Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 20: Whom Does It Serve?
Final Frontline Story CG
No.: 0026
Report by Candlelight

The windows of the commander's office were completely covered by thick black curtains, and the only lit oil lamp flickered on the corner of the table.

With a gentle knock on the door and the commander's words of invitation to enter.

A young girl pushed open the door and entered.

The white dress and black stockings still made her stand out.

As 95 walked toward the commander, he placed a stack of paper documents on the table.

"This is today's patrol report, Commander..."

"No supply convoy has been found, nor has any wreckage of the supply convoy been discovered."

After finishing her report, 95 slightly gathered her skirt and sat down next to the commander.

Immediately afterwards, a faint scent of gunpowder and hair wafted to the commander's nose.

The commander did not immediately look at the documents, but turned around to glance at 95. It is said that a beautiful woman looks more and more attractive under the lamplight, and the scene at this moment was just like that.

"No wreckage found is good news..."

The commander answered softly, then looked at the map on the table.

95 nodded.

"By the way, Commander, during today's patrol, a high-energy reaction was detected on the east side of the base. Logistics has made recommendations."

The girl lowered her voice slightly.

"It is recommended to suspend all maintenance work on electronic devices and humanoid figures."

The commander's fingertips paused.

"But I remember, AR Team should... still be undergoing maintenance, right? I remember M4 was seriously damaged..."

"Yes, Commander."

"Then we won't use their suggestions. Follow my instructions and have Miss Springfield continue the maintenance work."

"But...the logistics department..."

"There are no 'buts' anymore. When two armies meet on a narrow path, the brave one wins. I didn't even bother with them, yet they dared to come after me. I haven't settled the score with them for injuring the AR team last time. If they dare to come, it'll be perfect time for revenge..."

"Yes"

After a while.

Sitting next to the commander, 95 spoke again, but this time, it wasn't to deliver intelligence, but rather...
"Does the Commander... care a lot about Miss M4?"

The girl's tone remained normal, but her fingers unconsciously tightened around the hem of her clothes. Suddenly, the oil lamp burst open, and the flame flickered violently.

The commander glanced back at the beauty in the candlelight, then reached out and tapped 95 on the head.

He never expected that the usually cool and collected 95 would care about this matter.

"What are you thinking? I care about everyone, but the one I care about most is naturally you."

This sentence exploded in the minds of 95 people like a bomb.

Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of her chest. As a tactical doll, she had experienced countless fierce battles, but she had never felt so helpless as she did now.

"I...I have something to do...I'll be leaving now!"

~~~
After explaining a small case study, Chu Chen tapped the whiteboard.

"So, do you understand a little bit about how to use this background setting now?"

"Is this only for dating?"

"Of course not..."

Chu Chen sighed.

"Think about it carefully, why is there a silence setting?"

"To create a sense of pressure?"

"For a realistic battlefield atmosphere." Soon, a lot of responses came from the scene, but unfortunately, Chu Chen did not hear the answer he wanted.

"Remember, in all games, there is always a build-up before the emotional peak."

"Now that we have the core concept of electronic silence, the feeling of oppression is there. So, can all the stories in our base move in this direction? Can the art style also be developed in this direction?"

"Of course, moving in this direction does not mean that we will completely abandon mechanization or lighting systems."

"On the contrary, we need to focus on the lighting system."

"Imagine the main storyline reaching the point where the commander decides to launch a counterattack..."

"The base lights switched on one after another in an instant, and all kinds of equipment started up in full force..."

~~~
There is a core concept in "Final Battlefront".

That is, intelligent machines use a special electromagnetic wave to detect signs of human activity, and humans use this electromagnetic wave to confirm whether intelligent machines are present in the vicinity.

There are many similar settings in the game.

When Chu Chen first explained these settings, some nitpickers in the team asked why the omnics would do this. Detecting human electronic activity is completely unnecessary.
Do you know what the sophons in The Three-Body Problem do?

"Technology that blocks humanity."

"Then why can you assume that the omnics in 'Final Front' are detecting human electronic activity in order to eliminate humanity, rather than preventing humans from using electronic devices, thereby blocking humanity's ability to retaliate and its technology?"

"Huh? There's that deeper meaning!?"

"Is that the point!? I'm just telling you that the setting serves the story, not the other way around!"

When you watch zombie movies, do you ever wonder if zombies really exist in this world?

When watching Marvel movies, do you ever wonder if Thanos' snap could really wipe out half the population of the universe?

"Focus on developing a story, instead of getting bogged down in setting details!"

Although after this incident, Xingchen's main copywriting team did indeed focus more on the story.

However, what was ultimately handed to Chu Chen lacked any real "spirit" or "inspiration."

It's not that it's bad, but how should I put it? If these kinds of texts were directly put into the game, most players would definitely fast-forward and skip them all the way through.

However, occasionally, these copywritings would contain things that Chu Chen wanted.

That means Chu Chen would directly provide the framework, and then let them write within the framework, which would result in better output.

In short, appropriately limiting the scope of their creative work can actually encourage them to produce some creative copywriting.

This is actually quite subtle.

Afterwards, Chu Chen also studied it and found that the problem was not difficult to explain, just like what "Brother Dawei" of Mihayou said in his previous life.

Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd, most of the version crashes are due to an excessive desire for creativity. People want this and that, and in the end, the story falls apart.

This is a complicated issue.

But it's actually quite simple.

This is actually easier to explain when applied to online novels.

That is, if you insist on stuffing a dozen or so characters into the first three chapters of the story, and adding what you think are interesting settings to each character.

Ultimately, this beginning will inevitably lead to disaster.

Therefore, when Chu Chen used a framework to slightly frame the text, for example, this chapter is about these two characters and this is the story, the text actually gave Chu Chen a development that he himself might not have expected.

However, this framework-style copywriting also has a problem, namely the connection between the texts.

This is why Chu Chen now includes the copywriting team in all his meetings, even those related to the art department.

In addition, Chu Chen would also explain his thought process to them so that they could visualize the ideas.

For example, just now, Chu Chen described a state where all the lights were on, and Chu Chen felt that it was necessary to elaborate on this state in more detail.

(End of this chapter)