Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 374 Japan Game Industry Association
Among Us was a minor miracle in the gaming industry in its previous life.

This space-themed werewolf game, created by a small team of three and featuring an art style so simple it's almost like a sketch, was launched in 18 but lacked promotion.

It has never had much influence.

Two years after its release, it took off and quickly became a global sensation thanks to the rise of live streaming platforms.

Similar examples include "The Killing of the Goose and the Duck".

These types of games are essentially "advanced versions" of Werewolf. Traditional Werewolf games lack "clues" and require a learning curve, so although they are popular, they have never been a hit in the field of video games.

The reason why games like AmongUs and Goose Duck Kill are so popular is that they actually lower the threshold for "analyzing the logic" in Werewolf.

Its core gameplay is also very simple.

It's described as a closed spaceship with one or two imposters infiltrated. The crew needs to complete all the tasks or vote to find all the imposters in order to win.

The imposter, on the other hand, needs to eliminate all the crew members silently.

This simple, intuitive, and highly socially dramatic gameplay makes it the perfect choice for friends to play together and for streamers to create entertaining content.

Chu Chen proposed this model because FGO already has the foundation of a social game in Japan.

FGO has always lacked relatively casual gameplay options besides advancing the story and high-intensity PVE to provide some variety.

This is still somewhat insufficient for a "national-level" game.

Although Chu Chen had never managed a nationally popular game, he had watched "Honor of Kings".

Once the number of players reaches a certain level, and every player has the game installed by default, the remaining task is to get them to instinctively take out their phones and play a game when they meet.

Currently, FGO obviously cannot do this.

It is precisely because it is impossible to do so that Chu Chen has FGO make an attempt in this regard.

Essentially, this is similar to Teamfight Tactics in League of Legends; it's a "casual" gameplay mode that breaks away from the "main game" to boost daily active users.

Logically, players should be excited to hear about this gameplay, so why are they making a fuss about it?
"Their core argument is that FGO, as a game centered on story and character development, should not and cannot include PVP gameplay."

Li Suhao reported at an extremely fast pace.

"Judging from the public opinion, it doesn't seem like the pressure from players' own words. It seems like someone is maliciously attacking us, saying that once this trend starts, they will deliberately design rewards to force players to play PVP, and if you don't play, you won't get them, eventually turning it into a money-grabbing scheme."

Li Suhao also gave a few examples and sent over some pictures.

Chu Chen also glanced at the computer screen, mainly at several "gaming KOLs" on Twitter with between 50,000 and 100,000 followers.

They published lengthy articles with the same message.

The article, written with heartfelt indignation, analyzed how PVP gameplay would "destroy" the foundation of FGO, and was quite "sincere and earnest."

In the comment sections of these KOLs, there are a large number of comments with the same format, repeating the same few sentences: "Stars don't understand people's hearts", "Please, don't add PVP", "My Chaldea doesn't need to fight with others".

As for the anonymous forum 5ch, it's even more direct.

[Sad News] FGO has come to a glorious end! The Starry Night PVP mode will be implemented!

[Inflammation] Huaxia Capital is untrustworthy, PVP will ruin FGO! In the post, all kinds of sarcastic remarks emerged one after another, and some people even escalated Xingchen's behavior to disrespect for Japanese game culture.

"What's most disgusting is that they've started inciting nationalist sentiments..."

"Didn't Asahi publish an article a while ago about our monthly revenue exceeding 100 billion yen? Now these people are using that to spread claims like 'Japan's cultural IP is being eroded by foreign capital' and 'Starry Sky only wants to make money in Japan with FGO'."

"Now even our engine studio's job postings are getting spam comments."

Chu Chen listened quietly, his expression unchanged.

Japan also has online trolls; in fact, Japanese online trolls were active even earlier than those in China. Starting in 2000, the prototype of Japanese online trolls, known as "stealth marketing," emerged.

The core motivation is that companies disguise themselves as ordinary users to conduct covert marketing in order to improve product reputation.

However, there is a fundamental difference between Japanese and domestic online trolls: Japanese online trolls are "very unskilled."

The reason why Japan has a large online army is not because of its market size, but because of a peculiar advertising giant in Japan, namely Dentsu.

Explaining Dentsu's position in Japan is rather complicated.

Simply put, all companies in Japan have to give their advertising budget to Dentsu first, and then Dentsu will help them find TV stations or other media companies to place advertisements and negotiate cooperation.

There is such a giant in
Online trolls? You mean, companies can't conduct marketing and advertising without going through Dentsu?
The suppression of online trolls by this distorted Japanese giant is quite exaggerated.

It's no exaggeration to say that there are basically no professional online marketing companies in Japan.

This resulted in Japanese online trolls, despite their early start, employing "inferior" methods, and frequently being outmaneuvered and exposed by Dentsu.

A prime example is the Sony "Gatekeeper scandal," in which employees impersonated consumers on forums to praise Sony products and disparage Nintendo, causing a public outcry due to the exposure of their IP addresses.
In 2012, animation company SHAFT was exposed for collaborating with the aggregation website "Yaraon!" to manipulate comments through cashback links, and eventually issued a public apology.

In short, in Japan, the reason why online trolls are weak is essentially because there is a powerful figure involved.

The fact that domestic anime-style games were so successful in the past, and sometimes even received better reviews in Japan than in China, is also related to this detail.

Overall, Japan's online business environment is still better than that in China.

In China, Xingchen has few effective methods to deal with online trolls. The newly established legal department can only "do its best," occasionally catching a few typical cases and filing a report.
However, in Japan, due to the market environment, once a large-scale online troll operation emerges, it is actually quite easy to find out who is behind it.

In addition, since Starry Sky is also a major client of Dentsu, Chu Chen asked directly.

"Who do you think did it?"

As expected, Li Suhao's willingness to call Chu Chen meant that he already had some leads.

"It should be the Japan Game Industry Association."

Japan Game Industry Association?

Chu Chen was stunned for a moment, and then Li Suhao quickly explained that although the name sounded impressive, it was not actually a legitimate organization.

"Simply put, it's a group of old-timers from the Famicom era sticking together for warmth, relying on their political and business connections accumulated in their early years and their status as 'seniors' to freeload off others."

"Nintendo, Sony, and Capcom have not joined this association."

(End of this chapter)