I don't know how many players today are as emotional as Gyro-kun: After 4 years of waiting, "Materiality is New" is finally online.
This is developed by the word card studio and jointly published by bilibili games, with a unique antiquity anthropomorphic theme and a new national style art tonality that integrates modern elements, the true face has made many players fall in love with it, and this year after getting the version number, it has reached more than 3 million reservations in more than 2 months.
The game has performed well since its launch, with the number of registered users exceeding the one million mark on the first day. The ratings of Bilibili, TapTap and Haoyou Kuaibang all remain above 8 points, and there is also a good discussion on social media.
We all know that the bubble in the second-game market was once disillusioned, and now the players who can still "go to the table" are basically players with confidence, strength and background. But seeing today's "Materiality", Gyro Jun can't help but have some new ideas: the second game can't just think about letting players "pay for love", and it is also important for the team to be able to "generate electricity with love" sincerely.
Antiquities anthropomorphic, how to rejuvenate the elegance of the times?
From the product level, the finished form of the open beta of "Something Beautiful" does meet the expectations of many players for the theme of "antiquities anthropomorphic".
In terms of art style, after several iterations of testing, the overall picture of "Something Beautiful" is bright and full of modern vitality, while the integration of traditional Chinese painting-like brushstrokes and low color saturation maintain its ancient charm, laying a heavy tone for the anthropomorphic theme of antiquities.
The 3,000,000 pre-order reward for the open beta has added the character and its valley raincoat outfit
In the worldview of "Monokami Renewal", various antiquities are reborn in humanoid forms that fit their backgrounds, and they learn to integrate into human society with the help of the mysterious organization "Winter Valley Foundation". In this process, not only the background of the antiquities is told in the story, but also the wonderful collision between them and modern society will also be revealed through the perspective of the collector's protagonist.
The manta peach bottle, who likes cabinets and doesn't like to go out, is also closely related to her overseas wandering experience
From this setting, it is not difficult to see that researching and understanding the background history of antiquities, and presenting them in a modern design language, is the key to whether this product can capture the audience.
According to public information, in order to make the content of the game fit its historical background to the greatest extent, the R&D team has set up a special research team to ensure that content such as characters and scenes have a very detailed research report before drawing.
This investment of time and human resources is reflected in the actual content of the game. In "The Essence of Things", the personality characteristics and story background of each artifact are closely related to the true origin of the antiquities. For example, the "Jin Hou Bird Zun" that Gyro Jun loves very much, its instrument is set to be strong and gentle, in essence, it is also because the Tianma site in Qu Village, where it came out, has been robbed and looted, and the origin of the antiquities of the Jin Hou Bird Zun has also been restored to shine, so this kind of detective girl image who is determined to carry out cultural protection science popularization and crack down on tomb robbery after experiencing pain was born.
The background of these artifacts, their past tracks, current hiding places, and their classification are all carefully integrated into the game's character profiles, and they can be linked to each other according to the tags. And that's just a small part of the game's vast array of well-documented texts, and if you're interested in reading them all, you'll feel like you're visiting a unique "cyber museum."
If the anthropomorphic theme and art style of antiquities are the differentiators and advantages of "Something Beautiful", then other aspects are on par with the mainstream second-game products on the market, ensuring a smooth experience of the game.
For example, in terms of gameplay design, "Materiality and Innovation" chooses to bring players a lightweight and strategic war chess experience to the greatest extent. In addition to the classic class settings such as defense, melee combat, ranged sniper, and spellcaster, the tedious selection steps in wargame have been simplified as much as possible in order to adapt to players' mobile game habits. For example, the character's common attack command can be triggered by simply selecting the enemy. Designs like these are very detailed, but they can be a real experience improvement in terms of the length and smoothness of each game.
On the whole, this kind of "five-dimensional correctness" and "longboard" outstanding products may be the condiment needed in the current second-game market - compared with spending a lot of money on products and not knowing the direction, it is easier for two-dimensional players to recognize the game with attitude to do the right content. In fact, the charm of "Something Renewed" and the antiquities culture can be used to reach more players through it, which is inseparable from several product iterations and the long-term persistence of the operation team.
Carefully polished, so that the product lasts for a long time
If you, like Gyro-kun, have paid attention to "Wuhua Mixin" a long time ago, you will know very well that this product has gone through a long and even slightly difficult waiting process from exposure to the official announcement of the public beta.
During this period, the second game battlefield continued to smoke, and new products were launched but repeatedly failed, an important reason for this phenomenon is that the content experience of competing products launched in the same period is approaching, and players are exhausted surrounded by a large number of similar products. However, the anthropomorphic theme of antiquities seems to be able to get out of this strange circle, and by combining the theme with traditional culture in depth, the game will not lose the attention of players due to the rapid iteration of the market.
And it is gratifying that the waiting period also gives the production team enough time to polish the quality of the game, continue to improve the product details around the theme of "antiquities culture", optimize the audio-visual effects, and make the game quality constantly renovated, in line with the high standards of modern gamers for game quality.
For example, in a series of official announcements not long ago, fans and players have noticed that many of the image of the robot has changed a lot. For example, the "Fang Fei Ying Room", a manta peach bottle commemorative clothing that has reached a 2 million pre-order gift, has been adjusted according to player feedback to make the posture and expression of the robot more natural and vivid.
Before (left) and after (right)
This change has also been well received by players
Not only is the art details polished in the game, but the image of the machine outside the game is now more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Compared with the old version of the character video that previously focused on the art quality and detail presentation, the new version starts from the perspective of the instrument, and integrates the related imagery of "Ginkgo" and "Wheat" to tell the background of the antiquities, and finally it is related to the current reality - the sisters are still adrift, and the gold cup has not yet been reunited- It is easy to stimulate the emotional resonance of the viewer, so that the player can further understand the cultural background of the antiquities of the Golden Ou Yonggu Cup, and at the same time, it can also have a sense of connection with the instrument.
The official release of the Golden Ou Forever Cup character PV has gained a lot of resonance
The new PV makes the image of the robot more three-dimensional and vivid
In order to maintain the attention and freshness of players, and to allow the vivid image of the machine to have more scenes, "Nothing is New" has also adopted the strategy of "the game is not launched, the IP first", and jointly promoted the cultural relics culture with many brands.
During the R&D phase, the game has already collaborated with the official merchandise brand of the "National Treasure" column, "Hello History", which has been well received for several issues, including the anthropomorphic figure of "Grape Flower and Bird Pattern Silver Sachet".
The follow-up "Golden Ou Yonggu Cup" figure is even more popular, and has long been at the forefront of the member purchase list of station B. This also confirms the player's high affirmation of the anthropomorphic image design of antiquities in "The Essence of Things".
Looking back, it has to be said that in the case of the delay in the launch time of the game, it also takes a lot of courage to maintain the continuous operation rhythm and IP first-mover strategy of "Thing-Hua Mi Xin", but fortunately, the quality of today's games and the positive reviews of players have proved that these practices are worth trying.
Generate electricity with love and connect players who care about traditional culture
The outstanding performance on the first day of the open beta of "Wuhua Mi Xin" is not only due to the outstanding product positioning and the quality polishing for a long time, but also inseparable from the team's sincere love for antiquities cultural themes and the importance of the audience and player groups.
Players who are attracted by the theme of antiquities may have more or less seen the figure of "Nothing Beautiful" in other channels. During the product research and development period, the game sponsored a large number of KOLs in the cultural relics science popularization circle, from the small B station UP master with thousands of fans, to the Douyin blogger with millions of fans, as long as the bloggers who are willing to do cultural relics knowledge science popularization for more people, many of them have become the objects of cooperation with "Wuhua Mixin".
This practice not only promotes the dissemination of cultural relics science knowledge on social media platforms, but also brings a lot of traffic and attention to the game from non-game user circles.
At the same time, the charm of the game exuded by "Materiality" itself will also make many non-core audiences of the genre pay more attention to cultural relics and culture. This two-way and beneficial connection makes it easier for players to identify with the game.
Players who choose to visit offline museums because of "Nothing Comes New".
While waiting for the version number, in order to better retain these players who really love antiquity culture or have begun to become interested in traditional culture, the team is iterating the quality of the game while actively carrying out community operations, and always maintaining interaction and contact with fans.
For example, he continues to output content in the community around the traditional solar terms, and for this reason, he is also nicknamed "solar term calendar bloggers" by many players.
Even the publicity and distribution advertisements after the release of the game version number are closely related to the nodes of the traditional solar terms.
Gyro in the New Year、Qingming save to the advertisement
Before the official launch of "Wuhua Mixin", the official account has already gained more than 1.4 million fans on Station B, and the related contribution videos have exceeded 10 million views and more than 1.5 million likes.
And the official also actively gave positive feedback to fans who have been following the game for a long time, and soon after the game got the version number, it was announced that it would send a thank you gift to all players who have participated in the second creation.
Nowadays, the most worrying thing about product marketing is that it is thankless and attracts a lot of thunder, but these practices of "Wuhua Mi Xin" not only successfully let the game maintain a high level of attention in the fan group for a long time, but also let players really feel the team's love for antiquities and traditional culture, the sincerity of players, and the determination of this game to operate for a long time, so that it can gain a group of loyal fans in advance.
On the day the news of the open beta was announced, players celebrated
Comments from players who are genuinely emotional
In the current environment where the differentiation of the player base is intensifying and manufacturers are often experiencing a crisis of trust, there may not be a more gratifying start for a second game. And with the intensification of competition in the industry, I believe that this sincere operation concept of impressing players with quality, love and sincerity will become more and more important.
epilogue
Overall, even in April, when new products were intensively launched, the advantages of "Nothing Fresh" were not overshadowed at all: the unique antiquity anthropomorphic theme, the dazzling art style, the meticulously polished quality of game details, and the fact that it had already won the players' affirmation of the team's operational ability earlier. If this product continues to rely on antiquities culture and maintain high-quality content and activity output, Gyrojun is optimistic that it can find a path of its own.
Looking back, last year's two-dimensional category can be said to have experienced the cruel competition of big waves and sands, but now with the entry of new products with distinctive personalities such as "Wuhua Mixin", the industry may gradually usher in a good season of "rain and hundred grains".