In the first exposure, the game received over 2 million pre - orders in 10 days. Why has Leyuan Technology also ventured into developing a second - generation game using UE5?

Written by: Guofu

Recently, after the first exposure of "Silver City" by Leyuan Games, it has caused quite a stir both inside and outside the industry.

After all, Leyuan Games is best known for a series of casual games led by "Happy Match", and its most extensive audience is concentrated among middle - aged users. Now they are venturing into the second - generation games (anime - themed games) which are mostly popular among young users, which is really unimaginable.

But in fact, Leyuan Games has previously launched second - generation games such as "Merocchino Story" and "Ensemble Stars!", and has also launched virtual idol - related projects on Bilibili. They are not completely unfamiliar with the anime world.

Moreover, the PV and in - game footage of "Silver City" are well - made and are in no way inferior to other exposed large - world second - generation games on the market. It can be regarded as a real "surprise force".

Promotional image of Silver City

From the PV, we can see a lot of attractive content, such as the unique theme background, the world design logic similar to Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed" and "Watch Dogs" series of games, the Victorian - era scenes built on UE5, and the realistic - textured anime character designs. Beyond the game, backed by Leyuan Games, the team also has sufficient development funds and technical support.

As of now, the playback volume of "Silver City" on Bilibili has exceeded 6 million, and the overall feedback from players is mostly about anticipation. Ten days after the first exposure, the number of global pre - registrations for the game also exceeded 2 million. As Leyuan Games' first large - scale 3D anime product, this result of the first exposure is quite good.

However, regarding some of the game's designs, many people have also raised their doubts: Is the UE5 engine really suitable for making anime games that emphasize animation rendering styles? The art of the scenes and characters seems quite disjointed, like adding an anime mod to a realistic game. Can this style design succeed?

Recently, we had a brief chat with the development team of "Silver City", the Silver Studio, about the development ideas of this project and the team background, and also specifically mentioned some of the doubts that people have about this product.

Here is the content of the interview: (The content has been abridged for easier reading)

Two weeks have passed since the first exposure of "Silver City". How do you feel internally?

First of all, after the global first exposure of "Silver City", it has received quite enthusiastic responses in both the domestic and overseas markets. For example, the PV and in - game footage reached the top 1 on the entire Bilibili platform in terms of popularity, and also got more than 1.2 million views on IGN's YouTube channel. Such market feedback makes us very happy. On the other hand, we also think that we need to work harder to polish the game so as to live up to the recognition and expectations of the players.

For us, the first exposure is not just about publicly introducing "Silver City" to the market. More importantly, it helps us obtain real market feedback and player suggestions to verify whether the team's conceptions about the game IP and gameplay can meet everyone's expectations, and whether the art effects presented in the video can be loved by players.

What impressed us deeply is that after the first exposure, we not only received a lot of praise and support from players, but also got a lot of real player feedback in domestic and overseas communities. Some players even wrote "essays" of more than two thousand words to describe in detail what they liked and disliked about "Silver City". In our opinion, players are willing to spend so much time writing down their thoughts and sharing their feelings and suggestions with us. This is the greatest support and recognition, and it will also motivate us to do better.

A bird's - eye view of the city

It sounds like the game is still in an early stage of development?

Actually, as can be seen from the PV and in - game footage, we have already designed a lot of world - view content and gameplay for "Silver City". An important significance of this first exposure is to let us see the real feedback from the market and players to judge whether the current direction is correct. So currently, we can probably be said to be in a stage of "on the eve of industrialization". We will further improve the game design based on the constructive suggestions provided by players after the first exposure, and then fill the game with more content and experiences for testing.

For example, the core theme of "detective reasoning" in the game is also the key consideration in the gameplay design of "Silver City". The gameplay of "exposing the werewolf" in the large - world detection and entering battles, which appeared in the PV and in - game footage, is one of them. There will also be other gameplay experiences related to the player's detective identity in "Silver City", and we will reveal them to players one by one in the future testing stages.

Moreover, whether before or after the first exposure, we have always been very concerned about what the market and players think of "Silver City", because creators cannot exist without players.

In addition, both our company and the project team tend to have a low - key and practical working style. Through the PV and in - game video of this first exposure, the message we hope to convey to players is that we are really building this Silver City. There is still a lot of room for optimization in the currently presented game content, and we are already on the way and will continue to work on it.

Speaking of feedback, the art style of "Silver City" is actually quite different from other second - generation games on the market. How do you consider this aspect in the specific design?

In order to reflect the prosperous and delicate texture of Silver City in the game's world - view, real materials and lighting effects play a very important role, which also conforms to most people's visual impression of the "Victorian - era - like" theme. We believe that this effect can better reflect the temperament of this era than a simple anime - style rendering, and can also be compatible with a relatively unique aesthetic experience like the Art Nouveau movement.

But when it comes to the characters, we hope to adhere to the core of the anime world, that is, those characters that can arouse players' emotional resonance and love, and the stories that happen to them. So we will still choose a non - realistic style to meet the expectations of anime players for "Silver City".

Character dialogue

Based on this pursuit of quality and the UE5 engine, how do you solve the game optimization problem? There were also frame - dropping issues in the in - game footage of the first exposure.

We have also noticed that after the first exposure, the performance of UE5 on mobile platforms is a major concern for many players. Multi - platform adaptation and optimization are problems that we have been researching and solving since the development stage. Currently, there is a senior and experienced technical team supporting the project development. We believe that we will provide players with an excellent experience in the future.

But there are already many large - world second - generation games on the market, and "Silver City" was exposed quite late. Do you feel the pressure to catch up?

There are constantly emerging more excellent products in the game industry, so there must be pressure. But we think the most important thing is to do well what is in front of us.

Now the team is more focused on how to create high - quality content and gameplay experiences to respond to players' expectations of us. Because both the large - world game track and the anime game track belong to content - oriented games. In the middle and later stages of development, they cannot do without content expansion and continuous and stable version content updates. We are also exploring how to do a good job in the team's industrialized output. This is a quite challenging thing, but it is also the only way to make "Silver City" a success.

City scene

How many people are there in the team now?

Currently, Leyuan Games' Shanghai team has more than 700 people, and several projects are under development. "Silver City" is one of the important projects, and the team size is also continuously expanding.

When we first initiated the project, we conceived several project directions and finally determined the IP world - view and core gameplay of "Silver City". Then we spent some time on project pre - research and IP content verification. After having confidence in this direction, we began to gradually expand the team and continuously fill the game with more content.

We are also constantly observing market changes and players' expectations. When we initiated the project, the most popular anime game on the market was "Genshin Impact", and many new and highly - concerned products have emerged in the market later. Since a large - scale 3D project like "Silver City" involves many "firsts" for us, we need to invest more effort to learn and find our own way.

Battle scene

Do these members have experience in developing second - generation game projects? After all, in the general public's perception, Leyuan Games may seem quite far from the "anime" concept at first glance.

Actually, Leyuan Games is one of the earlier domestic companies to enter the anime game track. For example, they launched games like "Merocchino Story" and "Ensemble Stars!", so they have been recruiting relevant talents. Many of the core members of the "Silver City" team also come from successful anime game projects on the market.

How do you understand the anime field?

In China, "anime" has changed from a "sub - culture" many years ago to the current love of many mainstream young users. Now when we discuss "Silver City" or other anime games, the iconic anime - style art is definitely very important, but at the bottom, it is a content - centered track. Shuttling through different - styled worlds, meeting and falling in love with characters with different personalities, and experiencing stories with them are the commonalities of ACG works.

This article was first published on the WeChat official account "36Kr Games".