Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 304 Kernel
When the eldest sister was alone, her expression changed.

"Junior brother, please keep this [Dew Condensation Pill] safe."

She took out a small white jade porcelain bottle from her bosom and handed it to the player.

"I noticed a few days ago that you seemed to have encountered a bottleneck in your cultivation. This pill may be able to help you."

~~~
Several months ago, Jiao Xiaofei, after seeing these three scenes, felt his mind buzzing even though he hadn't seen the finished product.

"Mr. Chen...you call this a martial arts game??"

"This is definitely a martial arts game..."

"This does seem to be a martial arts game, so... is our game mainly built around these events?"

After listening to Chu Chen's three consecutive scenarios, Jiao Xiaofei had a basic understanding of the game.

According to his understanding, this seemed to be a martial arts world built up from events? Chu Chen nodded, but instead of directly answering Jiao Xiaofei's question, he asked a question in return.

"An event is an event, and gameplay is gameplay. All games must answer one core question: Why do players want to play this game?"

"The same question applies to this game: why do you think players would want to play this martial arts game?"

Jiao Xiaofei thought for a moment.

"So that I can experience these events?"

Chu Chen did not nod this time.

"Yes, but not entirely. Events alone are not enough to keep a player engaged for a long time."

The event, to put it simply, is the plot.

A good storyline doesn't necessarily mean good gameplay; these are two different concepts. For a "linear" game like Final Frontline, the storyline is very important.

Because the essence of "Final Front" is actually the same as that of "traditional anime-style" games like "Genshin Impact" and "Naruto".

The game enhances the world view and character affinity by showing movies to all players, and then uses PVE gameplay to make players want the characters.

To put it simply, for a character to sell well, it's best to be both "good-looking" and "useful".

However, for a game like "Floating Dreams," although the ultimate goal is to achieve both "good looks" and "easy use," the process of achieving this is quite complex.

It would be strange to use the "movie projection" method.

Take a game like "Floating Dreams" for example. Although it is still a type of anime game in terms of its framework, if you were to create a game like "Final Battlefront" in this world...

Then the underlying framework is completely misaligned.

The so-called "relationship system" and "good and evil system" become useless because the main storyline will not change.

Just as the focus of "Azur Lane" may be on "port interaction", Chu Chen does not intend to use a strong main storyline for the core of "Floating Dream Song".

Of course, there must be a main storyline.

However, the main storyline is a grand goal, a point, such as revenge, or gradually uncovering a big conspiracy, but in this process, players need to have a greater sense of immersion.

"Let's put ourselves in the shoes of the players. If I were to play a martial arts game, what would I want to experience?"

Jiao Xiaofei replied subconsciously.

"A realistic martial arts world?"

Chu Chen slapped the table.

"Good! Well said. So what is the real world of martial arts?"

"."

Jiao Xiaofei was a little stumped. Although there are a lot of martial arts MMORPGs in China, how do you build a realistic martial arts world in a game?

This feeling...
It's like asking how to make a successful game; it doesn't seem to be a question that can be quantified in detail.

So he really didn't know how to answer.

Fortunately, Chu Chen seemed to know that he might not be able to answer, so he continued speaking immediately.

"This is a broad question, but it can actually be broken down. Just like cultivating immortality involves cultivation itself, but also includes methods, resources, companions, and location. The world of martial arts is vast, but it can also be very small." "It's essentially about a few systems: becoming an apprentice, learning skills, fighting, exploring new areas, interacting with different people, and triggering new storylines."

"Around this core, what do you think is the most important thing in this game?"

"."

Seeing that Jiao Xiaofei was still unable to speak, Chu Chen continued to ask.

"Or let's not think about that too much for now, and go into more detail. How do you think the combat in this game should be structured?"

This time, Jiao Xiaofei gave his answer.

"Does it need to have a combat gameplay style reminiscent of martial arts?"

Chu Chen glanced at Jiao Xiaofei.

"The direction is right, but the core is actually to show the changes in the players."

After saying that, Chu Chen wrote two more words on the whiteboard.

【change】

"Everyone needs to understand that although our game is a two-dimensional martial arts game, the core of the game is not gacha. We still need to build the world around the core gameplay, otherwise the whole system will be bloated."

"The core gameplay of our game is actually still the martial arts world. The romance system and character gacha are just a means for us to monetize it."

"So, since our core is the martial arts world, you need to know what brings out the martial arts feel?"

"The combat system should naturally also support this core. For this project, the combat system should be a platform, a performance platform."

"What it represents should be the changes that occur after players acquire equipment, learn skills, or do anything else that can improve themselves on the world map."

"Change creates positive feedback, and positive feedback is what allows players to explore the world."

"What players want to see is learning an awesome martial art and then unleashing a flurry of attacks on the enemy, dealing massive damage."

"It means drawing a beautiful female character who can use martial arts moves that I've never seen before, and unlocking storylines that I didn't have enough intimacy with before."

"With a fine sword in hand, you can kill an enemy you couldn't defeat before with a single blow."

"So, to accommodate such a core, what kind of combat system do you think would be most suitable?"

If Jiao Xiaofei still couldn't see that Chu Chen was testing him by this point, then he would have truly wasted all that time working at Tencent.

However, knowing it's an exam doesn't actually help with the exam itself.

This seemingly simple question is not so easy to answer.

More importantly, Jiao Xiaofei had never encountered such a situation before.

In the past, his superiors only cared about revenue and data.
If you were to give Jiao Xiaofei's former superior what Chu Chen just said, let alone give him a review, it would be a big problem if they could even understand it.

However, you should know...
You know what... after so many years in the industry, this is the first time Jiao Xiaofei feels like he's attending a game development seminar rather than a product launch meeting.

Cheer up and think it over carefully.

Jiao Xiaofei gave his own answer.

"Focusing on martial arts techniques, we've simplified combos as much as possible, allowing players to easily unleash their techniques while simultaneously enhancing their movement attributes..."

"In this way, not only will players be motivated to learn martial arts techniques, but we can also guide players to spend money by limiting the types of martial arts techniques that characters can learn."

"For example, some female characters can learn ice-related techniques, while others can learn flame techniques."

Players need to draw cards to experience the game.

Jiao Xiaofei spoke at length.

This time, Chu Chen finally nodded seriously.

Although there were still some typical "Tencent" remarks, Jiao Xiao generally understood the core message Chu Chen wanted to convey.

"There's no need to restrict the techniques; we just need to let certain characters learn certain moves so that the techniques are more suitable."

(End of this chapter)