Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 298 Project Stars
The actual gameplay footage of these three games, viewed from a later perspective or in the global market, isn't really anything special, but this is a "gameplay demo."

"Live demonstration" and "actual machine" are two different things.

Many game "scene demos" look incredibly pleasing to the eye after the engine has been put to its maximum output.

Not to mention, Sword and Fairy 7 and Ancient Sword 3 are no longer turn-based games. This alone, coupled with the fact that there's no need to consider optimization in actual gameplay demonstrations, allows for full-scale graphics and lighting effects.

Add to that the carefully edited short film, and everyone in the audience was already cheering.

But this is far from over. If the previous performances of "Chinese Paladin 7", "Gu Jian 3" and "Shen Wu Fantasy" were the fuse that ignited the entire audience.

What appears on the screen next is a series of irrational, chain explosions.

The screen lights up, and eerie music begins to play.

In an antique setting, a female warrior dressed in a red, high-slit outfit, with long legs and wielding a long sword, is surrounded by countless bizarre demons.

Her eyes were sharp, her movements were as fast as a ghost, and as she swung her long sword, blood splattered everywhere and severed limbs flew off.

The movements are fluid and graceful, the impact of each punch is visceral, and it's full of violent aesthetics!

Finally, the female warrior beheaded the final boss with a single strike, her blood staining the entire screen, and three bold, blood-red characters appeared—

[Bloodlust Mark]

[A joint production of Longyi Studio and Xingchen Games]

"Holy crap! What game is this? It's so damn cool!"

"This action system, can a domestically produced game really make it?!"

"The production team is called Longyi Studio? Never heard of it!"

"Co-produced by Starry Sky Games? What's that?"

Before the players could even begin to murmur, the scene shifted, and the somber atmosphere transformed into a vast expanse of yellow sand and Gobi Desert.

Amidst the swirling sandstorm, a chivalrous figure wearing a straw hat and carrying a giant gourd traversed the long Silk Road. His martial arts style was expansive and powerful, each move imbued with the rich spirit of Northwest Chinese martial arts.

In the demonstration, he fought fiercely with a group of bandits in an inn, using various martial arts elements with ease. He could even use his internal energy to detonate wine jars in the scene, causing area damage.

The screen freezes, and the game title appears.

【Autumn Wind in the Northern Frontier】

[A joint production of FHYX Studio and Starry Sky Games]

"Holy crap? Holy crap?? What is this?!"

"Wait, what does 'joint production' mean? Why is there a Starry Night Games logo on it?"

Then, the third demonstration began.

The atmosphere suddenly changed, becoming gloomy and oppressive.

A gloomy sky, distorted buildings, a man dressed in a black robe and wearing a pointed hat, resembling a "bird-beaked doctor," carrying a dim yellow lantern, walks in a strange world shrouded in black mist.

He was facing a gigantic, Cthulhu-like monster. The pace of the battle wasn't fast, but every roll and every attack was filled with tension and strategy.

This intense "Souls" vibe instantly stirred the DNA of every player who loves challenging action games at the scene!
[Starry Sky Tap] X [Pascal's Wager]

[A joint production of TipsWork Studio and Starry Sky Games]

"Soullike! A domestically made Soullike game!"

"This art style is amazing! It's totally my style!"

"TipsWork Studio... Noted!!"

"Hey! Doesn't anyone want to explain why this is a joint production?!"

At this point, the three "cutting-edge" works, each with a distinct style but equally impressive quality, had been demonstrated. The atmosphere in the venue had shifted from frenzy to a near-pilgrimage-like fervor.

If the evolution of Legend of Sword and Fairy and Gujian is like "an old tree blossoming anew," it is both gratifying and moving.

These three "unheard-of" works are like three supernovas that appeared out of nowhere, illuminating the future of domestic single-player games with their most dazzling light!
Whether it's the audience at the scene or the online comments.

The thoughts that popped into their heads were remarkably consistent.

"Where did these games come from?!" and "What does it mean to co-produce these games with Starry Sky Games?!"

Those in the industry present were even more surprised than the players.

For example, Zhao Ming.

As true industry professionals, they know very well that, aside from the first three, the remaining three projects at the beginning of this year had at least a basic framework, and some didn't even have one. How could they possibly produce the level of the gameplay demo shown earlier?! ???

Putting aside everything else, even Zhao Ming remembered that "Bloody Spell". It was circulating in the industry at the beginning of the year, saying that it was created by a master artist all by himself. At that time, there was only a character model that would drop frames when running, and there wasn't even a decent scene.

How come now... the fluid movements, the dazzling special effects, and that "The Legend of the Condor Heroes"...

"Holy crap, what's going on? I talked to FHYX Studio back in February."

"At the time, they only had one main creator, and the entire project didn't even have a complete plan. They just had a few original drawings and a video of walking in the Gobi Desert. It was so choppy it looked like a PowerPoint presentation. They were trying to find investors everywhere..."

"How could they possibly produce something of this quality now!?"

Even Zhao Ming knew this, and anyone else who was even slightly involved in the industry could tell that something was wrong with these DMEO performances; the execution was too strange.

They naturally knew that even if Starry Sky Games invested money in them, money wasn't everything!
Hiring doesn't take time? Team building doesn't take time? Developing an engine, building a framework, creating resources—aren't all of these things measured in years?

This is completely contrary to the objective laws of game development!

As for the final "Pascal's Wager," it's even more outrageous!

How did a small studio that mainly focuses on mobile games suddenly transform itself and produce a Soulslike game with such a mature art style and core gameplay?

What an international joke!
Which of these technical, artistic, or design capabilities could their original small team have possessed?
Are you right to say these things?

That's definitely correct.
However, Chu Chen, as a "god in charge of game production," possesses something that probably no game producer in the world can do.

That means he can help the production team create a single-scene demo within two to three months during the early stages of a project.

Why do we say that he might be the only person in the world who can do it?
The reason is actually very simple.

It's just like doing a test; unless you've seen the answers beforehand, you can't just write an answer on the answer sheet out of thin air.

Scenery, art style, and combat are all interconnected.

Take a scene as an example. A battle scene should start with a world view, then an art style, then concept art, then scriptwriting, level design, and so on.
Only after everything is finalized can the scene be set up.

In the early stages, even the development team didn't know what the final product would look like, so how could they possibly create a demo at the very beginning of the project?
However, others cannot.

That doesn't mean Chu Chen is incapable.

Because he had actually looked up the answer, he could skip all the preliminary work, draw a scene sketch by hand, and then have the studio staff build the model and set, and add a character.

As for the combat in the demo, creating a real combat system would be far too complex to be feasible, but skeletal animation is quite easy.

是 的
The impressive combat demonstration in DMEO wasn't actually real-time control; it was skeletal animation, just like the process used in domestic 3D animation.

The protagonist's movements are animated, and the monster's attacks are also animated.

Such a demo, once created, is actually unusable.

The only purpose of this demo is to be viewed... But in the end, these demos weren't originally meant to be used. The reason Chu Chen led them to make these demos was...

The goal is to take this group of "studios" on a "time travel" trip and let them see what their game will ultimately look like.

By the way...
After watching Chu Chen finish this task, everyone started to look at him like he was "God".
Simply put, while others start their paintings from a preliminary sketch, Chu Chen's painting process is like 3D printing.
Logically, someone should be able to do it, but when you actually see someone do it, for an artist, it's easy to have their worldview shattered if they're not careful.

Am I really suited to make games?

This was something more than one person had said to Chu Chen at a dinner party.
Of course.

These demos, once created, don't actually affect the game development schedule. After "seeing the answer," the development team still has to figure out how to write the "solution" themselves.

But what's that saying again? Seeing the answer before doing the problem is definitely much easier than doing it yourself.

In addition, this method of building a demo has another advantage: it can be used to create a false impression.

In the series of PV demonstrations just now, apart from "Black Myth," Chu Chen did manage to create a demo of Black Myth, but its completion level was still too low.
Even though Feng Yi was looking at Chu Chen as if he were an alien, and thought that this demo was beyond imagination, Chu Chen still felt awkward and simply didn't participate.

Even so, even without *Black Myth*

The release of this PV had a remarkable impact.

At the end of the promotional video.

On the black screen, a brand new logo emerges.

It was a sapling made up of countless pixels, growing upwards. Soon, as the sapling grew, countless stars appeared on it, forming a shining star tree.

And under this tree is the logo of the "Project Stars".

And then there were more than twenty game logo matrix diagrams that gradually appeared and filled the entire screen.

(End of this chapter)