Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 371 The Final Forbidden Zone
In addition to reporting on his work, Fuller also gave a specific completion time for the PUBG Mobile game in the email.

The team is ready for the next phase. We anticipate a 2-3 month development cycle to bring PUBG Mobile to a launch-ready state, with a target release date at the end of 2017.

Furthermore, regarding your new project proposal, StarCraft America is confident in its ability to handle it simultaneously; please be sure to entrust this task to us.

"This Fuller"

Seeing this, Chu Chen smiled and chuckled.

Aside from reporting on work, the most important part of this email is probably the last sentence.

For Chu Chen, the launch of the PUBG mobile game was naturally a very important matter. In his previous life, Tencent relied on this IP to firmly establish itself in the mobile game market.

However, battle royale shooting games are a huge genre.

Starting with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in 17, almost every year has seen a new battle royale hit, such as Fortnite, which is set to be released at the end of the year, and in 18, there was also PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which inexplicably ate up a large share of the Japanese market.

Then came Apex Legends in 19, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout and Call of Duty: Warzone in 20, and Naraka: Bladepoint in 21.

"Battle royale" games have actually been evolving. They acquired Bluehole's stock, took over the operation of "PUBG", and then acquired the mobile version of "PUBG".

This is just the first step that Starry Sky Games has taken in the "battle royale" genre.

Therefore, a mobile version of PUBG is definitely going to be made, but at the same time, derivative works based on the PUBG framework also need to be made.

This is why Chu Chen didn't use Unreal Engine to port the mobile game, but instead had Fuller do the engine porting.

If we consider the 17 release of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds as "PUBG 1.0", then countless developers have provided the answer of "PUBG 2.0" in the future.

Chu Chen also provided his own answer, which was "The Final Forbidden Zone".

The core of this game can be understood as a two-dimensional version of PUBG + Apex Legends, derived from the Final Frontline IP.

There are two reasons for initiating this game project. One is to follow the operational strategy of the mobile version of "PUBG".

In its previous life, when Tencent was operating the mobile game "Peacekeeper Elite", it created all sorts of exaggerated skins and collaborations in order to make money. This kind of skin marketing method worked in China.

However, this approach didn't work as well in other global markets. In 20, the US market accounted for 10% of Tencent's PUBG Mobile global revenue, but by 23 it had dropped to only 5%.
However, it's not entirely true to say that skins in battle royale games are completely unworkable. On one hand, Peacekeeper Elite does rely on skins in China, and although the number of players has been steadily declining, its revenue remains relatively stable.

Secondly, in his previous life in Japan, there was another case that also prompted Chu Chen to undertake a new project.

This case study is NetEase's "Knives Out".

While Knives Out doesn't offer anything particularly special in terms of gameplay, it has helped Tencent find a way to monetize through "pay-to-win marketing."

From itasha-themed sports cars to various outlandish costumes and even wings from crossover anime, "Knives Out" has made a fortune in Japan.

Since its release in the second half of 18, it has consistently topped the Japanese server rankings.

The success of "Knives Out" bluntly proves a truth.
For most players, especially Japanese players deeply influenced by anime and manga culture, "cool" and "good-looking" are far more important than "realistic." Chu Chen pointed out long ago that trying to have both is a major taboo in game development.

Therefore, Chu Chen's ultimate solution was "split".

On the one hand, the mobile version of "PUBG" can replicate the original flavor of the PC version, attracting relatively hardcore shooting game players. On the other hand, it can offer various value-added services such as skins, which can be seen from the previous version of "COD".

It should be cool, but not too exaggerated.

On the other hand, as a spin-off of "Final Frontline", "Final Zone" can utilize its "anime/manga" attributes to create more exaggerated designs.

The dolls' outfits can range from basic combat suits to summer swimsuits and elegant evening gowns, without any additional design; they can simply be replicas of the doll skins from the original "Final Battlefront".

That should be enough to sell for a while.
Secondly, in Chu Chen's plan, "Final Frontline" is different from "PUBG". In "PUBG", you control a character to fight, while in the derivative game of "Final Frontline", the player controls a character, that is, controls a beautiful girl to fight.

The complete process of a game of "Final Zone" is as follows in the current project proposal.

The first stage is the pre-war preparation phase.

The game will feature two modes: single-player matchmaking and three-player squad matchmaking. After players select their mode and enter the matchmaking queue, they will be taken to the character selection screen.

The soldier models from PUBG have disappeared, replaced by the "beautiful girls" from Final Frontline that players already know and love.

In "Final Zone", each "humanoid" has a skill set derived from the skills in "Final Front", consisting of a passive skill, a tactical skill and an ultimate skill.

These skills are given in a relatively "conservative" way. There are no large-scale damage skills like those in Overwatch. Instead, they are more like incendiary grenades, enhanced grenades, and medkits that are shared by the whole team.

Such a "simple" skill.

The reason for this design is that the current StarCraft game engine does not provide enough support for the framework of shooting games, and this kind of "simple" skill is easy to implement.

Secondly, the game's balance was also taken into consideration. After all, this is a battle royale game, and overly exaggerated skills would make it difficult to maintain the balance chain.

By treating skills as supplementary and focusing on marksmanship, maintaining game balance becomes much easier.

In addition, the barrier to entry for players has been lowered in both directions.

For skilled players, if you can play PUBG well, you won't be bad at playing Endless Zone, even if you're completely unfamiliar with the humanoid abilities.

For newbies, the humanoid's various skills are like having a slight cheat code, which can shorten the gap between them and experts when the player activates the skills.

Take UMP45 as an example; her passive skill is "Stalker," which allows her to see the brief footprints left by nearby enemies.

The tactical skill is "Scanning Beacon," which launches a detector into a small area, briefly marking enemies within it.

The ultimate skill is "Global Insight," which highlights all enemies in a large surrounding area for several seconds and shares the information with teammates.

(End of this chapter)