On May 16th, "Glory of Kings: Dawn of the Stars" suddenly launched a new gameplay of "Star Soul Battlefield", which is understood to be a "chicken" gameplay with the king hero as the core.
So far, Dawn has told two more interesting stories to the market.
After verification, a conclusion can be drawn from the results of "Border Breakout", that is, MOBA and chicken mode can be effectively integrated, and the king is also thinking that if another way of eating chicken is opened from the perspective of MOBA, it may be possible to create a better battlefield for chicken eating.
Although the new gameplay is now in a testing phase, we can see that the new gameplay inherits many elements of the king, so it makes sense to call it an upgraded version of the Frontier Breakout mode.
The R&D team used continuous cold start to promote the iteration of a high-heat product, and expanded the gameplay dimension in a clear rhythm; Authorized co-creation with vertical OGs such as "Meteor Butterfly Sword.net" and "Martial Arts", dialogue on an equal footing, and grow while stealing teachers.
It has been more than four years since the first exposure, and Dawn is still standing in front of the huge and complex number of users of the king IP, thinking about those problems about supply and demand, and experience.
The good news is that this derivative product has a preliminary solution idea: through the interpretation of the king element, more users can understand the action category, and then through the continuous addition of new categories, to meet the diverse and complex needs of users, the Star Soul Battlefield came into being.
The king started the group again, familiar and surprised
As a new way to play in Daybreak, the most prominent feature of "Star Soul Battlefield" is that it allows king players to experience the fun outside of MOBA in a more relaxed state.
"Glory of Kings" captured the public's desire for fair competition MOBA and became a national IP; At the same time, the needs of a large user base are constantly increasing, and players need more complex and diverse needs.
From the addition of different modes in the early days to the launch of Vientiane Tiangong in 2019, which focuses on co-creation, the king has been trying.
"Star Soul Battlefield" is not a separate innovation, but comes from the border breakout mode launched in 2018 by "Honor of Kings".
The original intention of the design is to allow the king hero to get a bigger stage, so that players can feel the same quality as "Honor of Kings", but in a more fresh hero action competition experience in a freer world.
In the Star Soul Battlefield, players can find the shadow of the king everywhere, and you can feel different fun with your friends in the most familiar scenes.
Team up in three rows, and switch between two heroes at will
Different from the 100-man battle in the border mode, the Star Soul Battlefield divides many "generals" into 16 teams, each team has three people, you need to be ready to meet the battle at all times, and take care of the distance between teammates, which also means that while entertaining, you must be more serious, and even in the preparation stage, you must think about the combination of Star Soul skills.
In the game, you can get another hero, and then you can switch at will, when a hero is not energetic, and the battle is still ongoing, you can immediately choose another to fight, and the combination between heroes can be flexibly selected according to the battle situation, such as rushing into the flow of double warriors, or be conservative, shooters and warriors, long-range attrition, and not afraid of close combat.
As for the difference in strength between heroes and the characteristics of the style, it is up to players to explore on their own, and I want to say that although only a few heroes are open now, they can achieve N kinds of combinations.
The operation is simple, and the king player can easily get started
The first time you see Xingshuo, you may think it's cool, but will it be difficult to operate? In fact, this is also a "hand on the line" operation, Star Shuttle will automatically lock on to the enemy or target, you can use it to hurry, go high, and even grab the enemy to achieve the effect of rushing, this is a very distinctive gameplay in the Star Soul Battlefield, there is no CD, you can fly all the time, but there is a limit to the number.
And the combination of star soul skills can play a decisive role in many times, like Goya, Zhen Ji's skills are remote control, especially suitable for shooters to open up their positions after use, or find time to replenish vitality, like red buff transformation is very suitable for fighters to fight while resisting, Cai Wenji's healing effect can play a role in saving lives and helping the injured.
Audio-visual upgrades, full of gorgeousness
In addition to the gameplay, the innovation of the "Star Soul Battlefield" also lies in the new audio-visual performance effect.
You can see the details of the movements that you can't see in the king, you can see a new perspective of Shangguan Wan'er spinning and jumping in the air, and you can enjoy the hero's wonderful posture by sliding the direction with your left hand, which is an unprecedented visual experience.
At the same time, this also means that flat team battles have shifted to three-dimensional team battles, while retaining the king's characteristic mechanics, players will be able to see the gorgeous performance of classic skills in three-dimensional space, and adrenaline-pumping highlight operations such as three-dimensional defense, and get a unique action experience.
In addition, the Star Soul Battlefield has also deeply inherited the classic IP elements of the king, using the original voice, soundtrack, and scene of "Honor of Kings", making you feel as if you have been playing this game for a long time, without the slightest sense of strangeness.
At the same time, on the basis of the original desert map art style of Border Breakthrough, the whole map further adds the design themes of Chang'an/Jixia and other design themes that are close to the king's IP world view.
Category OG co-creation, lock in the direction of innovation
Over the past years, "Honor of Kings" has maintained the exploration of multiple categories.
The R&D team in charge of the Star Soul Battlefield has always maintained an open attitude to the outside world, and has had conversations and exchanges with other well-known action game R&D teams on the innovation and development of action categories to think together. The "Star Soul Battlefield" is also gradually taking shape in this kind of co-creation.
In the early stage of R&D, the Daybreak team established close and lasting exchanges with the R&D team of the originator product "Meteor Butterfly Sword.net" in the domestic action field and the first domestic martial arts game "Wuxia Yi", and reached an authorization and co-creation relationship.
There are two hardcore terminal game OGs in the action category, plus the king of Dawn, which has rich experience in popular mobile games and is backed by national IP. From different perspectives, the three parties combined their respective experiences in their respective fields of expertise to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and deduced the development direction of the Star Soul Battlefield, or the chicken mobile game.
In terms of balance, most of the existing chicken games are designed with traditional ranged weapons and melee weapons, and it is easy to fall into the cycle of "too strong if you can't touch it, or die if you touch it and be too weak". The Star Soul Battlefield broke the shackles of this pattern, using the numerical balance accumulated by the king for many years, replacing weapons with heroes, so that melee combat and ranged combat achieved a fairer confrontation.
The threshold for experience has also been lowered, and traditional action games test skills such as skill rubbing proficiency, release timing accuracy, and other abilities involving reaction and muscle memory, and the threshold for getting started is high.
However, most of the traditional action games are completed on the keyboard, and the relatively large operation space is large, and if such a high threshold is set on the mobile game, I am afraid that it does not meet the status quo, so the Daybreak team will focus on the hero's skills to the king's gameplay, combined with the gameplay of eating chicken guerrilla to carry out a more popular design.
For example, the rubbing skill has become a hero switch and a one-click release of the skill, which increases the effect of adsorption for skills that require precise aim, and there is no pressure on the player to play.
It's a dangerous road
Returning to "Breaking Dawn" as a whole, as a king IP derivative mobile game, it has been widely concerned by the industry in the past few years, players are looking forward to new experiences, and practitioners want to see new ways to update the category experience and balance the supply and demand of product users.
For Dawn, taking a road that no one has walked is necessary for its own development, but it is also a dangerous road, fortunately, now, Dawn has a preliminary and clear direction: they are trying to jump out of the traditional framework of a single "derivative new game", not putting eggs in one basket, maybe there will be more opportunities, and the Star Soul Battlefield may not be the last challenge.
Predictably, there will be bumps in the road, but at least the future is bright, and recent rounds of cold starts have shown that the Daybreak team is maintaining a high degree of caution in the face of such a diverse and complex audience. They were also worried about whether these innovative operations would make players uncomfortable due to dynamics and pacing, so the Daybreak team paid close attention to each player's feedback and suggestions.
So, let's walk, the first step out to know whether the road after that is muddy or a broad road.