The scale of the Millison Film Festival was about the same as the Oscars in the original world.
It was filled with celebrities, and it was incredibly rare to see so many prominent figures from the film industry gathered in one place. This was truly a significant event.
This was the result of decades of film culture development and accumulation.
Takayuki looked on with a bit of envy.
He wondered when the video game industry would be able to hold an event of such scale.
At the moment, Murasaki was putting in effort toward this goal, but it still felt a little immature. It would definitely be impossible to compare to the scale of something like the Millison Film Festival in the short term.
It would still take time.
However, Takayuki did think it might be a good idea to suggest that Murasaki study some of the advantages of similar film award events like the Millison Film Festival. Cultural awards for various works were all quite similar, and there were plenty of things to learn from. It just depended on whether one had the interest to actively study them.
...
...
Now, the Millison Film Festival had already reached a very mature level. The host stood on stage, making jokes while handing out various awards. The entire event had a very relaxed atmosphere.
The winner of the Best Film of the Year award was a movie unique to this world. Takayuki remembered seeing it—it was about the life journey of a person from birth to death, filled with all sorts of emotions. The artistic value of the film was quite strong.
The Millison Film Festival, which had an academic focus, appreciated films like this. It wasn't surprising that it won Best Film.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children also won two awards.
One was for Best Visual Effects, and the other was for Best Animated Film of the Year. It was still a notable achievement.
This also suggested that adapting video games into films might indeed be a profitable venture, but it needed to be handled carefully to avoid damaging the film's reputation.
Aside from the regular awards, many people came to the event eager to see if the team from Takayuki's company, who were outside the film industry, would engage in some kind of mental confrontation with a renowned film personality.
For example, a certain big-name personality could potentially publicly mock Takayuki's company for their flashy special effects technology, trying to belittle them.
However, it was rare to find fools these days. Takayuki's company was already very well-known, and there was no need to engage in conflicts with such people over small matters.
Most of the people who had opposed Takayuki's company in the past had done so for money, and now that the issue had already been settled, even the backers from Detroit Film Group weren't focused on it anymore, so no one was willing to step forward and cause trouble. This disappointed some onlookers.
After the film festival ended, the Millison Film Festival, like the Oscars, had a tradition of gathering well-known figures from the film industry and this year's award winners for a group photo.
Takayuki was naturally on the invite list. This was also his first time getting up close and personal with some of the world's famous film stars.
"Hello, Mr. Takayuki. I'm Carlos. I hope we can have the opportunity to cooperate in the future."
"Mr. Takayuki, I'm a huge fan. I love the games you've created. If you need a spokesperson in the future, I can offer you a discount."
"Mr. Takayuki…"
After achieving success, good things began to come his way. Sometimes, success really does follow one thing after another.
For these somewhat unfamiliar film stars, Takayuki remained calm, always keeping a smile and nodding as he promised them that there would be more opportunities for collaboration in the future.
At the same time, it was a good opportunity to familiarize himself with these film stars, as in the future, with the development of the film industry, it would become increasingly common to use real-life face models for game development.
Using real face models, especially from famous stars, for games had a major advantage. Like movies, it could attract the fans of those stars to play the game. The effect was similar to that of adapting an IP into a game.
For example, in Takayuki's past world, games like Death Stranding gained significant attention precisely because of this, and Takayuki certainly planned to do the same in the future. It was a good idea to get familiar with these people now.
After the awards ceremony, Takayuki took the trophy with Tsukino and the others back to the company's headquarters in the US. He immediately put the trophy into the company's honor display cabinet. Now, it was time for the focused development period for the games—this was his main job, and nothing was more important than this.
...
Counter-Strike was originally a mod derived from a game called Half-Life, which was very successful upon release and gained a high reputation in the gaming world. Later, Counter-Strike made Half-Life into a globally recognized top-tier game, on par with the Mario and GTA series.
Counter-Strike eventually became one of the most famous esports games.
Takayuki skipped Half-Life and chose to develop Counter-Strike first because this type of game was more likely to be welcomed in Europe.
Half-Life could be developed later, at another opportunity.
At this moment, Takayuki was supervising the development of Half-Life's team.
In the game setup, players were divided into two factions, with the simplest way being to label them as police and criminals. The visual design easily distinguished the two sides.
The character design wasn't complicated, and there wasn't a need for a motion capture system. Using motion capture could even undermine the charm of Counter-Strike.
Under Takayuki's supervision, the first batch of basic guns and the first combat map were created. Then, the designs for both the police and criminal characters were done.
Since the game was being prioritized for release in Europe, using the well-known anti-terrorism team designs from the European region for the police characters would easily increase immersion.
Developing the corresponding firearms, maps, and character models took less than ten days.
However, the game's modeling was still in its early stages. The initial framework had been set up, and now it was time to refine the game. This was Takayuki's development strategy.
Now, with the basic framework in place, early game testing could begin.
Looking at the Counter-Strike game he had personally created, Takayuki felt a little excitement in his heart.
Counter-Strike was one of his childhood memories.
When he was in middle school, he and his friends often went to the internet café near their school after class, spending the pocket money they had saved for a week to play a few rounds of Counter-Strike.
The map that left the deepest impression on him was "Dust" and the snowy map—those were the days he truly cherished.