The warm breeze is intoxicating, and the early spring e-sports are more compatible.
From April 2nd to April 6th, the first Club Invitational Tournament was held for the open world mobile racing game Need for Speed Assemble, developed by TiMi Tencent. 18 players from six teams went to the offline competition to participate in the finals, and finally the WB team successfully won the cup and ushered in the applause of the audience.
Although the game is not yet live, the esports ecosystem is already taking shape. The event was broadcast live on multiple platforms such as Douyin and Huya. On the day of the finals, Need for Speed Assemble also held an official press conference to announce the game's beta period data and follow-up plans.
Game producer Hao Sheng took the stage to announce that "Need for Speed: The Assembly" will be officially launched this summer, and at the same time unveiled the creator support plan of "incubating 1,000 Rewan stars", as well as cooperation plans with automobile manufacturers, including a number of domestic car brands.
At the press conference, Haosheng announced some official data: in the "sprint test" that ended not long ago, a total of 165,000 players poured into the game, and the heat tracking gameplay was played 3.2 million times. There are even more dedicated players, who have traveled more than 3,000 kilometers in one day, so that producer Hao Sheng has to laugh and say: "I hope this friend is moderately entertained and refuses to drive tiredly." ”
In addition to these, another topic mentioned by Haosheng makes GameLook more concerned, how to solve the technical and gameplay design problems encountered in the process of changing the IP of the terminal game to the mobile game? Combined with the previous test performance and the activity of today's e-sports events, "Need for Speed: The Assembly" has successfully taken root among mobile game players. Nowadays, when cases of end-to-end hand-to-hand rollovers are common, how did Tencent TiMi do it?
What is the difficulty in the frequent overturning of overseas manufacturers?
You must know that the so-called end-to-end hand-to-hand R&D is a thorny road - in recent years, many 3A manufacturers with IP have seen new business opportunities in the mobile game market, and then they have tested the waters of end-to-end hand-based product projects. I thought that relying on the excellent content quality of the console's masterpieces could form a "dimensionality reduction blow" to the mobile game market, but in practice, it has repeatedly overturned in the gutter - the project was disconnected soon after it was launched, and the R&D studio was shut down as a whole, and there were countless cases of overturning.
In the final analysis, there is a bottomless gully between these two ecosystems. Differences in audience composition and gaming habits, changes in game operating modes, and the environment on which the device is running...... All these factors make there a significant difference between terminal games and mobile game products. Racing products have their own unique challenges in the end-to-end hand, becoming one of the most difficult categories to adapt.
For example, the demands of the two users for the core driving experience are very different, in short, the proportion of hardcore players is higher among PC and console users, and the proportion of casual gamers is higher among mobile game users.
Need for Speed: Unruly
If you are completely loyal to the game, the gameplay of some hardcore games may dissuade players, and if the adaptation is too simple, it will affect the experience of IP fans.
Not only is it difficult to adapt the gameplay, but it is even more difficult to change the technical top, especially the adaptation of racing games. As the map gets bigger and bigger, the gameplay is getting closer and closer to the open world, and the demand for large packages and good graphics cards for racing games on console and PC platforms is getting higher and higher.
Compared with the more constant mainstream console operating environment, the network environment and device environment run by mobile game products are more complex. There are a variety of mobile phones and tablets of major brands, and it is difficult to solve the adaptation problem through a general solution. In addition, mobile phone users are also quite sensitive to the size of the download package, which poses a test for the memory optimization of the product.
"Not only quality, but also suitability"
Thanks to the accumulation of technology, on the basis of ensuring the image quality and content of the product, TiMi has reduced the package from tens of G to 4G to enter the level of the game, and at the same time, "Need for Speed: The Assembly" has been adapted for multiple models and old models, so that more mobile devices can run the game smoothly.
In previous test experiences, the quality of Need for Speed: The Assembly impressed a wide range of players, including GameLook. And the methodology of adapting the original content of this product is more worthy of our attention - in short, the ruler is long, the inch is short, the body can bend and stretch, and the posture is flexible. Whether the content in the original work is enlarged or brushed aside, whether it is retained as it is or adapted, it is necessary to carefully consider the characteristics of mobile devices, and then give the most suitable solution for mobile platforms.
If you can achieve the brilliant design of the terminal game on your mobile phone, then implement it to the extreme. For example, the Need for Speed series has always been known for its graphics and art performance, and Need for Speed Assemble has also fully exploited the performance level of current mobile devices, creating an art performance comparable to "console-level".
In the "Spiral Highway" map, the sun sets as you rush out of the tunnel, the sunlight leaves a dazzling glare in the camera and casts gold spots on the asphalt, and the towns and trees on both sides of the road speed by...... From the fineness of the textures to the overall light and shadow effects, the overall visual level of Need for Speed: The Assembly is beyond reproach.
In terms of gameplay, the solution of Need for Speed: The Assembly is to connect the needs of different players through the open world. The gameplay is easy to pick up and difficult to master, raising the upper limit and ensuring the lower limit. A lot of content in the open world allows casual players to find their own fun in the game, and heat tracking ensures the emotional needs of IP fans.
In terms of the opposite of the characteristics of mobile devices, Need for Speed Assemble "takes a detour" to find a solution that is more suitable for the characteristics of mobile gaming devices. For example, the touchscreen operation mode of mobile devices makes it difficult to fully implement the immersive driving experience. In this regard, Need for Speed: The Assembly chooses to change its thinking, cleverly borrowing the classic gameplay in the original "Need for Speed" and adapting it into an arcade-style driving experience, creating a driving experience that is "easy to use and difficult to master" on the basis of restoring the feelings of the terminal game.
By focusing on the accelerator, brake, and nitrous buttons, and cooperating with the left and right directions, ordinary players can complete a refreshing basic drifting cornering experience, while hardcore players can design the ultimate deep racing strategy based on the nitrogen acceleration and other gameplay inherited from the "Need for Speed" terminal game, combined with the shortcuts and hidden routes that can be seen everywhere in the map. In the just-concluded e-sports event, the fierce competition between professional players showed this rich strategic detail vividly. A wealth of high-level confrontation techniques such as "landing spray" and "wake acceleration" allow the ranking to change every corner, and the viewing experience is dominated by dangers and ups and downs.
In terms of gameplay, the inherent perception that "racing games should be racing" does not apply in Need for Speed: Assemble. Within the framework of a 100 million square meter giant open world, the game has greatly expanded the overall experience horizontally, carrying up to 500 large world gameplay points. Want to experience the classic "heat pursuit" chase gameplay in PC games, Need for Speed Assemble fully meets this need.
In addition, there are also rich branch contents such as tail flicking, punching and taking pictures, speed challenges, leaps, truck deliveries, etc. Meet up with friends, roam the city together, enjoy the beautiful scenery of "Hot Bay", and take charming photos. When you get to interesting places, you can even get out of the car and walk to get up close and personal with landmarks. And weaving all these finely polished gameplay into one has formed the core competitiveness of Need for Speed: The Assembly to expand its own audience.
Explore the "Sea of Flowers" map
The mystery hidden in the press conference: the next evolution of niche categories?
With a solid adaptation methodology, it's no wonder that players are pouring into this game. Extremely rich content in the big world, the content experience that is most suitable for the characteristics of the PC game IP, and the top art performance...... Even putting aside the attributes of Need for Speed Assemble as an end-to-end product, we have never seen a product in this form appear in the field of mobile racing products.
Even more elevated GameLook's expectations for this product were a brief episode of mystery in development at the end of the show - the beautifully designed track was replaced by rollers, tracks, and spring pads, and these elements combined to form a large, seemingly linear level. This seems to hint to us that this product is about to be equipped with UGC-based gameplay?
Although there is no official elaboration on this part, we are not unfamiliar with the shape of this type of map. Every now and then, we get viral "GTA Poison Map" videos on all major social media platforms, and this is due to the rich content that players have built based on the built-in map editor in GTA 5 Online. And the track demonstrated in this easter egg is highly similar to the "poison map" of "GTA 5".
If the UGC ecosystem is integrated with Need for Speed: The Gathering, the ecological potential that will open up together cannot be underestimated. Once you've introduced the ingenuity of a large number of players into the game, who can predict what new sparks will collide with the gameplay of the game?
There's a lot to be written about the car alone - in addition to racing, can we also drive a car to complete the gameplay, or even start a puzzle-solving journey? From previous closed betas, we have learned that in addition to driving a regular sports car, Need for Speed Assemble also provides a variety of ways to move such as driving a truck, an off-road vehicle, and even getting out of the car and walking. If these elements can be combined with UGC maps, the types of gameplay that can be carried in the game can be further expanded.
We could even let our imagination run wild, and if Need for Speed Assemble were to move further into a GTA 5-style UGC mode, with helicopters, jetpacks, and more, it would be exciting?—— of course, this part of the content is entirely from GameLook's reverie, but we've captured some relatively more reliable observations.
For example, it can be observed from the video of the press conference that the entire UGC level is set up in a considerable area, and the level device spreads all the way to the far end of the screen. For creative players, this will undoubtedly be a huge space for "fun".
From challenging the difficult end-to-end R&D, to selecting the open-world racing mode, to the construction of the e-sports event system that started first, and finally hinting at the construction of the UGC ecosystem, a series of "high and high" layout actions give us reason to believe that Tencent TiMi has great ambitions for this product. After the construction of the entire pan-user ecology takes shape, is Tencent planning this time to remove the "niche" label of the racing category in one fell swoop and bring this product and even the entire category to a new height?
Social, ecological, fission, and a high-quality, high-freedom gameplay experience at the core, this racing product combines the necessary elements of all Tencent's past hits, and when these elements are combined to form the Medici effect, it may be able to give birth to a completely different game type experience from the past.
With the massive dissemination of high-viewing poison pictures, it has formed a "spear tip" on social media to break the circle and attract new people, e-sports has precipitated the loyalty of hardcore players and formed a long-term attraction, and with the inclusiveness of the open world, players in it can get an excellent experience without discrimination...... Today's Need for Speed Assemble has the slogan "The First Open World Mobile Racing Game", and perhaps one day in the future, it will become synonymous with the next generation of mobile racing games.