Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 486 Coming at You
The growth of China's single-player game market is so huge that it's enough for the three giants to make a fortune.

However, the standoff between the three parties did not end without injuries.

Just like the food delivery wars of yesteryear, in the end, it was actually the small convenience stores selling instant noodles downstairs and those fast food businesses that starved to death.

This time, it was a large number of poorly made, low-quality pay-to-win games in China that were kicked over.

It can be said that since the emergence of Starry Night Games in 16, domestic game developers in the middle stage have begun to feel the "market changes". For the worst pay-to-win games, this feeling is not obvious.

Because their users generally don't have access to such "high-end" games.

Moreover, their market share is not high.

For mid-tier game developers, the past two years have been incredibly tough. This platform war has made this struggle even more pronounced, to the point that it's reflected in their daily active user data.
~~~
"Mr. Wang, our revenue has dropped by another 10% in the last two days."

In the conference room of a company that mainly produces reskinned Xianxia mobile games, the operations director wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling.

The fat man, known as Boss Wang, slammed his hand on the table, causing the goji berries in his teacup to shake violently.

"Another drop? Didn't our New Year event go live? Permanent wings for 888, limited mounts for 1888, nobody's buying?!"

The operations director's face was even more unpleasant than a bitter gourd.

"Mr. Wang, it's not that no one is buying; it's that many of our paying users haven't even logged in this month."

"StarTap has a huge influence, and these past few days they've also put on some kind of single-player game festival."

"When our customer service representative called, they said they were playing something like 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' or 'The Witcher 3'."

"Damn it! A crappy single-player game, costing only a few dozen yuan, can it really reflect their status? Can it be even one ten-thousandth as cool as our wings? Do these guys get their money from thin air and waste it like this?"

In the conference room, the executives looked at each other, none of them daring to speak.

They all know in their hearts that it's not that the players have gone crazy, it's that times have changed.

Many domestic players aren't stupid, even the wealthy ones; they're just lazy—too lazy to look for games, too lazy to install foreign platforms, too lazy to try them out.

But when everyone else is playing games, when Tencent and Xingchen bring food to their table, they can still tell the difference between good and bad.

This is why, as time went on, in the previous life, 20 years later, countless manufacturers who had made a fortune by exploiting information asymmetry and channel monopolies suddenly found that their money-printing machines had stopped working.

The appearance of the stars merely pushed the timeline forward slightly.

Players voted with their feet in advance, flocking to that wider world. However, for the truly leading manufacturers, these things haven't had a significant impact yet.

~~~
Time flies and two days have passed.

Just when everyone thought this "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" would end in a delicate balance and tacit understanding, Xingchen made his move.

Berlin, Germany.

Frank was sitting in his somewhat cluttered study, adjusting the parameters of an old flight stick.

As an "old boy" who will turn forty in a few months, gaming has long since become a part of his life, beyond mere entertainment.

Like many veteran gamers in Europe and America, Frank witnessed the collapse of Atari, experienced the console war between Nintendo and Sega, and was a participant in the golden age of PC gaming.

However, as he gets older, there are fewer and fewer new games that can pique his interest.

The cool lighting effects and complex systems always made him feel like something was missing. Instead, tinkering with game components became his new source of enjoyment. For example, the joystick for flight simulators, the steering wheel for racing cars, and the computer he assembled himself.

Although often, after tinkering with a lot of things, he would only play the game for a few minutes before getting bored, the process of assembling and DIYing still fascinated Frank.

His garage even has a small dedicated hardware storage room.

At that moment, he was looking for a part in the warehouse, but unfortunately, he couldn't find it after searching for a long time. Considering that his wife would be returning from her parents' home with the children soon, he hesitated.
Frank decided not to waste his blissful "single" time searching for parts, so he decided to give up on assembling the new joystick and play his PS4 in the living room for a while instead.
Just as Frank turned on his PS4, and the Sony logo was about to appear on the screen but hadn't yet, his phone rang. A familiar name flashed on the screen: David.

"Hey, old buddy, what's up?"

Frank answered the phone while holding the handset.

"Frank! You won't believe what I'm seeing!"

David sounded very excited on the other end of the phone, so Frank teased him a couple of times.

Did you win the lottery? Or did your wife finally agree to let you buy a Switch?

For the average middle-aged person, chatting might involve talking about everyday family matters, but for Frank and David, their conversations are basically all about games.
"A hundred times better than that! No, a thousand times better!"

"Are you home? Quickly log on to your computer and check out the Starry Sky Games platform!!!"

"Starry Sky Games Platform?"

For gaming platforms, David uses GOG the most.

The GOG platform was originally founded by CD Projekt in 2008 and was initially named "Good Old Games," focusing on providing DRM-free older games.

As for the Starry Sky Games platform, he downloaded it as well.

The goal is to play PUBG with friends, yes, for true veteran players.

They were actually quite receptive to new games, but after playing for a while, he stopped playing as some of the older guys stopped.

So Frank still had some recollection of the Starry Sky gaming platform, that cat-themed game; his wife quite enjoyed watching him play it.
"What's going on? They've released a new game again?"

"It's not just a new game!" David took a deep breath, seemingly to calm himself down. "Frank, do you remember when we were in school, playing Heroes of Might and Magic III at my house?"

"Of course I remember, why are we suddenly talking about this?"

Middle-aged gamers often reminisce about the past when chatting. Usually, when the two talk about old games, it can last at least half an hour. However, this time, David showed no interest in discussing it further and just kept urging Frank to open the Starry Night Games platform.
After hanging up the phone, Frank turned on his computer with some skepticism.

Then he saw the platform's homepage, which was incredibly rich in content. It featured a deep starry sky background with the words "Hall of Stars" written in elegant font.

"Hall of Stars? What's that?"

Frank, filled with questions, was stunned the moment the page redirected.

This is a page that looks a bit like a game library, except that the games in this library seem to take you back to more than ten years ago.

Heroes of Might and Magic III, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Age of Empires, Uncharted, Rise of the Dragons, Homeworld

Familiar names, carrying the dust of time and the warmth of youth, come rushing towards us.

(End of this chapter)