Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 340 Texture
Once all the settings are set.

"Sanhua" woke up sleepily, yawned, stretched in a very realistic way, and then the game prompted that it could control the operation.

"Huh? This...it works??"

Although Lin Shuyin already knew from Titok and some GIFs on Weibo that the game "Cat Cat" was small in size but had high "graphics quality".

However, once you actually try it out, the impact of this "texture" is even more obvious.

Strictly speaking, "Cat Cat" is actually Starry Sky's first pure 3D game, although it still uses a top-down perspective for easier operation.

That is, the perspective of the previous life of "Goose Game Simulator".

But in any case, 3D is 3D, and this is not only StarCraft's first 3D game, but also StarCraft's first time showcasing 3D anime-style rendering.

Because the development of "Cat Cat" is relatively small in scale and there is plenty of time for development, and because A2 Studio has actually been adjusting the 2D rendering engine that was still Reality Engine at that time since its time at Tencent 3 years ago.

After that, the entire StarCraft team switched to developing their own engine, and older games such as Final Frontline and FGO gradually started engine porting projects.

However, the engine porting of these games is almost imperceptible to players.

Since these two games are 2D games, the engine is not actually the bottleneck in their development. The reason for the effort to port them to our own engine is partly for unified management across the company.

Secondly, it is so that the game engine can benefit the game after breakthroughs in graphics technology.

Although StarCraft also acquired Unity version 5.0, StarCraft's own engine version began to accelerate its development after Fuller returned to the United States and acquired his former employer.

This became very clear 17 years later. It wasn't just Fuller that was developing; Huaxia Xingchen Engine Studio, represented by Xiong Rui, was also holding its breath after its defeat in the "Engine Martial Arts Tournament".

After assisting in the lossless porting of their two games, they placed great emphasis on the 2D rendering engine plugin for the game "Neko Neko".

This is because the various studios that develop the StarCraft game engine also have their own division of labor.

The US studio, led by Fuller, primarily focuses on "introducing new technologies" to elevate Star Engine to the top tier internationally by introducing cutting-edge technology.

The Huaxia Engine Department, on the other hand, mainly focuses on 2D rendering and engine optimization.

After all, the development and implementation of an engine are two different things.

Globally, the vast majority of teams using the StarCraft game engine are from China, and Xiong Rui's team mainly works with major game developers.
Sometimes, it's even necessary to go directly to the other party's game company.

Then, the problem collection was optimized.

Incidentally, Akira Ishii's team is currently continuing to optimize pure 2D-HD technology based on the Star Engine.

At first glance, it seems that the several teams at Star Engine are working independently, with their efforts scattered, as if they are reinventing the wheel.

In reality, the three functions do not conflict; rather, they function like three closely meshed gears, working together to drive the terrifying war machine that is the stars.

Fuller's American studio is positioned as "laying the foundation".

Xiong Rui's Huaxia Engine Department, on the other hand, "builds a skyscraper" on the foundation, and the two-dimensional rendering of "Cat Cat" is their first answer sheet.

Without the stable and efficient underlying architecture provided by Fuller's team, Xiong Rui's team would not have been able to develop many of their rendering technologies. As for Ishii Akira's team, their 2D-HD technology was built on the same foundation but as a separate structure.

The relationship between the three is clear and unambiguous. The only problem is that Fuller's department is quite busy, as he has to liaise with both Xiong Rui and Ishii Akira. However, despite the busyness, things are not chaotic.

In conclusion, to sum up.

Although the game "What Mischief Can a Cat Be Thinking?" is not large in scale, its graphics are currently the best among all Starry Night games.

This perception of image quality is reflected in both the rendering technology and the animal skeleton. Lin Shuyin controlled "Sanhua" and carefully jumped off the mat, its four little paws landing on the wooden floor.

Soon, she noticed how surprisingly smooth the game controls were: WASD for movement, spacebar for jumping, and Shift for sprinting.

What surprised Lin Shuyin the most was the cat's "dynamic" nature.

When the character walks, their body exudes a uniquely feline elegance and languidness.

When sprinting, it lowers its body and raises its tail to maintain balance.

When jumping, the cat uses its hind legs to generate power, extends its front paws, and has a cushioning motion upon landing. It's clear that the production team put a lot of effort into the cat's movements.

The game's first scene is set in an open-air room in an old town, where Lin Shuyin controls "Sanhua" as she explores the house.

It jumped onto the sofa, then onto the windowsill, and curiously poked at the curtain cord with its paws, watching it sway back and forth.

After the interaction was completed, a small cat paw icon appeared in the upper left corner of the screen, next to the words "Cute Value: 10". So it happened quickly and naturally.

She began to interact with the things in the room.

Lin Shuyin quickly discovered that there were many things to interact with in this scene, and she could gain "cuteness points" the first time she interacted with them.

However, she doesn't yet know what the use of this cuteness stat is.

After interacting with the kitten in the room for a while, Lin Shuyin naturally guided it to walk towards the door. The back door of the cottage was open, leading to a small courtyard filled with flowers and plants.

In the courtyard, an elderly woman with white hair was dozing in a rocking chair, with a bamboo basket beside her containing several colorful balls of yarn.

Lin Shuyin's eyes were immediately drawn to the largest and brightest red ball of yarn.

She tried to run over and grab the ball of yarn, but as soon as she got close, a big yellow dog that was dozing next to the old lady opened its eyes alertly and made a low "woof".

You can't do it forcefully.

Lin Shuyin maneuvered the kitten back. Since the old lady guarded the yard and the room was enclosed, to get to a larger area, they had to go through the big yellow dog.

So, there were no prompts.

But here, it's clearly a "beginner's tutorial," and the way this tutorial is presented is quite unique; it's not the kind of tutorial that tells you what to click.

Instead, it encourages players to explore.

Whether in his past life or now, Chu Chen has always believed that many games have problems with how they "use" tutorials. Logically speaking, a tutorial corresponds to the three golden chapters in a novel.

Or rather, the beginning of a novel.

(End of this chapter)