Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 97 The Final Like Game
"Aren't they going to update to version 1.1 on July 20th?"

Xiong Youning's plan is actually not complicated. For a game, there are only a few key promotional events: the first announcement, the first test, the public beta, and the launch.

Under the current circumstances.

A project initiated in March could not possibly be tested in July.

However, the first explosion is possible.

Moreover, for a game, the initial reveal often generates the second highest, or even higher, traffic than the first closed beta test.

Game developers can also conduct an initial evaluation of a project based on the initial buzz generated by the first reveal.

in short.

Xiong Youning's idea was to expose a game of the same type during the Final Frontline 1.1 update, even though this approach would make many players feel uncomfortable.

However, at the same time, this approach is also the way to attract the widest range of potential users.

"How about we hold a big press conference the day before theirs?"

Zhuang Zhihong's ability to show the number 7 proves that he had already planned what to do before he arrived.

Both of them set their sights on version 1.1 of StarCraft Games' "Final Front".

Zhuang Zhihong's idea was to hold a large-scale, separate press conference to capture that traffic.

It's like boxing; poking with a finger and throwing a punch are completely different concepts.

Similarly, the impact of a game's first reveal is completely different from that of a group of games' first reveal.

Hold a press conference.

During this period, the relationship escalated from a specific work group to the group level. Once it reached the group level, the two individuals were no longer competitors but partners.

After all, even if the two "Final Like" games within Tencent were to compete in the later stages, they would have to take a piece of the pie from Xingchen first, right?

"And the investment department, I remember that gun girl thing, wasn't she planning some kind of second launch? We can call them up too."

Both of them can be considered dominant figures in Tencent Games.

This was a small matter, and with a few words from each other, they quickly came to a rough agreement: to unite the work groups and consider including games like League of Legends that were planning to launch auto chess gameplay.
Of course, as leaders in their respective fields, their job is to confirm the general direction. As for the specifics, it involves their subordinates meeting up, discussing the details, creating a plan, and then reporting it upwards.

As the conversation was about to end, Zhuang Zhihong suddenly asked a question.

"I heard that your project is planning to use a story-driven mode?"

The atmosphere had been very harmonious just moments before.

This question suddenly made things delicate.

The internal competition within Tencent is far fiercer than the external competition; a single misstep and defeat could mean utter ruin.

After a few seconds of silence, perhaps not wanting to break the atmosphere, or perhaps wanting to take the opportunity to inquire about the other party's situation, Xiong Youning still said a few words.

"Yeah, they were fighting omnics, right? We changed it up and started fighting zombies. What about you guys?"

"Us? We mainly focus on auto chess; storylines are hard to work with."

Although they are all tributes.

However, the ways of paying tribute are still quite different.

The project launched by the mill studio is called "Night Spirit". It started as a melee auto chess game featuring anthropomorphized melee weapons as chess pieces, and then added auto chess gameplay.

However, with the huge success of the 1.0 storyline of "Final Front" the studio manager had a sudden inspiration and added zombie elements, turning the omnics into zombies.

Didn't the Final Front build a circular city to defend against the omnics? They also built a large circular city with huge walls to defend against zombies.

Throughout the storyline, you can see homages everywhere, such as the protagonist stepping forward, and the player leading a team to establish a camp after the victory in the first war.

They even replaced the electromagnetic silence system with a "blood surging" alternative.

It's said that the more people in a player's camp, the more vital energy they have, and the more likely zombies will appear.

The only problem with the project right now is that everyone feels there aren't enough monetization points, and the combat system is a bit difficult to implement after changing from gun-themed anthropomorphism in Final Battlefront to melee weapon girls.

There are too many melee fighters and too few ranged fighters.

So, Night Spirit Studio had a sudden inspiration and decided to add the matchlock gun to the game.

However, they soon encountered another problem.

After navigating the initial plot of Starry Sky 1.0, they didn't know how to proceed with the subsequent storyline. Since they didn't know how to proceed, they simply created a chaotic mess.

Soon, the "genius" planner added vampires and werewolves to the game.

"Players can only use the daily gift certificates to draw Night Spirits who use melee weapons..."

"Matchstick gun characters can only be obtained through separate gacha pulls."

"We'll adjust the stats later! Vampires and werewolves, give them a slight power boost..."

"But if ordinary players don't have a musket character, wouldn't they be at a significant disadvantage in PVP?"

"If you're going to be passively passive, then you just need to spend money, isn't that perfect?" "And add weapon levels and weapon enhancement systems to it too."

"Once there are too many arquebus characters, we'll increase their strength by adding vampire girls and werewolf girls, and then release them in separate gacha pools."

"Won't this flowing water hammer the stars into the ground?"

I don't know how well Tencent Games plans gameplay, but they certainly know how to find ways to rip people off.

all in all..
"Night Spirit" is a completely reskinned version of "Final Frontline". The name "Night Spirit" refers to the anthropomorphic melee weapon girl in the game.

Xiong Youning didn't know what others thought, but in his opinion, this project had absolutely no chance of failure.

It almost perfectly replicates the success of Final Frontline while offering a unique experience.

More importantly, under Xiong Youning's guidance, "Night Spirit" has greatly optimized the problem of insufficient monetization points in "Final Frontline," and based on Xiong Youning's experience...

Players are much more willing to pay in PVP systems than in PVE systems.

By differentiating characters, making PVP characters monetizable through in-game purchases is simply perfect!
That's why he's so confident.

As long as the game can be launched smoothly.

Breaking 100 million in the first month was a piece of cake.

On the other hand, the games made by the Yaoguang development team are more direct. At least Mofang had a skin, but they didn't even bother with a skin.

Project codename: "Girl's Agreement"

It also adopts a PVP auto-chess gameplay mode that anthropomorphizes firearms.

The approach has simply changed.

The biggest selling point of the entire project is that it has been transformed from a 2D game, "Final Front," into a fully 3D game.

Just like Tencent's approach with the ship girl theme, although the 3D version of Blue War seems to have failed, that doesn't matter!

Others' failures do not mean I have failed.

Although the characters in "Girls' Agreement" were created in pursuit of a quick release, they are more like pretty girls wielding guns and going "BIUBIUBIU" than gun girls.

But that's not important either.

In Zhuang Zhihong's view, 3D is the future, and 3D games are simply dominating 2D games.

Like the mill, they also saw the huge success of Starry Night Games 1.0 when they were halfway through their project, but instead of developing a storyline, they added the PVE content updated after the Final Frontiers 1.0 version.

Their approach is completely different from that of the Mill Studio. Since their last competition was with "Honor of Kings", they are different in the PVP aspect.

"Girls' Agreement" does not have any pay-to-win content. Its main marketing gimmick is to attract players' attention with 3D characters and to attract traffic with free PVP.

The main focus of the pay-to-win aspect has been placed on PVE by Yaoguang Studio.

In terms of in-game purchases, in addition to the character gacha system similar to "Final Frontline," Yaoguang has also added "Character Breakthrough," "PVE Exclusive Limited Characters," "Weapon Rarity," "Ammo Level," and "Accessory Enhancement" to its PVE system.

To put it simply, all of this can be summed up in one sentence.

You can buy stats with money. Each PVE level has a recommended "combat power". Once you reach this combat power, all of your attributes will be normal.

However, if the player's team doesn't reach this recommended "combat strength," sorry, they will receive a "buff penalty."

all in all.

It's practically impossible for players to complete the PVE content without spending money.

At the same time, Zhuang Zhihong felt that Starry Sky's ranking system was particularly well done, and they planned to learn from it as well, except in "Girl's Agreement".
The ranking is essentially equivalent to a "paid ranking".

~~~
Both of them are very confident in their game.

Xiong Youning believes that his game has a fresh appeal, and with the added traffic from Tencent, he will definitely be able to carve out a piece of the pie from Final Frontline.

Zhuang Zhihong held the same view, and his theory was that 3D fighting 2D was a sure way to crush it.
I really can't think of how I could lose.

Their current mindset is like when you're dealt a good hand of cards.

They couldn't wait to launch the attack.

They were afraid that if they waited too long, someone else would make the money.

"I wonder if Xingchen will be surprised when he sees that we're having a press conference on the 19th."

"Probably..."

"Do you think the people from Starry Sky might be scared away?"

At the gambling table, what is the person who gets a good hand most afraid of?
Nobody wanted to gamble with him.

Towards the end of their conversation, they both thought of the same question.

The core of their campaign is to coincide with the promotion of Starry Sky Games version 1.1 in order to gain traffic and attract players currently playing "Final Front".

But what if Starry Sky backs down if the event is announced too early?
"No, we need to think of something else. This event has to be kept secret. If Starcraft changes the release date, the effect won't be as good."

(End of this chapter)