2024/12/04 20:36
was complained about the game of "almost sent", and secretly lived as the envy of everyone?
2024/12/04 20:36
Text/Qiuqiu
Recently, "Calabichu", which has been developing in a low-key manner, can be said to have "exploded" in every sense.
It all started with the game's global launch.
At the end of November, "Calabichu", which won more than 6 million pre-registrations overseas, officially landed on the official website and stores such as Steam and Epic.
In the absence of large-scale publicity, the game rushed to the first place on the Steam new product list and popular free games in two hours, and the 14th place on the global best-selling list; At one point, the number of simultaneous online players exceeded 38,000, ranking in the top 5 of the competitive shooter category, behind only CS2, PUBG, COD and APEX - and the game's user base may increase further as more players join in the future.
The results of "Calabichu" have also attracted the attention of many local media.
After the game was launched, Shenzhen Press and other media called "Calabichu" "another domestic game masterpiece that Shenzhen manufacturers have won good results in the world" - it seems that after "Black Myth: Wukong", all over the world are trying to track down high-quality products so as not to miss the next domestic masterpiece.
But what many people didn't expect was that "Calabichu", which exploded, and public opinion also exploded.
After the game was launched globally, many domestic players found that its international server was different from the national server in terms of skin delivery, season battle pass, card pool mechanism, resource acquisition, etc., and thought that the official was suspected of unfair treatment.
A series of public opinion fermented, so that the Steam score of "Calabichu" once dropped to 61%, mixed reviews, until the official explanation of the reason for the difference, apology and announcement of follow-up adjustment plans, the game score gradually returned to today's 77% of most praise.
This is quite magical, on the one hand, "Calabichu" is soaring and has achieved good results in the world; On the other hand, it is the question of the national server players, and the "game is dying" that fills the comment area...... For a moment, Calabichu seemed to fall into a superposition of dead and alive, as abstract as the game itself.
Until now, the official is still proving that he is not dead, it is too abstract
In addition, Grape Jun also talked to game producer Sledgehammer, and he once said that "Calabichu" will focus more on fair play than content-based games, so he is quite cautious about resource investment and event operation...... So why is there such public opinion? What is the state of "Calabichu" today?
With doubts, Grape Jun found the producer Sledgehammer again.
01
In the previous open beta of "Calabichu", Sledgehammer's expectations were relatively conservative, even though the game once exceeded 700,000 weekly actives, he still thought that "it can be stable in 3-5 seasons and not die." ”
Looking back at the game now, Sledgehammer said that the national server still maintains a stable weekly activity after a year of operation; When it was launched, the phrase "I want to be a master of Calabichu" became the marketing content that many games followed suit; The popular "cute people" and "meow meows" among players have also become the most unique culture of the game - from the macro user activity to the ability to create memes in details, you can see the influence of "Calabichu" today.
As for overseas, with the global launch of "Calabichu", the active scale of the game has expanded several times, and many foreigners who played the national server with delays have also become loyal players of the international server.
For example, IGN host Alen once said that he has been playing "Calabichu", and XQC, which is known as the "world's No. 1 game streamer" on Twitch, also broadcast games live for 24 hours on the day of the launch, with more than 100,000 viewers at the same time;
XQC live stream
To the surprise of the project team, Russian players turned out to be the fastest growing group in the international server, surpassing Chinese players in just a few days, second only to the American and Japanese players who have been announced-maybe Russians who are used to playing realistic war themes also want to try beautiful girl guns?
The core audience has been maintained at home, and overseas is also expanding rapidly...... These trends are telling everyone that "Calabichu" really bears the seemingly incompatible labels of anime, shooting, competition, and terminal games, and not only has established itself and entered the long-term stage, but has even gradually lived out the envy of many games.
As for the public opinion at the beginning of the article, it can be large or small in terms of nature and results, and it can be said that "Calabichu" needs to go through the pain of long-term and globalization, so it is a good thing to be able to detect and treat it early.
Because it is common in the industry to have disputes due to version differences, featured activities, resource allocation, early access ...... These are almost all long-term challenges that most products with different channels and markets have to face - you must have sufficient operational content before there may be corresponding public opinion risks.
But the first time to operate a self-developed terminal game, the first time to go to sea "Calabichu" is a little jerky, so that when Grape Jun met with Sledgehammer, he immediately asked a question: Are welfare problems caused by version differences common in the industry?
This rhetorical question also exposes the importance they attach to public opinion. Sledgehammer said that after the fermentation of public opinion among players, they reviewed overnight to find a solution, but neglected to appease the players' emotions in the first place, which led to a further outbreak of public opinion.
"To be honest, both the global results and the public opinion of the players have far exceeded our expectations. If we do it again, we want to be a little more cautious and do our homework - we want to look back in 20 or 10 years as stable as CS2 than the short-term success of the game. ”
02
But now is not the time for them to relax, after all, "Calabichu" is walking an inaccessible track, breaking the false proposition and standing firm is only the first step, how to continue to go will be their next challenge.
Sledgehammer told me that at the moment they probably have two directions, one of which is to continue to make features, including content and gameplay.
In terms of content, one of the more special aspects of "Calabichu" is the "character-bound firearms", which will make players form a new inertia of thinking: from what guns I play, to what characters I use - from using cold guns to trying to communicate with game characters, I think "Calabichu" brings players the most special experience value.
Along this line of thought, "Calabichu" has made a lot of attempts. For example, after the game battle, the character will give different interactive content according to the player's performance, and the previous "Star Painted Knee Pillow" once became the game's circle-breaking content, which attracted the envy of many players in other games.
Image source: Station B UP main @hammer game
At the gameplay level, we can also feel the importance that the project team attaches to game innovation and the experience of national server players. The national server of "Calabichu" is about 8 seasons ahead of the international server, and players on the national server can experience new content, such as new characters, new maps, and new gameplay earlier.
For example, this time, the new version of the national server launched a new linkage event between pop and pipi beauty, and once again exposed two new competitive modes: biochemical mode and super string blasting.
Just listen to the name, I believe everyone will be as puzzled as me: isn't this a very classic zombie and a blast that occupies a point under the bag? Where is the place of innovation?
The project team said that first of all, the classic gameplay has been verified by the market and players for many years, and if you only care about innovation, regardless of the sunk cost, it is difficult to say whether players like it or not.
Secondly, they have also made changes to these two gameplay modes around the characteristics of the game:
For example, the biochemical mode adds a string-based in-depth experience and a meat pigeon gameplay with random skill props, so that players can experience actions, skills, and performances that cannot be achieved in the regular mode; Superstring Blast directly adds corresponding additional skills to each character, and the game's strategic gameplay, genre building, and team cooperation will also change.
Player comments on the character's new skill build
When you see this, you will find that whether it is the content of the characters or the gameplay mode, "Calabichu" is innovating based on its differentiated characteristics such as stringing, TPS, and animation - this is like cooking with homemade spices, even if you make the same dish as others, the taste in the player's mouth is very different.
And as long as the creative thinking of the production team is not limited, players can continue to taste the unique charm provided by "Calabichu" and are willing to stay.
03
If the first direction is to make features, then the second direction of "Calabichu" is to do "traditional" - that is, the e-sports ecology that most competitive games are doing.
Long before the official launch of the game, iDreamSky said that "Calabichu" was the first step in the company's e-sports industry layout. After all, the communication ability and commercial value of the e-sports ecosystem are obvious to all. According to the 2023 e-sports industry report, the number of e-sports users in China has reached 488 million, and the number of spectators of a single overseas head event can exceed 5.06 million.
And "Calabichu" does not plan to reach the sky in one step, such as directly cooperating with e-sports clubs, building professional players and professional leagues, or increasing internal investment to achieve e-sports influence through Lida Bricks, but has done a lot of infrastructure and atmosphere content.
For example, "Calabichu" will take the initiative to participate in some large-impact events and brush up its presence in the e-sports industry.
This includes the 2023 Esports Industry Annual Conference exhibition match, the 2023 Asia Pacific Esports Tournament, the 2024 Saudi World Esports Cup (EWC) ......
The team said that they will continue to maintain this development strategy in the future, such as continuing to participate in next year's EWC, signing up for the Asian Games e-sports program, and inviting professional players of popular games to try out...... focuses on a cognitive communication, so that people know that "Calabichu seems to be a popular e-sports game".
iDreamSky and the Saudi Esports Federation officially signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation
Left: iDreamSky Co-Founder and President Gao Liandun
Right: Turki Alfawzan, CEO of the Saudi Esports Federation
At the same time, the project team hopes that the real core esports players and tournament system will come from within. Therefore, "Calabichu" did not organize high-level e-sports events at the beginning, but felt a bit of a reckless hero, organizing some public competitions such as the Star String Cup and the College Cup, or guiding players to spontaneously organize unofficial events such as the Mocha Cup and the Chef Cup......
Under their infiltrated concept, many "Calabichu masters" and event commentators can be said to be from the grassroots. For example, the Meng Meng Ren team, which defeated the United States, Japan, and Saudi Arabia teams and won the EWC championship, stood out from non-professional events such as the Star String Cup and the Star Cup.
The cute team won the EWC
The project team said that after the global launch of "Calabichu", it will achieve the same version status in the world as soon as possible next year, so as to prepare for the subsequent games to roll out the e-sports ecology on a global scale, and provide a new stage for Chinese and overseas players to participate in international competitions.
In order to build this stage, a new event module has also been launched in the game, hoping to guide more players to form teams and participate in public competitions, campus competitions, and city competitions, so as to give more young people with e-sports dreams a high enough upward path......
Truth be told, it will take a long time for this strategy to see results, but they also say that they are willing to take their time to do these things that are in line with the instincts of young people, rather than suddenly letting some mature professional players parachute into the game, cutting the label of "Calabichu" as young and popular.
"It may take at least two years to get this stage right, but we believe that good things come out and we won't be hosting any official esports events or professional leagues until then – and for that reason, we've turned down a lot of esports clubs and pros who are interested in Calabichu."
04
I don't know if you have noticed that after the global launch of "Calabichu", they changed the label of the second dimension to anime.
The reason is not too difficult to guess, even if today's ACG has taken off the hat of non-mainstream culture, the cultural attributes and audience groups it represents are still relatively vertical, and if "Calabichu" wants to do e-sports and globalization, it is bound to choose some cultural expressions that are more in line with young people.
So, which expressions are more suitable for young people?
Based on what we've observed above, the first is to communicate more closely with the player, which refers to a more specific and quantifiable execution strategy, rather than a bit of a "fake big empty" concept of building a relationship of trust and understanding with the player.
Because the reason for "Calabichu" to step on the pit this time is precisely because the team believes too much in these "trusts" and "tacit understandings", and thinks that "players should know why we do this", so they failed to be honest and honest about some details in a timely manner, resulting in misunderstanding by players.
For example, the project team has reviewed the reasons why players think the difference in card pool guarantees: the game itself has the same mechanism of domestic and overseas card pool guarantees, but there is no obvious guarantee information in China, which may be because "players should know"; When the overseas distribution team felt that there was a missing sentence in the localization process, they made up for it, and probably thought that "it was just a trivial matter, and the R&D side knew about it...... In the end, there were discrepancies in the description of the card pool guarantee, which sparked public opinion.
The national server card pool previously omitted this sentence
Therefore, the communication with players should be continuous and dynamic, and if there is a little slackness, the past experience will easily make the manufacturer step on the pit.
The second is to make universal content that young people are interested in, rather than tagging the labeled content of two-dimensional and sci-fi.
E-sports like "Calabichu" is actually something that many young people like, and it is easy to stimulate social interaction and create happy content; The game does some characters, not simply to satisfy the content experience of a certain type of audience, but also to bring milder emotional value to a wider group of people - after all, who doesn't want to play games with cute beautiful girls?
The new character of the national costume is sorrowful: Who is not confused?
We also talked about it before, when a product is solid enough to become a tool for players to socialize and renew each other, the concepts of anime, shooting, and PVP are blurred, and are replaced by unique emotional resonance - or happy, or warm, I think this is the pop culture that young people like, and it is an important reason why "Calabichu" continues to break the circle.
It's better to fight than to dance, source B station @ burned up and rushed to rush
Finally, it is necessary to find out the positioning and distinguish the priorities. The positioning and expectations of the manufacturer for the game will greatly affect the development direction of the product.
For example, a shooting second game may focus more on the second dimension, then what it gains and faces will also be the power of the two-dimensional group; "Calabichu" focuses on competition, so it has a track of its own: anime shooting.
This track may be a bit abstract, but you think that in the past, the art style of the shooter genre should have been divided into two main categories: realistic and comic, the former represented by CS2 and COD, and the latter referring to games such as Valorant and Apex.
It seems that there is still a lack of a Japanese comic-style shooting competitive game on the market?
That's right, the positioning of "Calabichu" is very subtle, it not only has the mature classic shooting gameplay of blasting and biochemistry, but also has innovative art, content, and gameplay design that is refreshing. Now that the global launch has been launched, the influx of overseas players has also indirectly proved that these designs can be eaten on a global scale...... It can be said that after stepping on many pits, "Calabichu" finally embarked on an ingenious, non-competitive track.
Seeing this, I wonder if everyone's thinking will be broader? For example, in addition to pursuing gameplay segmentation, can the shooting category also develop horizontally like other categories?
You see how many games have been derived from the two-dimensional card gameplay just by changing the theme and art...... and the current performance of "Calabichu" should also be used as a case to prove that in the shooting category, many traditional things can succeed naturally.
05
Finally, Grape Jun also asked the company's management what they think of the long-term operation of "Calabichu", after all, whether a game can go long-term, the support of the boss is also indispensable, especially in today's turbulent times when many manufacturers are in turmoil.
The project team said that the company has always supported this self-developed project, and the current "Calabichu" after crossing the "false proposition" is not only an important product for the company's transformation and self-development, but also helps the team and the company leapfrog in collaboration management, talent training, global distribution and other aspects.
"It's a pity that the game hasn't been really released on a large scale, and many Chinese players still know about the game from Steam's free recommendation. After the global independent release of the game, the money we earn will also be invested in the promotion and distribution, so that more people can re-understand "Calabichu". ”
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