A perspective on koei

Koei is a popular game that I play long ago. When I read that it is being found in July 1978 and release its first successful game nobunaga's ambition in 1983 march.

I can imagine the difficult in developing such a great game. PC is not easily available in 1980. And it is very expensive. And it game is developed in C language. There is no Internet to find answer. And most of all, it is developed by one or 2 person in about 3 years.

The game 1987 romance of 3 kingdom is so fun that spending years to play. The standard is so high and graphic is so beautiful. I estimate it takes about 3 years with about 1 to 3 people to build.

Until today, there is no competitor in romance of 3 kingdom. The west will not be interested in the Japan and china ancient war game.

The Chinese and Japanese do not have the knowledge to build such great game even today.

Koei founder is so rich to be Japan top 40. I admire greatly his luck, skill and patience to develop these game.

In his time, he takes 3 years to develop a game. And to use a difficult programming language that nobody know even in 1990. Such difficulties to learn English in Japan.

The difficulties overcome turn out to be his greatest advantage. No west competition. No local competition for 30 years. Nobody would want to spend 3 years to develop an app.

There is a passion involved in programming and history stories. His wife is a great help in providing the computer and running the game business while he focus on building.

Lessons
- develop great game. Spend as much days as you can. Take 3 months to develop an app in useful logic, pretty design and solid testing.
- you can do it all by yourself.
- play by your passion. Programming + history = great historical game.
- overcome each difficulties and turn it to be your competitive advantage.

In my transport app development, the difficulties are
- understand local use pattern. I really hope I can fly to London to test my apps.
- use local language. A great Chinese app for Taiwan goes a long way. I can see Taipei app is not that great. And there will be no competition from the west, but many from the Chinese. Maybe the Chinese have not much in iOS. Another great app will be Korean. That will have no Chinese and Western competitors. Korea transport app is well developed in 2012.
- access to data. Most countries have open data now. Not really an issue in another 2 years.
- long programming hour. To really have a good app, spend 3 months on it. In design, graphics, testing and marketing. Most app is being developed in less than a week.
- tired eyes. I cannot continue when my eyes are tired but my mind can continue to think about the problem and reflect. Study the fact and face the truth. And so this blog is being written at 5:30am when I cannot do any more programming withy tired eyes but tireless brain.
- last, find a supportive wife who support you in your work! She gets the money too!

Going for breakfast now!