Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 583 The First Wave

It's 3 a.m. in China.

On major gaming forums and live streaming platforms, live streams that originally had few comments suddenly exploded with a flood of comments due to the "15 seconds of starlight" feature that appeared as Sony's press conference was coming to an end.

It's like someone threw a bomb into a pond, causing a bunch of fish to come out, their heads rolling back in their stomachs.

It only took a few seconds for the barrage of comments to go from sparse to filling the entire screen.

"???????"

“Oh my god!!!!”

"What was that?! Is my internet lagging? Why is Sony showing a movie about stars during their press conference?"

In the official Bilibili livestream room, the streamer who was just telling the audience, "Thank you all for staying up late to watch. See you at the Starry Night press conference in a few hours," is now staring at the screen in disbelief, unable to utter a word.

The barrage of comments had gone completely crazy, with countless "Holy crap" and "?" flooding the entire screen.

In various gaming groups, the "cultivation enthusiasts" who were originally preparing to go to sleep were suddenly bombarded with a series of screenshots and short video links.

Soon, the fifteen-second video that Chen Mo and others had quickly sliced ​​up and sent back to China spread like wildfire across major social media platforms.

In just a few minutes, hashtags such as #Sony's press conference ended with StarCraft# and #StarCraft E3 Three Mysterious New Products# shot to the top of Weibo's trending topics at lightning speed.

The reason it trended on Weibo is because there aren't many active users on the platform right now, so a small group of players discussing it can quickly generate traffic.

But this still represents the popularity of the stars.

Besides the unique experience of watching the E3 pre-show trailer featuring stars on Sony's home turf.

The fact that this 15-second exposure contained no information is what sparked widespread discussion among gamers who stay up late.

"What's the first one? That Buddha statue is so cool! Is this really a domestically produced AAA game? Is StarCraft really going to make a AAA game?!"

Which anime/manga art style is more outrageous?!

"The third one! The third one! That behemoth of steel! That engine! It's definitely a planetary engine!! It's from 'The Wandering Earth'!!"

In major domestic gaming communities, the activity level at 3 a.m. was comparable to that at 3 p.m.

Countless players, captivated by their curiosity, couldn't sleep at all.

In particular, a large number of gaming bloggers have been analyzing that 15-second video repeatedly, scrutinizing every single pixel.

Screenshots, slow motion, frame-by-frame analysis—all attempts were made to glean more information from this fleeting glimpse.

If the core of the discussion among domestic players is "what it is", it is full of speculation and enthusiasm about specific themes and content.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, the core of discussions among Western gamers leans more towards "Who is this?", "How did they do this?", and "What does this represent?"

Reddit, USA.

As one of the world's largest gaming communities, it brings together the most core and discerning group of players.

The Sony press conference had just ended when a headline quickly rose to the top of the trending topics section.

"[Discussion] Sony played a trailer for the launch event of the Chinese company Starshine at the end of its press conference." The post was very simple, just a link to the 15-second video.

However, the comments section below exploded.

"What is this? A trailer for a trailer?"

"Interesting. Starry Sky was able to release a promotional video at Sony's press conference. That's amazing. How did they do it?"

The initial discussions focused on this unprecedented "commercial spectacle".

Players were amused by Sony's unexpected move, but as more and more people clicked on the video link, the tone of the comments section began to shift rapidly.

"Okay, forget about Sony. Let's talk about the trailer itself. I think all three games are really interesting! Especially the first one, the lighting and texture are amazing, is that really made of stars? Do they even have that kind of technology?"

"Can someone tell me what Starshine does? I looked them up, aren't they independent developers? Can they develop AAA games!?"

The same video can have drastically different impacts on players in different regions.

If Chinese players felt a sense of surprise, then for European and American players, those fifteen seconds brought more novelty and anticipation.

In their world, AAA games are the ultimate measure of a game company's true strength.

You can make a fortune with mobile games, or gain a reputation with indie games, but only when you can produce a AAA masterpiece that silences everyone can you truly become a major game company and stand alongside those legendary names.

Prior to this, Western gamers were not unfamiliar with the name "StarCraft," but their understanding of StarCraft was quite fragmented.

For some veteran game enthusiasts, Starry Night Games is a savior for old games, and the Starry Night Games platform is a gathering place for veteran game players.

For mobile game enthusiasts, StarCraft is a major developer of casual mobile games, and StarCraft Tap is practically an essential app for consistently finding fun mini-games.

For anime fans, StarCraft is the "king of kings," an absolutely awesome company, and its fans are StarCraft's most ardent fans in the United States.

In addition, StarCraft has a large number of indie game fans in Europe and America.
是 的
For many players who only play single-player games, StarCraft is synonymous with an independent game company.

Um.
Don't laugh, there really are a lot of Western gamers who think that StarCraft, a company that earns billions of dollars a year, is an independent game developer. There's really nothing we can do about it, since StarCraft's single-player games are all small, exquisite, and high-quality games.

Only a minority of players have the patience to understand the developers; most players are just playing on a stereotype.

For example, MintRocket, the developer of "Diver Dave," a subsidiary of the large South Korean game company Nexon, has no shortage of funds. However, due to the unique art style and gameplay of "Diver Dave," many players and media naturally categorize it as an "indie game."

This perception even led to its nomination for "Best Indie Game" at the 2023 The Game Awards, sparking controversy.

The same thing happened to StarCraft. When discussing StarCraft, many players associate it with indie games. Even the largest indie game forum in Europe and America has a separate section for StarCraft.

all in all.

Regardless of what StarCraft is among Western gamers, their understanding of it has absolutely nothing to do with the term "AAA".

It is precisely because StarCraft is famous and has never made a AAA game that these three videos have been so novel to countless European and American players.

Globally renowned gaming media outlets such as IGN, GameSpot, and Kotaku also updated their front-page headlines around the same time.

(End of this chapter)