Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 440 Touhou Gensokyo DEMO
As the player character steps out of the small house, the complete Hakurei Shrine comes into view.

This single scene was enough to make Chu Chen nod slightly.

Don't underestimate StarCraft Games; in the past six months, they've released games including "Final Survival Guide," the new version of "Fate/Grand Order," and "Final Battlefront: Origins."

They all used special effects based on 2D-HD.

However, these games are all top-down 2D-HD games. More often than not, these games are actually 2D games with 3D rendering added.

While the effects are beautiful, the art style is closer to that of a refined 2D game.

The engine plugin version developed independently by Akira Ishii is essentially a version of the engine that is closer to Octopath Traveler in terms of art, lighting, and perspective.

When all these things are integrated, the feeling is completely different.

Even within the current setting of the Hakurei Shrine, the stone path beneath the character's feet has a clear pixel texture, the cherry blossom branches nearby are distinct, and you can even see the falling petals.

The shrine's offering box had a broken corner and stood there all alone.

The main body of the shrine in the mid-range shot shows the lines of the eaves to be exceptionally clear under high-definition processing, yet the graininess of the pixels is still preserved.

In the distance, layers upon layers of mountains are shrouded in the pale golden morning light, their colors hazy and dreamlike.

As the character moves, the distant mountains move at an even slower pace. The sense of depth created by the multi-layered backgrounds and parallax scrolling makes you almost forget that this is a 2D scene.

"We've made a preliminary integration of the lighting system and the sleep system." Seeing that Chu Chen wasn't interacting with anything in the scene, Ishii Akira seized the opportunity to add some information.

"The time is in the top left corner; it's currently 7 AM in the game."

Chu Chen nodded without replying, and continued to control his character to walk around the shrine, but did not see anyone.

I walked all the way to the back corridor of the shrine before I spotted the red and white figure.

Reimu Hakurei, the mascot of Touhou Gensokyo, was leaning against a pillar, holding a cup of tea in her hand, her eyes glazed over, seemingly contemplating whether to have mushrooms or wild vegetables for dinner.

When the player sees Reimu Hakurei, the development team created a zoom-in effect, gradually shifting the camera's perspective from the player's point of view, zooming in, and finally fixing it on Reimu Hakurei.

Then the plot will be triggered, and the dialogue will begin.

"Have you also made it compatible here?"

"Yes."

Chu Chen asked this question because the simple camera movement just now was actually a very classic shot from the "StarCraft Game Engine".

This technology is not typically available in 2D games.

Normally, the "modeling" should be improved after the camera zooms in to avoid a sense of incongruity.

However, the art assets of many 2D games are only accurate to the resolution. If you zoom in to the size of the character portrait, they will become very blurry. In addition, many 2D games do not have "3D" spatial information.

Therefore, the usual way to handle this in 2D games is to click on the character, which will display the scene and pop up a new character portrait interface, and then you can start a dialogue.

However, in the StarCraft game engine, thanks to the addition of 3D technology, and the fact that adjusting the camera in 2D-HD is also one of Fuller's strengths.

This kind of camera work was frequently seen in the previous film, "The Last Survival Guide".

It seems that Akira Ishii has completely mastered the engine.

As the camera zooms in, Reimu Hakurei's high-precision pixel art style comes into view; the level of detail makes it difficult to discern any pixelation.

The entire character art is high-definition and exquisite, with vivid expressions. The body movements are composed of delicate pixel animations, and every subtle tremor and every blink is incredibly natural. Since it's a demo, there's no introduction; it starts with dialogue.

[Reimu Hakurei]: "Hmm? You're awake. I picked you up from the back mountain. Judging from your clothes, you're from outside, right?" Her tone was flat, as if she were just stating a trivial matter.

[Player]: "Where am I...?"

[Reimu Hakurei]: "Hakurei Shrine. I am the shrine maiden here, Reimu Hakurei. Well, since you're awake, please make yourself at home. But I must make it clear first, I don't keep idlers here, so you'll have to fend for yourself."

After saying that, she went back to sweeping the floor, completely lacking the enthusiasm of an NPC in a traditional RPG who would say, "I have a quest, come and accept it."

However, this dialogue style does have a similar feel to Reimu Hakurei.

Chu Chen didn't bother Reimu any further, but instead strolled around the shrine.

He saw the legendary money box that almost no one had ever put money in, and as he controlled his character to walk over, an interaction option popped up on the screen.

【investigation】

[Donating incense money]

【Repair】(Grayed, not selectable)
Chu Chen selected the "Investigation" option with great interest.

A line of text appeared: [A worn-out money box, cracked all over, with even a fist-sized hole in the corner. A gust of wind blew through, making a whistling sound inside; it seemed cleaner than your pockets.]

Chu Chen couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This copywriting is good, especially after reading the copywriting written by "Little Fairy" this morning, this feeling is even more obvious.

Of course, for games with original IPs, the pressure on copywriters is actually less.

He tried selecting "Donate Incense Money", but the system prompted "You have no money".

Just then, Reimu, who was sweeping, seemed to notice his movements and floated over without turning her head, saying, "Don't look, there's not a single penny in there. If you really care, why don't you help me sweep up the fallen leaves in the yard, or... help me fix that broken box?"

【Ding! 】

You have triggered the quest: The Daily Life of the Shrine.

【Task options:】

[1. Help clean the courtyard (Reward: Slight increase in Reimu's affection, a simple meal)]

[2. Promise to repair the money box (Requires: 10 wood, 5 nails. Reward: Slightly increases Reimu's affection level, and unlocks some functions of the Hakurei Shrine)]

"So, your idea is to use the Hakurei Shrine as a showcase for the early stages of the construction process?"

As the producer of the "Touhou Gensokyo" project, Chu Chen was playing the demo for the first time, but his understanding of the game was definitely different from that of ordinary players.

Upon seeing the promise of repair, he roughly understood Ishii Akira's line of thinking.

When Chu Chen was thinking about the Touhou Gensokyo IP, the first thing he considered was how to make the game fun for players and what its core was.
Chu Chen thought about it for a long time and finally defined it as a "casual game".

The reason why the Touhou Project IP became popular is not because of its plot, since the original work is a bullet hell game and doesn't have a lot of plot.

The most exquisite part of the entire Touhou Gensokyo is the series of characters created by ZUN. These characters, after being extensively fan-created and redesigned by players, ultimately present a sense of vividness and dynamism.

(End of this chapter)