Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

The person who drew this poster clearly understands gamers; the attention to detail is superb, with detailed ankles and delicate, tiny toes that make the feet look incredibly appetizing.

Chen Wenbin, who is already completely powerless against fairies, was immediately struck by this poster.

"What is this?!"

Without even a second's hesitation, Chen Wenbin clicked on the poster. He didn't even bother to check which company made the game. He was surprised to see that there was a demo available to play on the details page.

The download started immediately.

The demo wasn't large, and he quickly finished downloading it. With excitement, he opened the game.

This excitement lasted until the NetEase logo suddenly popped up, instantly bringing me back to my senses.

"How come it was made by NetEase..."

"Thank goodness, there's a 'Spark Collaboration' tag behind the NetEase logo..."

Because it was a demo, the game loaded very quickly. It wasn't until he entered the game that Chen Wenbin suddenly realized something.

"Speaking of which, what kind of game is this again?"

Chen Wenbin thought for a long time but still couldn't remember what type of game it was, he was too busy looking at his wife.

But soon, he lost interest in thinking about it.

Because the game's storyline is already shown on screen.

The story of "Return to the Bright Moon" tells the tale of a reclusive young man who descends the mountain to search for a bright pearl. However, the game's beginning is not shown in the demo.

For a fantasy-themed, story-driven RPG, what do you want to offer in "Return to the Moon" to keep players engaged?

This was a question that Lin Li had asked Liu Hua after the project was approved.

At the time, Liu Hua's answer was the "satisfaction point of difference".

In other words, the protagonist is a disciple of a reclusive sect. He is obviously too strong, but he has no idea of ​​his own strength. At the same time, what he learns in the sect is completely different from the world outside the sect.

Through these two core elements, a series of storylines unfold.

However, Lin Li only agreed with half of this answer at the time.

Chapter 455 Changes Brought by Spark

"Your answer is 'enjoyment points,' but that's not the core gameplay. What you need to understand is the core appeal of Xianxia games, and the core appeal of Xianxia characters..."

"We need to bring a touch of ethereal beauty to the game..."

Afterwards, Lin Li asked Liu Hua to deconstruct the Legend of Sword and Fairy series, especially Legend of Sword and Fairy 4.

"Don't look at the specific plot of Sword and Fairy 4, but look for the feeling. The core of content-based games is to immerse players in the game world."

"A stack of satisfying moments is fine, but it should be used cautiously and skillfully."

After this conversation, Liu Hua actually played the Legend of Sword and Fairy 4. He then discovered that the reason why Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 is considered the best-received installment in the series is largely due to its relatively clear immersion rhythm.

The protagonist, who emerged from the mountains, knew nothing about the world, so he could guide the player to explore it. Han Lingsha, as an intruder, was essentially a "guide."

She led the players out of the mountains, and the main characters then traveled on their way, pursuing the desire to seek immortality and enlightenment—a desire that easily resonates with players.

Advancing through the main and side quests, indulging in wine, women, wealth, and power, completing trials, joining the Qionghua Sect, and learning sword control techniques allowed them to travel to places previously inaccessible...

Putting the plot aside.

This approach, along with the underlying framework and the distinctive characters, is one of the reasons why players can gradually immerse themselves in this fantasy world.

Finally, Liu Hua realized that the core of "Return to the Bright Moon" is about engaging with the world.

The story outline remains unchanged; it is still the story of a disciple of a reclusive sect searching for a pearl outside the sect. However, many changes have been made to the setting.

For example, if the player's character is filled with curiosity and a sense of the unknown about the world outside the sect, the player's sense of immersion will naturally increase.

Of course, although the protagonist is curious about the outside world, he is not the kind of traditional fool. On the contrary, the protagonist of "Return to the Bright Moon" is quite intelligent.

The first scene of the demo.

It's the protagonist talking to himself.

"Since I received my orders and descended the mountain over a month ago, I haven't found Mingzhu's whereabouts, but I've gained a follower..."

In short, after giving a brief overview of the background, the game begins.

The camera then zooms out.

Ahead was a girl in a red dress, staring blankly at a vendor selling candied hawthorns.

"Return to the Bright Moon" uses sandbox modeling, and the overall presentation adopts a relatively luxurious real-time performance method compared to other games, which is relatively rare in the past.

Because the cost is relatively high, but as the saying goes, one generation plants the trees and another enjoys the shade.

With the extensive use of Spark in "Destiny's Path", the cost of this sandbox mode has now been reduced considerably.

This cost reduction is mainly reflected in three aspects. First, the motion capture team has matured, with the support of Spark's two games, as well as major domestic projects such as Black Myth.

The scale of motion capture actors in China and the scope that motion capture can cover have both increased significantly.

Furthermore, once both of Spark's games entered normal operation, the freed-up production capacity benefited the second group of people who decided to adopt this model.

The second step is scene modeling, as well as real-scene recording, and then converting the real-scene recording into 2D rendering.

These technologies have gradually matured, especially the conversion of real-scene recording into 2D rendering, which can be said to be the unique secret of the Spark Engine.

Its specific function is to transform a real-world model into a two-dimensional rendered building by loading a two-dimensional style library.

It's somewhat similar to AI painting, but the underlying technology is different.

But the final result was quite good.

Many buildings in anime-style games look unrealistic and empty because anime-style games often use independent modeling during rendering, while real-world scenes are transferred in. In the process of transferring, some details of the original building, such as the framework and layout, can be preserved.

This increases the sense of realism.

Another advantage of doing this is that it ensures the realism of the building proportions in the game. That's why many game scenes look pretty good, but feel awkward to play.

The problem arises because modelers rely entirely on manual judgment to determine the size of buildings during the modeling process, and the resulting scale is prone to errors.

Many Xianxia MMORPGs from the past had this problem: the proportions of people and buildings were subtly misaligned. It may seem like a small issue, but it is very noticeable when playing the game.

The reason why Black Myth can bring a strong sense of immersion is not only because of the realistic scene modeling, but also because the scale of these realistic scene models is very realistic.

It feels like you've actually stepped into those ancient buildings; this sense of realism in scale is a detail that's hard to detect in games.

Ironically, the immersive experience of a game is built up from these very details.

Based on this, the production team of "Return to the Bright Moon" made further adjustments to the rendering model to make it more in line with the texture of Xianxia (fantasy martial arts).

With the introduction of these technologies, coupled with the ample budget for "Return to the Moon," this project was designed to be high-standard from the outset.

Of course, it is precisely because they aimed for high costs and high standards that they caused considerable controversy within NetEase.

After all, if you have more resources, others will have fewer.

Ultimately, it inevitably turned into a struggle for the right to speak.

Chen Wenbin knew nothing about the stories behind these games; he simply thought the visuals had a good atmosphere.

This sense of atmosphere comes from two aspects.

One is the modeling of the streets, the other is the pedestrian flow on the streets, and the third is the interaction.

To create an atmosphere, it's not enough to just have people; they also need to be active and interactive. "Return to the Moon" does a good job in this regard.

For example, on this small town street filled with the classic elements of fantasy and martial arts, some pedestrians are walking hurriedly, as if they have urgent business to attend to.

Some strolled leisurely, while women lingered in front of jewelry stalls, where vendors shouted and waved their arms to attract customers.

Several children were laughing and playing in the crowd, chasing each other, sometimes jumping and sometimes squatting down to look curiously at the little things on the ground.

The elderly walked slowly with their hands behind their backs, occasionally stopping to greet acquaintances with nods and smiles.

These accumulated details are the core of what brings this street to life.

Of course, Xinghuo also deserves credit for this.

Because a large number of Starfire games, such as Star River Paradise and Destiny Track, also have a large number of NPCs, Starfire has a complete set of NPC action frameworks.

These skeletons and motion logics are all packaged into the Spark Engine, and most developers only need to change a set of models to build a completely different atmosphere.

For example, on the same street, simply by adjusting the architectural style to a magical world, the women selecting jewelry can use the same set of motion frames to transform into witches choosing wands.

Essentially, it's the same thing, but Spark has already invested time and resources to manufacture it.

This is why, at this point in time, Liu Hua has significantly reduced the cost of producing "Return to the Bright Moon".

Before Spark, if you wanted to achieve this effect, you had to do it manually, and there was no guarantee that you could do it well. Now, you only need to pay a certain fee to use the ready-made module.

At most, you just need to make some minor adjustments, and the cost will naturally come down.

What was saved was not just cost, but also the fact that there was no such path to take before.

The changes that Xinghuo has brought to Huaxia Games go far beyond its impressive sales figures; it has also significantly impacted the domestic industry.

This is actually Liu Hua's biggest takeaway from producing "Return to the Moon".

Chapter 456 Sword Control Technique

Since it's a gameplay demo, the current storyline of "Return to the Moon" isn't complicated. In the town, Chen Wenbin meets the girl who's shopping with the protagonist.

The girl's name was Song Yunying. She seemed very playful, and Chen Wenbin could sense that she liked the protagonist during their playful interactions.

However, because there was no prior information, Chen Wenbin didn't really know much about the girl's past.

This didn't stop him from watching the protagonist and Song Yunying playfully bickering on the street.

After browsing the stalls for a while, Chen Wenbin bought the girl a string of candied hawthorns. After getting a general understanding of the trading system, the two quickly triggered a battle.

This battle scene was clearly designed by the production team. The plot is roughly that the two main characters are about to sit down in front of a tea stall to have some snacks and satisfy their cravings.

The tea stall owner then served tea and told the two that recently, many outsiders had come to the Immortal Sect City seeking immortality and a path to enlightenment, and that these unpleasant outsiders were affecting the town.

The protagonist then joked that he was also an outsider.

The tea stall owner was a little embarrassed, but then smiled and replied that the protagonist was handsome and the young lady was beautiful, so she was definitely not an unwelcome guest.

As they were chatting, they saw a disturbance at the hotel across from the stall. One person was thrown out of the hotel and crashed into the protagonist's table, scattering the food and drinks all over the floor.

This is actually the simplest way to trigger a battle, but because of this short setup, the whole plot doesn't feel so abrupt.

Enter battle.

The combat system in "Return to the Moon" is also quite interesting. As the camera rises, the game screen transforms into a sandbox, allowing characters to move and attack.

The overall logic is actually the same as that of Baldur's Gate 3, which is a turn-based strategy game.

The reason for using this model is to showcase the splendor of immortal techniques at a relatively low cost.

However, in terms of implementation, "Return to the Bright Moon" underwent significant simplification.

This subtraction is mainly to lower the barrier to entry for players. Liu Hua understood this principle very well when he was at Xinghuo, which is important for a dual-platform game.

It's difficult for a game to have both.

If your game is more gameplay-oriented, then your storyline can be a little weaker; if your game is more content-oriented, then your gameplay shouldn't be too complicated.

For content-driven games, the ideal gameplay should have a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling.

"Low minimum" means that the entry threshold must be low, just like in Destiny's Path, as long as you match the right characters, you can fight automatically.

The same applies to "Returning to the Bright Moon".

The game's combat is divided into two parts: movement and spellcasting.

Other searchable items, interactive props, terrain effects, and so on do not exist in the early stages; everything is solely for the purpose of providing players with a satisfying experience when unleashing magical spells.

Take this encounter in front of the hotel as an example. The player was given the strongest attack he had right from the start: the Sword Control Technique.

Since we have the sword control technique, of course we should use it.

Chen Wenbin moved forward two steps, and the enemy entered the spell's attack range. He then clicked to release the spell, and saw the protagonist draw his sword from behind.

He tossed it into the air, and the sword began to glow with a faint blue light. With a wave of his hand, the sword trembled slightly, and several more swords spread out to the left and right.

Immediately, an invisible wave spread out from his body. The protagonist opened his eyes, a glint of light flashing in them. He slowly raised the long sword in his hand, its tip pointing straight at the sky.

"Sword Control! Strike!"