Innovate around user needs
The open world of category integration is gradually moving from innovation to action deformation, and even into a dead end.
It also seems to reflect the current situation of the market, and players are increasingly pursuing rich experiences in content and gameplay. In this trend, numerical products with a relatively single experience have also entered a crossroads - either introduce more content and upgrade the experience in an all-round way to catch card users whose needs are gradually changing, or further screen players on the premise that the product itself remains unchanged and choose a more vertical and focused user group.
However, this will also bring two completely different results, one is to face head-on, cater to market changes, face opportunities and challenges, and try to find solutions that meet the new needs of players. The other is to seek stability, continue to focus on not seeking category revival, but only to be able to keep their own "one acre and three points of land" (the most core users) in the ever-changing market. This, coupled with the overall tightening environment, has increased the risk of the former.
Even so, in the face of the existing opportunities and challenges, there are still warriors who choose to cater to market changes and strive for more possibilities for the category. "Sword and Expedition: Departure" (hereinafter referred to as "AFK2"), which launched today (August 8), is a typical example.
Why? Let's take a closer look at AFK2 from two perspectives: change (compared to traditional numerical cards) and innovation (differentiated solutions for big world products).
How is AFK2 different from traditional numeric cards?
The first problem encountered in the sequel product is whether the change of the product can match the change of player needs.
Judging from the performance data of "AFK2", in the pre-download stage the day before the launch, it topped the App Store free list in just 2 hours, and even rushed to the 12th place on the App Store's best-selling list today. Even in Japan, it topped the App Store free list. These data can at least show that in terms of product direction and initial experience, "Sword and Expedition: Departure" does accurately capture the new needs of users at home and abroad.
上线日冲上App Store畅销榜12名
Compared with the previous work "AFK", "AFK2" has a richer content experience when it first starts. When players follow the main quest in the early stage, they will encounter a variety of interactive elements along the way, it may be a simple puzzle solution, it may be an elite monster stationed in front of the treasure chest, or it may be a fog boss that opens a new area, etc. In the first hour of content, the player experience was very rich.
Thanks to the carrier of the big world, this work also has more room to play in the story, making the experience closer to the adventure RPG. AFK2 adopts a more royal story mode in terms of story content, and players will take on the role of Merlin, an amnesiac archmage, to reconnect with various partners and recover lost memories in the adventure against the darkness. This kind of plot design of recalling memories and regaining partners not only takes care of the feelings of a generation of old players, but also allows new players to quickly substitute emotions.
With the full-voice plot, the differentiated design of regional scenes, and a large number of map interactive elements, under the large-scale main line content of nearly 20 hours in the early stage, it does make the author feel like he is playing an adventure RPG, which is something that has never been experienced in traditional numerical card games.
In addition to the adventure experience, the adventure story and gameplay of AFK2 give the cards a distinct character image. For example, in the story of the village fire at the beginning and the subsequent investigation to find the prisoner, through the reversal of the image before and after, the character image of the fire method "Mirel" is created as cold on the outside and hot on the inside.
The design that focuses on the sense of the card's role gives the card an emotional value, breaking the inherent impression that "the feeling that the card brings to the player mainly comes from the strength of the card" in the previous numerical cards. Even when operating overseas, "Mankara", as a plot NPC and arena hostess, was able to get many overseas players to petition to add it to the card pool with just a few simple plots and interactions, which is unimaginable in traditional numerical card games.
And this sense of character shaping also extends to the battle, we can clearly feel that in the combat mechanism of the card, it is also more bold and unrestrained, and the skill form is also closer to the character image. For example, in the eccentric character "Igor", the core mechanism is to repeatedly jump sideways on the tombstone; The cold and elegant rabbit bow "Laika", the ultimate move can clear the screen with one click and so on. In addition to strengthening the character characteristics, it also brings more possibilities for the construction of the lineup.
In addition, in order to match the distinct character mechanics, the game has added a variety of map interactions and enemy mechanics to the levels, which further enhances the fun of the game. For example, various types of walls have been added to the map to limit the attack and movement of the characters, and players can reasonably meet the enemy through the pre-battle positioning arrangement; You can also use the character's characteristics to appear in a flash character such as "Silvina", ignoring the targeted attack on the wall.
In order to ensure that this strategy experience is maintained, "AFK2" has also made certain restrictions on the cultivation of values - the difference between the maximum and minimum levels of the character cannot exceed 10 levels, and players cannot pour resources into a character during the wasteland period as in the previous game, and open up one level after another through numerical grinding.
This also makes AFK2's challenging gameplay have a very obvious strategic orientation, and when facing enemies with different mechanics and battlefield environments, you need to build a reasonable team. With a high ceiling of gameplay, it has also directly contributed to the landing of challenge gameplay such as "Honor Duel", which does not rely on cultivation and starts completely from scratch.
In the "Glory Showdown" gameplay, players need to choose random heroes to challenge
Whether it is an immersive RPG adventure experience in the game, a role-like experience of cards, or a combat experience that does not simply focus on numerical values and focuses on strategic collocation, AFK2 has well captured the diversified experience needs of players, and even attracted many story-based players with its excellent content shaping, so that the target users of the product are not limited to purely numerical players.
An important reason why AFK2 has been able to make such big changes is the addition of big world elements. This significantly enhances the product experience.
The big world solution that doesn't follow the crowd
From an objective point of view, the large world design of "AFK2" is not complicated, it does not adopt a large world design that contains a lot of puzzles and action interactions like "Picnic" ("The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild") and "Tears of the King" ("The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom"), nor does it have a third-person cinematic experience like "Marvel: Spider-Man". It is even significantly different from many domestic big world products, whether it is the two-dimensional world or the MMORPG world.
The reason for this result is that "AFK2" is fundamentally different from most domestic big world products, especially the two-dimensional big world, in terms of the design idea of the big world. "AFK2" uses the big world as a solution to expand the product experience, rather than looking for a solution to the gameplay selection after establishing the big world.
As described in the opening part, for numerical card products, it is necessary to adapt to the current market environment by matching the growing experience needs of players and finding a stage that can support the diversification of experiences.
But what we need to know is that AFK2 is still an idle product that can meet specific usage scenarios, players can play casually in their commuting and spare time, exit the game after encountering a stuck point, and naturally easily cross the stuck point after receiving the placement resources the next day. This kind of situational product idea is to be able to gain enough advantages in grabbing users' leisure time. It is also an important reason why "Sword and Crusade: Departure" continues to choose the direction of placement + numerical cards.
The most effective way for AFK2 to improve its combat power is to "sleep"
And compared with entertainment products such as movies and novels, games themselves have a higher threshold, and they want to compete with them for users' leisure time. On the one hand, it needs to be able to provide a more multi-dimensional or in-depth experience than novels and movies. On the other hand, the experience needs to be presented as much as possible in a limited time. After all, only a handful of people have the time to experience a masterpiece full of time-lapse satisfying designs.
Therefore, for "AFK2", in terms of the design of the big world, it is impossible to move towards the gameplay design idea of heavy delay satisfaction, and how to allow players to experience more diverse content in a limited time is the primary purpose of the big world of "AFK2" - in the process of the main story experience. Players want a puzzle experience, then a few decryptions encountered on the way may be able to meet the player's experience needs, and if the player wants to reap the joy of the treasure chest, several boss strongholds encountered during the adventure can also satisfy the player.
Within the scope of the main line of experience, the various contents of the big world are naturally released, and then the core experience is pre-empted, which is indeed more in line with the experience needs of most players, which is the unique feature of AFK2's design ideas in the big world.
The realization of this core experience is largely dependent on AFK2's certain cutting of big world exploration and numerical cultivation - in the long run, the main way to obtain cultivation resources is to place levels, and the placed levels are not bound to the content of the big world, but are integrated into the gameplay menu of the game.
Even if it is detached from the content of the big world, the game is enough to form a loop in terms of gameplay. The resources provided by the big world only speed up the cycle further (you can get tons of epic gacha tickets, diamonds, character experience, gold, etc.). Or to put it another way, throwing away the big world content, it is also a numerical card game with rich gameplay, and it is much richer in experience content than its predecessor "AFK".
This means that players will not be bound by numerical cultivation in most cases in the exploration of the big world of AFK2, most of the battles only play a role in adjustment, and even in the face of the numerical verification of the area unlocked, they can ask other players to fight on their behalf, which will naturally not produce a sense of numerical anxiety, so that the core experience of plot and exploration in the big world is more focused. This may also be the reason why many players have reported "why the experience of AFK2 is so silky".
If players don't like to explore the big world, they can completely ignore the big world content of the game, and focus on the tower climbing, PVP and other gameplay content in the gameplay menu, which can also meet the needs of multi-dimensional experience. And the big world at this time will also not hinder the player's experience.
In addition to the big world, "AFK2" also has challenge gameplay such as PVP and boss battles, as well as interesting gameplay such as answering questions and honor duels
It just so happens that this is what many two-dimensional big world and even other big world products have not done - too much emphasis on the importance of big world exploration, so that the player's exploration behavior in most cases is passive. As a simple example, in addition to the main story, the vast majority of large world explorations may not really be intended to explore the large world at the beginning, it may be to complete a certain task/achievement, or it may be to obtain a certain material. It's just that in the process of execution, you are attracted by a certain puzzle point, and you may also be curious about a certain building, and then you can explore it.
The risks of this kind of design that puts the player in a passive position are also very obvious - if the player explores a few points that are quite bright, it may increase the player's desire to actively explore, and if the experience is not as expected, it will also strengthen the player's resistance to exploring the big world. You must know that many players have already experienced the baptism of many big world products, and their requirements for big world content design are getting higher and higher.
This is also the key reason why even if it is a second game in the big world, it will pay attention to the selection of gameplay, because once the support of the core gameplay is missing, it is difficult to retain players by only passively exploring the big world.
One-click sharing of character levels and equipment levels greatly solves numerical anxiety and allows players to experience the content of the big world freely and comfortably, which is also a unique feature of AFK2 in the design of the big world.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the different solutions to the big world, the card design of "AFK2" is obviously different from the second game. First of all, there is no concept of discarded cards in the game, even if the initial color of the card is, it can be cultivated to achieve the same combat power level. And each card has its own unique mechanism, so it has its own employment space. For example, Arsa, which can create terrain in battles, etc.
Secondly, the in-game character modeling is very exquisite, and it is not inferior to many second games, but the game opened the "All Heroes" free giveaway event on the day of the open beta, and the heroes given away include orange cards (roughly equivalent to SSR) and gods and demons heroes. And the character's equipment and level can also be shared with one click, without bundling users through the "sunk cost" of cultivation, in this way of thinking, it is not difficult to see its self-confidence in long-term business performance.
Dare to think that you can land, and dare to eat crabs
Through the changes between AFK2 and traditional numerical card games, as well as the analysis of the big world, we can find that AFK2 is only in the part of its own good at product design, making content that caters to the needs of more players, and is as self-consistent as possible. It's easy to say, but it's very few. After all, new players are slowly growing up, old players are slowly getting older, and player needs are changing accordingly.
Moreover, the research and development of a project can be as little as two or three years, and as long as four or five years, no one can say what the needs of players will become in the future. Mobile games have also entered the stock market, and the design concept of catering to the needs of more players is already a very risky idea in itself. Originally, the sword took the vertical direction of the edge, but now it has become a lifesaver. Learning has also become the norm, everyone is expecting new popular products to appear, but few people remember what players really want.
In this environment, AFK2 chose to cater to the needs of more players from the beginning of the project, and adopted the "design-driven" product idea to create a new product, which was to move forward against the risk. Judging from the performance of the market, the game topped the free list within two hours of pre-download, and the top 12 best-selling list on the first day can also show that the current market environment happens to need such a product to break.
If we look at it further through the "Leopard in the Tube" of "AFK2", the essence of "design-driven" proposed by Lilith is to explore thinking under the concept of catering to the market. On the one hand, it integrates all rational product design thinking based on user experience, and on the other hand, it also contains the idealistic idea of pursuing product uniqueness and even creating new categories.
At present, "AFK2" may not be perfect, but at least from the perspective of market performance, they have indeed managed to serve the market and players while making new products that no one on the market has made, and creating a new game category of card placement + big world. You know, they also added RTS elements to SLG, and finally created the feat of ROK like, a hot category. The author believes that under the rational thinking of "design-driven", the product will only get better and better.
In a short period of time, we can only slightly perceive the impact of AFK2 on the category, and we cannot come up with a specific practical methodology. However, it is foreseeable that in one or two years, or even three or five years later, the product design ideas of "AFK2" can still influence many practitioners in the industry, after all, it opens up more possibilities for numerical card categories and brings numerical cards to a new stage.
Does the big world really need to be so "heavy"? Or is it necessary to make the world big for the sake of making the world bigger? The author's answer is no. In my opinion, the big world should become a kind of stage and container for its own category expansion, and it can be seen from the big world art assets of AFK2 that it is a very typical "small to big". Maybe this is the right way to open the big world.
It seems that Lilith has understood a truth: "volume" has no end, and the most important thing is to meet the needs of its own users, serve users, and do a good job of stylization.