If you often pay attention to the Korean market, then Devsisters must be familiar with it. Founded in 2007, the game studio has successfully emerged from the giant Korean market with the Gingerbread Man series, not only rising in value, but also becoming a South Korean national IP.
Fifteen years after its founding, the already big Devsisters are clearly not satisfied with the old products. On April 14, the Korean studio held its first online product launch, DevNow. At the meeting, a new IP product "Dead Cide Club" was exposed, which attracted the attention of many players.
Judging from the exposed demo PV, this is a cross-board shooting end game. On this basis, the game also seems to incorporate a chicken-eating gameplay framework, with dozens of players gathering in a map of multiple rooms to fight a bitter battle. Officials have revealed that the game will open the first round of closed testing on April 23, and steam is expected to be launched in the middle of this year.
Originally, in the shooter games have been 3D today, "Dead Cide Club" uses a similar horizontal shooting to "Contra" is strange enough, did not think that the game actually introduced chicken eating gameplay, it is not difficult to see Devsisters want to use the differentiation to break through the market ambition.
2019 indie game hit "My Friend Pedro"
Judging from the demo of "Dead Cide Club", players will be reminded of the indie game "My Friend Pedro" released on Steam in 2019, when Pedro's 1-person solo game achieved sales of more than 500,000 units, and the Steam praise rate has remained at 92%.
So what about Dead Cide Club, a game that seems to turn Pedro online?
Game PV:
Can you be "God" in a chicken-eating game? I haven't seen it before
Unlike the cute style that Devsisters have always insisted on in the past, "Dead Cide Club" as a whole is more serious and cruel, which can be seen in the background story.
The story takes place in an alternate world, where a mysterious giant company, BELOBO, issues a commission to a skilled killer around the world, inviting them to participate in a game of honor and life. The invitee will need to defeat other opponents in this game of death until they become the final winner and win huge prizes.
At first glance, the framework of the story is almost identical to battle royale. And reflected in the gameplay, similar to the chicken eating game in the circle running poison, medical supplies, rich weapons and other mechanisms, system settings are also readily available. But on the basis of the former, Dead Cide Club has added powerful new equipment such as "grappling hook" and "EMP pulse bomb".
Consider that the location of the battle is not as open as the large map of PUBG, but takes place in a towering building divided into "multiple rooms". The relatively narrow rectangular room, coupled with the blessing of new equipment, makes the battle extremely fierce, and with the perspective of the cross-board arcade, there is a sense of déjà vu playing "Metal Slug".
One of the most surprising things about the game is the "create" gameplay introduced in it. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that the game allows players to make their own weapons, but that the game introduces a whole new character - the mastermind behind the battle rhythm of the entire game. And judging from the UI presented by the video, the black hand behind the scenes is likely to be played by a player.
In the game, the god-like behind-the-scenes black hand seems to have two main abilities: one is to create monsters or supplies, and the other is to be able to see the big picture.
Let's look at the first point first. In the game, players are invaded by monsters from time to time. These monsters vary in type and number. From the perspective of gameplay, these monsters are not created just to provide players with a PVE experience, but more like "airdrops" to guide players to fight.
In the demo, when a monster appears, the system will announce the location to all players. Since defeating monsters results in a large amount of gold, which can be used to buy powerful weapons in the shop, this is bound to attract players to gather – of course, powerful supplies can do the same. And for the player behind the scenes, it is also fun to be able to provoke player disputes by placing "airdrops".
As for the second point of ability, it is more for the first point of ability. During this period, the player's every move, as well as the battle data, will be displayed in the eyes of the black hand behind the scenes, which will be used to help their hands better tease the player. The two abilities complement each other, which not only has a more diversified gameplay experience than the traditional chicken eating game, but also adds more strategy to the game.
Information for all players can be displayed in the UI
There are new and old IPs, and Devsisters want to do big tickets
In addition to dead Cide Club, Devsisters also unveiled another new IP project at the press conference, brixity, a casual social mobile game featuring construction simulations, which is expected to be available by the end of 2022.
It is understood that the game will feature the student "Cosmo", who lives on Earth in 2522, and in order to save the Earth that is on the verge of destruction due to environmental pollution, Cosmo needs to purify the substance and make it into bricks to transform and decorate various buildings in the city. During this time, players will not only experience the fun of "building" with friends, but also see the cute city that server players have purified together.
For those fans who are passionate about GingerbreadMan IP, Devsisters has also brought three IP-based spin-offs: CookieRun: OvenSmash, Witfh's Castle, and Project B.
CookieRun: OvenSmash is perhaps the most diverse of them, not so much a game as a combination of mini-games. In the game, players can not only experience the fun of thirty players "fighting each other" in the Smash Brood gameplay, but also feel the parkour experience of using springboards or gliding devices in the Wanted Star mode, and even find the fun of childhood and small friends in the treasure hunting mode.
The combination of many gameplay modes makes the game look more like a top-down version of "Jelly Bean Man", but the former has made changes in terms of characters, environment, mechanics, etc., such as survival mode and other gameplay, the map has integrated many elements of past works, and added an environment interaction mechanism, players can hide in the grass can be invisible, the character's fire attribute skills can burn grass, etc., so that the game's combat experience is improved.
According to the official disclosure, "CookieRun: OvenSmash" will launch a PC version in the winter of 2022, and the follow-up will add mobile and host versions, which makes people speculate that CookieRun: OvenSmash may be a cross-platform interoperable product.
Another new game, CookieRun: Witfh's Castle, features puzzles about gingerbread people escaping from the oven and taking risks in a labyrinthine witch's castle. As the story progresses, the player will learn the secret of the birth of gingerbread man. The game, which continues the worldview of the previous gingerbread man, is expected to launch in the spring of 2023.
The above 3 products have been revealed more or less before DevNow, but the "Project B" that appeared this time is the first time that the development team has made it public. This multiplayer PVE mobile game, which has been in preparation since the beginning of the year, focuses on cooperative tower climbing gameplay, and perhaps also has a Roguelike mechanism, and will be launched in mid-2023.
Compared with other IP derivatives, Project B focuses more on highlighting the respective characteristics of gingerbread people, typically such as angel gingerbread people positioned as adjuvant treatment, and cherry gingerbread people focusing on range attacks. The most direct effect of the strengthening of gingerbread human characteristics is to help strengthen the cognition of IP by non-IP fans.
Last year, with the successful performance of Gingerbread Man: Kingdom, Devsisters successfully occupied a place in the 2021 Korean mobile game publisher download list and revenue top 10, and verified the feasibility of transplanting leisure IP to moderate mobile games, which is of special significance in a mature market such as South Korea, where the demographic dividend has peaked and is monopolized by MMOs.
Nowadays, the full-fledged Devsisters are repeating the path taken by the big factories in the past, on the one hand, expanding the ace IP, on the other hand, creating new IP, and expanding the game territory by walking on two legs. Considering that the company has always had its own set in the early promotion and long-term operation of the product, the listing performance of the new product is worth looking forward to.
In addition, from the perspective of the launch time, the products announced by Devsisters are all concentrated in the two years of 2022-2023, and the types covered are diverse. Such a close arrangement actually reflects the ambition of Devsisters to expand rapidly, and the courage to challenge the chicken market with horizontal plates is the best embodiment of ambition.
And behind all this, whether it is a quick success or full of confidence, will eventually be answered by time.
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