Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 489 Login
The screen quickly went dark, and then a rotating logo made of blue crystals appeared in the center of the screen: Westwood. However, next to this logo was a more modern-looking one: Star Games.

Immediately following was the opening music etched into his DNA, its rousing, industrial-metal melody instantly filling the entire study. Frank felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

He didn't skip the opening animation, but watched the entire live-action transition scene.

Albert Einstein travels back in time, shakes hands with a young Hitler, and erases him from the timeline, but inadvertently creates an even more powerful enemy.

Everything was exactly the same as I remembered.

However, this Frank is exactly the same as the one in his memory, which has sparked a very strange topic in China: the Red Alert 2 games that China played back then were all pirated and did not have any cutscenes.

Therefore, many players who obtained the official version through this Starfall event were completely bewildered after entering the game.

Then, players on Weibo started explaining that those pirated discs that cost five yuan each back then had all the cutscenes removed in order to reduce the file size!
That's why the Red Alert 2 games we played as kids didn't have cutscenes, but StarCraft is bringing in the official version this time, so naturally it has all of them.

"Pirates! You've done so many bad things! Give me back my childhood!"

"Case solved! I always thought Red Alert was just a battle game without a storyline. I've been playing skirmishes for twenty years, and only today did I realize that I've been paying the price for Einstein's mistakes all along!"

This kind of thing is inherently "dramatic," and when combined with the activities of Xingchen, feelings of resentment, nostalgia, novelty, and humor are mixed together, forming a terrifying torrent of traffic.

#We've been playing fake Red Alert 2 for twenty years#
This topic, without any prompting from anyone, forcefully and overwhelmingly topped the Weibo trending list.

Of course, these things were completely irrelevant to Frank, and he couldn't understand why this issue had generated such a heated discussion in China.

just now.

He just wanted to play one game.

The game's main menu appears, with a dynamic Earth in the background, and the Soviet Union's red hammer and sickle symbol spreading towards Europe.

"Single-player game", "Multiplayer game", "Options"... The familiar menu items brought a knowing smile to his face.

He subconsciously moved the mouse over "Multiplayer" to look at the LAN multiplayer interface he remembered.

But when he clicked on it, he was taken aback, because under the multiplayer game sub-option, there was actually a "Quick Match" option.

Quick match?
What is this "quick match"?
With a hint of curiosity, he clicked on it.

A simple window pops up on the screen, allowing you to choose a faction (Allies, Soviet Union, Yuri), and whether you want to play 1v1, 2v2, or even invite friends to team up.

Frank chose 1v1, with the team composition randomized.

"We are looking for a close match for you..."

A line of small text appeared on the screen, along with an estimated time: 35 seconds.

"There really was a match!!!"

To be honest, Frank almost jumped up when he saw the match notification.

After a successful match, he was automatically pulled into a game room.

The room interface is the same as before, but the player list is different.

A small German flag hangs behind his name, while opposite him, behind the name of a player named "Pierre" is a blue, white, and red tricolor flag.

French?
Besides the name, there is a parenthesis that says "(Bronze)," which looks like a rank or skill level.

"WTF!! How did they do that?!"

Even though the game had already started, Frank still couldn't quite understand how Star had managed to do all that. Actually, this so-called matchmaking mode wasn't complicated at all.

Many domestic gaming platforms have mastered this method, and some platforms have even added matchmaking cheats in later generations. Starry Sky simply adds an official server matchmaking mode to the online gaming platform.

This mode is also very simple.

After a player clicks "match," the system will automatically create a room and then add players of the corresponding skill level to the room.

Finally, after completing the game, upload the recording to document the player's data.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, this technology is not magic. The reason why no battle platform does this is simply because doing so would require setting up servers for data exchange.

For these older games, setting up servers is still too "wasteful".

However, for Xingchen, the cost of this server is negligible compared to its brand strategy.

Frank hadn't yet figured out how the game's matchmaking worked, but once he entered the game, he was immediately amazed by its graphics.

While StarCraft didn't remaster Red Alert 2, it did perform resolution matching. For older 2D games like this, once the resolution is increased and the camera zooms out, the visuals may look somewhat "outdated."

But it's definitely not bad.

(Image of Red Alert after resolution adaptation)
He skillfully set up power plants, barracks, and mines. Even though he hadn't played for over a decade, he could still follow these starting procedures with ease. Unfortunately, though...

The player on the other side was clearly a veteran player as well.

The two traded blows, but in the end Frank, having not played for too long, narrowly lost to the Frenchman.
The game ended, and Frank leaned back in his chair, staring at the defeat screen without moving.

To be honest, although losing was a bit frustrating, it was more of a long-lost feeling of being moved. Almost the instant he returned to the main screen, Frank sat up straight and grabbed his phone from the table.

The phone was answered after only one ring.

“David.”

"Ok?"

"Call on."

~~~
Many older games actually have their own charm.

It's not just Red Alert 2, but also games like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which many Chinese players could only play offline back then, actually have a lot of PVP fun.

As the saying goes, "There is endless joy in fighting with others."

Although the game is old, the core fun of PVP remains unchanged.

Moreover, due to this Starry Night event, a large number of new players have flooded in. Since everyone is a newbie, the experience is actually quite fun.

In addition to adding matchmaking modes to older games.

Chu Chen also did something else: he joined the "international competition".

For games like Red Alert 2 that are more sensitive to latency, servers were created in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.

For games like Heroes of Might and Magic III, where matchmaking delays don't affect gameplay, global matchmaking is the preferred option, offering a unique and refreshing experience.

Especially for Chinese players, this system of matching players from all over the world for PVP is already quite attractive.

(End of this chapter)