Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 348 Star Fund
As September approached, miHoYo brought up the finalized "Big World" design for a second round of discussion.

Qingdao, Oriental Movie Metropolis Film and Television Industrial Park.

The Wandering Earth filming studio.

Zhou Xun was frantically taking pictures with his phone.

The enormous film studio is more like a real sci-fi "amusement park" than a studio, with crisscrossing steel beams and tracks overhead.

Industrial lights cast huge beams of light, within which countless dust particles danced aimlessly.

Beneath this beam of light, a colossal steel beast lay silently. It was a partial model of a planetary engine, and even though it was only a part, its rough, scorched metal shell still exuded an unparalleled sense of oppression.

Several futuristic transport vehicles were parked nearby, with heavy armor, huge tires, and even mottled marks on their bodies as if they had been scratched by ice and snow.

That's fucking awesome!

Any sci-fi fan standing here would find it hard to breathe; this isn't a special effects company's computer folder, this is reality.

So it wasn't just Zhou Xun; the dozen or so people following him all had basically the same expression.

"This movie will be absolutely amazing!"

Zhou Xun nodded.

As a veteran who has been working in the gaming industry for almost ten years, he believes he has seen many big scenes, but none can compare to the scene before him.

"If our planet explorers could make a movie and build a set like this, that would be truly amazing."

The person who said this was a burly man who was a bit fat.

However, after saying those words, the tall man, who was over 1.8 meters tall, subconsciously covered his mouth.

The people traveling with him stopped abruptly upon hearing this. A dozen pairs of eyes snapped to the fat man first, then cautiously shifted to Zhou Xun's back.

The atmosphere instantly became a little awkward.

The atmosphere became awkward because the group was still a little unaccustomed to it, after all, they had been employees of Pasya not long ago.

I'll be switching to Xingchen in the next few days.

However, Zhou Xun, who was in charge, obviously didn't feel awkward about changing jobs or discussing previous projects at the new company, and he even chimed in.

"Indeed, if planetary explorers could make movies..."

Mentioning Planet Explorers

Most people are still somewhat unfamiliar with it.

However, this game is actually one of the first Chinese games to "break out of the mainstream". The beta version was launched on Steam in 14 and the official version was released in 16, and it reached the top of the sales charts in the first week.

Its main target market is overseas players, so many domestic players may not even realize that "Planet Explorers" is a domestically produced game if they don't do their research before buying it.

The success of this game also brought Pathea Games its first pot of gold.

This also put Pathea Games on the fast track.

After making a profit, the owner of Pathea Games did not rest on his past success, but instead led the entire studio to expand rapidly, just like in his previous life.

In 18, *My Time at Portia* was released and became a huge success, selling over 350 million copies. In 19, *Super Buckyball* entered Early Access, and in 20, *Ever Forward* sold over a million copies, 70% of which were purchased by overseas players. Then came *My Time at Sandrock* in 23.

It's no exaggeration to say that Pathea Games is a domestic game company that maintains high productivity and occasionally produces high-quality hits.

On this timeline.

Pathea Games partnered with StarCraft early on, and the full version of Planet Explorers sold nearly 50 copies on the StarCraft platform, even surpassing its Steam sales.

The development of the game in Passia was also more successful than in the previous life.

Logically speaking, under such circumstances, Zhou Xun, as the chief planner of "Planet Explorers," should have risen in status at Pathea Games, much like a general who has won a battle.

However, Zhou Xun did not
It's not that he has any personal grudge against the owner of Pathea Games, but rather it's because of the route.

As a hardcore sci-fi fan, Zhou Xun loves sci-fi games and has always wanted to make one. However, after the success of "Planet Explorers," Li An, the boss of Pathea Games, chose a different path.

Simulation management.

This path wasn't entirely wrong; following it, Pathea Games eventually created a huge hit like My Time at Portia. However, Zhou Xun simply wasn't interested in simulation management games.

For game development, the creative team's passion for the subject matter can greatly influence the final product of the game.

Therefore, in the previous life.

Zhou Xun eventually left Pathea Games with his wife, started a new company, and launched the "Dyson Sphere Project" in June 2019.

In this timeline, Zhou Xun's departure occurred much earlier.

The biggest reason for this is Starry Sky's "Project Stars." Shortly after the Project Stars entered its promotional period in August, Starry Sky Games announced the establishment of a special "Starry Sky Fund."

The initial investment of 200 million yuan will be used to support promising independent game development teams both domestically and internationally.

Meanwhile, the Starry Sky Games platform will also launch a brand-new "Developer Center" to provide partner teams with a one-stop service, from technical support, localization services, and distribution channel integration to assistance with game license applications.

In addition, the Starry Sky Games platform will also create a dedicated section called "Starry Sky Masterpieces" to recommend and showcase these independent games.

If the previous "Project Stars" was just a pilot project, then now...

Chu Chen used real money and substantial platform resources to transform it into a tangible incubator that was incredibly attractive to all small and medium-sized developers.

This part didn't cause much of a stir among ordinary players, but it triggered a major upheaval in the game developer community.

Although the Starry Sky review process is quite complicated, successful reviews do result in a payment, though not a large sum, perhaps only one or two million.

However, this amount of money is enough for many new studios to complete their first gameplay demo. At this point, a second review will be conducted, and Star will approve the funding again based on the second review.

You could interpret this as Xingchen offering "industry subsidies."

Before Project Stars, a game developer with a dream and the desire to turn their vision into reality usually only had two paths to take.

The first, and most common, rule is to get into a large company and get them to invest in you.

This path means that your talent and creativity must serve the company's overall strategy and financial statements.

You might be able to make a successful game, but it's unlikely to be the game you "want" to make.

(End of this chapter)