Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 214: Plot driven by dialogue

Just as Ye Feiyang picked up a can of food, a gunshot rang out, followed by a conversation between the siblings.

"Brother, did you hear that? What was that sound?"

"It sounded like a gunshot."

"Why were there gunshots?"

"I don't know, but we need to be more careful."

The unique feature of "The End Survival Guide" is that it doesn't involve a single player surviving alone, but rather a brother and sister, which might seem like a "trivial" setting.

But when you actually play it...

Ye Feiyang quickly discovered the interesting aspects of this system.

First of all, the younger sister's role is much stronger than Ye Feiyang imagined. Not only will she actively collect things around her, but she will also guide players to things in the scene that have been overlooked.

After walking around for a while, Ye Feiyang even felt that his sister was much more efficient at searching than he was.

Moreover, if he doesn't search some hidden places, his sister will send him reminders. For example, he just finished searching a scene, but his sister suddenly stopped.

Then bubbles appeared.

"Brother, it looks like something is glowing in that bush."

Whenever his sister gave a reminder, the corresponding items in the scene would light up. Ye Feiyang went over to take a look and found a key that he didn't know where to open.

Playing this game feels like having a built-in cheat code.

From a developer's perspective, the so-called "built-in cheat" logic of the younger sister is nothing more than slightly speeding up the efficiency of players searching for scenes.

Functionally, it will not change the game content.

It seems like a feature that's optional.

In reality, the development team did a lot of work on the automatic exploration feature for the younger sister, spending a lot of effort to adjust it, even some paths that looked like automatic exploration.

In reality, it was a route that the development team had adjusted in advance.

The reason why so much effort is being put into this system is quite simple: it's not just a matter of functionality.

Chu Chen knew very well that it was very difficult to create a player's "partner" in a game, let alone a "partner" that the development team had designed to evoke the player's emotions.

This isn't something that can be done simply by providing a background story like "This is my sister/This is my brother" in the game.

To develop a sibling relationship, the first step is to make the character useful.

Just like teachers all like "good students".

A cute, sensible, and helpful younger sister will quickly build a certain impression in the player's mind, even if it's not a good one.

At least players won't develop a dislike for the character just because they have a "burden" by their side.

In addition to giving the younger sister more functional details, the game also features a large number of storylines that are driven by conversations between the siblings.

Through these dialogues, players will learn some details, such as the reason why the brother and sister are wandering around is because their grandfather, who raised them, has died.

The brother and sister were very calm when they discussed this topic.

Moreover, these topics often only emerge when players discover something, such as when Ye Feiyang has just entered a wooden house that is completely covered by vines and half-collapsed by a large tree.

My sister suddenly stopped in the living room, and the camera zoomed in, focusing on a wooden rocking chair that had been overturned on the floor.

“This chair…”

My sister's chat bubble popped up.

"It looks a lot like Grandpa's."

Similar exploratory dialogues are very common in games.

These dialogues are usually just two or three sentences long, and sometimes the camera doesn't even change at all; it's just the two people walking along, and then the player suddenly picks something up.

This will trigger a dialogue.

These conversations feel very natural, especially when you're playing alone, because they're essentially the same as when you and your friends see something on the street and start chatting.

Moreover, almost all the dialogues contain information. For example, Ye Feiyang, controlling his character, finds an abandoned little library where rotten pages and dust mix together, emitting a strange smell.

Just as he rounded a collapsed bookshelf, a bubble popped up next to his sister's picture.

"Brother, look what that is?"

Ye Feiyang looked in that direction and saw a tall wooden cabinet standing in the corner, with a white disc with numbers drawn on it on top, and two black pointers fixed on it, like some kind of ritual prop.

He controlled his character to walk over, and the item's name appeared on the screen.

A grandfather clock that no longer ticks.

Before he could do anything, the bubbles and voice above his sister's head reappeared.

"This cabinet is strange, can it be used to hide things?"

The older brother's chat bubble also appeared.

"This isn't a cabinet; it should be a clock."

"A bell? Is it edible?"

"You can't eat it; it's used to tell time."

This answer was clearly beyond the younger sister's comprehension. A question mark appeared above her head, followed by...

What is time?

"I don't know either, it was mentioned in Grandpa's notebook..."

"In the past, people divided a day into twenty-four parts, and each part was further divided into sixty smaller parts."

"Why do we have to break it down into such details? It's so troublesome."

"My grandfather told me that when he was very young, he had to go to a place called 'school'. He had to go there at a fixed time, and if he was late, he would be scolded."

A thinking emoticon bubble appeared next to her sister's profile picture, and it took her several seconds to come to a conclusion.

"So... this is a box that forces people to go out and get yelled at?"

"I think so..."

Looking at this string of conversations, Ye Feiyang almost spat out his water on the screen.

What the hell is an alarm clock? It's just a box that urges you to go out and get yelled at.
It should be noted that Ye Feiyang could still operate the game while the dialogue bubbles were popping up, but he didn't move; instead, he watched the entire dialogue.

The conversation between the brother and sister is simple and interesting.

Clearly, for these two children who grew up in the apocalypse, time has become a vague concept.

Ye Feiyang tried to pull the pendulum door, but the lock was rusted and he couldn't open it. It prompted that he needed a tool, so he switched to the crowbar he had picked up earlier.

"Bang" sound.

The wooden door was forcibly pried open, and several rusty gears and a small piece of metal fell out with a clatter.

[Received: Precision Parts x2]

[Received: Scrap Metal x1]

The younger sister immediately followed up with her conversation.

"This box is troublesome, but it seems to be somewhat useful."

"Yes, for us, this is its greatest use right now."

These dialogues form the storyline of the game.

Most interactive items have dialogue, some of which are interesting or advance the plot. Items that unlock certain aspects of the world-building have longer dialogues.

Most importantly, these dialogues do not take up the player's action time, nor do they require the player to stop and open their inventory. These dialogues only appear when the character is walking or during idle time.

In addition, the texts are not long, so even if the audio is fully dubbed.

However, the overall volume of the voice acting may not even be as large as a single chapter in some previous generation anime games.

(End of this chapter)