Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 584 The Long Hour
"Sony's biggest surprise at the press conference: trailers for three mysterious new AAA titles from the stars!"

"The most mysterious fifteen seconds of E3!"

"From mobile game king to AAA giant? Starcraft declares its ambition to the world in fifteen seconds."

~~~
Just as the global gaming community was in an uproar over this 15-second video.

Wang Hongtao stopped typing and rubbed his bloodshot eyes hard.

The time in the lower right corner of the monitor was 4:30 a.m., and several empty energy drink cans and a box of instant noodles with only the bottom left were scattered on the table.

As a "porter" who is somewhat well-known in the domestic game industry.

He wasn't an editor at a major media outlet, nor did he have the opportunity to attend E3 in person. His base was this rented room of less than ten square meters, and three brightly lit monitors.

In short, his job is to deliver firsthand information from overseas gaming communities to eager domestic players as quickly as possible, with the most down-to-earth translations.

His hunting grounds range from trending posts on Reddit to snippets of conversation from well-known producers on Twitter.

His account has grown from a few thousand followers in 16 to millions across the internet.

It relies on nothing other than large quantities to satisfy everyone.

And he always manages to find comments from some strange and unusual people.

For example, his most viewed video is about how he actually found a female lead who filmed "love scenes" on Pornhub and gave an interview afterward.

In her reflections on the character she cosplayed, she mentioned that it was through this "job" that she learned about the stars and found the game very interesting.
This video not only garnered him a lot of views in China, but also caused the account of the "adult film" actress, P, to see a surge in followers.

For a long time afterward, she practically transitioned into an actress specializing in cosplaying characters from the StarCraft game.
He even posted a separate video to express his gratitude to his fans in China.

All I can say is that the internet in this era is truly magical.

However, Wang Hongtao did not rest on his past laurels; at this moment, his fingers were practically sparking as he typed on the keyboard.

The screen on the left is the Reddit gaming section, where posts refresh at a waterfall-like speed.

In the middle is Twitter, with dozens of new posts popping up every second under the hashtags #Starshine and #E3.

The right-hand screen displays a translation app and a video editing tool.

Ever since the sensational ending of Sony's press conference, he had been looking for interesting comments. Coffee cups were piled up on the table, and the ashtray was overflowing, but he didn't feel sleepy at all. Instead, he felt a strange state of excitement and exhaustion.

He's working on a new video, and the title is already decided.

"Global gamers go crazy for StarCraft! A 15-second trailer ignites overseas communities, with foreign netizens saying: 'My wallet is ready!'"

Although this kind of "shocking foreigner" headline is cliché, it is extremely effective and is a traffic-generating secret he has summarized from long-term practice.

By the time the video was almost finished editing, the sky outside the window was already beginning to lighten. There was still an hour until the Starry Night press conference, but the world's public opinion had already been ignited.

Originally, after the fierce competition between Microsoft and Sony, the launch event of StarCraft was highly anticipated in China, but globally, most people were still taking a wait-and-see attitude, wondering what new tricks this Chinese company had up its sleeve.

But now, everything is different. Sony's "endorsement," coupled with Chu Chen's unethical practice of releasing only a PV without providing any further information, has raised everyone's expectations to the highest point.

Now, gamers and media around the world are asking the same question.

"Star, what exactly are you trying to show us?"

This feeling of being the center of attention made Wang Hongtao, who is also Chinese, sweat slightly.

As a frontline reporter, seeing a large number of comments from foreigners, he felt both proud and apprehensive, but also somewhat afraid to imagine what would happen if the press conference a few hours later failed to meet the current level of expectations.

"Damn it, forget about it." Wang Hongtao shook his head, clearing his mind of distractions. "Get to work! Compile all these overseas reactions and send them back! Domestic readers love this!"

~~~
The revelry continued until after 5 a.m., and instead of subsiding, it intensified as more and more random players who had been woken up joined in.

"I just want to know what kind of thing they'll bring out at the Starry Night press conference in a few hours."

"Don't ask, just buy it with your eyes closed."

"What I'm worried about now isn't whether the game is fun or not, but whether my wallet and my liver can hold up."

"Brothers, stop chatting for now, go to the Starry Sky official website and Bilibili to register for the press conference live stream! I heard that the number of registrations has broken records, and President Chu will be adding a lucky draw on the spot. Maybe it will be a collector's edition of these three games!"

"Holy crap! Really? Let's go!"

In Los Angeles, Chen Mo and Kong Yao had just sent the first batch of manuscripts back to China and hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath when they were bombarded with phone calls from their editors back home.

"Old Chen! Do you have any other ingredients over there? Even just a little bit will do!"

Chen Mo rubbed his throbbing temples: "It's gone! It's really gone! We know just as much as you do, just those fifteen seconds! That Chu Chen guy hid everything in his own press conference!"

After hanging up the phone, Kong Yao came over.

"How about it? Have you guys gone mad too?"

"Pretty much. It's almost dawn in China, and traffic is starting to pick up." Chen Mo gave a wry smile. "In all my years in this industry, this is the first time I've seen anything like this."

“Who says otherwise?” Kong Yao remarked. “In the past, when we came to E3, we were always chasing after the big foreign companies and translating their news. This year, however, the media all over the world are probably trying to find out what our three games, StarCraft, are all about.”

The two looked at each other and saw a hint of pride in each other's eyes.

At this moment, there was less than an hour until the pre-show press conference for Starry Sky. In another ten minutes or so, they would be able to enter the venue, but for some players...

This hour may feel longer than the previous twenty-four hours.

~~~
Just after 2 p.m. Los Angeles time, Chen Mo and Kong Yao, dragging their tired bodies, followed the crowd toward the venue for the Starry Night press conference.

The two men each held a dry sandwich in their hands, which was their lunch that they had squeezed out of a few minutes to eat.

"Do you think Chu Chen did this on purpose?" Kong Yao took a big bite of his sandwich and mumbled, "He planted a trap at Sony and then kept us on tenterhooks all afternoon."

(End of this chapter)