Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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Upon entering the game's store interface, it is priced at 78 yuan, while the bundle with Rise of the Dragon Remastered Edition is priced at 128 yuan.

Wu Xing didn't even look at the price.

I purchased the bundle directly and then entered the game.

Unlike Julius Caesar 5, Rise of the Dragons 2 uses a 2.5D top-down perspective.

All the art assets in the game are hand-drawn, and the overall style is more in line with the charm of traditional Chinese painting.

To achieve this effect, the studio also made rendering adjustments. The final result is somewhat similar to the art style of the previous work, "Beacon Fires and Cooking Smoke."

Like the original game, Rise of the Dragons 2 is set in a fictional dynasty. The game's architecture, clothing, props, and other elements are all based on classics and paintings from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

The painting deliberately avoids excessive detail and draws on the blank space technique of traditional ancient paintings to create a "tranquil and simple" artistic conception. For example, the single color and simple lines of the walls and roof have a similar feel to Song Dynasty landscape paintings.

Of course, it's different from "Beacon Fire and Smoke" which aims to be an ancient GTA.

Rise of Dragons 2 is a city-building simulation game, so it focuses more on the overall appearance of the city, making it much easier to develop.

"Holy crap, this visual is something else..."

Under this development philosophy, the opening cinematic of Rise of the Dragon 2 is a game replica of the Qingming Scroll.

Players start from here.

He plays a county magistrate who is ordered to reclaim wasteland.

Once inside the game, the visual details become more abundant: willow trees by the river, dynamic lighting and shadows, and residents wearing short jackets and carrying loads appearing after the thatched huts are built.

These details imbue the world with a strong sense of vitality.

"Why are these people dressed differently from the people who were there at the beginning?"

Wu Xing noticed this detail.

This is the costume system in Rise of Dragons 2. As mentioned before, the game development team collected a lot of ancient costumes, which have been added to the game.

Moreover, thanks to technological upgrades, this version of the game can now match different outfits to residents based on their current work status and money.

If you look closely at the opening cinematic of the game, you'll notice that the clothing of the game's inhabitants does indeed change with their status and circumstances.

Most of the ordinary people carrying loads and busy in the market wore coarse cloth short jackets, with simple materials and colors mainly gray and brown, which made them look simple and unpretentious.

The wealthy merchants who occasionally strolled by the street corner were dressed in silk and satin, their clothes fluttering in the wind, and they even had exquisite jade pendants hanging at their waists. Their every move exuded composure and wealth.

"The attention to detail is absolutely amazing!"

Wu Xing couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

Not only in clothing, but also in the behavior of residents, there are differences based on their status.

Ordinary people hurry along, busy making a living, while wealthy businessmen are leisurely and occasionally stop to admire the scenery along the street.

Even more interestingly, some residents who looked like scholars, dressed in long gowns and holding books, walked leisurely, as if they were pondering something.

These details are not entirely original to Rise of the Dragons 2. As mentioned before, Starfire has implemented a lot of resident behavior logic to enhance the city's activity level.

These principles have become an asset of the Spark Engine.

In particular, the development teams behind NetEase's "Return to the Moon" and Aurogon's "Sword and Fairy 4" remake have added a lot of ancient residents' behavioral logic and animations on top of their previous work.

Wu Xing thought it looked like the result of the "Rise of the Dragon 2" development team working tirelessly, but in reality it was the result of multiple studios.

The reason these things can be brought together is not only because Spark Engine has this function, but also because the people in Spark Engine's operations department are organizing it.

Chapter 552 Comparison

The latter is actually more important than the former.

This is true of many things. Without organization, having power is useless. This can be seen from the comparison between the Los Angeles wildfires and the Chongqing wildfires.

Without organization, when faced with the issue of dealing with the behavior of urban residents, everyone can only do their own thing, repeating the same task over and over again.

However, with the Spark Organization, these behavioral logics can actually form shared assets.

When you need it, you can simply buy it with money, or if you are already a partner of this asset, you can apply directly to Xinghuo, obtain the data, and then adapt it for local use.

For example, a fisherman catching fish is a scene that appears in many games, where in the past everyone did their own thing.

Now, a template can be used, and this template can be made very detailed, down to the fisherman casting nets, pulling in fish, collecting fish, packing them into baskets, and even taking them to the market to sell them himself.

Such details are rarely the focus of a development team, but under the organization of Spark, a large number of companies each developed their own version, and what they ultimately combined resulted in a truly terrifying database.

You can access these databases as long as you use the Spark platform.

These assets, when used in simulation games, are absolutely devastating and a huge plus.

Even though the NPC models in the simulation game are not very detailed, the city becomes much more vivid once the movements are made more detailed.

It was as if it had truly come back to life.

"This game is so immersive!"

Wu Xing began to build the city according to his vague memories. Soon, he began to pay attention to another detail: feng shui.

The most fun part of the original Rise of the Dragon was the arrangement and combination of different buildings to create various buffs and achieve the perfect city. This gameplay was later adopted by many other games by Kairosoft.

As a sequel, Starfire's Rise of the Dragon 2 naturally borrows a similar system.

However, the feng shui system has undergone some changes in the new game. First of all, there are more functional buildings in Rise of Dragons 2.

These buildings are somewhat like the blocks in Tetris, and they can stack various buffs on each other. In addition, Rise of Dragons 2 also introduces the concept of streets.

For example, restaurants, teahouses, and brothels can unlock the "Fireworks and Wine Alley".

Wu Xing discovered that after unlocking the "Fireworks and Wine Alley," not only did residents' satisfaction increase significantly, but the city's tax revenue also increased considerably.

This architectural feng shui system is not just for show; it has a real impact on the development of the city.

He continued his research and discovered that the complexity of the Feng Shui system far exceeded his expectations.

Different building combinations will produce different effects, and the direction of the streets, the location of the rivers, and even the planting of trees will affect the layout of feng shui.

If Julius Caesar 5 focuses on the industrial chain and planning, and upgrades the city with housing as the core, then...

Rise of Dragons 2, on the other hand, focuses on city planning and production chains, which are more about adding flour when there's too much water and adding water when there's too much flour.

Simply put, in Rise of Dragons 2, the more residents you have, the higher their level, and the higher the level of your houses, the more resources you will need.

Players will need to build more farmland, log, mine, and brick kiln, and the establishment of these things will attract migrants and upgrade existing residents.

As a result, the population increased, and with more residents came a greater need for supplies.

This is a typical simulation game where "water" and "surface" are stacked together, and this kind of stacking is actually quite fun.

In addition, there are various building arrangements, street combinations, and various unexpected events.

In addition, like the original Rise of the Dragon, the game also introduces a mythology system, but this system is more elaborate in the second installment.

These systems felt both familiar and novel to Wu Xing.

He still remembers that when he played a certain level, one of the upgrades for the houses required the services of an acupuncturist. Back then, Wu Xing practically dug three feet into the ground to upgrade this.

We couldn't find the acupuncturist anywhere.

It wasn't until many years later, while browsing Douyin (TikTok), that I learned that the acupuncturist's condition was to summon the Yellow Emperor at the altar, because the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic is considered the earliest acupuncture medical technique in China.

Therefore, the Yellow Emperor naturally knew acupuncture...

Although Wu Xing was somewhat speechless when he learned of the result many years later, the design was actually quite interesting.

In Rise of the Dragon 2, these deities are more in line with the Chinese concept, building temples and dojos, and under certain circumstances, attracting different "deities" to descend to the mortal world.

There are seven categories of buildings: government buildings, city buildings, agricultural buildings, industrial buildings, commercial buildings, religious buildings, and entertainment buildings.

"This is exactly the sequel I've been wanting!"

~~~

"Is this Blizzard's way of giving us good fortune?!"

"I'm 168cm tall and I only bought this thing?!"

As a live streamer, Deng Hui rarely loses his composure like this in the live stream.

But today, he really couldn't hold back.

"Damn Blizzard, damn Tencent, do you even deserve the name Warcraft 3?!"

Deng Hui couldn't help but swear.

His computer was currently playing a screenshot of Warcraft 3 Remastered, which was riddled with bugs, had terrible graphics, and was even worse than if it hadn't been remastered at all.

The overall visuals were even worse than the demo at BlizzCon 18, and many promises were not kept, such as remade cutscenes and changes to the story map.

This is a blatant scam to swindle money.

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad, but Deng Hui had just played "Rise of the Dragon 2" yesterday, and he was arguing with others during his live stream.

They say even sparks can be reset and new ones added.

Blizzard's remastered version is definitely better. At the time, a group of Spark fans argued with him, saying that the current Blizzard is not the same as the old Blizzard.

Deng Hui argued about this for a long time.

So today, he opened WEGAEM to prove himself, and spent 168 to buy the remastered version of Warcraft 3.

then.

There's no after that.

After just the opening act, Deng Hui felt like his high blood pressure was about to spike.

He's a long-time Blizzard player, and when he thinks back to his youth playing Warcraft 3, those classic battles, those thrilling storylines, and those strategic battles are all memories of his youth.

But now, this remake has completely shattered those precious memories.

more critical.

There is no harm without comparison.

Yesterday, when the Spark Reset Game Festival went live, it's no exaggeration to say that the entire global internet was in a festive mood.

In particular, the former CEO of Sierra Entertainment, the company behind the now-defunct Rise of the Dragon and the producer of Julius Caesar, even released a video.

It is very gratifying that after so many years, everyone can learn about Sierra's original work through the remastered version.

But what about Blizzard?

Oh, so the Spark Bar opened the door to resetting the game, and you, of all people, slammed it shut again, huh?

Chapter 553 Times Have Truly Changed

While everyone is posting about resetting the game.

It's hard not to make comparisons.

Taking Xinghuo as an example, in the promotion of "Julius Caesar", Xinghuo even invited the producer of Caesar 4 to play Xinghuo's "Julius Caesar 5".

Furthermore, during the demo, the producer repeatedly mentioned that the development team had communicated with him by phone, as well as the suggestions he made for the game's development as an advisor for Caesars V.

without any exaggeration.

Yesterday's Spark Remastered Games Festival was a carnival for gamers. The port of God of War 3 and the PSP exclusive God of War: Chains of Olympus drove countless action game enthusiasts crazy.

The remastered version of Heroes of Might and Magic III even soared to the top of the Starfire Europe and America Hot Games chart.

"Rise of the Dragon" and "Julius Caesar" have also sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and the number is still rising.

Many players who don't really care about simulation games downloaded the games because the Reset Game Festival offered two hours of free trial play for each game.

Because they can play for free for two hours, many players get hooked and eventually fall into the deep pit of simulation games.

Under these circumstances, many players felt yesterday that today's Warcraft 3 Remastered would continue the festive atmosphere.

In fact, due to the unexpected popularity of the Spark Remastered Game Festival, the pre-orders for Warcraft 3 Remastered actually surged yesterday.

Many people, whose emotions were stirred by the spark, generously donated money.

Then...

They felt like they had been stabbed in the back by the manufacturer. In Deng Hui's live stream, the barrage of comments surged like a tidal wave.

"Did Blizzard make this remake with their feet?"