Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 237 Unleash Your Imagination

As Song Yueying pushed open the door, she immediately saw Chu Chen fiddling with something on the computer.

"Boss, what have you been busy with so early in the morning?"

Chu Chen looked up at the sound and saw Song Yueying.

"We're preparing for the Starry Sky Wallpaper Contest. Perfect timing, why don't you come and take a look?"

Song Yueying originally planned to say hello and then return to her workstation.

Although Chu Chen also had her workstation in his office, and although she really wanted to stay in Chu Chen's office all the time, she couldn't stay there indefinitely.

Because she didn't want outsiders to "gossip."

So usually, she would finish her own art department work outside first before going to Chu Chen's office.

However, since Chu Chen had already called her, she took the opportunity to put her bag on one of her usual workstations and stood behind Chu Chen. On Chu Chen's computer, an animation was playing.

The animation is divided into two parts. The first half is the storyboard, which has only a white background and a "ball joint humanoid" that is often used in art class.

The doll is going up a spiral staircase from the bottom.

The second half is an animation in which a little girl is climbing stairs, but instead of the ground, she is standing on the sky, and the stairs she is climbing are not ordinary stairs but clouds.

It looks very beautiful.

"Is this an animation from a new game?"

"No."

Chu Chen smiled and shook his head.

"This is the promotional video for this year's Star Wallpaper Contest. It's a demo video provided by the animation studio."

"Starry sky wallpaper? But this is an animation!"

Song Yueying was naturally aware of the Starry Wallpaper Rendering Contest; in fact, she was one of the participants last year.

Moreover, this wallpaper contest has a significant impact on the internet.

From the launch of the "2016 Global Wallpaper Rendering Competition" in May of last year to the release of the top 100 wallpaper competition videos in November of last year.

Although most players had forgotten about the event by the time the video was released, the wallpaper contest still generated considerable buzz within the professional community.

The reason is very simple.

The desire to show off is ingrained in a person's very being.

This is especially true for people with technical skills.

The wallpaper rendering competition in his previous life didn't even have any prize money, yet it still attracted countless participants. Not to mention that Starry Night Games does offer prize money, and Chu Chen takes this competition very seriously.

From the start of the competition, the publicity and promotion efforts were quite substantial.

Furthermore, with Tencent's investment in the project, Chu Chen was able to leverage Tencent's channels. Therefore, when the video was officially launched in November, it quickly reached players worldwide.

Of course...
For a competition like this.

Pushing the message was just the first step in snowballing; what truly made the campaign a huge success was the quality of the final video.

[One Window, One Hundred Worlds – Top 100 Entries from the 2016 Global Wallpaper Rendering Competition]

Countless people clicked on the video immediately.

A familiar white model flashes across the screen as the opening scene, which is Chu Chen's previous "boyhood dream". Then, the scene changes.

The second scene is a cyberpunk urban nightscape.

The train transformed into a maglev skyrail weaving between skyscrapers, with dazzling holographic billboards outside the window and bizarrely shaped flying vehicles brushing past it.

A man with a mechanical body and a cold gaze sat by the window, the city's neon lights reflected in his metallic pupils.

As the train plunged into a dark tunnel, the scene went black. When it brightened again, the view outside the window was a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with swirling yellow sand and the silhouettes of crumbling cities in the distance. For the first time, a flicker of emotion appeared in the eyes of the man by the window. [Echoes of the Apocalypse] [Author: KK] [Engineer] [United States, California]

Compared to the original version from the previous life.

The Starry Sky version of the Global Wallpaper Rendering Contest adds an "information strip" at the top, where the author information for each rendered work will pop up in the upper left corner with the following information: [Work Name], [Author], [Occupation], [Nationality, Address].

On the surface.

This change seems to make no sense.

But the reality is not so simple; Chu Chen also had a little trick up his sleeve in this regard.

Why is the Olympics so appealing? It's because nationality inherently creates a sense of identification. Although the TOP 100 list indicates that the rankings are not in any particular order, all the animations are arranged in a way that makes sense.

The first few animations were deliberately arranged according to nationality.

For example, before the audience could recover from the shock of the first work, the scene seamlessly transitioned into the second scene.

A large palanquin, a girl dressed as a shrine maiden leans against the window, outside which is a Japanese festival site, watching cherry blossom trees and torii gates pass by.

The sun was warm, and the breeze was gentle.

Suddenly, a huge, furry cat paw descended from the sky, blocking the entire view, and the screen went black.

When the lights came on again, the girl found herself being carried in the cat's mouth.

The Cat Returns [Author: Tomoko Yamashita] [Animator] [Tokyo, Japan]

"Hahahaha, this sudden change in style!"

"Huh? The Cat Returns, so this shrine maiden was a sacrifice?!"

"AWSL! A cat! It's a cat! I wish I could be carried by a big cat too!"

"However, this is a bit off-topic!"

Fourth, a fantastical journey through a magical world. A steam train, puffing out colorful smoke, travels through a vast forest, while elves leap among the treetops.

A young wizard wearing a pointed hat peered out the window, excitedly watching everything outside. A massive griffin flew by, its wings blocking out the sunlight, plunging the scene into darkness. When the light returned, the train had arrived at the magnificent magic academy, the castle's spires appearing and disappearing in the clouds.

[First Day of School] [Author: Olivia] [Gardener] [London, UK]

The fifth piece is a slightly rough but incredibly creative pixel art piece. The train has been transformed into a mine cart, traveling through a deep underground mine, with various ores shimmering outside the window.

The sixth is a deep-sea submersible, with bizarre marine life and the ruins of a huge underwater city visible through the window.

the seventh……

Representatives from various countries appeared on the screen. Interestingly, after adding nationality information, this changed across platforms such as Bilibili, Nico Nico Douga, and YouTube.

The density of bullet comments in each country becomes much denser when authors from their own country appear.

Moreover, after learning their nationalities, looking at these works actually reveals a kind of "stereotype" materialization.

Of course, besides the sense of identification brought about by nationality.

One hundred works, one hundred completely different styles, one hundred brilliant ideas.

Science fiction, fantasy, horror, heartwarming, humor, healing... every scene transition is smooth and seamless, and every use of "black screen" is just right, full of the author's whimsical ideas.

The audience felt like they were on a rollercoaster of imagination, high-energy throughout with no dull moments.

The feeling is like watching the trailer for a great movie in a few seconds, and then being immediately pulled into a completely different world.

At the end of the video, highlights from one hundred works were quickly edited together, accompanied by rousing music, and finally settled on the Starry Sky Games logo and the slogan: "Ignite your imagination."

When the video ended and the download link for the "TOP100 HD Wallpaper Pack" automatically appeared in the recommendation list, everyone suddenly realized what was happening.

Then, the entire internet erupted in excitement.

(End of this chapter)