Unknown story until masterpiece puzzle game "Lemmings" can be made

Popular game "Grand Theft Auto"Game released by the game company" Memory Access Desing (now: Rockstar North) "known for developing" in the early 1990's "Lemmings」Was released as a world view completely different from the epidemic of the game at the time as soon as it was a big hit and created fans all over the world. It is clear how the legendary game · Remings was born.

The Making of Lemmings - Read-Only Memory
http://readonlymemory.vg/the-making-of-lemmings/

Mr. David Jones, the creator of Lemmings, was born in Scotland, England, he was keen on game programming since his boyhood and was entering the creative activities by entering and leaving the Kingsway amateur computer club. Mr. Jones' love machine is a PC that my parents boughtAmiga 1000"The high-class machine that was a flower of Takamine seemed to be a longing for programmer fellows.


Mr. Jones developed a shooting game "CopperCon 1" based on the game "Salamander (Salamander)" in the 1980s. A major video game company at the time feels the future of CopperCon 1PsygnosisI bought the right of CopperCon 1 from Mr. Jones. This CopperCon 1 will be released later as Amiga game "Menace (Menace)" and will record a hit.


Mr. Jones established the game company Memory Access Desing (DMA) based on the fund obtained by selling CopperCon 1. I hire a long time programming companion as a game creator to DMA. And, following CopperCon 1, we began to develop a "side scroll" type shooter that was popular at that time in arcade games, and completed "Blood Money" (Blood Money). In the shooting game of those days, the graphics were outstandingly beautiful Blood Money recorded a big hit soon after release. DMA is now recognized as a gamer at a stroke by gamers. And shortly after the development of Blood Money, DMA will undertake the development of completely new games that are different from any other games it has ever made. That will be blossoming as Lemmings later.

You can check on what kind of game Blood Money is in the following movie.

Amiga - Blood Money - YouTube


Mr. Jones liked the coolness of the design of the enemy character called "Walker" that made it appear in Blood Money after release of Blood Money and Mr. Jones liked the beauty of animation, following the Blood Money, the development of a new game with Walker as the hero I will decide. The character indicated by the arrow is Walker.


The development team members discussed how to utilize the Walker, it was said that the idea of ​​"a game fighting the opponent against the giant bipedal robot drawn with 16 × 16 SPRITE" was issued. And to complement the gigantic Robo I thought it was better to adopt a relatively small main character of 5 pixels.

However, at a certain lunch time, when Mike Daley of the development team showed a small human image of 5 pixel size blown away by a laser gun, all development members like this little character much, Mischiefed by the character, all the members laughed and laughed. At that time, Mr. Russell Kay, who was one of the development members, cried out, "This is the game to be made!", It seems that the game was turned 180 degrees to a game that makes a little guy the main character instead of the giant Robo Walker . Thus the "bud" of the Lemmings project was born.


In parallel with the Lemmings project, Mr. Jones led the action game called Monster Cartridge, but since we can not solve the technical problems occurring on the platform Amiga, we finally abandon development. In this way, DMA said that it was to concentrate development resources on one Lemmings project.

Although the direction of the game was also undefined Lemmings project, at the early stage of development, the development team was believed to "collectively commit suicide"LemmingHe seems to have noticed the existence of a rat named Mr. And since he was also aware that the "suicide" event of cutting his life himself could lead to entertainment, he developed one way to self-bomb a small man with a comedy touch. It was said that there was an extreme thing that not only explodes it but also burns it with a flame radiator.

Mr. Daily recalls that "If Lemmings did not have such a mechanism of suicide bombs, Lemmings would have become a dull game." In this way Lemmings is a motif and game title is also decided as "Lemmings". Of course suicide bomb is not the purpose of the game, it is the purpose of rescuing a small man to the last, the event "suicide bomb" was given the meaning like the final weapon used when giving up clearing the game and throwing out everything.


Although the behavior of leaping into the river in groups without leaving the dangers of nature has been believed to be group collective suicide at the beginning, now it is a group migration behavior to escape from the environment deteriorated by mass breeding It is considered to be. On the other hand, in the game Lemmings where there is no leader, players are required to give wisdom to give precise instructions so that little guys do not go to reckless action to kill life like lemming. In the game industry at the time when Lemmings was released, rememberms adopting the theme of "save ally" while most of them were given the proposition "to beat enemies" as represented by shooting games It seems to be said that it was innovative.

However, being innovative in the game means that promotion activities will be difficult. From the fact that it is difficult to explain the essence and interest of the game by words as well as not having a theme in the past, it is difficult to have the game title of the Lemmings understood and to purchase the game title It will be a business of.

However, it was surprisingly said that the method of solving the difficulty of PR arising from the game nature of Lemmings was not that complicated. The PR strategy seems to be as simple as "to set up the opportunity to play as many games as possible" as the world view of the game can be understood with a single game if you actually play Lemmings.

According to Mr. Jones, it took a relatively long time to spend a considerable amount of time on development compared to other software called Lemmings 100,000 pounds (about 26 million yen at the time) and a relatively long time Thing. However, Lemmings, which was released as a software for Amiga in February 1991, sold 55,000 copies on the first day of sales and eventually grown into a huge hit that sold 20 million copies. Thereafter, many sequels and spin-off games were developed, changing the game platform, and it became a hit work loved all over the world. The great success of Lemmings is now being handed down as an achievement proving that an independent game development company like DMA can shine in the game industry.


Mr. Daily said about Lemmings "I could not understand exactly what happened even after the release, as the game's evaluation appeared, ten out of ten people got the highest points, I felt that big things are going on. " Mr. Kei who first called for the Lemmings project recalls "I have often seen the dream of Lemmings."

Succeeded at Lemmings, DMA produced a mega hit called Grand Theft Auto in 1999, it was acquired by Rockstar in 2002 and disappeared. Also, the right regarding game remings goes through PsygnosisSCEI am moving to. It is unknown whether SCE is watching the achievements of shooting games heavier than Lemmings' achievement as a heritage of DMA, but it is not currently available to take advantage of the legacy of Lemmings. However, if the game awarding principle awaiting remake of a famous title increases, it may be the day that remings will revive up to the present day someday.