In 2022, WeChat Mini Games ushered in a new round of outbreak, especially IAP Mini Games The results are very bright. In the 2022 article, we mentioned that WeChat Mini Games has grown to a monthly purchase volume of more than 1 billion, the peak daily consumption of head products exceeds 2 million, and the monthly investment is stable above 10 million. On the one hand, such rapid growth is due to the optimization of the purchase volume and delivery link, and the large increase in Tencent's external investment volume, which is also directly related to the emergence of IAP explosive products.
So which games have good revenue in the WeChat mini game ecosystem? We can know this by looking at the best-selling list of mini games. Recently, a product called "Mad Knights" surpassed "King of Salted Fish" to the top of the WeChat mini game best-selling list, while the "Mad Knights" APP version has also been launched and steadily climbed on the iOS best-selling list. According to Guangshen Buying Company, the daily purchase consumption of "Mad Knights" has exceeded 10 million, and it is worth noting that as the head publishing company of WeChat mini games, Crazy Games (Beijing Haoteng Jiake) has directly swept the position of the top runner-up of the best-selling list of mini games. Let's take a look at what is different about this Mad Knights.
A light RPG game that is heavy on cultivation and light operation, and meets the needs of fragmentation
Mad Knights is a mild RPG game. The game takes the cultivation gameplay as the core, and provides players with rich cultivation goals through a variety of system designs, such as character values, equipment, mounts, pets and other elements. After cultivation, the scene that needs to verify the results has various PVE and PVP gameplay. Of course, all the combat gameplay is an automatic, fast battle mode that doesn't take much time.
Specifically, the following figure is the main interface of "Mad Knights", the upper part of the screen includes the character's equipment, pets, mounts and character attributes, and the lower part is the core treasure chest and various peripheral gameplay.
In Mad Knights, the content that accounts for the vast majority of game time is the development system, especially the opening of treasure chests. Chests can start with equipment of various qualities, and after wearing them, you can improve your character's attributes. Unused equipment can be broken down in exchange for gold and experience, and gold can be used to level up the chest system to increase the probability of high-quality equipment. Experience is to increase the level of the entire account/character, and after leveling up, you can get higher level equipment.
In addition to the equipment system, the game also has wings, mounts, and pet systems, which provide various numerical bonuses, and pets can participate in battles to increase the chance of winning battles.
It's worth saying a few more words about gem systems. In RPGs, gems are mostly simple and crude enhancements, upgrades, and settings, but Mad Knights takes a more flattering approach. The figure below is the gem system of the game, and the gem purchase will not be much to say, the focus is on drawings and setting.
There are a variety of drawings in the game, each with different properties for their color.
The tessellation is also very interesting, the game provides 5×5 grids, and the player needs to make the most of all the grids. As mentioned above, the corresponding value bonus of each drawing is different, and players also need to change and match according to the gems they set. Three gemstones of the same grade can be combined into a more advanced one, and it seems that the shape of the higher grade gemstone is relatively neat and easier to place.
Verification is naturally required after cultivation, and there are also PVE and PVP gameplay in the game.
In terms of PVE, adventure and quests are the main ones, and you can get a large number of chests and diamond rewards. In the territory conquest gameplay, you can also get diamonds, territory upgrade materials, and territory workers.
In terms of PVP, it is mainly about arenas and peak arenas. Arena battles increase rankings and claim daily and weekly ranking rewards. The Pinnacle Arena has not yet been experienced.
Gear-oriented &-build matching, from numerical values to strategy and luck
If that's all, then Mad Knights is just a regular mild PRG game, and there's nothing too new. But as the level increased, after obtaining high-level equipment, I gradually discovered some clues. After leveling up, you can gradually start high-quality equipment, which in addition to basic attributes, also comes with various special effects, such as x% probability of attacking again, x% probability of stunning, x% probability of counterattack, x% probability of sucking blood, etc.
The addition of this attribute will directly change the combat gameplay of the game. Why do you say that? The battle mode of Mad Knights is fully automatic, that is, the two sides take turns attacking based on the speed attribute. Without these attack effects, the game would be a pure numerical gameplay. But the addition of these special effects will make a lot of variables appear in the round attack. For example, after vertigo, you cannot attack this turn, and attacking again equals one more round. The emergence of these variables makes the game no longer a numerical competition, but adds some strategy or luck.
And the game also designed some convenient cultivation for this combat gameplay. When the character reaches level 20, the function of automatically opening the treasure chest will begin, and the player can choose the filter conditions independently, and the equipment that does not meet the conditions will be automatically decomposed. In addition to quality filtering, filtering by effect is also available. Players can automatically filter the right equipment according to the equipment effects they want, or the build they want to build.
A special feature of this type of product is that the player's "production ratio" is very good, and players can easily obtain resources and equipment to continuously improve themselves. At the same time, it reduces frustration in terms of combat and also gives players the opportunity to challenge the impossible.
Let's start with the "production ratio". In the regular game flow, you need to go through adventure/battle to get equipment and prop rewards, but Mad Knights eliminates the battle link and directly allows players to obtain rewards. This "unearned gain" design, although it abandons the game experience of the combat link, can lower the threshold for getting started in the game, and at the same time greatly reduce the requirements for online time, and also make "cultivation" truly become the core gameplay of the game.
In terms of combat, I don't know if you remember a game "Brawl Hall" from 10 years ago. The artistic quality of the game is not very good in those days. However, in this game, players can freely match skills, including dodge, stun, critical hit, counterattack and a large number of interesting skill effects (over time, there may be memory bias). This skill effect with probability will make the battle situation more confusing, and maybe even the appearance of one or two special effects can reverse the outcome of the entire battle.
And the battle of "Mad Knights" is similar. When numerical values are not the only winners, strategy and luck factors can affect the battle. Then players can change their equipment before the battle and match the equipment special effects to make them in a more advantageous position in the battle. Such a "fight" strategy can even challenge more advanced opponents by leapfrogging/fighting power. Achieve the effect of "no shame if you lose, win 666".
Similarly, even if you lose in battle, the player's frustration will not be too strong. When battles have an element of strategy and luck, even defeats are not entirely due to numerical differences. Maybe if you study your opponent's routines and change your equipment, you may be able to outperform your opponents.
Quick to get started, short time, weak frustration, excellent products that meet the needs of mini game users
In fact, this is not the first time that the gameplay of "Mad Knights" has appeared, and there have been products such as "Chests and Warriors" and "Treasure Chest Adventures" ("Endless Adventures") that use similar design ideas.
"Mad Knights" is further simplified on the basis of "predecessors", the game only retains the adventure and the copy of the two fixed PVE content, and even the copy also adds a sweep function, eliminating the process of obtaining treasure chests/rewards, and directly putting the refreshing feeling of opening the box in front, allowing players to quickly feel the fun of the game. Such a heavy cultivation, light operation game design, may not be suitable for medium and heavy players, after all, in heavy games, play/combat is also an important part of the game. However, for users in the mini game ecosystem, eliminating the battle link, feeling refreshed in front, and focusing on cultivating gameplay are all effective in lowering the threshold for getting started, shortening the game duration, and making it more suitable for users' fragmented game needs.
Whether you're new to RPGs for the first time, or you're familiar with RPGs but don't have enough time, you can get a great gaming experience in Mad Knights. The "get it for free" way to improve gear, the battle mode with a weak sense of frustration and a strategy and luck component, and the point-and-play mini-game feature all set the stage for the success of Mad Knights.
In particular, WeChat Mini Games support PC operation, and Mini Games have become a must-have for "home travel, fish and paddling". Since last year, Crazy Games has gradually ported successful mini games to the APP for release, such as "Pirates Are Coming", "Fat Goose Gym", "King of Salted Fish", etc., under the accumulation of this continuous successful experience, we believe that "Mad Knights" will also become a hit on the APP side.