Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 332 Jiao Xiaofei's Excitement
The first to appear were the "wife party".

On Baidu Tieba, a screenshot was shared: "[Screenshot Sharing] I declare that Fairy Ling Shuang is my wife. Who agrees? Who disagrees?" It was simple and straightforward.

In just one day, over a thousand buildings were constructed.

"Seriously, you bunch of perverts, doesn't any of you care about the gameplay?"

"Oh, I'm so concerned! My wife's swordsmanship is both cool and powerful, making the game incredibly fun!"

In conclusion: My wife is the best in the world!

In addition, the emergence of DEMOs has led to a greater availability of various game assets, and StarCraft's fan creation incentive program has been opened up.

Fan art, chibi-style emoticons, and even personal music videos edited from in-game screen recordings sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

The sheer number of fan-made works makes it feel like "Floating Dreams" is not a demo that's only available for 48 hours, but rather a mature game that has been running for several years.

Following closely behind are the "hardcore action party".

While most players were still basking in the satisfaction of easily defeating Li Bangui by switching to the "Opening and Closing Sword Technique," another group had already begun a new challenge.

The next morning, a name

The video, titled "[Extreme Strategy] No Damage! Qingfeng Sword Technique VS Li Bangui! This is the real deal of countering every move!", quietly became a trending topic in the gaming section of Bilibili.

The video creator didn't switch any techniques; he simply used the initial Qingfeng Sword Technique and completely overwhelmed Li Bangui.

In the video, the player controls the green-robed swordsman like a ghost, dodging Li Bangui's fast swords perfectly with every dodge and parrying precisely at the moment the opponent makes a move.

After successfully parrying, you can follow up with a dash, followed by one or two light attacks to chip away at the BOSS's health, and then quickly retreat without being greedy for hits.

The entire process was smooth and fluid, full of the beauty of strategic maneuvering.

"Holy crap! This is real martial arts!"

"So the Qingfeng Sword Technique can be used in combat? I was beaten like a grandson by Li Bangui..."

"How many years of being single did the uploader develop such a fast reaction speed?"

"This game has a lot of depth. Different playstyles offer different experiences. I used to think I had to use the combined sword technique."

These purely action-packed videos can also attract a great deal of attention.

~~~
Amidst this clamor, "Floating Dreams and Long Songs" reached noon on the third day.

The 48-hour test has just ended.

Chu Chen had just finished lunch and entered his office when a whirlwind swept in behind him.

Jiao Xiaofei had huge dark circles under his eyes, but his energy was frightening. He was clutching a stack of freshly printed reports that were still warm in his hand, as if he had won a five million lottery.

He practically floated into Chu Chen's office.

"President Chen! President Chen!"

"Tell me something."

"Guess! Guess! What were the stats for our 'Floating Dreams' demo yesterday? What was the day-two retention rate?"

Chu Chen glanced at Jiao Xiaofei.

He knew perfectly well why Jiao Xiaofei was so excited; it must be because the "Floating Dream Song" test was over, all the data had been fully compiled, and the results should be good.

I wanted to scold him and tell him to stop showing off and get down to business, but after thinking about it, I realized he had been working hard lately, so I just went along with it and casually said something.

"Sixty percent?"

"Your vision is too narrow! Mr. Chen!!! Your vision is too narrow!!!"

Jiao Xiaofei held up eight fingers and waved them vigorously in front of Chu Chen.

"Eighty percent! Eighty percent!"

It was clear that Jiao Xiaofei was genuinely excited at this moment, even daring to say that Chu Chen's vision was too narrow. "The number of registrations exceeded ten million on the first day, and five million new registrations were added on the second day. On this basis, we still have an 80% retention rate. My God!! If this were Tencent, Ma Huateng would have to come and kowtow twice."

After the 48-hour test of "Floating Dreams" ended, two core data points stood out.

One is that there are over ten million registered players worldwide.

This data is quite staggering.

Looking back, Onmyoji had about 800 million registered users in its first week. Looking ahead, even compared to Tencent, a "mass-produced national game machine".

There aren't many games that can register over ten million users on their first day.

Games like "DNF Mobile" and "Dark Zone Breakout" only had a few million players on their first day. The only game to break 10 million in recent years was "Delta Force".

This is why Tencent was so nervous when non-Tencent games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd achieved millions of views on their first day, and Honkai Impact 3rd approached ten million views globally on its first day.

Because it was placed at that point in time.

Even Tencent itself can't create games with such high popularity, let alone these two games, which basically didn't use any Tencent-affiliated marketing or promotion.
This was true in 20, and even more so in 17.

Therefore, Jiao Xiaofei said that if this achievement had been made at Tencent, Ma Huateng would have to come and kowtow to him twice. Although it's a bit of an exaggeration, the sentiment is right.

but
Chu Chen was actually very clear about why "Floating Dreams and Long Songs" was able to achieve this.

On the one hand, it benefited from the publicity generated by Tencent's previous collaboration with Star Collision, and on the other hand, it was due to the fact that "Floating Dreams" was only tested for 48 hours.

The test will only be open for 48 hours, which means that many players who hear the news and are interested will download it as soon as possible.

Many players enter the game with the mindset of "I'll lose out if I don't play" or "If I don't play now, I won't be able to play anymore."

Regardless of the mindset, the figure of 10 million is real, and on this basis, the next-day retention rate can reach 80%, which is simply unbelievable data.

This is no longer just a "blockbuster"; it's on the verge of rewriting history.

Chu Chen was also a little surprised by this data.

Under normal circumstances, the retention rate of online games in China is about 45% on the second day, which means that half of the players quit after playing for the first day.

Second-generation games tend to have higher day-two retention rates. For example, Genshin Impact's day-two retention rate was around 60% to 70% back then.

Based on this, the 80% retention rate of "Floating Dreams" is indeed a bit exaggerated.

But it's just a bit of an exaggeration.

The underlying principle remains the same: this game was only tested for two days. If you don't play on the second day, you don't know when you'll be able to play again, so this data is actually somewhat inflated.

Chu Chen had anticipated this situation when he set up the 48-hour testing period.

So his surprise stopped at "Oh, not bad..." Jiao Xiao's good news ultimately earned him only a slightly surprised reply.

"Okay, keep it down, don't make a huge noise like a rocket."

"Mr. Chen, how can you be so calm!"

Chu Chen was able to remain calm because he had a plan for managing his emotions.

However, Jiao Xiaofei couldn't calm down at all. Seeing that Chu Chen was unmoved and had no "reaction" whatsoever, he became even more anxious. He paced back and forth around Chu Chen's desk, muttering to himself.

"Eighty percent! That's eight million! These players are really giving us a lot of face. If this number is achieved during the open beta, it will be a huge hit!!"

"Monthly revenue must start at seven or eight hundred million!? No, it might even break one billion globally!! Two billion!!"

"Alright. Why don't you just say 10 billion?"

Chu Chen was speechless as he watched Jiao Xiaofei's increasingly outrageous remarks. He pointed to the door.

"I still need to discuss the platform with Li Yifeng later. Bring your excitement to work, don't wander around here, it's making me dizzy."

(End of this chapter)