Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Moreover, most developers who use the Spark Engine don't actually need that many advanced features.

For them, a usable and easy-to-use Spark Engine is enough.

So this is the world line.

The development team at Eggplant has no problems with the underlying infrastructure.

Although Lin Li didn't have much time to discuss gameplay with them, he thought that the completion progress of "The Scroll of Taiwu" in this world should be much faster than in his previous life.

It's rare to see eggplants these days, so I wanted to check on their progress.

The result is not clear even if you look at it, and you will be shocked when you look at it.

Wait until the eggplant demonstration is over.

Lin Li only asked one question.

Is this your latest demo?

The demo presented by Eggplant is clearly better than its predecessor in terms of visuals and details, but the problem is that the amount of content is completely lacking.

You can feel the thought and effort put into many small details.

For example, the demo included many side quests, dialogues, and various versions, gameplay mechanics, and settings.

However, this version still lacks a main storyline, many martial arts skills and moves are not implemented, and even the map is not yet complete.

You know, in the previous life, the beta version was released in August, but this demo is clearly not that complete yet.

Even Lin Li thought that many things in this demo were worse than in the previous life. Many things that were originally simple and clear had been complicated, which was not a good sign.

Oh no, has this backfired?

Alarm bells rang in Lin Li's mind, but the eggplant on the stage was not quite sure why Lin Li asked that question.

He replied somewhat blankly.

"Yes, this is our latest demo."

Chapter 487 The Unlucky Dream Link

Lin Li finally realized what was happening.

Damn it, I guess after joining the Spark Program, Eggplant has no worries about food and drink, started to have ambitions, and his perfectionist tendencies have returned.

"Oh, that's great. Your game framework is very innovative and deserves encouragement."

Lin Li smiled on the surface, but in his heart he was already thinking about how he would whip Qiezi a few times after Qiezi entered "Star Factory".

Have a serious "heart-to-heart talk" with the eggplant.

After the previous version of The Scroll of Taiwu overcame the code crisis, its reputation has not recovered, which is also related to the content of Eggplant's updates.

The wealthy eggplant is always immersed in his own worldview and hopes that everyone can understand his ideas, thereby gaining a sense of self-satisfaction and emotion.

This sentiment has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that The Scroll of Taiwu is indeed very unique, while the disadvantage is that excessive investment has made many systems that should be simple inexplicably complex, significantly increasing the cost of understanding the game.

These emotions, when reflected in the game, are the core reason why players find it unenjoyable.

In Lin Li's view, once the general direction and framework of a game are determined, it must be launched to the market as quickly as possible.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a public beta test right away, but testing must be conducted as soon as possible.

After all, only the players, the ultimate consumer group, can give you real feedback.

Moreover, Spark's black-box testing mode is almost fully set up.

Provide a playable version as soon as possible, throw it into a black box, use free labor to find the game's shortcomings, and restrain your own creative expression.

Finding the dividing line between games and art is what Eggplant needs to do.

Otherwise, given the current pace and Eggplant's desire to polish everything to perfection before releasing it, it's too risky.

In any game, developing ideas behind closed doors is a major taboo.

Lin Li smiled and put down the microphone, thinking to himself.

Some people, you can't just ignore them completely. If you don't give them a little slap on the wrist, they'll never amount to anything.

The eggplant on stage didn't seem to grasp the meaning behind Lin Li's smile; it was still happy, after all, the judges had given it good reviews.

The praise from General Manager Lin made Eggplant very happy, and he practically jumped off the stage.

After Eggplant stepped down, several other people took his place.

Then it was time for a break.

When it's time to rest.

The Sony staff seized the opportunity to find a corner and dialed Sony headquarters.

"We've found a few promising talents here, especially the one called 'The Scroll of Taiwu.' Please have headquarters investigate and see if there's an opportunity to acquire it."

"What do you mean you don't need it anymore? No, no, Eguchi-kun, that game is really special, you have to trust my judgment!"

"Huh? They've already joined Project Spark? They've been internally selected by Project Spark???"

"..."

Almost the same conversation also happened to Capcom and Ubisoft just now.

Their information was relatively less transparent, unlike Bilibili and NetEase, who already knew that this project was one that Spark had acquired last year when Qiezi took the stage.

After a short break, another project was presented.

~~~

"Hello everyone, my name is Liu Peng, and my project is the single-player version of 'Dream Link'."

Hear the name.

Lin Li felt it was somewhat familiar, but it didn't have much of an impact.

Fortunately, with Liu Peng's explanation, some familiar thoughts finally came back.

It's this game.

My life was too short; I almost didn't even have time to react.

Talk about it.

The fate of "Dream Link" is actually quite tragic.

Other games launch with Bao Si (a character from a popular Chinese novel), either because the game developers are inhumane or the pay-to-win experience is terrible.

Either the gameplay is flawed, or the server is faulty.

The game "Dream Link" has received positive reviews since its launch.

Moreover, its revenue was also impressive. On the first day of its release in China, it generated over 10 million RMB in revenue, and after two months of release in Japan and South Korea, it generated over 100 million RMB in revenue. It can be said to be a rare dark horse product in the ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) market at the time.

But this game, which once surpassed Honkai Impact 3 in revenue and was poised to become a phenomenon, was suddenly taken down in less than a month.

The reason for its removal from shelves is quite simple.

It's just using the same version number.

We've discussed the use of game license numbers before.

It was actually quite common during the license freeze, but it mostly appeared in small, low-quality games.

These kinds of games are just for making short-term profits; if they're discovered, they're simply taken down without a second thought.

Pay the fines, then find another company, change the license number, and continue...

They'll keep doing it as long as they earn more than the fines.

However, by 20, very few companies were doing this anymore, because the State Administration of Press and Publication was cracking down on it more and more.

Moreover, by 20, the industry had basically reached a consensus on going global.

They can either use the Taiwan server as a workaround, or simply launch in Japan and South Korea first, and then wait for the game license to be issued.

At the time, Kuaishou Technology was the investor in "Dream Link," and it's unclear whether they were indifferent or wanted to recoup their costs quickly.

In short, it used a license number similar to "Destiny Child" in China and was launched under the name "Destiny Child: Dream Link".

Unfortunately, their actions were eventually discovered by the State Administration of Press and Publication. Even at the last minute, they changed the game to "Destiny Child" and removed the suffix.

Unfortunately, it was eventually taken off the shelves.

Although it violated the rules, it cannot be denied that they were victims of the domestic game license winter.

And ACFUN also lost the chance to walk out of the intensive care unit one last time.

Since ACFUN was acquired by Kuaishou, ACFUN has also been involved in "Dream Link".

If it doesn't have a game license number, it will be taken down.

The revenue generated by "Dream Link" might just give ACFUN its own FGO, and maybe even allow it to compete with Bilibili.

pity.

There are no "what ifs".

After Dream Link lost the Chinese server as a resource pool, the company experienced a lot of internal strife and blame-shifting.

Ultimately, the team fell apart despite still having revenue in overseas markets, completely losing its ability to update its content, causing the once-promising overseas channels to slowly die out.

At this time, Dream Link had only been "born" for 2 months.

but.

In this timeline, Dream Link also underwent two changes.

Firstly, because the cost of Spark's full-stack operation is greatly reduced, the development team, which was established in 2017, did not accept Kuaishou's investment for the game's early promotion and operation during the financing negotiations in April this year. Instead, they chose Spark's full-stack distribution model.

Secondly, the Dream Link team did something that's currently very popular.

Develop a single-player anime game with the same name.

This is a new trend that started in the second half of 17 and has become increasingly widespread since the launch of the Spark platform.

The source of this trend is still Linli.

Since Xinghuo started creating single-player derivative works, some small anime game development teams have also started doing similar things.

A large number of single-player games with gameplay lasting only a few hours began to appear in the country.

These games often share several common characteristics.

Chapter 488 New Trends in the Industry

Firstly, the process is short, often only 4 to 8 hours, and in some cases only 2 to 3 hours, with the longest being less than 10 hours.

Secondly, the price is cheap, generally around 30 to 60.

Thirdly: After purchasing the game, you can get a coupon back in future games as long as you complete the game.

Although it has the disadvantage of a shorter process.

However, because the process is short, it allows developers to produce products quickly.

It also allows you to extract the core gameplay and conduct the purest gameplay verification without considering balance or the pay-to-win system.

Incidentally, since it's a single-player game, there's no need to manage the server; you can simply put it on the Spark platform and wait to collect player feedback.

more importantly.

This standalone approach can also avoid many problems caused by game licenses.

There's no need to worry about wasting resources during development, since resources from single-player development can be reused and can also expand the number of players.

There are many benefits.

The only downside is that it wastes a little time, but that little time is insignificant during the license approval winter, so this process quickly became popular.

It has even become an essential process for small and medium-sized developers of anime-style games.

In the past, anime-style games would first undergo closed beta testing, then be modified, then undergo closed beta testing again to verify the gameplay and monetization. But now, it has basically become a matter of releasing a single-player game with the same world view and gameplay first, and then distributing it to global players through the Spark platform, while also doing some promotion through video websites such as Bilibili.

They used a roundabout approach, selling to domestic players to expand their domestic reach.

After modifying the single-player game based on ratings and feedback, and finalizing the gameplay, we will then conduct an internal beta test of the online version, entering a closed beta test phase. Once the test is complete, we will begin marketing and promotion, with the core objective of attracting players who purchased the single-player game to become core players.