Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 218 Echoes
The streamer froze, staring at his sister's grayed-out profile picture on the screen.

"No, I dodged it."

The streamer shook the mouse in disbelief and clicked on his sister's avatar, but there was no response.

After a brief silence of 0.5 seconds, the chat in the live stream exploded.

"?????"

The barrage of "awesome" comments vanished instantly, replaced by a dense barrage of "beasts".

"Where are you, streamer? Did you just hide?"

"Where's my sister? My big sister?!"

"Textbook example of betraying your teammates, huh? I've completely forgotten how to do it!"

The anchor's face flushed red and then turned pale as he tried to explain.

"Don't blame me, guys! Although I told her to pick up the things, it was an emergency, and I just realized what was happening."

In fact, the game should support a single-player ending.

The game didn't end there, but it was clear that the viewers watching the live stream weren't satisfied. Although they hadn't played the game, the younger sister character had a significant role in it, so the viewers who had followed along were naturally unhappy.

"Host, the moment to test your humanity has arrived!"

"Thirty-eight yuan is a bargain; it won't break the bank, but it can save my sister's life!"

The streamer obviously knew this, but he was usually quite stingy and wanted to create some entertainment value, so he wanted to delay it a bit.

"Brothers, we agreed on a one-life challenge. Now that my sister is dead, we consider the challenge a failure, and I'll just start a new account."

But the audience clearly didn't buy it.

"Is the streamer just reluctant to part with the 38 yuan? It's only a small amount of money, enough to save this girl's life!"

"I've already taken a screenshot, and I've even thought of a title: 'Cold-blooded streamer watches his sister die tragically on the spot to save 38 yuan.'"

"I'll unfollow immediately if you don't pay, and I mean it!"

Seeing the screen filled with condemnation, the streamer's forehead broke out in sweat.

"Okay, okay! I'll buy it! I'll buy it, alright!"

A payment success notification sounded, the payment window on the screen disappeared, and in its place appeared a "Time Rewind" progress bar, asking the player if they wanted to return to the previous checkpoint.

The viewers in the live stream immediately started spamming "Yay!" and "The little sister is alive!!"

Watching this scene, Ye Feiyang in front of the computer also laughed, not only at the streamer's embarrassment, but also feeling inexplicably happy that his sister had come back to life.

It's strange, even though it's just a virtual character, I still feel uncomfortable after seeing my sister die.

Ye Feiyang is not a professional in the game industry, so he doesn't understand, or has never even thought about why he has such clarity.

But Tian Chenghan is a professional.

As a member of Tencent's WEGAME operations department, he also saw the live stream while having dinner.

Unlike Ye Feiyang, who only watched for a few minutes, he watched for about half an hour.

The more I look at it, the more astonished and impressed I become.

As an operator at Tencent Games, Tian Chenghan has seen countless games and participated in numerous game promotions.

But this was the first time he had seen a gameplay style like "Final Survival," even though he had only watched half an hour of the live stream.

He could already foresee that countless videos titled "The End-of-the-World Survival Guide"—touching, funny, and perfect for watching while eating—would appear on major video websites in the future.
Among them, the most viewed are undoubtedly the various "100 ways for your sister/brother to die".

However, this kind of traffic comes at a price. The marketing tactic of "as long as you don't die, you can keep playing" is actually a way of getting traffic by trading sales, or more bluntly, by making profits.

Even if an account can only die once, the problem is that StarTap accounts are not worth much.

If you die the first time, you can start playing again with a different account.

Furthermore, single-player gamers don't have a particularly high desire to explore or play the game as often. While Black Myth had a top-tier completion rate of six months, it still fell below 50%, and even masterpieces like Red Dead Redemption had a completion rate of less than 30%.
While unlimited free trials can certainly boost a game's appeal and attract more players, they can also genuinely lead to a significant loss in sales.
Only when a game has a high retention rate, attracts enough new users, and generates enough buzz will it generate positive returns overall.

"That's incredibly brave of you!"

Judging from the results, "End of the World" did indeed achieve its goal at this point.

The problem is that this marketing strategy wasn't decided after the game's success, but rather before its release, which is what Tian Chenghan admires.

If this were done at Tencent, even if someone came up with such a brilliant solution, it would most likely not pass approval.
"However, it's possible to get through it now."

After pondering for a while, Tian Chenghan prepared to write a related report that afternoon. He had a feeling that if the game sold well in a couple of days, the higher-ups would be eager to request documents from him soon.

~~~
As predicted by He Tianchenghan and a large number of industry insiders, as the second day arrived, the unique paid model of "The End of Survival Guide" began to undergo a qualitative change from a quantitative one.

Why is the Spring Festival Gala criticized as bad every year, yet it still generates a lot of discussion after each gala?
Because there are a lot of people watching the Spring Festival Gala.

The same applies to games.

In China, if you want a game to break into the mainstream, the necessary condition is that a large number of people play it; after all, the more people who have played a game, the more popular it becomes.

People who haven't played it before won't feel anything.

The free-to-play strategy of "Final Survival" allows this discussion to snowball into a positive cycle. Even if you die quickly after entering the game, at least you have something to talk about.

Soon, discussions about "The Last Survival Guide" began to increase on various gaming forums and social media platforms.

On the trending topics list, hashtags such as #FinalSurvivalGuideOneLifeClearance#, #DidYouSaveYourSisterToday#, and #TheMostConsciencePaidTrapInHistory# climbed one after another.

The players spontaneously split into two major camps.

One group consists of hardcore challengers who aim to "complete the game in one life." They share various risk-avoidance techniques, research the safest exploration routes, and greet each other by asking "How long have you lived?"

The other group is the much larger "older brothers and sisters rescue team".

After experiencing their first death and paying to "rewind" without hesitation, these players' mindset underwent a subtle change; they were no longer fixated on whether or not to pay.

Instead, they started to truly "enjoy" the game.

On Bilibili, a video titled "Ten Little Things I Did for My Sister" quickly rose to the top three in terms of views on the platform.

The video is actually not complicated; it just records some short scenes from the game "End of Survival".

Here are some "items" that can trigger the "gift-giving" event.

She recounted how she found a well-preserved fairy tale book in the ruins, and how she repaired the music box using precious parts.
The comments section below this video has already received tens of thousands of replies.

"Hey OP, did you find the hair clip? After the sinkhole, there's a huge building with a hidden room where you can find a pretty hair clip. Your little sister will be so happy wearing it!"

"I upgraded the bed to the top level and even made a pillow out of feathers. Looking at my sister's smiling face as she sleeps, I feel like all the trash I picked up for a day was worth it."

"Is there anyone like me who can go hungry, but will always save the canned food I wash for my sister first?"

"You're not alone upstairs!"

The more emotional something is, the faster it spreads.

Especially at this point in April 2017, although Starry Night Games' channel capabilities were not yet top-notch, they still covered tens of millions of players.

When they start expressing their emotions, the entire internet naturally resonates.

(End of this chapter)