Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 283 Bringing Them Back to Life
"Can we move freely now?"

"Yes.."

Chu Chen nodded. He tried pushing the left joystick on the controller, and the commander on the screen immediately started jogging in the port square.

As he moves, the camera smoothly follows.

This one movement completely changes the overall feeling.

In today's mobile game market, dormitory systems are not uncommon, but creating a complete "dormitory" system that players can freely explore is a real challenge.

Including the player in the game is a bold move, especially in anime-style games that focus on card and character collection.

This means a huge amount of additional work; scene modeling, character animation, and interaction logic are all costly.

"These buildings are interactive?"

Upon hearing Chu Chen's question, Yuwan perked up and quickly explained.

"Yes, didn't you say before that in order to make players develop a deep emotional bond with the ship girls, they first need to feel that they are a part of this world, and not just a god who issues commands from outside the screen?"

"Therefore, we have personified the commander. Players can control him to walk around the port they manage, interact with the ship girls, and intuitively feel this 'home'."

Chu Chen controlled the commander, running past the administration building and towards the seaside residential area.

Along the way, he saw several familiar figures.

On the terrace of a seaside café not far away, Richelieu, dressed in a pure white military uniform, was holding a cup of coffee, quietly gazing at the sea, his long golden hair gently swaying in the sea breeze.

As the character Chu Chen was commanding approached, a speech bubble appeared above her head, and then the character's portrait turned around, revealing a gentle smile.

Because of sufficient funding.

Therefore, the proportions of the entire port area did not adopt the common chibi proportions, but rather the relatively "realistic" proportions of "Final Battlefront".

Using this ratio has both advantages and disadvantages for the game.

The advantage is that the characters are more detailed, and during dialogues, the camera can zoom in to show the details of the characters, such as stockings, high heels, and skirts.

The downside is increased costs. Even a 2D character with proportions to the scene and smooth, natural movements requires a lot of pre-set interactive animations to make the scene look natural.

If we don't do "action animations," it will look like a "zombie," so we might as well just use a chibi style.

In the previous Azur Lane, there was no cost to develop this thing, but in this timeline, the technology and money are all covered by StarCraft.

Therefore, the result is quite good. Although the precision cannot be compared with that of major console games, its cartoon rendering style is highly consistent with the character illustrations, making it look exceptionally exquisite.

Further ahead, at the entrance of a convenience store on the other side, two destroyer ship girls, Laffey and Z23, were huddled together like two ordinary middle school girls, seemingly arguing about which snack was tastier.

Chu Chen controlled the commander to walk over. They noticed the player's arrival, immediately stopped arguing, gave a not-so-standard military salute, and shouted in unison.

"Commander, good afternoon!"

The sound was crisp and full of energy.

"Have all the ship girls been made mobile and sculpted?" Chu Chen asked.

"Currently, more than 30 characters have been implemented, and more will be added gradually in the future."

Fish Ball replied.

"Moreover, their behavior is not fixed. They move around freely in different parts of the port area depending on the time, the weather, and their own mood. For example, when it is mealtime, they will go to the cafeteria by themselves; when they are in a bad mood, they may go to the beach alone to enjoy the breeze."

Chu Chen nodded, and he controlled the commander to push open the door of the dormitory building. The interior was surprisingly spacious and secluded.

The overall gameplay is similar to "Final Frontline". Players can buy all kinds of furniture, wallpaper and flooring, and place them freely to create a unique dormitory.

At this moment, in a room decorated in a Japanese style, Akagi and Kaga are kneeling on the tatami mats, playing chess. In the next room, the decor is more industrial and gritty, and Bismarck is leaning back on the sofa, reading a book.

These pieces of furniture are more than just decorations.

"Different homes offer different comfort bonuses, which can speed up the recovery of the ship girls' 'mood value'. Certain furniture combinations can also unlock special interactive easter eggs. We hope that players can get a similar sense of fun from the process of 'building the port'."

Chu Chen didn't rush to experience the construction process. Instead, he went straight to Bismarck, who was reading a book. He pressed the interaction button, and the commander on the screen naturally sat down on the sofa next to Bismarck.

Bismarck raised her head, glanced at the commander, and a slight smile appeared on her lips as a few lines of dialogue appeared on the screen.

[Commander, how did today's work go? Don't be constantly on edge; occasional rest is essential for better progress.]

There was no unnecessary voice acting, only simple text and subtle changes in the characters' expressions, yet this interaction felt incredibly real and heartwarming.

"very good."

Chu Chen finally spoke, using only two words, which made Yuwan and the surrounding creative team breathe a sigh of relief.

"You've grasped the core and the differentiation."

Why did Chu Chen instruct Yuwan to focus his main efforts on the "port area," and only then on combat, character development, PvE, and the main storyline?
A crucial aspect of this is differentiation and novelty.

"In the past, there was too little interaction between players and ship girls in ship girl games, whether it was Kantai Collection, Kantai Collection R, or any other ship girl game."

"Take this DMEO video, record a demo video, and then do another one. Show us the four seasons of Hong Kong, edit it together, and you'll definitely attract a huge number of players."

That's right.

Chu Chen's first key point for Azur Lane, or rather for Yuwan, was "the daily life of the admiral and the ship girls."

Besides Azur Lane, another game that profited from this phenomenon is Dust White Forbidden Zone.

Although Chu Chen always felt that "Forbidden Zone of Erotic Fun" went a little too far.

There are actually many ways to build a bond between players and characters, but Dust White Forbidden Zone chose the simplest and most direct one, which is certainly not a bad method.

Some skin types are indeed hard to look at.

But going too far or being too deliberate is not necessarily a good thing either.

Ultimately, what players like is their "waifu" (wife/waifu).

A wife is not just about a night of passion; there are many other elements involved, such as in "Final Front," whether it's the 95, A-017, or M4.

Their connection with the commander is woven together through the main storyline, side quests, personal storylines, and skin stories.

This is why the Final Frontline rings sell so well; you could say these players are perverts who want to unlock more risqué parts.

But this anticipation of the eroticism was actually built up beforehand.

The same applies to ship girls. Players might like Richelieu initially because they liked her from Kantai Collection, and then later from Kantai Collection R. This feeling is similar to how players who enjoy strategy games feel about certain figures from the Three Kingdoms period, such as Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, and Cao Cao.
Although they are Richelieu from different games, they are all "Richard." In the past games, Richelieu could only be seen, but now Chu Chen hopes that Richelieu can "come alive" in Azur Lane.

This is the first "selling point" of Azur Lane.

(End of this chapter)