Text / Mobile game that little thing Ayumu Nishizawa
Invest more aggressively in the market.
Supercell hasn't launched a new product in over six years — and it seems like every article in the industry about Supercell is going to emphasize this reality. It's no wonder that everyone is worried, but this status quo is indeed as bad as a "curse" for a mobile game developer who is often in the top 10 in the world.
Supercell's CEO, Eka Pannanen, has repeatedly addressed this dilemma in his annual blog, with high hopes for several new games: Clash Mini, Squad Busters, and mo.co seem to be in the final stages of the race. Unexpectedly, Clash Mini, which has been in development for 5 years, was also aborted last month, which once again showed the high demand for products within Supercell, and the responsibility of breaking the "curse" had to be passed on to the other two products.
Just yesterday (April 23), "Squad Busters" launched a soft launch in many overseas countries (Spain, Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada, Singapore), officially opening the door to market testing.
It's not once or twice that Supercell has tried to set IPs for new games in terms of genres, but it's the first time that a product like "Squad Busters" has taken all the Supercell IPs such as "Cartoon Farm", "Boom Island", "Clash Royale", and "Brawl Stars" at once. This unprecedented IP integration has made "Squad Busters" attract attention since its birth, like a "prince" carrying many missions and expectations.
（截自官方视频“Squad Busters需要走向全球”）
Compared with the previous test, the soft launch of "Squad Busters" presents a lot of game content: the UI and graphics have been comprehensively refined and improved, the classes and maps are more diverse, and the development system has also been greatly changed. Supercell seems to want to prove with these incremental changes that Squad Busters is more than just its "all-star" roster.
In terms of the level of investment, "Squad Busters" is perhaps the most likely product in beta for Supercell to make it to official release in the past six years. But after actually experiencing the rules of the game, it's hard for me to give it a high score. Again: a game is a good game, but if it's from Supercell, then it should be better.
01
PvPvE with a "big picture" strategy
Squad Busters is currently PVPVE, a mix of roguelikes and synths. It doesn't seem accurate to classify it as a casual MOBA, as the core experience of Squad Busters is more of a "resource gathering" than a "competitive battle" in a way that is significantly different from other MOBA games. In a fast-paced 4-minute game, 10 players battle each other to collect coins to recruit team members to expand their squad and collect as many gems as possible to claim the ultimate victory.
(Each game will also randomly match 1 map, and 1~2 environmental events)
It sounds like a lot of elements, but with the minimalist operation, the actual experience of the player is quite lightweight. The most obvious thing is that you can't find the attack button in the game. Player-controlled squads cannot attack while moving, and will only automatically attack the nearest enemy unit within range when they stop moving. In addition to controlling the movement of the squad, the player is left with the only room to use Speed (increases movement speed when moving and attack speed when stopping) and spell items.
Despite being simplified to this point, the game still has some space for micro-manipulation around the "attack range". Players can switch to the back row and dodge AOE damage by moving. But overall, micro-manipulation doesn't have much of an impact on the course of the game, and there are only two things that really determine the direction of the game: the player's luck and the overall perception.
Squad Busters has a lot of luck in each game, mainly due to its roguelike recruitment, where players choose one of three random characters from the authorities' pool of 15 characters for each recruitment, both at the start and in the game. And the functions of each character are different, and it is not uncommon in this game to gradually widen the gap between the ideal character and the opponent's lineup.
The second is the player's overall concept, which is mainly reflected in three aspects: the cognitive difference in the combination of troops, the growth plan of the field route, and the trade-off of attacking and avoiding war.
In order to assemble a well-rounded and powerful team, players must have a deep understanding of the characteristics of each class. The diversity of classes is a highlight of Squad Busters' focus - this soft-launch version includes 27 classes, and there are 150 in previous rumors. The kaleidoscopic combination of these classes makes for the most distinctive and differentiated experience in each game.
Specifically, in addition to the classic class structures such as the Tactics Shield, Squad Busters also has two functional classes: resource-based and agile. Resource-based classes can provide economic advantages, such as only Greg can cut down trees for resources, Goblins can provide gold when buying and crafting, and Penny can find additional treasures, while agility gives speed advantages, such as hens can provide extra speed, Max can increase the movement speed of an entire squad, and Boar Riders can get acceleration in decelerated terrain.
Although these two types of characters are slightly less capable of direct combat, the unique buffs they provide are definitely worth the price when it matters most. It can be seen that whether the team has and what kind of functional roles it has largely determines the development path and the rhythm of farming: if you start with a goblin, you must synthesize it as soon as possible to play its strengths of making money; if you choose Greg, you will have to cut down trees and fight fewer monsters in the early stage; and if you start with a pure combat character, you can only take monster farming as the core goal. In general, the behavioral logic of the optimal solution is not complicated, and you can understand seven, seven, eight, eight and eight by playing one or two.
(Greg is more efficient at cutting trees than fighting monsters)
Due to the general weakness of the team in the early and middle stages, the player's resource gathering experience mainly revolves around PVE. By fighting monsters, destroying chests, chopping down trees, etc., you can get gold coins and gems, and you can open treasure chests on the map to recruit characters by spending gold coins. If you have three identical characters in your party, you can combine them into a full status character with three times the stats, and the characters that have already been crafted cannot be recombined.
Incidentally, the mechanic of crafting characters was designed because as the number of people in a party increases, so does the cost of opening chests. Therefore, in order to recruit characters at a higher cost performance and improve the overall combat power of the team faster, players need to find the same characters as much as possible to actively synthesize and reduce the size of the team.
And there is another high-risk way to get gold and gems, and that is PVP. Each team will have a display of the number of gems they are currently carrying, and if the player is able to destroy the opponent's team, all the gold and gems they have accumulated will be scattered all over the place, as well as a free key to open the case.
However, in the early stage, the price of the chest is not high, the value of the keys dropped is limited, and the number of gems on the opponent is not sufficient. That's why it's often more important to time your shots – attacking or avoiding them ultimately depends on what level of opponent the player encounters when.
So is it necessary to take the initiative in PVP in the later stage? Not necessarily. It's important to note that while the game shrinks the safe zone over time, and the gem mine in the center of the map opens at the last minute to induce engagement, it will eventually leave a relatively wide area for players to avoid combat, unlike some battle royale games that force players to decide whether to win or lose. The game's guidance for PVP does exist, but the strength is not strong.
With that, we've pretty much summarized 80% of Squad Busters' in-game gameplay. PVE-led, making the game experience more casual and relaxed than Brawl Stars, combining the randomness of roguelike with the "unboxing" mechanic, bringing a strong sense of feedback to the in-game cultivation point, and providing some PVP interest exchange and game space in terms of situation judgment, it brings some variables and strategies to each game.
02
The core driving force is only cultivation?
I'll admit that as I continue to break my winning streak, Squad Busters has been a great experience for a while. However, the moment my 44-game winning streak came to an end, an indescribable sense of emptiness arose. Looking back, what drove me to play this game, was it really just a winning streak?
I tried to dismiss my superficial and utilitarian view, but all the other reasons seemed to be a little untenable, and I was a little frustrated.
Stripped of this coat, Supercell's successive works often have another set of cores that attract players to invest in the long term, or there is a path to accumulate a sense of achievement: "Cartoon Farm" is essentially a simulation management There is nothing to say, "Boom Island" and "Clash of Clans" can accumulate experience in setting up formations, "Clash Royale" can improve micro-manipulation skills, and "Brawl Stars" meets the needs of light social interaction by team-up...... So, what's the core appeal of Squad Busters?
Perhaps we can start with the winning tactics discussed earlier. Relying on a deep understanding of lineup combinations to achieve victory seems to be a way to build a sense of accomplishment in Squad Busters. But even putting aside the limited depth of the lineup, with the current game's loose victory mechanic, it seems that players want to "win", and there seems to be no high demand for this.
As long as you finish in the top five, you can count as a winning streak. Winning streaks can give you an extra chance to upgrade chests, which is clearly a lesson from Brawl Stars' revamped "Star Surprise". If the squad survives at the end of the countdown, all gems accumulated in the game will be counted together with the ranking rewards to the "Gem Path" and converted into out-of-game development rewards. All in all, players have only two goals from start to finish: survive and bring out the gems, and aim for the top five to maintain their winning streak.
In other words, if a player can ensure that they are in the top five gem counts, there is absolutely no need to clash with other players unless they are belligerent. After all, the map is vast, so continue to pick a comfortable area to fight junglers, stabilize the number of gems, and wait for the countdown to reach zero.
(It's hard to fight between strong teams)
The ones who are really anxious are often the sixth or seventh ranked players (if they survive to the end). They will take the initiative to create chaos and provoke the strong in order to seek a chance to turn the tables. However, the difference in strength also determines that they can make limited waves. In the game ecology where the strong are always strong and the weak are always weak, it is a common situation in the game for the strong and the weak to bully each other, and the strong to avoid war.
It is almost impossible to turn over when you are behind, which is obviously unreasonable. In the last test, Squad Busters exposed this problem. Supercell also seems to find this quite tricky, so the "Tactical Backpack" and "Super Unit" features have been added to this soft-start version.
The Tactical Backpack contains items that can be used in PvP: Dice to refresh the Chest character, a key to open the Chest for free in PvP, an Epic Key to open the Epic Character's Chest for free, and a Merge Key to get a Merge Character directly. "Super units" are even more powerful, such as "Tiger King Primo", which has up to 11,000 HP and 250 attack damage, one up to four. The more types of "Super Units" can be unlocked, the more likely it is that players will be able to open them in in-game chests.
Judging from the original intention of the official explanation, if players can flexibly use "tactical backpack items" or recruit "super units" in the game, they may be able to create an opportunity to turn the game around. But at the trade-off, they are all one-time consumables, and they cost an out-of-the-box gold resource to purchase. "Super Units" can only be obtained for free in small quantities through the "Gem Path", and if players want more, they must open a Battle Pass or purchase a bundle directly.
When it comes to games where out-of-game items can affect in-game revenue, the first thing that comes to mind is "Escape from Tarkov": set off fully armed, return with a full load, or give up. If you look at it only from the perspective of paid item design, it seems that Squad Busters' PVPVE is also trying to borrow this model.
For individual players, the essence of the use of props is an exchange of input and output: except that "Escape from Tarkov" puts in items and produces all kinds of items, while "Squad Busters" invests in items and only keeps streaks, rankings, and gems. The output is single, and the channel for players to obtain pleasure is relatively single.
In addition, the cost of investing in Tarkov does not mean that the player will necessarily gain something, and it is still possible to lose everything by being defeated by poorly equipped enemies. In Squad Busters, the player's inventory is permanent and up to them, and the sunk cost and risk aren't as straightforward as Tarkov's. All the unreasonable factors add up, and players are not fighting big with outside items in Squad Busters, but more like being forced to pay commercial insurance - it's no wonder that some players think that this design is a suspicion of pay to win.
Revisiting the question posed at the beginning of the chapter: what is the core driver of playing Squad Busters other than building and maintaining a winning streak? I think this sense of contradiction should be attributed to the dilution of revenue by the rules of the game: the gameplay is mainly casual, but the positive feedback in all aspects is limited to casual and not strong enough, which ultimately leads to a dilemma in the production, and has to make this decision.
03
Write at the end
Admittedly, Supercell's style has never been copied. At the moment, Squad Busters is more of a process of integration. Supercell is actually quite good at this, and the reason why Brawl Stars can create a mythical daily active data is inseparable from their continuous iteration of game content and accurate grasp of player needs.
Perhaps at this stage, Squad Busters is still some way from the concept of an "Infinity game" that Supercell is pursuing. But there's no denying that it's already giving players a whole new experience that no other game on the market can offer. I hope and believe that Supercell will continue to focus on polishing this title, and when it officially meets players, Squad Busters will be able to bring new changes to the market with a more mature and excellent image, and use creativity to bring new changes to the market.