Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 518 The stubborn spirit
18, April 2.

Nerima-ku, Tokyo.

Kenta Yamada's apartment wasn't spacious, but he had decorated it very cozyly. Posters of "Final Battlefront" were on the walls, and the shelves were filled with all sorts of figurines, more than half of which were characters from "Final Battlefront".

As a moderately well-known YouTuber.

His live stream was both ordinary and extraordinary.

Other streamers are either good-looking or good at creating entertaining content, but he became popular because he is known for his almost ascetic "focus".

His "battle that made him famous" was a few years ago in a Japanese MMORPG, where he streamed for 31 consecutive hours in order to obtain a rare material. During that time, he hardly left his seat except to go to the toilet and eat rice balls.

The purpose is to run a dungeon and then verify how many times it takes to get the item.

Therefore, although his live stream audience was small, the edited version of the live stream had a very good number of views.

After all, this kind of "stubborn spirit" can indeed attract some players, who want to see how long it takes for him to get the best materials. Later, with the popularization of gacha games...

This "stubborn spirit" combined with gacha pulls makes it even more interesting.

Moreover, even after gaining fame, Kenta Yamada has remained true to his original aspirations.

Don't be fooled by the posters of characters from *Terminator 2* all over his house; his favorite game isn't *Terminator 2*, but *Terminator Origins*.

Yes, it's the spin-off of last year's "Final Battlefront".

For a small-scale spin-off game like this, a year is already a long time. Most of the players still playing now are new players.

I went there to catch up on the plot.

But Kenta Yamada is different. What he's most obsessed with in "Final Front: Origins" is the drop rate of the levels. He's obsessed with an Easter egg item in "Final Front: Origins" with an extremely low drop rate.

He has persisted in logging in and refreshing the page every day for a year now.

This kind of stubbornness is so bad that even the audience finds it hard to stand him.

[Is Yama-P going to start today by tracing the source again?]

[We've already reviewed enough games, please choose another one!]

[Are you a new viewer? The word 'give up' doesn't exist in Yama-P's dictionary.]

[The legendary 'Brush Master'!]

"Um, today we're not playing 'Final Destination'. Today we're going to play a new demo game, but I think everyone has already seen the video, right?"

"Yes! Today we're going to play the demo of Starry Night Games' latest spin-off single-player game!!"

"Final Front: Squad"

There are generally three types of promotional events for Starry Sky Games. The first is the initial announcement, and after the initial announcement, a full open beta test will usually be launched on the same day or within a short period of time.

Next, the game will enter the gray-scale testing phase.

The so-called gray-scale testing is actually the feedback from the Starry Sky Games platform regarding the game and the development team.

This kind of feedback is actually very necessary.

Not everyone is like Chu Chen, able to "foresee" the future. Even if Chu Chen could foresee the future, he would still need to verify whether the current market and the game are a good match.

Public testing can yield a lot of feedback, while gray-scale testing allows for continuous feedback from players.

After the initial reveal and gray-scale testing, the next step is to set a release date.

This period is roughly one to two years.

The prototype for "Final Squad" is actually the loot-based game version of last year's "Final Source". When that simple loot-based gameplay was released, it was very successful.

The player community's evaluation is also very consistent. In addition to the heated discussion about the character A-017, the most frequent topic is the research on the equipment system.

Many people are even petitioning to have this system implemented in the base game of "Final Front".

After receiving enough positive feedback, the development progress of "Final Squad" naturally picked up, especially for players like Kenta Yamada who were previously addicted to "Final Source".

The appearance of "Final Fantasy: Squad" was such a huge surprise that Kenta Yamada almost jumped when the trailer came out yesterday.

Although only one PV was released this time, and only a very short 24-hour demo was available.

But that didn't stop him from tossing and turning all night, unable to sleep, just thinking about this game.

It's no exaggeration to say that Kenta Yamada's hand was shaking when he put the mouse on "Start Game".

In some ways, this is actually the most exciting time for players, perhaps even more so than when they first enter the game.

[Press it quickly! Yama-P! I'm so anxious!]

[It's already on fire!]

What are you burning, you jerk!

Kenta Yamada took a deep breath, and without further hesitation, pressed the left mouse button.

Click to enter the game.

The familiar logo, the familiar health game reminders—this multilingual health game reminder, created by Xingchen to save time, has become, to some extent, Xingchen's trademark.

Accompanied by a metallic sound effect, the screen went dark, and then...

The logo for "Final Front: Squad" appears.

The background music is the familiar theme from "Final Front," but it has been rearranged to be more stirring and epic in its sense.

Like Final Front: Origins, the game also features an animated cutscene at the beginning.

If the opening animation of "Final Destination," that chase through the jungle, showcased the beautiful legs and agility of the humanoid squad, then the opening of "Final Destination Squad"...

It showcases another kind of beauty in human form; after all the game logos flash by, the screen suddenly goes black.

The moment Kenta Yamada entered the game, he instinctively straightened his back.

The chat in the live stream slowed down. Since Yamada had been watching the game since last night, he was among the first players to enter the demo.

Most of the people watching his live stream now are watching it for the first time.

Unlike the futuristic and cold-lined loading screen of "Final Front: Origins", the loading screen of "Final Front: Squad" is a slowly falling snowflake.

The crystal shape of each snowflake is clearly visible. They fall slowly and silently, eventually melting into a pure white expanse.

The opening animation features no rousing music or dazzling special effects, only a faint sound of wind, seemingly coming from afar, and the occasional soft crackling of firewood burning in the fireplace.

[This... the art style is completely different!]

It's so quiet... I like this feeling.

A healing game? Really?

Just as the comments section was filled with discussion, the scene faded in.

(End of this chapter)