Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 104 Leaking Secrets
Time flies, it's mid-June
Flash Blast Studio.

Huang Yu is sending a WeChat message to Hai Mao.

是 的
Although it was rare, he was indeed sending a WeChat message to Hai Mao, but his purpose in doing so was not to reminisce, but to show off.

Just a few days ago, he had received news from Wan Wanggang that Tencent was about to make a move.

On July 19th, the day before the release of version 1.1 of "Final Frontline", Tencent will hold a huge game launch event, catching Xingchen completely off guard.

This made him ecstatic.

It's worth noting that Tencent had been continuously driving traffic to Star Wallpaper since the beginning of June, and thanks to Tencent's traffic, Star Wallpaper's user base quickly expanded from millions to tens of millions.

This is only a month in the past. With Tencent's continuous traffic generation and the fact that Star Wallpaper software is not currently focused on profitability, the software itself is very lightweight and clean.

High user retention, plus the added appeal of a world rendering competition.

On one side is the largest traffic portal in China, pouring traffic into it; on the other side is the game developer with the best reputation in China, boasting high retention rates.

User growth will naturally follow.

The valuation of Star Wallpaper has also been rising steadily.

At the same time, this led some to believe that Tencent and StarCraft had reached a "cooperation" agreement.

This led Huang Yu to believe that he was beyond saving and that Tencent had abandoned "Gun Girl".

But unexpectedly, just when he had already resigned himself to his fate...

A message suddenly came in: Hey!! He's alive again!!

Huang Yu then realized that the massive Tencent was a multifaceted entity, and that submitting wallpapers didn't mean they wouldn't plagiarize.

Conversely, as "Final Front" continued to gain momentum, Tencent Games executives approved the projects from Mill and Shining Studio almost instantly and allocated a large budget to them.

For Tencent, the more successful the benchmark project is, the more resources it will invest.

Just like how Honor of Kings was initially positioned as an open-world game, Tencent's initial investment in this project can be summed up in three words: "money is no object."

The same applies this time. The more successful and influential "Final Front" is, the higher the marketing budget Tencent will invest.

The planning for Tencent's 2016 new product launch event was approved smoothly.

It includes two new games, "Night Spirit" and "Gun Girl Auto Chess", as well as new versions of seven games, including "League of Legends" and "DNF".

Gun Girl is also among them.

Moreover, their publicity strategy is a surprise attack, with the event expected to be revealed on July 17, reservations opening on July 18, and a press conference held directly on the 19th.

It doesn't give the Starry Sky game time to react.

The current cost of preparing for the event includes at least 20 million Q coins, event gift packs for each game, and some game peripherals.

For a press conference, the resources provided are already quite generous.

One can imagine how much traffic the game launched at this press conference will receive when QQ and WeChat begin their full-scale promotion, coupled with subsequent media coverage.

As the only game operated by Tencent rather than being a first-party title from Tencent, "Gun Girls" boasts impressive features.

This instantly transformed Huang Yu from a "timid" to an "arrogant" individual.

"Don't be fooled by the current popularity of Final Frontline. Once Tencent's press conference on July 19th comes out, it will immediately flop."

Before joining Tencent, Huang Yu actually disliked Tencent quite a bit.

After joining, he actually disliked it even more.
Because Tencent is truly a pure capital machine. If it weren't for Wan Wanggang from Tencent's investment department holding things together, the revenue of "Gun Girl" in June would have been only around ten million.

It's estimated that within Tencent, it would have been cut in half.

Fortunately, in order to prove that his investment was not problematic, Wan Wanggang was still holding on and giving him a chance.

Huang Yu has finally come up with the auto chess gameplay for "Gun Girls".

This is how this opportunity to "defy fate" came about. Although Huang Yu wasn't sure how much influence the upcoming press conference would have, it was important to the outside world, especially to Hai Mao, the "traitor."

Huang Yu naturally had to portray himself as being in a very good state.

What's more, this was the first time Hai Mao had sent a WeChat message in a month.

Then I have to show it off even more.

I'm doing just fine without you!
In fact, the reason Hai Mao sent a WeChat message to Huang Yu this time was not to catch up, but because when he was planning to build his own studio, he discovered that he was still listed as a supervisor of Flash Blast Company.

Only then did I send a WeChat message, asking the other party to resolve the matter.

Huang Yu insisted on dragging him along, wanting to show off the current state of "Gun Girl".

At first, Hai Mao didn't pay much attention.

He only asked a question when Huang Yu mentioned the date July 19th.

You're holding a press conference on July 19th? Doesn't that coincide with Final Frontline 1.1?

See this sentence.

Huang Yu was stunned for a moment. He suddenly remembered that Tencent was actually keeping the news that it would hold a press conference on July 19th, the day before the release of Final Frontline 1.1.

Although it's very difficult to keep such a large project completely secret, under normal circumstances, the other party would definitely know in advance.
But the other party obtained the information and leaked it from him.
That has a completely different meaning.

In addition, Wanwang just said this morning that their press conference was aimed at capturing traffic from Xingchen.

Therefore, the original plan was to announce it on July 17th, coinciding with the pre-release promotion of Starry Night Games version 1.1, in order to attract more traffic.

At the same time, it will allow players of "Final Front" to experience the auto chess gameplay of Tencent's games before the 1.1 new version.

However, he became too complacent and carried away.

Huang Yu casually sent the message to Hai Mao.

Even though he deleted the message immediately after seeing Hai Mao's reply.

But, Umineko isn't blind.

~~~
On the other hand, Hai Mao was in his apartment watching the message the other person had sent turn into a retracted message, and then they stopped talking. At first, he was a little confused, but he quickly realized what was going on.

That kid must have said something he shouldn't have.

As Huang Yu's "good friend", Hai Mao knows Huang Yu very well.

To quote a former employee, "This guy is a modern-day Yuan Shu."

So at first, he didn't care about Huang Yu's boasting or what he said, but as Huang Yu retracted his words in an instant, Hai Mao suddenly became concerned.

He suddenly realized that this news might be part of Tencent's strategy targeting Starry Night Games.

"what happened?"

"Oh? No, it's just that I think I just learned about a trade secret..."

The person chatting with Hai Mao was a programmer recruited by his new studio.

Since the new studio was established and there was nothing there, Hai Mao, just like before, offered his own place as staff dormitory.

The programmers he recruited, along with a copywriter, all live here.

It's a bit crowded, but isn't this saving money?
After all, HaiMao couldn't offer high salaries at this point, and if he couldn't keep them in line, he might not be able to pull them back, even from his old buddies.

"What secret?"

Tencent is holding a press conference on July 19th. It should be related to Auto Chess.

"Huh? Didn't that mean you just bumped into a star?"

For current domestic developers of anime-style games.

Starry Sky Games has become an unavoidable topic. Whether it's making games or attracting investment, Starry Sky Games and Final Frontline are basically indispensable when discussing the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) genre.

There were news reports about this some time ago.

It is said that at a comic convention in Chongqing in early June, a huge army of "human" cosplayers appeared. At least one-third of the cosplayers at the convention were characters from "Final Front".

Some people even went for the abstract, creating a lineup on the spot, which meant having different gun girls pose according to the lineups in the game.

Some people even drew the classic grid pattern of the Final Front on the ground.

At this comic convention, some people even recorded videos.

On Bilibili, this video has been viewed nearly a million times. If it weren't for the poor quality of the slow-motion shooting, the number of views might be even higher.

In addition, there were the IP acquisitions related to FATE at the end of the month, as well as the acquisition of FGO.

This put Starry Night Games in the eye of the storm.

These events all demonstrate that Final Frontier is currently the leading domestic ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) game platform.

This popularity stems not only from the high traffic generated by Terminal Battlefront in China, but also from its high reputation in Japan.

"The moon is always rounder outside, and being awesome outside is what really matters."

This mentality is very subtle, yet it truly exists.

In addition, for small and medium-sized game developers, Starry Night Games' "Starlight" project, announced on its official website in early June, has also attracted a lot of attention.

This "Starlight" project is actually an interest-free loan program exclusively for developers of anime-style games.

Apply directly with your project, and if approved, you can get a low-interest loan of 100 million to 500 million.

This amount of money is not much.

However, it allows many studios to create a complete demo, and after creating the demo, they can receive further investment from Starry Sky.

It's even possible to apply to Starry Sky Games to act as an "agent" for the project.

From an investor's perspective, this Starlight Project is quite ordinary in terms of its funding amount, the projects it covers, and the target audience.

However, Chu Chen's plan truly hits the pain point of many current ACG game studios.

At this point in 2016, the environment for developing anime-style games was clearly polarized.

On the one hand, major companies are continuously increasing their investment in ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) games.

Tencent, NetEase, Wanmei, and even companies like Shengda and Xisanju are all trying to take this path.

On the other hand, many small workshops simply cannot get investment because anime-style games are completely different from previous games.

Established manufacturers simply don't understand which companies have potential and which are just slackers.

Don't even mention these old manufacturers.

In his previous life, when Hai Mao sought out Da Wei, Da Wei also didn't think the "Arknights" project could succeed.
Furthermore, most anime-style game development teams can't clearly explain how their games will monetize; when asked, they simply say it's the same as "Final Battlefront," but the problem is...
When these investors compare the other party's project to the final battle line, they find that there is no comparison at all.

Just like a sea cat.

After leaving Flashbang, he spent the past month running around his own studio, and the process of setting up the studio was incredibly bumpy.

The road to setting up his own studio has been bumpy, but he has no shortage of connections and he has vague ideas for planning projects.

However, he didn't know about the money issue until the Starlight Project, Starry Sky Games, was launched.

I applied with a "let's give it a try" attitude.

I didn't expect to pass.

After securing a low-interest loan of 100 million, the initial problem was solved; at least he was able to use the money to create a demo.

"Then we have to tell Xingchen. Tencent is playing too dirty tricks."

The sea cat paused for a moment before realizing what was happening.

Yes
This is something I really need to tell Xingchen.

(End of this chapter)