The theme of Xianxia has always been the most frequent label in early domestic games. Xianxia-themed RPG games with oriental mythological background and strong Chinese culture have almost run through the history of Chinese game development in the 20th century. At that time, "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", "Xuanyuan Sword" and "Swordsman Love" came one after another, contracting the dazzling golden age of Xianxia games, and was called "Domestic Three Swords" by players.
The "Ancient Sword Legend" series, which was released between 2010 and 2019, did not have a chance with the most glorious era of Xianxia games, but because of its extraordinary quality, it once became a symbol of the revival of Xianxia games, replacing the position of the stand-alone version of "Sword Hero Love", and was called one of the "new three swords in China" by players.
In addition to the gameplay, what makes "Ancient Sword and Strange Tales" more famous is its excellent narrative level and flesh-and-blood character creation. After being adapted into a TV series of the same name in 2014, the joys and sorrows shown in the story, as well as the hatred of the country and the family, have been recognized in a larger circle. So far, the TV series version of "The Legend of the Ancient Sword" has been played more than 10 billion times online, becoming the memory of many people's youth.
It's a pity to say that today's Xianxia games are difficult to make waves again. With the advent of the mobile era, the rise of the new generation of players, the wave of Japanese two-dimensional games has swept the world, and domestic games are transforming. As more and more domestic manufacturers enter the two-dimensional track, two-dimensional games are inevitably becoming homogeneous.
And "Baijing Corridor", which carries the legacy of "The Legend of the Ancient Sword", may be able to change this dilemma to a certain extent.
The story of "The White Thorn Corridor" takes place at the intersection of the multiverse, where all kinds of visitors from other worlds gather. As a result, players will be able to meet the characters of the ancient sword in the game, but the game itself is no longer a costume fairy theme, but a near-future urban fantasy style.
Although it is not a fairy theme, the world view setting and content expression of "White Thorn Corridor" all point to the appearance in the memory of Chinese. It is sometimes the utensils, costumes and poems that appear in the scene, and sometimes the folk instruments and folk crosstalk that appear in the background music.
For example, the characters "Mao Mao" and "Rong Rong", dressed in traditional Chinese costumes, run a teahouse on weekdays, and their job is to perform acrobatics and cross talk in the teahouse. And the character theme song created for them by the game is also a "plush welcome song" that integrates traditional instruments such as tambourine, flute, and xiao.
A very cheerful and unique Chinese song
In addition to Chinese elements, in my opinion, the most distinctive core of the national style of "Baijing Corridor" is the imagination of the whole game of "Chinese-style rivers and lakes".
In the game, the "Hailin City" has a typical traditional Chinese style block under many modern high-rise buildings, forming a Chinese punk style, while the lower block is full of unique customs and customs, and a large number of approachable life performances are staged every day.
Players can save the world in the game, and they can also walk, drink tea, and barbecue with the game characters in the snack street in addition to "work".
This kind of in-depth excavation and reinterpretation of humanistic content is very simple in the mouth of producer JUJU: "You can really see a lot of things that you see in life in the game. But it really detached "The White Thorn Corridor" from the repeated stacking of national style elements.
Under this river and lake, the character shaping of "Baijing Corridor" no longer only focuses on exquisite vertical paintings, but truly implements the logical and self-consistent setting and multi-angle humanistic information display, and many characters seem to shape and grow themselves in the game society.
For example, "Mo Red Sleeves" from "Ancient Sword and Strange Tan Online Version", she has a hot-blooded and resolute personality, a heroic appearance, and wears a red and yellow costume and a plush headdress in the game. In fanart, players often associate her with lions, tigers, and peppers.
In "The Corridor of White Thorns", Mo Hongsleeve's art design and humanistic shaping directly incorporate elements such as lion dance, martial arts, and chili peppers.
On the basis of maintaining the original sassy style, Mo Hongsleeve in "Baijing Corridor" has become a multi-faceted girl who likes traditional culture, usually likes to practice her fists and feet, and loves spicy food. More importantly, this multi-faceted detail shaping not only integrates into the game and serves the characters, but also provides the possibility for the game to be extended offline.
On December 22, at the "Baijing Corridor" theme industry exchange meeting, the game just announced that it would link with the intangible cultural heritage of Foshan Nanhai Lion Dance. A few days later, to the sound of gongs and drums, "Mo Hongsleeve" brought the lion dance performance to the Guangzhou "Firefly" carnival.
The event was well received among players, and for three days, the booth of "The Corridor of Thorns" was almost completely surrounded. The audience was also keen to share this novel scene with their relatives and friends, which made the topic of "Baijing Corridor and Lion Dancing Linkage" get unprecedented discussion on Weibo.
For players, they may not be able to have a deep understanding of traditional culture through a performance, but games can be a way for them to go from unfamiliar to familiar, and from familiar to identify with traditional culture. At the same time, traditional culture can also innovate itself with the help of game content to achieve younger expression. From this point of view, the lion dance is just a starting point
At this point, players should have a grasp of the overall appearance of "Baijing Corridor", which is neither a simple return to tradition nor a complete departure from modernity, but a more self-consistent, more diverse, and more life-oriented way to convey their understanding of Chinese culture.
On the 12th of this month, "White Thorn Corridor" will be open beta on all platforms, when players will be able to enter the game to find out for themselves, and before that, we also interviewed producer JUJU on some issues that players are concerned about. The following is the text of the interview:
Q: Did you encounter any difficulties in recreating the characters of "The Legend of the Ancient Sword" in "The Corridor of White Thorns"?
JUJU: The difficulty lies in grasping the core of the character, so first of all, our team will have a dedicated IP team to review all the settings, so that the characters can maintain a stable framework in the new identity settings and story backgrounds. At first, we also had some worries about the storytelling, for fear that players would not recognize our use of the characters of "Ancient Sword and Strange Tales". But in fact, in the test, it can be seen that the player's recognition of this aspect is quite high.
Second, many people in the team of "Baijing Corridor" have also participated in the development of the stand-alone series or online version of "Ancient Sword and Strange Story". Therefore, although there are certain difficulties in stylistic leapfrogging, we are relatively confident that we can interpret these characters well in the new story.
Q: So did the previous experience in developing the "Legend of the Ancient Sword" series help in the development of "The Corridor of the White Thorn"?
JUJU: Yes, but it's actually quite difficult, because the types are too far apart. But in fact, for content creation, every team, and even everyone will be good at it, which is also applicable to the development team of "Baijing Corridor": some students like classical culture, and have a high degree of mastery of myths and legends, ancient allusions, and they are better at doing traditional cultural plot structures;
Q: Back to the game "Baijing Corridor", what do you think reflects its national style in addition to the difference in painting style?
JUJU: Actually, I don't think the painting style of "Baijing Corridor" is biased towards the national style, and it is not a traditional two-dimensional style. This is a difficult question to define, because the world is not only Japanese, but also the national style. We used NPR+PBR rendering in the selection of technical solutions, and it finally created the current painting style through technical implementation solutions, not that we have to lean in a certain direction.
However, there are really a lot of things in "Baijing Corridor" that you can see in life, and we have incorporated a lot of elements close to life scenes when we do content and narrative, as well as depictions of customs and customs. You will obviously feel that it is familiar, common, and even resonant with our Chinese growth and life. Therefore, the national style here is more of a reflection of the cultural core, aesthetics and spiritual temperament in the game.
Q: In the previous tests, we saw that some players reported that "Candledragon can't make mobile games and online games", but just made a stand-alone machine and stuffed it into long-term operations, what do you think about this statement?
JUJU: Haha, I think it's kind of an acknowledgment of our content. First of all, our team has indeed inherited some of the professional Xi habits of doing terminal games in the past, and we will Xi used to digging deeper into the content and gameplay. Our team also has a mandatory requirement that all members have experienced our game in depth, so we don't tend to make numerical games with highly repetitive content and simple expanding stats. I think that to launch a new product, we can either continue to release some new things to players in terms of content storytelling, or provide some new experiences in terms of gameplay.
Q: In the first few tests, did any players react beyond your expectations?
JUJU: That's a lot. Whether it's in terms of the previously mentioned narrative plot, or in terms of gameplay. "White Thorn Corridor" is a game that values content and narrative, and based on this game genre, we don't think it is suitable to do too heavy operations, because too heavy combat gameplay will cause moderate and light players to encounter some resistance in the overall content experience of the game.
For example, in terms of development, I even wanted to simplify it to a very low level at the beginning, which is a pure number matching gameplay. However, after a few tests, I found that with the gradual optimization of the guide, players can also gradually learn and adapt to Xi the development mode of "White Thorn Corridor", which is different from the mainstream. Therefore, the core problem is how the project team can make the early guidance process comfortable and easy to digest, so that everyone's recognition of the gameplay is higher than the threshold it brings.
Q: In the first few tests, many players reported that the game was progressing too fast and the content was relatively insufficient. Will this issue be resolved after the open beta?
JUJU: Well, in order to make the core content of the game more enjoyable, the beta version actually sped up the flow of the game. After the game is officially launched, the pace will be relatively smooth.
So far, we have been planning for the progress in half a year, and we will basically update a version every month. And after the public beta starts, there will be a server opening event on 1.12, but February 9th is the Spring Festival, so there will be a Spring Festival event immediately after, and the whole is quite compact. We also hope to provide players with a continuously updated and rich content experience as much as possible.
Q: So on the eve of the game's open beta, how do the development team feel now?
JUJU: There is definitely pressure, "Baijing Corridor" is a lot of "first" attempts by our team, and in order to present a better content interpretation, gameplay design and art effects, we have also made a lot of efforts and explorations in the development process. Thankfully, after several tests, the overall data and player feedback are relatively good, which is also an affirmation of our efforts. At present, I hope to successfully complete the closure and official launch, and thank you again for the players and friends who have been looking forward to and supporting "Baijing Corridor". I also hope that everyone will come to experience the Baijing Corridor more!