Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 347 Open World Trap

Chu Chen waved to Brother Dawei, then turned and walked towards the side door, decisive and without any hesitation.

Just as Brother Dawei breathed a sigh of relief, Chu Chen, who had already reached the door, seemed to suddenly remember something, turned around, and added a sentence very seriously.

"By the way, Dawei."

"Since we're going to create an open world, we shouldn't treat it as just a gimmick or a decoration."

"what?"

“I said, if you’re going to build a big world, do it well, don’t treat it as just a decoration.”

When Chu Chen said this, he simply felt that he shouldn't be the only one struggling with how to make the open-world gameplay of a long-term game work.

He was also somewhat looking forward to seeing how the Genshin Impact team in this world would answer this question.

But in Dawei's opinion, Chu Chen's casual remark was just like a line that suddenly pops up in a horror movie.

Watching Chu Chen's figure disappear through the side door.

A fine layer of cold sweat suddenly appeared on Dawei's forehead.

Just a few days before, around the time "Floating Dreams" was released, a heated debate did break out within their project team.

This world is a "living" world.

Although the people who developed Genshin Impact are still the same people, what they see and the world they experience are no longer the same world.

The controversy a few days ago stemmed from a large group of key creators' discussion about extending the project after playing with the open-world approach of "Floating Dreams".

From the very beginning, Genshin Impact's concept of a large open world was based on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

But they soon discovered...

Copying Breath of the Wild won't work, because Breath of the Wild is ultimately a paid single-player game, so character progression is directly linked to exploration of the world map.

However, in Genshin Impact, the payment method is based on character purchases and exclusive weapon purchases.

This means that character progression in Genshin Impact is not linked to exploring the world map, but rather to the "constellations" and "unique weapons" that players "spend money on".

Without stars, this problem wouldn't actually be that serious.

However, with the emergence of "Floating Dreams and Long Songs", while players were amazed by the martial arts world and event tree in "Floating Dreams and Long Songs",

Mihoyo's executives, however, went a step further.

"We can't go on like this! Even without comparing it to the open-world gameplay of 'Floating Dreams', this version clearly has problems."

"Besides offering some scattered treasure chests and scenic spots, how does the open world contribute to the core character development cycle? Why would players explore it? Just for a few insignificant materials and gems?"

"Then what do you suggest? Learn from Breath of the Wild? Expand all the core progression items into the world? How are we going to sell characters and weapons then?"

"We can try allocating some resources on the large map, similar to what we did with 'Floating Dream Song'."

"Stop talking nonsense! What's the scale of Floating Dream Song compared to us? Our costs are on completely different levels. We're making a free-to-play game with long-term operation, not a one-off single-player game! If we don't even push players to pay for the only monetization point, how are we going to get a paying player rate?"

"It's not that we won't pressure you, but we'll try a different approach."

"What other method should we use!?"

The debate between conservatives and reformists escalated to the point where they almost slammed their fists on the table.

In the end, it was only after Brother Dawei personally intervened that the argument was temporarily put to rest.

His decision was to maintain the original plan, ensuring the game could be successfully developed first, and then gradually iterating on gameplay innovations in subsequent versions.

This is actually a very safe, even flawed, business decision, since the previous version of Genshin Impact essentially used an open-world map as a world map for an MMORPG.

And in the end, they succeeded.

However, unlike the previous Genshin Impact development team, which implemented this strategy almost without hesitation.

On this timeline, they were somewhat uncertain when implementing this strategy. Everyone knew that once the game was made according to this "open world with an MMORPG-style map" concept, changing course later would be no less difficult than starting from scratch.

It can be said.

After making this decision, Dawei was already feeling uneasy.

As a result, Chu Chen unexpectedly said something else.

"Don't treat the big world as a decoration."

At that moment, Brother Dawei suddenly had an extremely absurd and bizarre feeling.

Every time he interacted with Chu Chen, he felt that the other party was not like a competitor of the same age, but rather more like a "reclusive master".

It's like in those ancient dramas, where the protagonist is walking along and suddenly someone inexplicably appears and says that he's going to have bad luck the next day.

The kind of deity where the protagonist actually suffers misfortune.
The moment this thought popped into his head, Dawei himself felt a chill run down his spine.

It's too ridiculous.

He admitted that Chu Chen did have some understanding of game development, but no matter how much he understood, it was impossible for him to point out the problems Genshin Impact was facing from such a distance.
That can only be a coincidence.

Perhaps, the stars have encountered a similar problem?

If that's the case, then it's even worse. It means that what Chu Chen said is very likely true, and the other party really is initiating a 3D open-world game project.

Once he confirmed this, a huge sense of panic instantly gripped him.

He almost awkwardly pulled out his phone, and because his fingers were trembling slightly, he failed to unlock the screen on his first try.

He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, found the number he knew by heart, and dialed it.

The call was answered almost instantly.

"Hey, Dawei? Is the meeting over?" came the co-founder from the other end of the phone.

"Old Cai!"

"Where are you now?"

"At the company, where else would I be but keeping an eye on the version?"

"Immediately, call the core members of the project team—the heads of planning, programming, and art—to the conference room. No, to my office; it's well soundproofed there."

Dawei spoke very quickly, with an unquestionable commanding tone.

Old Cai on the other end of the phone was clearly taken aback; he rarely heard Brother Dawei speak in this tone.

"What happened? Why the rush?"

"I saw Chu Chen."

"Oh, what happened? Is he going to acquire us again?"

Old Cai's tone carried a hint of teasing; Chu Chen had indeed occasionally discussed this topic in conversations over the past year or so.

Dawei ignored the joke.

"StarCraft has launched an open-world game project."

"Are you sure?! He wouldn't be lying to you, would he? That guy never tells the truth..."

"It shouldn't be a scam. He also said he wanted to have a meeting with our team, but I refused. After he left, he inexplicably said something like, 'Don't treat the big world like a decoration.'"

There was an instant, deathly silence on the other end of the phone.

Five full seconds passed before Lao Cai's voice rang out again, the ease and banter in his voice completely gone, replaced by the same solemnity and astonishment as Dawei's.

(End of this chapter)