Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 166 Black Humor
The two talked a lot, and Dawei agreed with some of Chu Chen's points, such as...

"Emotional value is the core of ACG games. Putting more time into the plot and character performance is the key to enhancing core competitiveness."

However, he did not agree with some of Chu Chen's other statements.

"Don't just look at the anime market. Honkai Impact 3rd is not only an anime game, but also an action game."

Following this statement, Chu Chen proposed a so-called "Star Mode," which essentially reduces the cost of gacha pulls and eliminates the "rice pool" of unwanted cards.

These two changes are, firstly, to increase sales through lower prices, which means selling more at a lower profit margin. This can significantly improve user perception for games with a large user base while maintaining revenue.

Secondly, we need to remove the crooked cards, because crooked cards will cause players to leave.

Besides these two points, the "Mi Pool" model framework is actually very suitable for games that monetize content.

In my previous life, 25 years later, there were indeed games that attempted to do this.

For example, dust white, heterocyclic ring.

While chatting with Dawei, he even offered a few words of advice with a smile.

Or just cut off all the other monetization systems in Honkai Impact 3 and concentrate all the monetization on character and weapon gacha pulls.

In addition to drawing weapons, a crafting system can also be opened, allowing players to focus all their spending on character draws.

The advantages of this model are obvious: the player's paid experience will become relatively pure, and at least the fun of the core gameplay will not be diluted too much by the pay-to-win system.

Whether a game is fun or not depends entirely on the developer's capabilities.

Although many games that use the term "rice pool" were criticized in later generations, in reality, most games that feature Bao Si because of "rice pool" would still feature Bao Si even if they didn't use the rice pool.

Looking beyond the surface, most games don't become less fun because of "rice pools" (players who spend money on in-game currency); rather, the games themselves are simply not fun.

Those players who clamor that monthly subscriptions are the fairest option, but in all of China, and even the world, how many games with monthly subscriptions have succeeded because they are "monthly subscriptions"?
To put it bluntly, the Jade Dynasty world still requires a monthly subscription.

Just like what Chu Chen always said.

A game must first and foremost be fun; otherwise, no amount of monetization will help.

The game quality is acceptable, but the pay-to-win aspect is outrageous. The initial revenue will be impressive, but due to the high player churn rate, the overall revenue will decline in the long run.

The game is of good quality, pay-to-win friendly, and its overall revenue will be higher in the long run.

However, at this point in time, this Chu Chen version of "Mi Chi" is still too ahead of its time.

So advanced that even Mihoyo, the "founder of MiPool," is a little unsure.

After all, how can you quickly recoup your investment if you don't sell any stats in 16?
"Final Frontline"? That's an isolated case, and Honkai Impact 3 isn't Final Frontline. Honkai Impact 3's development costs were too high, so adopting a new marketing approach so hastily would be too aggressive.

"Let's make money first."

Although David ultimately rejected the plan in his heart, he couldn't help but think about it.

What if Chu Chen is right? After all, the Final Battlefront was indeed a success.
If Honkai Impact 3's user base can indeed expand, it would be normal to make some routine optimizations.

The problem is, the game hasn't even been released yet, so how can we know it will definitely be a bestseller?
This is a complete paradox.
"Om-"

A buzzing sound pulled Dawei out of his complicated thoughts.

On the stage not far away, the lights came on, and the host walked to the center of the stage with a microphone to announce the official start of the Star Alliance press conference.

A few minutes later, the lights in the venue dimmed, leaving only a beam of light shining on the podium.

A young man dressed in a casual hoodie and jeans walked up into the sunlight.
The next day, in the capital.

Smoke filled the rooftop tea room of a private club.

The air was filled with the rich aroma of top-grade Da Hong Pao tea, but the atmosphere in the room was far less gentle than the tea's fragrance; instead, it was oppressive, as if a storm was brewing.

The three parties present represent the top three forces in the domestic Android game industry.

On one side is the "hardcore alliance" composed of domestic mobile phone manufacturers, who control hardware and system-level application distribution channels and are the source of traffic.

On the other side is Tencent, the absolute hegemon of the domestic game industry.

The last team is NetEase, which, despite being consistently overshadowed by Tencent, still possesses considerable strength.

Today's gathering was organized by the Hardcore Alliance, and the attendees are not nobody.

The representatives from the Hardcore Alliance were Wang Xuyang, CEO of Kawan Media; Leng Zefeng, Vice President of Interactive Entertainment Business Group from Tencent; and Chen Fan, President of Interactive Entertainment Operations from NetEase.

It's no exaggeration to say that these three individuals, placed in the Chinese gaming industry... no... even in the global gaming industry, would have enough resources to make the global gaming world tremble.

"The Star Tap issue is no longer a trivial matter."

Wang Xuyang, the CEO of Wan Media, is a middle-aged man with a refined demeanor and wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

"That kid Chu Chen is too ambitious."

"You two saw the Starry Sky Games Alliance press conference yesterday; it's like Sun Wukong causing havoc in Heaven!"

In the past two months, the smoother Xingchen Tap has developed, the stronger the sense of crisis has become for the Hardcore Alliance. Many times, in order to make manufacturers actually choose between the two, it is not Zhang Guangtai who has to step forward, but Wang Xuyang himself.

With yesterday's Starry Night Games Alliance press conference, this sense of urgency has reached a fever pitch.
However, compared to the relatively urgent situation of Wang Xuyang...

Neither Chen Fan of NetEase nor Leng Zefeng of Tencent were in such a hurry.

If StarCraft Tap becomes popular and then calms down, they might even think that it wouldn't hurt to help the Hardcore Alliance suppress StarCraft.

But then, Star Tap became popular.

This Star Tap app is really getting interesting. Nobody's money grows on trees. Let's not even talk about logging into Star Tap to enjoy 0% commission.
If you force an alliance, shouldn't you at least offer some token gestures?
This time, Tencent and NetEase are allies in a sense. Their goal isn't to suppress StarCraft, but to see how much blood they'll have to shed to form a hard alliance.
So, while Wang Xuyang was explaining the pros and cons, Chen Fan from Wangyi just chuckled and chimed in, while Leng Zefeng, the representative from Tencent, simply leaned back in his chair, occasionally picking up his teacup and taking a sip, as if he were appreciating the quality of the tea.

Wang Xuyang knew what the other party wanted, but he didn't dare to give out the profit sharing casually. Besides his own interests, he also had the interests of the manufacturers behind him, and he often couldn't make the decision.

Therefore, we can only continue to use the "talking" tactic.

“Xingchen Tap is still small in scale, so we can keep it in check, but its model is very dangerous. It develops its own content, builds its own community, and has extremely high user stickiness.”

"Everyone, we can't let an athlete become a referee."

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the tea room began to change.

"That makes sense."

"Athletes should not be referees."

Leng Zefeng, who had been silent all along, finally spoke up. However, it was absurd for Tencent to say this, because they themselves are a typical example in China of being both athletes and referees.

When he said that, there was a dark humor to it, like a thief crying "stop thief!"

(End of this chapter)