2024/11/10 17:12
Invested by miHoYo, he has led the flow of more than 100 million explosive models, but he lamented the difficulties of the industry
2024/11/10 17:12
Text/Qiuqiu
Recently, this grape gentleman found a Roguelike+ action mobile game "Blade Realm", this product has just finished the second test, although the volume is not as popular as the past exposure, but its developer Magic Sword Network has a special background - has received investment from miHoYo.
Not only that, but the career experience of the producer of "Blade Realm" is equally fantastic:
Two years after graduating from Tongji University, he became the chief planner of Jiuyou; After leaving his job to start a business, he brought out a total turnover of more than 100 million yuan, and the team was also acquired by a listed company at a valuation of 340 million yuan......
Image source network
But now, when I go to the fork and communicate with Grape Jun, I feel that the industry is difficult, and it is difficult for small and medium-sized teams to have a way out. "The cost of Blade Realm almost ate up the surplus of the previous game, and since the financial crunch half a year ago, I have been thinking every night: what if I am the only one left in the company?"
Image source network
Most of the smooth road in the past is attributed to the times, luck and nobles, and now the head effect of the industry is obvious, and the product is more difficult to get out of position. "Maybe the polarization of the market will be more serious in the future: large projects will have higher specifications, creative products will have lower market recognition, and small and medium-sized teams will either be swept up by large factories or work for traffic."
Talking about this grape gentleman, he is a little curious: why has he become cautious and realistic now? Why do you want to sell your house and leave your job to start a niche game when you are in the limelight? Perhaps after reading this article, you will have a different understanding of the development of small and medium-sized teams today.
01
Becoming the master of a large factory in his early twenties is just the starting point of a fork.
In 2007, he graduated from Tongji University with a major in interior design. At that time, he did not intend to become a "civil engineering brother", "During the university class, the teacher introduced a certain future star in the architectural design industry, and when I raised my hand and asked how old this person was when he received the honor, the teacher said that he was 55 years old. ”
Perhaps shocked by the future star who has no future, he resolutely devoted himself to the game industry that he was more interested in.
In his opinion, he was a little lucky to be able to stick to his interest in games at that time. After all, in those days, games were no different from Flood Beasts. "When I was in school, I was very restricted, although I had all FC, MD, Saturn, and PS game consoles, but I was probably only allowed to play for an hour a week, and then when I came to college, no one cared about it, and I began to contact most of the online games on the market."
Subsequently, Gokuga, who has a lot of game experience experience, successfully got offers from Jiuyou, Shanda and Jiucheng, and entered Shanghai Jiuyou as a game planner.
During his tenure, his first project was Crazy Cars, "a racing game that was quite popular at the time, and you might still see it in arcades today." ”
Image source network
The second project is the Jiuyou GT (GTOWN), which is a bit like GTA and The Sims.
Image source watermark
In 2010, after staying in Jiuyou for two years, he saw the development dividend of mobile games, and wanted to make the stand-alone games and action games he had played in the past on the mobile terminal, so he and many colleagues chose to leave their jobs and start their own businesses, and established Shanghai Fangcun Technology together.
The company's first project after its establishment was a pet card battle mobile game called "Monster X League".
The game was launched in 2012, relying on the advantages of a mature pet development battle system, two-dimensional painting style, and the dividends of the golden age of mobile games, it achieved a monthly turnover of up to 25 million yuan, and a total turnover of more than 100 million yuan - the fork of the game producer at the time, only 26 years old.
"It was really a golden age at that time, and the 360 operation classmates came over after the product was launched and said that this game had converted many mobile phone users into gamers, so they also gave us crazy guidance."
Interestingly, before the launch of "Monster X League", Skye Network also saw the potential of this game, and successively increased its holdings of Fangcun Technology three times in 2012 and 2013, holding about 36% of the shares - Skye Network, that is, the investment company that "became the only external shareholder of miHoYo".
Thanks to factors such as product performance, external investment, and industry attention, Fangcun Technology has had a short period of expansion: project research and development, distribution agency, and going overseas...... For example, Fork once worked as a producer to develop "Monster X League 2"; Fangcun Technology also took advantage of the overseas momentum of "Monster X Alliance" to successfully win the agency rights of miHoYo's "Honkai Academy 2" in Southeast Asia, Europe, America and Europe.
Investment, Agency, Cooperation...... By coincidence, their relationship with miHoYo gradually became closer, and they could even be said to be "good brothers" - when they started the magic sword network for the second time, Big Viagra supported them and gave them an angel investment of 3 million yuan.
The reasons for choosing a second venture are also tortuous:
In 2014, Fangcun Technology was acquired by Aofei Entertainment at a valuation of 340 million yuan, and after going to Aofei Entertainment, it led the research and development of "Demon Tianji" - this is a mobile game with the theme of cultivating immortals adapted from the IP of the novel of the same name, which is distributed by NetEase.
At that time, there were a lot of resources at hand, and I wanted to show my previous idea of "making an action game" on "Demon Chronicles", even though the bottom layer of the game was still card battles at that time.
"In the past, the character skills in the immortal cultivation game were a bit stereotyped, similar to Warcraft and legends, rubbing a fireball technique and the like, and did not give full play to the characteristics of the magic weapon, supernatural powers, and action confrontation of the theme of cultivating immortals, so we made a completely different combat system for "Demon Heaven".
Image source B station @ Xiaofei kt
After about a year of research and development, "Demon Heaven" was launched in 2015 and rushed to the first place on the paid list and the 17th place on the best-selling list.
It's a pity that the follow-up "Demon Story" was moved to the list for half a year because of the mechanism of Apple's App Store. "Although I can't see the rankings anymore, the game was very good at the time, with 12% out of 30."
The encounter with "Demon Heaven" made Fork a little depressed, but he still did not give up the idea of "making action games", and at the end of 2016, he set up a martial arts action game similar to "Naraka: Bladepoint", but unfortunately it was later cut. "At that time, the company's game business was shrinking and optimizing, and it was understandable not to take such a big risk."
The two encounters did not dampen Fork's passion for action games, so in 2018, he chose to leave his job again to start his own business.
02
In addition to the 3 million yuan angel investment of Big Viagra, Gocha also sold a house in order to start a business.
After the start-up funds were properly funded, he discussed for a long time with 8 colleagues who left their jobs to start a business, and finally decided to make a dark like mobile game with a relatively blank market. In order to make features and alleviate the boredom of treasure farming, they also combine the combat features of action games such as "Monster Hunter" and "Devil May Cry", as well as the popular roguelike gameplay.
Video of Magic Sword Network's interview with Thunder Games,
The figure in the picture is a cross
After stumbling through the year like this, they completed the demo called "Blade of the Abyss", but they also spent their budget.
Just as they were struggling with what to do next, Gigabit and Thunder Games, who had seen the Demo, found them at the same time.
The investment and operation departments of a company took a look at the fork at the same time without internal communication, which shows that Gigabit attached great importance to "The Blade of the Abyss" at that time - the follow-up Gigabit's Jixiang Capital and Thunder Games invested in the Magic Sword Network at the same time, and the latter also became the publisher of "The Blade of the Abyss", providing resources, optimization suggestions, testing support, etc. for the game.
They are also very fortunate to work with the Thunder.
"I used to be one of the top few in the Android section of Underground Castle 2 and the owner of the official community 2, so I know Thunder relatively well: their products are mainly gameplay-driven, and the art style is similar to that of Blade of the Abyss, such as Underground Castle, Greedy Cave, Lost Castle, ...... So leaving the game to Thunder for release may be our best choice. ”
Blade of the Abyss
In addition to funding, "Demon Abyss Blade" was also facing the challenge of "long-term stand-alone products" at that time.
"Our initial expectations were relatively low: we wanted to make a single-player action mobile game, which could achieve twice the cost of revenue; But then during the test, there were a lot of players who like dark likes, and they wanted the game to be longer and more online. ”
In order to meet the demands of players, the Magic Sword Network began to adjust the game with the support of Thunder. Includes enhanced meat pigeon design to extend the player's flow experience through randomization and reset; Added online and multiplayer gameplay such as unions, boss battles, and team books; Or even take extra time to research anti-cheat systems...... After coming and going, it can be regarded as a long-term strategy that runs through the Roguelike+ combat category.
In the end, "Blade of the Abyss" performed well, and after it was launched in 2020, it reached No. 1 on the free list and No. 34 on the best-selling list, becoming a frequent visitor in Gigabit's financial report. In the financial report meeting of Q3 of 2020, some executives said that the first month of the game reached tens of millions of yuan, while the research and development cost of the game was only 8 million yuan.
But there are regrets.
The cross said that due to cost constraints, the art effect of "Blade of the Abyss" did not meet the team's expectations. "Our team does not have the position of the main beauty, we can't find good talents in recruitment, and we don't have the courage to spend a lot of money to poach people, so we can only give up strategically."
Video of Magic Sword Network being interviewed by Thunder Games
Another regret is that the long-term strategy of "Blade of the Demon Abyss" is not perfect, after all, it is fueled by the seedlings of partial stand-alone products, and some design frameworks are relatively rigid. "For example, the game's multiplayer gameplay has nothing to do with core combat, it's just a group of people fighting on a chessboard, and the packaging is more interesting than interesting."
In order to solve these regrets and explore a long-term strategy that is more suitable for action mobile games, Magic Sword Network set out to set up a second product, "Blade Realm".
03
"Now the R&D cost of "Blade Realm" is close to 30 million, almost eating up the surplus of "Demon Abyss Blade"." Forks say this in the exchange - whether they are active or forced, they are now all in anyway.
But if you ask, did "Blade Realm" solve their regrets? It seems that there is a question mark too.
The first is artistic expression. I have to say that the current painting style of "Blade Realm" dark + large color block + high saturation does have a strong stylization, which looks a bit like a bit at a glance.
Of course, the strong sense of déjà vu also calls into question the game's art style in two ways:
One is that "Blade Realm" won't be drawn with AI, right? The cross answer is also very frank, "In the creative stage, our programming, planning, and art will try AI assistance, but if we talk about the final art, it is just a poor drawing." ”
The other is that the game art is not going to be Hades, right? The fork was not hidden, and said that the core gameplay of "Blade Realm" is different from "Hades", and I hope everyone can experience it.
When it comes to gameplay, to put it simply, "Blade Realm" is a 2.5D top-down combat mobile game, where players can change their combat form and combo experience by switching between different "blades" (weapons). For example, the initial weapons include "Hurricane" which can knock monsters away faster, and "Dragon Mountain" which has a high mobility dual-skill form...... Almost every weapon brings a different combat experience.
Vertical drawing and combat demonstration of the hurricane
"There are currently more than 20 weapons in the game, and there is a lot of differentiation and freedom. For example, in the future, we will have a brush that can draw the ground as a dungeon, and a treasure wheel that summons two palms to clap together...... Every time we design a new weapon, it's when we plan the most exciting. ”
"Blade Realm" also has a unique roguelike gameplay and toughening and flying gameplay.
The former refers to the fact that players can obtain weapon skill upgrades, soul stones and magic weapons in the process of breaking through the level, build a school, change the skill effect or form;
The latter refers to the player's attack that can increase the monster's imbalance value, and when it reaches a certain stage, it can knock monsters flying and deal damage and debuffs. "The combat experience of hitting the wall is the idea we found from the hot-blooded comics, so choosing art similar to "Hades" also has a reason to enhance the artistic expression and animation sense, and I hope that players can also play with enough blood."
"Blade Realm" is not without stepping on the pit.
The cross-cutting indicates that the overall completion rate of the game is currently 80%, and the challenges to be solved in the future include the guidance of weapon switching and matching, the difficulty gradient design of the boss, and the further development of the meat pigeon content...... He believes that through communication with players, "Blade Realm" can better play the value of gameplay, satisfy the flow experience of core players, and become a very competitive product in the current roguelike mobile game category.
"After all, there are no head products on this track at present."
04
As for the long-term regret of "The Blade of the Demon Abyss", the fork now has some eyebrows. "The test data of "Blade Realm" this time is not bad, the retention curve is similar to "Blade of the Demon Abyss", and the ARPU is a little better, but the absorption effect is much worse."
The problem of suction has long been expected, and even deliberately caused by them.
"During the research and development, I found that the threshold for Roguelike+ action is still not low, and even if "Blade Realm" attracts pan-users, it is difficult to effectively convert." "In the last test, a player was looking for a strategy, and at the end of the seven-day test, he said to me, 'I just learned how to play, and you're going to shut it down.'" ’”
There are really a lot of players like this, so they decided to continue to optimize the early guidance of the game and lower the threshold for novice experience. On the one hand, it returns to the vertical category and serves more core users.
"During the test, some players reported that the boss was too difficult, but some players said that they would abandon the pit if the difficulty was reduced again...... Contradictions like this exist at all levels of the product, and we can only communicate more with players and be honest about the original design intentions and concerns. ”
They often write player feedback forms live broadcasts,
Communicate with players in real-time
In addition to returning to the vertical decision, they also intend to use the season system to achieve the long-term. However, unlike the regular season-based data reset, "Blade Realm" focuses on resetting guild talents, adding and rotating different bosses, different genres, etc., to reduce the negative feedback caused by the damage to players' cultivation content.
Crossing said that they hope that the long-term line of "Blade Realm" will always revolve around the core gameplay and return to the combat itself, so they will not do too much marginal content and commercial content, although this seems to reduce the long-term success rate of the game, "But we have been lowering our expectations, and after the launch of "Blade Realm" before the end of the year, it can bring fun to players, and by the way, we can feed the team." ”
In the early days, the game actually made a grid game.
It was later cut
In fact, in the exchange, the fork was not very satisfied with the cost control of "Blade Realm". "One is due to the pandemic, and the other is that the game has undergone an upgrade that is no less than overturning and restarting, and a lot of the past content has been discarded."
However, he does not regret that "the budget was almost spent before starting a business", he believes that if the team wants to go on in the long run, it must not make more money, but accumulate more experience and ability.
"We plan to develop this game ourselves, and although the learning time is painful, and the final effect may not be as good as that of handing it over to Thunder for release, it is a valuable experience for us."
This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com