2022 can be described as the year of indie game immortal fights, with the high-quality action game "Master" promoting Chinese kung fu; There is "Fox Erda", which explores well and implements a weak guide design; There is "Lost" with excellent picture quality and self-contained traffic; There is also the return of the classic old work, the originator of the click puzzle game "Monkey Island". Among the competitors, "Neon White" can be said to be the most inconspicuous work in the publicity stage, but it is also the most unique work I have experienced.
One of the features of "Neon White" is to add card elements to the mechanics of traditional platforming shooting games, by picking up cards in the map, players can get the corresponding weapons, and after each weapon card is discarded, players will also get a parkour ability, such as pistol can jump in two, sniper rifle can dash and so on. What is normally difficult to achieve in Apex can be easily achieved in this game (laughs).
However, despite the excellent performance of the characters in the game, the game is still not lacking in challenges. With more and more abilities in the later stage, the level design becomes more and more complex, and sometimes a simple gun change action, players can be able to marvel at their extreme on-the-spot reaction afterwards. At this time, even if the game does not require players to reach the ace standard to clear the level, players will spontaneously want to challenge their limits, and this is another important feature of the game - "speed run".
In the game industry, the "speedrun" culture has always been very popular, no matter what the game, there are many fierce people under it who want to challenge the name of "fastest legend". However, there are also two types of speedruns, one is technical flow speedrun, such as the hunting race of "Monster Hunter", and the other is the "evil way" speedrun, such as Akan's "Predation" and "Dishonored" series. Although "Neon White" has both involved, if you weigh the proportions, the latter should be more core content.
When the player first arrives in heaven and stands on the runway to challenge the level for the first time, the player may follow the rules and follow the most basic way of breaking the game, but as the records set by the production team are broken one by one, the game will give the player shortcut hints in the map, through which the player can take his speed to the next level.
It is precisely for this reason that every time I see the Neon White Ranking, what comes to mind is not racing pictures such as racing cars, but the grass scene of "Polygon Bridge".
But Neon Rider's speedrun design is much more than that, as the player progresses, sometimes even if the player has not yet been prompted, he can rely on his own experience to discover the shortcut design in the level, and sometimes the player can even find the path beyond the hint, thanks to the game's excellent map and user-friendly design.
Neon Rider's map design is very simple and well guided, allowing players to judge the direction of their journey by almost everything in the game, sometimes buildings, sometimes enemies, and sometimes cards scattered on the ground. The game almost abandons all unnecessary design and focuses on the core of platform jumping shooting, thus creating a parkour playground that looks simple but is actually complex.
In order to help players explore the many possibilities in the map at a deeper level, the production team added many elements to attract players to explore the map repeatedly. For example, players will get shortcut tips when they break the gold record, and they can see the afterimage of themselves when they clear the level when they break the silver record. Even if the player doesn't do well the first time and only gets the lowest bronze medal, it doesn't matter, because the game also has an interaction design similar to the favorability of GALGAME. Through hidden gifts found in the level, players can unlock NPC dialogue, obtain collectible items, and unlock side quests that are different from the main experience. So if players want to experience more content, they need to use faster speed to unlock layers of restrictions in the level.
On the issue of the placement of hidden content, the production team has also carefully designed, which fully absorbs the design concept of "Neon White" with simple and clear guidelines, but hidden mystery behind it. Whether it's the tone, the bright aperture, or the building where it stops, and the plants that guide it, players can easily understand the intentions of the production team. But beyond the intent, how the player completes the goal is to test the player's ability to understand the map and cards. So you will find that even with this rich element design, it still does not depart from the core gameplay of the game based on "evil path" speedrun.
In addition, as a fast-paced game that requires players to try and try repeatedly, failure during the gameplay is inevitable, and in order to reduce player frustration, the game also designed some inconspicuous details to help players regain their strength at low times. resemble
The parkour part that does not land continuously will give the player a landing point to help the player judge the direction; If players have difficulty reaching gold, they can also accumulate insight by trying levels multiple times to unlock shortcut tips, and players will be given cards in the game to prevent cards.
But these are not the parts that impressed me the most, the most vivid reflection of the game's user-friendly design is the one-click restart function.
As a game that focuses on "speedrun gameplay", the experience is undoubtedly fragmented and fast-paced, so when the player fails at a certain point, the game should also improve the efficiency of the player's quick restart, and Neon White Guest does a great job in this regard. During the level-breaking process, players can instantly return to the interface where the level starts by pressing the F button at any moment, while only a space bar is required to enter the game from the interface where the level begins. NO LOADING SCREEN, NO PROGRESS BAR, NO LOADING..., IT ONLY TAKES LESS THAN A SECOND FOR THE PLAYER TO START FROM FAILURE TO RESTART, AND EVEN BEFORE THE FRUSTRATION IN THE HEART CAN OCCUR, THE MUSIC OF THE BATTLE HAS ALREADY PUSHED THE PLAYER TO A NEW ROUND OF CHALLENGES.
However, this design is also a bit problematic, for example, when I play APEX, the button to change the gun is changed to F, So...
Just kidding, in my opinion, the real problem with the game is actually the NPC's dialogue design, which is a little too severed from the main narrative, and the small theater that is biased towards daily life is honestly not very appealing to me, which actually arouses my desire to collect gifts more than the side quests of the three NPCs with their own different styles.
Therefore, if the production team can optimize this part of the content so that it can maintain a relatively stable positive cycle, the experience of the game will be taken to another level. HOWEVER, FOR PLAYERS WHO LIKE GALGAME, MAYBE THIS TYPE OF CONTENT IS MORE POPULAR WITH THEM.
So that's all, soon the Spring Festival, I wish everyone a happy new year, all the best, we will see you in the next issue.