Looking at the industry, the products that fail are different, and the reasons for success are always similar.
Whether it's "Glory of Kings", a big player in the MOBA field, or last year's new dark horse "Harry Potter: Magic Awakening", they all have the same characteristics - they are more like a social platform than games.
Represented by Thunder and owned by Bio, the mobile game "Obi Island: Dream Country" (hereinafter referred to as Obi Island) with a 13-year IP history is recently being tested, and this new IP work with 300 million users has a good appeal in the Z generation, and the relevant long-term data is also better than similar products.
The reason is that the official has revealed that the production team did not treat "Obi Island" as a simple game, but hoped to create a social product, a virtual community with visualization and interaction.
Socializing is a basket, but not everything can be put into it. As another potential blockbuster in 2022, what is the uniqueness of "Ob island" that can help it stand out in today's high user aesthetic standards and fierce market competition environment?
Work with players to co-create, making rich content compatible with casual
Before the invention of the Internet, the way people interacted with each other was very limited, and in the era of no electricity, it was even more necessary for Hongyan to pass on the book to the people who cared. From horse-drawn carriages to telegrams to telephones and the Internet, social means have rapidly expanded and overloaded in just a hundred years, and we have ushered in the era of information explosion, but at the same time trapped in the cocoon of countless information constructions.
Some scholars believe that the essence of online social networking is an intermediary communication. Today, people are more inclined to interact through social media than face-to-face communication, so the quality of intermediaries, that is, the quality of communication, is very important to ensure the validity, correctness and value of the information in communication.
The orbi Island production team had the same view. From an official perspective, with similar competitors as a mirror, Orbi Island should focus on addressing the quality of content. As an IP mobile game positioned as "falling in love with Orbi Island, happy and no worries", "Orbi Island" advocates giving players a relaxed and casual game experience.
In general, rich content and "no liver" are opposed to each other. Lack of content, even if the player comes to the scene, it will quickly because the content is consumed too quickly and do nothing, and then retreat. The amount of content is extremely rich, and it is easy to make players confused, pushed forward by the progress, resulting in leisure becoming work, affecting product style evaluation and player enthusiasm.
The approach of "Oby Island" is to skillfully reduce the "liver degree" of the game to reduce the burden on the player through the casual core gameplay, so that the player can experience the real leisure fun, on the other hand, to increase the breadth and depth of the content, rather than simply designing repetitive tasks or digging pits in the numerical value.
For example, after the starlight test ended in October last year, the production team added a fatigue system based on player feedback, increased experience acquisition, reduced the difficulty of upgrading, reduced the linkage between gameplay and level, and aimed at "reducing burden", and finally achieved the result of reducing repetitive work and increasing interesting and high-quality interactions.
In addition, Obe Island has also added an editor function, not only the official can create quality content, but also encourages every player to add bricks and tiles. While further enriching the game content, it can also play a role in awakening community awareness, creating a co-creation atmosphere, enhancing players' sense of belonging, and laying a good foundation for long-term operation in the future.
An open and free community that provides a haven for every player
In order to ensure the quality of the content of "Ob island", "Orbi Island" has set up a large and experienced research and development team, and there is also a middle office behind it to ensure that the production capacity of high-quality content supply can keep up with player consumption.
This is also one of the reasons why "Obie Island" chose 2D art pictures, on the one hand, it brings fans a sense of familiarity and intimacy, and on the other hand, it can also better control the content output capacity.
In fact, for the sake of public beta, Obe Island plans to reserve more than 2-3 months of version content to cope with the influx of players exceeding expectations.
In terms of the basic framework, "Ob island" provides different stages for players with different needs, whether they like stand-alone, or like to be lively, or are keen on dressing up and preferring to operate, they can find their own belonging in "Orbi Island".
Rich personal tasks, leisurely farming time, rich dress-up system, lively party activities, wonderful island huts, fun and hardcore manor operations... The rich and colorful possibilities, leaving room for each personality to play, in GameLook's view, is actually the basis of "Orbi Island" is not only a game, but also a social product.
Compared with ordinary games, diverse and perfect social systems such as family add multi-dimensional attraction to Obe Island. The non-livery and rich and fun experience ensures that Orbi Island is more popular than the average game.
As the popularity and recognition of "Ob Island" among fans heats up, and the influence gradually comes out of the circle, it is no longer a game, but is expected to become an invisible connection between people.
Through socializing, Orbi Island bundles its attributes with what players value most – not just the game itself, but a great time in the game with others, with the self, with the conversation.
As a social product, "Obe Island" is rich in gameplay, and it is beyond the general social products, a large number of interactive gameplay, compared with the pure community can produce a stronger user stickiness. Therefore, it is not difficult to predict that whether it is a game or a social product, "Ob Island" has a strong long-term operation potential.
Not only to evoke old feelings, but also to create new memories
Even if it seems to be completely prepared, the production team of "Ob Island" has not slackened off at all. The official also set up a complete and experienced testing team to escort the product launch. In the view of the production team, many game BUGs such as stuck, wearing molds and other issues, it is easy to consume player patience, causing users to be irritable and then lose, but such problems can actually be avoided.
In tapTap, Weibo and other major social media, the official also actively communicates with players, and recruits core players as community management members in order to listen to the most authentic voices from front-line players and establish a communication bridge with a sense of trust.
The production team said: "Whether it is the comments under the Weibo official account, the posts in the super talk, the comments on TapTap, the bullet screen and discussion on the B station, the N million chats in the Q group, or the messages sent by Obi from various other channels, we are paying attention to each one." ”
A serious attitude and good personality are not only conducive to the subsequent tuning of the product, but also help to help the mutual understanding between players and developers, reduce internal friction, and realize the ideal state of mutual growth between both sides and the product.
"Ob Island" restores classic scenes such as Obi Square and Taobao Street, and also reproduces emotional activities such as ice and snow celebrations and Hapi battles, not to mention the costumes, furniture, BGM that are engraved in the player's DNA early, and former old friends such as "Uncle Beard", who also meet the player in a new form.
But "Ob Island" is not a complete replica of the page game, the mobile game and the page game share a world view, and the relationship between each other is more of a parallel world than a simple inheritance. The game also features the Traveler feature to further enrich the storyline of existing characters, restoring them while giving players an unexpected novelty.
In order to truly become a community with realistic projection, "Orbi Island" is also gradually promoting cooperation with brands such as KFC, Mingchuang Premium, L'Oréal, etc., to enhance the sense of substitution and immersion of the virtual community on Orbi Island. The production team hopes to establish a "new way of life" in Oby Island by introducing brands that young people love.
This is a goal that can take a long time and a lot of effort to achieve. But I believe that in time, with the joint efforts of the production team and players, not only feelings, "Orbi Island" can grow into a warmer, more humane, not only to evoke memories, but also to create a spiritual home for memories.
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GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material