Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 608 Adapting to Local Conditions
In a lounge on the second floor of the exhibition hall, Chu Chen was looking out the window at the sea of ​​people below.

Henry Cavill's appearance was certainly no coincidence.

After all, while the other party may like games, the likelihood of them coming to this kind of event privately is not zero, but it's certainly not high.

Therefore, what just happened was indeed arranged by them.

Starry Sky's US branch was established only a year or two ago, but thanks to ample funding, its network of connections expanded rapidly.

For Hollywood stars, attending a commercial event and receiving a hefty appearance fee is simply part of their job.

What's more, the target this time is a rising star game company with an excellent reputation among players. For a celebrity like Henry Cavill who loves games, this job is tailor-made for him. It's lucrative, easy, close to home, and he can even visit an exhibition on the side. Why not?

With the help of a professional public relations team, everything seemed so "natural," as if the superstar was truly attracted by the game and came here because of its reputation.

Chu Chen looked at the crowd on the screen, which was becoming increasingly frenzied because of Henry Cavill's arrival, and a smirk appeared on his lips.

However, the desired effect was achieved regardless.

Amidst the uproar in the live broadcast room and at the scene, Chen Mo felt that the line he had joined had finally begun to move forward at a considerable speed.

Henry Cavill walked through the media entrance and quickly disappeared inside, but his appearance injected new energy and talking points into the long queue.

"Almost there! Guys, it's almost my turn!"

Chen Mo shouted excitedly at the camera while standing on tiptoe to look ahead.

After moving forward for another ten minutes or so, he finally arrived at the real entrance to the demo area.

This year, StarCraft's booth design at E3 was a huge square. The outer perimeter of the square housed the booths of various StarCraft game alliance members, while the interior was a large demo area.

"Hello, welcome to the Starry Sky Games Experience Zone."

"This is your trial card, which includes 30 minutes of game time. You can use it on any device in our booth. Just plug it in and you're good to go. Due to the large number of people trying it out today, it will stop immediately after 30 minutes. This booklet is our game guide, which has introductions to all the games available for trial and a map showing their locations. Have fun!"

Chen Mo took the card and booklet, and the camera immediately gave them a close-up.

"Brothers, look at this service, look at these details!"

Chen Mo couldn't help but admire.

"30 minutes, more than a dozen demos, we need to plan this out carefully."

He opened the booklet, and the first page was an introduction to "Black Myth: Wukong," accompanied by a traditional Chinese ink painting illustration of Sun Wukong holding his golden cudgel and gazing into the distance.

"No, I have to play with the black monkey first!"

He took a deep breath and, guided by the staff, stepped into the demo area. Unlike the booths of other game companies, Starry Sky's demo area had no fancy sculptures, no bizarre stages, and no deafening background music.

There were only rows and columns of computers, all neatly arranged.

"Damn, so many computers, it's like an internet cafe."

This comment instantly resonated with the viewers in the live chat.

[Hahaha, official internet cafes are the most lethal!]

Wow, how many machines are there? It's spectacular!

This is where gamers should be! All that fancy stuff is pointless; having plenty of machines is what really matters!

Old Liu's camera work was very professional, slowly panning the screen to present the entire "sea of ​​machines" to the audience as much as possible. The entire demo area was huge, estimated to be at least 500 square meters, with computers densely packed together, yet spacious enough aisles were left, and everything was in good order.

The most ingenious thing is that above each computer hangs an indicator light similar to the one above a parking space in a parking lot in China.

"Did you guys see that? That light! The staff just said that a red light means someone's playing, and a green light means it's empty. Wow, that's such a thoughtful design, so clear at a glance!"

He spoke as he led the camera inside.

In the corridor, staff members were gently guiding the players. Although there were many people in the area, it was not chaotic at all.

Soon, with the help of the staff, Chen Mo finally found an empty computer.

The computer desktop is very clean, with only a special version of the Star Platform interface, which contains a dozen or so demos that were shown at the previous E3 pre-show.

There is also a countdown timer on the right.

"Brothers, time is tight and the task is heavy!" Chen Mo said to the camera, and the mouse had already moved to the first icon in the list without hesitation.

Black Myth: Wukong.

Click to confirm, the screen goes dark, and a distant chime comes through the headset. The logos of "Starry Sky Games," "Project Star," and "Game Science" appear side by side before disappearing.

There is no lengthy opening cinematic; the scene jumps directly into the game.

The moment the screen lit up, it showed an abandoned building complex. It was clearly after the rain had stopped and the ground was still wet. The live stream chat paused for half a second just from this opening scene.

That's how game development works. The engine is just a tool; the real skill of a game development team lies in how they use that tool to achieve the desired visual effects.

Even though they are all Unreal Engine 5, the styles created by different teams vary greatly.

In this timeline, the Black Myth demo, powered by the Star Engine, also exhibits a completely different flavor.

Although the Star Engine couldn't compete with Unreal Engine 4 at this time, it had its own unique advantages.

That is, the team and game science are closely linked.

Moreover, Game Science has a strong art team. They know that the strength of the Star Engine lies in lighting and shadows and realistically scanned material rendering, but it is still lacking in handling large-scale dynamic vegetation.

Therefore, the scene of this demo is cleverly set in an ancient ruin after the rain has stopped and the sky has cleared.

The wet bluestone pavement reflects the outline of the eaves and brackets. Sunlight shines through the broken window frames, casting clear beams of light into the air, in which dust motes float slowly.

This scene was transmitted through Chen Mo's live stream, and the rapidly scrolling comments in the live stream chat momentarily stopped.

"Fuck..."

"This...this is real gameplay? Don't try to fool me with CG!"

"Look at those puddles on the ground! The reflection! My 2060 is screaming!"

Chen Mo himself was a little stunned. He controlled his character to take two steps, and the golden cudgel dragged a string of tiny sparks on the stone slab with a crisp sound.

He tried swinging it a few times, the movements were powerful and heavy, with a whistling sound, completely lacking the light and plastic feel of some action games.

These factors actually have nothing to do with the game engine, but rather with the development team's experience and the sound effects team.

(End of this chapter)