Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 317 Coordinating with Publicity
Time slipped quietly into August in this subtle atmosphere.

As August arrived, the promotional battle between Tencent and Starry Sky intensified.

On August 5th, Tencent finally dropped a bombshell.

XGAME's official Weibo account released a highly designed poster. Against a deep cosmic background, the logos of the three major titles shine brightly, with a striking date in the center.

[On August 20th, XGAME platform officially launches *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt*, *Nioh*, and *NieR: Automata*! Your legend begins here!]

After the date of August 20th was confirmed, Tencent's media coverage was overwhelming.

Although the reports were all titled "Overseas users were shocked by Tencent's 50% off!" "An overseas media outlet reported on XGAME's event." "Steam exclaimed, 'Chinese platforms are rising!'"

It appears in a way that resembles this.

However, with such extensive coverage, the number of pre-registrations for XGAME in China is visibly soaring.

Tencent Building, XGAME Business Unit.

As Zhao Ming watched the constantly fluctuating appointment data in the backend, he could no longer suppress the smile on his face.

"See that? This is the power of distribution channels, this is the power of real money!" he said to his team with great enthusiasm. "That kid surnamed Chu from Xingchen thinks he can compete with us by just making empty promises? He's too naive!"

"Mr. Zhao is wise! Players still value practicality."

"Yes, that 'Floating Dream Song' was hyped up to the skies, but now they don't even dare to release a specific test date. They're probably scared."

The office was filled with praise.

Zhao Ming enjoyed this feeling. He could almost see the scene on August 20th, when XGAME platform topped the trending searches and Starry Night Games paled in comparison.

However, just five minutes after Tencent officially announced the release date, the official account of Starry Night Games also updated its status.

What to play this summer! August's game lineup! Coming soon to the StarTap platform!

Below the title is a row of game covers.

Cuphead, Civilization VI, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Cities: Skylines, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Firewatch, Fez, Shovel Knight

While most of the games, except for Cuphead, are "classic old games," it's important to note that they are not available on the overseas StarCraft gaming platform.

Instead, it's the domestic app Star Tap.
If Tencent's official announcement five minutes ago was like throwing a boulder into a calm lake, creating ripples everywhere...

Five minutes later, Xingchen's post was like a hand grenade.

The media outlets that had just released Tencent's press release immediately started publishing news about Xingchen. The former was for Tencent's money, while the latter was to grab traffic.

In the player community, the atmosphere was like celebrating the Lunar New Year.

Initially, many players' first reaction to seeing Xingchen's posts was disdain.

"What's going on? They're just throwing out a bunch of old games to make up the numbers? I already have all of those in my Steam library."

"Exactly, apart from Cuphead, aren't all the other games hardcore classics? Just rehashing old ideas?"

However, sharp-eyed players quickly spotted the key point.

"Wait a minute! Brothers, look carefully! It's logging into the [Starry Sky Tap Platform]! It's the Chinese server!!"

"Holy crap?! A publishing license?! This whole string has a publishing license???"

"??????????"

For players, what's the difference between logging into the Starry Sky Games platform and logging into Starry Sky Tap? Actually, there's not much difference; it's just a matter of using a VPN. But for some reason, many people still have a strange feeling when they see "login to Starry Sky Tap."

Very subtle.

But it does exist.

It's quite surprising to see so many single-player games entering the Chinese market all at once.

However, to some extent, this is actually a common misconception.

The reason why many single-player games were not introduced to China in the past was not because the government restricted game licenses; overseas single-player games did not have a so-called "ban on Korean games."

The reason it wasn't introduced was simply because there was no profit to be made from importing standalone units.

In the domestic market, there was no standalone sales channel. In the early days when digital versions were not mature, sales still required printing physical CDs, which would likely have resulted in losses after the introduction of the digital version.

This is even more true in the electronic age.

The biggest concern for players who buy digital versions of games is whether the platform can survive. What if I buy the game a few years ago and the platform goes bankrupt? Wouldn't my game be useless then?

The core issue is that players won't buy into it, importing it will likely result in losses, and there's significant competition from Steam.

For most casual simulation games, obtaining a game license is really not a problem.

Don't even mention casual simulation games; NetEase even introduced Diablo III back in 2014.

If we take Diablo 3 as a standard, many games can actually get a license, but these games are very troublesome to get approved, so Chu Chen's approach is to focus on "casual simulation games".

These games generally have a smooth and easy time getting the publishing license.

It's not just about the art style; more importantly, in the current era of "license approval by the State Administration of Radio and Television," there's an unspoken rule: new overseas games take longer to get a license, while older overseas games take much shorter.
Therefore, the only game that StarCraft put some effort into was Cuphead, which was released at the same time.

Besides these "new games".

In the center of this large poster, there is an even larger poster.

The cover is extremely minimalist, with only a simple line drawing of an orange cat against a pure white background. The cat tilts its head, its big, round eyes looking innocently at the screen, and next to its paws is a broken vase.

What kind of mischief could a cat possibly have?

All of the above games will officially launch on the Starry Night Games platform on August 20th, with a limited-time 8% discount during the launch week!

Although the game "Neko Neko" doesn't generate much discussion, it's actually more popular than many people imagine. One reason is that it's a game developed by StarCraft.

Secondly, although this game was first released on the PC platform, it still matches well with the large number of casual users cultivated by StarTap.

Of course, none of this information is important; what's important is August 20th!
Five minutes apart!! And both dates are August 20th!!

A tit-for-tat response! Not an inch will be yielded!
Moreover, during the promotion, the posters specifically added the phrase "No coupons needed, no tricks, direct discount," clearly indicating that they were targeting you.

~~~
That afternoon, at the Tencent building.

XGAME Business Unit.

The group's expressions were priceless. On one hand, their promotional data this time was excellent, even unexpectedly good.

On the other hand, Xingchen's marketing and promotion data is also very good.

In other words, although they were unwilling, they did indeed cooperate with Xingchen in a publicity campaign.

(End of this chapter)