Author: Oatmeal
The first Zhihu, https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/693639729
Preface
Why write this? Township isn't just a successful game – it's one of the few classics in the smartphone market since its inception that continues to keep players hooked with fresh elements. As a mobile game that combines urban construction and farm management, it has been more than ten years since its release, but it still maintains its vigorous vitality in the dynamically changing market. This game not only provides players with a rich and diverse gaming experience, but also provides a valuable reference for many subsequent game developers. So I decided to dive into the essence of Township's design, from design principles, player interactions, systems to social mechanics, and art style to why it's so enduring to come.
Game Overview
Township is a free-to-play social game that was originally launched on Google+ in 2011 and has since expanded to Facebook, iOS (2012), and Android (2013). It's a unique city-building and farm-running game that's been constantly updated and optimized to beat Hayday and maintain its core position in the business simulation world.
Basic information about the product
Genre:
Specially optimized for mobile game equipment simulation (farm and urban construction), "Township" combines the elements of urban construction and farm management, players plan and develop their own towns in the game, and obtain resources through activities such as agriculture, manufacturing and trade, so as to continuously build and develop their own prosperous town.
market and other data
As of 2021, Township has over 248 million downloads and over $849 million in revenue. The game's consistent position in the top 15 or top 50 in the global revenue charts is a testament to its popularity and commercial success around the world.
Introduced by developer Playrix
Playrix is the developer behind Township, founded in 2004 by Igor and Dmitry Bukhman. The company initially focused on quality match-3 and puzzle games. With the development of smartphones in the early 2010s, the growth of app stores, and Playrix's shift to free-to-play mobile games, Township was the company's first mobile phone launch, and it became an instant hit, and it is still on the best-selling list in the iOS market today. In addition to this, other successful games include Gardenscapes and Homescapes, both of which are also match-3 + home dress-up games, and both of them are also global hits. By 2019, Playrix had reached $1.7 billion in revenue, with more than 2,000 employees in 14 offices around the world and more than 40 million daily active users (DAU).
Download data for Playrix games:
Marketing model and history
While playrix's game products are very competitive, their distribution and marketing capabilities are also excellent, and Township has received high recognition in the industry for its innovative and compelling advertising strategy. Through refined marketing optimization, Playrix was able to control the acquisition cost of the game and maximize downloads while keeping costs low.
Although the method adopted is to use false advertising (selling dog meat on the head of a sheep), it has to be said that this method has worked wonders in marketing practice, using this violent marketing method, the monthly installs of the game have soared from 10 million to 40 million, achieving a nearly four-fold increase. This not only resulted in a significant reduction in cost per install (CPI), but also a significant increase in revenue. After the fact, this model has also become a way for many medium-heavy games to use in advertising strategies.
User portraits
Age: Mainly between 25 and 45 years old.
Gender ratio: 60% female and 40% male, a distribution that is more common in simulation games.
Professional background: The user base includes a variety of occupations such as white-collar workers, students and freelancers.
The popularity of business simulation games among female users around the world is high, with an estimated 60% to 70% of female gamers. This type of game does not require high operational skills, which is very much in line with the preferences of female users for DIY and aesthetic things.
Another important mechanic is that the game uses fragmented time to harvest resources online and then proceed to the next round of production. Players can withdraw at any time, which is one of the main reasons why many simulation management to mobile games are very suitable for mobile players, and the penetration rate of this method in simulation management is also relatively high.
The difficulty level of the game
The game is a light to medium game and is intended for all ages. The difficulty of the game is relatively low, and the gameplay is also more casual. The figure below shows the complexity table of the game for players, and the user positioning of the game is also in line with the medium and light games.
Game Tags
Urban Planning/DIY, Business Development, Farm Simulation, Social Interaction, Strategy, Casual Play (Activity Games)
The above needs to know that the market data and game information have been introduced, and now the dismantling of the game itself has officially begun.
Game loop system
As we all know, the gameplay of simulation management is relatively macro and abstract, and it is not like horizontal board jumping, combat or puzzle games have specific gameplay.
So what exactly are the sim players playing?
Although there is no specific way to play, players experience the simulation game around planning and decision-making, players for the accumulation of resources, watching the city/farm/company continue to grow under their own decision-making planning, from a small broken village to a bustling city, this kind of positive feedback is not found in many other games, which is also the charm of simulation management. In Township, this strategic planning is not limited to simple expansion. Players will need to make a series of decisions, such as which crops to choose to plant to optimize profits, when to expand production facilities, and how to allocate transportation resources to maximize efficiency.
It is through this in-depth planning and decision-making mechanism that "Township" beats "Hayday" and becomes the benchmark for simulation mobile games. Although many other urban construction sims have appeared on the market, it is not difficult to find them more or less with the shadow of Township or Hayday.
The cycle of the period of the novice period of the game
First, let's explore Township's core loop, which is key to attracting and retaining players. The core of the game revolves around resource management and decision-making, which is especially important during the novice period.
The tutorial for beginners in Township uses many of the templates common to farming and urban management sims. The game starts with a simple activity – planting wheat. This event not only teaches new players the basics of the game, but also introduces the game's basic economic cycle: planting wheat, harvesting wheat, completing orders, unlocking new land, and repeating it again. Through this cycle, players quickly become familiar with how to grow their town through crop production and order fulfillment.
This tutorial design not only allows players to quickly grasp the basic mechanics of the game, but also enhances the player's sense of accomplishment and engagement through simple and direct positive feedback, such as rewards for harvesting crops and completing orders. This design cleverly guides players from the initial teaching to the broader decision-making and resource management aspects of the game, ensuring that players can seamlessly transition into the game's main loop and continue to experience more content and challenges.
So how do you make this kernel experience a game with a life cycle of more than 10 years? Now let's see how Township does it:
The core of the game's grand loop
As shown above, Township shows a typical management simulation loop, engaging players with its clear logic and strategic depth. The game begins with basic agricultural activities, such as growing wheat, which not only provide new players with an initial understanding of the game's operations, but also introduce the basics of the economic cycle: resource production, processing, and order fulfillment. Specifically, players first produce raw materials in the farmland, then send these materials to the facility for further processing into goods, and finally the goods are used to fulfill orders, which not only generate gold coins for facility upgrades and expansions, but also bring experience points and other buffs, which will encourage players to expand their land and increase storage capacity.
The clever design of this loop lies in the balance between its simplified introductory tutorial and the gradual complexity of the game. Playrix has succeeded in increasing the game's depth and long-term appeal by adding strategic elements to the game, such as diverse revenue streams and upgradeable facilities.
Township's lack of punishment mechanics, such as crop wilting or population loss, is a highlight of its design, a strategy that reduces player frustration and makes the game environment more forgiving and more in line with the positioning of casual games.
In summary, through clever loop design and positive feedback, Township has succeeded in creating a deep gaming environment that meets both casual and strategic players, which is the core reason why it continues to appeal to a wide range of players.
Players experience loops
Now that we've explored the basic cycle of the game experience, let's dive into what constitutes the player experience loop. The loop is designed around the player's interaction behavior, as shown below:
The game is deftly designed to adapt to the needs of its target player base. The development team has carefully arranged the user experience so that players can quickly go live and play in fragmented time, such as harvesting crops and planting seeds. The crop's production time is designed to encourage players to log in frequently, and after each harvest, there is new production content and pending orders, prompting players to continue playing to earn more.
This design not only creates a constant play-based appeal, but also creates a regular cycle of behavior that provides players with ongoing goals and challenges. In addition, the design makes clever use of the "Zeigarnik Effect", a psychological theory that states that people tend to remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better. and not which tasks have already been completed. This effect is often used in game design to increase player activity and retention, and to motivate players to return by providing unfinished tasks and challenges.
Core system
As a simulation mobile game, although it has been around for several years, its innovative design in the era of smartphones is still worth learning. The game's system loop not only optimizes the experience for mobile game users, but also ensures that players have a constant sense of motivation and engagement in the game. Here's a summary and analysis of a few key cycle nodes:
Resource system
Resource Collection
As a business mobile game, the collection and management of resources is the core of the game cycle. At the beginning of the game, the first thing players come into contact with is Category 1 production resources. Through elementary activities such as growing crops, raising animals, and running a processing plant, players learn the basics of resource gathering and product production processes. This stage teaches players how to effectively manage and recycle resources by completing simple orders. The overall product resource types for the game are shown in the following table:
Management mechanism
As the game progresses, resource management begins to reveal its complexity. In non-buyout simulation games, the warehouse/backpack system becomes a key resource management tool. As far as this game is concerned, the warehouse is also an important paid stimulus for players after the rookie period.
The management of warehouse capacity is not only an important part of the transition from novice to advanced players, but also a significant incentive point for paying. As the player levels up (usually around level 10), the need for storage space increases dramatically, especially when more upgrade materials and monetary resources need to be stored.
In addition, the in-game Pain Point Design is also cleverly applied to the warehouse capacity. Limiting warehouse space is an effective way to motivate players to pay for more resources and goods. This design not only facilitates the game's business model, but also increases the strategy of managing resources, and players need to make decisions about whether or not to expand their warehouse, which directly affects their game progress and experience.
Production system
In the production system, once the player has collected the primary production resources, they can then use various processing facilities for secondary processing, thereby increasing the value of the goods. The game offers nearly 300 products to produce and harvest, which are designed to be highly logical and relevant. For example, the raw materials for fries include potatoes, tomatoes, and cream, while corn is needed for popcorn. This intuitive material matching deepens the player's understanding of the game's mechanics and adds to the game's realism.
Playrix has put a lot of effort into product design, ensuring that raw materials are widely used and the demand is properly controlled, enhancing the complexity and depth of the game. Players can choose to sell the collected resources directly or further process them to increase their value, a process that not only increases player engagement, but also significantly increases the playability of the game. As the game progresses, more secondary processing facilities are unlocked, further increasing the game's long-term appeal and depth.
Orders & Tasks
The game offers a diverse order system to drive player behavior, and orders are not only the main source of gold and rewards, but also the core mechanic of players' daily interactions. The game is designed with multiple types of orders, such as planes, trains, helicopters, and zoo orders, each with a unique gameplay and reward system, which effectively enriches the player's gaming experience and adds interest.
Plane and train orders are still relatively simple, I will focus on zoo orders here, zoo orders are initiated for each visitor, two as a group, players complete them while earning gold and experience, they will also get animal cards, thus expanding the number of animals in their zoo.
However, in my opinion, the zoo's order system is a failure, because this part of the business content and the town are highly overlapping, and there are almost no new ways to play except for animal elements and card collection. The zoo also doesn't produce any stats that work for towns, which is very deadly.
And the collection of animal cards is very unintuitive, and the feedback loop is very long. So for so many years, there has been no new official action in the zoo system.
Expand and upgrade
In the simulation management genre, the leveling system is one of the core game mechanics. One of the challenges developers face when creating such systems is balancing granularity. It is difficult for designers to design a lot of elements that need to be unlocked, so it is necessary to upgrade existing facilities and further increase the resource consumption outlet. Therefore, the drive of upgrading and unlocking new content provides players with a continuous sense of progress and new goals, so that the life cycle of this game is further expanded and more playable, and the following are the items of Township's unlockable and upgrade system:
Extra thought
Why is the game's development system so light, and why isn't it designed to be more complex? Is it because it can't?
Developer Value Trends:
In contrast, domestic manufacturers may add at least one buff mechanism and R&D base camp in terms of production efficiency. For example, the school in the depths of Taoyuan is essentially a system that lengthens the game upgrade cycle in disguise, and players need to invest a lot of resources to cultivate and improve production efficiency and productivity, but in essence, this system is for paid services rather than for players.
For example, the hero of Jiang Baizhong, in fact, the hero mechanism of Jiang Baizhong is the most outstanding point, in addition to the cultivation of urban management, there is one more character cultivation line, I think this is the best design made by Jiang Bai. But the development of heroes has become a point in the middle and late stages of the game, the core players have opened up the gap, players may invest a lot of energy and resources for the development of heroes, the game in addition to giving heroes experience points, but also added equipment, talents, etc., increasing the complexity of the game and also lengthening the life cycle of the game, but in essence, it is for commercialization and improving the game cycle service.
Developers don't want the game to become particularly complex and liver in the later game, too much development system may lead to the game's system becoming complex, especially the depth of strategy, and commercialization will become easy to do, but the game may deviate from the core values of "player-oriented, fun-oriented".
1. Player-centric design philosophy
Developers tend to keep the game accessible and enjoyable, so that the game doesn't become overly complicated or tiring in the later stages. Complex development systems can lead games away from the core values of "player-centric, fun-oriented", especially in the field of casual games, where people actually prefer simple and intuitive game mechanics. And many players in the game are tolerant, maybe your art is really outstanding, or the plot is great, so you can tolerate a little liver, but manufacturers often like to repeatedly test the bottom line of players, which is essentially a manifestation of squeezing players.
2. Commercialization and system complexity
In addition to increasing the game cycle, the increase in complexity in most games is more important to improve the ability to commercialize, but this may also cause the game to lose some non-paying players. For example, domestic manufacturers have introduced a lot of facilities to improve buff ability in the game, and it requires players to spend a lot of time and resources to improve, which may actually serve more of a profit model than the player experience, and when the numerical planning is looking at how to make players play longer, rather than the process gradient is more reasonable, all of this has deteriorated.
3. Differences between character development and players
Introducing complex mechanics such as character development, such as the hero mechanics in Gangnam Hundred Scenes, can greatly increase the depth and character personalization of the game, but it can also lead to a huge disparity between core players and regular players. This design increases the game's appeal and long-term engagement, but it can also create a high barrier to entry for new or non-engaged players in the mid-to-late game, especially returning players, who may not be able to keep up after the gap.
economic system
The economic system, the in-game economic cycle and price system
As the core currency of the game, gold is the main currency that players pursue and consume, and the following table shows the main consumption of gold coins in the game, and it can be seen that the main consumption of gold coins is concentrated in the core cycle. Regardless of the period the player is in, the percentage of gold consumed is the same.
Here is a more important numerical design method: according to the player's level, design the corresponding level, how much gold can be earned under normal circumstances. This numerical plan can be calculated more accurately, and the 3 heads of land, factories, and decorative buildings in the above table happen to be unlocked by character level. This means that the designer can control the player to unlock new land/new factories/new decorative buildings when the player reaches a certain level, just when they have gold, as shown in the image below.
Since the main way to make money in the game is through completing orders, but the system will provide experience points and gold coins at the same time as completing orders, which means that the entire life cycle of the game, how much money players can earn at the corresponding level, and how many levels can be upgraded, designers can accurately calculate. They can roughly figure out how much money you'll be short of when you unlock a new factory, and you'll be spurred to spend on the bundle. And grasp the amount of money you need to buy the factory, be in an awkward position, and will not make you feel that the amount is too different and be dissuaded, and at the same time, it will not make you feel that the amount is too low and give up the possibility of buying a gift package. And often in this range, it is the easiest time to stimulate users to pay.
Every time the game buys a factory or expands the land, it often means that the player's assets are cleared and assets need to be re-accumulated, so at the position of point 4 in the picture above, the game reserves a lot of time for you to buffer and create a new round of capital accumulation, and then further harvest after the next level is unlocked, and so on.
As players continue to unlock new production equipment, the speed at which they earn money will essentially increase, and the overall payment for all buildings in all games will increase. But the great thing about Township is that its economy is simple and clear, so it's easier for the designer to grasp what you're doing. Therefore, experience designers at different stages are able to allow players to control the flow realm without feeling too difficult or too easy. Of course, the downside is that the commercialization results will not be pretty, but as I said at the beginning, playrix has reduced the CPI through routine promotion, which means that it does not need to pay too much to make a profit.
The game's order algorithm
The order algorithm of this game is a part that I find very interesting and worth learning from.
In my opinion, the order of the game can be divided into 5 levels, and the difficulty and rewards of different levels are also different, which I have categorized with the following table:
The order generation mechanism is not completely random, but is executed according to a series of fine-grained rules. These rules include, but are not limited to, the production content that the player has currently unlocked and the assets that exist in the inventory. The algorithm checks the player's inventory and generates an order accordingly, ensuring that the player can complete the task with the resources they have. For example, if there are certain items in an order that the player already owns, the "owned percentage" of those items will be reflected in the order demand, making it more likely and efficient to fulfill the order.
Special circumstances
Another special case is that for players who have not logged in for more than 3 days, the system will generate a large number of orders that can be completed immediately as a return incentive. In addition, these players will receive a specific return bonus buff to help them speed up their development and quickly integrate into the game.
Build the system
Facility building systems
Since it's a small-town farm management game, it must revolve around the building complex, and the buildings of the game are roughly divided into the following categories, the flowchart shows more of the values produced by the building, and the table diagram below is a supplement to the flowchart.
The beginner's orientation part of the game is very well done (I'll add this in the cycle diagram below), the game's production buildings and functional buildings will be gradually unlocked according to progress, and the player's process from scratch also follows the game's business cycle system.
Decorative buildings
The main purpose of decorative buildings is to meet the individual needs of players, and players can plan and define their own cities according to their own aesthetics and preferences, which is one of the core experiences of almost all urban construction simulation operations. (This is also the overlap between the game and the preferences of female players)
Providing rich decorative buildings is the key to attracting core simulation management enthusiasts, which many domestic urban construction simulation games have worked on this, such as Jiangbai and Taoyuan Depths, and even Dream Cities with suspicion of changing skins.
In the original competition between "Hayday" and "Township", hayday was weak in this regard.
Social system
Let's start by explaining the role of the community system in a game: promoting player social interaction, increasing the depth of the game, and improving player stickiness and retention. Mainly around these three aspects. Therefore, most of the social systems of a game are designed around these three core points. Township is no exception, where socializing is one of the core pillars of the sim management game.
Acquaintance Interaction (Community Chat and Town Interaction)
Friends help each other and fulfill orders between friends. However, after you assist your friend, the gold experience reward corresponding to that order is yours, and after completing the corresponding order, your friend will also give a four-leaf clover (given by the system) to motivate the player to help. It is understandable that helping a friend to place an order is a harmless act.
Another acquaintance system is the daily gift sending, players can send gifts to friends for free after going online every day (free), which is actually a mechanism to motivate players to go online and encourage acquaintances to help each other socially. In fact, this can be found in the guild chat room, players can directly send the resources they are missing, and friends can also directly send corresponding materials in the chat list after seeing the message to help friends.
Community play
- Guild Competitions: The game regularly holds guild-based competition missions, and players accumulate points by completing designated tasks to help their guilds achieve a high ranking on the global or regional leaderboards. The aim is to promote cooperation between players, adding to the challenge and engagement of the game.
- Reward system: The community's reward system is distributed according to the guild's ranking and mission completion, including gold, gems, green banknotes, and limited decorations. This reward strategy motivates players to put in more effort to participate in community activities, while also giving players a sense of accomplishment in teamwork.
Commercialization of games
In fact, I don't plan to focus on the commercialization part, because the commercial design of township I think is relatively ordinary, quite conservative, and you can see that there is almost no desire to charge money for small and medium-sized R players, and the pricing of goods is also aimed at local tyrant players. So it can be understood as: regular players, you can buy a battlepass, and then you don't touch it, the cost performance is very low, and you can buy it at will, anyway, you are not bad for money.
So for this kind of commercialization model, I don't think there are too many parts that can be analyzed and disassembled, and the following is a brief description of the commercialization content, let's take a look at the content of the paid project——
The game focuses on the Golden Pass, which is the BattlePass part.
By the way, my own thoughts on why Playrix did this:
- Market positioning and player base: As I said at the beginning, the commercialization of simulated games is not easy to do, and if the paid content is mostly on the value, it will inevitably lead to the game becoming liver, so such a conservative design can avoid the risk of player churn that may be brought about by excessive commercialization.
- Long-term operation strategy: By providing a relatively stable game environment and experience, maintaining the loyalty and activity of the existing player base, rather than frequently launching aggressive commercial features, this may be to maintain a long-term user base and brand reputation.
- User experience first: Emphasizing player experience rather than aggressive revenue maximization, and not having a wide range of paid items to maintain the quality and satisfaction of your game, is critical for word-of-mouth and continued engagement of new players.
While this conservative business strategy may limit the revenue potential in the short term, it also helps to maintain a healthy game ecosystem and a sustainable player base, which may be the values of Playrix's games.
Introduction to the game art section
Main interface UI
Township's UI logic and layout are clear, all UI elements of the game interface are designed around the core gameplay, and none of the information is superfluous.
In particular, the game contains the necessary commercialization buttons, such as events and promotions, but the display of these elements is very restrained. Games focus on not disturbing the player's gaming experience, so this design philosophy is rare in the current game interface design, especially compared to some games that employ more intrusive marketing strategies, such as the products of some domestic manufacturers, which often stick to a bunch of activity windows in the face, and it feels like there is no end to it.
So Playrix may not be very profitable, but these details can prove that the company is very profitable.
Scene art and detail
In terms of the player's sense of accomplishment and self-expression, I think Township is a perfect score. The game fuels the player's creativity in the design of the city's construction. The city's buildings are all familiar public buildings, and they are very comprehensive, from bookstores and gyms to rock climbing arenas, go-kart parks, oceanariums, etc., these buildings provide a lot of materials for players to customize and decorate to create their own city. If SimCity is a metropolis, then Township is really a dream town, a utopian city that belongs to the player. This is one of the reasons why the game has always been popular, and there is no one before or since.
In addition to the community building, the game also provides a lot of decorations for players to match, the game has reached a very high level of DIY inclusiveness, and the game's beautiful graphics and dynamic elements also greatly improve the visual impact of the game.
Visual part
Mature commercial games usually confirm their art style in their market positioning to see if it fits the game's audience perfectly, and it's clear that Township's art is commercially considered.
The overall color design and art style of the game are very distinct, focusing on a warm and joyful atmosphere, bright color matching, and high contrast, which is also a painting style that many young players like very much.
The color of art is in this category,I think it's the top echelon,In the Oka painting style,The only manufacturer that can wrestle with Playrix at this level is Supercell,Although the audience is different,But for the control of color and art details,It's the top of its own category。 If you are interested, you can take a look at the cutscenes, elimination animations and characters, UI animations, button positions, shapes, sizes, etc., including all UI animations are very natural and comfortable. I can't fault anything. I believe that the match-3 animation part of Playrix is the learning object of many elimination games in China.
After the UI art part, let's talk about the scene part, many scenes in the game have exclusive animations, and there will be pedestrians on the streets, and pedestrians will also have corresponding animations after you click. This kind of detail will make you feel that the city is alive, and early in the game there will be orders completed, and there will be children in the residential buildings to talk, thank the mayor, etc., I'm not sure if there are any more now, but this kind of humanity is on full display in this game. This kind of detail is a detail that will be made by the development team with the heart of the player, so I believe that the loyalty of this gamer is very high, and later I got some data from the penguin strategy to support my point of view, the user loyalty of township is relatively high, and it can also be the user of this category of games, and it is not easy to grab their users.
summary
Q: Why didn't this article delve into the match-matching game part of Township?
A: The focus of this article is mainly on the urban part of Township, as this aspect is at the heart of the game. Although the game includes blended gameplay, such as match-fixing, these elements have been well established and have been explored in depth by other games on the market, such as Royal Match and Candy Crush. Playrix's approach to blended gameplay is very appropriate, with the design team carefully balancing the elements of urban construction and elimination so that the two complement each other rather than steal the player's attention.
By introducing casual fusion gameplay, players are essentially encouraged to switch between urban planning and construction and elimination games. When eliminating the game part requires waiting for stamina to recover, players can turn to farm management, harvest products, or fulfill orders. This design effectively extends the player's daily playtime, and it is speculated that the average daily playtime may exceed 55 minutes.
Q: What is the secret to the game's longevity?
A: If a game can operate for more than 10 years, then its system framework and numerical framework are very solid. The game is at the system level, and not many systems have been added over the years. I've seen a lot of players pick up a game they haven't played for a long time, and when they enter the game and find that it's completely different from what they remembered, the strangeness will instantly arise, just like when they come home after leaving home for a long time and find that it's completely different from what they looked like in their childhood.
So Township didn't over-design and innovate in this area, which is the right thing to do, and it's key to keeping players loyal and active.
Q: What can new game manufacturers learn from and pay attention to?
A: Township has reached the top level in the business simulation genre, showcasing excellent art design and product quality. I once listened to an interview with Yu Hua, who said:
"I had to be 1.5 times better than the average of other articles in the magazine to stand out. ”
The same is true for games, where new game developers who want to stand out in the market need to not only offer innovative game mechanics, but also exceed existing standards in terms of art and user experience. Take, for example, Royal Match's rivalry against Candy Crush, which shows how it can successfully disrupt the market leader by outperforming its rivals in multiple ways. This involves not only innovation in gameplay, but also fine polishing of details and continuous optimization of the player experience.
For new vendors, the key is to create unique game value and continued player attraction to stay ahead of the competition.
The future outlook of the category
While Township and similar management sims excel in terms of frame design, their potential for commercialization is relatively limited, especially when compared to resource-intensive games such as RPGs, SLGs, or card games. These game genres often require players to continuously invest resources to develop a character or unit, where combat attrition and verification mechanics provide more opportunities for commercialization. On the contrary, the commercialization of simulation games often revolves around accelerating the development and beautifying the game environment (such as skins), lacking the dynamics of resource consumption and direct competition.
Referencing games such as Monopoly GO and QQ Farm, they add an extra commercialization point to the management simulation game by introducing elements of combat attrition and social interaction, such as raids and repairs of homesteaders. This design not only enhances the player's online frequency, but also creates interaction and competition between players through behaviors such as "stealing vegetables", thereby deepening the social dimension and commercialization depth of the game.
Another way of thinking is to combine simulation management with other game mechanics, such as the card combat gameplay in Gingerbread Man Kingdom. This combination not only extends the life cycle of the game, but also satisfies the needs of different player groups through diverse gameplay. For example, Gangnam Hundred Scenes introduces the concept of heroes, expanding the commercial focus from a single town-building to character development, which adds depth and complexity to the game despite the lack of combat effectiveness validation.
However, any attempt to enhance commercialization should be carefully balanced to ensure that the game's original charm and player base are not undermined. For example, an overemphasis on combat or competitive elements can change the fundamental nature of the game, resulting in the loss of a loyal player base. Therefore, developers should consider the impact of new elements on the existing user experience when introducing them, ensuring that both new and existing players find satisfaction in the game.
At last
Thank you for reading this, and I hope this article will provide valuable insights and inspiration for game developers, designers, and game enthusiasts, and I hope you enjoy this analysis. Thanks again for reading, and look forward to your feedback and discussion.
Finally, if the big guy who is interested in me personally can also poke me privately, I am willing to work with like-minded people to achieve great things.