Not long ago, I found that Vikingard, a new historical cultivation game of touch technology, has been tested in some parts of overseas.
In fact, this game caught my attention as early as last year when it landed on the NetEase 520 conference. In addition to the relatively novel theme, the track of NetEase's entry history is also more interesting.
History cultivation is a relatively gold-sucking category overseas, but compared to SLG, which everyone wants to share a piece of the pie, there are far fewer competitors on this track, and there are fewer big manufacturers like NetEase. Having said that, there are not a few strong products that exist, such as "Game of Sultans" that taps on its own, "King's Choice" by Dragon Tengjianhe...
I am more interested in how "Vikingard" will further increase its own breakthrough capital on the basis of theme differentiation? What impact will its emergence have on this category? And why does NetEase look at this track?
01
Cut "Arthur" and take the competitive path
It is said that in order to further open up the European market, Click Touch once set up a project for "Arthur", and later cut it to make "Vikingard".
The legend of King Arthur is undoubtedly widely sung, but the influence of Viking culture is not much less so. Historically, the period from the 8th to the 11th century in Europe is even known as the "Viking Age". At that time, the Vikings were driving long ships and spreading their culture throughout Europe, and this influence was further strengthened by the promotion of later literary and film works.
From the perspective of market competition, whether it is "Arthur" or "Middle Ages", works with similar themes have grabbed a large number in the West, just like the previous domestic products caught the "Three Kingdoms" and worked hard. In contrast, the "Viking" theme not only has a strong cultural specialty, but also has a certain sense of freshness.
Specific to the game, at least in terms of art, the distinction between Vikingard and similar products is still relatively intuitive. The game takes a realistic route, and the overall tone style is cold, so as to highlight the slightly cold and harsh environment of Northern Europe in general perception.
In addition to the overall atmosphere, the game pours more effort into the characters. It can be clearly seen that compared with the beautiful design of various "medieval" theme products that emphasize the temperament of European nobility, the character shape of "Vikingard" is relatively rough.
Specific to the performance of the entire card surface, people can't help but sigh, this category is not far from the art volume.
In fact, Tap touch upgraded the art in Game of Khans, transitioning from the previous 2D to 2.5D, this time they returned to 2D, but using live2D technology, and regardless of the grade of the cards.
Not only that, the picture performance effect of the whole card is more tense under the background of the scene. The ABOVE GIF, the warriors who tear each other apart behind the characters, the soldiers who are intimidated to the ground in the lower right corner, and the hero's gritted teeth, it is easy to make up for the bravery of the characters and the fierceness of the battlefield.
On closer inspection, the art quality of the game itself is also quite advanced, and the treatment of light and shadow, physics and material performance is more delicate. For example, the calf part of the character below, the transparency of the white tulle clothes after being wet with water, and the physical effect of clinging to the skin have been realistically portrayed.
In addition to the cards, Vikingard's efforts to improve its external expressiveness can also be felt in other aspects. For example, the level-breaking mode inherits the 2.5D battle screen of "Game of Khans"; the plot at the first sight combines 2.5D and comic-style storyboarding...
In short, it can be clearly felt that while making artistic differentiation around the subject matter, "Vikingard" is also pursuing a higher sense of quality.
02
Everything is packaged around the subject matter
Compared with art, the playable space will be smaller. Since the development of the historical cultivation class, the underlying framework has indeed been relatively fixed, and from the perspective of the characteristics of this category and the target group of positioning, it is not suitable for too heavy gameplay changes.
Therefore, "Vikingard" only borrows the advantages of the theme and differentiates some mainstream gameplay designs to make the player's experience more immersive.
For example, the "Travel" gameplay. In simple terms, it is to let the player consume action points to trigger various events, generally this game is bound to the "beauty" cultivation, through the travel can meet different "beauty", they will be included in their own cultivation array. "Beauty" is no less important than the hero character, so "travel" is also a very important system.
Vikingard sets the stage for the trip in Northern Europe, combined with monopoly mode, allowing players to navigate longboats around, and there will be some sailing events along the way, such as salvaging shipwreck treasure, praying to whales, robbing merchant ships, and so on.
If you just happen to stay on a city grid, you can further explore the customs and customs of the area. This process is a further deepening of the game's "Travel" gameplay, in which the player needs to choose a forward route on the board grid, and different grids will trigger different events, including the highlight and the "beauty" encounter.
Around the theme, Vikingard also launched a ranking system called "Challenger Coast". Historically, when two Viking warships met, they would follow tradition and set up a springboard for a one-on-one duel until one side completely collapsed.
Challenger Coast is probably derived from this asynchronous confrontation gameplay, players need to send their own heroes to challenge other players' characters on nine ice floes. In addition to the enemy on the ice floes, there are various BUFF and mechanisms, and the rational use of these props can effectively improve the gap in values to a certain extent.
In addition, there are various time-limited gameplay activities, such as the synthesis elimination packaged as a maintenance ship, and the whereabouts of the ocean voyage to avoid...
Looking back, including art, the direction of these packaging ideas is very clear, that is, to emphasize the existence of the subject matter and create a distinction in experience. And in the process, Vikingard also tries to push the quality of this category one step further, which looks somewhat similar to the development path of SLG.
If the in-category roll is inevitably coming, it is better than taking this step ahead of time. Only those products that take the lead in promoting this trend are likely to eat the dividends brought by the initial upgrade, and after reaching a certain stage, the follow-up entrants will either passively catch up with the various art and technology upgrades brought by the inner volume, or push the category to a higher level.
03
Why does NetEase look at this track?
Finally expanded, why does NetEase look at this track? In my opinion, this question should be considered from the two aspects of overseas competitive situation and category potential:
In the domestic market has long entered the stock market competition, the version of the policy has been tightened again in the environment, more and more manufacturers have set their sights on the broader global market. Hu Zhipeng, vice president of NetEase and an executive of the video game business, told the media in August last year that the company's goal is to increase the proportion of overseas game revenue from 10% to 50%.
In recent years, Tencent, Byte, Ali and other major manufacturers have also been actively expanding their overseas tracks. It is said that some companies also require that the project positioning must be benchmarked against the global market before the project is allowed to be established.
All this shows that the already fierce competition in the overseas market will be further intensified. With the addition of more manufacturers, the next competition for any potential track may become the key to helping them stand out in the future overseas competition.
And the cultivation of history is such a potential track. According to Sensor Tower data estimates, the revenue scale of several overseas head products last year has exceeded 2 billion; but the CEO of Touch Technology also said in an interview with the media that this category is still relatively small, and the plate in Europe is even less than one-tenth of the US and Russian markets.
The ability to absorb gold has been verified, the market has not been fully developed, and at present, only a small number of large factories participate in the competition, at this time, the competition is relatively less, and the opportunities are naturally more.
From the quality of the game currently displayed, coupled with the accumulation of dots in this category over the years and the experience of NetEase's overseas operations, the follow-up should be able to look forward to a wave of "Vikingard" performance.