Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 285 Battle Details
Subsequently, the light cruiser Helena, who appeared quiet and intellectual, and the light cruiser Cleveland, who was energetic and had a cheerful smile, were added.

Four positions: two destroyers and two light cruisers. One is more support-oriented, one is more focused on barrage output, one is primarily a torpedo bombardment specialist, and one has strong overall capabilities.

"Mr. Chen's team composition is very standard."

"Nonsense, I was the one who asked you to change this combat system framework."

"Set off."

Chu Chen pressed the confirmation button, the screen loaded, and accompanied by the sound of the ocean, the scene suddenly opened up.

Azur Lane adopts the same horizontal top-down perspective as Final Frontline.

Thanks to the lighting effects of the Star Engine, although the graphics are 2D, the overall scene looks quite good, especially considering the rather monotonous ocean.

Therefore, some subtle changes were made to the background. For example, sunlight shines through the gaps in the clouds, casting dappled light and shadow on the azure sea. As the camera moves, these light and shadows flow and change naturally.

For example, there are some islands that are faintly visible in the background.

Especially seawater.

The Azur Lane development team created a lot of "animation" on the water, literally a lot of animation, much like some development teams in later years like to play with stockings.

As a 2D ship girl game, the issue of water has been a long-standing problem for Azur Lane. They have tried using water features built into the engine, and even tried using physical water, which means having the engine simulate real water.

But in the end, they all looked very strange.

Ultimately, the development team chose animated water, meaning that the water that players see appears to be real water, but in reality, it's just a texture.

However, the development team took the textures to a whole new level.

The waves create delicate white foam as they crash against the water. When the ship girls move at high speed, they leave clear and realistic trails behind them. These trails stir up the water, creating a series of new ripples, as do the splashes from different shells entering the water and the splashes from carrier-based aircraft falling into the water.

They were all drawn individually.

The ship girls, who are the main characters in the picture, are the finishing touch.

No longer chibi or big-headed dolls, but miniature humanoid figures scaled down proportionally.

Cleveland was dressed in a stylish dress, the hem of which swayed with the sea breeze and inertia as she ran, while Raffi looked like she hadn't woken up yet, even her running was a bit sluggish, but her speed was by no means slow.

Z23 was meticulous, while Helena followed behind the team, constantly observing their surroundings.

Each character has an independent and fluid animation module. When idle, they will have a slight breathing motion and a cute idle animation. When firing, they will have a special shooting animation. Even when hit by a shell, their body will have a noticeable backward tilt.

Have all characters been implemented?

Chu Chen didn't specify what he was talking about, but Yuwan certainly knew what he was referring to.

"We've already done more than half of it; the rest should be finished before July."

Chu Chen nodded.

The animations for this set of characters are from the "Doll" plugin developed by Star Engine for 2D anime games. It allows you to record character animations just like you would for 3D characters.

And set trigger conditions to achieve interaction with the scene.

Engine support is one aspect, but achieving the desired effect in a timely manner is also quite troublesome. Each of the more than thirty ship girls already implemented has to perform a complete set of actions, including idle, movement, firing, being attacked, releasing skills, and being sunk.
There's also an ultimate skill animation.

Time is still very tight.

Chu Chen controlled the left joystick. Thanks to the "Doll" system, the diamond formation of the four front-row ship girls responded immediately, with a smooth feel and no delay.

Soon, the enemy appeared on the right side of the screen. Compared to the previous version of Azur Lane, which had ships that were neither quite chibi nor quite realistic, this version of Azur Lane, thanks to its ample budget, featured ships that were neither quite chibi nor quite realistic.

The enemies have not only become more diverse, but also more sophisticated in their overall composition.

"Bang bang bang!"

Just like the original Azur Lane, players control not a single ship girl, but a squad of ship girls.

Cleveland fired first, her miniature ship-mounted turret bursting with orange-red flames as a barrage of armor-piercing shells rained down on the enemy at an extremely high rate of fire.

Each shell trailed a faint streak of light, and upon hitting an enemy ship, it would explode into a small but noticeable burst of sparks, causing the enemy ship's health bar to drop slightly.

Immediately afterwards, Z23 activated the torpedo tubes on its back, and several torpedoes shot out in a fan shape, drawing white lines on the sea surface as they hurtled towards the densest part of the enemy formation.

"Boom!"

When a torpedo hits, the explosion is much more intense than that of a cannonball. These "graphics enhancements" are optimizations made by the Azur Lane development team based on the StarCraft game engine's explosion feature.

"sure"

Chu Chen sincerely praised him.

Even if it's optimized using engine materials, achieving this effect isn't bad. He controlled the fleet, dodging the enemy's sparse barrage while continuously dealing damage.

At this moment, he noticed that in the lower left corner of the screen, the portraits of the rear fleet had lit up, and the main gun icon below Hood's portrait had been filled in.

"Commander, main guns are fully loaded."

Chu Chen pressed the attack button, and the camera zoomed out instantly. On the far left of the screen, the massive main gun muzzle on the magnificent miniature version of Hood's ship equipment shone with a dazzling light.

"Full Salvo Fire!"

Due to the zoomed-in camera, the movement of the main gun is quite obvious. The power of the large-caliber shells is greater than expected; a hit is basically an instant kill.

Moreover, it deals area-of-effect damage.

You know what, the combination of Hood's shells and a bunch of random enemies that seemed to have been deliberately spawned suddenly was actually quite satisfying.

【VICTORY】

A huge "Victory" sign appeared in the center of the screen, followed by the results screen, showing experience points and resources gained.

Chu Chen looked at the smooth combat experience, from team formation to battle and settlement, and found almost no obvious shortcomings.

The exquisite graphics and exhilarating combat make it absolutely unparalleled in the current market of anime-style mobile games.

Moreover, as the "supervisor" of the game...

Chu Chen also knew that Azur Lane's PVE mode would have a roguelike mode, and its battle map used the "node" mode, which is the most common in ship girl games.

The only difference is the addition of a light roguelike mode. With this battle mode and auto-battle, it's more than enough for a ship girl game.

In addition, the deep sea area in Azur Lane actually corresponds to the Abyss system in traditional second-generation games. Clearing maps will reward quick construction. Overall, this combination is quite good.

Overall, it's not bad.

"However, there are still some minor issues."

"The strategic map for the deep sea could have a larger amount of information displayed on the UI..."

(End of this chapter)