Dian Dian Interactive's "Frozen City" was launched globally in the last few days of 2022, and its revenue in the first month has exceeded one million US dollars.
Judging from past experience, Dian Dian Interactive is better at doing "farm" simulation games overseas, typical of "Family Farm Adventure" launched in 21 years.
What kind of charm does "Frozen City" have as a new product on the simulation track? Compared with the "predecessors", what are the advantages and disadvantages? What about the specific data?
Today, DataEye Research Institute will talk about the situation of the new interactive product "Frozen City" VS the old product "Fifi's Adventure" in the United States.
One. Market performance
(1) Downloads
Overall, the key download areas of the two products are in North America and Europe, both of which exceed 60%. The main download markets for the two games are: the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Frozen City's U.S. downloads are far behind other markets. In contrast, the download market for Fifi Adventure is relatively balanced. It is worth mentioning that Thailand is the market with the highest number of downloads outside the United States and Germany.
(2) Income
Compared to "Fifi's Adventure", "Frozen City" is more gold-grabbing. The latter's first-month income is twice that of "Fifi Adventure".
The main contribution regions of the two games are North America and Europe. About 50%-60% of the revenue of both games comes from American players. In addition to the European and American markets, South Korea's revenue is also considerable.
(3) User portraits
The theme of the art style is one of the reasons for the obvious difference in user portraits. Young gamers prefer individuality, different from the "old theme". The new product "Frozen City" is new in the theme style, and even has a bit of a unique personality.
The main players of "Fifi Adventure" are middle-aged and elderly women, while "Frozen City" players are more middle-aged and young, and slightly more men - the difference between the two is huge.
Two. Buying side
(1) The amount of material delivery
In the first month of launch, the two games were moderately launched, in the range of 200-500 groups. Frozen City is about 1.5 times the size of Fifi's Adventure.
(2) Material creativity (Top20 efficient materials)
Eye-catching: The eye-catching points of the two games are the same, and the proportions are slightly different. 【Major events】Eye-catching points account for more than half. The first three seconds are often a "tense, critical" picture/scene [major event], triggering empathy.
This set of roads is consistent with the domestic "beautiful woman shivering in the cold in the broken house, move her fingers to help her" material routine.
However, on top of this, the game material also adds some small ideas, such as adding emoji, and directly packaging it into casual gameplay/sub-gameplay.
Typical Routine 1: Tense and critical scenes [Major events] → simple operation (tap/place) to resolve the crisis [lower the threshold + curious attempt]
△ "Frozen City" efficient material
△ "Frozen City" efficient material
Typical routine two: packaging into a casual game [lower the threshold]
△ "Frozen City" efficient material
The expression form of [major events] of "Fifi's Adventure" is more inclined to "major family events (somewhat ethical blood)", such as the heroine being abandoned by her husband, so that players have the sympathy of "helping her", and then connecting with in-game casual games to drain [lower the threshold].
Frozen City, on the other hand, prefers to use real-life in-game scenarios to show major events to attract players' attention, such as characters freezing in the game. It is implied that the player can solve the dilemma with a simple operation.
Conversion points: The two games mainly use players to try curious as conversion points (of course, casual games themselves are also lowering the threshold).
△ "Fifi Adventure" efficient material
△ "Frozen City" efficient material
(3) Material format
On the whole, the creative form of the material of the two games is also relatively single. The cost is low, and there is basically no dubbing mouth.
Frozen City is mostly based on casual gameplay, which is very intuitive, but it doesn't show all of the gameplay. This idea is the same as the "sub-gameplay" material.
"Fifi Adventure" will use a small number of UGC videos to increase the story and narrative of the game. (e.g. the footage in the image above)
(4) Delivery channels
Do not spread the amount, strive for precision. Both games have a single delivery channel.
Whether it is "Fifi Adventure", which was launched in 21, or "Frozen City", which was launched at the end of 22, more than 90% of the budget is spent on Meta's media.
Both games have very clear channels to target audiences. It seems that better distribution results were seen on "Fifi's Adventure", and after a year and a half, "Frozen City", the distribution strategy basically focused all of its budget on Meta's media.
Three. Game Watch
(1) The theme style is used as a difference and selling point
Due to the eye-catching elements of the material of "Frozen City", in the final analysis, the theme and painting style are "primed", and at the same time have great differences.
Therefore, we also need to briefly talk about its unique theme and art style in the product - of course, this is also one of the core selling points of the game.
Diandian's revenue Top10 games, simulation games accounted for 85%, similar to "Fifi Adventure" similar to the number of farm-style games are quite large. If you want to expand the analog market share by breaking the circle through the genre, Frozen City's post-apocalyptic survival theme is its first move.
What is the post-apocalypse style? Compared with the apocalyptic theme in a broad sense, the post-apocalypse book emphasizes the new world after the end of the world, emphasizes the new order and contradictions in this world, and reflects on civilization itself in the contrast between the old and new civilizations. This type of theme is also more in line with the appetite of young players now.
Post-apocalypse-style games have already had some success in the market, such as Fallout Shelter, a hit game under the same parent company Century Huatong Group as Frozen City.
What is the Low-poly style? Low-poly style is an art style with abstract expression and minimalism. Due to the loss of detail in the picture, the player's gaze will mainly focus on the composition of the picture, and the overall artistic conception of the picture can be felt more directly, and the player will be more immersed in the uniqueness of the experience brought by the game.
Day and night graphics in Frozen City
(2) Gameplay
Diandian already has a very mature set of "frameworks" for the simulation business track.
The general framework of narrative + operation of "Fifi Adventure" has also been borrowed by more and more competitors and has become commonplace. How to think?
The gameplay of "Frozen City" is mainly embodied in: place + build (simulation management) + RPG card fusion gameplay. (Some say fusion, some say stitching)
In the early stage of the game, by building and placing areas with different functions, accompanied by the interlocking supply and demand relationship between functions, to assemble and expand the player's survival territory, giving players the joy of simulating the management of the game.
In subsequent chapters, the game will unlock relatively simple and easy card combat gameplay, and "famous and surnamed" hero characters will not only be used as battle characters, but also stationed in functional buildings to provide buffs. Subsequent upgrades and cultivation are also mostly linked to the resources of simulated management gameplay, which virtually extends the cultivation goal of medium and long-term play.
From the player's point of view, the setup of this game is relatively easy, even if there is an RPG card game, the gameplay will not be too liver, and the gameplay is not single. And compared with the horizontal screen design of "Fifi Adventure" and "Fallout Shelter", the vertical screen design of "Frozen City" is more in line with the holding habits of current players, adding some real-life use scenarios.
To sum up, "Frozen City" has more diverse gameplay than "Fifi Adventure"; Compared to Fallout Shelter, the time mechanism is more friendly and weakens the mechanism of strong immersion.
Four. Summarize and think
(1) Market side
From the performance of market data, both downloads and revenue reflect the focus of the two business simulation games in the European and American markets. The theme art style determines the player's user portrait. The main players of the farm style gather in the middle and old age of women, and the main players of the post-survival apocalypse style are concentrated in male young and middle-aged players.
(2) Buying volume side
Material content and form: eye-catching, conversion and delivery forms are relatively single, mainly focusing on the game itself.
Delivery channels: use the overall game design framework that you are good at, familiar markets, and existing user portraits (similar products can share the audience information that has been positioned on the media delivery side), locate large channels, and capture paying people.
(3) The current situation and development direction of business simulation games
1. The purchase volume price is low, but the material differentiation needs to be done
Although most of the simulation business materials focus on the materials themselves, and the production is relatively simple, because there are many homogeneous materials on the market, doing a good job of theme and picture differentiation can also make players interested at a glance.
2. Research and development is relatively simple and fast, but quality should be guaranteed.
Simulation games can take advantage of game features and simple and effective art methods, so that the game can meet the player in less time. Compared with triple-A masterpieces or games that require a huge world view, simulation games have a faster recovery speed, which can reduce the cash flow pressure of manufacturers. However, at the same time, it is necessary to ensure the quality of the game, so as to carry out follow-up operations such as integrated gameplay and long-term operation.
3. Step by step, from shallow to deep, and achieve income increase through integrated gameplay.
Generally speaking, most simulation management games only have light gameplay, and the average payment amount of players is low, and it is difficult to increase the amount paid by players. Simulation games are a relatively slow process, one of the fun of such games is the process of "from small to large" slow development, many players once they skip this process will feel that they have lost the fun of the game and abandon the game, so simulation business is actually essentially a type of krypton gold "dog play" is also faulty. And "Frozen City" strengthens the stickiness with players by integrating the gameplay of RPG cards, the higher the level of the cards, the more benefits brought by actions such as going out to explore, work and so on, while integrating and strengthening the gameplay, players feel that the appearance of game characters makes the game more "lively", has a more emotional connection with the game, and increases game time and krypton gold desire.