Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 106 Lively
Time flies, and it's already July.

After the uproar of the Final Frontier in May and the explosive news of StarCraft's acquisition of FGO in June, July seemed to finally quiet down.

There were no new releases or any major news stories.

The only thing worth mentioning is probably the CNJOY game expo that will be launched at the end of the month.

However, in this peaceful and tranquil world...

In mid-July, Tencent suddenly made a move, first by launching a mysterious website with eight silhouette posters, each with a different design.

At the same time, these eight silhouette posters together form a larger poster.

Below this huge poster, the following text is written in artistic font.

"Tencent's Major New Product Launch Event: Play Now!"

It stands to reason.

If such a website suddenly appears, no one will notice it at all.

But... this is Tencent.

Almost immediately after the website went live, major media outlets began to "decode" and report on it.

That afternoon.

Media outlets across much of China's gaming industry began exclaiming, "Tencent's big move is here!!" and "Tencent's new product launch is coming!!"

The intensive reporting, much like the Chinese national football team qualifying for the World Cup, flooded major gaming communities across the country. Players had no choice but to watch it, whether they wanted to or not.

Immediately following this, while the "hot topic" was still going strong...

On July 16th, Tencent Games released its first silhouette poster featuring League of Legends Teamfight Tactics. At the same time, the hidden text "July" from this silhouette poster also appeared in the larger poster.

By this point, Tencent's promotional strategy was already quite clear.

It's a silhouette every day, with each silhouette containing a game message and a time message.

Once all the silhouettes light up, all the information about the entire event will be displayed.

At this pace, if one silhouette is released each day, and all eight silhouettes are released, then the press conference should be held on July 22nd or 23rd.

Many people are speculating that this might be a pre-event promotion by Tencent before CNJOY.

However, as July 17th approached, Tencent Games did not play by the rules and released two silhouettes the very next day.

Now, many media outlets are speculating that the press conference might be moved up.
But on the 18th, Tencent Games once again defied expectations, releasing three silhouettes on the third day, even though there was still one silhouette yet to be released.

However, the event schedule has already been fully announced.

October 2016, 7!
On the day this date was announced.

Almost all the media outlets were in an uproar; this time, it wasn't a case of someone taking money to make a fuss.

Instead, it really exploded!
The timing of this announcement is incredibly "targeted." Tencent Games has been releasing information about these new games intermittently over the past two days, although only posters have been released so far.

But these posters, at a glance, are either related to Auto Chess or announce Auto Chess gameplay.

So all of the above was just a smokescreen, a ploy to undermine Starry Night Games' 1.1 version release on July 20th?

But then, something even more shocking happened.

Just one hour after Tencent announced the final event date as July 19th, Starry Games, as if knowing Tencent was about to launch a surprise attack, also released an announcement.

It has been announced that Starry Games will hold a player meet-and-greet for its 2016 new products on July 19th.

Furthermore, in direct competition, they also updated their official event website, which includes a live stream displaying a countdown and five animated GIFs.

Each of these five pictures looks quite explosive.

The first image is a GIF of several girls running in a forest.

The second image is a GIF of Saber unleashing her ultimate attack.

The third image is a miniature animated world model.

The fourth image is an animated GIF of an adorable kitten playing with yarn.

The fifth image is a GIF of a silver-haired girl with twin ponytails practicing martial arts on the edge of a cliff.

It's fair to say that the moment these five GIFs were released, the entire gaming community exploded.

"What triggered this?!"

You should know that, under normal circumstances, once a game company's game becomes popular...

There will be no new products for at least one to two years.

For game companies, new products can be not only a source of profit growth, but also a potential source of failure.

In other words, manufacturers are like gamblers at a poker table.

Aside from major players like Tencent and NetEase, most game developers choose to focus on one profitable game and continue profiting from it until they've made enough before considering the next round of "gambling."

However, Starry Sky Games seems to be completely unpredictable.

Of these five GIFs, the first one, which can be identified as content from Final Battlefront 1.1 based on the fact that the running girl is humanoid, and the second one, which may contain information related to FATE, are the only exceptions.

The remaining three images are undoubtedly from a new game. That's just too outrageous.

How is that possible?! That doesn't make sense!! Do you think you're NetEase or Tencent? You're a new company, releasing three new games right off the bat???
Even if it's all PPT presentations, even if you're just creating a new folder, isn't that a bit excessive?
Is the pace so fast? Are they really hiding something good? Or are they just bluffing?

For the media at this time, it was already commonplace for manufacturers to use "fake new games" to attract traffic; one plan today, another code name tomorrow.

This isn't something that only happened in later generations. Just this year alone, Tencent and NetEase have launched a total of 75 new games for external promotion, with 30 from Tencent and 45 from NetEase.

How many of these games do you think will survive their first year?
Has Xingchen gone astray too? Is he just making PowerPoint presentations to fool people?
have no idea..
But whether it's just bluffing or they really have the strength, Xingchen is going to hold a press conference, and on the same day as Tencent.
This is so interesting.

The moment this announcement was released, the entire Chinese gaming community—no, it should be said that the entire internet that follows the gaming community—exploded like a powder keg with a lit fuse!

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

After seeing the five animated images and the countdown on the Starry Sky Games website, countless players had only these two words echoing in their minds.

What is a surprise? This is a surprise!

What is stimulation? This is stimulation!

Tencent has been teasing everyone with its mysterious website, silhouette posters, and daily updates, giving off an air of "I'm about to make a big splash."

Just when everyone felt that Tencent was coming on strong.

Starry Sky Games is actually holding a press conference!
The feeling is like a martial arts tournament, where an old rogue holds a banquet to announce that he will show off his unparalleled skills, but a newcomer who has just started out but is already making a name for himself sets up a stage right next to it.

"Senior, why not have a match today?"

Who can stand this!

The discussion on major gaming forums, social media, and player groups instantly surged to an unprecedented level.

Although Tencent's previous pre-launch hype was massive, it was more of an "official promotion" kind of excitement. While players were looking forward to it, there was always a layer of distance between them and the hype.

After all, if you're talking about surprises? Well, those who really follow the news knew months ago that League of Legends was getting an auto-chess mode.

But Starry Night Games is different.

Starry Night Games is a real surprise; nobody expected them to release a new game, that's what makes it so exciting.

Moreover, there's another layer to this surprise: Tencent and Starry Sky have teamed up.

It is well known that Chinese gamers, and indeed gamers worldwide, never shy away from watching a spectacle, especially a fight between game companies.

Just like the infamous Vivendi hostile takeover of Ubisoft in the previous life.

From a purely commercial perspective, Vivendi's acquisition was a game of capital markets, but it eventually turned into a public event that almost every player in the world knew about.

Although Ubisoft later squandered its goodwill through its own mistakes, at that time, the vast majority of players spontaneously sided with Ubisoft, cheered for Ubisoft, and boycotted Vivendi.

why?
Because there is a clear narrative model here: a company that strives to make games, with its own principles and passion, is being coveted by a huge, cold-blooded capital behemoth.

This is a typical "hero fights the dragon" or "David defeats Goliath" story template.

People are naturally inclined to sympathize with the weak, or rather, to sympathize with the challenger who dares to draw their sword in the face of a behemoth.

Right now, this "coincidence" between Tencent and Starry Night Games is seen by countless players as a replica of this story template!
And this is a 16 Tengzi.

In terms of reputation, he admits it's second to last in the country; nobody dares to claim to be number one.
Looking at the global landscape, only EA can rival Tencent.

What about Starry Night Games?
Whether or not you play "Final Frontline" or not, you generally agree that "StarCraft Games is very generous".

Moreover, at this time, "Final Frontline" had been operating for almost half a year and was a game with millions of daily active users worldwide. Although StarCraft Games was a "new" company, it was not a "small" company.

Of course, in terms of size, resources, and market influence, Starry Night Games is still "not worth mentioning" compared to Tencent.

It is precisely because it is "insignificant" that the clash between Starry Games and Tencent has generated even more buzz, and the media outlets that had received promotional fees from Tencent are now getting restless.

We can't afford not to make money from Tencent; we still have to issue the necessary press releases.

However, the popularity generated by Starry Night Games' actions is practically free traffic!
Moreover, reporting on this "battle of the gods" is far more exciting and eye-catching than simply interpreting Tencent's silhouette posters in a routine manner.

And then, a dramatic scene unfolded.

In the morning, major media outlets were still diligently analyzing Tencent's silhouette posters, speculating about the true nature of those "mysterious masterpieces."

In the afternoon, the wind direction completely changed.

"A Battle of the Century! Tencent and StarCraft Hold Press Conferences on the Same Day, the Tank Engines Are Getting Hotter!"

New King vs. Old Emperor? Starry Night Games Takes on Tencent Head-on!

Is it a coincidence or a declaration of war? On July 19th, the gaming world's attention was focused on this!

All sorts of sensational and highly inflammatory headlines sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

What was originally just a promotional event within the gaming industry has been distorted into an "industry war."

A press conference held solely by Tencent is not very lively.

The press conference held by Shan Xingchen's family wasn't very lively.

Starlight and Tencent held a joint press conference—how exciting!

(End of this chapter)