Last week, the post-apocalyptic survival mobile game "Dawn Awakening: Life" developed by Tencent Photon Studio Group was officially launched, reaching 10 million registrations in only 4 days, dominating the top 1 of the AppStore free list for three consecutive days, and still occupying the top of the role-playing game list at the time of writing.
Judging from the tens of millions of pre-orders before the launch and the continuous hegemony after the launch, the launch of "Dawn Awakening: Life" is definitely a carnival. Not only are veteran game anchors such as PDD and Da Sima stationed in this world of apocalyptic crisis, but on the side of Station B, well-known top 100 anchors specializing in various types of survival games are also addicted to the world exploration of the game and building their own hiding places in the doomsday meal and drink.
To be honest, the popularity is still somewhat unexpected for this type of game.
Prior to this, the entire open-world survival mobile game has been very solidified, and "Dawn Awakening: Life" is bound to make waves in this track that has been quiet for a long time.
The Photon Studios group was clearly aware of this situation, and they took the lead in summarizing the game, proposing the concept of SOC (i.e. "open world survival building"), and building Dawn Awakening: Life under this concept. "Dawn Awakening: Life" can attract such attention as a new entrant, which can be said to solve many of the previous pain points of such products to a certain extent, and break some of the barriers set by precedents.
As for what exactly they did, we need to take a closer look at it.
The "water and soil disobedience" of the end tour to mobile game
The original category of open-world survival games was born by combining the two gameplay concepts of "survival building" and "main perspective shooting". The hardcore survival system in the game made the eyes of players at that time shine; The competition for materials for survival also indirectly promotes the PK behavior of players, making the content of the game more fulfilling.
At that time, similar early works such as "Seven Days of Killing" and "The Land of Decay", which were still very rough at that time, had already proved the "genius" of this idea with phenomenal results.
However, the overly niche content and lack of polished game quality still leave a lot of room for improvement in this idea. As a result, in the following years, a number of foreign manufacturers have continuously iterated on such gameplay, and formed their own characteristics in survival, PVP, cooperation, construction, etc., so that the form of the product tends to mature.
Naturally, the idea of putting a similar game on a mobile phone came into being.
Similar to all cases of mobile games transforming into mobile games, copying is inevitably undesirable, and adaptive changes are imperative. For now, the changes to such games have not taken shape, and the existing product form still has obvious problems.
The first is the performance and technical problems caused by the mobile phone platform itself. Due to the rapid improvement of PC performance in recent years and the continuous evolution of end-game graphics, mobile games have a certain degree of "no advance or retreat" in comparison. On the other hand, the small size of the mobile phone also makes the sound and picture effect of the game destined to be unable to match the end game. For the doomsday theme that pays attention to atmosphere creation, the inherent shortcomings of the above two points will cause a serious lack of overall effect, which is easy to disappoint players' expectations, thus ruining the reputation.
The play environment of the end game is destined to have an inherent atmosphere advantage
Another aspect of the problem stems from the habits of mobile gamers. Content with a slight element of horror will naturally make some players feel excluded, and the theme of surviving in difficult conditions will also limit the audience.
At the same time, the transition of the pre-mid-term experience of survival games is a little stiff for the long-term operating model. Players who love survival games have such a consensus, the middle and late content tests the quality of a survival game, when players no longer worry about the "survival" in the game, the subsequent game content determines the vitality and playability of the game. For survival mobile games at this stage, the shortcomings in this regard are obvious.
The veteran survival game "Starve" no longer has the excitement of the novice period at this stage
In short, "crossing the river by feeling the stones" may be the biggest problem facing survival mobile games on the market at this stage. Problems arise one after another, but sometimes the production team is at a loss, many problems are unpredictable, and naturally there is a lack of mature solutions, and the player's experience and word of mouth are not optimistic.
Fortunately, we can now see from the finished quality of "Dawn Awakening: Life" that Photon Studio Group has a deep understanding and further optimization of the above pain points.
Technical strength to treat technical problems
In response to the problem of insufficient immersion experience in the game, Photon gave the answer that the problem of technology should be solved with the strength of technology. After years of precipitation, it can be seen from "Dawn Awakening: Life" that Photon is more comfortable with the use of the UNREAL engine, and it can be seen that they give the final answer of "real".
Dawn Awakens: Life creates an open world with changing environments. Not only does the world have a variety of complex topography, but these unique areas also interact with changing weather conditions to present different appearances.
Under such requirements, photons have optimized the underlying elements of the game screen from the surface material, lighting, reflection and other aspects of the object.
In the finished game, we can see that most of the materials used in Dawn Awakening: Life have been modified by PBR (physically based rendering) to make it easier for objects to reflect the particular texture of their surfaces. Rough sand, textured wooden floors, smooth car paint, etc., can all show their own texture in the virtual world.
In terms of lighting, Photon adopts a split global illumination system for the game, and highlights the volume of light in the air in a specific environment, the application of the Tyndall effect renders a humid and warm environment, and the application of halo gives the impression of light penetrating the screen. Let the picture truly serve the actual experience.
Under the premise of these technical strengths, the use of photons on them is also worth mentioning. As mentioned earlier, Dawn Awakens: Life creates an open world with multiple terrains and a complex weather system, which is not only a stage set for the game, but also a part of providing players with a variety of game experiences.
The game sets four categories of physical, mental, hygienic, and metabolic survival indicators for the player character, a total of 12 survival indicators, and the environment will change these indicators one by one with reference to reality. For example, in environments such as rainy weather, the player's hygiene will become worse, too extreme weather will affect the character's mental state, and the player needs to rely on facilities such as bonfires to achieve psychological "healing effects".
At the same time, these extreme weather will be linked with the in-game physics rules to create more possibilities. For example, lightning striking trees can cause fires, rusty rain will cause players and vehicles to quickly deteriorate, etc. Players need to stay away from dangerous environments such as humidity, cold, and night as much as possible, just like the real "wilderness survival".
In the end, the immersive experience created by Dawn Awakening: Life proves that the direction of "real" is very relevant, and they really did it, which in itself has completed a big challenge.
The adequacy content resolution experience declines
However, for a multiplayer mobile game, it is not enough to upgrade the environment. In the middle and late stages of the game, the pressure that the environment and other factors can bring to the player gradually decreases, the original fun of the game will gradually be lost, so that the player feels that the game "tastes", if the connection of the transformation of the game content is not done well, the decline of players' interest in the game is inevitable.
In this regard, the answer given by Dawn Awakening: Life is to perceive the player's needs in advance, fill in the gaps with content suitable for their tastes, and then actively guide the player through the transformation of the gameplay, so that the transformation of the experience tends to be smooth and natural.
For the early stage of the game, the novelty of survival gameplay is almost the only thing that players are interested in, so this part of the gameplay revolves around survival throughout the game. The game sets up a very detailed interpretation of survival gameplay, guiding players to recognize and understand various survival indicators one by one, and presenting the game experience that players need the most with the heaviest pen and ink like tickling.
Then, as the game enters the middle of the game, even if the survival element still occupies a large part of the game at this time, the pressure of the environment becomes more and more difficult to affect the player's normal play, and the player needs to find a new theme.
At this time, the higher secrets of "Dawn Awakening: Life" are opened, and the diverse gameplay carried by the game is all placed in front of the player's eyes.
First of all, the open world in the game is not just an "open world", which has buried more than 2,000 Easter eggs; various treasure chests and other collection elements; Side quests that tell side stories. Not only that, but the game is full of story fragments that introduce the story and world of the game, and the more you collect, the more players learn about the past in the game world. It fully satisfies the appetite of explorer players such as collectors and plot controllers.
In addition to exploration, the building element is also an essential part of this type of game. The game Fallout 4, also set in the apocalyptic world, has been well received for its addition of a highly free construction system compared to its predecessor Fallout 3, and Dawn Awakening: Life is no exception. The game first guarantees the freedom of construction, players can customize the smallest unit accurate to each wall and floor, according to their own preferences to design the whole house type, decoration, interior. At the same time, the large buildable area beyond competitors in the same category makes the construction gameplay in "Dawn Awakening: Life" contain more possibilities.
A homemade hut that players share in the community
In addition to the above two gameplays, the game also refers to traditional RPG gameplay and moves into traditional gameplay such as quests and PVP, giving players more choices. It also brings the secret to lowering the threshold of the game and bringing "Dawn Awakening: Life" to the masses.
In many film and television works with similar themes, whether the characters in the apocalyptic drama can overcome the hardships of the environment is on the one hand, and on the other hand, being able to have a few trusted friends is also a key part of living here.
Perhaps inspired by similar works, Dawn Awakens: Life does not directly lower the difficulty of the game, but instead puts the task of lowering the threshold into the hands of the player community. The in-game close-range shouting function allows players to communicate with each other not only in words, bringing more chance encounters to the game. At the same time, the game also encourages players to help each other survive and rely on each other through cooperative gameplay such as quests, thereby promoting the formation of a sticky social foundation.
Under the combination of these changes, "Dawn Awakens: Life" presents players with a world of perpetual fun, friends, and life, filling the gaps in the game with sufficient game content, and avoiding the experience transformation that disappoints players in other similar products.
epilogue
For Dawn Awakening: Life, missing the hottest moment of previous survival mobile games may not be a bad thing. It is also wise to be able to dive in, further correct and polish the many shortcomings in such games, and make a good impression of the final product as soon as it is launched, and strive to be later.