Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 94 Thoughts on New Games

The aircraft climbed smoothly to its cruising altitude.

The lights of Tokyo were completely hidden beneath the clouds, replaced by the vast, boundless night sky outside the porthole and the sea of ​​clouds below, churning like ink.

The privacy and spaciousness of first class are on full display, with soft ambient lighting outlining the elegant contours of the leather seats, isolating the engine's low growl and the subtle noise of economy class.

Chu Chen stretched his body, the 180-degree reclining seat providing ultimate comfort.

After lying down for a while, I found that I was not sleepy at all, but instead felt a strange excitement.

Tossing and turning.

The more I want to rest, the less I feel like I can rest.

I simply sat up, took out my phone, and opened the notepad.

As mentioned before, Chu Chen plans to have two games based on the FATE IP.

One is a story-driven game, which Chu Chen currently plans to develop for FGO. After all, in his previous life, FGO was a super-powerful game that could beat Honor of Kings at its peak worldwide.

Therefore, Chu Chen's idea for "FGO" is to optimize it, to partially reset it, such as the quality of the battles, the story, and the character art.

The other type of game is the one that Chu Chen has been thinking about recently.

Chu Chen always felt that FATE, apart from the plot,

The Holy Grail War and Heroic Spirits—this series of settings is very suitable for gameplay-oriented games.

Moreover, these settings are easy to understand, which makes them more suitable for attracting new players.

I glanced at the time; there were still more than three hours until I got off the plane. There was no internet or signal, which was perfect for me to calm down and sort things out carefully.

Since we're making a game with a Heroic Wars gameplay style, the first thing we need to figure out is why Heroic Wars is fun.

Actually, if you think about it for a moment...

It's easy to conclude that, like battle royale games, the core fun of Heroic Spirit Wars lies in "competitive pressure," or more bluntly, in "battle royale."

Swordsman (Saber), Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker

The division of ranks corresponds to the division of different heroic spirit professions.

These historical Heroic Spirits all ultimately aimed to obtain the Holy Grail, and to achieve this, they had to kill other competitors—a classic example of "competition under pressure."

In past lives, games like PUBG, Tarkov, and even Fall Guys all belonged to this broad category.

So Chu Chen naturally decided on the first direction.

That is to create a gameplay mode that focuses on "Heroic Spirit PVP battles".

Once the kernel is selected, the next step is to figure out how to "PVP" (Player vs. Player).

Currently and in the future, there are three main "hero-versus-player combat (PVP)" gameplay modes.

A MOBA game, represented by League of Legends, where the game's strategy mainly revolves around skill usage, cooldown management, and the competition for map resources.

Secondly, there are hybrid shooting games like Overwatch. The essence of this type of game is still the same as shooting games, but with the addition of hero skills, making the shooting game more varied.

Finally, there are action types, such as Netherworld, game-like rock-paper-scissors, heavy attacks, light attacks, and sword strikes.

These three PVP modes, in terms of production difficulty...

It's obvious that MOBA games are the easiest to make.

The barrier to entry is relatively low. In fact, right now, there are already "pirated" games like "Heroes 300" that have produced a lot of anime characters.

However, the Holy Grail War is essentially a "battle royale," a contest between multiple players where only one can ultimately emerge victorious.

MOBA games and the battle royale mode are inherently mutually exclusive. Countless MOBA games in the past have also introduced battle royale modes, but none of them have become popular.

Because whether it's DOTA, League of Legends, or Honor of Kings.

The essence of the game is the release of skills. The game is achieved by releasing different skills at different times and by positioning oneself.

This game mode is very exciting when there are respawns, lanes, and a map.

Because the cost of losing a single game is relatively low, you can always revive, and whether it's top, mid, bottom, or jungle, there's always a relatively fixed battleground.

However, battle royale games are different. There are no lanes, the cost of losing is too high, you either run away or move on to the next game, and there are no fixed battlegrounds.

In this way, relying solely on skill-based game mechanics can easily lead to balance issues.

Moreover, in battle royale games that primarily rely on skills, it's easy for two players to meet, use up all their skills, and then just stare at each other blankly, completely lacking the fun of strategic gameplay.

No matter who the opponent is, just use your skills and that's it.

In addition, the fixed field of view in MOBA games, along with other factors, explains why battle royale games adapted from MOBA games were difficult to succeed in the past.

Eliminating one answer, the next choice is "Overwatch" vs. "Naraka: Bladepoint".

There were two very popular games before and after Overwatch: Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Cinematic Universe, if we look at it purely from the perspective of the heroes.

Overwatch seems like a good choice.

However, the FATE IP leans more towards ancient times.

Many of the Heroic Spirits use melee weapons, so forcibly incorporating shooting game elements would feel quite awkward. After some consideration, the "Naraka: Abyss" mode seems to be the best choice.

The map can also be linked with FGO.

In the FGO storyline, the villains left behind seven Holy Grails across seven historical periods. These seven Holy Grails caused seven major historical turning points, known as "Singularities."

If we divide this battle map into seven areas, they correspond to the seven historical appearances of the Holy Grail.
Fuyuki City, the site of Joan of Arc's life during the Hundred Years' War, a city of seven hills in the style of ancient Rome... perhaps it could also be compared to Xianyang during the Qin Dynasty.
Since the FGO storyline is going to be reset anyway, the singularities can be changed as needed.

Of course, the specific map layout and design still need to be considered, including whether to set up a pseudo-Holy Grail in each region, but these are not being considered for the time being.

We still need to demonstrate whether this model is feasible.

Chu Chen pondered for a moment.

Soon, he started designing the character Saber on his phone's notes app to test whether this model could be applied.

~~~
Servant: Artoria Pendragon
Class: Saber
Positioning: A well-rounded warrior, combining offense and defense, possessing powerful burst damage and a certain degree of mobility.

Difficulty: Medium to high difficulty.

~~~
Basic moves: Normal attack (light attack - tap the left mouse button) "Wind King Swordsmanship - Combo"

Action description: A fast and precise series of sword strikes, usually consisting of 4-5 hits. The first few hits are horizontal or diagonal slashes, and the last hit is a powerful thrust or upward slash with a slight knockback effect.

Explanation: Fast attack, relatively fast recovery, strong suppression, moderate damage.

~~~
Charged attack (heavy attack - hold down the left mouse button)
Short Charge (One Flash): A powerful vertical slash or horizontal sweep with the Wind King's Barrier entangling effect. It has a medium range, high damage, and a slight knockback/stun effect, which can interrupt the opponent's light attacks.

Long Charge (Two-stage flash/obvious wind pressure effect): The sword is wrapped in a stronger golden magical light, releasing a sword aura with radiance.

Explanation: High damage, with control/knockback, effective against light attacks, but long charge attacks are risky (easily countered by slash attacks) but also offer great rewards.

~~~
Vibrating Blade/Parry Counterattack (F / Specific Key)
Basic Vibration Dagger (Timing Judgment): Press the vibration dagger button at the instant before the opponent's charged attack is about to hit.

Saber will perform a precise parry, accompanied by a brief barrier effect that appears during the Wind King's Barrier. If the parry is successful, a finishing move can be executed.

Passive Parry (Consumes Resources): Holding down the sword-wielding button maintains a "Wind King's Barrier" that consumes stamina.

It can completely block normal and ranged attacks from the front, but can only partially reduce damage from charged attacks. Once the stamina bar is depleted, the barrier will automatically disappear.

Explanation: Precise slashing is key to countering charged attacks and creating opportunities for a counter-attack.

Passive parrying provides some survivability, but consuming stamina means that once the parry ends, you will completely lose mobility for a period of time.

~~~
Optional Skill 1 (Q key): "Magic Release - Gale"

Description: Saber concentrates magic power at her feet and bursts forth, dashing quickly in a designated direction over a medium distance, passing through some small obstacles during the dash.

Optional Skill 2: "Wind King's Hammer"

Description: Saber swings the holy sword bound by the Wind King's barrier, unleashing a powerful wind pressure shockwave in a fan-shaped area in front of her. It deals moderate damage and inflicts a noticeable knockback/launch effect.

Optional Skill 3: Leadership Qualities

Description: After use, friendly units within a certain range around Saber gain a small attack/defense bonus.

~~~
Optional Noble Phantasm Unleashed 1 (R button): "Excalibur"

Description: Saber unleashes the true name of the Holy Sword, gathering immense magical power to unleash a devastating slash forward. This requires consuming the entire ultimate skill bar and has a long charging time.

Effect: Deals massive true damage to a large cone-shaped area in front, with extremely strong penetration and knockback effects.

When to use: AOE in team fights, finishing off low-health enemies, destroying terrain/cover, forcing enemy to reposition.

Explanation: Saber's signature ultimate move, which features a spectacular cutscene when unleashed.

~~~
After fully outlining Saber's hero mechanics and framework.

Chu Chen nodded, feeling that it was alright.

This framework is similar to Naraka: Endless. Charged attacks can interrupt normal attacks, and you can use your sword to finish off the opponent while they are using a charged attack. Conversely, normal attacks will not be countered.

This triangle is how the game of rock-paper-scissors came about.

The game "Eternal Calamity" successfully opened up the martial arts battle royale market thanks to this mechanism, as the game mechanics made every face-to-face encounter between players incredibly exciting.

There is a genuine interaction and game between the two players.

The saying goes that the joy of fighting with others is that the thrill of judging the opponent's psychology and launching a counterattack is something that cannot be replaced by simply exchanging skills.

Of course, Chu Chen didn't just copy it verbatim.

He subtracted from the previous life's eternal torment to lower the threshold.

Short presses on the left and right are normal attacks, while long presses on the left and right are charged attacks. All kinds of combos are achieved by using the most basic short presses and long presses.

Meanwhile, the slash attack has been assigned a separate button to prevent players with poor hand-eye coordination from wanting to slash but being unable to execute it, ultimately leaving them helplessly exclaiming, "I knew he was going to charge it up!"

Because the Holy Grail War features ranged heroes, it also includes long-range counter-attack heroes.
Secondly, within this framework, Chu Chen removed the weapon system from Eternal Calamity, and weapons of various qualities no longer spawn on the map.

Instead, a "Noble Phantasm System" has been added, where each Heroic Spirit can choose a Noble Phantasm to fight with, which corresponds to a set of weapon attack animations and different ultimate moves.

(End of this chapter)