Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 217 Little Sister!

"No wonder a single-player game needs an internet connection."

The End Survival Guide has an "anti-piracy" feature, which means it's always online.

There's nothing we can do, it's 17 now.

For StarCraft Games, unless it's an "IP derivative work" like "Final Front: Origins," they can disregard anti-piracy measures and even allow pirated copies to circulate, thus expanding the popularity of "Final Front."

However, for single-player games like "The Last Survival Guide," the consequence of not implementing anti-piracy measures is that sales will definitely not pick up.

This is the status quo.

Chu Chen couldn't change it either.

However, this situation is not entirely without a solution.

Looking at the payment trends of domestic players, before the emergence of Black Myth, the top-ranked games were PUBG, Naraka: Bladepoint, and Fall Guys, all paid single-player games.
Having found the answer, Chu Chen naturally copied it. His approach was simple: he added an online mode to the core of a single-player game.

While employing a constant online connection for security, "Final Survival Guide" also includes a way to lower the barrier to entry: giving players an extra "life."

This actually reflects confidence in the game.

The gamble is that players who enter for free will develop a strong attachment to this apocalyptic world before their first death.

The gamblers have developed a strong emotional bond with their sister, whom they depend on for survival. They bet that the sister would be willing to pay money to "extend her life" because of a death she was unwilling to accept, and that she would want to continue the journey.

Judging from the opening sales of 150,000 units in six hours.

It's not fair to say that Starry Night Games won the gamble. Considering the game is priced at only 38 yuan, its quality, price, and sales volume aren't particularly impressive.

It's even a bit low.

To achieve a price of 38 yuan, "Final Survival" made a lot of efforts.

First, the game's title includes "The First Chapter," and according to the development plan, two more games are planned. This is actually a "trick" Chu Chen devised to adapt to the current Chinese single-player game market.

Breaking a game into three parts not only allows for faster development but also lowers the price, thus reducing the barrier to entry.

For example, if you sell "Runestone Guardians" for 29 yuan, no one will buy it. But if you separate the characters and sell them for 8.9 yuan, you can sell millions of copies.
Chinese gamers have such a strange definition of price.

Nowadays, most players don't calculate how much fun they can get from the game; instead, they calculate how long they can play it.

Online games can be played for free, but paying for in-game purchases brings a "long-lasting" experience. For example, once you buy a skin, as long as you continue to play the game, that skin will continue to bring you emotional value.

But single-player...
A hundred or two hundred yuan only gets you ten or twenty hours of gameplay?
This value system, popularized by "Huaxia Online Games," will require time, market, and products to change. It will only happen when most players develop a demand for high-quality games.

Chu Chen could accelerate, but he didn't have the ability to reverse the situation.

Of course, the planned playtime for the 38 RMB "Final Survival Guide: Chapter 1" is about 6 to 12 hours, which is more than enough.

Even though a significant portion of the playtime requires players to travel to a new location and establish a new shelter, each shelter has different functions.

Essentially, building a new shelter is the core gameplay loop.

Explore forward - Gather materials - Build a shelter - Explore forward

This cycle itself also conforms to the "sharpening stone" theory: collecting materials and crafting items are to be able to go to farther places, and going to farther places is to collect more materials.

Therefore, from the perspective of gameplay richness.

The End: Chapter One is definitely worth its price of 38 yuan.

Based on this, considering the influence of Star Tap and the low barrier to entry brought by free trials, let's look at the sales volume of 15 in retrospect.

It's just average, to say the least.

However, Starry Sky Games was not dissatisfied with this data, because they had already guessed it before the release.

So how does it compare to sales volume?

Chu Chen was more concerned about how many people were currently trying out the game and how many streamers were playing it online! That's why he made the "first life free" offer possible.

It's basically adding a "live-streaming e-commerce" model to the game "End of the World".

Judging from the actual results, Chu Chen succeeded.

As the game was released and its reputation began to spread, the first streamers of "Final Survival" achieved impressive results.

Starting around noon, I randomly opened a live streaming platform.

Whether it's Bilibili, Douyu, or even YouTube.

The gaming section was almost entirely dominated by "The End Survival Guide," with streamers from various languages ​​using similar phrases in the most prominent font in their titles.

[One-Life Challenge! No End to Streaming Without Dying!]

[World's First No-Damage Complete of "Final Survival Guide"? Stubborn Streamer Suffers Online!]

[A challenge that will slap on my career; if I die, I'll shave my head!]

Survival games with one-life challenges are inherently entertaining.

The mechanism in "The End of the World Survival Guide" amplifies this effect countless times.

Because all viewers know that if the host makes a mistake even once, a large pay window will pop up on the screen, which will be the peak of the show's impact.

More importantly, Starry Sky Games is also conducting related promotional activities.

"Looking for the world's first player to beat the game in one life!"

This kind of.

The strange idea that "you're awesome if you can beat the game with one coin" doesn't bring any rewards.

Yet it still attracted countless participants.

Don't even mention participating.

During this process, Ye Feiyang, who was having lunch, saw the titles of these live streams and couldn't help but click in to take a look.

I randomly selected a streamer who completed the game in one life.

"Brothers, hold on. We have plenty of food and drink, but we lack a steady approach."

“Places like this, where you start talking as soon as you enter, are usually dangerous. Let’s finish searching this area and then we’ll go build the plane.”

"Look at my positioning, I walk close to the wall, always keeping my back to the safe zone, textbook-perfect maneuvering."

"I need my sister to get something. Hey, especially in dangerous places like this, don't call me a monster. Let me tell you, the AI ​​in this game is really powerful."

"No, it should be said that my younger sister is very capable."

Just as the host was seriously introducing his discovered "robust methodology for passing the game," a cement slab on the floor suddenly loosened without warning.

Immediately afterwards, an exclamation mark appeared above the heads of all the characters in the room.

"I'm super!"

The streamer exclaimed in surprise and rolled sharply to the side, narrowly avoiding the danger because he was positioned near the edge. The live stream chat was instantly flooded with "Holy crap" and "666".

The anchor was panting, still shaken.

"See that? That's top-notch reaction speed! You want to see me die? In your next life!"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw his sister's profile picture in the upper left corner turn black.

(End of this chapter)