Text/Liang Lotte

Some time ago, Grape Jun noticed that "Stickman Alliance 3" (hereinafter referred to as "Fire 3") has opened the open beta.

On the first day of its launch, "Fire 3" topped the free list. Currently, the game has user ratings of 6.6 and 6.9 on TapTap and Haoyou Kuaibang.

According to the statistics of Qimai data, half a month after the public beta, the work is basically stable in the top 100 on the best-selling list of iOS games. That's a good result for a small team.

When it comes to the series "League of Stickmen", you may have some impressions of it.

10 years ago, "Stickman Alliance" (hereinafter referred to as "Fire 1"), which was developed by only 2 people, was on the top of the iOS game paid list and became a hit.

Subsequently, "Stickman Alliance 2" (hereinafter referred to as "Fire 2"), which developed into an online mobile game, had an annual income of more than 10 million, and the highest rushed to the top 2 of the paid list, and now it is still firmly at the top of the paid list.

But after the launch of "Fire 2", they did not choose to develop a sequel, but made a side-scrolling fighting mobile game called "Ink Fight".

Since its launch in 2021, the game has reached the top 3 on the iOS game free list. At that time, Grape Jun also talked with the producer Ghost Man about the development process of this game.

In "Ink Fight", all characters are free to use, most of the costumes can be unlocked with in-game currency, each person has 5 points of physical strength per day, PVP victory does not consume, failure deducts 1 point, you can reply to the advertisement...... With such a conscientious design, the production team failed to recover the cost in the end.

Based on this, after the game was launched, the project team basically did not update it. In September last year, "Ink Bucket" was officially discontinued.

As a work after "Ink Bucket", "Fire 3" has returned to the old path of the "Stickman League" series.

How did the loss of Ink Dough affect the team? Why did you choose to develop a sequel to Stickman League instead of creating a brand new IP like Ink Fighter? Compared with its predecessor, what are the differences between "Fire 3"?

Taking the opportunity of the game's launch, with these questions, Grape Jun chatted with the producer Ghost Man.

The ghost man said that the failure of "Ink Fight" had put him and his team into a slump for a while; After trying several directions, they finally decided to develop a sequel to the "Stickman Alliance" for the sake of stability and team capabilities; Compared with its predecessor, "Fire 3" is larger and will pay more attention to long-term operations.

The following is a summary of the content of the dialogue, which has been edited for ease of reading:

01

I want to make a game of conscience

Grape King: Why did "Ink Bucket" stop serving in September last year?

Ghost: Because the project is not profitable.

On the one hand, in terms of the game itself, it doesn't have a deep payment option. By the end of the day, while we were aware of the problem, the team was in a period of fatigue and didn't really want to deal with it.

If you want to solve this problem once and for all, you need to make a fundamental overhaul of the game. It's like building a house, which was originally a small country house, and now suddenly it has to be converted into a high-rise building, and the entire foundation has to be reprocessed.

On the other hand, the agent first tested the water in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and the data performance was particularly poor, and the outlook was not optimistic. When we released it in China, we did almost no publicity.

At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, when "Ink Bucket" was not launched in China, we had already started to work on the establishment of new projects. You can also see that after the launch of "Ink Bucket", there has basically been no update and maintenance.

On TapTap, before the service suspension announcement

That official announcement is still stuck in 2021

Grape: When you first started, didn't you think about paying?

Ghostman: At first, I might have been a little naïve. I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea that some popular games on PC or other platforms will still have their user base after being ported to mobile phones. It's just that I ignored the threshold of the game, as well as the core commercialization issue.

Also, I hated messy in-app purchases at the time and wanted to make a game with a conscience.

Because I often play League of Legends and see how successfully it operates by selling skins based on the concept of fair play, I also believe that if I make a fighting game, there will definitely be players who will enjoy it.

The results also confirmed my judgment that in terms of payment, if I continue to maintain the updates, I can guarantee at least a return on my costs and even a profit. But the problem is that there is too little room for profit for me to take the team to make such small money.

Grape Jun: The problem of commercialization is also related to the hardcore fighting games?

Ghostman: If I had to make a choice again, I wouldn't make it so hardcore. Because excessive hardcore will lead to the user group being constantly screened, and eventually only a few core players remain.

It is necessary to make it possible for different types of players to find what they are looking for in the game. For ordinary players on the periphery, you can set a clear main line and provide them with stand-alone and online gameplay; The confrontational gameplay can be reserved for core players who like challenges.

Grape King: Will Ink Bucket be relaunched?

Ghost: Our next project is to reset Ink Fountain.

Because I like the Journey to the West theme very much, and I also like the action genre. If I hadn't started my own company today, I might have gone when you were recruiting people before.

Grape Jun: After the failure of "Ink Bucket", what is the company's financial situation?

Ghost: It was fine. Because "Fire 2" has always been profitable, we can persist in making "Fire 3" for 5 years. If it weren't for "Fire 2", the company would have collapsed a long time ago.

Grape Jun: At that time, "Fire 2" was also being updated, how was "Fire 2" operated?

Ghost: We handed over the follow-up maintenance work, including the updated entire set of source code, to the operations team. I don't like to be immersed in a project for too long because it gets boring over time. It's the same with "Fire 1", I like to be the shopkeeper.

Grape Jun: Some players criticize "Fire 2" for being too kryptonite, do you understand?

Ghost: Personally, I'm not a big fan of designs that force players to spend money. I hope to solve the problem of payment from the perspective of satisfying the needs of the player base through high-quality content.

Due to the lack of its own capabilities, the content cannot meet the payment standard, and the operation team can only set up some paid items that are not easy to be accepted by players to make up for the lack of content payment points.

Grape Jun: Won't you worry that the evaluation of Krypton Gold will lead to a decline in the reputation of "Fire 2", which will then affect the IP of "Stickman Alliance"?

Ghostman: I didn't think about it that much, because I wasn't going to do the Stickman League anymore in the first place.

I originally thought that if Ink Bucket became popular, I could make this game of conscience. Even if the player scolds me, I can answer with confidence.

In terms of game design, I don't think there's anything to say about Ink Fighter. At most, players can only say that the network is not good, the optimization is not in place, or the game is too difficult to play, but they will not say that the game is not good.

At that time, on TapTap, we often exchanged ideas with players, because we had the confidence to make games without any conscience. We are equal to the players. It's not that we don't accept criticism, but if the other party is vexatious, we won't cater to players from the perspective that the customer is God and the money is the master, as is the case in traditional operations.

At station B, ghosts also often interact with players

Grape King: Do players like this interaction?

Ghostman: Different people definitely have different opinions, but I think it's okay because I don't overdo it.

Most of the customer service answers in the game industry are very boring, just like Taobao's robots. When you ask a question, in order to avoid a PR crisis, the customer service will usually say upward feedback, and then there will be no follow-up.

While players can't fault the thorns, they won't like the attitude either. When we encounter problems, we definitely hope that the other party can communicate normally and provide us with some solutions.

02

Become a real producer

Grape Jun: Why did you choose to be a sequel to "Stickman Alliance" instead of creating a new IP like "Ink Fighter"?

Ghostman: It's not that I don't want to. We did have a lot of different ideas when we started the project. For example, in terms of combat mechanics, we considered a perspective similar to that of "Hades" and a style similar to that of "Diablo"; In terms of world view and subject matter, we also wanted to try something different.

Later, after repeated internal discussions, we still believe that other directions may require more effort, and the instability will be higher, so it is safer to do "Fire 3".

A top-down view in the early stages of the project

Grape King: Did the development process of Fire 3 go smoothly?

Oniman: It didn't go well, I can say.

The failure of "The Ink Fighter" made me begin to wonder if my previous choice was correct, whether my judgment was wrong, and I fell into a state of entanglement.

After it was decided that they were going to do "Fire 3", the team expanded it appropriately. Because I didn't want to do planning anymore, I hired someone to be the mastermind.

He was in charge for a year and a half, and in part of me, the team went through a lot of tosses during that time. After he left, I returned to my role as a producer.

At this time, if it were someone else, I might think, "Damn, my mother's project is halfway through, and the main planner told me not to do it." He'll be in a hurry.

I didn't feel that way, but I thought it would be better if he didn't do it. Because he doesn't do it, I have no one to rely on but to go on my own. On my own, I'm confident that I can do it all. As it turned out, I was too optimistic. While this can solve many problems, there are still many immature areas.

After that, I reorganized my work and reorganized it like building blocks. For example, in terms of numerical values, I started from scratch, and two weeks to one month was enough. For me, it's just a problem that needs to be solved, and I'm a good solver.

That's when I realized that I was just an amateur producer. In the follow-up of the project, I have gradually learned about and learned all the abilities that a real producer needs to have, until now.

Grape: What exactly did you learn?

Ghost: The first is to set up a project.

Just like a painting, you should start with a rough structure, and you can't do whatever comes to mind like you did in "Fire 1" and "Fire 2", and stuff it into it if you think it's good.

The second is worldview.

The worldview is not only for the player to see, but also for us to sort out what we want to do, so that the content we produce has a reasonable basis. In a certain sense, this also belongs to the initial work of the project, clarifying the content carrier and expression form of the game.

The synopsis of "Fire 3".

The third is project management.

At the beginning, we tried to use some management software, but the effect was not good; Later, we used Feishu and Tower, and the management efficiency was directly doubled.

Taking planning as an example, I pay special attention to process. From writing planning documents, to drawing flowcharts, configuring tables, and developing programs, all aspects of the process are required to be clearly documented and timed, with the aim of solving problems in a timely manner and avoiding repetition of previous problems.

The fourth is paid design and version updates, which is the part I'm learning.

I think there are a lot of mobile games on the market that have repetitive and boring updates. At the same time, I lacked experience in this area because the operations of the previous projects were outsourced. Now, since I want to do it for the long term, I have to think about what to update and how to make it fun.

Fire 3's recently updated gameplay: Shadowlands

Grape King: After the launch of "Fire 3", players have some negative comments about it, have you seen it?

Ghost Man: I think everyone is right, that is, I am not good enough, my ability is insufficient, and I have to practice more.

While I want the project to be profitable, I don't want players to keep complaining about the game kryptonite and saying we're like shit. I want to make players willing to pay for content through gameplay.

In addition, there are some very realistic things that others can't see. Don't I want to make another game like Ink Fight? Of course I want to, but I can't, because it's not just my personal business. If I want to do better, I need to accumulate capital to keep the company afloat.

Grape King: Who is the target user of "Fire 3"?

Ghost: I don't really think much about it, because I've always only thought about whether I like what I make or not. When I like it, then there will be a group of players who have the same tastes as me, and this has been basically the case for generations.

I prefer side-scrolling action games, and there aren't many old games on the market that play well like Fire 3, let alone new ones. I'm sure this refreshing experience will definitely appeal to players.

Grape Jun: Compared with "Fire 2", what do you think is the biggest difference between "Fire 3"?

Ghost: The biggest difference should be the volume of content in the entire game after continuous operation. What "Fire 2" looks like now, and what it will look like in a few years; And when players watch Fire 3 a year later, two years later, three years later, they will find that the game is completely different.

Grape: Have you considered how to do it for the long term of "Fire 3"?

Ghostman: I follow one big rule: I only do what I like. I'm sure my players will also like what I like, and that's what I've learned from my previous projects.

I define Fire 3 as a collect-oriented game. During the game, players can not only experience a combat design that is more in line with the mecha's sense of operation and richness, but also collect characters related to the combat system, weapons that bring changes to the combat mechanics, and objects to operate, including heavy mechas.

The recently updated character of "Fire 3": Ax

In terms of gameplay, the game is not only a simple battle, but also a racing and shooting gameplay. I'm also going to add dark-like monster farming, line-to-stick hand-drawn gameplay, and self-created gameplay for scenes, monsters, and characters.

Even two days ago, I told the team that I wanted to stuff "The Fountain" into it. Because there are guilds in the game, and there are game consoles in the guilds, players can launch "Ink Fighter" on the game console.

03

The game is proof that I've lived

Grape Jun: Compared to when you made "Fire 1" 10 years ago, what do you think has changed personally?

Ghost: I think it should change a lot. This change is not necessarily related to games, it is more related to people's life experiences.

Some people think that since games are my hobby, I should be happy in the process of making games, because I am doing what I love.

But I don't think so. In the process of making a game, we encounter various complex situations, such as problems in the development process, the relationship between team members, and communication with players...... In contrast, the percentage of moments that are truly happy is very small.

Grape: But don't you do it because you like it?

Ghost: It's hard for me to say that I like making games. Like, as we speak, is one that makes you feel happy in the process.

During the project development process, there will be differences of opinion and even disputes between colleagues; Now after the game is launched, I have to act as a customer service every day, and I am often scolded by players. Most of what I feel when dealing with these matters is negative emotions.

All I can say is that I want to do it, and I want to do it well.

I didn't start out because I like to make games, but because I happened to be able to make games with like-minded people, and the atmosphere was very good. Even when I returned to Xiamen to continue making games, I couldn't find the so-called feeling of liking it, but more of a challenge, something I wanted to accomplish.

It's more like a part of my life. During this process, my mood changes are always fluctuating.

I love taking pictures, capturing and documenting beautiful landscapes, printing them out into a book, and I feel very comfortable with the whole process; I like to make clay pots, glaze them and fire them to create beautiful finished products that are both practical and giftable, which gives me a sense of accomplishment; I also love to draw, no one has to finish a painting in three days, I can take my time and not get bored, no one will upset me in the process.

Painting of ghost people

But I wouldn't say I like to make games. I don't want to be the boss because there are so many things to do, so many things to take on. If it weren't for my better mentality and strong ability to work under pressure, I might have been depressed a long time ago.

Grape: Do you have anything to do to maintain a good attitude?

Ghost: I've been trying to manage my emotions for a long time. A year and a half ago, emotion management was already paying off.

Based on this, even if something bad happens, I can deal with them with relative ease.

Grape: How did you adjust it?

Ghost: First of all, I subconsciously make it clear that I need to change, which is similar to the self-hypnosis or autosuggestion of biological evolution.

Secondly, I will find some suitable ways to deal with negative emotions through these ways.

For example, I first came into contact with clay pot making, then turned to photography, and in the past year, I have focused on oil painting. Through these hobbies, I get some more fulfilling feelings.

For example, when making clay pots, I feel a sense of joy and anticipation every time I finish a piece and fire it. When I look forward to opening the kiln tomorrow morning, I will also look forward to my life tomorrow.

A clay pot made by a ghost man

I think the key is to make yourself feel that time is meaningful. Whether it's the clay pots I make, the oil paintings I create, the photos I take, or the games I develop, I hope they can leave a little mark on future generations as proof that I have lived.

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