Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 231 I'm going to go head-to-head!

Don't be fooled by these seemingly polite words.

But this is like a comedian saying "Thank you, everyone who feeds me" right off the bat—it's an attitude, and often players and audiences alike appreciate that attitude.

Why are some game developers disliked by players?
It's because they always feel that they're making games as a favor to players, adopting an attitude of "play if you want, leave if you don't."
In addition, Chu Chen himself has a built-in modeling buff, so after Alex saw it, his liking for Starry Sky Games increased even more.

He just didn't quite understand why they would release this kind of video at this particular time.
After all, under normal circumstances, the confirmation of a sequel to a popular game is very attractive to viewers, and Starry Sky Games could easily create a separate sequel promotional campaign.
Instead of directly confirming in a thank-you video that a sequel is already in development and even mentioning the release date...
Overall, however, the developers' decisiveness is a good thing for players.

Alex continued scrolling down Twitter, and in addition to these discussions, he even saw clips and screenshots of his live stream being posted on Twitter.

What made the proud ALX shed tears during his live stream?

One second: Trash Chinese games. The next second: Daddy!

Looking at these tweets, Alex outwardly yelled and said he felt insulted.

But deep down, I was very happy.
After all, that's the source of his popularity. If you were the boss, you wouldn't be angry to hear that Alipay had been credited to your account, right?
After browsing Twitter for a while, Alex felt that his emotions had calmed down enough, so he Googled the media ratings for End of Days.

"I guess IGN will give it a high score, at least a 9? After all, those guys love indie games the most."

This is part of his gaming routine. Usually, at the last step, he will open the review reports from IGN or other media outlets and give his own subjective impressions.

Guessing the media ratings during the show is also a great way to create entertainment.

According to Alex, in IGN's style, they have always been generous with their praise for emotionally driven indie game masterpieces, and many indie games have received perfect scores.

Therefore, he gave it a 9 out of 10.
Unfortunately, as the webpage loaded, a picture-and-text article appeared before my eyes.

The title is neutral: "Final Survival Guide Review: Finding Hope in the Ruins"

Alex's gaze didn't linger on the text; instead, like all players, he dragged it down, and then his pupils suddenly contracted.

At the end of the article, a huge and striking number was imprinted on his retina.

"6"

Below the number, there's a one-word comment: "not bad".

"????"

Upon seeing the number, Alex froze for at least several seconds, looking at it repeatedly to confirm the score.

Soon, an inexplicable surge of anger shot from Alex's chest to the top of his head without warning.

He slammed his hand on the table, making the camera shake.

"6 points!!"

"WTF!???"

"IGN only gave it a 6 out of 10!!???"

His words were half genuine emotion and half an unconscious reaction to the live stream.

In IGN's rating system, a score of 6 is not considered high; it means "there are obvious flaws, but it's not completely unplayable."

In the context of the game "The Last of Us," this score would be considered extremely insulting.

Scrolling down slightly, he noticed that the comment section at the bottom of the tweet was closed, and the recommendations next to the tweet were a bunch of players angrily criticizing IGN's rating.
Clearly, he wasn't the only one who thought the score was ridiculous.

Although everyone says not to care about ratings, that ratings will alienate people.

However, wherever there is demand, there will be a market.

Ultimately, review media outlets also cater to the needs of gamers. On one hand, players who have already played the game have a need for emotional resonance after the game ends. They will look at media ratings to see if they align with their own feelings, and they also need media ratings to recommend the game to others.

Secondly, players who haven't played the game before also need some feedback.

But
This doesn't mean that review media can do whatever they want. When there's a huge gap between media ratings and player perceptions, players will naturally feel that it's unfair.

There are many typical examples.

After reading the later ratings, Alex started flipping back, trying to figure out what kind of garbage was going through the brain of this review editor.

"The game's art style is commendable, and the post-apocalyptic atmosphere is quite well done, but the core gameplay feels too repetitive..."

"While the storyline has touching moments, the overall narrative feels somewhat outdated and fails to break free from traditional frameworks."

"The aircraft missions were too tedious; I didn't even finish them in the end. The strategy of selling the first chapter in three segments made the overall experience of the first chapter feel incomplete and disappointing..."

The more Alex looked, the more his brow furrowed.

Repetitive? Clichéd? Abrupt? Disappointing?
He felt like he and the review editor were playing completely different games.

"No way, IGN is so stupid. Has this guy even played games? No one who has ever played games could give such a description..."

Alex was already tired at this point.

Seeing this review still made him feel a surge of anger.

He suppressed his anger and went back to Twitter.

He added IGN before "End of the World" to his search, and soon realized he wasn't alone. Screenshots of the IGN review were widely shared, covered in red graffiti with question marks and angry emojis.

Many discussion forums about IGN reviews have turned into battlegrounds, with players' anger surging towards IGN's official account and the review editor named Jonathan Myers.

Interestingly, apart from IGN, other media outlets gave relatively normal scores. For example, on Metacritic, a comprehensive rating website, "The Last Survival Guide" has an average score of around 80.

While not high, it's significantly different from IGN's 6. Seeing these ratings made Alex feel a little better, proving that most media outlets are still on the right track.
After searching for a while, Alex's anger began to subside. He thought for a moment and quickly realized that this was an opportunity.

As a streamer with millions of followers, he has a deep understanding of the secrets of traffic.

He then searched YouTube and quickly discovered that he wasn't the only one who had found the data password, even during the time he was playing the game.

Some bloggers have already started posting videos criticizing IGN.

Looking back now, the fact that IGN's comment section was shut down due to the backlash was definitely not good news for him!

No way
I have to complain too!! If I don't, won't all the traffic be snatched up by others?!

"Guys, I was planning to end the stream and go to sleep."

He flexed his wrist.

"But now, I think we need to work overtime."

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately opened Twitter, posted a message, and then, after ending the stream, urgently began editing the caption. He was about to engage in a high-intensity online battle!
He must keep this massive influx of traffic under his control.

what?
You asked if criticizing IGN like this would offend IGN?
Anyone who asks this question clearly doesn't understand the saying "rivals in the same trade are enemies." It's no exaggeration to say that right now, throughout the entire United States, almost every gaming blogger...
Half the people are already criticizing IGN, while the other half, who are "out of the loop," are now slapping their thighs in frustration while working overtime to write copy.
In its previous form, Black Myth at least had an 8 out of 10 rating, and a large group of American bloggers rushed to speak out in support of Black Myth.

Not to mention that The End of the World Survival Guide only got a 6 out of 10.

No player who has played for even an hour would give this score. The huge contrast means that the player can unleash even more intense emotions, gain more buzz, and attract more traffic.
Never before has a game generated such a massive wave of public opinion.

So at this moment, even these bloggers are still unclear about how this "tsunami" will develop.

(End of this chapter)