Rare product form.
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Today, Grape Jun discovered a heavyweight female xiang new product called "In the Name of Shining".
It is understood that this product was developed by Vvanna Studios, and "In the Name of Shining" is a new product for women made by them in Unreal Four Engine, and we also paid attention to the dynamics of this product at the end of last year.
Interestingly, this product has made a very bold design at the level of gameplay, similar to the concept of "The Sims", connecting a variety of play systems such as beauty, clothing, home improvement, and social networking to present a certain three-dimensional scene in women's life entertainment, coupled with the high quality visible to the naked eye in the art, it is not difficult to guess that the goal of "In the Name of Shining" is to achieve the head of women to the market.
In recent years, women's competition to the market has become more and more intense, and after the entry of new big players, how will the market pattern change?
01 Another 3D game of ultimate quality
Judging from the content of the first exposure, the art investment of "In the Name of Shining" undoubtedly belongs to the category of women to the top of the market, on the one hand, Unreal Engine's improvement effect on the lower limit of quality is very obvious, and on the other hand, the game's efforts in style presentation, material processing, and 3D modeling accuracy are not small.
It is understood that the modeling accuracy of the game characters has reached 300,000 faces, and the standard has been raised again in the female product, and with the help of subsurface scattering technology, the skin of the characters presents a blown-up and breakable look.
In addition, in terms of skin treatment, the game uses a post-treatment SSS algorithm to enhance skin expression, and the lighting and shadow algorithms have been improved to reflect better skin texture. The character's hair is made of a new BRDF material, with a new AO treatment to present a natural fluffy feel and hair flow.
In addition to character modeling, the quality of the costumes is also very high-notch. First of all, the clothing style is very wide-ranging, and in the video exposed this time, there are a series of mainstream styles such as modern style, fantasy style, national style, Japanese wind, future style, trend style, Gothic style, banquet style and so on. And these are only the first public clothing content, considering the current general volume of women to the game, "In the Name of Shining" is likely to come up with a larger amount of content in the future.
Secondly, in addition to the different styles, the modeling accuracy of the clothing also provides a good look and feel. In some clothing with complex details, this look and feel is more obvious. For example, the costume of "Night Sparkle" is based on black and gold, embellished with white pearls and lilac gemstones, and at the same time integrates the two main styles of retro and modern, presenting a visually conflicting but layered beauty.
In terms of design, the upper body is a modern trend style cropped top, while the lower body is a classical fishtail long skirt sprinkled with gold mop; the chest is decorated with obsidian and gold-rimmed necklaces, and the gold wire leaves are wrapped in lavender-colored amethyst to emphasize the sense of presence; the back body is decorated with hollow golden butterflies as wing bones, and a large number of gems and pearls are used to highlight the jumping feeling of the dorsal wings; the skirt is lined with silk lace, gold butterflies and embroidered white flowers.
Finally, the presentation of clothing materials is also a plus for the overall look and feel. For example, most of the fabrics used in the previous article "Night Sparkle Confusion" are silk, but the skirt is more silky, showing a translucent look, while the silk fabric of the top is denser, which fits the thickness of the black tone.
Overall, in terms of clothing quality alone, the production specifications of "In the Name of Shining" are undoubtedly closer to the top of the industry. The reason for this is not difficult to guess, on the one hand, the requirements of players and the threshold of competition in the market are rising, on the other hand, the ultimate pursuit of beauty is also the foundation of this type of game.
But the quality of clothing and art skills are only the basis of this game, and the biggest feature of the game is actually the gameplay.
02 More emphasis on free gameplay design
If you look closely, you can find that in the information exposed this time, the gameplay related content actually occupies a very important part of the scene, and the official specially released a PV of gameplay indication, pointing out that this game contains at least several major gameplay concepts: character customization, home construction, home decoration matching, clothing color matching, clothing design and home social networking.
In the past, in the overall game market, women's games are often more inclined to weaken the gameplay, on the one hand, the past game play is mostly built from a male perspective and appeal, on the other hand, few products will stand in the female perspective to explore the game play that meets the original entertainment habits of female users.
The starting point for shaping "In the Name of Shining" is to build a game world that meets the ideals of women, and the production team has repeatedly thought about "what is the ideal life of women", and the answer to this question seems to have no uniform standards.
Some people like to talk with friends, do not talk about serious things but talk about their hearts; some people like to spend time on themselves, exquisite clothing, and take every day seriously; others want to stay with the people they like; or sleep until they wake up naturally, and spend a leisure day with their own cat owners, which is also an ideal life.
After being beaten back to the N-time plan, these ideas gradually took shape and condensed into a core concept of "degrees of freedom", so it can be seen that the core gameplay presented in "In the Name of Shining" currently has this quality.
The first big way to play is character customization. I believe that every woman has her own definition of beauty, these definitions are difficult to carry with a character, so this game takes character customization as a basic gameplay, by providing enough choice space to meet the personalized self-pursuit of female players.
Specifically, the customizable space of this game is very large. One is to set the two body types of adults and girls, and the other is to set dozens of character custom dimensions, including skin color, facial features, body shape, height, hair color, waistline, leg length and other details, and even lipstick numbers.
If players like to pursue personalization, they can get rid of the limitations of traditional aesthetics, design the character image they want, even if they are not good at customization, they can also apply the fixed template provided by the game, and then make subtle adjustments later.
The second set of gameplay is a costume customization system. We often say that women have a stronger pursuit of beauty, and there may be a deeper driving force behind this: self-expression. For example, like beautiful clothing, may come from the desire to "decorate the most ideal self", in reality, due to various thresholds, most people can only use ready-made clothing to dress, but the game may be able to make their own, unique costumes.
Taking this line of thinking as a starting point, In the Name of Shining tries to provide maximum customization within the game, specifically divided into two parts: one is the completely original costume that belongs to the player, and the other is the custom dyeing of the finished costume.
First look at the costume design, which is a set of play with a low threshold for participation but a very high ceiling.
Players can choose the basic version of the clothing, and then cut and plate specific details, such as neckline style, sleeve length and style, clothing hem style, skirt style, etc. Then select the appropriate fabric for the well-made clothing, such as sequins, silk, twist knitting, etc., and carry out the corresponding dyeing treatment.
It can be seen that "In the Name of Shining" simplifies the entire process of real costume production and integrates into the game environment, and the specific operation is not complicated, so the participation threshold is greatly reduced. But at the same time, the level of pattern design also changes depending on the player's drawing skills, so for some players with strong design skills, the upper limit of this set of gameplay can be explored is also very high.
Let's look at the finished costume dyeing, a system specifically for the game's officially made finished costumes. Players can dye almost every detail of the finished garment.
For example, in the following set of clothing, from top to bottom, the appearance and lace of the cat ear cap, necklaces, outerwear fabrics and lace, jewelry, chest cat decoration, waist bow, skirt fabric, skirt cat's claw decoration, skirt lace, tube stocking fabric, tube sock lace and decoration... All can be dyed in different colors. And the color types include blue, white, black, red, pink, green, yellow and other major colors and their gradient colors. I believe that everyone can see how high its combination space is.
Combined with the custom gameplay of the two major costumes, its design intention is obviously to allow players to find the most desired wearing effect, so that players can freely exert their imagination and creativity.
Finally, there is a set of high-freedom home play system, which includes two levels: simulated construction and social interaction. In the simulation construction link, its concept is similar to the classic simulation business game, players can buy and manage their own houses, customize the interior details, and change the furniture layout and matching style, so as to achieve a home environment that meets their own requirements.
This design is more clever, it can be seen that the production team intends to customize the play atmosphere for the current women's life scenes, and the business game is also easy to collide with the entertainment life of women. So if this set of gameplay is mature enough, it is bound to become a big difference point in this game.
In addition to building homes for free, the game also offers home-based social gameplay. Judging from the information in the current game PV, we can imagine that players may be able to visit each other, hold themed parties, and take photos with friends.
This concept is somewhat similar to "The Sims" and "Animal Forest Friends", on the one hand, players can use their imagination to create a unique home, on the other hand, they can also invite their friends to share their design results in the home, show their collections, or spend an intimate time between friends.
Frankly speaking, before seeing these gameplay, I always thought that "In the Name of Shining" was a traditional female-oriented dress-up game, and I couldn't help but wonder if there was still room for 3D dress-up barriers?
But now I roughly understand the ambition of this game: to use a series of scenes of dressing, home decoration, and parties to restore the most natural experience atmosphere in women's fashion pursuits and entertainment life.
03 When the vertical track ushers in the big players
Combined with the above two parts, the reason why "In the Name of Shining" can be called a big player is also obvious: on the one hand, it continues to raise the specifications of product production, in addition to basic high-quality clothing, but also maximizes the degree of openness and freedom, allowing players to pursue themselves; on the other hand, it tries to use the expression of "specific scene gamification" in the design of gameplay to present a certain experience atmosphere suitable for female users, rather than simply providing a single-dimensional gameplay.
The former is actually not difficult to understand, after all, market competition is like sailing against the current, and the latecomers must go further to be big, but the latter's "experiential" design is not a conventional operation, especially in the domestic market environment, making experiences is often not gratifying. Why does "In the Name of Shining" have such a strong tendency to shape the scene-based experience?
The traditional game market's inherent view of women is that "good looks equal everything", but in the current market environment, this conclusion is constantly changing. Nowadays, good looks are more like a foundation and threshold, it belongs to a standard that supports the lower limit, and on top of this, to be top-notch, fun is the ideal driving force.
If we look at the evolution of women to the past few years, in addition to the high quality of technology and art, the gameplay is also becoming more diversified, such as from the cultivation of cards, gradually integrating puzzle solving, music games and other gameplay, and even manufacturers in the layout of the open world women to products.
It can be seen that on the one hand, women to products are gradually separated from the past vertical labels, to the general category, the expansion of large categories, on the other hand, the playability of such products is also gradually expanding to diversification in this process.
As producer Summer's philosophy: "Every girl has a life she yearns for, maybe it's the rich and popular shades and eyeshadow on the dresser, maybe it's the wardrobe that often has new fashionable items, maybe it's building a big house according to her own preferences, with its own infinity mirror pool or farm yard, maybe it's punching in the world's major Internet celebrity spots with girlfriends... There are very few games on the market that are actually tailored for women. So I wanted to make such a product very early on, so that everyone can find more diversified beauty, more free play, to create a unique and shiny self."
So for "In the Name of Shining", to become a product with head competitiveness, its core question is: how to build the right gameplay?
In my opinion, the idea of this product is to start from the change of consciousness of female users, specifically, everyone knows that today's female group has the trend of awakening autonomous consciousness and pursuing personalized expression, and this principle is the same in the game.
To make a game that can carry such appeals, it is naturally impossible to rely on a single gameplay, but a relatively suitable atmosphere, then the shaping of the atmosphere needs specific scenes, so the idea of scenarios is crucial.
Considering the most appropriate question of what scene is most appropriate, combined with women's choice of personality beauty, diversified social environment, and entertainment methods, it is a good choice to build a friend social and simulated life experience based on clothing design and free wear. Gamifying these scenes is the core gameplay system of "In the Name of Shining" now.
When the relationship between gameplay and gameplay is closer, and many gameplay can constitute a three-dimensional experience, women to the product also have the opportunity to avoid the simple art and technology arms race, and raise their upper limit.
From this point of view, "In the Name of Shining" is likely to become a major potential product in the future, and its subsequent market performance may be a good verification of whether the "gamification idea of specific scenes can be broken" in the competitive landscape dominated by technical art.
Game Grape Recruitment Industry Reporter/Content Editor,
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