Remember last year's popular mini-game "Sheep is a Sheep"? This WeChat mini game that makes the whole network hate it to the point of gritting its teeth is actually a total of two levels.
The game interface is simple, like a simple version of "Continuous Watch". The ease of the first level makes people feel that their IQ has been insulted, but the hellish difficulty of the second level makes people lose again and again, and they can't stop.
Let's just say, how difficult is it to get a sheep into the second level? To use an analogy: the first level teaches you pinyin, and the second level directly lets you go to graduate school. Even many netizens suspect that this game itself is a huge bug, right?
How can this "sheep" who is angry with the whole network make the whole network "go up"? The answer can be found in the book "Why Games Are Fun".
The author, Yahui Wang, is an independent game developer. As a hardcore gamer of core games for 20 years, he has been developing small games since high school with the familiar Nokia mobile phone. Later, during college, he went to the United States to study computer science, and later started a business and has been deeply engaged in the game industry.
This book "Why Games Are Fun" was compiled by him by combining years of notes and thinking. Through the analysis of classic game works from different eras, the details in the mechanism are analyzed in depth from the perspectives of space, time, props, and growth. If you want to understand why the game "Sheep is a Sheep" is so fascinating, you can find the answer in the book.
First, the limited spatial mechanism: achievements will disappear and mistakes will accumulate
The main fun of space mechanics is the limited space. In traditional space games, as long as the space is fully consumed, it means that the game is over (failure or success). Tetris is an almost textbook game that uses space mechanics.
The mini-game "Sheep is a Sheep" also makes full use of the mechanics of space: good achievements will disappear, and bad mistakes will accumulate.
The game starts by giving the player a nearly full-screen superimposed space, where the player needs to find three identical elements connected before they can be eliminated. Like most players have been exposed to Link, the mechanics of victory need to ensure that the elements in the space are as few as possible.
2. Free props: make players addicted
The props of "Sheep and Sheep" are very simple to use, but the functions are very powerful, and even many gods share how to refresh props infinitely online. In fact, in the book "Why Games Are Fun", the author proposed that the earliest generation of props is similar to backpacks in the real world.
Everyone has gone through the process of adjusting the contents of the backpack before going out, and for most people, there is never enough space in the backpack. Just like everyone complains about the "sheep are a sheep" card slot, the difficulty of this game is that the cards are stacked, and it is impossible to predict the pattern of the covered card. And there are only 7 empty slots in the card slot, even if 3 cards with the same pattern appear in the future, the clearance will fail due to the lack of position in the lower card slot.
In order to improve the experience of the game, "Sheep a Sheep" also has a certain error tolerance rate in terms of props. After watching the ad, players will be given a chance to revive and can also be removed, shuffled, or withdrawn by sharing the game to the group chat. However, it is still difficult to pass the second level.
3. Growth and substitution: I speak for the sheep in my hometown
In general, a good game allows players to see their progress in the game, and in simulated fighting games, the character controlled by the player can increase the experience value after each battle. At the same time, experience points also motivate players to continue fighting to a certain extent.
Growth and improvement are meant to be fun, but this fun is also a projection of real life. For the vast majority of people, playing games can meet the needs of "detachment from reality", and the most emphasized thing in life is your growth and improvement, to a certain extent, players enter the game to avoid being urged to grow behind.
Therefore, in video games, real fun should not be simple growth and improvement, but simple growth and improvement, and you can get great pleasure.
For example, in the company, although you work very hard to run the business every month, you may not be able to achieve the first place, even if you achieve the first place, there is no pleasure, at most add a little bonus. In the game, you can do better just by investing a little more time, and you can even crush the vast majority of competitors, which is far more enjoyable than the real world.
Game designers know the importance of this. If the player successfully passes the day's level, they can join the flock in your province.
The unique setting of this game is that it only has two levels a day, and it will be updated every day, the first level can be passed with everyone with their eyes closed, the second level is different, you ask grandpa to tell grandma may not be able to pass, but only players who pass the second level can be counted in the flock of the day, and when the day is past twelve o'clock you will be out of the flock again, and the next day's flock battle will begin again.
The setting of the flock gives everyone a sense of belonging. Your actual location is your flock, each region with the flock as a whole has a competitive relationship, every day the top sheep list is updated in real time, if you see your region on the list is a sense of pride! If you lag behind other areas, you will naturally roll up, and those who have not passed the pass continue to try to get through the level and join the flock as soon as possible, and those who have passed the pass and joined the flock can urge their friends around them to participate in the pass and add a fire to their identity.
Therefore, good game design is to enhance these experiences as much as possible, so that gamers feel that even if the game is difficult, they are still enthusiastic, because the difficulty does not make people give up, and the pleasure obtained is far greater than the difficulty itself.
I guess that's the beauty of gaming!