Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 164 Star Alliance
"I didn't expect so many manufacturers to participate."

Just as Yuwan was worrying about whether her homework would be checked.

Inside the venue, a large number of people had already poured in.

"To be honest, I still can't quite believe it."

Looking at the crowd, Dawei from Mihayou was somewhat moved.

"It's only been a few months, and Starry Sky Games has already started forming alliances. This speed of development is simply too exaggerated."

In the Chinese gaming industry, there are actually quite a few game companies that have become rich overnight.

Looking at the global gaming industry, there are even more companies that have become rich overnight.

You could even say they're everywhere.

Aside from Shengda in its early years, in recent years, such as Duoyi Network last year, the company achieved a net profit of over 10 billion yuan in just one year thanks to "Shenwu 2," a game that most people have never even heard of.

Note that this is not cash flow, but profit.

Legends like Microsoft acquiring Minecraft for $25 billion are commonplace in the gaming industry.

However, most manufacturers who suddenly become rich only experience a brief period of explosive growth before falling into a period of "silence."

Between "stable profits from established IPs" and "potential losses from innovation," most manufacturers would choose the former, clinging to one IP and exploiting it relentlessly. For example, Wanmei has been exploiting the "Zhu Xian" IP for almost 20 years.
The reason for this situation is quite simple: developing games is not a "fun" thing; to put it simply, it's just a job.

For individuals and teams that have already achieved success, it is difficult to maintain content output over a long period without a strong "belief" to support them.

This is even more evident among independent game developers.

Many independent game developers "disappear" after becoming rich overnight.
However, after Starry Night Games became a hit, it gave people a different feeling.

Chu Chen gives the impression of being an athlete who keeps running forward. Many onlookers believe that Xingchen should have stopped long ago and waited for his "players".

When "Final Battlefront" generated over 100 million RMB in revenue and Star Wallpaper was valued at 300 million RMB, most manufacturers believed that Star Wallpaper should take a break.
As a result, Xingchen continued to run forward.
After acquiring "Fate/Grand Order" and holding a press conference announcing a bunch of new projects, many other companies felt that StarCraft Games should really take a break.
But Xingchen continued running forward.

When StarTap's global daily active users exceeded 30 million, almost all manufacturers thought, "Surely this should stop by now."
Why are you still running forward? What are you chasing after?!
Although many people may not understand it, they are actually quite impressed by Starry Games, which is why the Starry Games Alliance press conference today attracted so many manufacturers to come and watch.

Everyone was eager to see what kind of mischief Xingchen would pull this time.

"That's definitely an exaggeration."

Following Dawei's words, a man in a white shirt with a refined demeanor expressed the same sentiment. He was Yang Defeng, the head of the operations department for Bilibili's "FGO" game.

Strictly speaking, he was also under Chu Chen's jurisdiction.
Yes, you heard right. Although he works for Bilibili, and Bilibili is indeed nominally the Chinese server operation team for FGO, his job is limited to reporting to Chen Rui.

I also need to report to Chu Chen.

Logically speaking, since Starry Sky is the developer of "FGO", the communication between the operation team and the developer should not be a superior-subordinate relationship.

However, the reality is quite different.

Chu Chen's status in the Chinese gaming industry at this time was somewhat "supermodel-like," and the two appeared to be from the operations team and the development team.
In practice, it's more like a superior-subordinate relationship.

Moreover, personally, reporting to Chu Chen was much more difficult for him than reporting to Chen Rui, because Chen Rui didn't understand the game. Once a plan was submitted, besides a few perfunctory "uh-huhs" and a few symbolic questions, it was basically over.

However, reporting to Chu Chen would be difficult.

Even though he didn't go to the Starry Sky Game for long, only once every week or two, and usually stayed for about an hour, that one hour was definitely the most unbearable.
Because Chu Chen truly understands games and game operations.
During this period, Yang Defeng and his operations team even felt that their boss was not Chen Rui, but Chu Chen.
But don’t say it, really don’t say it.

After making several trips to Xingchen, Yang Defeng, though finding it "troublesome," still admired Chu Chen quite a bit.

It's no coincidence that someone can achieve this level of success.

"When I checked in at the door, I glanced at the list and wow, it seems that apart from NetEase and Tencent, which didn't send anyone, almost all the other well-known companies in China are here."

"Those two companies probably can't bring themselves to do it."

David smiled.

The Chinese gaming industry has suddenly become quite interesting since the rise of Starry Sky Games.

They can be broadly divided into four factions.

First, there are NetEase and Tencent, two leading domestic manufacturers that have established their own distinct styles.
Then there are traditional game companies such as Shengda, Wanmei, Jiuyou, and Changyou.
Mobile game companies led by Ooniu, 37Games, Leiting, and PalmFun rely on the Hard Alliance and traffic conversion for revenue generation.
And Starry Night Games, which has been established for a little over two and a half years.

The reason why Starry Games is regarded as a separate force by many domestic manufacturers is that, after the success of "Final Battlefront", Starry Games successively launched "Starry Wallpaper", acquired "FGO", and launched the Starlight Project, investing in a large number of ACG games.

It really does have that bit of the aura of a leading domestic ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) game company.

Secondly, there's Star Tap. It's been two months since it launched at the end of July. Although its popularity has waned, it has still managed to maintain a certain number of users.

The key is that "Embroidery Needle" was able to bring the daily active users back to the tens of millions level.

This is actually a rather terrifying thing.

Looking at the entire Chinese gaming industry, there are many companies capable of creating blockbuster games.

So far, there isn't a single manufacturer that can create a blockbuster product through distribution channels!
The only one of its kind is StarTap, as evidenced by the fact that its current valuation is said to exceed 20 billion RMB, highlighting just how "scarce" it is.

Not to mention, StarTap is a rare app that has a significant user base worldwide.

Before TikTok became a global phenomenon, and while the domestic internet industry was primarily focused on the domestic market, this channel with an "international" focus was quite remarkable.

David was still marveling at the speed of Xingchen's development.

Yang Defeng had already shifted the topic to another attack inside the venue, and he gestured towards a corner of the hall.

"See that guy over there carrying a camera? I just glanced at his badge; he's a reporter from CCTV.com."

"Holy crap. It really is CCTV.com."

"Hehe, it's not just CCTV.com. Over there, in that corner, do you see that? There's a bunch of Japanese and American media outlets there too."

(End of this chapter)