Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 215 Linear Pseudo-Open World

In addition, many detailed adjustments have been made to the dialogue logic of the characters in "The End of Survival Guide", and the presentation style will also change according to the player's operation.

For example, in the conversation just now, if Ye Feiyang had ignored the clock and instead directly controlled his character to run outside during the conversation...

The conversation will stop, and the younger sister will run after her.

Until the player stops.

Only after entering a normal search will the younger sister's chat bubble continue the previous topic.

"Speaking of which, brother, what is time?"

These textual changes may seem complicated, but in practice they are not. As mentioned before, the dialogue in "The End of the World Survival Guide" is very colloquial, so even if you record several versions of the same item, it won't take up too many resources.

Except for interruptions.

Another variation is when the player picks up a new item midway through a dialogue, in which case the dialogue will look like this.

"I still have anti-radiation pills in my backpack, brother! Look, I've found something new!"

At this point, the character's dialogue will smoothly transition to the introduction of the next item.

Alternatively, if the item the player has is important, the system will automatically ignore the newly picked-up item and continue the previous dialogue.

Another scenario is when a player collects items rapidly and continuously. In this case, the system will recognize that the player is currently busy and will not trigger any dialogue.

In other words, in this section, the game offers players not only exploration, but also a bit of a "treasure appraisal" show feel.

This "treasure appraisal" experience is how "Final Survival Guide" provides players with a sense of novelty. After playing for more than half an hour, Ye Feiyang quickly got used to it and even fell in love with this mode.

These details, combined with the exquisite visuals, make the simple act of picking up trash much more interesting.

In traditional survival games, players collect resources with a strong sense of purpose; everything serves the overarching goal of "survival." Crowbars are used to open doors, spare parts are used to repair things, and food is used to fill one's stomach.

Although it's very motivating, it gets boring after playing it for a while.

Especially in many survival games, the core of survival has been completely changed in order to keep players engaged, especially in some online survival games.

It's less about survival and more about PvP.
Ye Feiyang had played a game before where he painstakingly chopped down trees and mined for resources, eventually building a two-story wooden house by the river.

The next day when he logged on, his home was gone. The walls were blown to smithereens, half of the roof had collapsed, and everything in his chest had been looted. The other party even used wooden signs to spell out a mocking smiley face where his bed used to be.

From then on, Ye Feiyang stopped playing this kind of "survival game".

In this type of game, the so-called "survival" is about who can concoct C4 and a rocket launcher faster, and then tear apart other people's homes like delivery boxes.

People are keen to figure out how to use building bugs to sneak into other people's houses, and how to blow up the thickest walls with the fewest explosives.

In the later stages of the game, everyone becomes a professional demolition team and warehouse manager. The first thing they do when they log in is to check if their house is still there, and the second thing is to plan whose house to demolish today.

That's no longer survival; that's called a "post-apocalyptic looting simulator."

On the contrary, "The End of the World Survival Guide" is quite good so far. It has the atmosphere of the apocalypse, but there are no earth-shattering explosions or backstabbing and betrayal.

Only a sense of unease arises from the feeling of "civilization being severed."

For example, when Ye Feiyang passed by a scene, there was a patch of land next to the foundation of a collapsed house that seemed to be a different color from the rest of the land.

He controlled his character to walk over, and a prompt appeared on the screen.

The soil here is very loose, as if it has been disturbed.

Ye Feiyang tried to interact, and the system prompted him again.

[Digging tools are needed.]

He opened his backpack and found nothing like a shovel, but a recipe for "Emergency Engineer's Shovel" was highlighted in the crafting list.

The materials are not complicated: a sturdy wooden stick, a metal plate, and a roll of tape.

These props,

[Ding!] With a crisp synthesized sound, a crudely designed entrenching tool appeared in the character's hand. Ye Feiyang immediately returned to the soft soil and began digging.

Once, twice.

The character's movements weren't fast, but they were powerful, constantly throwing dirt to both sides.

Suddenly, there was a loud "bang".

The shovel seemed to have hit something hard.

Ye Feiyang's mind raced, and he quickened his pace. Soon, a rusty square iron plate appeared in the center of the screen, with a valve handle that could be rotated on it.

The entrance to an underground shelter.

He turned the valve, and with a sickening metallic scraping sound, the entrance opened, and a stale air seemed to penetrate the screen.

Upon entering the shelter, the space was small, containing only a table, a chair, and a small cot.

There is a skeleton on the bed, and a chair directly opposite the bed with another skeleton on it. Ye Feiyang controls his character to go forward and investigate.

[Unknown canned food x2]

A pistol

Besides these two things, there's also a notebook. "Brother, what's written in the notebook?"

"do not know"

"Would you like to try that?"

Following his sister's words, the game gave a hint. Ye Feiyang followed the hint and found a metal ball in his backpack. According to the item description, it was a small ball that could convert text into speech.

The brother and sister found this thing a year ago.

The game popped up a prompt asking if you wanted to scan your laptop.

Ye Feiyang nodded as a matter of course.

Then, a scanning animation of the small metal ball appeared, accompanied by a slightly mechanical voice.

[November 7th, heavy snow.]

[It's the twelfth day of the power outage. Mom still hasn't come back. Communication is completely cut off. All we can hear from the radio is static. We don't have many cans left.]

[November 12th, heavy snow.]

I opened the partition window, and the room became much brighter. Xiaoya said a cold draft was coming in from outside, so I told her to put on more clothes. I hate a dark room more than the cold.

[November 15th, heavy snow.]

I think I did something wrong. I closed the isolation window, but Xiaoya still said she was cold. I covered her with all my clothes, and she said she wasn't cold anymore, but she was still shivering.

[November 19th, the snow didn’t stop. 】

Xiaoya didn't complain of being cold today. She said she was going to sleep, and she slept very peacefully.

[November 21st, snow.]

My younger sister is still asleep. I talked to her, but she didn't respond. I hugged her tightly, but her body was so cold.

[September 11, sunny.]

I found my dad's pistol.

The diary ends here.

The game screen remained the same, with only the sounds of wind and crackling flames, but Ye Feiyang shuddered. He wanted to slap himself for doing something like flipping through his laptop!

Despite saying that, Ye Feiyang seemed to be able to feel the coldness of the ice and snow in the game all at once.

Moreover, the production team clearly knew what they had just done.

So here, the older brother in the game comforted his younger sister.

"It's alright, they've already met in another world."

"is it?"

"Definitely..."

After a while, the bubbles started rising again.

"Brother, we took all their things, is that... not a good idea?"

"My sister asked in a low voice."

"They would hope that someone could survive with these things."

"And I won't take it for nothing. Come on, let's dig a grave for them."

"Like Grandpa's?"

"Um"

Staring at this speech bubble, Ye Feiyang was dumbfounded. Seriously?! What kind of consolation is this?!
On the surface, "The End of the World Survival Guide" is a game about exploring a vast, open world, but its title also includes the words "Chapter 1".

These two words actually mean that the game is "linear".

Because all exploration and interaction in the game is one-time only, except for trees and some resources, meaning that players need to survive.

It requires exploring forward, like starting from one end of a map.

"Linear" games are always easier to build up players' emotions than "true open world" games. For example, here, the development team "stabbed" the players in the back.

This will trigger a story event where, no matter where the player chooses to dig a grave, they will "accidentally" discover a hidden box.

The box contained some toys that the children had hidden, one of which was engraved with Xiaoya's name. Clearly, the toys belonged to the brother and sister from earlier.

Here, players will unlock a mini-game that they can play with their sister, as well as a heartwarming storyline.

The core gameplay, in the simplest terms, involves moving from one end of the map to the other, during which various events will occur.

For example, battles, bridge collapses, landslides, large unmanned structures, places that require decryption to access, strange buildings, and magnificent wonders.

Along this route, there will be several places where players are allowed to build shelters.

What players need to do is keep searching for resources and collecting necessities, moving forward day by day. In this process, it is actually a "journey", but the Starry Night game does not stipulate when you must go to which place.

(End of this chapter)