Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 162 Embroidery Needle

The two chatted for a while about Mr. Wu's clothes, and walked inside as they talked.

How's your company doing? Have you hired anyone yet?

Fishball asked casually.

Don't even mention it.

Wu Qidong looked utterly dejected.

"There were a lot of people being interviewed, but they were all mediocre; they hadn't even read about CEO Chen's game development strategies."

"Hey, by the way, did you know about that embroidery needle that made the news a while ago for promoting intangible cultural heritage?"

"I know."

The hottest gaming news recently, besides the merchandise for "Final Frontline," is that StarTap has become popular again.

In fact, it has been online since the end of July.

The popularity of Xingchen Tap was like a roller coaster, soaring all the way after its launch until it reached its peak in mid-August, with registered users exceeding 100 million and daily active users reaching a peak of 30 million.

By early September, the hype died down, the promotion of giving away new games on StarTap ended, and after all games were added to the library for 9.9 yuan, the daily active users of the entire app gradually dropped from their peak to three million.

Just when everyone thought that Star Tap would gradually enter a period of calm.

Several games on StarTap received DLC updates almost simultaneously.

First up is "Jump Jump," which adds new scene DLC to the original version.

Secondly, "Dolls" has been updated with a Hong Kong DLC.
The other three games also have their own DLCs, all priced at a uniform "0.9 yuan". In addition, if you did not claim the base game for free before, you can now enjoy a discount of buying the base game for 9.9 yuan and getting the DLCs for free.

Of course, along with the event, there are also discount coupons. After claiming the coupon, the price of a single game is approximately 5 yuan.
In addition to these extra incremental updates, StarTap launched a new game, "Embroidery Needle," in early September.

This game is still free to claim for the first month.

Since early September, all the games that Xingchen Tap had previously given away for free have indeed become paid games, and people have been buying them. There have even been merchants reselling "accounts that have already been claimed" on Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace).

Therefore, when "Embroidery Needle" appeared, Xingchen Tap's traffic skyrocketed.

Yesterday it was just over two million, but the next day, daily active users jumped to over ten million.

Whether I play it or not is another matter! Let's just grab this 9.9 for free first!
This is what the vast majority of players are thinking.

In addition, "The Needle" is indeed very fun.

The original Needle is a reaction-based game, while Needle, in addition to testing reaction skills, offers more interactive elements.

For example, the original disc is replaced with a circular embroidery hoop, which rotates at a constant speed, and green and red indicators are pre-distributed on the edge of the hoop.

Green indicates that this area is suitable for needle insertion, while red indicates that it is not.

After each needle insertion, the green part turns red to indicate that the needle cannot be inserted again.

All the player needs to do is control an embroidery needle threaded with colorful silk threads, and follow the prompts to continuously strike the needle into the embroidery hoop.

To use the game description from Startap, the gameplay is as follows.

"Find the gaps on the rotating embroidery hoop, tap the screen to insert the embroidery thread, avoid existing stitches, and embroider the beautiful pattern in sequence!"

More importantly, this game is not only easy to pick up, but also has beautiful graphics.

The production team collected many exquisite embroideries, from simple to complex, and added lighting effects.

In addition to the "whoosh/click" of the needle going down, the "taut" sound of a successful stitch, the "blooming" sound of a completed pattern, the "click/ouch" sound of a failed stitch, and the slight "creak" sound of the embroidery hoop rotating. Later in the game, the introduction of "holding down to charge the needle" allows for "backstitch embroidery," where the needle will move back and forth twice to form a short line segment.

Simple, highly responsive, and visually appealing.

Coupled with the traffic of StarTap itself, the game "Embroidery Needle" quickly became a hit. After generating a certain amount of popularity worldwide, the game was even reported by official media.

So much so that recently, people in the gaming industry often find themselves bringing up this topic when they chat.

"I heard that all the mini-games on Star Tap were designed by CEO Chen, and every single one of them is a hit. That's incredible!"

"Hey, Yuwan, you've met President Chen before. Tell me, what kind of person is President Chen? Is he the same style as in the videos?"

"Mr. Chen..."

Yuwan scratched his head, recalling the scene when he first met Chu Chen at the Starry Sky Games headquarters, and pondered how to describe the man to Wu Qidong.

"How should I put it? It feels like... a teacher."

"Huh? What do you mean by 'like a teacher'?"

Wu Qidong was clearly surprised by Yuwan's response, and his curiosity was immediately piqued.

Fish Ball nodded.

Have you ever had that feeling where you think you're fully prepared, but when you actually open your mouth, you find you have so many questions?

Wu Qidong paused for a moment, then nodded.

“Yes! Every time I go home and ask my dad for money, I get this feeling. No matter how well I present the project's prospects and plans, he still asks me, ‘How much are you planning to lose this time?’”

“You…”

Fish balls are a bit hard to review
He met Chu Chen in mid-August.

At that time, Star Tap was incredibly popular.

While traditional manufacturers still dare not make a bet, for the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) community, choosing between StarTap and Hardcore Alliance is a no-brainer.

In addition, at that time, his company, Manjiu Network, was also short of funds.

So after discussing it with Lin Shuyin, another founder of Manjiu, the two quickly invested the project that Manjiu Network was developing into the Starlight Project and applied for the agency operation service of Starry Night Games.

Then, very quickly, they received a response to their project.

Yuwan still remembers the day he went to Xingchen Games, when he posted the news in a group of domestic ACG game developers.

When he posted it, he received a lot of "jealousy."

Only one creature, Sea Cat, made him "prepare."

At the time, he thought that the guy named Hai Mao was probably envious of how easily he got investment. However, when he actually walked confidently into the Starry Night Games conference room with the Azur Lane project proposal, he was quite surprised.
He was completely stunned.

Why do you believe your project will succeed?

"Well, based on the successful experience of similar products..."

Before meeting Chu Chen, Yuwan had answered this question countless times in front of other investors.

Basically, as long as you bring up the success of Kantai Collection C and Kantai Collection R, investors can be convinced. However, with Chu Chen, this answer was further questioned.

"Really? You mean that the core gameplay and selling point of Azur Lane is similar to Kantai Collection, is that what you mean?"

(End of this chapter)