Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 103 The Starting Point of the Track

Fortunately, after discussing these matters, Chu Chen did not bring up the acquisition again.

In the following time, Chu Chen asked Jiao Xiaofei to "keep company" with Guan Lei and chat. There were some things he couldn't say himself, so having Jiao Xiaofei do it was just right.

Guan Lei was seen off.

Chu Chen wasn't idle either. For the employees of Starry Sky Games, today was a day off, but for Chu Chen, this team-building activity was more like "work."

Anyone who has ever given their girlfriend a "surprise" knows what I mean.

When people experience a sense of "surprise," they often associate the moment of surprise with the events that occurred at that time.

The same applies to employees. At times like this, when everyone is shocked by Chu Chen's extravagant spending, appearing in front of more employees, even if it's just chatting for a bit, will have a significant effect.

Firstly, it makes employees feel: "The boss actually knows me! And knows what I'm responsible for!"

This feeling of being seen and recognized is often more motivating than a vague "work hard".

Secondly, this informal communication conveys the company's confidence and expectations for the future, making employees feel that their work is valuable and an important piece of the company's grand plan.

You can certainly call this PUA, but for Chu Chen, he still hopes that the entire team can have a shred of faith beyond money, since money can only lay the foundation.

For a team to truly be effective, it needs something deeper.

Of course, the kind of faith Chu Chen was talking about wasn't the kind that comes with a company's sense of mission or wanting to change the world.

That's what Chu Chen often says.

"Make fun games, make fun games that everyone can enjoy!"

Chu Chen would never say these things at a large meeting, nor would he shout slogans, and he rarely said them in the media.

He usually says this in a one-on-one situation.

Why did Liu Bei like to sleep side-by-side with his partner? It's because in a private, one-on-one setting, the other person is more likely to listen to what you say.

Therefore, Chu Chen never shouts his thoughts as slogans.

That's not very useful.

On the contrary, this kind of face-to-face, one-on-one interaction will create a strong memory for the other party. This memory will gradually become a team consensus, and the team consensus will gradually spread, eventually forming a common understanding within the company.

~~~
That night.

When Guan Lei got home, it was already 11 o'clock.

The living room light was still on, and his wife, He Li, was curled up on the sofa watching TV, covered with a thin blanket. Hearing the door open, she turned around, a hint of weariness on her face.

"You're back? Why are you so late today?"

"Yeah, I had dinner with some friends and chatted for a while."

Guan Lei changed his shoes, his tone revealing little emotion.

The conversation on the cruise ship lingered in his mind: Chu Chen's plans, Jiao Xiaofei's monologue, and the enthusiasm of the Starry Sky employees all made him somewhat uneasy.

"Eating? Judging from your expression, it doesn't seem like it's just a simple meal."

He Li sat up and glanced at his face.

"What happened?"

Guan Lei smiled, walked to the sofa, sat down, and took the water glass his wife handed him.

"Nothing can be hidden from you; it's like I've encountered an opportunity."

He didn't elaborate. He Li knew his personality; if he didn't want to talk about work, she couldn't get much out of him by asking. She just gave a soft "hmm" and turned off the TV.

"It's getting late, hurry up and wash up and get some rest, you have to go to work tomorrow."

"understood."

Guan Lei took a shower, but couldn't fall asleep for a long time after lying in bed. His mind was full of thoughts, and after tossing and turning, he got up and went into the study.

Turning on his computer, Guan Lei subconsciously typed "FATE/ZERO" into the search box.

Guan Lei doesn't watch anime much on a regular basis, but he's not completely ignorant about it. After all, a crucial aspect of commercialization in China is character skins, especially those for female characters.

He watched Gundam when he was young, but after starting work these past few years, he hasn't been exposed to much anime for young people.

After completing the keyboard search, he selected the first episode and put on his headphones.

Even though it's been 16 years, the animation of Fate/Zero from three years ago is still quite impressive, which is one of the advantages of animation.

"So that's the story..."

Each episode is about twenty minutes long, and with a learning attitude, Guan Lei quickly watched two or three episodes.

He began to understand why Chu Chen chose this IP. These distinctive and unique heroic spirits were indeed very suitable for being developed into hero characters in action games.

Just as he was engrossed in the story, the study door was gently pushed open a crack.

The sound is very slight.

But Guan Lei happened to hear it and turned his head.

Just then, he saw his son peeking into the study.

"Dad, you're still awake?"

Guan Xiaopeng felt somewhat embarrassed when he realized he had been discovered.

The father and son looked at each other in bewilderment. As the saying goes, no one knows a son better than his father. Guan Lei quickly realized that his son was planning to sneak into his study to play on the computer while his parents were sleeping.

Subconsciously, Guan Lei touched his waist, but unfortunately he was wearing pajamas and couldn't find his belt.

"Huh? FATE/ZERO? Dad, you watch this too?"

Seeing that he had failed to sneak into the study and had been discovered by his father, Guan Xiaopeng quickly tried to find a topic to talk about.

Sure enough, the BOSS's rage meter was interrupted, and Guan Lei was stunned for a moment, somewhat surprised.

"You know this animation?"

"I know."

Guan Xiaopeng looked completely matter-of-fact. "Just a few days ago, Bilibili had an event, and a lot of people in my class saw it and my classmate even recommended I play their game, *Final Battlefront*..."

"Of course, I didn't play!"

"An event? Theirs?"

Guan Lei caught two keywords in his son's words. He looked back at the screen again. He hadn't looked carefully before, but now he realized that they were indeed the comments on the video.

It seems someone did mention some kind of event.

Below is an event tab.

The main content is that Bilibili has compiled all the FATE series anime into a page similar to a "guide for getting into the series," and also launched a content bounty program.

We are collecting videos that provide an "introduction" guide to the series.

Do many people in your class play the Starry Night game?

"There weren't many people, just two or three, but some people don't play games, they do watch the show."

Having worked in the industry for so many years, Guan Lei knows very well that if two or three students in his son's class play games, then the influence of the gaming community among students is quite significant.

"Program? What program?"

"Little Chen, please don't take on any challenges."

It was a rare occasion for Guan Xiaopeng to talk about his hobbies with his father, so he was very excited and took the initiative to open Bilibili on the computer.

"Two episodes have been released so far, one domestic and one Japanese. Both are great, but the first one feels more natural..."

The original plan for Starry Night Games' "Don't Do Challenge" event was one round per month.

However, an additional promotional episode featuring Japanese actors was added in between.

This Japanese edition actually turned out quite well.

The main thing is that the comments from Japanese players are particularly funny, and the Japanese version of the "Don't Do Challenges" has changed from not being able to say the words "Final Battlefront" to not being able to say English.

As is well known, Japanese contains a large number of English words.

To be precise, it's Japanese-style English. For example, McDonald's is "McDonald's" in Japanese, Google is "Guguru," and basketball is "Basketball."

These are all very everyday words, but in actual use, Japanese people actually use "Japanese English," which is the so-called kana.

Because Japanese contains a large number of "English" words, the program restricted the use of "English".

Several voice actor guests simply couldn't speak.

Furthermore, although the Japanese translation of Final Battlefront is written as 终末戦線 in kanji, many players pronounce it as "Shumako Kita-Rhine" instead of "Shumako Mori-sen".

"Shumako" is the Japanese pronunciation of "finale," while "Hokuto Rhine" is the English pronunciation of "front."

Chu Chen didn't know why Japanese players shouted like that; maybe they thought speaking English sounded more "foreign."

Regardless of the reason, this "battle line" was incredibly dominant on the show, especially when Kana Hanazawa introduced the program.

When I said, "I am the actor playing the role of the final battlefront," it triggered a "Bu Bu" sound.

From then on.

Chu Chen kept ringing the "English referee bell" in his hand, and so did the laughter of the crowd.

In terms of program effect, the Japanese version is actually quite good, but Guan Xiaopeng always felt that the sisters' reactions were too exaggerated and not as real as those in the domestic version.

Of course, this is just his personal perception; quite a few boys in the class also really like the Japanese version and enjoy watching those older sisters screaming and yelling.
"It seems that this IP has recently been bought by StarCraft, and they're saying they're going to release a new game on it."

Guan Lei was stunned again. With his son's "help," Guan Lei learned a lot about Xingchen Games' "industry landscape." Then Guan Lei discovered that this game company, which he had only thought of as a "dark horse," was actually quite different from what he had imagined.

Its influence seems to be much greater than imagined.

"But Dad, why did you suddenly decide to watch this?"

Guan Lei snapped out of his daze and looked at his son's young and energetic face. At that moment, a wavering balance in his heart quietly tilted.

He smiled and turned off the animation player.

"It's nothing, just browsing. It's late, go to sleep, you have school tomorrow."

"Oh"

Guan Xiaopeng didn't think much of it. It seemed like he had gotten away with sneaking into the study, so he pretended to yawn.

"Dad, you should go to bed early too."

After his son left, the study returned to silence.

Guan Lei did not get up immediately. He leaned back in his chair and turned his gaze back to the dark computer screen.

His face, which looked somewhat tired but whose eyes were gradually brightening, was reflected on the screen.

Perhaps Chu Chen is right.

If a game that truly understands games and has a huge influence can be created on a platform that allows players to be truly immersed in it, even if it is not a pure martial arts game, it doesn't seem unacceptable.

Moreover, once he succeeds, he'll have more say and won't be unable to do what he wants.

In addition, Chu Chen also mentioned that the Holy Grail War could potentially be followed by the development of Heroic Spirits with Chinese cultural core elements, or even an independent martial arts project.

That young man always seemed to be able to see through people's hearts.

Guan Lei took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.

Once a person makes up their mind, they immediately start to worry about gains and losses. Guan Lei suddenly regretted not agreeing directly that night.
He opened his phone and found Jiao Xiaofei's phone number.

It was already close to 11:30, so making a phone call was obviously inappropriate. He thought for a moment and then edited a text message.

Input, send.

After doing all this, Guan Lei felt a sense of relief wash over him.

After years of perseverance and confusion, he seems to have found a new direction at this moment. However, it is unknown whether this direction will lead to the end as he hopes.

However, that's no longer important.
Importantly, he felt like he was standing at the starting line of the track once again.

(End of this chapter)