From April 18th to 21st, the 2022 N.GAME NetEase Game Developer Summit (hereinafter referred to as the "Summit") was held online.
On the value exploration field on the last day, Zhu Manli, the main marketer from the "Fantasy Journey to the West" IP, told us about the new way of playing the IP circle by digging deep into the meaning and value of the game culture and tourism.
The following is a sharing draft of the mobile game that is sorted out, in order to facilitate reading, the content has been deleted.
Hello everyone, I am Zhu Manli from the "Fantasy Journey to the West" (hereinafter referred to as "Fantasy") IP. Today, I am very happy to talk to you about some practices of fantasy journey to the west IP in the exploration of cultural tourism.
If you mention "Journey to the West", what do you think? Is it to catch bubbles or to visit the Gate Sect for the first time? I believe that in the minds of 1,000 players, there will be 1,000 different imaginations of the IP of the game. In the face of such a very rich game ecological IP as Dream, we are always thinking about a problem.
That is how to make more people outside the game circle, more people in different circles, able to recognize, perceive and fall in love with dreams?
In fact, this problem is essentially a problem of IP breaking the circle. As we all know, the era we are living in now is an era of increasing circles. What everyone knows is the quadratic circle, the fandom, the Hanfu circle and so on. Each circle is self-contained and self-contained.
It can be said that IP is a sharp weapon, which has the special ability to break through the barriers of different circles to form a strong malleability. Constantly expanding their own ecology and breaking through boundaries is a proposition that all IP ultimately pursues.
Corresponding to the dream IP, we have also explored our own expansion path.
The IP is derived from the game. So first, we scaled up our game product matrix and social relationships based on the game. It has formed a wealth of game products and offline carnivals, meet-and-greets and events.
In addition, it has also continuously enriched and improved the narrative of the Fantasy Journey to the West IP, and promoted to a more general entertainment content ecology. For example, it has launched a lot of popular film and television works, such as the animation film "The Road of Destiny", "Gap in Time and Space", and the film and television drama "Fingertip Boy".
At present, the dream is extending to a more outer physical space and the form of a theme park, hoping to bring IP to a larger circle.
However, in the process of constantly breaking through the boundaries, you will find that there will always be two core barriers:
One is the user barrier, because the dream is always the IP with the game as the core carrier, and the user can only appreciate the charm of the dream after experiencing the game.
The second is the emotional barrier, and there is always an invisible gulf between the virtual and the real. How to move from virtual to reality, and generate a steady and powerful emotional connection with users? These are all problems that we urgently need to solve.
We're also thinking about finding a point of convergence in the game. This point can continue to attract a wider range of users, and can continuously bring a strong emotional connection to the game IP. So what exactly is this point?
So we tried to return to the dream IP and brand, that is, the journey to the west culture.
As we all know, "Journey to the West", as a well-known literary work in the mainland, has a natural affinity for the Chinese people with a traditional culture. Dream is essentially also a carrier of the re-creation of the Journey to the West culture, which is expressed through a new form of technology and digital, and re-enacts the charm of the Journey to the West culture.
The dream is based on the story of the journey to the west as the supporting skeleton, creatively integrating a lot of traditional cultural elements into it. In the game of inclusiveness, integration, it can be said that there are some genes between the two naturally combined, worth exploring.
So we thought, can we completely reproduce the landmark of the journey to the west in the game into reality? What about forming a perceptible and walkable new western journey path, so that more young people can experience the charm of traditional culture?
With this kind of thinking, we returned to the game to observe, it can be said that the dream has created a game with the most immersive and experiential sense of journey to the west. At the beginning of the design, we fully traced wu Cheng'en's original novel, and through our imagination, created a fantasy-filled journey to the west world full of human magic immortals, three realms and four continents.
In this world, some stories with Chinese classical romanticism take place every day. The stages on which these stories take place are almost all based on traditional Chinese cultural buildings and landmarks. Then these landmarks can naturally be traced back in reality, providing a natural gene for us to integrate a journey to the west in the cultural tourism space.
So we thought of the Dream IP Cultural Tourism Project and excavated the interesting and fun characteristics of the game, and then proposed the concept of "Dream Generation - Fun Journey to the West" to connect the online game map and the offline physical space, calling on a new generation of young people to re-take the West Journey Road and understand the cultural story behind the Landmark of the Journey to the West.
From Xi'an's Dongshi Xishi to Huaguoshan and Jianye City, the dream IP connects the offline space into a dream scroll of the Qingming Shanghe schema. One might ask, what did you rely on to choose these landmarks?
In fact, the principle of selection is very simple, that is, these are places with stories. Take Huaguo Mountain, for example, which is one of Sun Wukong's hometowns and is described in the novel as a spiritual mountain "belled by reiki".
Or take the Flame Mountain as an example, because of its unique geological and geomorphological characteristics at that time, the Flame Mountain formed an exotic style with a great sense of contrast with the natural scenery of the Central Plains, which also confirmed the grand scenery of the great power in the Tang Dynasty at that time.
We believe that the cultural stories behind these landmarks are the IP cultural assets that are truly worth remembering, excavating and telling.
On the whole road of "Fun West Tour", we also explored some experiences and models of two-way empowerment of game IP and cultural tourism space. For the cultural tourism industry, the injection of game IP has brought a large number of new forms of digital expression, a strong and efficient connection based on the social relationship of games, and opened up the closed-loop experience of online and offline spaces.
For game IP, the offline cultural tourism space naturally brings a physical space that can be considered, imagined, participated in, and perceived for game IP, which can help game IP to smoothly break the circle and go to a larger crowd.
Having said all that, let's take a look at the "Fun Journey to the West" road that "Fantasy Journey to the West" has traveled.
There is a saying circulating among dreamy players: "Running ring people, running ring souls, running rings are people on people". What is a "running ring"? Why is it that running the ring is the best person?
In fact, the word running ring is a word full of sweet and sour for players. The ring refers to a regular mission in the game, which is a huge quest chain consisting of 300 very trivial small tasks.
Some may be just a very simple way to run the map and find the corresponding NPC, while others may need to challenge difficult monsters. But in the whole process, if you give up halfway or don't finish at the specified time, the running ring is basically a failure.
Only after walking the 300th ring, it has a lot of experience and rare items, which is the biggest reward of the running ring and its significance. The design of this kind of gameplay is actually derived from the spirit of journey to the west.
The four masters and apprentices endured nearly 9981 difficulties, insisted on going through the whole process, and finally obtained the True Scriptures, is this not a reward for the 300th ring?
We think that this kind of online gameplay can correspond to different offline lives, who is not a runner who perseveres on the road of life?
Therefore, from the gameplay of the running ring to the inspiring spirit of the running ring behind it, it is a spirit of struggle that perseveres in doing a boring but meaningful thing, and will eventually be enhanced.
In order to bring this running ring gameplay and spirit of the dream to more people, we decided to go back to the place where the dream began, Xi'an. There are a lot of fantasy players' emotions and feelings, and there are also a lot of ancient city walls, which look like one interlocking ring after another.
So we found the Xi'an City Wall Marathon and jointly held a marathon called "Dream Run".
At the same time, in order to be more closely linked to this ancient city, but also in order to let more people understand the spirit of running rings and how to play. We joined forces with datang Furong Garden and Xi'an Ancient City Wall Scenic Area to draw a map online and offline with fantastic features.
The fantastic well-known IP characters "Swordsman" and "Bubble" also serve as artificial intelligence tour guides in the scenic spot, explaining the customs and customs behind Chang'an City for tourists.
It can be said that in the "Dream Run", the contestants run along the ancient city wall, and all they can rely on is tenacity, perseverance and the desire for final victory.
There are many fantasy players who have traveled thousands of miles to the "Xi'an Running Link", and through their own efforts, they have received their own 300th ring rewards in the real space outside the game.
Some players feel that running in Chang'an City is real, and there will be a kind of reality and virtual space being broken. So, let's take a look at the interesting pictures of the day of the run.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that some senior fantasy players have specially created a song called "Song of the Runner" for this running session. Pour their love of fantasy games and their understanding of the spirit of the running ring into the song.
As the lyrics say, "Run up and race along the ancient city walls; run up, 300 rings upgrade super diligence". It can be said that as soon as this song came out, it immediately attracted the good feelings and resonance of the dream players of B Station and NetEase Cloud Music. Everyone left a message saying: "International marathons should use the song of the runners as the theme song."
Through this event, we collected a lot of feedback from real players, and the most mentioned word was "moved". Some players said that "the efforts and gains in front of the computer in the past have turned into real sweat and pride at this moment."
Dreams bring them not only happiness and fun, but also real companionship, and a sense of truth that can be seen and touched. Let's listen to the song of the runner with a sense of truth.
After talking about the gameplay of the game, let's talk about the well-known journey to the west story "Three Borrowed Banana Fans". If it is not Sun Wukong but the swordsman who borrowed the banana fan, what interesting story will happen?
Our initial idea of linking up with Flaming Mountain came from a message from a fantastic player. In the message of a fantasy journey to the west topic event, there was a player from Xinjiang, who left a message saying: "I very much hope that the road of the fantasy journey to the west can come to his hometown."
This reminds us of the famous landmark of the journey to the west in Xinjiang, the Flame Mountain. Here is the well-known story of three banana fans.
Considering the unique geological structure of Flame Mountain, can we show this cooperation in a new and interesting way? So he set his sights on the "mural".
Murals are one of the earliest forms of painting art in human history. As early as the Han Dynasty on the mainland, there are already records of painting on the walls. This form of art and culture reached its peak in the era when the journey to the west story takes place (the Tang Dynasty).
Therefore, it is associated with the prosperity of the murals in the Tang Dynasty and the unique topography of the Flame Mountain, so we should insist on using the form of the mural to create a new dream flame mountain story.
We went to the scenic spot of Flame Mountain many times, and together with the dreamy art teacher to observe and investigate it, we created a long-scroll mural that integrates the fantasy IP and the theme story of the journey to the west.
This mural is 140 meters long, and the picture vividly recreates the difficulties and obstacles of the Flame Mountain at that time, and we also creatively integrate the famous characters and stories of the dream IP. This makes the ancient Flame Mountain Scenic Area full of new youthful vitality.
In addition to the offline scenic spot linkage, we also launched the Flame Mountain Fan Atlas Collection Online, calling on fantastic players to play with fire. In view of the barriers of some practical reasons, many players have no way to participate in the event to observe this very magnificent picture of the Flame Mountain.
Then he can also create a new Flame Mountain story online with his own paintbrush. Many players creatively construct swordsmanship with the Iron Fan Princess or the Bull Demon King. We believe that this is actually the proof that in the process of IP construction, players and games work together to create IP and jointly expand boundaries.
In addition to the online and offline linkage, the game itself also launched a web version of the "Fun Tour Of The Flame Mountain" campaign, and also creatively gave players the Skin of the Bull Demon King and the Iron Fan Princess with Western style skins.
In addition, in terms of IP derivatives, we have also cooperated with China Post to create a dream-specific customized postcard and stamp. Visitors can receive these customized surroundings for free in the Flame Mountain Scenic Area, and deliver them at the mailbox in the Dream Station.
Next, let's take a look at the exotic Dream Flame Mountain.
In addition to the cultural tourism program of Fun Walk to the West mentioned above, we have also explored other forms of cultural tourism cross-border activities. For example, the very cute and popular bubble elements in the dream IP are taken out separately, and a special cultural tourism line is specially customized for it.
In the real space, a giant bubble is restored, and periodic touring exhibitions are carried out, so that the bubble can swim in China's famous mountains and rivers, rivers and lakes. Enhance the awareness and reputation of Dream Bubble IP through contact with more people.
Finally, Dream is also exploring a more IP immersive and heavier form of live-action entertainment derivatives, namely theme parks. To this end, together with Sunac Cultural Tourism, we have created an exclusive dream theme experience area in two Sunac theme parks in Chengdu and Chongqing.
Through this form, we are also constantly exploring the form of a theme park that can be imagined in the future. It can be said that this is an era in which everything can be immersed. The path of dream IP in the exploration of cultural tourism will continue to go on.
The future can be expected, thank you, thank you!