Text / Mobile game that little thing Sparrow
On May 11, the offline "Wasteland Tasting" event of "Broken Land" was held in Guangzhou as scheduled, and it was officially announced that a round of billing deletion tests that support iOS, Android, and PC multi-terminal interoperability will be launched on May 24. After three years of development and multiple tests, the game is finally ready for a new round of validation.
In the past few years, the wasteland theme has always been in the spotlight of the mobile game market, and it is also one of the key battlegrounds for the wrestling between major manufacturers. As a new spoiler, "The Broken Land" has attracted market attention since its exposure, first because of the novel concept of "Chinese wasteland", and then announced cooperation with world-class masters such as famous soundtrack masters Hans Zimmer and Steve Majaro, which ignited many players.
There is no doubt that it carries the project team's ambition to subvert the traditional shooting market and create a real Chinese wasteland world. For this reason, the game is known as NetEase's "killer shooting product", and the number of reservations on the whole network has exceeded 1 million.
It is understood that "Shattered Land" has been recognized by many players during the test, and the quality presented is quite mature, but there are still many challenges to be considered and verified by the product: how to differentiate, how to interpret Chinese-style wasteland, and how to meet long-term consumption......
With some questions about this product, the mobile game was invited by Beiluo Shimen Studio to come to the "Wasteland Tasting" for offline trial. At the same time, we also chatted with the game's curatorial team to try to understand the development details behind this product and unveil its "mystery".
Here's a rundown of the interview:
Q1: "The Broken Lands" mentions the new concept of "Chinese-style wasteland", what is its main embodiment?
A: The interpretation of "Chinese-style wasteland" can be developed from three aspects: the outside and the inside.
First of all, the most superficial and intuitive, you can see all kinds of visual Chinese elements during the game. It is reflected in clothing, architecture, items, etc., such as the long shirt and short fight of the Axe Gang, the Chinese-style western-style building of the Dashuai Mansion, the beckoning cat and couplets on the street storefront, and so on.
Secondly, in terms of atmosphere, players can feel the local specialties born from the Chinese food culture, such as spicy lobster in Tangwan, roasted meat and milk tea in Pearl City. In addition, there are dialects of different places, such as Cantonese in Tangwan, northwest accent in Danxia Valley, etc.
Finally, there is a more core cultural spirit, just like the American wasteland has their cowboys, and the Chinese-style wasteland has its own chivalrous guests, compared with the American-style encroachment and plunder, we emphasize more on the excellent qualities of Chinese civilization, such as "drawing a sword to help each other when the road is uneven", "righteous knot Jinlan is like a brotherhood" and so on.
Q2: However, you can also see modern buildings such as "rocket launchers" in the setting, showing the difference in the timeline, is there a corresponding explanation for this in the background setting?
A: This is the framework that we draw from many wasteland games, namely two timelines: one is a clue to a civilization before destruction, and the other is a clue to a civilization after it has been rebuilt. Players can experience the diversity of the plot through the interweaving of these two timelines in the game.
Q3: There have been many excellent works in the wasteland-style games, such as the "Fallout" series and the "The Division" series, which are quite influential. So what are the features or strengths of The Broken Lands?
A: On the one hand, we learned from and borrowed from the good design of these titles, such as the surprising free-form adventure in Fallout, the deep cover-and-shoot combat in The Division, and the rich character genre building in Borderlands.
On the other hand, we also try some unique content: from a social point of view, the previous excellent works are often single-player platforms or single-player games, "Shattered Land" has added a lot of multiplayer gameplay content, such as multiplayer dungeons, gang secret realms, no man's land, etc., and some challenging gameplay will even require higher team cooperation, which will provide players with a richer social platform.
In terms of long-term content, most of the excellent products in the past can only support 50-100 hours of content experience, and then enter a relatively boring process of brushing values, while "Broken Land" provides a rich and clear goal in the medium and long term, which can maintain freshness for a relatively long time, such as the pursuit of a green quality weapon armor, and the exploration of a secret realm to 100%, and then the unlocking of the manufacturing formula of advanced drones, etc.
Q4: The game combines the design of "large world map + local box garden". How did you decide which areas to place in the open world for players to explore, and which areas to show more detail through the Box Garden area?
A: We position the big world as the core of personal exploration, while Hakoniwa focuses on the main story quest and multiplayer dungeons.
The reason for this division is because the main and side quests have a rich plot and sense of substitution, the visual and sensory experience is more concentrated, and in this case, the changes in the scene are also more diverse, so the big world pays more attention to individual exploration.
In multiplayer dungeons, the player's attention is mainly focused on fighting monsters, trying not to be disturbed by other factors. For this reason, Hakoiwa focuses on ensuring a multiplayer dungeon experience between teams.
Q5: Please tell us about the core gameplay and highlights of The Shattered Lands.
A: One keyword, degrees of freedom.
From the perspective of combat, players can diversify their own gun shooting genres, you can dual-wield machine guns to be a charging macho man, or you can carry a sniper rifle to be a surprise stealth assassin; You can also make friends with different combat abilities, and build all kinds of high-end drones and automatic gun turrets to assist in battle.
From the perspective of gameplay, we provide a wealth of gameplay modes and open up gameplay rewards, players can focus on any gameplay mode they like, either cooperate with friends to challenge multiplayer dungeons, or immerse themselves in the open secret realm to explore and decrypt and discover treasures, or participate in the exciting no-man's land PVP competition.
From the perspective of adventure exploration, players' exploration behavior is more three-dimensional, thanks to the addition of climbing, jumping, gliding, and swimming, players will have a higher degree of strategic freedom in decryption and battle. For example, if you find it difficult to break through a large stronghold from the front, you may find some holes in the enemy's defenses by climbing or going around the back.
Q6: What differentiates Shatterlands from other PVE shooters on the market?
A: The mainstream PVE shooters on the market today tend to combine survival and building elements, and "The Shattered" has greatly weakened this element.
We've focused the core experience on adventure exploration and combat fun, such as the Uncharted gameplay that offers a high degree of freedom to explore, and guns, talents, and companions that offer a variety of unique combat genres. These are less common in the market nowadays, and we are confident that we can attract enough users with this unique part of the content.
Q7: For games that focus on PVE content, long-term content consumption is a big problem, what are the development team's plans for long-term updates and content expansion of The Shattered?
A: We've designed a lot of unique multiplayer dungeons, main story levels, and free-to-open secret realms, and formed a relatively efficient production pipeline in the process, so we're confident enough to handle long hours of content consumption. In the first two tests, we often heard the voice of the player as liver, not the lack of content, and I think that proves it.
For the longer-term update content, it can be revealed that the focus of our team's work during this period of time: first, the promotion of Liberty City and the subsequent main story content that players are looking forward to; Secondly, the improvement of the freedom of the game and the polishing of details, we have added climbing, jumping, gliding, and removed a large number of unreasonable air walls, so that players can enjoy exploration more freely; Finally, there is the adjustment of the payment strategy, which mainly focuses on the personalization of appearance, and the content related to the value can be stably produced through the game.
Q8: At present, many games can see the trend of reducing liver and krypton, and PVE shooting gameplay will inevitably make players invest a lot of time, how do you balance the contradiction between gameplay and experience needs?
A: First of all, we have to admit that the core fun of PVE shooting is the shooting itself, so we have to guarantee a certain amount of combat time in the game, but definitely not excessively.
Therefore, on the one hand, focusing on the core gameplay, focusing on content and rewards highlights the core fun of the game - multiplayer dungeons and secret realms; On the other hand, players are given the opportunity to allocate their time freely. You will find that the number of multiplayer dungeons in the game can be accumulated for many days, and the secret realm is also valid for a long time and can be explored slowly, and there is no mandatory task such as requiring daily launch.
Q9: In a PVE-based shooter, how do you ensure that players don't fall into a boring and monotonous numerical development experience? And, how does the game solve the pressure of numerical growth in the later stage?
A: The essence of this problem is the rhythm of content release, that is, how to keep the player experience fresh for a long time. It can be seen from two aspects:
On the one hand, we will create enough rich and clear goals for players in the post-game, and there will be enough differentiation between different goals to create freshness. For example, if I might farm a green weapon blueprint in a multiplayer dungeon today and create a unique modifier, I'll share it on the World Channel and show off my awesome weapon. After a few more days, after a long period of trial and hard work, I finally reached 100% progress in a very difficult secret realm, then I will feel that I have completed a new achievement, and I will also feel a great sense of accomplishment.
On the other hand, we will further refine each goal. We pay a lot of attention to the experience of different players at different times of granularity, monthly, weekly, every three days, every day, and even every hour. For example, in the hope test, players will come into contact with the first blue-quality partner in Tangwan, but after arriving in Pearl City, they basically have a purple-quality partner, and the purple partner will show its power at this time, especially in the partner "Joe" that can be made in the Turbo Plains, and the skills she releases are basically a monster with one shot, which is a unique refinement target experience.
In the late game, we actually need to ensure a certain amount of numerical growth pressure, which is the game goal and game motivation that players continue to pursue. And this part of the numerical pressure is basically focused on a few modules, and it can be stably produced through the daily behavior in the game. So if a goal is clear and there is a relatively stable path to it, then I don't think the pressure is too much.
Q10: Why does NetEase want to make such a PVE treasure shooting mobile game?
A: In terms of market demand, shooting games in the mobile market are dominated by PVP, but this genre often tests the player's ability to operate, and many players want to try this category of shooting, but they are limited by the operation.
PVE shooting offers the possibility to experience the purest combat pleasure of shooting while lowering the threshold for operation. Looting is a series of the entire PVE pursuit process, gradually leading players to experience the various unique gun genres of combat styles we designed.
From the team's point of view, in fact, many members of our team are fans of PVE shooters such as The Division and Star Warframe, and we really want to make a game that will make us very satisfied.
Q11: What are the special features of the game in PVE mode? What are the highlights of boss battles, dungeon levels, etc.?
A: We have main and side plots that emphasize the plot, challenge levels and team dungeons that emphasize combat, and secret realms that emphasize exploration and puzzle solving and stronghold infiltration.
Dungeon and boss battles are the key PVE content of our game, which will be designed in the classic cover shooting mode to integrate souls-like bosses to provide you with a hearty combat experience and the fun of team challenges. In addition to your own powerful output, you also have to help or rescue each other, such as teammates who need to be rescued from a giant sandworm after they need to be rescued.
Q12: What is the charging model of the game?
A: The charging model has been determined, and we believe that numerical payment is a product of the old era, and players should pay for love.
Therefore, all the values of the game can be generated in-game, and more specifically, there will be an unlimited supply of bound diamonds in the large secret store of the core gameplay, which players can obtain stably through daily behavior. As for the core subject of payment, we focus on the appearance, specifically the personalized display content that has nothing to do with the value, such as fashion, mounts, gun skins, and titles.
Q13: From the perspective of gameplay and setting, the game is currently very suitable for landing on the console platform, does the production team have any plans in this regard?
A: We attach great importance to the control and combat experience of the game, and have also considered logging in to the console platform, but the current focus is on mobile phones and PCs, and whether to log in to the console platform depends on the follow-up development plan.