Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 355 Such Interaction
Final Frontline: Midsummer Crisis, this major update is full of surprises beyond just the PV.

After the player actually enters the game.

After the opening logo and title "[Summer Crisis]" faded in the center of the screen, the expected process of returning to the main event interface and starting to progress through the levels did not occur.

[Top-down racing game reference]
Instead, the screen was completely changed, and the game's main interface became a top-down racing game interface, with a map in the upper left corner and durability and speed displayed in the middle.

In the upper right corner, there is a constantly shrinking safe zone and a mini-map that updates in real time. On this mini-map, the red restricted area, representing a tsunami, is being swallowed up from behind at a terrifying speed.

In the very center of the screen, there is only one simple and clear prompt:

[Control the vehicle's direction! Avoid obstacles and go full speed ahead! Escape the tsunami!]

"Holy crap?! No way?!"

Many players were shocked when they played this part. Who would have thought that StarCraft Games would forcibly insert a racing escape mini-game at the beginning of the main storyline?!

However, after being startled, they immediately started to get excited and try it out.

Many people were even more surprised when they saw it.

Many anime-style games in the past had an indescribable "low-quality feel" when incorporating mini-games, but this racing mini-game has a very high level of completion in terms of feel, controls, graphics, and overall quality.

However, if you've seen the preview announcement for "Final Front".

As you might expect, this "race against the tsunami" content is actually a "crossover" or "ported" from another game on the Starry Sky Games platform.

This racing game, which was forcibly crammed into the main storyline of "Final Front," is called "Dirt Rush."

A single-player game that was released in March of this year.

At the same time, this is also one of the first batch of works supported by the "Starry Sky Project". Starry Sky obtained 40% equity and invested in it.

The core gameplay of "Dirt Frenzy" is very retro, paying homage to the classic top-down racing games of the NES era.

Of course, as a new era title, "Dirt Rush" has made significant optimizations in terms of graphics rendering and gameplay, and the physics engine is also well-tuned, with very realistic feedback for vehicle drifting and collisions.

Unfortunately, this retro style still has too narrow an audience in today's market environment.

After the game was released, although it received decent reviews, its sales remained mediocre.

It stands out somewhat among the many popular games on the Starry Sky Games platform.

As a game under the Star Project, Starry Sky has also tried to promote it, but the results have not been very good.

It wasn't until Chu Chen was planning the summer version of "Final Front" that he came across such a scene, which seemed to be useful, so he contacted the development team of "Dust Storm".

They were asked to "customize" a brand new escape level based on the storyline and existing game framework of "Final Front".

When Chu Chen proposed this "collaboration" plan, almost everyone's first reaction was "impossible," since there were precedents for this kind of gameplay, where one game is compared to another.

But it's really rare for the authorities to do something like this.

However, Chu Chen did it in the end, and the results were quite good. The biggest contributor to the success of this seemingly far-fetched "internal collaboration" was the Star Engine.

The unified development engine makes resource sharing and technical integration between different project teams exceptionally smooth. For the DiRT team, they only need to create new maps and event scripts.

For the team behind "Final Front," their task was to seamlessly integrate this gameplay element into the main storyline's cinematic sequences.

If Final Frontline were a 3D game, achieving this effect would likely be quite challenging, given the inconsistent art style and the differences between various 3D games.

However, as a 2D game, Final Frontline's narrative style is inherently highly inclusive.

Inserting novel mini-games into the main storyline is a popular practice among players. As long as they are made interesting enough, they will not only not cause resentment, but will also be regarded as a reflection of the development team's "technical ability" and "imagination".

that's the truth.

Many players' first reaction when playing this part was, "Wow, they can play like this in a second game?"

The media was stunned by Starry Sky's outrageous move; they'd seen collaborations before, but never one like this.

When the message "[Slide to control vehicle steering! Avoid obstacles and move forward at full speed!]" appeared, the entire Final Frontiers player community, whether in forums, chat groups, or live streams, was abuzz with excitement.

Most players' reaction was...

"Wait a minute? This is... you want me to drive it myself?!"

"Star, are you serious?! Is this really the main storyline? Or some kind of hidden Easter egg?"

"My mom asked me why I was playing mobile games while kneeling, and I said that Xingchen had added a racing game to a two-dimensional game!"

A racing game segment came to an abrupt end when the troop carrier crashed onto a high cliff. The tires screeched as they rubbed against the ground, and the vehicle executed a beautiful drift before coming to a steady stop at the edge of the cliff.

The cutscene reappears, showing behind them the once golden beach and coconut groves.

Everything had been swallowed up by the turbid, raging waves. The seawater filled the entire bay and continued to erode inland; the coastal highway they had been driving along had now become a raging river.

The boundary between the sky and the sea became blurred, and under the gray sky stretched an endless ocean.

The world seemed to have been reset.

"...We're saved?"

WA2000's voice trembled slightly from the co-pilot's seat. The commander didn't speak, but simply reached out and gently patted her shoulder.

"Ahem, 95, take inventory of personnel and equipment."

A simple animation completes the disappearance of the original main interface, replacing it with a huge map of a coastline fragmented by the sea. The map is filled with red danger zones and scattered green safe points.

A system message popped up.

[Main Quest Update: Midsummer Crisis - Part 1 - Coastline Defense Battle]

[Mission Objective: The omnics have used the tsunami to cripple the port's frontline defenses and have deployed a large number of amphibious units, which are now seizing key coastal facilities. Commander, lead your forces to establish defensive footholds on the fragmented coastline, clear the occupied areas, and create conditions for the subsequent counter-offensive.]

[New Gameplay Mode Launched: Territory Siege]

(End of this chapter)