Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

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"Holy crap, it's actually a real game!?"

The character's shooting movements are very natural, and the gun feels powerful at first glance.

The action system jointly developed by Spark America and its China headquarters is absolutely the highest level currently available.

Of course, the reason why the shooting feel is so perfect is not because Xinghuo is so powerful, but because this game only has one gun. If it can't even do that well, then Lin Li might as well not exist.

Lin Li's approach perfectly exemplifies what it means to spend money wisely.

Because the content is clear, we can focus on the details.

But the players don't know that.

Seeing the protagonist shooting, the sound effects, the bullets, and the hit feedback—everything was almost perfect, and the resulting impact was unimaginable.

After this shooting animation, the media and players at the scene had their eyes wide open.

Especially for the many casual gamers who came to watch the drama because of the previous denigration by Tencent Media, they expressed their opinions.

"Is this really a product made by a domestic manufacturer?"

"Are you so awesome?"

"Huh? Weren't you saying Xinghuo wasn't good? But after watching for these past few tens of minutes, I feel like Xinghuo is pretty good!"

"You really can't trust the media."

The few scenes just now caught the attention of Ubisoft's Guillermo del Toro, who was still thinking about the negotiations and reviewing the details backstage.

He was still thinking.

Should we send our subordinates to look for penguins around this time?

Yes.

Even though Guillermo del Toro had shaken hands with Lin Li and reached a consensus, he was still eager to make a move.

However, after these few scenes...

Guillermo del Toro's previously restless heart suddenly calmed down.

"Spark does have strength, unlike Penguin..."

After muttering something to himself, Guillermot unscrewed the water bottle and stopped thinking about the penguins, instantly relaxing.

In fact, Guillermot made the judgment that Spark was more powerful.

It's not just about the visuals.

More importantly, Spark accurately captured several of the key pleasures for shooting game players: the details of the firearms and the impact of their firearms.

No plot or anything else is needed; just watch the protagonist wield a sci-fi yet realistic sniper rifle and hit a distant enemy.

Looking at the ragdoll system after the enemy is hit, it's enough to give you goosebumps.

The feedback from bullets hitting the enemy was very clear.

Guillermot clearly saw that the shot had hit the enemy's right shoulder, with not only a noticeable impact response but also a physical sensation.

In Future Frontier, the enemy is a half-humanoid monster somewhat similar to the Xenomorph, covered in palm-sized black scales, and bullets hit the monster.

You can clearly see these scales flying up.

"They even put a collision system on every single monster's scale? Is this setup really going to be any good?"

Despite his high position, Guillermot still has an understanding of the game.

But I only have a slight understanding of it.

Because he didn't realize that the details of the exploding scales were not from a physical collision, but rather a pre-recorded trajectory animation.

For optimization.

The animations depicted many armor plates being shattered and knocked away as Xinghuo struck several parts of the monster.

The logic behind it.

It's somewhat similar to what players are familiar with: animated water and physical water.

The so-called animated water is a pre-set water animation that plays when the player interacts with the water, thus realizing the water ripples and splashes generated when the player is in a boat, swimming, or firing a gun.

Physical water, as the name suggests, mimics reality and performs these tasks through real-time calculations.

The physical water element, calculated through level progression, offers a considerable degree of playability.

For example, there's a natural flow from high to low, and you can interact with everything in the scene.

Of course, the latter has much higher configuration requirements.

In order to reduce configuration requirements, the particle size of this fluid water is often set to be relatively high.

Even Rockstar Games, when using physical water in Red Dead Redemption, gives the water a very noticeable jelly-like texture.

Let's reverse the process.

The details of the exploding scales in the Spark were also achieved using animation. However, because so much was done, it was so realistic that it looked like there was a set of real physical feedback.

Therefore, even when monsters appear in hordes and the distance closes, the protagonist switches to rifle mode and fires continuously, with scales and blood flying everywhere.

The video still played smoothly.

That's the core point, of course.

The reason it can be optimized to this extent is mainly because Future Frontier is a small game, and several sets of hit feedback animations can be made for a single hit part.

The randomly played feedback animations are so realistic that players won't even realize they're pre-set animations.

Chapter 504 Future Defense Line

There are many core gameplay elements in shooting games.

But the most basic thing is still the feel of shooting.

This is a foundation; only when you have a feel for shooting can you add to it.

Otherwise, it's all in vain.

In this aspect, Future Line of Defense is undoubtedly spot on.

In particular, in this scene, the protagonist first uses sniper mode to pick off distant enemies, and then switches to rifle mode to start firing wildly after the monster rushes in.

The protagonist's rifle is very powerful; it can take down an enemy in just two or three shots.

Combined with the monster's hit animation.

Even through the screen, you can feel the thrill, it just keeps bubbling up.

However, soon, as the number of monsters increased...

Even with the protagonist's incredibly powerful rifle, the monster still arrived in front of him.

At this moment, both online and offline players became inexplicably nervous.

I felt nervous, but also somewhat excited.

Although the entire gameplay demo, apart from a short voice introduction at the beginning that introduced the protagonist as the commander, did not include any plot presentation, the opening title "Future Defense" alone was enough to make it stand out.

And what the protagonist is doing.

It's easy to guess what will happen next.

The only question is how the protagonist will handle it.

This is exactly what players have been waiting for.

really.

The monster then approached the player.

The gameplay footage changed, and a TAB interactive button appeared in the upper right corner of the UI. The player in the gameplay demo also pressed TAB.

With the TAB key issue.

The system entered bullet time, the monster froze, and the camera zoomed out to a 45° overhead view.

This perspective is the most common perspective in many simulation construction games.

After the perspective is zoomed out.

The scene didn't immediately demonstrate the construction of the defensive offensive.

Instead, the camera zoomed out and the viewpoint was dragged to show the map environment.

The entire map is a long strip map with a ratio of approximately 3:1, and the terrain is very peculiar.

It's a mountain range, or rather, an "inverted canyon."

A normal canyon has mountains on both sides and flat land in the middle.

But here it becomes steep rock walls on both sides, with a raised, flat mountain range in the middle.

At the end of the mountain range is a sheer cliff that looks as if it had been cut off by a knife, which looks very spectacular, like a giant dragon rising up.

This terrain provides players with a natural defensive advantage, while also limiting the enemy's attack routes; they can either pass through the player's current position or go up the cliff.

When you zoom out from the demonstration viewpoint, you can also hear a faint sound of wind.

There are many other details that enhance immersion, such as the texture of the rock walls, the distribution of vegetation, and the lighting effects. These details not only enhance the game's visual appeal but also subtly indicate the division between safe and dangerous areas.

For example, the central part of the raised plateau is covered with vegetation and trees, and the main part is green, which means safety.

The closer you get to the edge of the cliff, the more desolate it becomes, and beyond the cliff lies a vast expanse of land covered in gray-brown.

The same applies to the ports that players defend.

Behind them was a green earth, while in front lay a gray-brown wasteland, where the slain monsters lay on the ground.

Furthermore, as the camera moves, players discover that there is a rather sci-fi-like town, or rather, base, on the high ground.

The town is small, but it's always running.

The building has a high-tech feel, while also incorporating many natural elements.

The most prominent building is a core tower that is constantly emitting white steam.

Upon closer inspection, small icons occasionally appear above some of the buildings.

It is clear.

This town is both something players need to protect and a place that automatically generates resources.

After taking a tour of the town.

In the gameplay demo, the character clicked on a row of numbers in the upper left corner with the mouse.

These numbers flashed by briefly during the demonstration.

However, during the game's initiation and development phases, the entire numerical system was the most labor-intensive part.

Future Defense is essentially an expanded tower defense game, and for this type of game, the numerical system is a very important, even absolutely core, system.

For example, combat stats.

If the monster numbers are too high, players will feel frustrated and uncomfortable fighting them, and they'll die more easily.

However, if the monster's stats are too low, players will still find it unsatisfying because it lacks challenge.

It was also said that it was a non-combat stat.

For example, resources, in Future Defense.

The resources controlled by the player, whether it's iron ingots, steel, gunpowder, computer cores, or anything else.

There are only two true major categories.

Experience and building resources.

Let's start with experience.

The system in Future Frontier is relatively simple: kill enemies or complete special missions, such as sniping the enemy commander or fighting your way through enemy outposts in a mech.

You can gain experience from these actions.

The experience gained is used to upgrade and unlock items.

To make it easier for players to understand, the game uses only one type of experience value, which can be used to upgrade weapons and various character skills.