Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 204 A Lively November

November 2016

It was incredibly lively. From the beginning to the end of the month, the domestic gaming media never stopped. First, Nintendo officially announced the Switch.

Then came the global simultaneous launch of Sony's PSVR.

Following this, Blizzard announced the formation of an esports league at BlizzCon in November to promote the professionalization of Overwatch.

Pokémon GO reached its peak upon release and became a global phenomenon.

Although this game has not been released in China, it is quite popular there.

Various reports flooded the media, and even the fact that Pokémon GO earned $2330 million in a single day during its Halloween event last month was brought up and promoted by the media.

At first, everyone thought the media was just chasing a hot topic.

Then Tencent suddenly released a promotional video announcing that "Let's Catch Monsters Together," which would be integrated into WEGAME, would be launched soon, with an expected launch time in the first quarter of 17.

Following this, Tencent launched a series of "new" casual games, including Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Agar.io, and Crazy Snake, in the WEGAME launch version.

Just like Startap, these games can also be downloaded and launched directly within WEGAME, and are being pushed around like crazy, attempting to follow in Startap's footsteps.

Tencent made a high-profile announcement, and NetEase also joined in the fun, not only officially announcing the establishment of a special business unit for "Onmyoji", but also giving a comprehensive plan for the development of "Onmyoji" derivative games.

Wanmei began promoting "Zhu Xian Auto Chess" and simultaneously announced the establishment of a two-dimensional game studio.

One after another, major domestic companies rushed into the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) game market, shouting slogans like "ACG" (Anime, Comics, and Games), "Getting into the young generation," and "Powered by love."

It's no exaggeration to say that there was a new hot topic almost every day throughout November.

It was incredibly lively.

However, if we're talking about what was the hottest topic in November, it would undoubtedly be StarCraft Games. Starting from the beginning of November, "studying why StarCraft succeeded" became a popular topic of discussion.

Reports and articles of all kinds sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

Some of these articles were extremely flattering, portraying Chu Chen as a once-in-a-century business genius, as if every word he uttered was profound.

Some, however, feign profundity, using a bunch of data models and psychological terms to try to deconstruct Xingchen's success, but the conclusion is often that "its success cannot be replicated."

Suddenly, everyone in the industry was a "star expert".

They talk about "Starry Sky Mode," "Starry Sky Ecosystem," and "Starry Sky Closed Loop" all the time, as if they'd be out of touch with the times if they didn't chat about Starry Sky games.

But if you ask what exactly the Star Mode is? What is the Star Ecosystem?
Well, not many people can explain it clearly.

However, their appearance did provide Chu Chen with a lot of material for the "Star Identification Hot Comments" in November.

By the end of November, the gaming industry's heat had finally cooled down a bit. On the one hand, Tencent managed to stabilize its position thanks to Honor of Kings' staggering revenue of over 15 billion yuan in November.

On the other hand, players are tired of being bombarded with news every day.

Therefore, everyone consciously slowed down their publicity and promotion efforts.
But at this very moment, a November global mobile game market report released by Sensor Tower, a third-party data agency in the United States, slapped everyone in the face once again.

"Get up and keep partying!"

This report is not complicated; it consists of a few pictures and roughly estimates the global revenue of several popular games in November, including "Fate/Grand Order," "Onmyoji," "Honkai Impact 3," and "Final Battlefront."

In RMB terms, the figures are 12 billion, 10.5 billion, 350 million, and 200 million respectively. The report summarized the total revenue of key games exclusively promoted by Xingchen Tap in November. Actually, there's no need for him to summarize it; for the average Chinese person who's a calculator in their head...

A simple scan reveals that these four games have a combined monthly revenue exceeding 28 billion.

28 billion!
It seems that overnight, the unit "hundred million" has become devalued in the face of Starry Sky Games, becoming as cheap as discounted cabbage in a supermarket.

When countless game company owners saw this report, they silently stubbed out their cigarettes and fell into a long silence.

Previously, the feeling that "hundreds of millions" wasn't really a hundred million only came from Tencent. When Tencent broke 100 million, people felt okay, after all, it was Tencent.

But the fact that Xingchen treats hundreds of millions of dollars as a joke has really put many people on edge.

The tremendous success naturally attracted countless criticisms.

"The data is fabricated! It's definitely inflated; otherwise, how could it be so high!"

"Starry Sky Games is a giant casino. Isn't drawing cards just gambling? The government actually supports a game company like this. I don't think companies that make money off human greed will go far!"

Rumors began to circulate in various circles, and envious people hid behind their screens, cursing this suddenly rising behemoth with the most vicious language.

An online troll army, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, started fabricating all sorts of rumors about stars.

However, these noises couldn't even stir a ripple in Chu Chen's heart, who was at the center of the storm.

In China, one must rise to power while facing giants.

There is only one way: to keep launching new games and constantly strengthen your distribution channels.

It's like playing football. Off-field harassment is just harassment at most. If insults could really bankrupt a company, then Tencent would be the first to go bankrupt, followed by NetEase.

As long as you have direct access to players, and as long as you can win, all the rumors and gossip are just passing by.

For a football club, what's truly terrifying isn't slander, but losing.

For a game company, what's truly frightening isn't the enemy's online trolls, but rather that nobody plays your game.

Although Chu Chen values ​​public opinion, he is never afraid of it. If Fujiko F. Teng's powerful influence were truly that effective, he wouldn't have watched Douyin gradually become a traffic giant.

Don't be afraid of giants, but don't underestimate them either.

Chu Chen has never underestimated Yinghe, nor has he underestimated Tencent. After all, Tencent's future revenue from King of Glory is in the tens of billions a year, which is the power of distribution channels.

So he is currently sitting in the CEO's office at ByteDance.

Looking at Zhang Ming in front of him.

~~~
ByteDance, a company founded 12 years ago, has made its most successful software to date ByteDance Headlines. Its valuation was $14 million in 5, reaching $17 billion in January 1, $110 billion in the second half of 17, $220 billion in 18, and $750 billion in 20.
By 25, TikTok's global monthly active users had surpassed 20 billion.
Countless people have recounted TikTok's success in the past, but if you were to tell Zhang Ming about these achievements now, he would only smile.

At this point, Zhang Ming had already been at the helm of ByteDance for four years.

He had met countless people and talked about countless things since he started from scratch, but it was rare to find someone as young as Chu Chen, who possessed a calmness and sharpness beyond his years.

The other party is targeting TikTok.

(End of this chapter)