Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 393 Trust and Reputation

For anxious players, the five hours of server maintenance felt like an eternity.

But for savvy self-media creators, these five hours are a blue ocean of traffic, a breeding ground for inspiration, and an outright global carnival.

Right now, if you've ever watched anything related to FATE, just open Bilibili and you'll see at least four or five related videos on the homepage. You can also find a bunch of foreigners shouting and playing the game on Titiok.

Japan, Pixiv (P站)

In the past, most of the popular works of "FGO" were about the cool or beautiful battle postures of the Servants, or the heartwarming daily life between the Master and the Servant.

But now, the art style under the FGO tag on Pixiv has changed drastically.

A large number of chibi-style fan art pieces have sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

An illustration that went viral showed a group of Berserker Servants sitting together, each with a huge question mark above their head, creating an awkward scene. The title was "When Berserkers enter the FGO Killing Room".

Some people even placed the "FGO" login screen, specifically the "Pseudo-Holy Grail Feast" mode entry icon, in the center of the screen, turning the "FGO Killer" launcher meme into an image.

From live streaming platforms in the United States to Bilibili in China and Pixiv in Japan, countless self-media creators, regardless of nationality or language, are producing a massive amount of hilarious content centered around the core concept of "FGO Killing".

Countless netizens who were originally uninterested in FGO, or even somewhat averse to anime-style games, were drawn to the news that the server crashed due to too many players.

How could a game that had been running for a year suddenly become so popular that the servers couldn't handle it after the new mode was launched?

This is a highly newsworthy story in itself.

Curiosity is one of the most primal driving forces in humankind.

Thus, during those few hours of maintenance, a peculiar loop was born.

Passersby see the trending topic -> click on it out of curiosity -> see various memes and recommendations from players -> become interested in "FGO Killer Launcher" -> decide to download the game to try it out -> find that the game is under maintenance -> join the meme army -> further increase the trending topic's popularity.

~~~
And with the surge in popularity of these things.

That evening, after maintenance was completed and the server was reopened.

On the Starry Sky server backend, the data curve was soaring like a rocket, rising at an almost vertical angle.

The rapid increase in numbers triggered the system's queuing mechanism, causing the number of people queuing on the Chinese server to instantly exceed hundreds of thousands, while the number on the Japanese server exceeded one million.

Although the number of people in the queue decreased rapidly as the servers gradually reopened.

However, screenshots showing queues exceeding one million people instantly appeared on the internet, and even servers in Europe and America experienced some degree of queuing.

This popularity has exceeded the expectations of both players and the media.

In fact, for Chu Chen, Yan Chuan, and Li Suhao, who were watching the data in the background, this surge in data was somewhat exaggerated.

The saying "to reach new heights" sounds nice, but it's actually quite difficult to do.

This is especially true for FGO, a game that is already practically a national phenomenon in Japan.

"Holy crap, there are so many people!!!"

"The technical department is about to collapse."

"Oh no, the number of people online simultaneously worldwide might really be heading towards 400 million!!"

When the server crashed in the afternoon, the number of people online at the same time was not actually that exaggerated; Xingchen had done some "artistic" processing at the time.

It can be restarted with the server.

With players flooding in at the same time, this "artistic" data seems to be coming true.

"The instantaneous data exchange volume in the new mode is too large! Should we activate a queuing mechanism for the gameplay mode?"

Within ten minutes of the servers opening, the Japanese server reached 150 million concurrent users, and the Chinese server quickly approached one million. These numbers are truly astonishing.

The core gameplay of *Fate/Grand Order* is a turn-based card game, which doesn't require high real-time server synchronization. Players perform most of their calculations locally, only needing to exchange data with the server at the start and end of battles. However, the "Werewolf" mode of *The Pseudo-Holy Grail Feast* is completely different.

Nine players moving around, using skills, and triggering events in real time on a map, while also supporting real-time voice or text communication, puts an exponentially greater strain on the server.

Under normal circumstances, even though the Werewolf mode has higher server requirements, StarCraft can still handle it, since this is not an MMORPG, but a "room" type online game.

Just like Honor of Kings, the problem can be solved by opening more servers. Even if the daily active users are only a few million, it is not a big burden for Xingchen.

The current situation is that after several hours of accumulating water, players suddenly flooded in in large numbers.

This flood and water storage.

Although both involve traffic, the concepts are completely different.

More importantly, these people are all aiming for the same mode, so the only way to prevent the server from crashing is to start a queue for gameplay after players enter the game.

In other words, there is a limit to the number of players who can play at the same time. New players will only be allowed to enter the game after the previous player in the previous room finishes playing.

In this way, the server will not crash no matter how many people are online.

The only problem is that the matchmaking time for all players will be significantly longer, since they have to wait for the server ahead of them to have available slots before they can play. That's basically the system.

"Let the technical team implement the queuing solution first. If the server really can't keep up, then activate the queuing mode for the game to smooth out the peak period."

"understand!"

"Also, prepare a compensation announcement and a set of event skins. If we really can't make it through tonight and the queuing system opens, then release this compensation announcement."

Hearing Chu Chen say that...

Almost everyone in the room looked at him.

Although Chu Chen is usually generous, isn't this a bit too generous...?
"Brother Chen, this isn't a server crash, it's just setting up a queuing system. Directly compensating with skins? This... isn't that a bit too much..."

Li Suhao didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear.

Chu Chen didn't say anything, but instead patted Li Suhao on the shoulder.

"Su Hao, why do you think our compensation announcement this morning actually boosted our popularity?"

"Because the compensation was given quickly and generously? And everyone knows it was due to the game's immense popularity, so there's a sense of 'sharing'?"

"That's one aspect."

Chu Chen held up two fingers.

"More importantly, there are two points."

"First, is trust."

"Our long-standing reputation has made players believe that we will definitely solve any problems and provide compensation."

"Secondly, is expectation."

"Their expectation of compensation from us is that 'Starry Sky will definitely give us a ten-pull generously'."

"This trust and expectation is something we have built up through countless sincere operations over the past year, and it is our most valuable intangible asset."

"And now, we're reaping the benefits because of the players' trust and our positive reputation."

"Why not press the advantage and 'exceed' their expectations again?"

"Don't use this ranking adjustment as an excuse. Even without this, I was planning to make a skin to commemorate today's miracle. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)