Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 314 This needs to be changed.
It was midnight that day.

Almost everyone at Xingchen Games had left work, except for Jiao Xiaofei, whose desk light was still on.

"Isn't this combat system a bit too simple?"

In the quiet office late at night, only Jiao Xiaofei's desk light was still on.

In the current design of "Floating Dreams," Chu Chen's requirements are to "simplify combos, enhance performance, and highlight variations."

The core logic is to allow players to easily perform cool moves and intuitively feel the character's growth by changing skills and weapons. Jiao Xiaofei completely agreed with this idea at the time.

But now, in his eyes, this system always feels like it's missing something.

The closer it gets to the test, the stronger this feeling becomes.

"The combos are too simple, and there's only one parry system when you're hit. Won't players get bored quickly?"

"Yes, the movements are different if you change the technique, but what about the core? It's still the same set of button logic. What's the difference between a master and a novice? Is it just the difference in equipment and technique level?"

"This won't do! This absolutely won't do!"

Jiao Xiaofei suddenly stood up and paced back and forth in the empty office. He rushed to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, and began to write a new framework.

"How about we add blocking, and also a stance system! Attack stance, defensive stance, balanced stance, different stances have different characteristics, and players need to switch according to the battle situation."

"The internal energy system also needs to be changed; it can't just be a mana bar for casting skills. Players should be able to use internal energy to enhance their moves or use light footwork to dodge attacks. We need to give players a concept of resource management."

The whiteboard was quickly filled with dense text and arrows.

A complex and sophisticated combat system prototype is emerging on the page.

After doing all this, Jiao Xiaofei breathed a long sigh of relief, as if a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders.

Actually, if Chu Chen were to see this...

It's immediately obvious that Jiao Xiaofei has fallen victim to the classic "game developer poison," which means "developing halfway through, suddenly rejecting the previous solution, and starting to write a new one."

This problem mainly stems from the developers' insufficient understanding of the game.

In other words, they don't even know what's right, so problems arise whenever pressure comes their way.

however.

The beholder is clear.

Those who are actually involved in the game may find it difficult to perceive any problems. Is making the game's combat system more interesting a problem? Of course not.

So very quickly.

Jiao Xiaofei then convinced the creative team at A2 Studio.

However, only one day passed.

The people at A2 Studio sensed something was wrong, because although Jiao Xiaofei said he was going to update the combat system, he didn't plan to adjust the "Development Log".

What does that mean.

According to the development log, at this time, "Floating Dreams" was undergoing testing of its first version of the DEMO.

According to Chu Chen's requirements, this demo should have a complete explorable area to showcase the game's events, gameplay, plot, and other details.

The combat system is just one part of the whole, and it's a system whose framework has already been completed. Now Jiao Xiaofei wants to break the framework and start over.

Logically, Jiao Xiaofei should have reported first, then adjusted the development plan, and only then started modifying the system.

However, Jiao Xiaofei, who was full of confidence yesterday, is now feeling uncertain again.

So he wanted to create a simple combat demo and then report it to Chu Chen.

The problem is that the development team's workload is fixed every day. With testing imminent, the workload is already saturated. If you have to do extra work, you will naturally have to work overtime.

Initially, the people at A2 Studio were quite excited about Jiao Xiaofei's ideas, since the player feedback was indeed good. If they could add more details to the existing combat system, it would certainly not be a bad thing.

However, after working overtime until 2 or 3 a.m. for several consecutive days,
People couldn't hold on much longer.

The key issue is that Jiao Xiaofei himself lacks focus on the combat system. Every day after the people from A2 Studio leave, he still works there making modifications, and things he fixed yesterday might be scrapped today. It's like all the overtime he worked yesterday was wasted.

Moreover, Jiao Xiaofei himself only slept three or four hours a day. The prolonged excitement, coupled with overtime work, soon made Jiao Xiaofei look like a "human being," and he even staggered when he walked.

As a result, even normal project progress has become somewhat difficult.

After another day of working overtime, several key members of Studio A2 gathered in the break room, all looking worried.

"What should we do? If Fei-ge continues like this, the project is bound to fail."

“I had a private chat with him yesterday, trying to persuade him. Instead, he spent an hour painting a rosy picture for me, saying that once this system is completed, it will be hailed as a god, and we will all be heroes.”

"The key point is that this matter has not yet been reported to President Chen. Fei said that he would wait until he perfected the plan before giving it to President Chen as a surprise."

"I'm afraid it won't be a pleasant surprise, but a shock."

There was silence.

In the end, it was a young programming team leader who made the decision.

"We can't wait any longer; we must let the higher-ups know about this."

Reporting upwards, bypassing the studio head, is actually quite delicate.

In other companies, there's a very high chance no one would dare report this, because it would be useless, and the people above wouldn't understand games.

Seeing such a "proactive" producer, the boss must be quite happy.

But these are stars.

The main creators felt that if they could spot the problem, President Chen would definitely be able to see it at a glance.

To some extent, this was Chu Chen's personal experience, which gave everyone in the company confidence, so after a few words, everyone quickly made up their minds.

"Okay, let's go find President Song first."

Speaking of which, it's actually a bit strange. Why didn't they go to Chu Chen when they encountered a problem, but instead went to Song Yueying first?

This is mainly due to the long-term "cooperation" between Chu Chen and Song Yueying. For the entire Starry Sky Games Studio, Chu Chen is somewhat like the "sun".

This sun is not the kind of sun that's used in memes like "general" or "loyalty".

It refers to energy.

Go to Chu Chen to report on your work, or report something else.

Basically, any question you ask can be answered.

However, in this process, sometimes it is similar to the San value identification.

Sometimes, even after the problem is solved, you may still fall into a state of "doubting life" or "doubting whether you are too bad to make games".

Besides, sometimes even when Chu Chen explained the reason clearly...

At first, they might be completely bewildered, and they won't realize what's happening until the game development reaches a certain stage.

Chu Chen himself noticed this, so sometimes, even if he discovered a problem with the production team, he would let them run the program for a while before providing a solution.

Although this method is less efficient, it can at least help develop the production capabilities of each studio.

In conclusion, the sun is great, but its rays can sometimes be quite scorching.

Especially when you yourself have some problems, going directly to the sun can easily burn you as well.

In contrast, the moon is much gentler.

On the surface, Song Yueying is only the art director and administrative supervisor of "Final Front".

However, there are so many people in the office who aren't blind. It's much better to talk to Song Yueying than to talk to Chu Chen directly.

(End of this chapter)