Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 501 A Night of Stars
As countless people eagerly awaited the arrival of December 31st, the day finally came.

With only a few hours left before the official start of "Night of the Stars," the constantly fluctuating numbers on the official website homepage finally stopped.

Total global bookings: 1.7 million.

This number, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, has stirred up a huge wave on the internet.

At the same time, Magic City.

The Bilibili headquarters building, where the operations department usually becomes more relaxed after mealtimes, is now filled with a somber atmosphere.

The air seemed to freeze, with only the clatter of keyboards and the low hum of server rack fans echoing through the room.

For this Starry Night global live stream, there were only four official online partnerships: Bilibili and TiTok in China, and Twitch and YouTube overseas.

For offline television, they have partnered with two television stations: Suzhou and Hangzhou TV, and Tokyo TV.

Among them, Suzhou and Hangzhou TV stations were the most generous, moving their own New Year's Eve gala to the first half and leaving the second half of the New Year's Eve celebration to Xingchen.

TV Tokyo, on the other hand, was a bit less interesting. Instead of using its own main channel, it chose to broadcast on the AT-X pay channel.

However, it's understandable. After all, New Year's Eve in Japan is just like Chinese New Year in China. You can't expect a TV station to skip the Spring Festival Gala and broadcast this nonsense "Night of Stars".
Aside from the two television stations, this Starry Night was just a regular live stream with huge viewership for Twitch and YouTube.

But for Bilibili, this is the first time it has truly extended its reach overseas.

This time, niconico refused to cooperate with Xingchen because the number of users was too large, which would increase niconico's server costs and cause problems with normal access to niconico.

To be honest, when I was rejected...

Ma Yuanyao, who was in charge of the event, and Li Yifeng, who was in charge of platform operations, were both stunned.

Chu Chen, however, remained calm.

This is typical of Japanese internet companies. Even in 17, Nico Nico Douga was still reluctant to launch a free 720p website. Refusal is actually the norm.

After Niconico rejected him, Chu Chen went directly to Bilibili. Since Xingchen had experience distributing Titoko in Japan, he simply brought Bilibili to Japan as well.

At that time, there were basically no videos on Bilibili in Japan.

However, after Bilibili became the official live streaming platform for "Starry Night" in Japan, its user base surged to over ten million overnight, and the app immediately topped the Apple download charts.

Therefore, today's live stream could very well be a starting point for Bilibili in Japan.

It's no exaggeration to say that if Bilibili can just hold on for one more day, its valuation will increase by at least several hundred million US dollars the next day!

If you were Chen Rui, wouldn't you be nervous right now?
~~~
Bilibili is under pressure, Starry Sky headquarters.

The atmosphere was even more tense in the temporary command center specially set up for "Night of the Stars".

In the Yufeng Industrial Park, in the industrial conference hall, a huge electronic screen is divided into dozens of small sections.

The system displays real-time server load, bandwidth usage, and number of online users across various platforms such as Bilibili, Twitch, and YouTube. A bright red countdown timer is displayed in the center of the main screen.

A huge group of Xingchen employees were sitting around in front of us. You know what? If you didn't know Xingchen was having an event, you'd think it was a space launch site!
In fact, we should start from a technical perspective.

At this moment, there is absolutely no need for so many people to work overtime.

As mentioned before, this time Xingchen adopted a "pseudo-live broadcast". As early as yesterday, Xingchen's special envoys had already arrived at several companies that were going to broadcast the program.

The reason why Xingchen sent people out instead of sending a video directly is that Xingchen sent people out.

The concern was that someone might leak information in advance due to the massive traffic, which would be absolutely unacceptable to Xingchen. Therefore, the best way was to carry it by hand.

Not only can tests be scheduled in advance, but data leakage can also be guaranteed.
Although it will incur higher labor costs and other miscellaneous expenses such as airfare, this small amount of money is negligible compared to the safety of the event.

all in all.

In fact, at this crucial juncture, those sitting on the scene have already done everything they needed to do.

So rather than asking what these people are doing by working overtime, it's more accurate to say that they enjoy the sense of ritual and have a mechanism to quickly handle any unexpected situations.

"Attention all units, the countdown has ended in five minutes."

Ma Yuanyao's voice came from the scene. Li Yifeng stood beside her, his hands in his pockets, seemingly relaxed, but his constant pacing betrayed his inner tension.

"Mr. Chen, you really have a long way to go."

Li Yifeng glanced at Chu Chen, who was calm and composed in the corner, and couldn't help but speak.

Chu Chen was leaning back in his chair, holding a bottle of soda water, chatting casually with Song Yueying next to him.

Although Song Yueying was a little uncomfortable in such a public setting, Chu Chen seemed quite natural and showed no signs of nervousness.

He has the demeanor of a great general.

"There's no use in rushing. The arrow is already on the bowstring. Whether it's a dragon or a worm, we'll see tonight."

Li Yifeng smiled wryly, thinking to himself that he probably would never be able to achieve Chu Chen's composure in the face of major events.

But, yes.

Everything that needed to be done has been done; the rest can only be left to the market and the 1.7 million eagerly awaiting viewers.

~~~
At the same time, all over the world.

In Tokyo, Kenta Sato's apartment was packed with people, all of whom were members of his FGO fan club.

Several people were gathered around a huge TV, which displayed the live stream page for Bilibili's Japanese channel. Below the screen were instant noodles, potato chips, and dozens of bottles of oolong tea. In California, USA, tens of thousands of viewers were watching a top game streamer idly refresh the webpage of Starry Night.

A male dormitory at a university in China.

"Hurry, hurry, it's already ten o'clock. Third brother, is your crappy computer even working?"

"Get lost! I'm an alien! No one can possibly block me!"

"It's started, it's started!"

With a loud shout, the entire dormitory fell silent instantly, and four pairs of eyes stared intently at the screen of the laptop in the center of the dormitory.

Finally, as the countdown to the starry night reached zero, countless screens around the world—whether mobile phones, computers, or televisions—simultaneously plunged into darkness for a moment.

The next second, the darkness was pierced by a dazzling galaxy.

The number representing the number of online users in the Star Command Center jumped from zero to a terrifying number the very first second the screen lit up.

"It's broken 10 million!"

As the number of millions of views surpassed 10 million, a small star appeared on the screen.

It blinked, curiously observing the world around it.

At first, the world was black and white, with two vertical lines and a point of light. An 8-bit electronic sound effect rang out, accompanied by the crackling sound of electricity.

The point of light is that little star, bouncing back and forth between the two vertical lines, making a crisp, monotonous sound with each collision.

This is clearly a tribute to the world's first video game, Pong.

Then, the black and white faded, and the world was filled with a deep blue labyrinth.

The little star transformed into a chipped yellow sphere, making chewing sounds as it sped through the maze, followed by several colorful pixelated ghosts.

Pac-Man!

Kenta Sato exclaimed in surprise, and then the screen flashed again.

Against a bright sky-blue background, the little star transforms into a plumber wearing a red hat, leaping with all his might to headbutt a brick with a question mark on it.

"Ding!"

A crisp, melodious sound of gold coins rang out, and the little star popped out of the brick, shimmering with dazzling light.

"Huh??? Nintendo is also making an appearance??"

Before he could react, the scene had already switched to a pitch-black universe.

The little star transformed into a rudimentary pixelated spaceship, facing alone the approaching, neatly lined-up alien invaders from above.

“biu, biu, biu…”

The intense electronic shooting sound effects instantly transported all veteran players back to the golden age of arcades.

"These are... space invaders?"

Many Chinese players hesitated, as these games were a bit too old for them, while many Western players were already quite excited.

The speed at which the images flow is getting faster and faster.

In the blink of an eye, the perspective shifts to an overhead view, and the little star becomes a crucial key, held high by a little man in a green hat. Accompanied by the classic sound effect of solving a puzzle, the door to a new world slowly opens.

In the blink of an eye, the scene shifts to a 16-bit street scene, with the little star transforming into a fiery wave that is thrust out from the hand of a red-clad fighter.

"Hadouken!"

Although there was no voice acting, the shape of this light wave was enough to make countless players around the world shout out this word in their hearts.

From 2D to 2.5D, the perspective changes to a 45-degree angle.

In the dark dungeon, a barbarian roared as he slew a demon. The small star transformed into a piece of dark gold equipment, which fell to the ground, radiating an alluring light.

Then, the camera suddenly zooms out, revealing interstellar warships that blot out the sky, and countless marines and Zerg units fighting on the ground. Little Star is just an inconspicuous bullet among them, yet it traces a decisive trajectory on the battlefield.

Switching to first-person view, the little star is a red dot in the center of the sniper scope, steadily positioned above the head of a distant enemy.

"boom!"

The screen shattered, and when the view cleared again, the world had completely transformed into 3D. In the end, countless game icons turned into stars, forming a starry sky.

The entire process, from the first frame to the last frame, took less than thirty seconds, if you timed it with a stopwatch.

Thirty seconds, a condensed history of forty years of game evolution.

However, what's most shocking isn't actually the 30-second opening video, but rather the "Acknowledgements" at the end.

From Nintendo to Sony, from Capcom to CD Projekt Red.

When the logos of almost every well-known game company in the world appear in the same image, even if you know that this chart doesn't actually represent anything.

But looking at the constantly appearing logos, I still feel a strange sense of awe.

(End of this chapter)