Chapter 1029: Experience the Feeling of Wearing an Iron Shell
In Chen Mo’s previous life, although the *Iron Man* movie was a massive hit, there were very few games worth mentioning, and not a single AAA title existed.
There were many reasons for this. Perhaps many major studios were unwilling to spend a huge sum to buy the rights, or maybe Marvel wasn’t in a hurry to step into the gaming field. However, there was another key point: spending a fortune to buy the rights from Marvel to produce a AAA game didn’t necessarily guarantee better results than other traditional AAA titles.
What was the coolest aspect of the *Iron Man* theme for the audience?
It was that suit of iron.
Audiences loved watching this high-tech armor fly onto Tony in a spectacular way, allowing him to fly freely, use various weapons, and control the smart system through Jarvis to pull off all kinds of slick moves. Of course, billionaire Tony’s personal life was also a hot topic.
But in AAA games, what ensures long-term success is the gameplay.
For example, the combat system of *Dark Souls*, the open worlds of *GTA* and *The Legend of Zelda*, and the climbing, gunfights, and puzzles of *Uncharted* and *Tomb Raider*.
Compared to these games, adapting *Iron Man* into a game didn’t have any obvious advantages. Beyond the IP boost, the ultimate challenge for such an adaptation was how to maximize the adrenaline rush players got from that iron shell.
But with the advent of next-generation VR technology, Chen Mo finally found a perfect thrill point for the *Iron Man* game.
That was to let players experience Tony Stark’s life through a soul-transmigration method.
Imagine this: players connect to the VR world via neural and brain-link technology. Piece by piece, the Iron Man armor covers your body. The faceplate closes, and you ask, “Jarvis, are you there?”
Jarvis replies, “At your service, sir.”
Then, jets of air blast from your hands and feet, launching you out of your California mansion. You soar freely over the city, even crossing oceans to engage in an exciting battle with terrorists, having a close encounter with an F-22 Raptor in the sky. Back at your mansion, you hop into a sports car to attend a party, flirting with fully AI-enabled NPC girls. The consciousness-implant technology automatically provides the best options, so you can chat and laugh effortlessly with celebrities and reporters.
With next-generation VR technology, every detail of the Iron Man experience is magnified in the player’s brain. You can clearly feel each armor piece attaching to your body, sense the texture of wearing the Iron Man suit, and move freely with mechanical assistance. This feeling is unique.
Among superheroes—and even extending this to many movies and games—Iron Man is one of a kind. For players, they’re experiencing an ordinary person gaining immense power through an iron shell, not becoming a superhuman through mutation.
In other words, players will have an incredibly strong sense of immersion. Like in many novels, making the protagonist too lofty and all-powerful often creates a disconnect. Instead, portraying the protagonist as an ordinary person, making everyone feel “I could do that too,” is actually a better choice.
So, this game won’t be an open world. Instead, it will break down into a series of boxed-in areas. Within each area, players can explore freely and let the story develop according to their choices. This approach ensures a certain degree of freedom while keeping the plot from straying too far off course—a decent compromise.
However, since this is a movie adaptation, the key challenge is how to seamlessly integrate the scenes shown from a god’s-eye view in the films into the player’s first-person perspective. It’s crucial to keep the player fully immersed in the role of Iron Man. Fortunately, for Chen Mo now, this isn’t too difficult to achieve.
…
“Jarvis?” Chen Mo wore his Matrix glasses, facing a massive holographic projection connected to a custom-built computer.
“At your service.” Jarvis’s voice came through the Matrix glasses.
Chen Mo walked up to the holographic projection and said, “Open a new task module. The project name is… Mark 2. Help me complete all the preparatory work, including modeling materials and physics property settings, and fine-tune the project based on my intentions.”
“First, automatically generate a basic structure of the Mark 2 based on the blueprints in my hand. Refine the internal structure according to the capabilities it needs to achieve, and automatically generate a disassembly plan.”
Jarvis replied, “Reading Mark 2 external structure… Generating 3D model… Optimizing structure based on best options… Adding additional functions to Mark 2…”
On the massive holographic projection device in front of Chen Mo, a virtual model of the Mark 2 armor appeared, continuously optimizing as various weapon components activated one by one.
Of course, Jarvis wasn’t really “designing” the armor. It was simply modeling and adding functions based on the structural diagrams Chen Mo provided, just like many game designers do.
After Chen Mo acquired the new AI technology, his personal Jarvis was the first AI to be updated.
The intermediate AI technology brought a huge improvement to Jarvis. Previous AIs could handle some design tasks, but their efficiency was low, and the final results were unsatisfactory, falling short of experienced designers. But after the AI upgrade, Jarvis could fully handle the role of an assistant, even working more efficiently than some veteran game designers.
Of course, not every AI could reach Jarvis’s level.
Chen Mo used a dedicated custom computer and invested significant resources to equip Jarvis with both human artistic design capabilities and AI analysis, learning, and high-precision design skills. He turned his Jarvis into a specialized game design assistant, capable of automatically completing basic game design tasks based on Chen Mo’s intentions, with efficiency slightly higher than a human design team.
But for now, it was limited to being an assistant. Intermediate AI could only ensure smooth communication with humans but couldn’t fully handle tasks like designing games, writing novels, or making movies. In other words, intermediate AI was like an illiterate person—or rather, an illiterate with exceptional memory and computational power.
It couldn’t replace designers for creative work, but it could efficiently complete basic tasks as an assistant—if you were willing to invest significant resources.
Although the system restricted AI to existing only within games, Chen Mo found a loophole and took a roundabout approach. First, he created a game project, then built a Jarvis within that project to help him design games, and then used that game to create the *Iron Man* game…
It sounded convoluted, but so far, it hadn’t triggered any system sanctions, which meant it was feasible.