Additional Objective]: Persuade Brandon Lee's mother by relying on the quality of the game itself.

[Bonus Reward]: Skill Pack x1

Lin Lixin's breath hitched, and he nodded seriously.

Brandon Lee was clearly very interested in this proposal, which is why he offered such amazing terms.

This made Lin Lixin feel that the pressure had increased considerably.

He looked at the requirements of that extra objective and suddenly felt a headache coming on.

Unlike Brandon Lee, a progressive and open-minded young man, his mother, Linda, was much more difficult to deal with.

Let alone video games, which are now universally despised as "scams," it's difficult to gain her approval even for making movies or writing books.

In Lin Lixin's memory, she spent almost her entire life fighting against those she disliked who were using Bruce Lee's popularity for their own purposes.

……

Since the development was still in its infancy, Li Guohao couldn't offer any help by staying any longer, so he exchanged contact information and left in a hurry.

Sam watched Lin Lixin type mnemonic phrases on the keyboard and curiously came closer.

"Speaking of which, how do you plan to design this 'fighting game'? Like a high-end version of 'Kung Fu Hustle'?"

He had just practiced kung fu and knew roughly what it meant.

It's simply a matter of controlling your character to continuously defeat enemies attacking from both sides.

The gameplay is very similar to Contra, except that it's a martial arts-themed challenge game.

The most interesting thing is that the protagonist has multiple moves such as low kicks and knee strikes, and he has different fighting styles when facing different enemies.

To put it bluntly, in Sam's view, this is still within the scope of "re-skinning" and is not new.

"No, this time we're not going to clear the levels; we're going to do a 'game theory' approach."

"What do you mean?"

"Simply put, it's rock-paper-scissors."

"??"

Lin Lixin ignored Sam's bewilderment and started operating directly on the screen.

The well-packaged N language significantly accelerated his development progress.

In just one day, he managed to create a framework for the game from scratch.

Burn and install.

Sam picked up the control panel that Lin Lixin handed him and stared blankly at the two pixelated figures on the screen.

It looks like it's temporary reused material pulled from Contra.

"This... is what you meant by 'fighting game'?"

He saw a health bar at each end of the top of the screen, clearly indicating that this was a battle mode.

Whoever depletes the opponent's health first wins.

Although this thing was easy to understand at a glance, Sam couldn't figure out what was so fun about it.

"I feel like... fighting between two pixelated characters... isn't as fun as a beat-'em-up game?"

A bunch of low-level monsters at least gave him a sense of satisfaction, like cutting melons and vegetables.

"Come on, give it a try."

Lin Lixin kept pressing the buttons on the control panel, and his pixelated character moved up and down accordingly, jumping up and crouching down.

With skepticism in mind, Sam began to try operating the system, imitating Lin Lixin's approach.

"Ready? I'm going to do it!"

Lin Lixin gave a reminder, then directly controlled his character to jump close to Sam, and then precisely crouched down, actually dodging Sam's mid-section kick.

Then came the three-hit combo. Although the animation was extremely rough, Sam felt a sensation he had never experienced before through the screen vibrations and the flickering of the character when hit.

This is a complex feeling that you can usually only experience in martial arts movies.

The impact of the impact.

"Just now... I clearly kicked you, and you dodged it by crouching?"

Sam recalled Lin Lixin's flamboyant squat earlier and was unsure whether it was a bug or a deliberate design.

"That's right, this is what I meant by 'rock, paper, scissors'."

It's obviously pointless to talk to Sam about terms like "chahe," "lihui," and "dakang" now.

But there is one thing that everyone, whether they've played it or not, can understand and deeply love.

"Flying Kick, Finishing Move!"

Lin Lixin quickly pressed a series of commands, and the character he was controlling suddenly burst out of a ball of black light. Then he kicked Sam's character to the ground, emptying his health bar.

After more than ten minutes, Sam finally figured out how to play the game, and he looked very excited.

"If this were made into an arcade machine, it would be a huge hit! It's practically made for arcades!"

Sam had never seen a game that was so well-suited to arcades as Street Fighter.

Even popular titles like Contra and Metal Gear Solid don't have the same strong compatibility as Street Fighter.

Both in terms of gameplay and commercial potential, this game is truly amazing.

"What we need to do now is to create more characters and design different skills, moves, and fighting styles for each of them."

Lin Lixin smiled. Thanks to the existence of Micro-Nova, their current graphics performance is able to support such an amazing work.

Sam swallowed hard, finally understanding why Lin Lixin had gone out of his way to find Li Guohao.