In 2022, the key word for "Glory of Kings" is "in the clouds". During the year, the main stage of the game came from Chang'an to this exotic desert area composed of 4 regions, where new stories will be staged.
Yes, the story. When it comes to Glory of Kings, people rarely think of the story first. Competitive games usually choose to downplay the plot and fill in the worldview in a more fragmented way, and in the first 6 years of the game, Glory of Kings did the same.
And that has all changed in the past year. 2021 is the first year of Glory of Kings, and it also has an annual theme, "Chang'an that Never Sleeps". In the 4 seasons of the year, in addition to the normal updates, "Glory of the King" also released the 4 story collections of "Shangyuan Wins the Championship", "Chang'an Secret Agent", "Long Gun Raiding Fire" and "Falling Son Without Regrets" inside and outside the game, which in turn combine to form the entire annual story of "Chang'an that Never Sleeps".
The term "racing year" sounds a bit unfamiliar — players may be more accustomed to the term "season"— and it's a bit confusing to have the "first" year introduced in the game's 6th year. Besides, why did Glory of Kings choose to start telling a coherent long story at this point?
With these questions in mind, Touch music interviewed Yang Baoge, the designer of the "Glory of kings" IP world view. We talked about where the racing year came from, why the shift was made in 2021, how to make further upgrades in 2022, how Glory of Kings tells the story, and the production team's future plans. Impressively, the year-long racing year is just the beginning of a long-term IP narrative, and in the main creative team's plan, the future story framework is gradually taking shape, even after 12 years - starting to tell stories in a new form is not the temporary intention of "Glory of Kings", but has a longer-term plan behind it.
What story does Glory of Kings tell in 2021?
As night fell, the lights began to go up, and a chase battle was staged in the bustling streets and alleys of Chang'an City... This is the new version of "Glory of Kings" at the beginning of 2021 to promote CG. At the end of the opening credits, there are two female emperors, the true and false Wu Zetian. With the barrage of "Why Did Your Majesty Rebel", players don't realize that what they're seeing is not just a simple game that promotes CG, but the beginning of a series of coherent episodes.
Each racing year consists of 4 seasons
Subsequently, the "Chang'an Secret Agent" announced in April told the warm daily story of Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang from the perspective of Dali Temple. These stories seem to be scattered, nothing more than related to trivial work, daily overtime, and care for relatives, but some players have found that dali sicha's case seems to be the theft of organs mentioned in the CG released at the beginning of the year. In June, the plot of "Spear Raiding Fire" was released, and the theme was still related to the organ people, and the new hero Yun Miao launched a duel with the rampaging organ people in order to protect Li Yuanfang's brother.
The perspective of "Chang'an Secret Agent" is more daily
When the "No Regrets" CG was released in September, players clearly realized that this was a story that took a year to tell, and many "new updates" were brushed up in the barrage. As a closing, "No Regrets" reveals the truth directly from the perspective of the Yaotian Organization, revealing how they cooperated and laid out with Wu Zetian, and how they defeated Sikong Zhen, who intended to set off a riot of organ people, at the last moment.
"No regrets" echoes the "Shangyuan victory" at the beginning of the year
It took a year to tell this story, and this is the first time that Glory of Kings has told such a long story.
From the content point of view, the story of Chang'an Sailian is a bit like a circle, all the clues have long been hidden in the original plot, in the following year, the new narrative content in various forms gradually released, from different sides to uncover all the mysteries, kickbacks the female emperor and Si Kongzhen's original intention of governing the country, and jointly drew this circle.
In terms of presentation, the story relies on the framework of "Racing Year", which is the form carefully selected by the main creative team of the "Glory of Kings" Sainian plot in order to tell a good story. Yang Baoge sees Sai Nian as "a narrative exploration promoted in competitive games (MOBA)." "Exploration" means that it's not easy to do: telling a complete and large story in a game is the strength of an RPG, and it's not difficult to do in an MMORPG, but competitive games are different, and in a tense and high-paced game, it's hard to insert a plot. Previous competitive games tended not to tell too long stories, so there are not many precedents for such attempts.
"It may only have one map, and the information and content that players can feel in this game are relatively limited," Yang Baoge said. So, when the team decided to do a coherent story, part of the content was put out of the game. Almost every one of the several CGs mentioned above has been uploaded to the video site synchronously and can be viewed directly. This is why the above-mentioned players "chase" on video sites.
"Glory of Kings", which has been 6 years, why did you start telling long stories?
Making each story as exciting as possible, while also being able to tell a larger story, puts higher demands on the narrative level of games and CZs. In fact, competitive games focus on in-game duels, there is no time to "broadcast", and the situations available for showing the plot are too fragmented, which is the reason why they do not pay much attention to the plot.
If "Glory of Kings" wants to do narrative, it needs to overcome more difficulties. In fact, Sai Nian is not the first attempt by the Glory of Kings team to write narrative.
It all starts when the planning team realizes that players care about the story. "We've talked to a lot of players, and in the process, I've found that they're very interested in the heroes they like, including the relationships and stories between the heroes, and want to be able to learn about some specific plots." Yang Baoge said.
And it is. In February last year, "Glory of the King" uploaded a video of the character Gongsun Li performing a thrilling dance in Chang'an's Changle Fang. Interestingly, a small part of the barrage was brushing Li Xin. In fact, Li Xin did not appear in the story of Chang'an Sai Nian, but when the character Gongsun Li, who was closely related to him, appeared, players would still spontaneously associate with Li Xin, who was not present, which in itself also reflected the players' concern for the bondage between the characters.
At Station B, the video of Gongsun Leaving the Dance of surprise received more than 3 million views
The needs of players actually mean that the influence of Glory of Kings is gradually beyond the scope of "games". People not only pay attention to the loss and winning of the battle, but also begin to care about the fate and story of the characters, hoping to understand another virtual world. Such a shift is often referred to as "from gaming to IP".
In Yang Baoge's view, games are the "origin of IP development", with games to have IP, but after the IP is generated, its influence will expand. "IP can bring a richer experience to the game, but it is not only for the game itself, it will lay the foundation for longer-term and more diversified product development in the future." In this sense, the story itself can also lead to a richer world.
In order to tell a good story, the production team also made many attempts. Yang Baoge said: "In the early days, we used CG to show the story. However, there are some problems with this form, its production cost is high, the narrative volume is limited, and the content will be more single hero's highlight moment shaping. So we have been thinking about how to dig more space in the dimension of storytelling. We've also done a lot of experimentation, for example, we've set up some story stations outside the game to introduce them through comics, videos, and music. ”
To a large extent, the secondary creation of fandom culture is also a corner of the world that supports the glory of kings, and there are many high-level works. The work in the picture was created by "Mu Bai who painted"
Both CG and story stations are ways of expression that can be independent of the game, and another possible exploration is to show more content within the game. In this regard, "Glory of Kings" has also been tried in the previous minoru version. "In the login interface, we replaced the single picture with animation, and through animation to show Minoru, which is also the scene where the 'king' has exposed the area in the game for the first time, and the player may only be able to see the canyon or the single picture before." Then, after the experiment, we reviewed it and thought that although this improved the perception of the narrative, it was still a little off and more fragmented. So let's try again, to make the narrative more tight, and we want to use the format of the racing year, so that players can have a special narrative system and feel the content of these stories that they care about. ”
As the influence of IP expands, players pay more and more attention to things outside the game, and it is clear that it is necessary for the "king" team to flesh out the world through stories. But on the other hand, the game genre has many restrictions on the narrative, and each attempt has its own limitations. It can be said that there is a certain inevitability in the emergence of the racing year, and it also finally appears in 2021.
When we talk about "IP": from a game to a world
From a player's point of view, he may not feel any upheaval in the racing mode. It's still the game he's played for years, and the classic content, new gameplay, and characters are still as old as they were in previous years, but with one more story to watch.
Instead of being the kind of new system that "jumped out of thin air and changed the whole game," Racing Year integrates everything from the past in a new way and finally presents it to the player in a holistic form. "Glory of the King" has been releasing high-quality CG since many years ago, and the daily-based CG "Chang'an Secret Agent" released in the racing mode last year, as well as the new character CG "Spear Raiding Fire", can be regarded as something that has existed in previous years. In the past, it was common to launch daily clips or make CG for new characters.
The new character Yunyi, who was released in June, is quite popular, and this CG appearance has become a part of the story
The difference is that they are now integrated in one context. The daily story is still lighthearted, but the words of the story reveal a thread of the main line; the new characters are still heroic in the debut CG, but they are brought into a story.
Racing is still familiar, but these previously single-function content have been given a new meaning. Introducing a new character? This is because this character has a crucial driving role in the plot of Sai Nian. Game assets big update? This is to fit the theme of the game for a whole year. In short, the whole game appears to be more plump, three-dimensional, and orderly.
This statement may not be accurate, because it is not only the "whole game" that is affected. As we mentioned above, the impact of Honor of Kings has long been more than just a game product, it has been extended outwards from multiple angles, and it is becoming a larger IP.
Games are about presenting game content, while IP needs to construct a virtual world. When Yang Baoge introduced the content research and cooperation under different themes, it was not at all like saying a game product: "We hope that when we do each region, or every year, we can really implement its cultural reference." We found a lot of experts to participate in co-creation. Taking Chang'an Sailian as an example, these expert teachers have prepared hundreds of special materials, from Chang'an's diet to residents' living customs to architectural features, etc., very much. ”
In fact, so much research is a bit "overloaded" for a game. Will players really notice this? Moreover, so many of the above research, in the end, only "nearly 40 or so places are specifically presented in the bureau". From the perspective of making games, such meticulousness seems to be a little cost-effective, but from the perspective of constructing the world, such investment is very valuable. Yang Baoge gave an example: "For example, Yunyi's gun is a reference to the characteristics of the Emei gun. "These settings give the virtual characters a realistic basis behind them. At the same time, it can also play a value that is not limited to the game. "We hope to help cultural relics protection, cultural inheritance, and cultural tourism experience, and can carry out some systematic exploration in many aspects." Yang Baoge said.
In July this year, "Glory of the King" and Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts held a graduation design exhibition with the theme of Chang'an Sai Nian
"Exploring" means that there is still a long way to go. It is true that in the long run, the whole race year is only in the "just beginning" stage. Talking about the benefits of so many racing seasons, it's easy to overlook that few games can conceive a story outline in such a long cycle — and it's natural to wonder how many years the story of the world is going to be told in a year?
That's a question no one can answer right now, but for Glory of Kings, the answer is at least 12 years. Yang Baoge said that at present, the outline of the story has been planned for up to 12 years, of which the content of 2024 and before has entered the actual execution production stage.
Being able to build a world in such a long cycle is a privilege for a game like Glory of Kings, and it's also a self-consciousness of a digital cultural IP — many games can't even be sure that they'll still be there in a few years, and naturally there's no similar plan. We can see the desire of the Glory of Kings team, they want to do a huge world like Disney and superheroes. Moreover, such a goal is not far away, they have already taken several steps forward.
The future is in the cloud
In the new year, the stage of "Glory of Kings" came to "in the clouds".
If Chang'an reflects the weather of the Central Plains, there is some exotic tone in the clouds. In the interview, Yang Baoge introduced the area: "Yunzhong is an area next to Chang'an, and everyone calls this place Yunzhong Desert Land, which was previously ruled by the Jin Ting, and is a very prosperous and agroditic regime. However, after years of war, there is no longer a unified regime in the clouds, and it is a bit of a trough. ”
"Desert land" is naturally accompanied by wind and sand
As we mentioned, Sai Nian has played a role in the integration, and the game has changed more than just a new plot. Along with the new racing year, there is a major version update of the game, including UI and visual effects upgrades, ranking system optimization, mission system upgrades, racing year-related story missions and other content.
Of course, the new story is naturally the highlight. Yang Baoge said that the story of this year will also be released at the node of the season, "Every season will have a hero, he will represent a cultural symbol, or represent a spirit, through various efforts, can lead the people in the cloud, so that their homeland prosperity." After 4 seasons, players "will understand why the cloud was like before, what the history in the cloud is like, and where the future in the cloud will go."
Such a narrative seems somewhat abstract. The year has just begun, and the released animation "Sons of Yucheng" tells the story of the Prince of Yucheng and the Brothers Sheng, Yucheng is governed by a brutal general, the older brother of the prince appears in the story as a decadent Gongzi Brother, and the younger brother Sheng, on the one hand, intends to overthrow the tyranny of the Great General, and on the other hand, he is saddened by the decadence of his once excellent brother. It wasn't until the end that Sheng learned about his brother's painstaking heart...
"Son of Jade City" was officially launched on January 6
The new racing year not only means a new story, but also a new change in the way storytelling is told. Yang Baoge said that when reviewing the Chang'an Race Year, the planning team realized that due to the long span, the coherence of the story was difficult to guarantee - the story was often separated by several months, and the player was likely to forget the previous story when they saw this video. To address this, the team experimented more with a different narrative format during the new race year.
Yang Baoge used "unit drama" to summarize the characteristics of this form. As a film and television form, the unit drama is composed of relatively independent units, that is, the content between the episodes is relatively independent and can be enjoyed separately, but at the same time, through the control of rhythm and narrative, each episode can be closely related to other episodes, so that the entire episode tells a larger story.
For Glory of Kings, which used to be scattered across different seasons to update the story, this form is very worth learning. Yang Baoge hopes that the story of "Glory of Kings" in a single game year can be both individual chapters and overall narrative: "Whether we only watch the version of the first season or only see the version of the last season, it does not affect the narrative experience." But if he can read all the versions, he can feel for himself the relationship between the heroes we want to express throughout the game, and the truth of the story behind them. ”
The story of the Yucheng brothers is also very much in line with the unit drama form that Yang Baoge said. Compared with the average annual CG length of Chang'an Sai of 3 to 5 minutes, the length of this year's first animation has reached more than 10 minutes, which makes the story more complete. This complete transmission of the theme of the story "guardianship", through a longer narrative paving, the line in the episode "Sheng wants to protect the jade city, what about you?" "Then I protect Sheng" can fall into the hearts of the audience even more.
The plot creation team told Touch that "guardianship" will also be one of the themes of the Cloud Race Year. The rest of the story may also be related to this - at the end of the film, the besieged brother Ishi is rescued by another important character in the clouds, Garo, and it is clear that his story has another follow-up.
There are several characters in the promotional image, and the current plot only details the story of one of them
The story is not only related between the seasons of the same year, but also in the 12-year story outline planned by Yang Baoge, the stories between the different years are also connected. He gave a few examples, such as when Chang'an was racing, Sikong Zhen finally lost to Chang'an, where would he go after that? His hometown is in the clouds, so there may be his role in the clouds. At the same time, "another character, Jin Cicada, embarked on the road to the west after bidding farewell to Wu Zetian, that is, to the clouds", "Maybe after going to the clouds, there will also be some corresponding stories".
"Of course, there are some old heroes that players are familiar with, such as the heroes related to the Great Wall Guard, who are actually important nodes in the relationship between Chang'an and Yunzhong." Yang Baoge said.
epilogue
In the racing mode, the story of Glory of Kings changes from a scattered multitude of stars to a fine web. Each season will bring an independent story, and the 4 seasons of the year will be combined into the annual story, and the connection between the annual stories will form the main plot of the entire "Glory of Kings" world...
In a way, it's a shift. A fragmented story can make people feel that this is "deliberately designed" to introduce a character or mechanism, and people always ignore that this is a game when they talk about scattered stories. But when it has a whole virtual world that grows and changes with people, people forget about it. Just like when they are in Disneyland, few people will think about the original carrier of these cartoon images in front of them, they will only feel that they are in a fairy tale kingdom.
Maybe one day, when people think of Glory of Kings, they'll even forget that it's a game — it's the highest praise for a game.