Text/Liang Lotte

When a number of major players devote themselves to the development of service games, pursue long-term operations, or stuff more side lines to extend the gameplay time, tying players to their own products, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" does seem a little special when it refuses to be long-term.

What's even more special is that in today's environment where player reviews are polarized and shortcomings are infinitely magnified, the game received 97% positive reviews on Steam on the day of its launch, and this number even increased by 1% in the future.

This may mean that "Two Shadows in Wonderland" is a title that players can barely fault with.

And after the experience, I must admit that the game exceeded my original expectations for the Plus version of It Takes Two. Whether it is the graphics or the level design, the game has reached a stunning level, and it can be called the pinnacle of the split-screen two-player cooperative track in terms of audio-visual.

In terms of gameplay, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" is roughly similar to its predecessor: in the course of more than ten hours, two players will continue to speed through more than a dozen fantasy and sci-fi worlds, and promote the development of the story through basic platform jumping, as well as exclusive gameplay such as shooting and racing.

Since the game forces two-player co-op, the "I know you're in a hurry, but don't worry" scene is often staged during gameplay.

For example, in Cyberpunk City levels, when you are drifting, drag racing, gravity conversion, and life and death speed, your friends may still click to agree to the terms and enter the verification code to prove that they are not human-machine.

Source@B The game world of Station 11, the same below

Probably the most surprising of these is the final chapter of the game. The convergence of the two protagonists' consciousnesses presents scenes that are very different but can affect each other, breaking the perception constructed in the previous seven chapters and explaining what Josef Fares calls "an element that has never been seen before in the history of video games".

When the name Josef Fares is mentioned now, the first thing that comes to mind may be his denunciation of Oscar on the stage of the TGA, or the "violent comments" he makes every now and then on social media.

However, when you look at his past experiences, you will find that his life is not inferior to the games he created.

Fares was born in wartime Lebanon and buried his loved ones with his own hands; At the age of 15, he made his first short film and was admitted to the Swedish Theatre Academy, becoming its youngest student ever. After switching careers to games, he developed 4 titles in 16 years, and won the best game of the year with "It Takes Two".

Now that "It Takes Two" has verified the success code, it seems reasonable for "Two Shadows Wonderland", which slammed on the accelerator in the same direction, to be able to succeed.

For Fares, even though their game has sold tens of millions of copies, they are still the only ones who make split-screen two-player co-op games. He believes that it's about getting players to understand what they're thinking, not making something they think players will like.

He knew that there might be people in the industry who wanted to try two-player co-op games but didn't dare to actually take that step because they were afraid of failure. In Fares' opinion, the important thing is not to follow the trend, but to follow your passion. Sometimes, you just need to "fuck it" and stick to what you really believe in.

01

What's so good about "Two Shadows in Wonderland"?

If you want to ask, what is the success code of "Two Shadows in Wonderland"? I think it can be boiled down to three points: one is the ultimate accumulation of gameplay creativity, the second is the explosive performance under the theme of science fiction and fantasy, and the third is the integration of gameplay and narrative full of cinematic sense.

Let's start with gameplay ideas. From cyberpunk cities to magical forests, from laboratory factories to the land of dragons, from the outer space where the stars collapse to the 2D world in the picture...... More than a dozen worlds with very different styles are overwhelming.

The various creative elements are presented in a way that can be considered extravagant, rolling up to the point that "you only played a scene for a minute, and it probably took half a year to produce".

If you take out the gameplay of a certain chapter alone, you will find that it is nothing more than transformation, shooting and other routines. This means that "Two Shadows in Wonderland" does not pursue depth in a single gameplay, but by constantly introducing new game mechanics, it ensures that players feel fresh throughout the game.

Unlike 3D Mario, which has a very high ceiling for gameplay, Two Shadows in Wonderland takes a strategy that plays to its strengths and avoids its weaknesses: it doesn't pursue 100 points, but ensures that the overall game experience is always at a high level by consistently outputting content with a score of 85 or more.

At the same time, this somewhat flattering approach can also reduce the cost of ideas to a certain extent.

In the process of playing, in addition to paying tribute to games such as "Assassin's Creed", "Dark Souls", "Metal Solid", and many easter eggs that make players smile, it is not difficult to find that the game also has the shadow of many classic games, such as "Contra", "Mitrode", and the 3D Mario mentioned above.

Although it integrates so many gameplay styles, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" does not make people feel that it is a "stitching monster". This is mainly due to the narrative and performance parts of the game.

On the one hand, the game shows a strong sense of hierarchy in terms of content presentation. Before the player gets bored with the existing gameplay, the game will switch to the next gameplay in time, avoiding the player's aesthetic fatigue.

At the same time, compared with the flow of "It Takes Two", the work switches from linear to the intersection of the main line and branches. While sci-fi sets the story as the main world, the subplots are fantasy worlds and vice versa.

On the other hand, unlike its predecessor, the story of "Two Shadows in Wonderland" has a slower pace and more foreshadowing. The game does not pursue a grand or deep story, but focuses on being easy to understand and reducing the cost of understanding.

The game pursues memory points and dissemination by filling up various large scenes and chase battles.

In the last second, you may still be leaping in the land of giants; The next second, you could be gliding over a train or facing a fantasy version of the Eternal City of Norclonn.

In the words of the player, ""Little Nightmares" held back the big move for a whole game, and was treated as a flat A by "Double Shadow Wonderland". ”

It is worth mentioning that there are also many famous scenes in the game that pay tribute to film and television works, such as the motorcycle stop in "Akira", and the plot where the characters complain about the old-fashioned and half of the car leans out of the building.

This sense of cinema is the key to the mutual achievement of the gameplay and narrative of "Two Shadows in Wonderland". It is not only reflected in the cutscenes, but also throughout the camera movement and perspective during the operation, especially the screen switching.

During the game, the scale and form of the screen will change as the narrative progresses. In the case of Cyberpunk City, for example, the game will most often take the form of a left-right split screen, with the two screens running parallel at the same ratio.

In the motorcycle chase part, in order to maintain the coherence of the experience, the two screens are combined into one, and the two can operate together or alternately, one shot to the end, seamlessly.

When the player needs to complete the human-machine recognition to disarm the vehicle from self-detonation, the left screen ratio will increase, indicating that it is the current narrative subject; Another screen complements the narrative.

In addition, in order to enhance the sense of oppression, the dual screen can be expanded to three or four screens in some cases, and it is not even necessary to be confined to the same time or place.

For example, in the final chapter of "Two Shadows in Wonderland", two completely parallel but interconnected story lines can be developed in different time and space.

Fares once said, "Interactive narrative games are the future." ”

In the past few years, interactive video games have been all the rage, and creators in the film and television industry have flocked to the field of games to launch various interactive narrative films.

However, it is not difficult to see a lot of immaturity in these follow-up works: they simply place movie scenes in the game as a series, and the player is often just a spectator of the game, rather than a participant.

In contrast, "Two Shadows in Wonderland" and the previous "Escape" and "It Takes Two" broke away from the limitations of traditional cinematic games, truly realized the narrative evolution of the genre of "interactive film", and showed the industry the possibility of close integration of Story and Gameplay.

The official website of Hazelight Studios

02

Shuangwen script, open life

Why did Two Shadows Wonderland do this? This may be because Fares was a professional director before making games.

In 2005, Fares made a film based on his childhood experiences called "zozo" (Fares's nickname), which tells the story of the Lebanese civil war.

"I've been through a lot of things that kids shouldn't be going through," Fares said in an interview with Polygon, "and my sister and I buried our brother with our own hands because he died at birth." ”

According to Fares's recollection, in order to keep their children away from the war and live in peace, his parents tried five times to apply for immigration before finally being allowed to leave Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, to join Fares' grandmother in Sweden.

In his opinion, this experience has changed him and allowed him to have a strong sense of self-confidence when facing new things.

After arriving in Sweden, at the age of 15, Fares made his first short film. Subsequently, he was admitted to the Swedish Drama Academy, becoming the youngest student in the school's history.

In 2000, Fares remembers a phone call from a filmmaker — he was 22 years old at the time, preparing to make his first film, Jalla! Jalla！ 》。

He said to the producer: "I'm going to make this, and it's going to work out – either you join or you quit, what do you say?" The other person replied, "What are you talking about?" He then asked, "Forward or Backward?" The other party finally said, "Come in!" He immediately responded: "Good! ”

Subsequently, the film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in Sweden at the Oscars that year.

Before going to college, Fares had already made more than fifty short films. He was also nicknamed the "King of Low Budgets" for his ability to produce special effects at a low cost. Perhaps it was this experience that gave Fares a unique understanding of cost control when he later switched to games.

In 2010, a local school in Örebro, Sweden, held a six-week course in game design and theory. Knowing that Fares was nearby, they invited him to give a presentation from a filmmaking perspective.

As a veteran game enthusiast, Fares not only embraced it, but also directly participated in the demo project of the course team. And it was this demo that eventually spawned "Brothers: Tales of the Twins" launched in 2013.

Although many Swedes were confused by Fares, a well-known director, the decision to switch from film to games, for himself, the shift was natural. "Through film, I reached a point where I felt like that passion was gone. And video games have rekindled my passion. ”

As a single-player puzzle game that appears to be a co-op game, in Brothers: Tales of the Twins, players need to control the older brother and younger brother respectively through the left and right joysticks of the controller.

Obviously, this unique way of playing is difficult for mainstream publishers to accept. When Fares came to the door, the only answer he got was: Is this a co-op game? No? That's not what we want right now.

Even when the project was later taken over by Starbreeze Studios, some team members eventually chose to leave due to Fares' blunt and even somewhat aggressive communication style, as well as questions about the gameplay itself.

"Josef's disregard for most classic game design rules made some people nervous at first, but ultimately it was what made the game special." Carl Granberg, the project's principal, commented.

Perhaps inspired by his previous experience with publishers because the project wasn't a co-op game, Fares founded Hazelight Studios in 2014. That same year, EA fell in love with "Escape" and not only provided $3.7 million in financial support, but also lent DICE an office to them.

As time went on, the game's ambitions grew, and the budget was stretched. Fares' accountant warns him that the company is in trouble and that if the game fails and does not sell well, he could end up on the streets with all his debts.

Eventually, Fares' solution was to make money to pay his salary by directing commercials. "It really fucking worked. At one point, I was ready to sell my stake in the company to stay afloat. They may regret turning down such an opportunity in the first place, haha. ”

And this game, which even EA didn't think could sell at the time, has now sold 11 million copies.

From "Brothers: Tales of the Twins" to "Escape", to "It Takes Two" and "Two Shadows in Wonderland", the team has expanded from five or six people at the beginning to eighty-one people today. However, if you look at the staff list of these four games, you will see that none of them have a creative director in place.

From the perspective of "Two Shadows in Wonderland", the core management team of the project is made up of 6 people, with Fares himself as the game director and co-writer.

The division of labor of internal personnel is roughly as follows: 27 people in art and visual effects, 13 people in planning, 11 people in programming, 10 people in animation, 11 people in sound effects, and 5 people in promotional video production and personnel administration. Around these members, they created 8 chapters, 12 side quests, and 19 bosses.

This small and broad model is inseparable from Fares' almost full control management model. "We almost never work overtime, and we have done a good job of planning and controlling the whole project, and we hope to continue in the future."

When Escape was developed, many of the 35-person team were new interns who were mainly responsible for execution. Over the course of seven years, Hazelight has cultivated a group of developers. This team structure from scratch is conducive to the implementation and execution of this set of management decisions.

In addition, according to Fares, writers and planners sometimes create content in two directions, so it is important to unify the two under a single rule to ensure that every detail of the story is reflected during the game. This may also be the reason why he is personally in charge of screenwriting.

It's worth mentioning that Hazelight Studios has also developed Angelscript, Unreal Engine's scripting language. If you want to use it, you'll need to download a dedicated branch of Unreal Engine, which shows that they have a solid level of use of Unreal Engine.

In other words, their wild ideas are based on their own technical prowess.

Fares has said that their goal is to fuck shit up without fucking up and stick to what they want to do. "No one told us what to do. It's crazy. In a way, we're like dogs without a leash. ”

03

"As long as it feels right, it will be right"

A few days ago, Hazelight announced that "Two Shadows in Wonderland" had sold 2 million copies within a week of its release, and "It Takes Two" took nearly 3 months to reach this result.

Speaking to IGN ahead of the release of It Takes Two, Fares said, "We're the best in the world [in narrative co-op adventures] because there's no one competing with us. So far, this statement still holds.

VG Insight estimates that in the nearly ten days since its launch, "Two Shadows Wonderland" has sold 2.2 million copies on Steam, with a revenue of more than 86 million US dollars (about 620 million yuan)

In that case, can other manufacturers imitate and launch competing products? After all, this doesn't require a lot of gameplay design skills, and it doesn't seem difficult to pile up on audiovisual specifications and gameplay numbers.

But in my opinion, perhaps the real difficulty is how to combine dozens of gameplay styles and how to combine the narrative with the game mechanics. And to do that, you need a producer like Fares.

Specifically, what is needed is a director who is also a game enthusiast who has crazy and bold ideas, but also happens to be in time for the rise of commercial engines to bridge the technological gap.

What's more, he must also have enough leadership while receiving sufficient financial support.

According to Fares, high budgets often discourage developers and publishers from following their instincts and leaving room for enthusiasm. To solve this problem, you need developers with clear goals, and publishers who don't timid, hold back, and rely on endless market research.

He often tells the team to make players understand what they think, not to make something they think players will like. "From that perspective, we're more like we're creating a market than adapting to a market."

Fares said he deliberately doesn't follow the market or pay attention to current trends. If you look at the games they're making and what they've done, you'll see that they've always stuck to their own path, and that's a lot of relying on his intuition.

"As long as it feels right, it will be right."

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