Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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The protagonist's voice was soft and crisp.

And with this strike.

The sword flashed and struck the enemy.

One skill can wipe out all the enemies.

"Wow, that's so cool, man!! This is amazing."

As one skill was used, Chen Wenbin began to look forward to the other skills in this combat system, but unfortunately, he used the Sword Control Technique right away.

Therefore, the enemy was eliminated.

The protagonist then encountered disciples of the Immortal Sect who had come to enforce the law. After learning that the protagonist had also come to visit the Immortal Sect, the two disciples led the two of them up the mountain.

This section allows players to experience sword-wielding.

Since this is a demo and not a real game, the development team tried their best to show players what they wanted to show them during the gameplay.

As mentioned before, "Return to the Moon" adopts a miniature garden gameplay, but a miniature garden does not mean that you cannot fly on a sword. The development team has integrated the sword-flying function with the world map.

Unlike open-world games, mobility in sandbox games is limited by the size of the sandbox.

However, the development team of "Return to the Moon" has a strong obsession with sword-flying. After all, can a Xianxia game that doesn't allow sword-flying still be called a Xianxia game?

However, flying on a sword is actually quite difficult.

Especially since "Return to the Moon" is a miniature garden game, it makes it even more difficult.

If you're making it an open world, you can treat flying swords as a transportation system, but how can you make flying swords in a small garden?

But finally.

Liu Hua, the director of "Return to the Bright Moon," personally led a team that stayed at the Spark Engine site for a week, spent half a day researching, and finally actually succeeded.

The overall logic behind its implementation is to transform the sandbox into a pseudo-open world.

Simply put, when a player uses the sword control technique, there will be a relatively cool sword-mounting animation, starting with a simple jump from the character into the air.

Then there are all sorts of fancy ways to climb the sword.

This can be considered a hidden consumption incentive in "Return to the Moon". It doesn't mean that it should be sold separately, but rather that it can be included in monthly cards, large monthly cards, and battle pass bundles.

For example, each monthly card can include a cool sword-riding style.

Don't underestimate this seemingly useless thing. It is essentially a manifestation of emotional value. If it is made well, it can generate value.

In short, once the player mounts the sword, the system will hand over control of the sword to the player. As the character crouches slightly, the corresponding sword will leap forward.

The camera will then rise, elevating the player to a certain height.

At this point, players can freely control their swords. However, the sword-controlling techniques in many Xianxia games are actually quite perfunctory.

Although it appears to be flying on a sword, the entire model is stiff.

The handling is also quite clunky.

In this respect, it is not as good as the great lightness skill in many martial arts games. However, although the great lightness skill is cool, it lacks the elegance of flying on a sword.

However, the sword control technique in "Return to the Bright Moon" has clearly undergone many detailed optimizations.

Chen Wenbin didn't feel anything at first, but when he actually started playing, he realized the wonder of the sword-wielding gameplay.

First, the concept of speed is incorporated into the sword-wielding technique here.

When Chen Wenbin controlled the immortal sword, he could clearly feel that the sword was constantly accelerating, along with the glow of the sword and the afterimage left by the tail of the sword.

Chapter 457 Candle Dragon

After accelerating for a certain period of time, you can also press Shift to sprint.

When he pressed the sprint button for the first time, he saw his character controlling the sword, rushing forward like an arrow released from a bow.

The sword gleamed coldly in the sunlight, large swaths of clouds rushed past, the landscape on the ground changed rapidly, and the wind whistled in our ears.

With a slight adjustment of the camera, you can control the sword to move nimbly through the air, sometimes soaring, sometimes diving, like a nimble bird.

Chen Wenbin's character stands on a sword, his clothes fluttering and his hair flying, and he performs corresponding actions as he presses the buttons.

For example, when accelerating, one will bend over slightly, and when decelerating, one will spread out one's arms. These movements, borrowed from skiing and water paddle, make the sword control technique incredibly realistic at this moment.

Within this realistic experience, there's also plenty of style. For example, when you accelerate to your fastest speed according to the prompts, you can press the dash button repeatedly to unleash a unique sword-wielding action.

One of the moves was absolutely awesome.

The protagonist lightly stepped on the immortal sword, then leaped forward, his whole body resembling a large bird. He spread his arms and swung them backward, soaring forward through the air.

At this moment, the sword made a humming sound, circled the protagonist once, and then flew to the protagonist's side. Then, as if in formation, it gradually flew in front of the player.

Finally, the protagonist grabbed the hilt of the sword with his hand. Compared to standing on the sword, this method of dragging one on top of the other is indeed more aerodynamic.

And so, one man and one sword broke the sound barrier. Then the protagonist pulled the sword back and did a movement that looked a bit like diving, raising his hands together in prayer.

With a slight upward tilt, like a kite, the player gradually "stood up" from a lying position. Then, the sword flashed back and turned, returning to the player's feet.

"Holy crap, this is outrageous... but it's fucking cool..."

The swordsman weaves through the clouds, and when the camera zooms out, you can even see cloud trails that look like they've been created by an airplane flying by.

The land below gradually became smaller, and the mountains and rivers unfolded like a scroll painting, making everything look so magnificent and beautiful.

Chen Wenbin was thoroughly enjoying the feeling of free flight, and his mouth was constantly uttering "Damn it!" like a machine gun.

Even after he followed the prompts and landed at the Immortal Sect, the experience he had just had still amazed him.

"This damn sword control technique alone is something I have to try..."

~~~

at the same time.

Shanghai, Wangyuan Shengtang

Aurogon Games Studio.

Hong Zhiyuan had just put down the controller.

Compared to Chen Wenbin's constant exclamations of "WTF," this performance just now was more moving for him.

Hong Zhiyuan is 35 years old this year, which is considered old in the game production industry.

The first company I joined was Shanghai Softstar. I was lucky enough to join the development team of The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4.

After its release, Sword and Fairy 4 achieved both critical acclaim and high sales.

As the development team, Softstar Entertainment was already cutting back on expenses during the development process, and originally thought that the game's sales would solve their funding problems.

As a result, these profits were reinvested by Softstar Entertainment into the development of online games.

Ultimately, in the same year that Sword and Fairy 4 was released, Softstar Entertainment was forced to disband.

Subsequently, Hong Zhiyuan, like most others, joined Gong Changjun's Zhulong, and that marked the beginning of the Gujian series.

Having worked in the industry for over a decade, Hong Zhiyuan, like many others, gradually lost his passion for games.

Some people simply clock in for work every day and complete their tasks.

This is actually quite normal, because although game making seems like a very industrialized thing, it is actually a relatively emotional thing.

At least in the project initiation stage, the creator's desire to express themselves and create is highly needed.

This desire to express and create comes from two aspects: one is naturally having new ideas in one's mind, and the other is feedback from players.

Sales figures and reviews are all examples.

Before the release of Gujian 3, most of the employees at Aurogon were actually quite similar to Hong Zhiyuan. You'd say they had completely lost their creative drive?

That's not the case either.

But to say that he has a great deal of creative desire is not necessarily true.

Until Gujian 3 appeared, Gujian 3 was the most ambitious work of the entire Aurogon team, and in all aspects it tried its best to be as close as possible to the world's best.

The previous version of Gujian 3 had a good reputation, but its sales were not high. The sales of 70 copies in two months were not bad compared to other versions, but it was far from meeting the production team's own expectations.

It's like a chef preparing ten tables of dishes, but only one table of people actually come. Even though everyone who eats says it's delicious, they still feel a little empty inside.

And on this world line.

Because of the partnership between NetEase and Spark, Gujian 3 sold 600,000 copies in its first week on Spark, and by the end of its first year, it had sold a total of 4 million copies worldwide.

This is largely because Gujian 3 has launched many events on the Xinghuo platform and received a lot of "billions in subsidies".

Regardless, this sales volume met Aurogon's expectations, and they made a considerable amount of money.

Later, at the beginning of this year, NetEase took the initiative to seek investment from Spark, contributing a total of 20% of the shares. This investment was mainly to raise funds for the new project.

The emergence of the Spark platform made many manufacturers realize that the domestic single-player game market actually exists, but it just lacks distribution channels.

In the past, this understanding only emerged after Steam gradually gained wider adoption in China.

While Spark's global reach is still somewhat limited, its domestic coverage is far superior to Steam's in its previous life, thanks to the availability of distribution channels.

In 2019, the popularity of the Spark platform not only increased for anime-style games, but also for single-player games. In 2019 alone, there were more than 20 single-player games with over 1 million downloads in China on the Spark platform.

This includes major overseas titles as well as domestic games such as "The Scroll of Taiwu".

Including Zhulong himself.

Both games, "Gu Jian 3" and "Shen Wu Fantasy", have sold over a million copies. Shen Wu Fantasy, in particular, was sold for only 9.9 yuan during promotional events and for a long time in the US region, where it was only $1.

However, this 17 game sold nearly 19 million copies worldwide in 400 thanks to its extremely low price and the advertising slogan "Experience Chinese culture for $1".

Although the total amount is only $400 million, it is still a windfall for Zhulong.

Moreover, the $400 million is a small matter; the 400 million players behind it are the real big deal, even if these players buy them just to log in, collect Starfire cards, or collect stars.

At least the name Zhulong shone a light in their hearts.

When Aurogon releases a new game, it will naturally attract even more attention.

With money, fame, and investment from Spark, Aurogon immediately sprang into action, releasing DLC ​​for both games and ramping up recruitment efforts.

Preparing to launch a new project.

However, these things have nothing to do with Hong Zhiyuan. The team behind Gujian 3 is still working on the second DLC, planning to sell it before deciding on the next project.

"What game is this? It seems really well-made..."

Chapter 458 Resetting Decisions

Just as Hong Zhiyuan put down the controller, a woman of about his age walked over.

"Hey, Sister Yun."

The "Sister Yun" mentioned by Hong Zhiyuan is Zhao Yun, the writer of details for Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 and subsequent Gujian series.

This is normal. If you get caught playing games at work, you'll definitely panic.

However, Hong Zhiyuan and his team just finished the DLC these past few days, so everyone is quite relaxed and playing other games to find some inspiration is understandable.

"That sword control technique is amazing! How did you achieve that?"

It is said that experts can see the details. Although Zhaoyun is a copywriter, she has naturally gained some understanding of games over the years.

She might be lacking in other games, but she's extremely familiar with the fantasy/martial arts genre.

"Is it using the Great World?"

Hong Zhiyuan shook his head.

"No, this is a sandbox game."

"A miniature garden game? Isn't that like the Legend of Sword and Fairy 4? How could they make sword-flying like this?"

Upon seeing this sword-riding system, Zhao Yun naturally thought of the game "Chinese Paladin 4". The game also considered making a sword-riding system, but ultimately it was limited by various technical constraints.

They still opted to use cutscenes instead of player controls.

But this regret has always been etched in my heart. Today, when I suddenly saw such a perfect solution, Zhaoyun was quite interested and even sat down to play with it for a while.

The sword-wielding system in "Return to the Bright Moon" is actually quite simple.

The development team did create a large map, but it was almost entirely pieced together from materials that came with the Starfire engine, and a minimum altitude was set when flying on a sword.