The four domestic SLGs will be the top 10 of the iOS best-seller list, and overseas accounts for 76% of the global market share... Before you know it, it's been a full two years since SLG's highlight moment. Now that we're talking about SLG again, what are we talking about?
At that time, the whole line of domestic and foreign markets was hot, attracting many manufacturers to join the SLG tide of Haohao Soup. In the impression, most of the mainstream SLG mobile games are biased towards path-based gameplay, which is commonly referred to as "walking the grid": if the player wants to march to another place, then he needs to go from one grid to another.
Surprisingly, with the continuous expansion of the SLG market, more and more products on the market have begun to play the banner of "not going to the grid".
In particular, the new games launched around 2021 are more inclined to integrate RTS gameplay than traditional SLGs, that is, to emphasize the importance of real-time operation. Even in the eyes of some players, the fusion of real-time gameplay is the next form after the upgrade of SLG, and "walking the grid" seems to have no need to continue to insist.
However, contrary to the argument, GameLook still believes that the "grid" is actually one of the most mature and most reflective of SLG's "strategic dimension" gameplay design.
Born countless classics, loved by players around the world "grid"
As a popular gameplay genre in the 1990s, the "walking grid" with reference to the design of board games has given birth to many classic games, which has also fascinated many players.
But in fact, due to the excessively deep strategic mechanism of such games and the long waiting time of a single game, the learning cost of players has been greatly increased, and it is initially difficult to attract non-core users, and it was once reduced to a niche category. However, as more and more manufacturers make certain trade-offs and improvements to the core gameplay, and continue to integrate visual performances that conform to the current aesthetics, the "walking grid" gameplay gradually highlights its charm across time and space.
The classic Flame Emblem collection is an important example of this. The first game, "Dark Dragon and Sword of Light", combines tactics and RPG elements to change the player's impression of the shortcomings of the "walking grid" game. Then the series has successively added strategic elements such as weapon compatibility, variable terrain, and terrain height, and has become a classic of word of mouth among players with both depth and intuitive mature gameplay.
It is worth mentioning that the mobile game "Fire Emblem: Heroes" launched in 2017 has attracted more than $400 million in one and a half years since its launch, far exceeding the revenue of other Nintendo mobile games such as Mario Run and Animal Forest: Pocket Camp in the same period, which shows that global players are highly favored by the series and the "walking grid" gameplay.
In March this year, another "walking grid" game "Triangle Strategy" detonated the topic of players on the Nintendo NS platform.
Building on the traditional "walking the grid", the game incorporates more strategic elements. For example, the core "pinch attack" system enhances the importance of coordinated operations. But at the same time, the game adds "AT action sequence", which makes it impossible for players to quickly control the team formation, but needs to refine the actions of each character.
Not only that, but each scene has very complex terrain, such as height differences, different environmental attributes, and weather systems, and these factors can also affect the outcome of the battle. According to official disclosures, this pixel-style HD-2D game has been online for less than a month, and global sales have exceeded 800,000 copies, while the Asian market accounts for only 200,000. The "walking the grid" gameplay of seeing the big in the small and heavy strategy is still loved by players around the world.
This is not GameLook's subjective conclusion, in addition to the Fire Emblem series and "Triangle Strategy", this judgment can be directly supported by the 2018 TGA Best Strategy Game "Trap Of The Chronicles".
Unlike other products, Trap's Battle takes place on 8×8 checkerboard maps. With these 64 squares unchanged, the number of mechs that the player can control will also remain the same, and the only variable is the number of enemy insectoids in each level. Therefore, the battle situation is always in a state of enemy and outnumber, and the player is required to repeatedly ponder all actions and possible consequences every turn.
Because of this, the game does not make the total annihilation of the enemy a core goal, it is more focused on testing how to reasonably deter the enemy and maximize self-preservation in a limited number of rounds. Because the game is particularly brain-burning about the stakes of mecha and buildings, many players directly compare it with chess, winning the unanimous approval of players and peers.
Similarly, in the domestic mobile game market, the head product "Coast of The Land" has derived a season-based geostrategic gameplay through "walking the grid", which not only set off a boom in the SLG category, but also remained at the top of the iOS best-seller list for seven years.
The above evergreen products not only prove the uniqueness of their own gameplay, but also once again prove that "walking the grid" is still one of the important gameplay that can best reflect the strategic dimension.
The fun varies, re-operating or re-strategies
Since the "walking the grid" gameplay has become more and more mature, the question is, how is the real-time system trend of the SLG category rising? In fact, the reason why SLG mobile games learn from heavy operation games such as Age of Empires and Total War is closely related to the addition of more and more non-core players.
Unlike traditional path-based SLGs, real-time strategy gameplay allows all units in the game to move freely on the large map, click on any character and drag to a specific location, and immediately start marching. This design makes up for the shortcomings of the slower early generation of traditional SLGs - a more intuitive real-time operation instead of "walking the grid", which reduces the threshold of players' understanding of complex strategies to a certain extent and accelerates integration into the game. Especially at a time when the scale of SLG users is expanding, this is undoubtedly more in line with the preferences of most pan-users.
However, heavy operation rather than strategy causes players to micro-manipulate most of the time to more directly affect the direction of the battle than tactical choices. There are even appearances such as "StarCraft" and "Warcraft", which focus too much on operation and lead to a higher and higher rate of novice dissuasion. Even with grandeur and conquest, it is inevitable that in recent years it will become more and more silent.
In contrast, the light operation and heavy strategy of the "walking grid" gameplay represents another kind of fun, that is, a deep strategy experience that meets the needs of core players.
Taking the domestic SLG mobile game "Coast of the Land" as an example, the game adds a "geo" factor to the traditional sandbox map: attack and defense need to be based on adjacent land to occur. Players are extremely restricted in their march and must use the land they or their allies occupy to move.
Compared with direct transmission between points and points, or the need for players to operate the march in real time, the paving mechanism of "Coast of the Land" tests the player's thinking about the planning of the pioneering route, which greatly enhances user participation. It also gives players plenty of time to develop strategies and respond to unexpected situations, and improve their understanding of tactical strategies in continuous decision-making.
Further, this design continues to derive the geopolitics of players. Bidding farewell to single-handedness, players are more inclined to join the alliance "in groups", and large-scale alliance battles spanning a long period of time have thus become the core of the game.
In this case, from the early intelligence, to the medium-term paving, division, and then to the later attack and defense, the victory or defeat of each link not only depends on the strength of the individual, but also depends on the consideration of the diplomatic, tactical and other dimensions of the entire alliance. At the same time, under the influence of the paving mechanism, it is also required that the alliance needs to pay special attention to macro strategy.
To some extent, the gameplay has evolved from a confrontation of individual military forces to a total war in the comprehensive fields of internal affairs, economy, diplomacy, and strategy.
In essence, the geopolitical gameplay derived from the "grid" has significantly increased the complexity of the entire SLG strategy. In the process of formulating tactics, players also need to consider the deep impact of multiple factors such as diplomacy, intelligence, and strategy, which is tantamount to elevating the most important strategic experience of SLG to a higher dimension.
"Strategy" is full, is the real SLG
As mentioned above, the two gameplay designs essentially highlight the different directions of strategy games. Then, if you simply distinguish it between "tactical" games and "strategy" games, the former simulates the front-line commander, while the "walking grid" emphasizes the overall situation and the king's experience of planning.
But GameLook needs to point out that SLG's positioning is "simulation games", and the essence of simulation games is the form of "replicating various real lives". From ancient times to the present, war has always been only a means rather than an end, and the "zero-sum game" of deciding victory and defeat on the battlefield is not the whole form of real war.
It is also in order to restore the whole picture of the real war "seeking the overall situation", since "The Coast of the Land", domestic SLG mobile games generally adopt a season system that lasts 75-90 days. Under the long time span, players can not only consider the victory or defeat of a certain battle or several battles, but plan the battle situation from the overall perspective and achieve the ultimate goal of fully controlling the entire season.
During this period, the "walking grid" gameplay with strong strategy and low operating threshold is undoubtedly more in line with the needs of players. Especially in the mobile game market with obvious socialization and fragmentation trends, such games are also in line with the actual demands of SLG players. With the blessing of the "walking grid" gameplay, the confrontation between players is already a chessboard game to participate in anytime and anywhere, dispatching troops, seeing tricks and dismantling moves, and relying entirely on strategy and wisdom to strive for their respective goals.
From Japanese wargames to "Trap" to The Ground Like, the deep game experience displayed by the "Walk the Grid" gameplay has proven that even in the current era of innovative gameplay and emerging categories, this classic gameplay can still transcend time and space and represent the most kingly experience of SLG.
At this point, looking back at the debate at the beginning of the article, instant operation and "walking the grid", which kind of gameplay is the future direction of SLG?
In GameLook's view, the debate may never stop. But it must be noted that both gameplay modes have their advantages. Player preferences may be changing as the scale of SLG users continues to expand, but for SLG core users, the highly mature "grid" gameplay that focuses on in-depth strategy has always been a strong competitiveness.
However, this does not mean that the gameplay mechanics are set in stone. In the face of the needs of users in different circles, play innovation on the basis of ensuring the depth of strategy and the fun of core gameplay may be the correct development direction of SLG, and this is also the original intention of many long-term SLGs such as "Coast of The Land".
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