Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 556 The early bird catches the worm
Meanwhile, at Yangcheng Flashwing Studio.

Outside the window, the streets are deserted during the Spring Festival holiday. The sparse traffic and the occasional firecrackers remind the people here what day it is.

Xu Menglu was also watching videos related to "The Final Forbidden Zone" at that moment.

Despite being the owner of Flashwing Studio and the producer of "Steel Rider Girls," his hobbies are often the same as those of most domestic gamers.

It's nothing, I just like to check the reactions of overseas players and media to StarCraft games.

In fact, this type of video has become a traffic magnet in the past two years, and the content is all pretty much the same, but Xu Menglu still can't help but click in to watch every time she comes across it.

For example, right now in the video, a blond, blue-eyed white streamer is seriously playing "Final Zone".

Then, the various skills in the game will be reviewed.

In the office, besides Xu Menglu, there were a dozen or so young people either typing code or adjusting models. The air was filled with a peculiar aroma that was a mixture of Master Kong braised beef noodles and Uni-President pickled cabbage noodles.

There was nothing we could do; it was Chinese New Year, and the uncle downstairs who sold pork trotter rice for fifteen yuan a serving had already gone back to his hometown.

McDonald's and KFC are open, but the company's money has to be spent carefully, and every penny must be used wisely.

"Brother Xu, stop looking at it, the plan has been approved!"

A programmer with messy hair and black-rimmed glasses spoke up quietly.

At this moment, Xu Menglu's screen had switched to a forum post with a particularly eye-catching title: "[Data] The Final Forbidden Zone's public beta reached 500 million concurrent users worldwide in 72 hours, topping the free charts in 27 countries!"

Hearing this, Xu Menglu nodded.

I closed the webpage, picked up the half-cup of instant coffee that had gone cold from the table, and took a sip.

The bitter liquid slid down his throat, making him a little more awake.

The current ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) game market can be described as a bloodbath. Last year, the homepage of Bilibili's game section was filled with promotional PVs for various ACG games with the code name "XX".

Mechs, post-apocalyptic worlds, alternate worlds, cyberpunk... the themes are diverse, and the gameplay is also varied, but there are some commonalities.

For example, there are exquisite character illustrations, catchy Japanese theme songs, and a cool animation sequence that's a must-have.
Everyone was eager to get a piece of the pie while the opportunity was in the air.

Everyone is gambling, betting that their "codename" will become the next big hit.

In this atmosphere, speed is everything.

This urgency is not blind; games are like movies, players will never have enough new games.

Conversely, due to Starry Sky's rapid expansion, the number of ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) users has increased significantly both domestically and globally, and correspondingly...

There aren't actually that many game products.

Aside from 16-year-old "old relics" like "Final Battlefront," "FGO," "Honkai Impact 3," and "Onmyoji," as well as female-oriented games like "Love and Producer" and "Miracle Nikki,"...

Although 17 also saw the release of works such as NetEase's "Eternal City of 7 Days," Wan Mei's "Dream Collection," Shanda's "Kamitsuki," and Tencent's "Gun Girl" and "Night Spirit,"...
However, only one game can truly be called a huge hit: Azur Lane. For the anime and manga market, games that become popular instantly and then decline quickly cannot actually satisfy the needs of players.

In other words, at the beginning of 18, the market was still experiencing a supply shortage.

Therefore, for all domestic ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) game teams, creating a presentable demo a day earlier means securing funding from investors a day earlier; launching a game a day earlier means capturing users a day earlier. Just last month, a little-known team's game, "Star Ring Route," demonstrated what it means to be the early bird that catches the worm.

This game is also a member of the Starry Sky Games Alliance.

Its game framework is a two-dimensional card game based on the theme of space opera.

Last October, they garnered nearly three million views with just a one-and-a-half-minute PV, and this January, the paid beta version of the game was launched.

By February, which is in the last couple of days.

The official website of the game "Starship Troopers" issued an announcement to celebrate that the game's revenue reached 50 million in the first month.

Although this news didn't go viral because Xingchen made several big moves around the Spring Festival, it didn't break into the mainstream.

However, it is quite surprising within the industry, since Starship Troopers is not like Azur Lane. Before its launch, Starship Troopers did not have much of a Starship lineage and had a very low "Dawn" content.

However, it is precisely because of this that the success of this game has given many people a renewed sense of excitement.

The most ridiculous thing is that the lead planner of "Star Ring Route" was a programmer who had absolutely no planning experience before.

According to him, "Star Ring Route" was completely based on the Starry Sky Games Developer Forum.

It was created based on the "Starry Sky Game Development Guide," which was dictated by Chu Chen and compiled by a large group of people.
At first, no one believed this claim, since the so-called "Starry Sky Game Development Guide" was basically a public database.

Although the framework is in place, the content looks quite presentable.

However, precisely because it looked so professional, nobody took it seriously.

In the business world, who would reveal their true skills and expertise so openly and without reservation?

It's only human nature to keep something to yourself and hold back a secret.

In the eyes of most practitioners, this thing is either a propaganda tool used by Xingchen to "preach" and demonstrate its industry status, or a watered-down "textbook" in which the real core secrets are definitely hidden between the lines.

So basically nobody in big companies looks at this stuff.

However, as soon as the news broke that Starship Troopers had generated 50 million RMB in revenue in its first month, the video of its lead designer being interviewed went viral overnight within the industry and among some players.

Later, most people realized that this person was very likely not lying.

In the video footage, the lead planner of "Star Ring Route" looks very young, wears glasses, has a shy demeanor, and even seems a little uneasy in front of the camera.

He was wearing a T-shirt that said "Hello World," his hair was messy, and he spoke with a slight stutter. He didn't look like the person in charge of a successful project at all; he looked more like a college student who hadn't graduated yet.

"Hello everyone, I... my name is Liu Yu, and I'm the planner for 'Star Ring Route'..."

"Hello, Mr. Liu, congratulations on the great success of 'Star Ring Route'."

"We all know that this game went from a promotional video to a hit in less than six months, which many in the industry find incredible. Could you share your development process with us? In particular, we heard that your team developed the game entirely according to the 'Starry Night Games Development Guide,' is that true?"

(End of this chapter)