In the conference room of Nebula Games, everyone was holding their first meeting after the new year.
The others were also discussing the topics of this meeting.
At that moment, Lucas walked into the conference room, and everyone quieted down.
Lucas looked at everyone and said: "You all must have heard about it by now, right? About the competition between Zeus and Huan Yu, just like the local game companies, we will develop our new game using Huan Yu as the model. No more small talk; let's check out our new project first."
They watched as a title appeared on the big screen.
Everyone present felt a bit curious.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – clearly, this was the name of the new game project.
And just like the subtitle, it should be set against the background of modern war.
But after seeing some tags below, many people felt even more curious.
Multiplayer, fictional war – these were fairly easy to get.
After all, it just meant the game had a multiplayer mode, with a background of made-up war themes.
Looking at the title, everyone felt a bit puzzled.
"Boss Lucas, are we buying an IP too?" During the question time, someone asked out of curiosity.
After all, the biggest buzz lately was Atra's 'Storm Action.'
And based on what Lucas said, this game didn't spell it out, but one version would launch on the Zeus platform, and another on Cosmos – clearly aiming to compete.
"Of course not; we're creating our own IP." Hearing this, Lucas smiled and shook his head.
"This new game project will be a bit different from what you might expect. We need to make a thread-based FPS game."
"As for the cinematic style, you can think of it as turning the game into a movie, giving it a film-like feel, with the pacing and scenes of a Hollywood blockbuster."
Lucas looked at everyone and spoke slowly.
The Call of Duty series – in the previous life, it became the top IP in FPS games.
You could say it all started with Modern Warfare.
First off, in terms of single-player story, the Modern Warfare series was a peak for Call of Duty.
Unlike Half-Life, which pioneered FPS storytelling, or Halo, which nailed 30 seconds of intense action.
What Modern Warfare did best was create a real movie-like feel.
Cinematic games – in this parallel world, the idea wasn't fully defined yet, and many game designers just used it to make visuals look better.
But cinematic games are much more than that, and they can be split into three main types.
The first is like the one-take style in the new God of War, or homages in games, such as the hallway level in Little Nightmares 2, which clearly nods to Roman Polanski's classic thriller The Tenant. This is a way to use movie techniques to pull players in deeper.
Then there are interactive cinematic games, like Detroit and Heavy Rain as prime examples.
Finally, the style most games use: presenting game content with a movie-like experience, like Uncharted's wide branching stories, The Last of Us with its perfect camera work, and Metal Gear's seamless shot transitions.
Plus the audio-visual feel, level design – all making Call of Duty: Modern Warfare near perfect.
Most FPS players only realized with Modern Warfare that FPS games could feel like watching a big Hollywood movie.
The camera use, story pacing – it was just like a full blockbuster.
What made it stand out even more was that it wasn't just cinematic in plot; it was in the levels players experienced.
The Modern Warfare trilogy had unforgettable classic levels in every game.
Especially the flashback level called 'All Ghillied Up,' which countless players hailed as a classic.
Of course, beyond the great story, what made Call of Duty an annual bestseller with millions of sales was its multiplayer mode.
Kill streaks, tons of gear, and a tight, thrilling fast-paced feel.
This set the core foundation for the whole COD series' multiplayer.
An exciting single-player story, solid multiplayer mode.
That was the main reason Lucas picked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
As for Black Ops, it was great too.
Characters like Reznov stuck with so many players, but some levels were too sensitive, and approval issues would be a big headache, so Lucas decided against it for now.
Before starting the project, Lucas explained some settings from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to the team.
As an FPS game.
The most important parts were the shooting feel and related actions.
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series was excellent in story, level design, and pacing, but looking at it now, there were still many details to improve.
For example, a richer action system – Lucas drew from the rebooted Modern Warfare in the previous life. Sure, Infinity Ward went overboard with the Russian villain plot, but the reboot's base was still top-notch.
"We already used some cinematic story techniques in It Takes Two."
"But in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's single-player story, we need to go even deeper."
Looking at the team, Lucas also gave a quick overview of key things to watch in the game.
One thing different from other FPS games was the story approach.
Modern Warfare used multi-threaded storytelling.
Players didn't control one fixed hero or side.
Instead, it showed the whole modern war story from multiple angles.
Plus, the game deeply portrayed teammates outside the player's control.
The teammates in the game actually helped players in real ways, not like those useless ones yelling cheers while holding you back.
Interactions, and the reliable feel amid bullets flying – all that made players see their teammates as real people.
In the previous life, many players even beat hard modes not solo, but with NPC teammates carrying them.
On the NPC teammate front, that was one of Nebula Games' strengths.
Nebula Games didn't claim to be world-leading in other tech.
But in AI performance, they were in a class of their own.
And compared to past AI work, Matthew's team had made new progress lately.
Of course, the development costs weren't cheap.
As for the whole Modern Warfare series' story, Lucas planned to make all three parts together.
The story in the previous life's Modern Warfare was top-notch.
Unexpected twists and turns, with an overall tone leaning dark and hopeless.
The Modern Warfare tale wasn't a hero's song, but a brutal look at military power struggles and losses.
But plot-wise, each part of the trilogy wasn't long on its own – main story not even over 10 hours.
For a big game, that flow was way too short.
But cramming the three parts' timelines and character switches together might feel disjointed.
So in the end, Lucas decided to make three separate games, but release them as a bundle pack. Players could buy any one, or grab the full pack for all three.
For multiplayer, buying any one let players join online.
(End of this chapter)
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