In 2021, "Cookie Man: Kingdom" is one of the most "phenomenal" mobile games in the global market, and is often compared to "Horse Racing Girl".
This is of course due to the game's excellent commercial performance – the number one annual download in South Korea, the high revenue in the European and American markets, and the seven-fold increase in the share price of the development company Devsisters.
On the other hand, the "cookie man" in the game broke through the game and became a popular cultural symbol both online and offline - it is easy to see the fanfic creation of "everything can be caked" on the Internet, and many celebrities, Internet celebrities and ordinary people are keen to "pie" their own image.
In this context, although the game did not have a national server at that time, "Cookie Man: Kingdom" still attracted a considerable number of domestic players - the initial account of the foreign server became a popular product of the same kind on the e-commerce platform, and the mobile game resource integration platform Qoo once became the "cookie man downloader" for domestic players, and there were also high-quality strategies and second creations.
Station B user @-raw pancakes-self-made "Spy Playing Home" linkage two creations
Nearly three years later, "Cookie Man: Kingdom" finally came to China. For loyal fans, it was a long wait, but the good news is that it all looks worth it — as the last imported game to launch this year, Cookie Man: Kingdom is probably the one that "localizes" the most.
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Some time ago, as the public beta of the national service approached, the frequency of biscuit people's appearances on social networks also increased.
According to expectations, those old players who already have a certain impression and feelings of Cookie Man should be the easiest followers to attract in the national server, but in fact, it is easy to find from social networks that "Chong Ya! Cookie Man: Kingdom" has attracted more newcomers who did not know the game before - relying on a few "big jobs" in the warm-up stage of the national server.
First, the biscuit man "broke into" the recently held "Special Exhibition of the Legend of Zhen Huan" and made a big fuss, bringing out the news that the national costume will be linked with "The Legend of Zhen Huan", so that everyone can imagine what the biscuit people look like in their mother's clothes.
It also announced several characters that will be launched in conjunction with the national biscuit Wangwang, showing the appearance of several snacks that everyone is familiar with as biscuit people.
You may recognize it - the new image of Little Crisp, Snow Cake, and Senbei
Gingerbread Man is a common Christmas specialty in the West, and it has a "festive" atmosphere in the eyes of the locals, which is one of the reasons why Biscuit Man: Kingdom has performed well in Europe and the United States as an Asian game.
But for Chinese players, even if they know this background, due to differences in customs, it is difficult to directly feel any festive atmosphere from the cookie man, and this is the ingenuity of the two linkages - whether it is the "Want Want Gift Package" that many families must have for the New Year, or the "Spring Festival holiday to revisit the legend of Zhen Huan" that is gradually becoming a new Xi, or even just the most basic red color, to a certain extent, the Chinese festivity of "New Year's Flavor" has been successfully grafted onto the biscuit man.
At the moment when the national costume was opened, the first original Chinese style biscuit "Jin Gui" was also added to the game - although I haven't tasted osmanthus flavored biscuits in reality, she can indeed make people feel that this is a character full of "Chinese elegance" just by her image.
These appropriately localized and customized content made the game accumulate a lot of popularity during the scheduled schedule, and quickly rushed to the first place on the iOS download list on the day of the launch of the server, and also ranked eighth on the best-selling list.
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In fact, until the game officially met everyone, most people never expected the game to reach such a volume - the domestic players of the previous game were mostly loose and small, and everyone generally encountered the experience of Amway everywhere but with little success.
Cookie Man: Kingdom is a product that is undeniably powerful, and it's easy to get people to ask, "What kind of game is this?" in just a few screens.
Bright and sweet art style, vivid characters, concise and healing dialogues - all this may be a little naïve for elementary school students, but it is just right for adults.
Your mind will go back to being 7 years old and be as happy as you were when you were 7 years old
Although the plot of the game seems simple and rustic at first glance, it connects various styles of stories through the main axis of "adventure in different cookie kingdoms", from "Western Gold Rush" to "Magic Academy", and the various characters appear with distinct personalities, and there are always moments that will make you laugh or bring a little touch.
Similarly, casual card play and placement management can easily attract newcomers - after all, who wouldn't want to build their own Cookie Man kingdom.
The game currently contains nearly 400 production buildings and decorations, many of which can be used to form interactive easter eggs with specific Cookie People, and there will also be some interactive dialogue between Cookie People to show the relationship between these residents from the side.
Each cookie man has a different look on his face when he works or is brought up
It's not hard to imagine that when you get a new piece of furniture and a new character, it's enough to spend a lot of time just by carrying different cookies around the people to try out any new interactions, or watching them make furniture and snacks.
Players who are keen on landscaping will of course have a higher goal - not only to cram as many decorations as possible into a limited space in order to get a higher landscape score, but also to organically integrate different styles of buildings into their own kingdom.
Xiaohongshu user @ bowl seven 77 works (picture source international service)
"Patchwork and layering" is just the basic challenge of this type of player, and the master has evolved to the realm of "land painting".
Other people's cookie people (Source: International Service)
But the game is fun and fun, in the absence of a national service, to recommend to the people around you to start from "where to get off the game", it is inevitable to dissuade you, and the lack of a centralized discussion environment has also greatly weakened the sociality of the game - this makes the domestic cookie players generally accept the reality that they are in an "unpopular" small circle.
Now that the national server is online, many old players are still worried that the game content that has been accumulated for three years has become a slight threshold for newcomers. But fortunately, the national server has made a lot of optimizations in the system, providing more convenient resource collection and building management tools, and the newcomers who have suffered from the old players finally don't have to suffer again.
After the game was launched, in response to the situation that the players who invested in the game reported "insufficient gold coins and physical strength, and card production progress", the national server also quickly followed up a series of welfare activities during the New Year's Day holiday, which improved the player's experience to a certain extent.
Coupled with the various local culture-specific collaborations mentioned earlier - if you want to experience this feeling of being valued, you really have to have your own server.
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In fact, there is no shortage of "good-looking idle games" on the market, and the success of Cookie Man also depends largely on the thriving player community.
It is obvious that the image of the cookie man is quite full of potential for second creation, and there is no disobedience when the visitors of various IP characters in the game are connected in series;
Overseas servers have been linked with Disney
These official crossovers also served as a good model for players to create their own fandom. Many players' self-made linkage "scones" animation, the quality is so high that it is almost difficult to distinguish the real from the fake, and after the linkage of the national costume "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was announced, some people soon drew the "cake" in their minds.
Station B user @ Qi Xiaoyu's love song self-made linkage debut animation
Such an open creative environment is also one of the reasons why the "localized cookies" of today's national service can be quickly implemented, and the "Legend of Zhen Huan" linkage cookies, which have not yet disclosed the specific character image, also invited players to jointly create the design of "Niangniang cookies".
Player design on Weibo
Another type of popular cookie man fandom is "reverse anthropomorphism" - that is, the original thin and flat cookie man is restored to the image of a normal human body.
Previously, one of the big hobbies of Cookie Man players was to forward all kinds of high-quality anthropomorphic pictures on the Internet, and then tell them with a smile when others asked: "His prototype is actually this cookie!"
The game's marzipan cookies and Weibo users @Bruce_Segal anthropomorphic images created for them
For example, the reason why the above "almond fruit biscuit" is a police detective image is believed to be because cyanide marked by "bitter almond flavor" is often used as a murder weapon in detective novels.
This time, the "Golden Cinnamon Biscuit" debuted, and it was naturally indispensable for domestic painters to draw anthropomorphic images for it for the first time, and to study and restore the details of the image costumes.
From Weibo @空枣咩咩咩咩
The arrival of the national costume has clearly injected new vitality into the domestic fandom community, and more importantly, this vitality is not limited to cyberspace.
On the occasion of this year's Double Day, "Biscuit Man: Kingdom" held a "Biscuit Man Theme Street" event on Yuyuan Road in Shanghai, and many biscuit people appeared on the whole street, adding a festive atmosphere to the street.
A corner of the street during the event
It's not just stickers and signboards that break the "dimensional wall", but a series of merchandise that comes with the game is also becoming popular - Cookie Man, as an avatar born from the real thing, looks like a good way to return to reality.
Lan Yingying, one of the actors of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", posted her "Cookie Man Conspicuous Bag" on Weibo
There are even players who come to play the game, to a certain extent, they are "gluttonous" on these physical peripherals - on the game's "Cookie Man Club" official applet, you can exchange all kinds of peripherals by binding the game and signing in points.
It may be an exaggeration to say "open up the situation", but in terms of a series of reactions before and after the launch of the server, the prospect of the community ecology of the national server of "Rush Ya! Cookie Man: Kingdom" can bring a lot of imagination - at least if there is an official linkage, I do want to taste the aroma and taste of the "Golden Cinnamon Cookies" described in the game.
epilogue
The national server is long overdue, which is of course a pity for "Rush to the Cookie Man: Kingdom" itself and players.
Many players' initial views on the national server were mostly "happy and afraid" - "happy" is of course because there are more convenient channels to play and it is easier to meet like-minded people, but they are afraid that the game may not be taken seriously in China and the operation will collapse. Previously, the attitude of many veteran players was actually close to "do a good job of basic localization, as long as you can get it", and did not demand too much.
Therefore, the promotion and linkage inside and outside the game can have such a battle, which is actually considered an "unexpected joy", which can make players feel the sincerity and intentions of the national service operation team. The game's good performance after its launch can indeed be called the "last dark horse in 2023", which to a certain extent represents the recognition of players for these localization attempts.
In the past year, "breaking the barrier between virtual and reality" to promote more offline activities and close face-to-face communication with players is becoming the direction of the joint efforts of the game industry.
"Cookie Man: Kingdom" became a good year-end footnote and a good start for itself.