The teahouse once spoke in the middle of the year about the future of women to the game, which should be gone. It is a pleasure that, while the future is still far away, it is indeed moving forward. For example, NetEase has been online for two weeks of "Absolute Interpretation", Tencent's "Brilliant Star Road" released today, and "Ling Yunnuo", which has just been scheduled for public beta on January 20, their focus is no longer the pursuit of men or the pursuit of men, but more towards the self-pursuit of independent women, as an entertainer, as an entertainment agent, and as a person who serves the country and the people.
We are pleased to find that more and more teams have realized that women want to continue to develop and evolve to games, not just "feminine" content, it needs more universal spiritual core to carry, and more popular game content to fill. As a game company that has focused on women to the track for many years, the answer sheet handed over by Friendship Time is the new national style, traditional culture, and the feelings and righteousness of serving the country and the people.
01
The team members of "Lingyunnuo" mainly come from the backbone of the many ancient style product teams in Friendship Time. They have studied the expressiveness of switching between 2D character realism and Q version of the character for a long time. Because the main 3D bone technology on the market is relatively mature, in terms of 2D, whether it is the production process or expression, in fact, there are not so many references and technical precipitation, and it is difficult to be as flexible as 3D. To this end, the team organized a special R & D team to carry out content research.
After a large number of attempts at painting techniques, forms of expression, character model presentation and other artistic directions, the team finally obtained such an artistic positioning of "New Ink National Style" by establishing the image of the character model in the game at the beginning of last year. Instead of catering to the currently popular national style + two-dimensional market, it chooses to present players with a pure ancient style world that is more in line with the oriental aesthetic, and at the same time digs deep into the aesthetic habits of users through the clothing and dress-up category, and adds fashion elements that are more in line with the tastes of contemporary users in the process of art design.
The team also found in several major female game categories that are more mainstream in the current market: two-dimensional otome type game users are more likely to achieve an emotional state of promotion and self-satisfaction. By excavating the design method of character development and interaction in the celebrity cultivation category, the team further strengthened the in-game character shaping and created more flesh-and-blood characters. The team conducted a deep reflection and discussion in the form of a large number of stories with male and female emotions as the main content of the current ancient style drama type games, and finally came up with such a plot line that allows users to achieve self-pursuit and complete self-sublimation.
This set of understanding falls on the specific game design, "Ling Yunnuo" adopts a male and female double line perspective, note that this is not to say that the same set of scripts simply change his/her way of expression, but from the story line, plot direction to make a fundamental difference.
If you choose the female line in "Ling Yunnuo", it will take the heroine's continuous growth and pursuit of self as the main tone of the plot, and through various efforts to achieve the dream in her heart - to seek a peaceful and prosperous life for the people of the homeland; if you choose the male line, it will focus on showing the various events, ideological changes, and finally the story of the road of national medicine experienced by the male protagonist from the medical family after becoming an imperial doctor in the Xinglin Hall.
Regardless of the male and female lines, the main vein of the plot is heavy on career and light feelings, and does not adopt the common pleasure of enmity and small love, but chooses the theme of big love that embraces the world and governs the world. To reconstruct the spiritual core of classical culture from a more macroscopic perspective.
And the game's interpretation of the national style is not superficial packaging, in addition to the world view of the human setting and story plot, the game also integrates a large number of gameplay to interpret traditional culture, so that players can understand the traditional culture that has existed around us for a long time but is often ignored in a closer and more intimate way.
The combination of traditional culture in the game can be said to be all aspects, and the character's costume design refers to a large number of patterns and accessories of ancient costumes, adding design elements of traditional costume crafts such as Su embroidery and Song Jin. In the design of scenes and various maps, a large number of Song Dynasty architectural and interior decoration elements are also borrowed, such as the concept of focusing on the unity of nature and man, humanities and nature in ancient architectural design, which is also reflected in the game.
At the same time, the game has also done a meticulous study and restoration in the embodiment of traditional cultural and humanistic relations, and the etiquette between literati and rioters has been presented one by one through some details and gameplay in the daily life and main line, and at the same time, through the interaction between players, the ancient social relations such as dating and mentoring have been restored, and their essence has been removed from its dross, further deepening the user's experience of ancient social networking.
As a game enterprise in Suzhou, Friendship Time has a natural advantage in its understanding of Jiangnan culture. The R&D team successfully drew inspiration from local cultural elements, referred to the architectural style and costume modeling of the Song Dynasty, and created a national style art style with Chinese colors, Jiangnan culture and Song Dynasty architectural aesthetics as the main design themes.
For example, the scene design in the game, a large number of references to the geographical advantages of Suzhou, the small bridge flowing water people's water town style, has become the main symbol of the game of the capital city, township scenery, the player's room, mansion and a large number of architectural styles are integrated into the design concept of The Su-style garden, rockery landscaping, the combination between plant bonsai and architectural groups, to create an environmental structure with a strong Jiangnan cultural atmosphere.
In the character design, not only a large number of Design Elements of the Su embroidery style are used in the costumes, but also refers to the ancient well-known figures in the Jiangnan region, looking for character archetypes from the fields of Kunqu District, Pingtan, Chess Culture, Jiangnan Literature, etc., and the design has given birth to a series of character images based on the famous teacher system.
On the other hand, the "Lingyunnuo" team also uses various cross-border cooperation as an external extension of the connotation of game culture. For example, the theme song of the game "Ling Yun Fu", which was just launched some time ago - who is a man? Who is a woman? Which is equality? What is Jun? What is a minister? What is Cangsheng? Use these six questions to further elevate the game's intentions, the game discusses gender equality and women's awakening, and also pays attention to the world. The modern expression of the fusion of various art forms such as drama + strings + RAP makes traditional culture no longer an old-fashioned endorsement and is more easily accepted by today's young people.
This cultural and creative strategy of inheriting the past and the present is also reflected in the cooperation between the team and the new generation of non-genetic inheritors from all walks of life: Su embroidery, medicinal incense, Guohua, Hanfu and many other non-genetic inheritors, all of whom are post-90s. As a painter of new Chinese style, Ye Luying was invited by CCTV's "National Treasure" program to serve as the guardian of the national treasure "Roselle Futu"; Wang Jiajia is the designer of the well-known Hanfu brand Hua Chaoji; Gu Xiaosi is the inheritor of the handicraft medicine incense production skills, and is also a national tide UP master and young writer... This is what traditional craftsmanship really looks like in modern life.
03
As a masterpiece of friendship time in the women's ancient wind track, "Lingyunnuo" shows the team's cognitive precipitation of female user needs over the years, as well as continuous polishing and long exploration in research and development.
In 2019, the R&D team targeted the market outside the female segment, hoping to meet the needs of female core players while also influencing the needs of ordinary players, so "Floating Life for Qing Song" was born. They use higher quality sound and picture performance and content standards to make 3D open-ended ancient style cultivation games: the multi-line plot of the big world, the exquisite custom pinch face, and the high degree of restoration of the ancient style, which make "Floating For The Song" a low-key female head product. It has been online for 2 years and continues to remain within 20-40 of the IOS best-seller list.
In addition to focusing on women to the track, the cultural progress of friendship time in the past two years has become more and more prominent. Friendship Time has successively won the "2019-2020 National Cultural Export Key Enterprise", "2019 Most Influential Game Enterprise", "2020 Central Cultural Industry Development Special Fund".
At the same time, the 2020 annual financial report released last year also revealed the thinking of friendship time in the face of future women's market: diversified product strategy, commercial IP strategy and global overseas strategy.
In addition to taking out new products such as "Lingyunnuo" to ensure its leading position in the female subdivision track to China's ancient style, the team also prepared modern urban products such as "Dulala Promotion", playing the workplace and playing a sense of reality, which is also one of the trends of women to the game in recent years.
And "Ling Yunnuo", which is three years away from "Floating Life as a Qing Song", can be said to be a new understanding of the current women's game market by friendship time, and what is the power of the combination of new national style, traditional culture and family and country feelings? Let's wait and see.