At present, the demand for high-quality games on the PC/console side of the Chinese game market is awakening, and high-level two-player co-op games may be a suitable entry point, which is suitable for Chinese players, attracts Chinese players, and can generate good topicality. It can also promote the game industry to a new stage of joint growth between developers and players, technology and creativity, and business and art.

Reading Entertainment | yiqiduyu

Text: Garlic jelly corner

Sold 1 million copies in 2 days, this is the publisher EA and developer of "Two Shadows in Wonderland".HazelightThe latest results announced by the studio took nearly a month for the studio's predecessor, It Takes Two, to reach that number.

In addition to sales, "Two Shadows Wonderland" has also received praise from many aspects in terms of word-of-mouth, with 9 copies of INGs and 10 points from GameSpot 98% of players on Steam have given positive reviews. According to SteamDB data, the game was launched less than 48 hours ago, with a peak of 19.7 online10,000 people, which is 6 times the peak of 32,000 in "It Takes Two".

What's even more interesting is that more than 65% of Steam reviews are in Chinese, including HazelightThe studio's founder has also said that half of the 23 million copies sold by "It Takes Two" came from China. It's fair to say that Hazelight Studios has really captured the preferences of Chinese players, or that two-player co-op games may have been a godsend for the Chinese game market.

1

The game sells well, and fun is the first key

Similar to the previous critically acclaimed "It Takes Two" in China, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" is a game that requires two people to work together to adventure, the story of Mio and Zoe, two writers who have not published a novel, as the protagonists, through their non-stop adventure through the world of science fiction and fantasy, and finally defeat the boss of the publishing houseThe ending of the novel is published together, allowing players to experience the fun of alternately solving puzzles in cyber cities and enchanted forests.

Similarly, the difference in the abilities of the two protagonists in "Two Shadows Wonderland" is not simply complementary skills, and each level also has a dazzling gameplay design, "gravity whip" andThe difference in the physics of the "laser sword" allows players to reconstruct the logic of problem solving in real-time collaboration, and the transformed orangutans and fairies, fish people and tree people can also make players interact more with the environment. The visual impact brought by the world switch in the last chapter has also become a stunning gameplay design that most players will never forget.

In terms of gameplay alone, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" has reached an excellent level, and at the same time, it is relatively simple to use, the camera is delicate, the scene is highlighted, and the narrative is complete and watchable, which makes this game fun enough, which is one of the reasons why it can be so popular in the Chinese market.

Each level requires two players to complete each puzzle together, and this kind of cooperative gameplay is also the special charm of this type of game. On station B, you can see all kinds of videos of two players or tacit understanding or overturning, but whether it is a smooth clearance or a drag on each other, "Two Shadows Wonderland" brings the same kind of feedback - laughter, Especially after a long period of cooperation and running-in, the two of them will bring a stronger sense of accomplishment and even increase their emotional connection with each other.

Just watching these videos can feel the joy of players, so you can see "find a partner" messages in various game communities, and many people will even show an invitation to play for free, just to experience the " The joy that comes with Two Shadows in Wonderland.

Of course, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" inherits the friend pass mechanism of "It Takes Two", that is, one player can invite another player to play for free after purchasing the game, and this mechanism may also be the reason why these two games are hot in the Chinese market, after all, for games that already require two-player cooperation, it is no longer easy to find a partner, and if you have to pay double the price, it is likely to dissuade price-sensitive Chinese players.

Interesting gameplay, strong emotional connections, watchable stories, reasonable pricing and sharing mechanisms, and even two-player live streaming can greatly meet the needs of cloud players, and for various reasons, "Two Shadows Wonderland" has achieved good sales results, especially in the Chinese market, where its influence is still growing, and it sold 100Tens of thousands of pieces of information have also rushed to the hot search on Weibo, which may further attract more Chinese players to join and experience the joy of two-player cooperative games.

2

The unique social skills of two-player games

Although "Two Shadows Wonderland" is a good game in its own right, it still has its peculiarities that distinguish it from other types of games that can be paid by enough players in China.

The game self-media core mentioned that "It Takes Two" is a two-player/multiplayer game with the highest proportion of play in many offline video game stores, and the player group is mainly couples, and the videos of various couples, couples, and parents and children playing "Two Shadows Wonderland" online also have a good number of views, which to a certain extent indicates that the two people cooperateThe fun of the game is in the hearts of the Chinese people, and its core is socialization.

Due to the mandatory two-player cooperative gameplay, the relationship between the two players will be "forced" to enter a state of understanding each other and paying for each other during the gameplay, which will make the relationship between the two parties form a stronger connection. For example, there are indeed couples who are in marital difficulties because of "It Takes Two" to give both parties another chance.

Including cloud players who are happy to cloud "Two Shadows Wonderland", they also want to see a person who is good at playing games, how to take people who are not good at playing games to adventure together, in which the gap between the player's relationship and their respective game levels and their respective attitudes will make this kind of two-player cooperative game derive more social topics.

Sociality may be the most beneficial "weapon" for Chinese players, as evidenced by games such as "League of Legends", "Honor of Kings", "Egg Boy Party", and "Against the Water and Cold Mobile Game", and two-player cooperationCompared with other stranger social games, the game focuses more on two people or acquaintances, which makes the game provide a deeper social and interactive experience.

According to Josef Fares, founder of Hazelight Studios, "Traditional one-man or simply add-on collaborationsIt is difficult for the game of the mode to achieve a real narrative breakthrough, and the mandatory two-player co-op design can create a unique tension and emotional connection", which is also reflected in "It Takes Two" and "Two Shadows in Wonderland", the protagonist's abilities are related to their own character settings, and the gameplay mechanics are designed to match the narrative. In this way, players can have a stronger immersive experience and emotional gain after playing.

This may also be the reason why other two-player co-op games have struggled to achieve the sales results of "It Takes Two" and "Two Shadows in Wonderland", because these two games not only provide fun to play, but also have multi-dimensional emotional value, which is the key to hitting Chinese players.

3

When will domestic games step into this "blue ocean"?

When "It Takes Two" was popular in the Chinese market, it was also the period when party games attracted attention in the Chinese market, game manufacturers realized the love of Chinese players for social networking, and saw the easy replication of "Fall Guys", so we saw "Egg Boy Party" and "Yuan Dream Star", but there are very few games like "It Takes Two" that are more inclined to acquaintance socialization to a certain extent.

Previously, Tencent's NExT studio developed "Only Big Adventure", and Eagle Horn has done a round of testing of "Bom Bom", although they are also two-player cooperative games, but more only stay in two-person cooperation, but there is not enough emotional ability. The reason for this may be that Chinese manufacturers cannot get rid of the influence of business inertia and development capabilities for the time being.

On the one hand, doing two-player cooperative game development requires stronger level creative design capabilities, which has stumped some teams, and at the same time, in order to achieve the level of these works like Hazelight Studio, creativity alone is not enough, the details of the mechanism and narrative coordination, and the technical support needed for creativity, Including the grasp of visual style, etc., it is possible to achieve it with higher investment.

On the other hand, when the continuous payment model of mobile games can provide stable cash flow for manufacturers, how many manufacturers are willing to take higher development risks and invest more money and technology for buyout games?

However, in our view, the demand for high-quality games on the PC/console side of the Chinese game market is awakening, including various cloud service game platforms are gradually attracting more mobile game players to experience the fun of terminal games, which are urging manufacturers to produce more high-quality games to serve the market, so that the structure of China's game market will be balanced from mobile-only to multi-terminal symbiosisUnder such a premise, high-level two-player co-op games may be a suitable entry point, which is suitable for Chinese players, attracts Chinese players, can generate good topicality, and can also promote the game industry to a new stage of common growth of developers and players, technology and creativity, business and art.

▼

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