Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 319 Getting a Head Start
The office suddenly became quiet.

Zhao Ming was stunned for a moment.

"What did you say?" Zhao Ming's teacup wobbled slightly, and some tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he was completely unaware of it.

When Zhao Ming first heard the news, his mind went blank.

Today is August 19th, not August 20th yet, why is Xingchen already having an event?!
However, the thought only lasted for less than three seconds in his mind.

Three seconds later, a chill shot up from his tailbone to the top of his head, making the hairs on his body stand on end.

"wrong!"

"Something's wrong!!!"

"We've been scammed!!"

During this week, Tencent and Xingchen worked together seamlessly, giving Zhao Ming the illusion that they were also preparing for August 20th.

The problem is that XGAME is a new platform, so the launch date is fixed at August 20th.

However, Starry Sky Games Platform is not a new platform!!!

In other words, Starry Night Games could definitely start the event on August 19th!
Successfully got a head start! They're poised to grab a huge share of the traffic that Tencent and Starry Sky had already built up!

"wrong!!"

"It's still not right!!"

It's impossible for Xingchen to launch on August 19th. The reason is simple: you were promoting it for August 20th, but it's currently August 19th, even though technically it's possible to launch earlier...
However, if you do this in advance without any exciting surprises, most players won't actually receive the information.

There's a delay in players receiving information; otherwise, different companies wouldn't agree on a time for their events. And without a legitimate reason, they might even get criticized... Of course, the possibility of being criticized for opening the server early is low, but he could use that as a point of attack.
Chu Chen wouldn't be that stupid...
Just as Zhao Ming was thinking this, a few minutes later, news flooded the internet again.

Most news reports mentioned that a temporary worker at StarCraft America accidentally started the event. StarCraft America issued an apology statement, but decided that since it had already started, they would continue the event ahead of schedule.

Following this, domestic gaming media outlets launched a massive campaign, all highlighting this "temporary worker blunder."

Due to temporary workers in the United States, the Starry Night Games platform launched its event a day earlier than scheduled.

Of course, since StarTap is a domestic platform, it still retains August 20th.

Simply put, the original Starry Sky Games platform and Starry Sky Tap were launched on the same day.

However, now, the Starry Sky Games platform has become the 19th, and the Starry Sky Tap has become the 20th, because the content of the activities on these two domestic and overseas platforms was originally different.

Therefore, compared to the previous centralized 20th, this arrangement seems more reasonable.

After seeing all this news, Zhao Ming finally understood that from the very beginning, Starry Sky Games never intended to drag the war with Tencent until the 20th.

Such a head-to-head confrontation is so rare in gaming history that Zhao Ming never expected his opponent to do this. This sudden strike was both unexpected and fierce.

"Isn't this bullying honest people?! We have to expose Xingchen to the media!! He's jumping the gun!! He's deceiving the players' feelings!"

"Exposure? You think Xingchen isn't generating enough buzz by using this blunder to promote their event? They've already bought their way to the top of the trending topics on Weibo!"

An argument soon broke out in the office.

Some suggested launching an immediate counterattack in public opinion, but everyone, including Zhao Ming, knew that it would be completely useless.

Even if Xingchen had no "reasonable" excuse, holding the event ahead of schedule might not have caused any public pressure.

To put it bluntly, the "American temporary worker" thing was just an excuse, an excuse to bring forward the publicity and release. This excuse worked because Xingchen had prepared a publicity and release plan in advance.

Even so, Starry Sky's real trump card wasn't this excuse, but rather the fact that the testing for "Floating Dreams" was also brought forward, which was the real killer.

Because of this early start, the news of the event starting early will be spread through the videos of streamers, content creators, and players' sharing.

“They…they did it on purpose…” a young employee said, distraught. “They’ve been planning this since the moment we announced the release date of August 20th…”

Zhao Ming suddenly remembered that it was at the beginning of the month.

Five minutes after Tencent's official announcement, Xingchen followed up with its own poster.

At first, Zhao Ming thought Xingchen was deliberately trying to piggyback on Tencent's traffic, but now it seems things are far more complicated than that. "Don't panic, don't panic!"

Zhao Ming mentally repeated the message several times: if he panicked, the entire team would completely collapse.

"Quiet, everyone!"

Zhao Ming slammed his hand on the table, making a loud "bang".

The chaotic office fell silent instantly, and everyone stared at him in horror.

He took a deep breath.

"What's the panic! Is the sky falling down?"

"Isn't it just a broken demo? No matter how much hype they make for 'Floating Dreams,' it's still just a test version! How much traffic can it generate? Starry Sky wants to use the time difference blunder as a news headline and use 'Floating Dreams,' making more people aware that the event has started early, but all of this takes time. We still have a chance!"

His words seemed to have some effect, and some employees regained some color in their faces.

Yes, it's just about getting a head start. Ultimately, you need to let players know that you've started the event early in order to pocket the traffic.

Seeing everyone's reactions, Zhao Ming felt a little calmer, and his brain started working at an unprecedented speed.

"Immediately! Notify all key personnel in the Technology Department, Operations Department, and Marketing Department to hold a meeting in the conference room in five minutes!"

"XGAME platform, launching soon!"

"what?!"

"Mr. Zhao, this..."

"Go live now?!"

If Xingchen's message was a hand grenade, then Zhao Ming's words were no less than detonating a nuclear bomb in the office.

Anyone who has ever worked in a company knows that moving a project forward by even one day can have far-reaching consequences.

For example, the server deployment of the XGAME platform has completed testing, but it will not be officially launched today.

This means that you have to go through procedures, and a rushed connection and launch is completely different from a step-by-step launch.

"Mr. Zhao, this won't do!! What if a large-scale..."

"Don't worry about it!"

"We plan to launch the event at 8 a.m. tomorrow, giving us a head start of nearly 20 hours! Every minute we're delayed means an astronomical number of users we lose! We must go live before the evening rush hour tonight!"

"But... our promotional schedule was all based on the 20th, and now it's suddenly going live, so the players don't know."

In addition to the preparations for going live.

Another problem for Tencent is its marketing and distribution. Xingchen launched its campaign ahead of schedule because it had prepared for it more than ten days in advance. Once it launched ahead of schedule, a massive amount of publicity came. However, Tencent was completely unprepared.

If Tencent is to move up its marketing and distribution efforts, all its promotional plans must also be moved forward. This might not be a difficult task for a small company, but it's a different story for Tencent.
Zhao Ming knew that rushing to launch now might not be effective.

But he also knew that if he did nothing now, he would suffer even more when the blame game came up.

"But Mr. Zhao..."

"I told you! Leave it alone!"

"Time! Time is life! Now! Immediately! Get it up and running! It must be online before the evening rush hour. I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong!"

After he said that, everyone present finally stopped arguing.

After all, he said he would take responsibility if anything went wrong.
The crowd dispersed, and Zhao Ming sat down in his chair, looking at the midday sun. At that moment, he had only one thought in his mind.

Chu Chen is a real monster!

He even wondered if Xingchen's refusal to match Tencent's offer when they bought these copyrights was a calculated move to address this situation.
No no no.
No matter what, it's impossible to go this far. If it were true, it would be terrifying.

(End of this chapter)