Not long after the beginning of 2022, the SLG track was turned into a pot of porridge. The Spring Festival activities of "The Coast of the Land" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" continue to be carried out, and the revenue is hit by the new high with the update of the large version. The 4399, which made its way to the SLG track with Civilization & Conquest, subverted its inherent impression of being a "mini-game producer" in one fell swoop. The most action in the big factory may also be Tencent, which is self-developed and grasped by the agent.
Before 2022, Tencent has launched a number of SLG games such as "Under the Red Map", "Conquest and Hegemony", and "Glory of the New Three Kingdoms" at a frequency of half a year. In the past 3 months of 2022, Tencent has already launched two new works, "Wolong Yin 2" and "Return to Empire". In particular, "Return to Empire" as a Self-developed Game of Tianmei has been coordinated by Tencent's omni-channel in its release, and has successfully entered the top 10 of the best-seller list after its launch, finally allowing Tencent to achieve the "Three Kings Meeting" with NetEase and Ali in the SLG track.
Previously, Tencent's positioning of SLG was more like an ATM, using its high gold absorption ability to produce stable cash flow, without having to punch a swollen face and lose money to prove itself. Therefore, tencent SLG, represented by "The King of Chaos", always hides in the top 50 of the best-seller list to live its own well-off life and make a fortune.
However, with Tencent's determination to go global in 2021, its attitude towards SLG, a mature overseas category, has also changed. "Return to the Empire", which took four years to develop, is the product of this change of thinking.
Left-handed technology", "Return to The Empire" of the right-handed IP
Let's first take a look at how "Return to Empire" is? As a self-developed product of Tianmei, this work has the experience and technical support of the original team of "Gone with the Wind" on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has also received the IP blessing of Microsoft's "Age of Empires", and the development cycle is also sufficient. The degree of attention can be seen.
Tianmei's biggest investment in the game is the embodiment of its technical and artistic strength on the screen. The game's hero card surface uses realistic 3D character modeling, full use of motion capture technology, and the character's hair and clothing texture are very delicate. Some of these five-star characters appear in CG animation performances for up to 20 seconds, which can be described as a key polish.
However, the biggest experience is that the heroes in the game use pseudonyms without using real historical names. But this is also a last resort, for the game industry that has been named by the state media many times because of historical issues, Tencent is also doing this to avoid the attack of "historical nihilism" public opinion and take the initiative to avoid it.
The main city and class of the game are also depicted by Tianmei, after all, this is the most common picture for players. The main city has architectural styles for different civilizations, and the classes of soldiers also make distinctions according to the themes of different civilizations. However, these are already the mainstream configuration of the current multi-civilization SLG, and "Return to Empire" just does what it should have, and there is nothing special about it.
I must say surprise, that is probably the "Age of Empires" series of single-player game fans can experience the surprise. For example, "Return to the Empire" sets the main city buildings to be freely moved and freely placed, rather than a fixed position of a turnip and a pit.
After building the mill, the player is also free to lay out multiple plots of farmland. Farmland has no practical role in the game and is purely a decoration of the main city, but for Age of Empires 2 players, this detail will undoubtedly fill the mood.
There are many similar designs. For example, after the main city is upgraded, farmers can be trained and assigned to work in different resource points, upgrading houses can train more farmers, special classes need to be trained in castles, and so on. Most of the buildings in the game, such as houses, lumber yards, mills, and sentry towers, follow the architectural shape of "Empire 2", and the campaign copy also uses the "Empire 2" page interface to reflect it, and many sound effects (such as clicking on different class barracks) also follow the "Empire 2" sound effect, as well as the "Age of Empires" theme music that will sound on the landing interface, which is enough to evoke the feelings of old players.
Although the game puts a lot of effort into the details, these details do not affect the main gameplay of the game. Return to Empire is still an SLG-built game after all. Once the player taps into the large map, everything goes back to the familiar flavor. Resource points, monsters, and stamina are all traditional SLG game modes of COK-like. "Return to the Empire" is not without innovation, for example, the game focuses on promoting the "real-time strategy" gameplay of free marching, allowing players to move freely on large maps, manually launch martial arts skills, and pull troops into the woods into "stealth mode" squatting point sneak attacks.
The game has also evolved the siege gameplay of traditional SLGs. Strategic cities have multiple gates and a variety of city buildings, which gives different legions more strategic space when grabbing the city.
However, under the framework of SLG games, these real-time strategy elements are only small embellishments and do not affect the overall situation. Whether it is a player battle or a clan confrontation, there is very little room for real-time elements to play, and it is even more impossible for low combat power to rely on micro-manipulation to win. The game's main strategic fun is still focused on the battle between the clans and the personnel: this is also the core attraction of SLG games.
Overall, Return to Empire is conservative in its gameplay system. The game sits on the top technical and artistic strength, but in terms of gameplay mechanics, it is only a follower step by step, and has no radical innovation intentions.
However, the performance of the game after its release shows that this conservative strategy is not a failure.
On the one hand, the game stabilized the position of the top 10 on the best-seller list in the two weeks after its launch, and withstood the first wave of tests in player retention. On the other hand, the score of the game on the TapTap platform is stable at 7.0 points, and the score of the B station is 7.9 points, which is a medium score in the SLG category, and there is no collapse in word of mouth.
Technical art, big factory killing moves
SLG games are easy to dissuade players due to core gameplay such as strong PVP, and the extremely low retention rate makes the game often encounter the situation of slipping word of mouth on the line. "Return to Empire" has found a lot of tricks in shaping word of mouth, in addition to the conventional practices such as opening welfare management and paying for pain points, the core competitiveness is reflected in excellent technical and artistic strength.
Tenmi adopted a realistic character modeling style in Return to The Empire. This style tests both technical strength and design strength, but also very expensive, it is difficult to use clever ways to avoid technical shortcomings, insufficient strength will draw a tiger into an anti-dog.
The comparison with "Under the Red Map" launched by Zulong, which is also a Tencent agent, is obvious. As the first SLG game built by Unreal Engine 4, "Under the Red Map" was announced and promoted as a full 3D modeling warrior. However, the actual screen performance of the game is somewhat unsatisfactory, and many martial artists and 3D models judge that the two are complained about by players. Compared with the lack of technical strength, the bigger shortcoming exposed by "Under the Hongtu" is the lack of design power. Many of the three kingdoms warriors in the game have the visual sense of other games, and the design of clothing and clothing also lacks memory points. This design deficiency will be multiplied on the 3D modeling, making the player feel that the five stars will look like a public face.
In this regard, Tianmei has indeed come up with excellent technical and design strength. The recognition of hero characters and clothing are very elaborate, especially the female characters in it do not embark on the design idea of being wrapped in two-dimensional soft pornography, but design clothes and decorations with reference to different historical backgrounds, which well reflects the realistic positioning of the game.
It can be said that there are not many game manufacturers like Tianmei who can choose to take realistic 3D modeling like Tianmei. This is also the industrialization path that a large factory studio like Tianmei will naturally choose. And when a game with such an art packaging is put on the market, players who get a good first impression will naturally contribute praise.
However, at present, there is a realistic limitation of technical art, that is, the hardware function problem in the hands of the player. In this regard, cloud gaming technology is indeed promising, and it is also the layout that various manufacturers are now laying out. For example, "Return to the Empire" also provides a cloud game mode this time. After personal testing, the loading time of the cloud game side is not much different from that of the client, and there is not much loss on the screen, which is no big problem for games such as SLG.
Standing and making money: the IP ideas of big factories
Of course, only a good picture skin on the screen does not guarantee that the game will be able to rush to the best-seller list. Another card of "Return to Empire" is the use of IP. The details of the game's internal adjustments to Age of Empires have been mentioned above, and these details can make old players feel the emotions and try not to affect the SLG game experience, which is a lot of thought.
At the same time, these IP-to-content can also become important materials for KOLs to play when they are promoted, which is very conducive to the spread of games in related circles. In particular, as an old IP with a history of more than 20 years, the core fan base of "Empire Dynasty" highly overlaps with the target users of SLG games, which further improves the publicity efficiency of the game.
Tianmei did not adopt the traditional buying method in its publicity strategy, but focused on content marketing to maximize the value of IP. According to DataEye data, the peak of "Return to the Empire" in March was only more than 1,600 groups, which is far closer to the order of 12,000 groups on the single day of "Civilization and Conquest".
In terms of content marketing, Tianmei found Luo Yonghao as an endorsement, cooperated with programs such as "Military Base Camp", invited E-sports anchors such as PDD to make emotional short films, and found Tan Qiao, Half Buddha Immortals, Little John Khan and other hundred UP main output content on station B... The organic traffic generated by these marketing publicity methods accurately targets this target group of men aged 31-40.
According to DataEye's estimates, the number of iPhone downloads on the day of the launch of "Return to Empire" was 313,500, which was significantly lower than that of "Civilization and Conquest". However, by April, the former had left the latter behind on the best-seller list, which shows the high quality of users imported by "Return to Empire".
It can also be seen from the details of the publicity that Tianmei actually did not focus on the IP of "Age of Empires", and even somewhat diluted the meaning of processing. This is obviously the lesson that Dachang has summed up in recent years.
For classic IP such as "Age of Empires", because its core gameplay will not be inherited by SLG mobile games, excessive promotion of IP will only lead to the reaction of some core players. This is the reason why many SLG games adapted by IP are often poorly reputed online. IP not only failed to bring organic traffic, but also made the manufacturers infamous, and the gain was not worth the loss.
Therefore, the big factories that have suffered from hardships have long begun to change the publicity strategy of IP games. Tencent's accumulated experience in this regard can be described as a lot. For example, "Red Alert OL" issued by Tencent before Youai Interactive Entertainment was acquired by Byte is an example. The game has a "Red Alert" shell, and is essentially a COK-like SLG game. In order to try to avoid players from feeling cheated after entering the game, in addition to using "Red Alert" materials as much as possible on the screen UI, the game also specially added a high-imitation "Red Alert 2" plot campaign, and even went to YouTube to buy a Soviet base car CG short film made by Korean designer @ Kim Chul Wook and put it in the game as an opening animation, trying to satisfy players in details, so that the game can earn money while the reputation has not fallen sharply.
The same case is the "Three Kingdoms Group of Heroes and Overlords" developed by Tencent agent and Xinghui Tiantuo. The game has remained active for 5 years, and the new rules licensed by the same IP have been developed by Zulong Games and are expected to be launched in 2023.
In addition, Tencent also has a large number of candidates with their own IP are expected to be launched in 2022, including "Shin Nobunaga's Wild Hope" and "The Age of Great Navigation: Overlord of the Sea". These two IPs are from the glorious Tekumo, and the games are developed by Guangzhou Blackbeard Games (BBGame) and Shanghai Tianju Interactive Entertainment, and have been released by Tencent.
From These actions of Tencent packaging the glorious IP for distribution, it can also be seen that it is somewhat grumpy about the IP of the glorious "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that it lost its hand and let Ali Games rise through the way. However, the success of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms • Strategy Edition" also let Tencent see that large manufacturers can also do without being scolded, and they can also earn money.
After all, for SLG games with high churn rates, the quality of new users is the key to the success or failure of the game. The value of classic IP lies in the fact that it can attract players of the same circle. These young players from different sides of the day can find in the game memories that were once available in the Internet café, and these memories are important to them. What the IP adaptation of the game does is to import players with common memories into the same time and space.
Over the years, both PC and console games have been popular for a nostalgic wind of remakes, the essence of which is to recall old players and awaken the common memory of players. It can be said that common memory is the most essential value of IP. Whether it is SLG or other types of games, as long as you can grasp the essence of IP to borrow power, you can play a good card with half the effort.
How did SLG play in the second half?
Recall that in 2017, when Tencent entered the SLG battlefield, it was still using an internal horse racing mechanism. As a cash cow category, SLG has naturally become the focus of the competition between studio groups: Tianmei took out "The King of Chaos", Northern Lights took out "True Dragon Hegemony", and Photon took out "My Dynasty". In just half a year, the three studio groups fought a battle of internal friction for traffic resources.
In the end, "My Dynasty" was suspended, "True Dragon Overlord" fell out of the best-seller list, and "The King of Chaos" only became a tianmei meal ticket, and did not bring Tencent's strategic dominance over the SLG category. The potential cooperation opportunities of the glorious "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" IP also slipped away during this period.
Fast forward 5 years, "The King of Chaos" and "True Dragon Overlord" have entered the late stage of the product life cycle, and the sound and influence in the SLG category have become more and more incompatible with Tencent. This time, it was still Tianmei who first took out the "Return to the Empire" and handed it in. And the multi-civilization theme SLG under study by the Northern Lights is also on the way, and the sword refers to the succession of "True Dragon Hegemony". As for Photon, it seems to have temporarily withdrawn from the competition at the SLG track.
Unlike 5 years ago, Tencent today has obviously taken a more open posture and promoted more proxy IP projects while self-research. Whether it is an original game sequel such as "Wolong Yin 2" or several games with glorious IP, Tencent does not refuse to accept all orders. And his self-research works invariably abandon the three countries and choose multi-civilization themes, which is obviously not only considering the domestic market, but preparing for the next step of going to sea.
Perhaps the most ideal state for Tencent is to develop top products to earn global money, and give more of the share of the domestic market to the agent's IP products, with IP as the boundary to circle different plots, and work with developers to earn money to achieve "common prosperity". For Tencent, as long as the IP is in hand, even if it encounters a developer who does not give strength, it only needs to change the general in time, and the user who only recognizes the IP will not run away.
However, what Tencent thought of, other big manufacturers also understand, and spare no effort in layout. For example, NetEase has a number of blockbuster IPs such as "EVE Star Wars Eve" and "The Lord of the Rings", which are good directions for adapting SLG, and Byte's Sunrise Lightyear also holds "Warhammer 40K" and other well-known IP.
It is foreseeable that the SLG war of the big manufacturers will only become more intense in the next few years, and the focus of the competition will also shift from simple traffic to the competition for well-known IP. This kind of competition actually reflects that the innovation and evolution of the SLG category itself has encountered a certain bottleneck, and when there is no way to change the gameplay qualitatively, manufacturers can only think of ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Finding IP is itself a means of reducing user acquisition costs. However, whether such a line of thinking can make the SLG category really evolve and let the big manufacturers really stabilize their own disk in the competition can only be decided by time.