Next Tuesday, Journey will celebrate its tenth anniversary.
Wind Traveler is the third game developed for Sony by independent studio that at TGC, with Chinese designer Chen Xinghan as the director, and has received high praise from the industry since its debut on PS3. In the game, the player controls a character in a robe and heads towards a distant mountain in the vast desert. Players may randomly meet another player on the road, and the two can walk together and help each other, but they cannot communicate by voice or text like other games, or even see each other's names.
Wind Traveler has been a huge success at word-of-mouth and commercial levels, winning the "Game of the Year" award at the Game Developers' Choice Awards and the DICE Awards, as well as numerous honors from mainstream game media such as IGN and GameSpot.
In order to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the advent of "Wind Traveler", foreign media recently interviewed Chen Xinghan, co-founder and CEO of TGC, and asked him to talk about the development process of this work, the future plan of the studio, and some ideas on the development direction of the game industry.
01
"Nurture" stories
"During the development of Wind Traveler, we had no idea that it would trigger such a positive response from players." Chen Xinghan said, "When Wind Traveler was released in 2012, we soon began to receive a lot of letters and emails. Players share their stories with us and what the game means to them. ”
Chen Xinghan found that many players have experienced the same story and have similar feelings when playing Wind Traveler. These players tell Chen Xinghan that they have just lost their loved ones, and believe that the silent partners they meet in the game are relatives who have gone to another world and are saying goodbye to them...
"This helps players ease their grief because they know their loved ones are going to another, better place." I never thought this game had the power to heal players, but it changed the lives of a lot of people. This was the biggest surprise for me. ”
With design choices in multiplayer, Wind Traveler makes it easy for players to imagine their own stories. "If the game displays another player's PSN ID, the player will immediately play when they see a less appropriate username." "It's not enough to just hide a player's PSN ID, because we noticed that a feature of the PlayStation cross-media bar allows players to view player aliases that have recently interacted with," Chen said. That meant we had to work with Sony to find a way to 'block' those names before players opened the game. ”
"In addition, we designed the avatars with features that reflect gender and age, as well as the character's arms, so that players can't play a prank on each other or treat each other rudely. Characters also don't have any personal assets in the game, so players don't stay away from each other to avoid being stolen or scrambled for resources. ”
Chen Xinghan believes that the behavior of players in the game is often closely related to the situation provided by the developer.
"A lot of people are very resentful of mean, aggressive online game players, especially when they're having voice chats." Chen Xinghan explains, "But my idea is that no one is mean by nature – on the contrary, the environment sometimes prompts players to do some despicable behavior. Players who taunt each other in Call of Duty may play Windwalker together the next second. ”
"At the end of the day, people can be gentle with each other and empathize with each other under the right circumstances. If you ask someone to bring a gun to battle, the first thing they think is, 'How can I protect myself from being killed?' Or' Can I shoot someone else with this gun?' But if you give the player a first aid kit, the way he thinks and behaves will change. ”
According to Chen Xinghan, in order to create a healthier player interaction environment in Wind Traveler, the key is to make players feel a sense of awe. "It can make players feel small and vulnerable, and we believe that this sense of vulnerability allows people to open their hearts and build emotional bonds." Chen Xinghan said, "Because when you realize how small and fragile your life is, it will be easier to have emotional resonance with other players, willing to help each other, walk together, and become stronger together." ”
"However, the vast majority of video games focus on simulating competition and satisfying boys' fantasies of power. If you give the player too much power, they will naturally think, 'Who has more power?' 'I'm Superman, you're Batman, which of us is stronger?' But if we were both refugees in a war, we wouldn't think about who was stronger and who was weaker, but how we could survive. ”
This is also why the TGC decided to allow only two players to play together. According to Chen Xinghan, the development team of Wind Traveler tried to design the game around 3 to 4 players (playing together), but soon found that in that case, players could easily disagree with each other. If a team wants to do something and one player in the team has other ideas, then he may be abandoned...
Chen Xinghan also talked about the game that TGC is running, "Light encounter", which is known as the spiritual sequel of "Wind Traveler". "Deep down, I've always wondered if a game allows more players to play in teams, can I fix that?" He said, "Can I still get these players to build emotional bonds?" From this point of view, "Light Encounter" is our new challenge. If the game allows players to chat and more players to get together, can you still protect the community and create an environment where players are willing to show the light side (not the dark side) of human nature? ”
02
The personal influence of "Wind Traveler" on Chen Xinghan
The Wind Traveler — and how players react to it — also changed Chen's life.
"Personally, I feel very lucky." Chen Xinghan said, "We always think of struggling artists. Artists are often lonely growing up, regarded as strange people by the outside world, they will think outside the box, belong to the minority in society, and live a lonely life. ”
"But art connects artists and audiences. When you know that the work you have worked so hard to create has affected and touched many people, people have heard your voice, and admired your children (works of art), your inner feelings are really difficult to describe in words. I felt the love from the players and felt that I wasn't alone, it was a wonderful experience. At the same time, this gratitude [to the player] inspired me to continue creating games. ”
During the development of Wind Traveler, Chen Xinghan and his team encountered many challenges. "What an artist experiences in his life has an impact on the game." Chen Xinghan said, "Wind Traveler is a very difficult game to make, and we were in trouble during development... In a sense, the final level of the game is like a mirror, making it easy for developers to recall how tough the situation was. ”
Due to the long research and development cycle of "Wind Traveler", TGC funds are increasingly tight, and a considerable number of core members have left one after another. By the time the game was finally released, TGC was already saddled with $200,000 in debt. "We couldn't even pay our wages." Chen Xinghan recalled, "We held a celebration, went to the mountains for a few days, and then disbanded the company. So, everyone has to look for a new job. ”
Fortunately, that crisis didn't last long. It didn't take long for TGC to start getting a revenue share of Wind Traveler from Sony and also received millions of dollars in investment 3 months after the game's launch.
During its partnership with Sony, TGC developed three games for Sony, namely Flow PS3 Remake, Flower, and Wind Traveler. While these games have received widespread acclaim, Chen realized that console platforms like Sony might not be the ideal partner to achieve their goals.
"I've often thought that since TGC's games are known for evoking emotional resonance, we should let a wider group of players play them. In the long run, I feel like we need to make games for everyone, not just hardcore console players. As a result, our next game needs to land on a platform that most players can access, including mobile devices, consoles, and PCs. ”
At the same time, Chen Xinghan also seems to be proud of the impact that Wind Traveler has had on the entire game industry.
"I think the emergence of Wind Traveler is a good thing for the gaming industry, because a lot of people are starting to think about making their own narrative games that can touch the hearts of players... This type of game was very rare at the time. We're not short of amazing combat, racing or sports simulation games, what's really missing is more emotional, detailed and artistic content. ”
Chen Xinghan said that as players get older, their taste for entertainment (products) will naturally change.
"In the decade since The Wind Traveler came out, independent studios and AAA publishers have produced a number of great emotional narratives." Chen Xinghan said, "This is indeed a major change. I think a lot of developers are looking at the possibility of gameplay as the main narrative driver of emotion. A dozen years ago, touching stories would only appear in cutscenes, but now many games can make players cry while playing. In my opinion, this shows that the gaming industry has taken a big step forward. ”
03
Games and art
TGC announced last week that it had completed a $160 million funding round, and Chen said in a press release: "We want to increase public acceptance of games as an art form... Animated films have experienced some pivotal moments in their development, such as the release of Snow White and Toy Story, and in the gaming industry, we will continue to work towards similar moments. ”
Chen Xinghan hopes that in the future, the game can win the respect of more people.
"Video games are still far from being seen as an art form by mainstream people." Chen Xinghan said, "I think from 2014 to now, the game industry is experiencing a round of 'big dilution'. The total number of players who were able to access the game's content increased 10-fold due to the development of social and mobile games, but most of the new games that appeared on mobile and social platforms were entirely focused on growth rather than (earning) respect... While high-quality art games are introduced every year, this dilution has dramatically changed the public's perception of the gaming industry. ”
"How do you tell if video games have become a respected art form?" I often tell people: 'I make video games. Then observe the other person's reaction. In my opinion, if video games do get public acceptance and respect, then people won't react much differently than if you were a writer or architect or filmmaker. ”
"In 2005, someone would say, 'Oh, you guys ruined my kid and made him addicted to games and violent.'" Today's mainstream society still thinks that games are like babysitters, whose role is nothing more than relieving stress, or addictive, and even uses terms such as 'spiritual opium' and 'virtual gambling' to describe games... Some time ago, when I told outsiders that I made a living making games, he replied, 'Oh, I heard it's very profitable.' How much can you earn? Do you often work overtime? ’”
Regardless, Chen Xinghan is still happy with the progress that the game industry has made and the impact of Wind Traveler on the entire industry. "Ten years on, I'm grateful for what happened." "Sometimes I feel weird again, because when I'm interviewing new hires, I'm often told: 'I played The Wind Traveler when I was 13!'" It made me feel old, but at the same time it was gratifying because Wind Traveler changed the way a lot of people thought about the game. ”