On December 16, the "Magic Tower" mobile game, which has been discussed for nearly a year, was finally tested, and it reached the top of the iOS free list and ranked 6th in the best-seller list. After that, the popularity did not decrease, and the next day it directly rushed into the top three, and this once less "two" mobile game finally won the recognition of players.
GameLook has also reported several times before: initially, the more traditional gameplay of "Magic Tower" was once put on the "hat of not understanding the second dimension" by players. The R & D team finally chose to win back the players with sincerity, every time released a detailed and massive "bald list", according to player feedback to make thousands of changes to the game, "every test is a new game" Word of mouth quickly spread.
For example, 4 mimetics were added during the third test; until the fourth test, the mimesis has covered all SSRs and some SR characters, and has the corresponding action modules and second-order states, basically creating a series of complete content around "mimesis". At the same time, the weather system, aerial combo, weapon will and other systems have been updated, and they have also received good feedback.
Nowadays, after four tests and four polishings, and several rounds of major changes to the character image and gameplay content, the game has finally opened the public beta in the expectations of tens of millions of players, and the first launch has achieved good performance. Behind the eye-catching results, GameLook also wants to know more about how the "Magic Tower" that won the "opening red" is?
Schrödinger's "Phantom Tower" opened the box
As a two-dimensional open world game that has attracted much attention from the outside world, with the blessing of multiple popularity tags, "Magic Tower" has a high degree of attention, and the number of reservations on the whole network has exceeded 15 million before it was launched. However, whether it can continue to make reservations after the launch has always been the most concerned topic in the outside world.
But as far as the current performance is concerned, how to convert the massive appointments into the real heat after the public beta, "Magic Tower" obviously has its own mature thinking.
Since the first few tests, it can be seen that the publishing team continues to improve the game worldview and character building depth through R&D notes, Tata's top-secret mission logs, etc., and build player cognition in advance.
On the one hand, the game relies on map scenes, such as large ship ruins, watchtowers, etc., and sets up puzzles that conform to the world view such as cracking the server left behind on the ship. Players are encouraged to actively explore the map, in the process to understand the map and the worldview setting behind it, as well as the shaping of the personality image of the mimetic character.
On the other hand, GAMELOOK found that since the release of the fixed PV on November 16, the official convenience of "Magic Tower" has begun to release high-quality PGC content on platforms such as Weibo, TapTap, and B station where secondary users gather, and continues to heat up the discussion of related topics. While attracting the attention of a large number of secondary users, it also continues to strengthen players' understanding of game content with the help of high-quality content.
It is worth mentioning that there are many second-dimensional players among the target users of "Magic Tower", and they often have high requirements for human settings, plots, and screens. This means that during the release of the game, it is more necessary to convey more content related to the character and world view to the player to increase the user's sense of realism.
In terms of characters, the game does bring a full set of content supply in terms of distribution. In addition to personal PVs such as Meryl, Semir, and Xi Luo, mimetic character intelligence has been launched in many other columns, constantly strengthening players' impressions of each mimetic.
A week before its launch, the game continued to release the public beta theme song "Salvation", which further set off the atmosphere of the world view and greatly increased the expectations of players. At that time, there were many excited players who said bluntly: "Can the magic tower gkd, I can't wait to open the wilderness", "I see that you are also in a hurry, it is better to test it today.".
Taking it a step further, "Salvation" serves as another tipping point, not only serving the shaping of the worldview, but also helping to tell the story of the mimetic characters and the game itself. Moreover, the sense of surprise brought by the theme song to the player can also form a communication force, promote the player's spontaneous sharing, and accelerate the spread of the game's popularity.
Indeed, the influx of massive players on the first day of the launch, and even the grand situation that multiple servers need to queue up, triggered a lot of discussion among players. In particular, the game's high-quality graphics, fine character modeling, as well as the character's industrial style, beautiful big world scenery, light science fiction style art and other characteristics, have been repeatedly sought after by users. Many netizens said bluntly: "The first impression is really super Nice", "As a face control, I can't refuse such a beautiful and fun game." ”
Behind the hot discussion among players, GameLook became more and more curious about how "Magic Tower" won this "acclaimed and popular" debut performance.
Fill the gap in the open world and meet the diverse needs of players
Intuitively, the most distinctive label of "Magic Tower" is naturally "two-dimensional open world mobile game". Behind the public beta breakout, to a large extent, it caters to the diversity of open world players' demands.
In recent years, with the iteration of mobile devices and the general improvement of the industry's technical strength, the open world has gradually become a delicacy for the domestic mobile game market. But there is still no standard answer to what to do in the open world. Due to the late start, most of the current mainstream solutions in China are designed with reference to foreign buyout stand-alone games.
In essence, players' demand for open-world games has long been diversified. The traditional experience of the stand-alone type is certainly an option, but most open-world products are also facing the dilemma that the output of the manufacturer is much smaller than the demand of the player in operation. Not to mention, two-dimensional users are already consuming content faster and are willing to pursue stylized experiences.
In the long run, players' demand for diverse and interesting content has not been fully met. In contrast, the multiplayer type that retains the open-world gameplay is another option at the moment. Imagine that by shaping an open world, building a broad stage for players, and preliminary multiplayer play rules, and then continuously putting resources and fun gameplay into the world, you can fully meet the differentiated needs of players.
The "Magic Tower", which integrates two-dimensional, open world, light social and other elements, obviously satisfies the multiplayer large-world online elements that are lacking in most open-world mobile games.
Compared with the same type of game, "Magic Tower" pays more attention to the online gameplay of the team, and the multiplayer fight and the team adventure PvP are the significant features of the game. Players can participate in different difficulty and forms of fights with other users in the form of four-player squads such as "joint combat" and "time chaos", or challenge different types of world bosses on the open map. In addition, for players who like to experience combat gameplay, the game also provides a more strategic numerical balance arena, and players can win by honing their operations, positioning, and weapon matching strategies.
At the same time, players can also experience the fun of exploring with other players in the big world. Because the interaction of the environment in the game is affected by other players, most large-world puzzles can often be completed quickly through multiplayer co-op. Interestingly, there are also two resources in the game. Random chests are shared resources that appear randomly everywhere and can be opened by all players. There are also personal resources tied to roles, so there is no need to worry about the uneven distribution of resources between multiple people cooperating.
Although "Magic Tower" does have a rich multiplayer online gameplay, it satisfies the differentiated demands of players. But in GameLook's view, in addition to the multiplayer interactive experience, the game core also has no lack of features of open-world games.
For example, the game has weapons, suppressors, source devices, armor and other multi-line cultivation, and the above required cultivation resources can be obtained by exploring the world. Such as supply pods, dandelions, eat flowers, tar holes, thorns, etc. will produce the drawing resource "Black Core" or "Gold Core"; starting from level 43, the entire SSR "Weapon Will" drops, etc. It can be said that the large map provides most players with a wealth of cultivation resources, promoting players to spontaneously enjoy the initial fun of exploring the map.
In addition, the Mirage tower has also added a face pinching mechanism rarely found in two-dimensional games. Players can not only freely pinch out the perfect appearance in their hearts, but even the body shape can be adjusted, and all the parts involving color have a complete color wheel for free color picking, which greatly enhances the player's sense of substitution. In the previous test, there was even a large influx of players without activation codes, DIY and sharing their face pinch data, breaking the traditional cognition of the industry that the social acceptance of secondary users is not high.
All of the above can be said to be a good compatibility with the two seemingly incompatible elements of multiplayer social networking and quadratic elements, thus opening up the market gap of the current open world game and becoming the key to the rise of "Magic Tower".
Production capabilities are accumulated to enhance the experience of difference in the open world
In the final analysis, behind the success of the public beta of "Magic Tower", it is essentially inseparable from the continuous improvement of product quality. From the first test to the official launch, the technical strength of the R&D team has also been improved in the process of continuous production and polishing, and has gradually formed a complete set of open world industrialization processes.
With the powerful expressive power of Unreal Engine 4, today's Tower of Illusions can be said to be a highly realistic and quite distinctive open world.
It can be seen that based on the game's world view: that is, the future earth human beings to the distant and habitable planet "Aida Star", but accidentally led to the original energy leaked into the wasteland of the setting, the research and development team around this Aida Star this open world, into a considerable amount of content in line with the setting, such as Ada's Star Island Refuge, scientific research organization Haigard and other representatives of the special scene.
At the same time, the "Magic Tower" map also has a wealth of scenes with different terrain and landforms, such as the floating paradise of Moby Dick Island, the mine ruins of Crohn, and the industrial wind pier Bangis. Coupled with the various puzzle elements and world bosses distributed in it, it can be said that it is full of surprises, which greatly reduces the tediousness of the player's single running map in the traditional open world.
During this period, the game also provides players with a rich "source" to enhance the interactive experience of the scene. For example, the mechanical arm for ascending, the jetpack, the jet skateboard used in the waterway, or the original hand cannon that interacts with the scene. Or a future industrial wind vehicle such as the Mechanical Proto-Energy Beast and the Mechanical WarHorse "Morocros" to help players enjoy exploring the big world.
In fact, in addition to the above-mentioned big world puzzle solving, encountering world bosses, etc., "Magic Tower" also provides other interesting large map gameplay, such as exploring treasure chests or cleaning up camps, players have the opportunity to trigger the mysterious original energy storage device at any time, go to unknown dreams, face various challenges such as mazes.
In the long run, relying on this interesting open-world gameplay design has also made the game itself more diverse in multiplayer online gameplay. You know, "Magic Tower" is very restrained in PvP, focusing on the gameplay itself, that is, tending to explore large maps cooperatively rather than compete. The rich gameplay of multiplayer parkour, multiplayer puzzle solving, and cooperative exploration in the open world map will continue to bring players a differentiated experience, even if the long grass period will not be too boring.
What's more, after each test, the R&D team will sort out and answer a large number of questions from players. The sincere gesture has won the affirmation of many players early, and naturally will continue to be in the long-term operation process to this day. This kind of "player-oriented" thinking throughout will also provide more possibilities for co-creating gameplay content with players in the future, as well as the game itself.
From causing controversy to gaining the recognition of most players, the launch of the powerful player "Magic Tower" is tantamount to blowing the horn of the second half of the open world track. After the first stunning launch, how to continue to produce differentiated content in the open world category and continuously meet the needs of players will also become a long-term challenge for "Magic Tower" in the future.
Fortunately, from the performance during the test, in the continuous supply of game content, the R & D team has obviously accumulated a mature methodology, and it is difficult not to continue to look forward to the performance of the subsequent iterations of "Magic Tower".
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