In 2020, two phenomenal game products from two Shanghai-based game companies have profoundly changed the entire domestic game circle: one is "Genshin Impact" in the two-dimensional open world, and the other is "AFK Arena", which exceeded 1 billion in the first month of the national server and opened the era of explosion in the domestic game circle.
It is not only the Chinese gaming industry that has been "educated" by "AFK", but also has influenced quite a number of overseas companies to join the competition for the placement track. Now, with the cumulative revenue of "AFK" reaching nearly 20 billion, the new AFK series has finally been released.
On March 27, "AFK Journey" (hereinafter referred to as "AFK Journey") quickly topped the iOS free list in 10 countries/regions including the United States and Canada, and ranked among the top 10 in 70 countries/regions.
Nearly 70 countries have entered the top 10 in the iOS rankings
On April 16, the new card pool "Frabel" was launched, helping "Departure" directly rush to No. 7 on the iOS best-selling list in the United States on the same day, and it is still in the top ten, making "Departure" the second new Chinese-made game to enter the top 10 of the best-selling list in the United States this year.
Judging from the rhythm of this round of overseas publicity and distribution of "Departure", Lilith has adopted a "steady and steady" strategy for distribution, and the outstanding results come from the fact that users are actually paying for it, which once again proves the global attractiveness of Lilith's products, and also makes a "good start" for the launch of the national service and the Japanese and Korean markets of "Departure". After getting the version number early, the game's national server will also start the "echo test" at the three ends on April 18.
Of course, high-quality content is always the cornerstone of a game's success. Admittedly, low-barrier placement cards are one of the most competitive categories in the world. Everyone can participate, and the cards that can be rolled up to the point of placing cards want to be global and differentiated, and the difficulty can be imagined.
But in order to surpass the previous games in the series, "Departure" insists on trying considerable quality iteration and innovation. For example, jumping from 2D to the world of 3D magic picture books, introducing a large world to explore and solve puzzles, a larger 16-grid placeable battlefield, and more emphasis on plot and narrative. From the perspective of market performance, Lilith has indeed become the category leader in the global market again.
How do the placement cards of the Red Sea show a "strong sense of generational difference"?
As a category with many market participants, the card category is not only a leading company like Lilith, but also a considerable number of small and medium-sized companies participating in it, both with global themes and products like martial arts Xianxia, players can choose from a wide range of games, and the competition is fierce. Even if "The Legend of Xiaoice Ice" and "AFK" have successfully laid the foundation, the development team of "Departure" knows that no matter how much optimization is made on the existing underlying architecture, it will not be able to achieve far more than the past.
Only by completely reinventing the previous framework and making a placement card that breaks through itself and breaks the mold can we succeed in the long future, after all, players have been waiting for years more than just a "skin-changing AFK".
As a result, "Departure" does give players a strong sense of generational difference.
The first "sense of generational difference" is most intuitively reflected in the visual level.
Due to the technical limitations of the early days of the industry and the numerical market environment, the card category seems to be inherently bound to 2D art. However, with the soaring demand for 3D art, coupled with the technological iteration and the dominance of the market, even if there is a risk in converting 2D to 3D, 3D placement of cards has gradually become another option, especially for Lilith, whose flagship product is the card.
The most direct benefit of the quality upgrade brought by 3D is that you can fill in a lot of details to enhance the realism in the picture, such as the interior of the game, the dynamic weather that alternates between day and night, or the cat stretching on the roof of the windmill, the pigeon passing by in the forest from time to time, and you can also see the smoke drifting in the wind and the wheat waves rolling in the field...... Full of life.
While iterating on quality, the art style of "Departure" also retains the most distinctive "Lilith" flavor. Looking back at the products released in the past few years, the company has developed a strategy and genre called "Native Globalization", which is also vividly reflected in the fine arts:
AFK has left a deep impression on players around the world because of its unique glass painting style. Continuing the fashionable, young and unique art route, "Departure" chooses a fresh and natural "magic picture book style".
The second "sense of generation difference" stems from solving the long-standing problem of "single digital growth experience" in the category.
At the beginning of the project, the R&D team decided: bet on the idle + explore the big world. Use the big world to carry more content, explore, solve puzzles, and interact with characters, providing players with more interesting experiences. This is something that AFK doesn't have, and it's something that most card games on the market that are primarily driven by numerical fun.
From an onlooker's point of view, it's understandable why Lilith made the decision to do this: a high churn rate, a single source of fun, more and more development lines after inflated stats, and more and more tired players, which is a common situation in games of the same genre.
The key is that Lilith, as the leading manufacturer in the category, has the courage to make changes.
In the final product, although it can be seen that for the follow-up long-term update, the big world of "Departure" has made some blanks, but it is still available. Players can collect materials such as hexagonal sunflowers, and can also find and open treasure chests on the side of the road to explore hidden caves. There are also simple but fun interactive puzzles, such as igniting an explosive barrel to burn vines, pushing a boulder to move to open an exit, and stepping on a pressure-sensitive stone slab to activate treasure chests.
On the map, the interaction and actions between players and NPCs have also been designed accordingly. Players can also talk to some special NPCs, polishing the main plot and world view from the few words of the chat.
Based on the background color of the game and the player's casual experience demand, "Departure" does not blindly pile up on the "big map exploration", but makes a simplification that is in line with the core player experience.
For example, as long as the player explores to dispel the fog of the map, the treasure chest and other exploration items will be directly marked on the minimap in the upper right corner, and the exploration completion of the area will also be displayed at the bottom of the minimap. If the player wants to go to the marked resource point, they can also find the way to pick it up with one click.
Break out of your comfort zone: Use the idea of mastery to place cards
Based on the generational gap at the quality level, "Departure" shows the right iterative idea for the next generation of cards, but just pursuing differentiation is clearly not all Lilith wants.
In GameLook's view, challenging the plot that was not good at before and exploring a more strategic placement battle - the self-breakthrough "Departure" has a strong sense of innovation. Heavy on narrative and strategy, it jumps out of the boundaries of traditional cards, is closer to RPG development ideas, and almost achieves the ultimate in category innovation.
Compared with "AFK", the plot of "Departure" is larger, richer in content, and more exciting in narrative performances. You must know that the text of "AFK" has only been less than 100,000 words since its operation.
The plot branch of the game design AVG game, and the characters' micro-expressions, demeanor, and actions during the dialogue are richly performed, rather than a simple stand-up dialogue. At the same time, high-quality 3D animations are inserted into the main story. The connection between animation and narrative and combat is quite silky, bringing a sense of immersion that is not inferior to that of the second game.
But unlike the common second-game ml, "Departure" tends to create a group portrait of the characters, and it is closer to the RPG flavor. According to the development team, "The narrative perspective wants to show the identity and relationship between the protagonist and other characters, and between the characters, and the characters created are imperfect but real. ”
"Departure", which refuses to be a purely numerical game and strengthens the strategy before and during the war, also far surpasses "AFK" in terms of placement battle strategy.
Compared with the fixed combination of the first two and the last three of "AFK", "Departure" has 16 free battlefields with the number of front and rear rows. Both sides will decide the attack priority according to the position and attack range. And improve the strategy through a variety of traps/terrain, such as the powder keg that can deal area damage in the scene, or the "low stone wall" that cannot be crossed but can be attacked by the shooter from a distance, etc., and the more emphasis on pre-battle formations also gives players more possibilities to defeat the strong with the weak.
But at the same time, "Departure" still retains the essence of card placement, such as splitting the big world exploration and AFK push map, and the unlocking of all gameplay is related to the AFK progress, ensuring that players who pursue easy placement will not be stopped by the big world.
Speaking of burden reduction, "Departure" naturally has some of the shadows of "AFK", such as the design of daily development of burden reduction, card drawing wish list, etc., as well as the sharing of character levels to full sharing of character levels and equipment, based on player feedback, to further try to solve the pain points of cards with liver and krypton.
Inheriting the familiar "resonance" system of AFK players, "Departure" cancels the design of resetting the character level to return resources, and the role level sharing is extended to the hero equipment sharing of the same class, but there are also its own exclusive equipment, which effectively reduces the training cost of players. While making a difference, it also retains the tone of the series as a light-off and easy-to-develop player.
"At first glance, you can tell if it's an authentic sequel game made by the original team, or if it's the light-hearted idle game of the year. ”
Exceeding expectations, Lilith is still the "most capable of fighting" Lilith
Anyone can do it, but it is impossible to succeed in the global market, make a recognizable style, and make an original brand, just by piling up money. The breakthrough of popular products is often inseparable from a mature team that understands category trends and the participation of top talents.
The project team responsible for "Departure" is the main creative team that has run out of the two popular models of "Xiaoice Ice Legend" and "AFK", and has a clear insight into the direction of category iteration and the demands of core players. Among them, producer Jiang O was the main planner of "AFK" before, and the main planner Hongchen is also a veteran who joined Lilith when she was first founded. The entire team, almost everyone has more than 10 years of experience in idle card development.
Backed by such a development team, it naturally lays a solid foundation for the iteration of game quality and innovative and unique gameplay. This is in line with Lilith's "design-driven" philosophy: finding a balance between self-expression and user needs, and innovative design and experience to meet user needs.
The various designs in "Departure" are not innovative for the sake of "new", but practical innovation for user needs. For example, the project team collected nearly 3,000 user feedbacks before and after the CBT test, planned to view each feedback, circled the relevant module leader, and worked together to find a way to solve it. Some module leaders also set up daily public opinion to pay attention to the content discussed by players for a long time.
Of course, in the face of the massive competitors of the Red Sea Circuit, brand power is also crucial. When there is a severe redundancy in the supply of new products, players will usually only choose products with a "sense of trust". Thanks to Lilith's company brand and the reputation of "AFK" among players, it has also brought invisible bonuses to the launch and long-term stable operation of "Departure".
epilogue
Last year, Lilith celebrated its 10th anniversary, and Zhang Zilong, the head of distribution, mentioned that the company had moved from a period of "category evolution" to a period of "exceeding expectations". As the first product under the strategy of "exceeding expectations", "Departure" proved with its performance beyond expectations: Lilith, who leads the global placement card track, is still the "most playable" Lilith.
Of course, what the industry is most concerned about is whether the national service can reproduce the series of "miracles" in the future with the opening of the "echo test" at the third end on April 18. At least judging from the current product performance and market feedback, "Departure", which has infinite possibilities, is taking Lilith on another global "journey".