Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 1 Stars
September, 2015

Huaxia
The border area between Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai

Yufeng Youth Entrepreneurship Industrial Park

Chu Chen stood on the corridor on the fourth floor of the industrial park building, staring blankly at the huge red advertisement outside the window commemorating the "70th anniversary of the victory against fascism".

It was around 4 p.m. when the glass windows in the corridor were wide open, and a gentle breeze carried the lingering warmth of summer.

Looking out the window, all sorts of vendors had set up shop on the streets outside the park, lining the roadside.

This place is far from the city center, there are no urban management officers, it's crowded, and the restaurants are expensive, so it's perfectly normal for such a "snack street" to appear. However, looking at the scene in front of me...

Chu Chen's mind went blank, and his heart pounded like a drum.

"Sister Hong's Braised Pig Trotters"

The man muttered the name of the small stall directly below the window, his eyes filled with bewilderment and shock.

Because Chu Chen remembered it clearly.

It was the styrofoam boxes and tents illegally piled up downstairs by this store that saved his life. After jumping from the fourth floor, he only broke one leg and did not die from the fall.
He also recalled that after he jumped off the building, the food street was caught in the crossfire and was subject to rectification by the relevant departments.

so.
The food street is still there, which means...
Thinking of this, Chu Chen placed his hand on his chest to check his heartbeat and felt his heart pounding faster again.

He suddenly realized what point in time he had traveled to.

In an instant, excitement, disbelief, fear, panic, delusion, and doubt—a myriad of emotions surged into his chest.

However, these emotions did not affect what he was going to do next.

Turning back, he ran through the U-shaped corridor, descending two floors before finally arriving on the second floor, panting heavily.

Then, with trembling hands, he pushed open the door.

The door with "Starry Sky Games Studio" pasted on an A4 sheet of paper.

Push the door open and enter.

A company that was both familiar and unfamiliar came into view. It was familiar because it would remain in his mind for the next ten years.

To say it's unfamiliar is, after all, just an image in one's mind.

This is an office of about 100 square meters with about 20 workstations, but at this moment, there is no one at the workstations.

"Am I... too late?"

Chu Chen sighed.
Just as Chu Chen sighed.

A girl dressed in a white Lolita dress came out of the restroom and happened to see Chu Chen.

The girl's eyes were red, clearly from crying, and her voice even sounded a little sob-like.

"Brother Chen?"

Upon hearing the sound, Chu Chen quickly turned around.

It's Su Qing, the copywriter at the company. In his past life, when Chu Chen was in the hospital, this girl came to visit him alone and even secretly put money in the fruit basket she brought him.
Chu Chen naturally remembered him, but this was not the time to think about such things.

"We're in a meeting!?"

Su Qing was somewhat puzzled as to why Chu Chen was so surprised, since it was Chu Chen who had called this meeting, but she still nodded.
"Yes, Sister Song is talking with everyone. I didn't expect you to be back so soon. I... I'll go tell them..."

"I will go with you!"

~~~
A few minutes later, in the conference room.

The afternoon sun was still bright, but the heavy curtains in the conference room completely blocked out the sunlight.

There were only stark white incandescent bulbs and air conditioners that blew a chilling cold.

The meeting room was full of people, but there was no sound. An unspeakable silence filled the air, like a bunker in the heart of an angry leader.

This is the scene that Chu Chen saw when he entered the conference room.

"President Chen!?"

"Brother Chen!!!"

As the company's owner and one of its co-founders, Chu Chen enjoys considerable prestige within the company.

As soon as he entered the room, almost everyone stood up at the same time. Hearing the voices around him, Chu Chen suddenly felt that it was somewhat unreal, even somewhat unfamiliar.

But he was still able to match everyone's names together based on his memory.

For example, the three burly men sitting on the left are three programmers known as the "Starry Night Three Bears".

For example, the beautiful woman sitting next to the head of the table.

The company's lead artist.

Song Yueying.

The girl was in her early twenties, just like him.

With delicate features, fair skin, and long, black hair draped over her shoulders, the girl was not only beautiful but also possessed an exceptional temperament.

"Excuse me, I just went to calm down. Please, have a seat..."

Chu Chen took a deep breath and shifted his gaze away from Song Yueying.

Where did you two get to in your conversation?

After saying hello, Chu Chen found a seat in the conference room. As soon as he sat down, he saw a row of messy handwriting on the whiteboard.

"Starry Sky Games Severance Pay Negotiation Meeting"

Looking at this line of words, Chu Chen suddenly remembered something.

Yes, yes, this was the last meeting before the company dissolved. In his previous life, it was at this meeting that he completely broke down.

"Chu Chen, you've come at the perfect time."

Song Yueying raised her head; her eyes were also a little red, but her tone had regained its composure.

"You should coordinate the company's final arrangements for this matter."

After Song Yueying said those words, the slight liveliness that had just been brought to the conference room by Chu Chen's return fell silent again.

Everyone's face was somber.

However, Chu Chen had a smile on his face.

Even now, he still doesn't understand why he traveled back to 2015 from the future. After all, he didn't have any extraordinary luck; he just took a nap and woke up here.

He wasn't even sure.

Did I travel back from the future, or was I having an extremely long lucid dream?

But this didn't stop his heart from gradually becoming passionate.

Everything before his eyes was telling him this.

He really had a chance to make up for the things he regretted most in his life, whether it was his career or his love life. Thinking of this, Chu Chen actually felt tears welling up in his eyes.

He got up, picked up the blackboard eraser, and wiped away the writing on the whiteboard.

"The agenda for today's meeting has changed. We won't discuss this. I'll figure out the money. The company won't be dissolved. If Qin Lie wants to leave, let him. We'll move on!"

Chu Chen tried to speak in a relaxed tone, finally saying what he had kept bottled up for over a decade.

However, the cheers and applause I had imagined did not materialize.

This statement did indeed cause a stir in the meeting room.

But reality isn't a novel. A company on the verge of bankruptcy can't just suddenly become energized and start charging forward because of a single sentence from its boss.

Most people looked bewildered.
Song Yueying also frowned slightly.

"Chu Chen, we've already discussed this. Qin Lie's withdrawal of investment is a full withdrawal. After he withdraws, the company will only have less than 10,000 yuan left in its account, which won't even be enough to pay next month's salaries."

As a company veteran and Chu Chen's college classmate, Song Yueying has feelings for the company both professionally and personally.

She really didn't want to stand up against Chu Chen at this time, but she didn't want Chu Chen to show off his strength at this time either.

Because Song Yueying knew very well that the company's current situation was a complete mess, far from being something that Chu Chen could solve with a simple "let's start again".

Starry Sky Games was co-founded by Chu Chen and Qin Lie.

The two were college roommates and former "best buddies".

However, as the saying goes, no matter how good your brothers are, don't drag them into starting a business together. Chu Chen once took this as a joke, but reality slapped him hard in the face.

Less than a year and a half after starting the company, the friendship that had lasted four years in college quickly crumbled.

Even though it was initially agreed that Chu Chen would be in charge of game development and Qin Lie would be in charge of financial operations.

However, the 50/50 shareholding structure still resulted in the company lacking an absolute core leader.

In just one year, from office renovations to game development plans, the entire company moved forward amidst constant arguments. Meanwhile, the company's money was flowing away like water.

The 200 million only lasted for a year and a half.

The money is gone, and the game studio's project has only just begun to take shape.

If you want to continue, you have to keep investing money.

After arguing for a long time, the two sides finally decided that each of them would invest another million.

Compared to Qin Lie, a rich second-generation, Chu Chen's family was not particularly wealthy.

Chu Chen went to great lengths, submitting at least a dozen "market research reports" to his father, and with an air of determination that he would succeed this year or die if he failed, he finally managed to secure the investment from his family.

This 1 million yuan can be said to have taken all of the family's savings, and they also borrowed more than 100,000 yuan from relatives.

Just as he was about to use this energy to lift up the stars.

Qin Lie, however, used "company development" as a pretext to change the shareholding ratio from 50/50 to Chu Chen holding 51% and him 49%.
Chu Chen was overjoyed when he heard the news.

At that time, he thought Qin Lie was a man of great integrity, so he didn't care about the procedures for the share transfer at all and handed them over to Qin Lie to handle.

Unfortunately, what Chu Chen didn't know was that Qin Lie had already lost faith in the project and had originally planned to withdraw at the beginning of the year.

Unexpectedly, Chu Chen actually managed to raise 100 million yuan after the New Year and wanted to continue the project.

This gave Qin Lie a reason to think. It is said that you can know a person's face but not their heart. Qin Lie's family became rich not by doing business with a clear conscience.

Qin Lie, who had been well-educated by his father since childhood, outwardly treated Chu Chen as a brother.

But by this point, it was a matter of sacrificing a fellow Daoist to save myself.

Chu Chen's 100 million yuan did not go into the public account at all, but was directly transferred to his own account. The shares were indeed transferred, but not 51% and 49%.

Instead, Qin Lie sold all of his shares to Chu Chen.

What Chu Chen signed was not an equity transfer agreement, but an equity resale agreement.

Since Qin Lie himself was in charge of finance and was also a co-founder of the company, no one expected him to do such a thing.

Chu Chen only discovered the problem after he ran away.

Upon discovering the money was missing, Chu Chen immediately reported it to the police, who opened a case. However, the problem was that the signature on the share transfer agreement was indeed Chu Chen's.

Even though Chu Chen insisted that he was in a meeting discussing game development when he signed the documents, and that the other party deliberately chose this time for him to sign.

However, this claim is difficult to prove, and the existence of these signed documents makes his chances of recovering the money extremely slim.

If you want to pursue this, you'll need to hire a lawyer, and hiring a lawyer costs money.

But where would Chu Chen get any money at this point?
He called Qin Lie, but Qin Lie only said that his family urgently needed money, gave him a few perfunctory words, and then blocked Chu Chen.

This severed the bond of brotherhood that had lasted for years during their university years.

Perhaps there was no brotherhood at all in the beginning; it was just that Qin Lie took a liking to Chu Chen's abilities and wanted to make a fortune off him, but little did he know that Chu Chen, this good-for-nothing, would be so disappointing.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Chu Chen also realized at this point that he had been deceived.

It can only be said that Qin Lie's family was able to become wealthy because they were ruthless enough to cut their losses in time—this was Chu Chen's first lesson in the realities of society. However, it's clear that the price of this lesson was far too high.

In his previous life, Chu Chen was devastated because of Qin Lie's unification and upheaval, which meant that Chu Chen had to bear the entire company's first-year loss of 200 million yuan all by himself.

You should know, this isn't his own money; it's his family's money!

Moreover, Qin Lie's departure not only swindled Chu Chen out of his money, but more importantly, his actions directly killed the future of Starry Sky Games.

Unless Chu Chen can secure investment.

But... who would invest in a company like this?
If it were really that easy to attract investment, he wouldn't have gone to his father for so long.

Ever since.

The current situation is that Xingchen's capital chain has completely broken down.

The company has lost its ability to operate.

As the company's art director, Song Yueying was very clear about the whole incident.

As a friend, she also knew about Chu Chen's family situation.

Even though she was in great pain and unwilling to accept the fact that Starry Sky was dead, she knew very well that the best solution at the moment was to dissolve the company and cut her losses in time.

However, Chu Chen interrupted her at this moment.

"I know you're worried about me, but it's okay. Give me some time, and I'll resolve the funding issue."

"Chu Chen, don't force yourself. I...I know...about your family situation. You really don't need to blame yourself. We all know who was at fault this time, and no one blames you. You did a great job. This past year, we..."

Song Yueying was not lying.

In her eyes, Chu Chen looked so pitiful. Putting herself in his shoes, she thought that if she were in his shoes, she would probably have completely broken down.

Chu Chen had only been gone for an hour or two, but when he came back, he was already full of energy and eager to set off again, which she admired immensely.

That's precisely why she couldn't let Chu Chen continue to sink deeper into this mess.

"No, we haven't done enough."

Chu Chen took a deep breath.

He glanced at Song Yueying, then at the group of people sitting in the conference room.

With the meeting having progressed to this point, Chu Chen had calmed down somewhat.

He knew that if he didn't get the company's morale up today, things simply couldn't move forward.

Think of this.

Chu Chen simply took out his phone from his pocket.

I randomly selected an unfamiliar call log and opened it on my desktop.

“I’ve already sold my house in my hometown, and now our company is not short of money.”

"what!?"

"It's really sold?"

"no!!"

"Brother Chen! Are you serious?"

"No way! House prices are rising right now..."

In all startups, the boss selling his house to keep the company running is like Xiang Yu burning his boats – nothing is more inspiring or expresses a stronger sense of purpose.

So when Chu Chen took out his phone to show that he had sold the house and the money would be in his account soon,

The atmosphere in the entire conference room was instantly ignited.

Chu Chen had to stand up and press his hand into the air to quiet everyone down.

"Over the past year, we have built our own game demo from scratch, and I have witnessed the performance of everyone involved."

"Although Qin Lie is gone, and although he emptied the company's accounts, we're not entirely without benefit."

"At least I have shares now. Once the company succeeds, I will distribute shares to you."

"Of course, that's on the premise that our company's shares can make money, hahaha..."

Chu Chen chuckled twice after he finished speaking.

Although the joke was dry, it reassured everyone in the meeting room, showing that the boss wasn't just pretending to be calm, but had genuinely recovered from the setback.

Although this fact is still very shocking, they really don't know how Chu Chen adjusted his mindset, but no matter how surprised they are, this is the state Chu Chen showed.

It is reminiscent of Cao Cao's entry into Huarong Pass after the Battle of Red Cliffs.
Pshaw, that sounds a bit unlucky.

Regardless, Chu Chen's declaration to sell the house ultimately stunned the scene. Even Song Yueying stopped talking, though there was a hint of surprise and doubt in her eyes.

This still made Chu Chen feel somewhat guilty.

It just goes to show that having overly intelligent subordinates isn't always a good thing.

After initially calming the situation down, Chu Chen quickly steered the conversation toward serious matters.

although
At that moment, he also knew that the other people in the meeting room were still adjusting their mindset, and it wasn't really the right time to talk about serious matters.

However, Chu Chen was still feeling a bit angry.

In his past life, after the company was forced to dissolve, he always told his parents and friends that he had let go of the past and would not do anything foolish again.

On countless nights of working overtime, he couldn't help but think that if he had been more resilient when he was younger, perhaps things would have been different.

After all, even if Qin Lie withdrew his investment, he was far from being at his wit's end.

That's why Chu Chen couldn't help but reflect on which path he should have chosen from among so many.

So much so that many years after the company went bankrupt, he even taught himself programming and art, trying to realize that dream on his own.

Unfortunately, he ultimately failed; one person's strength is ultimately too insignificant.

But the framework and ideas of the game remained in his mind.

At this time, the game being developed by Starry Sky Games was called "Final Frontline". The project was initiated at the end of 2013. In the original draft, it was a top-down sci-fi shooting game.

However, halfway through development, the Chinese game market ushered in a huge opportunity in 2014.

Anime-style mobile game.

The storm began with "Kantai Collection," a browser game that uses anthropomorphized warships as its selling point, featuring a unique character development system and character illustrations.

It achieved astonishing success in 2013.

Following closely behind, Tianfu Huanmeng Network's "Warship Girls" became the first domestic work to take the plunge by replicating the game almost 1:1.

Its development team used less than one million yuan to create a return rate that shocked the entire gaming industry after its launch in September 2014.

In the second month after the server opened, the game's peak daily revenue exceeded 80 yuan.

This number.

This means that its development costs can be recovered in just three days. In addition, miHoYo's Honkai Impact 2 shows another path to success.

After its launch in early 2014, this side-scrolling shooting game achieved a revenue of over 10 million yuan in its first month, thanks to its exquisite Japanese art style and otaku-oriented content, and its annual revenue approached 100 million yuan.

Its terrifying growth rate of 180% in 2015 further reveals the frightening potential for paid content among ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) users.

The market then discovered that there were actually so many players willing to pay for "paper dolls".

"They can do it! So can I! I can draw a paper doll and fool... oh, I mean, make money! All you need are hands, right!?"

When Chinese manufacturers realized the potential of this niche market, a frantic race began.

And so...
The entire period from 2014 to 2015 was a complete mess of chaos.

A large number of small workshops began to focus on anime-style games, a large number of fan-made game groups easily obtained investment, and major game companies suddenly added "anime-style concept artist" positions to their job postings.

Salaries for related positions have surged by 300% within six months.

As a result, StarCraft Games, caught up in the tide of this era, was naturally affected. Thus, at the end of 14, after several arguments, Final Frontline began to move completely toward the anime/manga style.

The character illustrations have changed from standard illustrations to Japanese-style illustrations, and the game framework has changed from a top-down 3D shooter to a game of matching and matching paper cutout characters.

The girl who originally fought with a gun has been transformed into anthropomorphic guns, and the character designs in various illustrations are starting to lean towards the direction of Kantai Collection.

As for the previous gameplay, it has been completely overturned.

In fact, if this logic is followed, Chu Chen felt that even if the project had many problems, it should still be able to make a profit once it went live.

After all, the anime/manga game market at that time was truly a place where "people were naive, had plenty of money, and were eager to join."

In the past, countless anime and manga companies rose to prominence with just one game. Even if they couldn't become top players, making a living was easy for them.

unfortunately
The original "Final Front" did not survive until the day the game was born.

But at this time.

Everything is different.

This time, Chu Chen will definitely be able to pull his game company back from the brink of disaster!

~~~

We need to pull the company back from the brink of disaster.

Chu Chen has two major problems to solve.

First, there is the issue of funding.

Although he said he wanted to sell the house, selling a house is never that simple. Putting aside communication with his parents, even if he did sell it, there's still the issue of where his parents would live.

Therefore, a more practical approach is to use the house as collateral for a loan.

If all goes well, Chu Chen felt he should be able to get a loan of around 50 to 100 million yuan. In his previous life, after he broke his leg, his parents took out a loan to pay for his medical expenses.

This money should be enough to support the company for about six months to a year.

This leads to the second question.

Considering that the game will require servers and a minimum amount of marketing before it goes live, he has at most six months to complete the game's production.

That means the game must be launched before March next year.

At present, "Final Battlefront" can only be described as having a framework, and even the plot has not been developed. Even if it has another six months, its completion level will inevitably be quite low.

However, this problem is not unsolvable.

"We plan to use the current framework and five months to launch StarCraft's first game. This game will not have a storyline; it will be purely a gameplay game."

"Purely gameplay!?"

"Five months? That's way too tight a timeframe!"

"Yes, and it's very difficult to make money just by playing the game, right?"

As soon as Chu Chen said this, the meeting room, which had just calmed down, was filled with discussion again.

A low-cost game wants to make money.

The "simplest" method is "gameplay". Most indie games become popular and achieve great success with limited resources because of innovation, or rather, creativity.

Games like Minecraft, Fez, Brawl Stars, Machinarium, The Liar's Tavern, The Clown, and so on...
These games either feature innovative gameplay or make new adjustments to existing gameplay.

Each game has brought the development team almost financial freedom.

However, although everyone knows that innovative gameplay can make more money, it is also the most difficult thing in the entire game industry.

Therefore, everyone present was somewhat surprised when they heard Chu Chen say that he wanted to build a game with pure gameplay as the main focus.

　This is a signed work. During the new book period, if you still find it interesting, I would really appreciate it if you, my dear readers, could continue reading. This is really important to a lazy author like me. Thank you!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)