Text/Mianmian (Labyrinth also assists in this article)
Lead
At the beginning of 2021, with the "Paper Wedding Dress" series and "Fireworks" out of the circle, a "Chinese horror game" boom of puzzle solving + horror atmosphere was opened, and for a time, a number of similar competitive games mushroomed, and the previous domestic horror games also ushered in the Renaissance.
Chinese horror games generally refer to the type of horror games that rely on Chinese folklore and tell Chinese stories based on experience and adventure.
In Q1 2022, the popularity of Chinese horror games has not decreased, and many Chinese horror games have been opened for reservation or online on the PC side and mobile game terminals, but the game evaluation is polarized. PC side steam online "Three Volts Demo", "Black Sheep Demo", "Bugs", etc., mobile phones have "Paper Wedding Dress 3", "Resentment Society" and other more than 10 secret marriage games, etc., player evaluation of the negative general for the plot to pull the crotch, for the puzzle and solve the puzzle, etc., and the positive feedback is to hope that the time is directly fast-forwarded to the game release date.
This can't help but make people wonder, in 2022, will the "Chinese" horror or traffic password? When domestic horror games are homogenized, will players feel "aesthetic fatigue"?
01
A familiar Chinese horror play experience
Now more and more Chinese horror mobile games have become a collection of puzzle plus puzzle mini-games, with similar gameplay, and even a sense of experience that puzzles exceed the horror atmosphere.
Recently, a Chinese-style horror puzzle mobile game "Resentment Society" was launched, with a Tap Tap game rating of 8.1 and a good game quick explosion score of 7.5. After playing with anticipation, I found that this is a more familiar Chinese horror game, decent, but also brings fewer surprises.
Familiar gameplay. Collect props to solve puzzles, and find the unlock password with the graphic correspondence and text correspondence of different scenes. The development team is indeed exquisite in the selection of props, and the scene props such as Luban ruler, floating needle, dragon seeker, oil-paper umbrella, yin and yang bagua array naturally have an ancient style and ancient taste, and also reflect traditional Chinese culture. But the long password and complex text graphics also dazzle players. Puzzle hints are hinted at by the protagonist, but they pass by in a flash and can no longer be viewed if you miss them. Too many puzzles and mini-games keep the puzzle-solving experience late in the game overloaded. Fortunately, the developer intimately sets up players to watch the advertisement to get prop tips, and even skip the mini-game directly. This not only brings benefits to the developer, but also reduces the mental burden of the player. But there are also players who choose to go all the way through the level of violence, and I don't know if these well-prepared puzzles are a pity.
Complex text in the game
Skip the mini-game
Familiar character relationships and story backgrounds. The game begins with a deep old mansion. An amnesiac protagonist stands in front of a deep mansion, the protagonist looks around for the secret of his father's death, and the suspicious woman in red follows all the way. The plot experience is not enough, and the sudden warmth of the ending is unexpected.
The woman who trails all the way
Compared to the elaborate puzzles, the plot, soundtrack, and scare methods of The Grudge Society are not much expressed. Although too much Jump Scare (with the sudden appearance of horrors with sound effects) can ruin the playing experience, but also because of too many puzzles, a single soundtrack, and a good combination of puzzles and plot, "Hate Club" is more like a heavy puzzle game, which may disappoint horror game lovers, but puzzle lovers can still try.
The developer of the game is Tanyou Technology, which focuses on puzzle solving and simulation business games, and has become a professional chinese horror puzzle game after 2021. In addition to "Resentment Society", there are also "Cave Lady" and "House Grievance", followed by "Lighting Lamp", "Immortal Sacrifice" and so on.
Quest technology related games
02
Chinese horror mobile games tend to be templated
The experience of playing "The Hate Society" is not an isolated case. According to the statistics of the TapTap platform and the Haoyou Fast Explosion platform, more than ten Chinese horror games were launched in Q1 2022. They look similar from a distance, and the game LOGO of the same color is similar to the "paper wedding dress": most of them are red wedding elements, the background uses cool colors, and the red hijab women's eyes are dark and dull, creating a sense of weirdness. Up close, the gameplay is mostly horror decryption, but the story script is different, with whether there is a dubbing and whether the painting style is special.
Judging from the open game ratings, the score of more than 8 points is less, the highest rating is "Paper Wedding Dress 3", thanks to the high quality of the series of works, its attention to downloads of 960,000 far more than other works, online so far has been in the top ten of the iOS free anagram list. A small number of games with higher ratings, which currently look novel in their gameplay, are temporarily in a state of reservation.
A collection of LOGOs related to Chinese horror games
The 2022 TapTap online and scheduled Chinese horror mobile game
In the impression, it seems that as long as the game is titled "Chinese horror", it is a warm welcome for players who have been dry for a long time. However, from the perspective of reviews, some games have been under-scrutinized due to the plot, some puzzle ideas, screen composition characters are too similar to become the player's spit part, and some games are forced into advertisements, or watch advertisements can not get clues, etc., but also ruin the game experience.
Screenshots of player reviews
Horror games are small in size, most of them play within 5 hours, which also means that players will soon be able to experience a variety of related games, and the number of more than 10 mobile games actually fails to meet the needs of players. Players need more Chinese horror games, but also need the game perspective to turn more in the direction of "Chinese folklore".
03
The PC side is more creative
Compared with the mobile game, the PC side is becoming the base camp of domestic horror games because of the blessing of large screens and sound effects, and also expands the boundaries for the meaning of "Chinese horror".
2022 Steam related Chinese horror game
Surprisingly, these games just make up for the lack of Chinese horror games in mobile games, further expanding the meaning of Chinese folklore. There is no shortage of chi-weird stories in China. Domestic ghost stories and strange talk from the traditional script "Liaozhai Zhiyi" to the modern folk tales and strange talk, urban and campus legends are various, related film works also have "Mountain Village Old Corpse" and Lin Zhengying's "Mr. Zombie" series, etc., and "Ghost Bride" is only one of the Hong Kong-style spiritual legends.
Screenshot of Mr. Zombie
"Fireworks", "Three Volts", and "Insects" jump out of the shackles of "ancient houses" and turn their perspectives to social events and rural feudal superstitious customs. Like "Three Volts", it tells the strange era memory of Qigong popular in the streets and alleys of the last century. And the seemingly strange things such as the three-eyed child were not new at the time, after all, there were still charlatan vase girls in the 90s.
These unspeakable, obscure hidden corners of history have become a new kind of "Chinese horror."
In the form of horror games, trying to tell those silent facts, depicting those bizarre events, digging out the hearts of those ugly people, combined with family ethics and the stoic character of the Chinese people, it can create a taste of contemplation and extreme fear in the hearts of Chinese players.
For example, in "Fireworks", the old man can borrow his body to repay the soul of his son by any means, the secret school violence incident in "Black Sheep", and the abduction and trafficking of women in "Bugs".
The three-eyed child in "Three Volts"
The camera performances in the game have become more and more ingenious, and several shots of the lost and found set in "Three Volts Demo" will surely be applauded by anyone who has played it.
Screenshot of the game "Three Volts"
The only regret is that there are fewer horror adventure games with a first-person perspective on the PC side. There is only one game called Mountain Ghost, the first-person survival horror genre, which is currently mixed. Topics of 3D adventure horror like "Paper Man" and "Hong Kong Mystery Record" have not been seen for a long time.
Next, the new Chinese horror game is frequently informed. According to the "Back Door" developer Manson Studio B station account revealed, the current new work "Over the Yin" is about to be launched in 2022, the game dominates the 3D scene, 2D perspective gameplay, telling a Republic of China-style thriller puzzle story, the game will be divided into "puzzle system" and "ghost system", there will also be a narrative from the character group portrait.
In addition, Ghost Cry Ridge is about to unlock new news. The "Happiness 403" game demo developed by Rover Studio will be released on April 22, a first-person psychological thriller game set in the 90s Happiness Lane community, and the game's promotional video has also gained a lot of popularity on Weibo.
04
Under the regulatory policy, the profit space is limited
In the end, even if the "Chinese horror" label is still a traffic password, traffic can only be converted into revenue to become a driving force to support the continued development of the game. At present, due to the vague rating system of domestic games, the introduction of anti-addiction policies for minors' games. Most of the domestic horror games are difficult to get the version number, and can only choose to log on to Steam, or launch mobile games in the "beta" way, and the source of income is mainly in-game advertising or selling copies.
In-game advertising, for example, is mainly based on free downloads, and then combines mini games and tooltips with paid points. In addition, in the face of the new anti-addiction policy, the monetization ability of game advertising is bound to affect the income of such horror puzzle games.
In addition, regulatory new policies, strong supervision, compliance pressure, etc. may also become the last straw to crush the game. The well-known horror mobile game "Detective" announced the suspension of service on September 18, 2021, which puzzled a large number of paid players and questioned whether the development company had run away. From the perspective of time, the suspension of the game may be a choice made to avoid risks 1 month after the promulgation of the underage game policy.
Screenshot of the "Detective" suspension announcement
Of course, the quality of the game is high, and naturally it can be sold for a long time. The independent game "Fireworks" broke 100,000 sales in 5 days, and the current sales have exceeded 300,000 sets. According to Moonlight Cockroach, the production cost of "Fireworks" comes from the income of "Hesse Town Qitan", which sells 20,000 sets of 18 yuan or 360,000 yuan. And "Fireworks" sold 300,000 sets at 36 yuan, and its income far exceeded the cost. In addition, "Fireworks" will also receive derivative income, Wuyuan Culture will be responsible for the production and production of "Fireworks" film and television works, and Wuyuan Culture will produce works such as "White Night Pursuit" and "Hidden and Great". And this also explores a feasible path for the traffic monetization of domestic horror games.
Pyrotechnic derivatives
Overall, due to cost and benefit considerations, horror game developers are mainly individuals and small studios, and generally take self-research and spontaneous research. Regarding whether it is profitable, it seems that most developers are enthusiastic about it, and the future is also a step by step.
If you want to mention independent horror publishers, you can't avoid Gamemea Game, because many well-known horror games are called "Hades Publishers", and "Black Sheep" and "Three Volts" in early 2022 also have its shadow. Regarding the selection criteria of related games, Ye Qianluo, CEO of Gamera Game, said that it is mainly based on "what you like to play", and it is not limited to Chinese horror.
epilogue
Overall, the chinese horror game boom is still hot after nearly a year. Players will still buy it, but they have higher requirements for the depth of the plot and the gameplay. On the other hand, some developers may have shifted from horror to suspense and from Chinese folklore to national style due to the consideration of the marginal benefits of commodities.
Chinese horror games seem to be continuing to evolve on both routes. On the one hand, Chinese horror games are absorbing new audiences with the expansion of the connotation of "Chinese style", trying to express unreasonable customs with the expression of horror suspense. On the other hand, the adventure genre is also taking root, and as the game production technology matures, it will bring more exciting and rich game experiences, and there will be more adventure horror games in the future.
The mobile game side is also trying to explore a more diversified and lightweight horror game experience in addition to puzzle gameplay.
Overall, most of today's Chinese horror games do not meet the needs of players in terms of quantity and quality, and players also have expectations for Chinese horror games.
With the help of the "traffic password" boom, Chinese horror games can also take advantage of the traffic boom to go deeper and farther.