Recently, a WeChat mini-game called "Sheep a Sheep" can be described as sweeping the circle of friends, and it is even more famous on the Weibo hot search list. Up to now, "Sheep a Sheep" has received nearly 700 million views on Weibo, and related videos on Douyin have also been played more than 60 million times. So the question is, why does such a small game become popular all over the Internet?
It is understood that "Sheep a Sheep" is an elimination game, which provides a variety of patterns of cards, players can move the cards to the lower slot after clicking, set three of the same patterns can be eliminated, the slot is full on behalf of the level failure, simply put, it is actually a multi-layer "continuous look". In fact, such gameplay has existed since the arcade era, such as "3tiles", Microsoft's "Mahjong Titans", and Activision's "Shanghai" are typical representatives of such games.
If "Sheep a Sheep" is just a simple "continuous look" game, it is obvious that it is impossible to be so popular in any case, and the reason why it can become a hit is undoubtedly the result of favorable time and place and joint promotion. But it must be admitted that the quality of "Sheep a Sheep" itself is online, the cartoon graphics, the magical soundtrack creates a relaxed game atmosphere, and the multiple continuous viewing of this gameplay can continue from arcade to the present, obviously because there is a large number of fans.
Even if you look at it or match-3 gameplay, you have also given birth to more successful blockbuster games than "Sheep and Sheep", such as "Everyday Love Elimination" and "Candy Crush Legend" and so on. The reason why this kind of gameplay is enduring is based on the positive feedback of immediacy, and the player can get a sense of pleasure every time he completes the elimination, rather than having to grow through the level or complete the value.
In fact, from the "Jump" to the "Synthetic Watermelon" to today's "Sheep a Sheep", it is also composed of simple gameplay, excellent instant feedback, high repeatability, and fission propagation to form an almost universal formula.
But it is not possible to directly apply a formula to build a blockbuster game, tianshi and people are also indispensable, and the most ingenious approach of the development team of "Sheep and Sheep" is to arrange an unconventional game difficulty curve. Usually match-3 games are gradually increasing from easy to difficult, but after the first level of "Sheep is a Sheep" without difficulty, the difficulty of the second level has suddenly increased exponentially, just like the previous lesson also taught binary one-time equations, and then immediately taught calculus.
The "routine" of "Sheep and a Sheep" is hidden here, because with the preparation of the first level, players generally have no expectations for the difficulty of the second level, resulting in the first few failures, they will think that there is a problem with their own strategy, which also ensures that a large number of players will not lose immediately. Then, with the continuous failure and frustration also continuing to accumulate, "Sheep a Sheep" also provided "off-site assistance", that is, watching advertisements to get resurrection opportunities and three kinds of props.
Finally, Sheep and Sheep also uses a geographical ranking strategy to allow players to gain the feeling of "I represent the glory of my hometown" in the process of continuous experimentation. At the same time, in terms of sociality, this game is also very creative, similar to the strongest king display, today's head sheep list sorted by the number of identity clearances, topic PK gameplay, customs clearance and dress up design, which greatly increases the player's enthusiasm for participation.
The development team of "A Sheep and a Sheep" can be said to be very successful in understanding the weaknesses of human nature. According to relevant statistics, the current probability of playing through this game is 1/5000, and such a design can almost be seen as not intending to let players pass the level at all. While most other games give the player a "pleasure", Sheep is "getting angry the more you play". According to the statistics of good people, according to the estimation of using 3 props in a round, playing 50 rounds will take about 75 minutes of advertising, and 100 rounds will reach 150 minutes.
Therefore, there is a view that the developers of "Sheep and Sheep" may themselves have "evil intentions" in order to interrupt the player's game experience and then sell advertisements. Some players said that when playing this game, there will be a feeling of visiting Pinduoduo, and "Sheep a Sheep" is the same as Pinduoduo, almost all the time prompting you to "slash a knife" or watch advertisements to get a chance to resurrect.
Yes, the time help of "Sheep is a Sheep" is also inextricably linked to advertising, and the reason why this game can go out of the circle in a short period of time may also be inseparable from Tencent's "cultivation". Nowadays, the identity of "Sheep a Sheep" is actually the same as the "Jump a Jump" selected when the official promotion of WeChat Mini Games, and it is a veritable "son of goose selection".
If you are a user of the video number, it is not difficult to find in the recent period that the proportion of advertisements about small games in the video number is rapidly rising, and there is obviously tencent's "invisible hand" behind this. For Tencent, its game business is not so ideal today. In the previous 3 edition number issuances, it is almost grainless, which also makes Tencent games still rely on old products to support, at this time, the small game that does not need the version number has obviously become a normal decision.
However, "A Sheep" can become a hit, which may not be a good thing for WeChat mini games. There is no payment, no in-app purchase, no implanted mini-games, the only way to make money is almost video advertising, and its core design concept is to prompt players to open ads.
Initially, the industry's gameplay was to see the user's viewing of ads as an alternative kryptonian behavior, and the sale was still the game experience. Unfortunately, the characteristics of small games are low threshold, short life, in order to make money, similar to the use of false red envelopes to trick users into clicking on advertisements began to appear in large quantities. This kind of direct deception of users was quickly hit by WeChat and quickly fell silent. Now "A Sheep a Sheep" represents a more novel idea, that is, deliberately creating BUGs. Although normally the rules of the game itself are self-consistent, this game is not.
Anyone who has tried this game hundreds of times will almost certainly encounter a situation where the level is clearly in front of you, but only an even number of cards are left to eliminate. The rule of this game is to find three cards with the same pattern to eliminate, at this time, even if you look at the advertisement ten thousand times, you can't pass the level.
Of course, even if the follow-up WeChat side blocks the rule loophole, it is also flawed. By increasing the difficulty to promote click advertising to be established, but also need the quality of the game itself is high enough, but the small game innate can not carry too deep content, so it is not difficult to rely on "Sheep a Sheep" to open a new situation of WeChat small games, but the difficulty is to carry out the game.