Debut is the peak: the second anniversary of "King of Gone with the Times", breaking through the boundary of SLG industry

The king of gone with the wind has been two years old since it started broadcasting in August, 20 17. In the past two years, this self-developed "Tencent's first battle strategy mobile game" by Mei Tian Studio Group won TOP5 on the second day of the iOS free list, ranking third in the best-selling list. Since then, the number of users and revenue have ranked first in the category and become a veritable "king".

The most direct embodiment of the success of the remake of "King of Gone with the Times" is to break the product bottleneck of SLG category and get out of the differentiated product ecology through innovation; At the same time, explore the boundaries of the game, such as the possibility of creating category e-sports through the competitive ecology of the game alliance; Taking "glorious history" as the content, creating and shaping the cultural ecology of "king"; Combining intangible cultural innovation to create cultural symbols ... All kinds of innovations not only give mobile games a broader space, but also reflect the "cultivation" of "King of Gone with the Times" as the SLG head game-enhancing the category and even value of the game industry from a higher dimension.

Product innovation, creating a differentiated ecology of SLG gameplay

Since 20 17, the game market has ushered in the upsurge of SLG categories, but behind the outbreak of categories, there are problems such as insufficient product innovation and homogenization of gameplay. Behind this, "King of Gone with the Times" distinguished and differentiated with its deep understanding of categories and markets, and became the "overlord" of SLG games.

The first is the innovation of artistic style. In the past, SLG took western-style aesthetics as the mainstream, and the picture was heavy and gloomy. On the one hand, category games are mostly western fantasy themes; On the other hand, manufacturers often focus on strategies and interactive experiences that are easy to produce results, while ignoring the high-cost art level.

In the choice of scene art, The King of Gone with the Times is close to the traditional aesthetics of China's royal family in terms of bright main colors and details, such as magnificent palaces or picturesque lakes and mountains, etc., all of which are close to China's traditional cultural aesthetics. These all reflect the difference between Youshou and other SLG games. The design of characters and UI is also adjusted according to the current users' aesthetic habits, taking a brand-new localization road.

Furthermore, The King of Gone with the Times has also made a breakthrough in gameplay. The first thing is to guide users to grow up through game target management. At first, players will be familiar with the characteristics of SLG through PVE gameplay. In the medium term, users will be guided to transition from cooperation to competition through PVP and GVG in famous cities and imperial cities. Later, we will guide users to create an ecology through cross-service gameplay. At the same time, it also integrates RPG and card mode to cover different user needs.

It is worth mentioning that "King of Gone with the Times" also broke the hard-core gameplay inherent in SLG's long-term operation. For example, the past battles may last for several days, and players need to stay awake. This lightweight innovation controls the core single-game confrontation play within one hour, bringing more intense experience to players, and also taking into account the strategic experience of players improvising. More importantly, let players take into account the game and reality, and have more time to embrace life. This differentiation and fragmentation not only leads the new trend of SLG category play, but also makes SLG category truly meet the needs of the public.

League, the new ecological starting point of SLG events

In the past few years, SLG has been the representative of niche heavy games. If the category wants to break through the development ceiling, it needs to reach the mass users through competitions. As a long-term derivative of the game, the competition and appreciation of the event are easy to attract users, and the head event can also produce a star effect and become a "social currency" to drive more external users into the circle. However, SLG games emphasize players' long-term operation, which does not conform to the fast-paced style of mobile games and has natural limitations in the competition.

In Mei Tian's view, SLG competition is imperative. Based on this, "King of Gone with the Times" has made a breakthrough in SLG gameplay, creating a "Battle of Jiuding" gameplay, shortening a single battle to less than 60 minutes, and players fighting in alliance, greatly improving the competitiveness and appreciation of the game. At the same time, the mobile game also launched the Jiuding Champions League on the basis of the Battle of Jiuding, which has gone through three seasons. In July this year, S3 of Jiuding Champions League, King of Gone with the Times, came to an end. The competition lasted for three months, divided into regular season and playoffs, and entered the 5 12 league.

For King of Gone with the Times, leagues and events represent two new trends of SLG games in the future, sociality and competitiveness. First of all, the alliance form not only plays a strategic role in the game, but also stimulates the social needs centered on the alliance, and at the same time is more friendly to the game experience of light users, expanding the basic disk of game users; Furthermore, in addition to being competitive and ornamental, alliance warfare can also activate the internal ecology of the game and form a vibrant community. Competition has become a benign export of game ecology, which not only enriches the expression form of game ecology, but also expands the audience radiation of the game.

King of Gone with the Times also laid the foundation for the specialization and systematization of SLG categories, which means that through innovation, SLG categories can balance the characteristics of gameplay and the needs of e-sports events, which will promote the birth and development of different SLG game events. The incubation of Jiuding Champions League in the past three seasons has also laid a user foundation for SLG e-sports.

Users * * * create a content culture ecology of "glory and * * *"

If the alliance system of "King of Gone with the Times" breaks the industry stereotype of SLG category "hard competition", then the "content * * * creates ecology" centered on "Glory History" breaks the cultural stereotype of "brand determines ecology" in the game industry.

In the past, the game culture ecology was composed of two parts. The first part is the world view of brand creation, which forms the basic ecology of content; The second part is the content ecology spontaneously formed by players under the official guidance, and the two are relatively separated. As the leader of SLG game, King of Gone with the Wind can't be satisfied with a single official setting, or simply pursue the simple ecology of community activities-players are not only the main body of the game, but also the promoters and content producers of the game. As the head game of SLG, it wants to build a new content ecology, in which players and games are born and can grow and split freely.

Under the concept of "people-oriented", "King of Gone with the Times" started historical activities, allowing players to create their own history. At the beginning of this year, the collection activity of "Glory History Biography" attracted more than 6.5438+million players and won tens of millions of votes. With the opening of the second anniversary, the Glory Family will open 16 seats in history. This is also the unique feature of "King of Gone with the Times" which is different from ordinary game culture-the history of history is not just a single choice of content stories, but the growth of players as part of the growth of the game, giving more meaning to the content and allowing players to form new identities.

The ecological advantage of "King of Gone with the Times" comes not only from the deep recognition of players, but also from the brand official's attention and guidance to ecology. In addition to "Glory History", this year the official also launched the "Glory History Player Story Hall" to explain the player stories through various forms such as videos. In addition, the official also explained the player's story by inviting stars to shoot together, and showed the content ecological story to the outside world.

It can be said that "The King of Gone with the Times" is trying a new way to respect players and inspire * * * to build a brand. This kind of values and ecological environment of "Glory and * * *" not only touches the spiritual needs of current users, but also reflects the deep concern of global head game products for users.

Inherit and carry forward, lead digital art and create ecology.

It should be noted that the most brilliant stroke in "History of Glory" is not only that the player has boarded a chapter symbolizing history, but also that the player can get artworks personally created by invisible masters and related to the core depth of the game as a symbol of honor. In the "biography" activity, the player obtained the "overlord rising" Xiang Yu pottery sculpture created by Feng Weimin, a master of Chinese ceramic art and a new generation leader of Shiwan pottery. In this article "Family", "King of Gone with the World" will cooperate with one of the four famous embroideries in China with a thousand years' history and the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects, and make a series inspired by Wangcheng.

In recent years, the inheritance and development of traditional culture has become a new topic, and games, as an art form of digital culture in the new era, have been given new significance. Through games, a cultural form that young people are familiar with and love, we can not only innovate and interpret traditional culture, but also realize the unity of our own cultural value and industrial value.

This is also the fundamental reason why King of Gone with the World chose the "non-legacy" cooperation: the strategy game based on China culture has its own cultural label. Through the interpretation of the player's story and game content through the "non-legacy" works, this cultural symbol can be amplified, which can penetrate into the player's heart and make the player be influenced by the traditional culture in a subtle way. At the same time, this is also the exploration of King of Gone with the Times as a masterpiece of SLG. Its symbolic significance lies not only in promoting the "non-legacy" culture, but also in seeing the positive value of contemporary games to the general public.

In two years, King of Gone with the Times not only expanded the breadth of SLG games, but also played an important role in the depth of SLG games and even the whole game industry. When the game gradually becomes an entertainment consumption to meet the spiritual needs, it will be the road and journey of "King of Gone with the Times" to dig deep into the emotional connection between the game and the players and find its cultural value, thus becoming a new cultural symbol, and it will always be a star.