Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 282 Azur Lane
"No, why are you causing all this trouble?"

Fishball scratched his head, unsure how to respond.

"Okay, stop standing there."

"let's start."

Does this demo version support gamepads?

"It's already compatible."

"Ah."

The previous version of Azur Lane was launched on June 2nd, but now it's May.

If we extrapolate based on time...

This should be very close to completion.

However, the "Starry Sky" version of Azur Lane was very different from its predecessor from the very beginning of its development, so it wasn't until March of this year that it was finally completed.

The first demo version of Azur Lane has only been released.

Chu Chen also played that version of the demo, and the entire framework had already been built. That's why, after the last simple trial, Chu Chen had them start to add details such as the gamepad and ultrawide screen.

Don't underestimate this.

Many development teams really don't even know how to do these things.

To give a simple example, there was a game called "Unlimited Machine" in the previous life. As a "competitive" online game, it didn't even have a proper opening "map information" until the game was launched.

For example, in Overwatch, only the map name is provided, but the gameplay is not explained.

Push the cart? Capture the point? Or some other gameplay mode? None of those, just a map name.

The developer's thinking was that each map has a name, and each name corresponds to a gameplay mode, so there's no need to display the gameplay modes.

But in reality, players come to play games, not to memorize rules. Who the hell is going to memorize the gameplay for every map name?
This is a classic example of "the development team failing to grasp the key points" and "lacking common sense."

What Chu Chen is doing now is often just telling these "common sense" facts to the development team that Xingchen has directly invested in.

Of course, there are occasional comments like "How could you make such a simple mistake?" This is why some people feel that going to Chu Chen to report on work and letting Chu Chen try out the DEMO is both "terrifying" and "exciting".

soon.

The initial debugging is now complete.

The first thing displayed on the conference room screen was a shimmering sea.

The afterglow of the setting sun spilled onto the sea, the golden light rippling, breaking, and reforming with the rise and fall of the waves. A few seagulls flew by, their wings creating delicate ripples.

The image features a girl's silhouette in the center, and the realistic lighting and the texture of the water make it look like a live wallpaper.

This version of Azur Lane uses the Star Engine, thanks to the large number of 2D game optimization plugins accumulated from Final Frontline and FGO.

Therefore, the graphics of Azur Lane were actually developed much more efficiently.

Of course, the selling point of Azur Lane is not here, or rather, not entirely here.

A long time ago, Chu Chen had talked with Yuwan about what exactly Azur Lane was "selling".

"Kantai Collection (Kantai Collection) isn't something you can just draw as a pretty girl, set her up as a warship, and expect people to fall in love with her."

"No, no, no, I'm not saying black stockings or white stockings are useless. I'm saying you can't rely on just that." "It's not about a dark and tragic storyline. On the contrary, I think the current ship girls have reached a fork in the road. Ship girls and gun girls are different."

What you need to do is deconstruct.

Chu Chen said this last year when Azur Lane had just been launched, after Chu Chen told him not to use the "World War II" background.

The world view of Azur Lane given by Fishball is a world that is roughly similar to Final Frontline.

In this worldview, human civilization once developed to a level of technology similar to that of the real world, but ten years ago, a meteorite fell into the ocean, and monsters known as the "deep sea" appeared in the ocean.

Modern warships are dragged to the seabed by dark tentacles, cities are swallowed by black waves coming from the sea, and finally, humanity is forced to abandon the ocean and retreat to the inland.

Fishball then used a lot of "chuunibyou" (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur) vocabulary to describe these phenomena, such as sirens, the Kuroshio Current, and the Sea of ​​Death, etc.
But it's something you can imagine.

These things are not up to Chu Chen's standards.

It was at this time that Chu Chen proposed the idea of ​​"reconstructing the ship girl theme".

It's worth noting that the ship girl theme is quite "old," dating back to 03, which is over a decade ago.

Players are already quite familiar with ship girls, so Azur Lane, whether in its past or present, is still relevant at this point in time.

As long as it can be released, everyone can benefit from the "version bonus".

Simply put, what the current market demands is a "ship girl remake" game.

Therefore, the success of Azur Lane can be largely attributed to the groundwork laid by predecessors, as everyone already had countless images of ship girls in their minds.

For example, Richelieu, one of the main characters in this version of Azur Lane.

A pure white French military uniform paired with a gold sash, holding an iris scepter, with sharp eyes like a sword, although it is a line drawing, it still looks like it has a unique charm.

This includes the miniature warship components floating behind it, such as turrets, armor belts, and bridges.
This is the image that came out.

You don't even need to add an introduction; players will recognize it as Richelieu at a glance.

For example, a girl with black hair and red eyes, wearing a red and white archery uniform, with a huge aircraft deck and carrier-based aircraft floating behind her.

Without a doubt, it's either Akagi or Kaga.
It is precisely because players already have a stereotype of "ship girls" that this version of Chu Chen did not allow Yuwan to focus a lot of energy on the main storyline.

Instead, Yuwan spent time and effort polishing the character illustrations of the ship girls, as well as the in-game models and the dormitory system.

Especially the dormitory system, or rather, the port system.

Chu Chen valued this system highly, including this trial run. After entering DMEO, the first thing Chu Chen did was access the dormitory system.

The scene on the screen shifted, no longer showing a battle scene, but a port viewed from above.

The azure sea embraces a well-planned island, with docks, warehouses, administrative buildings, and living quarters arranged in an orderly manner. Several asphalt roads connect the various functional areas, making it resemble a miniature modern naval base.

“After you finished speaking last time, we made a lot of adjustments, and the port area system is now very complete.”

Fishball's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible tension.

Chu Chen didn't speak, but focused intently on the screen.

This scene is a typical top-down 2D game scene, and the camera movement, including the scene lighting, are all based on the template of "The Last Survival Guide".

In the center of the screen, a male character in a white naval uniform stands quietly, with no player ID above his head, only a simple "Commander" icon.

(End of this chapter)