Text/Nanshan
In recent years, with the explosion of the "Paper Wedding Dress" series of games, the original niche theme of "Chinese horror" has also begun to receive more and more attention and love from players.
"Paper Wedding Dress 4" Reservation Stage Quite Outrageous Expectations Rating Source: TapTap & Good Game Boom
Under the catalyst of the "Paper Wedding Dress" series of explosive models, the strong suction ability of the "Chinese horror" theme has been verified, and due to the low research and development threshold of the "Paper Wedding Dress-Like" puzzle play framework, such products have quickly become the main direction of many small-scale research and development teams.
A phenomenon visible to the naked eye is that in the past two years, "Chinese horror" puzzle games such as TapTap and Haoyou Fast Explosion have emerged in an endless stream, showing a kind of blowout explosion posture.
However, due to the fact that most of the team's choices are "according to the gourd painting scoop", directly benchmarking "Paper Wedding Dress" to do new product research and development, which also leads to the homogenization of this type of game is more serious, and it is rare to come out with enough memories of high-quality new works.
Until recently, GameRes discovered a new "Chinese horror" product called "Love Coffin", although the game did not have too much innovation in gameplay, but its developer "Chengdu Secret Technology" reached a cooperation with the offline secret escape brand "Chengdu Live Immersive Theater", adding a large number of "live performances" to the game to play a role in connecting the plot and promoting the development of the story, "Love Coffin" was also defined by the main creative team as a "live-action interactive online escape game".
According to GameRes observation, there seems to be no other game on the market except for "Love Coffin", so is the underlying logic like "online secret escape" smooth? Is it possible that "Online Escape" will become a new direction of research and development that can be copied and further diverged in the future as a "Chinese horror" puzzle game?
Is "online secret escape" a "false proposition"?
Before talking about games, the first thing to clarify is that if you only look at the above description, "Love Coffin" may be intuitively classified by many people as "interactive movie games", but in fact, this is not the case.
In the strict sense of "interactive film game", interactive gameplay and plot branches are added to a film and television work, so that players can dominate the plot direction through subjectively conscious choices again and again, so as to better substitute for the characters and immerse themselves in the game.
For example, the most popular works in this field are mainly "Invisible Guardians", of course, there are also "At Dead Of Night", "Erica (ERICA)" and other horror "interactive movies" with good reputation.
At Dead Of Night – Steam's 94% Rating
However, the underlying logic of "Love Coffin" is not the same as that of "interactive film game", in "Love Coffin", only the plot part is the main creative team cooperating with "offline secret escape", through "borrowing" the staff of the secret room, the fragmented real-life shooting in the secret room site, on the contrary, in terms of gameplay design, "Love Coffin" still uses the most conventional set of point-and-touch puzzle solving, which also means that "live performance" and "gamification interpretation" are crossed.
Based on this, GameRes believes that "Love Coffin" is essentially a creative derivative of the category of "Chinese horror" puzzle games, or that it can also be understood as a "castrated" "pseudo-interactive video game".
Focusing on the "Love Coffin" product itself, after adding the "live performance" of the first-person perspective to promote the development of the plot, a more obvious point of strengthening in the experience is that the horror atmosphere is better created, and the overall sense of immersion is also more sufficient, which is a kind of feedback that the similar competitors "textured" plot is difficult to give players, which is undoubtedly a plus for a horror game.
But on the other hand, such an experience seems to be called a "double-edged sword" - because "Love Coffin" is not a "interactive movie game" in the true sense, in the course of the game, whenever a fragmented plot of live-action interpretation is over, it is followed by a slightly rough 2D puzzle gameplay link, and the more blunt and excessive sensory experience gap will instantly pull the player back to reality, and it is inevitable to feel an indescribable sense of separation.
In addition, because the main actors are not professional actors, the scenes and costumes of live-action shooting are also from the "offline secret escape", and the plot design is not brilliant, so there are many players who feel a little "embarrassed" when watching the plot, and under the superposition of multiple factors, the market heat and reputation of "Love Coffin" are indeed not as good as expected.
So does this mean that the "online secret escape" that "Love Coffin" took the lead in testing the water this time is a "false proposition"?
GameRes believes that not necessarily, first of all, with the strength of the inner volume of "Chinese horror puzzle solving" getting bigger and bigger, if the new product wants to break through smoothly, subdivision innovation is a necessary path, and each new direction is full of uncertainty in the testing stage, not to mention that the defects at this stage of the work actually have room for improvement and optimization; On the other hand, if you look at the cooperation method of "game manufacturer x offline secret escape" from a more macroscopic perspective, you can find that the underlying logic is smooth, and it may even give birth to a new online + offline integration industry chain.
Although some of the details of the experience are lacking, there are not many players who recognize "Love Coffin"
Can "online secret escape" lead to a large-scale two-way rush between "small teams" and "offline secret escape"?
Tracing back to the source, what are the core advantages of "online secret escape"?
In GameRes' view, one is that this type of model has significant differentiating characteristics in the field of "horror puzzles", and the other is that the development team can partially restore the fun of "interactive movie game" games at a very low cost.
As we all know, because the "interactive movie game" requires the whole process of real-life production, and also has extremely high requirements for many dimensions such as plot expression, personal quality of actors, and real-life interactive experience, the success of such games is often behind the extremely high development costs, and the general small and medium-sized game teams are completely unaffordable.
The development cost of the previous hit "Invisible Guardian" exceeded 10 million yuan
In contrast, the "online secret escape" mode of "Love Coffin" testing the water this time, in view of the fact that only part of the live shooting is needed to do the interspersed connection of the game plot, so as long as the main creative team can cooperate with the "offline secret escape" brand, it can directly solve the shooting location (ready-made offline secret escape scene), actors (can be played by the secret room NPCs), fu Hua Dao and other material cost problems, and even in the design of the game plot, it can also be polished together with the partners who are good at designing new plots and new secret rooms in exchanges.
In other words, from the perspective of the development team, the joint development model of "game manufacturer x offline secret escape" can separate the two core creative directions of "game content development" and "live-action story shooting" to a certain extent, and a large part of the cost of live-action shooting will be transferred to "offline secret escape", which is a preferred path for small-scale teams to meet the trial and error needs of innovative ideas and control costs.
The live-action plot of "Love Coffin"
In this regard, Du Kang, the project leader of "Love Coffin", also interviewed the reporter in the behind-the-scenes interview short film, "Why not consider shooting with a better scene?" When this question was asked, he smiled bitterly and said, "Because we don't have any money, hahaha." Working with the Chamber of Secrets is the most cost-effective way we can think of. Because they have venues, people, actors. ”
So from another point of view, from the perspective of the majority of "offline secret escape" brands, is it possible for them to generally recognize this cooperation model?
GameRes believes that the answer is yes.
Not long ago, a room escape industry report released by Ai Media Consulting pointed out: "Offline entertainment consumption has been affected by the epidemic, consumers have reduced the frequency of offline consumption, and industry merchants in Shanghai, Beijing and other places have chosen to close stores and stop losses, which has a greater impact on the industry as a whole." The market size of escape rooms in 2022 is expected to be 7.97 billion yuan, which is expected to drop by 21.2% year-on-year. ”
Source: 2022-2023 China Escape Room Industry Development and Consumption Insights Report
It can be seen that the current "offline secret escape" is in a rather depressed environment, how to get rid of the impact of the epidemic to survive this "cold winter", but also every "offline secret escape" is a problem that every "offline secret escape" is constantly thinking about.
For example, in the short film of the behind-the-scenes interview of "Love Coffin", Jiang Zhen, the owner of the "Chengdu Live Immersive Theater", once helplessly lamented their current predicament: there may not be a guest from morning to night, the rent can only be given to the landlord little by little like toothpaste, and even the employees' salaries are scored twice... All kinds of pressures like this hung over their heads until "Chengdu Secret Technology" found them.
"I think 'Love Coffin' is not only a game, it can give our secret room owner a glimmer of life." We also want to try more possibilities, to continue the added value of our theme, to make its life go further. Jiang Zhen and his wife said in the interview.
In fact, it is not difficult to imagine that Jiang Zhen's previous state is the epitome of the daily life of most of the current "offline escape" bosses, in such an environment, the joint game team to develop the "online secret escape" game seems to have become a fairly good profit-loss ratio of the direction of breaking the game.
After all, for the "offline escape", the manpower and venue resources they need to call do not actually require too much additional expenditure, on the contrary, once the game can achieve a certain degree of success, leaving aside the game turnover that does not know whether it exists (not verified), only considering the "joint cooperation" form of the feedback effect, it can provide a certain circle-breaking influence blessing for their secret room brand, and even bring more real traffic.
Some players have come to the public comment homepage of "Chengdu Live Immersive Theater" for "Love Coffin"
Based on this, it is not difficult to find that the joint development model such as "online secret escape", whether for the game team or the offline secret escape brand, is an exploration direction with a high wind report ratio and more advantages than disadvantages, which is precisely the basis of all reasonable business cooperation models.
In terms of outcome orientation, the game is successful, and naturally it is a win-win effective cooperation. In other words, even if it fails, it is actually only a risk-controllable project for both parties, which actually confirms the smooth logic of "online secret escape".
Although there is a support of the underlying logic, the incubation of the "online secret escape" explosion still needs more ingenuity and patience
As a pioneer of "online secret escape", the core significance of the release of "Love Coffin" is to provide a new direction worthy of attention and exploration for the increasingly inward-looking field of "Chinese horror".
However, it cannot be ignored that although the underlying logic of "online secret escape" is reliable enough, in order to incubate the subdivision of the explosion, it is still necessary to solve some of the problems in the experience exposed by "Love Coffin" this time, and use more ingenuity and patience to polish the quality of the game.
Among them, GameRes believes that the most important thing is the design of the plot, because this is the fate of the "Chinese horror" genre that can be recognized by the public.
For example, the shortcomings of "Love Coffin" are very obvious, and the plot at the beginning is cut with elements with strong Chinese horror colors such as "coffin array" and "red female ghost", which is quite fascinating. However, as the game deepens, it gradually evolves into a semi-sci-fi story involving "human body transformation", which also leads to the more fragmented tone of the plot.
The direction of the later game plot made me look confused
In contrast, the benchmark game of "Chinese horror", "Paper Wedding Dress", focuses on the highly recognizable folklore of "ghost bride" throughout the whole process, and continues to create an immersive Chinese horror atmosphere, while the plot design is always coupled with the theme of "paper wedding dress", laying the groundwork and divergence around the "poignant love story", so that the overall experience is not lacking both "scary points" and touching emotional resonance points.
It is also because of the outstanding game atmosphere and plot experience, the "Paper Wedding" series of games can stimulate the emotional resonance of players, the fire throughout the network, and even in the B station, there are UP masters who have systematically sorted out the plot of the three generations of "Paper Wedding Dress", aiming to help players better review and understand the plot, and also successfully gained a good heat.
In addition, is there a way to achieve a smoother transition when switching puzzle gameplay such as live-action plots? Whether you can further refer to the idea of "shadow game interaction", add some simple options to the plot, provide more derivative fun to players, etc., are worthy of in-depth consideration by the development team interested in "online secret escape".
As for hardware problems such as actor acting, scenes, and costumes, in GameRes' view, in fact, as long as the future game industry and the secret escape industry can recognize the logic of "online secret escape", I believe that the offline secret escape brand will naturally tilt more resources to solve such hardware problems, especially if it can attract mr. X, Yayoujima and other national head secret escape brands to enter the game.
In fact, I personally think that the acting skills of "Jia San" in "Love Coffin" are very good
In the context of the game industry entering the stock era, every idea is worthy of our attention and expectation, and we also hope to see the emergence of "online secret escape" boutiques in the future, which will inject vitality into the industry and help "offline secret rooms" survive the winter.
More boldly imagine, as long as there can be a few explosive models to trigger the industry's follow-up effect, in time, "online secret escape" may not only be a subdivision of the game industry, but also a derivative development direction of the "offline secret escape" industry, and finally form a new online + offline integration industry chain?