Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 301 A Long Song of Floating Dreams
Ten months ago, Starry Night Games.

"Mr. Chen? You mean, this is a two-dimensional martial arts game?"

Jiao Xiaofei and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.

At this time, Team A2, the development team for Azure Wars, had been with StarCraft for about three months.

The team is still in the preparation stage. Currently, there is only one project on hand, "What Bad Ideas Can a Cat Have?", which involves making a demo, recruiting people, and restructuring the team at the same time.

Of course, during the reorganization process, Jiao Xiaofei also discussed with several key members of the creative team whether Chu Chen would approach them to discuss new projects. After all, developing just one game, "Cat Cat," wasn't actually that demanding for the entire studio.

It was during this period, after the CNJOY exhibition ended, that they finally got to this meeting today.

"Anime/Manga? Wuxia? Are these related?"

After listening to the project introduction, Jiao Xiaofei's first reaction was that he was a little confused. After all, he had grown up in the Tencent system, although his practical ability was not bad.

However, "path dependence" still exists in project judgment.

In other words, the first step upon hearing about a project is to find a comparable game.

So when he heard that Chu Chen wanted to make a two-dimensional martial arts game, he racked his brains for a long time but couldn't come up with anything. The only thing he could use as a reference seemed to be the Jin Yong Heroes game with mods.

Why not sit next to each other?

"Didn't you read Huang Rong's erotic novels when you were kids?"

Since the main creative team of the A2 project was all male, Chu Chen spoke very directly.

"Huh? I have seen that before, but what does it matter?"

"Then let me ask you: childhood sweetheart junior sister, gentle and virtuous senior sister, spoiled young lady, little princess, princess about to be married off, desert dancer, Miao poison woman, Tianshan snow maiden"

"I'm talking about these labels. Hey you, Xiang Dong, could you match these characters to their images for me?"

Niu Xiangdong is the art director of the A2 project team. Everyone in the A2 team calls him Niu Zi. Chu Chen used to call him that too, but then he realized that Niu Xiangdong didn't seem to like the nickname.

Therefore, he now calls him Xiangdong.

Hearing Chu Chen say this, Niu Xiangdong nodded. Indeed, since the domestic martial arts novel market is quite competitive, there are a lot of female characters.

"Mr. Chen, I think I understand."

Jiao Xiaofei nodded in agreement. Now that he heard that, he felt that anime and manga could indeed be linked to martial arts, since the main selling point was the characters.
Chu Chen glanced at Jiao Xiaofei with considerable surprise.

"Okay, then tell me... what do you know?"

Jiao Xiaofei paused for a moment, opened his mouth as if organizing his thoughts, and after a few seconds hesitantly spoke.

"Mr. Chen, do you mean we should use anime-style art to repackage classic female characters from martial arts themes and attract players through their charm? Like in Final Battle, where the core gameplay revolves around collecting and developing characters?"

Chu Chen nodded outwardly, but inwardly he sighed.

To some extent, Jiao Xiaofei is really not suited to be a producer, or rather, not suited to be a planning-type producer like Chu Chen.

Jiao Xiaofei is capable, has strong execution skills, and is also experienced in management. He is definitely a good person to lead the team to monitor progress and pay attention to details.

Although the Blue War project did not ultimately achieve the desired results, Jiao Xiaofei handled the project management and resource allocation during the development process very well; otherwise, so many people would not have been willing to switch jobs with him.

But asking him to start from scratch, to conceive a completely new product with no clear counterpart in the market, and to grasp that "spirit" and "feeling" would be a bit of a stretch.

His mindset still tends to be to find a successful template and then optimize and iterate upon it.

To put it bluntly, he is actually more suited to be a producer at the execution level, ensuring that projects proceed efficiently in the established direction.

If you let him define the direction, especially in seemingly unrelated areas of integration and innovation, he will habitually seek the safest and most familiar path.

This kind of "understanding" is still superficial, not substantive.

Jiao Xiaofei's understanding is clearly still lacking.

However, on the other hand, the reason Chu Chen poached Jiao Xiaofei was not because of his innovation but because of his execution, so although he sighed inwardly.

On the surface, it was a positive assessment of Jiao Xiaofei, after all, this was a meeting of the main creative team, and Chu Chen had to take care of Jiao Xiaofei's image in front of his subordinates.

However, after confirming it, Chu Chen felt that he still needed to explain things more clearly.

"That's all. It might sound a bit dry to some people, so let's start with a scene to get a feel for it."

Chu Chen quickly sketched the first picture on the whiteboard.

After Chu Chen finished speaking, he didn't care about the reactions of the others, and directly picked up the whiteboard marker and started drawing on the smooth whiteboard.

His drawing skills weren't particularly good; he just used a few lines to outline a rough shape. "We call the first scene 'First Encounter'."

Chu Chen's voice drew everyone's attention.

"The first thing that appears is a river, shimmering in the sunlight," he said, drawing several wavy lines on the whiteboard.

"By the river, there is a bamboo grove. When the wind blows, the bamboo leaves move and the light and shadow change accordingly."

Art director Niu Xiangdong nodded subconsciously; the scene design did indeed have a strong sense of the martial arts world.

"Then, a fisherman wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat sat on a wooden dock by the river and fished."

Chu Chen added a few more strokes.

"Note that this is the key point: although the game still uses 2D graphics, I need the most advanced 2D graphics."

"You've probably already seen Fuller's demonstration a few days ago. That's the kind of effect we're looking for, but it needs to have a martial arts feel. The shimmering water, the swaying bamboo, and the Tyndall effect of light all have to be achieved."

"The characters are alive, and so is the world."

Jiao Xiaofei and Niu Xiangdong exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of seriousness in each other's eyes.

The technical requirements are quite high.

"This static image, lasting about five seconds, immerses the player in the atmosphere of the early days of the martial arts world." Chu Chen put down his pen, placed his hands on the conference table, leaned forward slightly, and changed his tone.

"Then, the music changed!"

His voice suddenly rose, carrying a chilling aura.

"The camera suddenly pans to the left, and a young swordsman in a blue robe rushes out of the bamboo forest!"

He stepped on the water without sinking at all, leaving only fine ripples on the surface, and charged towards the fisherman!

The conference room was completely silent; everyone was drawn into the scene by Chu Chen's description.

"The instant the swordsman appeared, a UI and inventory appeared at the bottom of the screen. In the upper right corner, a red health bar and a yellow stamina bar appeared."

"At this point, the player has taken control of the character. The mouse controls the direction; if you slide it to the left, the character will step on the water to the left; if you slide it to the right, the character will lightly tap the water's surface to the right. There are no rigid eight-way movements; your mouse trajectory is the trajectory of his movement, flowing smoothly and extremely gracefully!"

Is the mouse the same as movement techniques?
What... what kind of operational logic is this? The people at A2 Studio became more and more confused as they listened, but at the same time, they became more and more engrossed.

"The fisherman certainly spotted the swordsman, but he didn't turn around. He just flicked his wrist and swung his fishing rod backward!" Chu Chen waved his hand sharply, as if he were holding a fishing rod in his own hand.

"That thin fishing line, taut as a steel bar, lashed out at the swordsman!"

"The player instinctively raised his sword to block, and with a 'clang'!"

Chu Chen tapped the table with his knuckles, making a crisp sound.

"The fishing line, though flexible, struck the sword with a metallic clang! The immense force sent the player flying into the air!"

"Is it over? No!"

"Just as the character was launched into the air, the player pressed a key, and the character flipped in mid-air, lightly touching the taut fishing line with their toes, using the momentum to leap forward again, and landed steadily on the wooden dock behind the fisherman!"

"Then, the scene freezes. The swordsman in the green robe and the fisherman in the straw raincoat stand facing each other at opposite ends of the long wooden dock."

"Next, Jiao Xiaofei, you tell us what you think of this scene, how to achieve it, how the players on site will react, and how to develop this scene further."

"what?"

At that moment, faced with these three deadly questions, Jiao Xiaofei opened his mouth, but his mind went completely blank.

Ten months later, when Jiao Xiaofei sat in the bustling press conference and looked at the huge screen in front of him, the answer finally came to him.

What was the reaction of the audience at the scene?
the answer is.

quiet.
Even though there were countless spectators around him, at this moment, everyone was holding their breath and watching the big screen, with no other noise except for the sound of the game.

With a clear "clang," it was just a fishing line that struck the Green Peak Sword that the swordsman in green had just raised in his hand. The line and the sword collided and produced a metallic sound.

Although the player-controlled character raised their sword to defend, they were still pulled up by the enormous force and flung into the air. But the next second, the player pressed some button.

They darted forward through the middle of the river and arrived at the wooden dock, where the two sides began to confront each other on the long dock.

“Little brat, I don’t recognize you. Logically speaking, we have no past grudges or recent enmity. Your sudden attack is unethical.”

A speech bubble appeared above the middle-aged man's head, followed by several options on the screen, each with a symbol next to it.

[Hmph, what's the point of talking about morality with a villain like you? Take this!]
[You have committed countless evils, murder and robbery; what morality do you speak of?]
If you lay down your butcher's knife, I may spare your life and hand you over to the authorities.
[Haha, that's interesting. A mere bandit talking about morality? Fine, if you can withstand this move, I'll let you go.]
[Enough with the nonsense, take this!] Only
(End of this chapter)