Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 452 Motion Twin
In 2017.

Touhou Gensokyo is still quite popular.

Especially in Japan, two data points offer a glimpse into the current popularity of people from the East.

One example is that, as of 2017, videos tagged with "Touhou Gensokyo" on the Japanese video-sharing website Nico Nico Douga had accumulated over four billion views.

Secondly, on the fan art website Pixiv, the total number of submissions related to Touhou Project has exceeded two million, and these two million images have reached an unbelievable number of views on Pixiv: eight billion.

It can be said that at this point in time, in the East, both domestically and in Japan...

They are all major traffic drivers.

2ch, Japan's largest anonymous forum, was even forced to restrict or even ban related topics at one point because "there were just too many people discussing Touhou."

This is the East.

An active volcano that has been accumulating energy for over a decade and could erupt at any moment.

A volcano that never erupted in its previous life, but in this timeline, Starry Games carried a nuclear bomb and threw it directly into the crater of this volcano.

It ignited more than just the anticipation of all players for an Eastern mobile game.

So when those two logos appeared side by side, the entire anime and manga community felt like it was Chinese New Year.

~~~
Bordeaux, France.

Compared to the steel jungle of Tokyo, Boer is much quieter and less noisy.

A light rain in the early morning added to the tranquility of the place.

Working in this kind of weather should put you in a great mood, but the Motion Twin studio was a bit noisy at the moment.

As the development team of Dead Cells, they had entered the final stage of research and development at this point. Under normal circumstances, they should have focused their energy on game development.

However, early this morning, Sebastian Bernard, the founder of MT Studios and the current producer of Dead Cells, called everyone into the conference room.

Because of the projector, the meeting room was dark, with only the hum of the projector fan and the soft sound of raindrops hitting the glass outside the window.

The members of Motion Twin sat around the conference table, each with a different expression, holding a cup of coffee, and dozing off.

Sebastian Bernard didn't explain much; he simply stood silently in front of him and pressed the Enter key on his laptop.

The projection screen lit up, with no logo or opening animation; the screen immediately cut to actual gameplay footage.

This is the most viewed gameplay video of "Touhou Fantasy Chronicles" on YouTube. The video appears to have been edited from a live stream by a Chinese blogger.

"To be honest, I still don't quite understand what excites Asian players."

The person speaking at this moment is Adam, the studio's art director.

"It feels a bit of a waste to use such visuals and such technical capabilities for this kind of subject matter."

The "type of content" he was referring to was, of course, the beautiful girls in the videos on screen.

“Cultural differences, Adam.” A colleague sitting across from him shrugged. “The status of this IP in Japan is roughly equivalent to the status of Dungeons & Dragons or Star Wars in our country.”

"Oh? Is it that famous?"

These are not the main points.

Seeing that the discussion in the meeting room was starting to veer off course again, Benna tapped the table to bring the topic back on track. He pressed the pause button, freezing the screen on a game scene—the scene of Marisa Kirisame's appearance.

The background is a blurred forest, while the foreground is Marisa in a 2D pixel style. The light source is delicate sunlight, which shines on the character's clothes, hat brim, and different pixels, creating obvious differences in light and shadow.

"See that? That's the key point! This isn't just a simple pixel game."

"They used 2D pixel characters in a 3D environment, but also used dynamic lighting, particle effects, and depth of field from a modern engine."

Benna’s voice suddenly became high-pitched.

The meeting room was filled with the core members of Dead Cells, even though Dead Cells had not yet been released at that time.

However, as game developers who also use pixel art and side-scrolling gameplay, they are clearly more interested in the technology that StarCraft showcases.

It's understandable why Bennett was so excited.

"What do they call this technology?"

"HD-2D"

Benner answered almost instantly.

After answering, I casually opened a browser page, which displayed the homepages of several mainstream European and American gaming media outlets.

As a global gaming event, the Tokyo Game Show naturally receives media coverage in France, but unlike the media in Japan and China.

Western media didn't care about Satomi Ishihara; Yui Aragaki became the spokesperson for Starry Night, and it wasn't even the game "Touhou Fantasy Tournament" that mattered.

Rather, it's the game's first reveal of its fully-fledged HD-2D technology, and the art style it showcases that is completely different from current game art styles.

Although many games like Final Fantasy, Fate/stay night, Fate/Grand Order, and Final Fantasy before Touhou Project: Fantasy Westward Journey used some 2D-HD technology.

However, most of these games are top-down games, so although lighting effects are used, the art style and technical impact are far from reaching the impact of Octopath Traveler's release in the previous game.

Only Touhou Fantasy Chronicles is truly top-notch, from the choice of side-scrolling perspective, to the depth-of-field blurring of foreground, middle ground, and background, to the dynamic lighting and volumetric fog specifically designed for pixel characters.
All these technologies were organically integrated by Xingchen to form a complete and entirely new visual system.

It eventually became 2D-HD technology.

In its previous life, Octopath Traveler received very high praise from game media in Europe and America when it was released in 18.

In an interview, Square Enix said that they never expected the game to sell so well in Europe and America.

It can be said that after the emergence of HD-2D technology in its previous life, it was not only very popular in Japan, but also had a good influence worldwide.

Not to mention that the technology of Touhou Fantasy Chronicles itself is an upgrade of Octopath Traveler by StarCraft, and the demo was played on the PC platform.

Without the constraints of the Switch, the effects presented may be even more impactful than the original HD-2D.

Before Touhou Fantasy Tournament was released, Motion Twin Studios had already studied many of Astral's games, such as End of Survival Guide.

Their game, Dead Cells, was actually influenced by StarCraft Games.

If Chu Chen were to stand in front of them now and try out the Dead Cells demo, he would clearly feel that the use of light and shadow in this timeline of Dead Cells is more mature than in the previous life.

Therefore, before the appearance of "Eastern Travelogue", including Benna.

Actually, I'm quite confident in myself. When I'm in contact with investors, I mention that their ability to handle pixel art is no worse than that of Starry Sky, and I often use the success of "The Last Survival Guide" as an endorsement.

(End of this chapter)