Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Players can only land at a few designated spots in the miniature garden.

In other words, in the past, when changing maps in sandbox games, it was often just a loading screen.

In "Return to the Moon", the development team laid out all the miniature garden areas, such as Qinghe Town, the Immortal Sect, and other places that can be explored, on the large map.

Players can fly on swords, but the places where they can take off and land are fixed.

In this way, nothing needs to be placed on the large map; it can just serve as a backdrop for the sword-wielding action, which naturally doesn't cost much.

Within this framework, the development team of "Return to the Moon" successfully realized this sword-wielding technique in a miniature garden game.

In fact, to some extent...

Players only use this for novelty; after a few rounds, they'll most likely choose to teleport.

However, with this framework, the development team can choose to do more, such as adding aerial events? Can combat occur in the air?

That's possible, too.

Don't forget, "Return to the Moon" is a Baldur's Gate-like game. Just adjust the perspective, and how come the protagonist riding on the sword can't move and attack in the sky?

In addition, this system provides many frameworks for casual gameplay.

Just thinking about it briefly, there are so many ways to expand upon this gameplay.

"Wow, that's amazing! The level of completion is so high..."

Zhao Yun not only experienced flying on a sword, but also played through the storyline after landing. The demo of "Return to the Bright Moon" is very simple, just showcasing Qinghe Town and letting players get familiar with the character.

Then, the sword-wielding demonstration was shown, and finally, at the Immortal Sect, players were shown the "Boss Lady," the one on the poster, the one that made Chen Wenbin want to lick his feet.

"Wow, this immortal sect has such a great atmosphere! The Starfire Engine is really powerful; it feels so real..."

Hong Zhiyuan then nodded.

"Indeed, the Spark Engine technology has instantly raised the quality of our domestic game graphics by at least two levels..."

The older the game industry professionals are, the more shocked they are by the changes brought about by Spark.

"Two or three years ago, there were very few companies in China that wanted to create such visuals."

In fact, the current version of the Starfire engine is similar to Unreal Engine 4, but game graphics are not something that can be achieved simply by considering the engine's maximum potential.

The fundamental problem for domestic manufacturers is that they don't have enough talent who can use advanced engines.

Moreover, every time a domestic manufacturer gets used to Unreal Engine 3, then Unreal Engine 4 comes out, or they might use Unreal Engine this time, but then switch to another engine for the next project.

Furthermore, if you want to use a better engine, the cost will increase accordingly.

However, these things did change after the emergence of Starfire. Firstly, because of the use of the Starfire engine, which is exclusive to Starfire, there is no need to pay extra for engine usage fees.

This single point made Spark Engine the game development engine for almost all new projects in China.

As more and more people use game development engines, by 19, major companies found that when they were hiring, most people already knew how to use the Spark engine.

Therefore, if your new project uses the Spark Engine, you'll save on the cost of retraining talent.

Finally, Xinghuo is a domestic engine manufacturer, so you can seek support immediately if you encounter problems, and communication is convenient.

"If only we could remake Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 using the Starfire Engine..."

Looking at the immortal sect in "Return to the Bright Moon," Hong Zhiyuan was quite emotional. For game industry professionals, the first game they develop always feels like looking at their first love.

Therefore, when Hong Zhiyuan saw the fantasy style displayed in the "Return to the Bright Moon" project, he naturally thought of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4".

He was just saying it casually.

However, after he finished speaking, Zhao Yun turned around in surprise.

"What's with that expression, Sister Yun?"

Zhao Yun shook her head.

"I was wondering, how did you know Xinghuo contacted us about resetting Sword and Fairy 4..."

"Huh!? We're remaking Legend of Sword and Fairy 4? We don't even have the copyright... No, wait, the copyright is actually in Xinghuo's hands now..."

"Can we really bring back Sword and Fairy 4?!"

For Hong Zhiyuan and many of the current employees of Aurogon, the original Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 was a huge regret because many things were left unfinished due to cost constraints at the time.

Furthermore, everyone was holding a grudge about Softstar Entertainment disbanding after they finished making the game.

This spirit was also the reason why Zhulong was later established.

Years have passed, and although everyone has seemingly put that past entanglement behind them, it was only when Xinghuo returned the copyright to Zhulong that everyone realized what had happened.

No one has forgotten that incident.

This is what is meant by "a feeling of unease and resentment."

Although Lin Li didn't have many thoughts when he made this decision.

At this time, Xinghuo had already initiated two remakes of the Legend of Sword and Fairy series: one was Legend of Sword and Fairy 1, and the other was Legend of Sword and Fairy 4. Xinghuo handed over the remake of Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 to the remake team in Yuzhou.

As for the remake of Sword and Fairy 4, Lin Li thought for a long time before finally asking Zhulong for his opinion.

The reason for this decision was that Lin Li felt that most of the original cast and crew from Legend of Sword and Fairy 4 were still in the cast of Aurora Dragon.

Considering that the original Sword and Fairy 4 was actually a half-finished product, it would be more appropriate to bring back the original cast and crew if a remake were to be made.

Chapter 459 How could they lose like this?

Just as the former employees of Aurogon were exclaiming in surprise.

Shen Wansan in 1717.

I feel like I'm going completely crazy.

"No, why haven't you finished writing yet? Hurry up and send it, send it quickly, or at least give me a quick report."

At this moment, everyone in the 1717 editing room was typing frantically.

To be honest, before today, as the editor-in-chief of 1717, Shen Wansan had expected that there would be an overwhelming amount of news in the next two days.

After all, the Penguin Games Festival and the Spark Domestic Manufacturers Special Sale were held at the same time.

However, Shen Wansan did not expect that there would be so much news about it.

On the Spark platform, there are countless domestic game events to introduce, as well as new versions of those events. These are all manageable, as we had prepared them beforehand and can release them with minor modifications.

However, some breaking news cannot be written in advance.

For example, the Spark platform's domestic manufacturers' special sales exceeded 1 million RMB in revenue within one hour, and the game "Naraka: The Last Stand" had over 300 million concurrent users worldwide.

Another example is the public beta launch of Genshin Impact by miHoYo, which resulted in a stark contrast in public opinion.

NetEase's new game "Return to the Moon" has received rave reviews! It directly topped the game pre-registration chart! The 9.9 yuan skin pack sold over 100 million copies in one go.

Swordplay and related game demos became an instant hit in the country.

On Douyin and Bilibili, a quick scroll through the pages reveals nothing but videos of "Gui Mingyue".

And this is just the news from Spark; from Tencent, the news today is also overwhelming.

The first thing to be affected was the release of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back".

Before 1717, because I had received a lot of publicity budget from Tencent, I had already written the script for "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" and sent out a lot of publicity materials in advance.

Of course, all of this information was provided by Penguin.

In fact, 1717 didn't actually play the game; they only promoted it based on the video provided by Tencent.

This is the norm.

Not all manufacturers will release demo versions to the media. Anyway, once the money is received, the sponsors can say whatever they want. As long as the final game isn't too outrageous, there's no problem.

But now, the problem is that "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" is too outrageous.

After the release of the game "Monkey King: Hero Is Back", it was criticized by many players as the worst game of the year due to its poor quality, bugs, and rough gameplay.

However, in the previous life, "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" was in a relatively sluggish state in the entire Chinese single-player game industry. Although it was about Bao Si, and although it was criticized by countless people, especially movie fans.

Ultimately, because it was a domestically produced single-player game, just like the Chinese national football team being criticized, people would complain and then quickly request a refund, and that was the end of it.

However, in this timeline, due to a misjudgment by Tencent Games...

They really invested a lot of resources in promoting "Monkey King: Hero Is Back". In addition, the players in this world have completely different expectations for "Monkey King: Hero Is Back".

Because of Spark, the single-player game market in this world is much more active, with many high-quality games, especially during the promotion of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back".

It's Sony again, another action game, fantasy adventure, a movie adaptation.

It sounds so real.

But when it was actually released, they discovered, wow, this is just Shanghai Fortress that was released after The Wandering Earth.

"Spark opened a door for domestic single-player games, and now Tencent is trying to close that door."

"Where did I come from? What is this? Is this a game from 19?"

"It's no exaggeration to say that any of the mini-games in Xinghuo's games are more fun than this thing."

"4399 is better than this thing."

"How dare they price it at 199! I must be out of my mind to buy such garbage."

With its repetitive monsters, stiff combat, misleading advertising, and exorbitant prices, "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" has gathered everything that Bao Si games should and shouldn't have.

Moreover, this piece of garbage was released after domestic players had already gained confidence in domestically produced games.

As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison.

In the past, the overall environment for domestic PCs was terrible, so it was one thing if you were bad.

But now, NetEase has released "Return to the Moon," and you're still that same old blob.

"Tencent is just Tencent; it's been blinded by the benefits of channel advantages. All the other manufacturers are scrambling for it, but Tencent is still struggling to present its research findings..."

"It's one thing for a dog to be unable to stop eating shit, but how come you, a penguin, can't change your ways either?"

Besides gamers, a large number of movie fans of "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" are also vehemently criticizing the film.

The pressure from public opinion is much greater than in my previous life.

Those streamers who had received the business orders and were livestreaming their trip were also completely shocked by this scene.

The smarter ones switched to other games on the spot, while those who stubbornly continued streaming almost all experienced a massive loss of followers.

Because the portrayal of Bao Si in "Monkey King: Hero Is Back" was so exaggerated, it was like a rotten egg being smashed into egg drop soup, which completely disrupted the rhythm of the entire Penguin Games Festival.

None of them had ever seen anything like this before, and they didn't know what to do.

~~~

"Why does it always have to be this weird, every single time?!"

"How exactly do your people conduct the verification process?"

"This is what you call 'above average quality'? Do you have some special understanding of game quality?!"

While cursing, Ma Xiao kept rubbing his temples, genuinely afraid they would suddenly explode.

In fact, Ma Xiao had high hopes for this year's Penguin Games Festival.

After all, the competitors are not Spark, but a bunch of other domestic manufacturers.

From the preparation stage to the promotion and distribution stage, Tencent's promotion and distribution have always been superior to those of other manufacturers.

I thought this was a sure thing. If we can't beat Xinghuo, can't we at least beat NetEase?

Ma Xiaolian has already revised half of her summary, since the Penguin Games Festival is in early December, and Penguin's annual report is at the end of December.

If you don't prepare the documents in advance, you'll definitely be in a rush when the time comes.

But to everyone's surprise, the duck that was practically in their mouth could fly away!

Ma Xiao's face was so gloomy it seemed like it could drip water. He slammed his hand on the table, the loud noise making the whole room tremble.

"I really can't understand why we've invested so many resources and so much effort, and this is the kind of game quality we get in return? Did the reviewers even bother to look at it carefully? Did they truly understand the needs of the players and the standards of the market?"

He paced back and forth in his office like a caged ape.

The reason for such anger, besides being upset about the situation itself, is also a sense of fear.

This fear is somewhat similar to that of the last emperor of many dynasties.