"To tell you the truth, when I first discovered that I could combine skills and generate new genre routines in "My Knight", I was ecstatic. I just followed my understanding of the game and further studied it. There is no other martial arts in the world. No one can compare with me." Xiao Leng said to me.

Xiao Leng was born in 1989. In reality, he is a small shop owner. In "My Knight", he is considered a practicing madman. He continued to tell me: "But the more I practiced, the more difficult it became to solve. By the time I decided to post on the forum, my previous mood of cherishing the secrets and not showing them to others had long since disappeared. As long as someone can It would not be a pity to untie the knot of doubts in my heart, even if all my previous understandings are made public to the world."

Everyone's idea of ​​martial arts is different, but if there is a common theme, it is "I want to become stronger." After becoming stronger and becoming a hero, you can do whatever you want in the world. To realize this wish, the most convenient way is to have an old monk teach you Qigong. At that time, you and the old monk put your palms together, moved your Dantian, and clenched your teeth, and you felt the internal energy flowing into your body continuously; the next best thing was to find martial arts secrets and learn them in a place where no one was around. In the last three years, it is best to eat a red Thai avocado. Your power will increase by 1500 years, and you will be invincible when you leave the customs.

But these two paths are not available in "My Knight".

In Xiao Leng's words, if you want to be strong in this game, you must have "liver". But he immediately added: "It doesn't mean what you think."

In Xiao Lengkou, "liver" means that the game has enough depth, which may be strategy, gameplay, combinations and changes, or collection elements. Only if a game is fun enough will players play it; conversely, a game that players are willing to play must be a good game. For Xiao Leng, the method of "living" in "My Knight" is to try new skill combinations, just like Huang Rong's cooking: the mixed bite of pigs and sheep is the normal taste, and the chewing of the deer and the cow is the normal taste. There are 9 sects in the game, and according to Huang Rong's algorithm, there are 9981 possibilities… Xiao Leng spent a lot of time looking for the strongest secret skill in his imagination.

As the degree of "liver" increases, each martial art is unlocked one after another.

“When I was at the top, I played for more than ten hours a day for three or four days,” he told me. “But this is what I think is the most attractive part of the game: when you verify your ideas (skill combinations) ), the sense of accomplishment is unparalleled!"

I asked him, wouldn't this be tiring?

Xiao Leng gave an example: Everyone plays FPS games. If you want to play well, you must spend time practicing marksmanship, otherwise you will be used as a target and be killed. Therefore, you must be dedicated when playing games. So in "My Knight", the way to invest is to find and verify combinations, because after all, it is an SLG or SRPG, and the "strategic" component is very heavy. The vastness of the world, the number of sects, and the breadth of martial arts in the game give rise to many possibilities, making things even more complicated and confusing.

"What is said on the Internet is not necessarily correct." He said, "Just like that Xia Ke Island, there are so many annotations on martial arts, but the result? They are all wrong! On the contrary, the illiterate Shi Potian practiced the magical skills according to the diagram. So I think , everyone will have their own adventures, don’t blindly believe in the version of the answer. As for me, I am still looking for the genre that suits me best…"

Talking about the open beta of the game, Xiao Leng said that because of the busy business in real life recently, he may not have much time to invest, but he will definitely play it.

"When I was young, I also felt that Shaolin was authentic and invincible. The world's martial arts originated from Shaolin!"

Master Wen was heartbroken when he talked about the last "Huashan Sword Discussion", even though it was already a month ago. The root of all mistakes was that he chose the Shaolin School. Facts have proved that Wudang is the more powerful existence. This was probably doomed when Master Jueyuan ran away from the Shaolin Temple.

But the moment he understood it, the Wu-Tang Clan's counterattack had shattered his heart and there was no way he could recover. He was eliminated in the second round and lost the qualification to continue the "Huashan Sword Discussion".

A new large-scale script "Jianghu Zhuoyulu"

Master Wen is a typical post-80s generation. He has watched martial arts dramas such as "83 Version of The Condor", "Chen Zhen" and "Travel to the Tiger Mountain" since he was a child, and knows Jin Yong and Gu Long's novels by heart. He is a very typical model born in the 1980s. In that era when information was still closed, TV dramas and martial arts novels were people's main forms of entertainment.

"I have longed for 'Huashan Sword Discussing' since I was a child. The legendary martial arts masters spend days and nights on the top of Huashan Mountain discussing martial arts without eating or drinking." Master Wen said to me, "Since in the game, There are also such activities, and I just want to win the championship. This is the purpose of my playing games."

Then that story happened, he was brutally tortured by Wudang knights, Tai Chi Kung Fu pushed Shaolin Kung Fu to the ground and rubbed him.

I asked him, does this mean that there is a problem with the balance of the game?

"You can't say that." Master Wen told me, "I started playing in the first closed beta in 2018, and I am a practitioner myself. In addition, I have played countless martial arts games over the past 20 years starting from "Jin Yong's Legend of Heroes" When it comes to games, I don’t look at the problem from the perspective of what ordinary players call ‘balance’.”

He continued to add to me: "Because in a game, as long as there are more sects or more characters, it is inevitable that some people will be strong and some will be weak. In this version, a certain character is strong, and in the next version, someone else is strong. You Look at all the relatively large-scale games with PvP gameplay in the world, whether it's 'King of Kings' or 'Dota', they all have so-called version answers. I went to explore answers other than the answers, that's because I like martial arts. Found it If you find it, there will be extra pleasure. If you don’t find it, you can’t say there is something wrong with the game.”

"You will definitely think, if you know Wu-Tang Qiang, why don't you play Wu-Tang? Can I not know Wu-Tang Qiang? I started playing in 2018. But there are some plots in martial arts novels, well, you don't want to have that kind of Do you have the idea of ​​changing your destiny with your own hard work – and maybe some aura as the protagonist? After all, we enjoy the same process when reading martial arts novels. It doesn't matter if we fail this time, there are heroes in the world, maybe we will succeed next time What? Of course, before that, I first win the Huashan Swordsmanship Championship to prove that I don’t know how to play, and it’s not that I can’t play Wudang. This is very important.”

Although Wudang is strong, just treat it as a challenge

Master Wen said that he will definitely experience the new content of the open beta of the game: he knows most of it. When he said this, his tone was like the owner of Juxian Village, where thousands of heroes are in the crowd.

"Have you heard of 'Old Man Tianji'? He is the best in martial arts in the world!"

"But he was killed by Shangguan Jinhong, who ranked second, and Shangguan Jinhong was killed by Li Xunhuan, who ranked third."

"Don't ask me how I know. In addition, I have three major revelations today! About the game's public beta update! You will see the following content after you reply."

Xiaofeng has played more than 700 hours, but he does not participate in PvP and did not sign up for "Huashan Sword".

I asked him if he felt that Wudang was too strong now and had no chance?

He smiled slightly. That was because the equipment to restrain the Wu-Tang Clan's "counterattack" had not yet been installed. Once installed, Wu-Tang would be the same. In fact, the martial arts combinations of each sect have weaknesses. As long as you find these weaknesses, it is not difficult to defeat them individually…

Xiaofeng is a college student. He likes martial arts. He probably has been exposed to various martial arts-themed cultural products since he was a child. He is naturally interested in martial arts themes and "has no obstacles to accepting them." He is very busy with school studies and doesn't have much spare time, but he is still passionate about "I Am a Knight".

"I am the first place on the sword guessing list this time. This guess is pre-selected, and you can't see the players' live performance. But it actually tests the understanding of the game: how to match martial arts, and how to allocate limited resources. No matter how powerful the equipment you wear is, there are always trade-offs. As soon as I look at the panel, I can tell that this one is a strong one and this one is a weakling; this one is a python and this one is an earthworm."

"Huashan tournament"

Xiaofeng compares herself to Wang Yuyan in Jin Yong's novels. She doesn't know martial arts, but she knows all the martial arts in the world. In his opinion, this is the fun of the game. He gave the example of "Bai Xiaosheng" in Gu Long's novels: Old Man Tianji, Shangguan Jinhong, Li Xunhuan… are all very powerful, but Bai Xiaosheng wrote the weapons manual and ranked them first, second and third, and everyone actually recognized them. What does it mean? Bai Xiaosheng is the real master of the world. Everyone goes to fight, then I will be this worldly expert and enjoy it.

"This is harder than you think. You have to read the game's plot, analyze the details, and figure out the developer's intentions. Otherwise, there are so many NPCs, and you can't count them all. How can you book seats for them? There are so many people. The PvE scripts in the game are all about skipping the plot. I am not one of them. I not only read, but also think, record, draw pictures, draw tables… You must analyze in this way, and the information given will be fair and convincing. Only people on the forum will believe you.”

There are many scripts in "My Knight", and you can also choose the direction of the plot. Among the many stories, the incident that impressed him the most was the attitude of the famous sects in the script: In a certain plot, a decisive battle between good and evil was about to take place. As a liaison messenger, you found various sects, but as a result, they all ended up with sores on their hair and twisting their navels. Wait for excuses to evade, and in the end you have to challenge the evil faction alone. And when you actually do it, they all show up again, shouting, "Oh, we're late!"

Players of martial arts games often have high requirements for plots, and "My Knight" provides just such a script.

"How could they do this?!" Xiaofeng said angrily. It seems that this is not the same as the world he imagined.

Unlike the previous players, Xiaofeng likes the stories in the game because it makes him feel like "he is in a real world." He likes the plot of the game and looks forward to introducing updated plots, tasks, characters and techniques during the public beta. He feels that when the game is released for public testing, he will enter this martial arts world with full energy. But he was also a little worried. "Six or seven hours a day like during the summer vacation is definitely not enough. One or two hours should be guaranteed. You have to follow the plot and the people, otherwise you will be pulled down. The world is where there are people."

"My Knight" has reached this day, and players have mixed feelings about it. Different players have different games in their eyes. This is because the player level itself is quite complex: there are older generations who have been exposed to martial arts since "The Legend of Jin Yong", and there are also new generations who have no idea what domestic martial arts games have ever been. In the glory days, I was simply interested in martial arts themes and gameplay. Due to their different ages, eras and current social environments, completely different gameplays will be born, and they each enjoy it. This kind of happiness is far higher than awards such as the 2020 Golden Ling Award for Best Mobile Original Game, and is the best explanation of the "free" attribute of the game.

This game was released through the "Aurora Project", and I suddenly had an interesting association. The Aurora Project is like Xiang Wentian, the protector of the Demon Cult, "Heavenly King", with countless abilities. The novel writes, "Along the way, Xiang Wentian spent money like water, and the gold leaves around him seemed to be endless." Then in Meizhuang, he showed some authentic works of the Northern Song Dynasty, calligraphy of the Tang Dynasty, chess records of the Han Dynasty… They were really capable of reaching the heavens and the earth.

For many people who like this game, perhaps the greatest meaning is to write their own vigilante life.

Relatively speaking, the developer of this game, Dianhun, and the game's development team are like those talented, diligent and ambitious young people in the martial arts arena – I have no doubt about this. Before this, I conducted an interview with the development team of "My Knight". They love martial arts, are extremely enthusiastic about martial arts culture, and decided to make a real martial arts game. There are quite a few well-known developers in the martial arts mod circle in the game development team. Game producer Bao Zi has been involved in the martial arts mod circle for a long time—not to mention Yu Xiaoliang, the leader of Electric Soul.

Everything seemed to fall into place. The game development team and players work together to create the martial arts world in their minds, and the Aurora Project has allowed the game to be released like a tide. In the interview, Xiaofeng once mentioned that due to his age, he had almost no contact with "The Legend of Jin Yong's Heroes" or "The Legend of Jin Yong's Heroes X", and was simply interested in martial arts works. It was through the "Aurora Project" that he learned about "My Knight" and then started playing the game – and before he knew it, he had already played 700 hours.

This tells us from the side that even today as the game market becomes increasingly mature, the word "distribution" still has many new stories to tell. The mobile game market, which seems to have fallen into a buying cycle, has not only seen the emergence of high-degree-of-freedom games such as "My Knight", but also has multiple distribution channels represented by Aurora Project. On the other hand, it will also go deep into the game production process, providing comprehensive assistance from game planning, gameplay, art and operation guidance to producer training. This is very useful for small teams with less than 20 people and lack of successful product experience. important.

There are actually a lot of details to consider in the settings.

In my memory, there was a wave of such mobile game development boom around 2013 and 2014. The typical CP at that time was a small team of 10 to 20 people with a complete structure, from planning to programming and even QA, and art resources or Own or outsource, it all looks like that. However, most such teams failed to persist for more than a year in the end (this is not a deliberate comparison, "My Knight" started testing in 2018, and it has been more than two years now). The most important problem is probably that due to experience and other reasons, CP cannot satisfy the employer in terms of development progress or test data, and various conflicts arise from this.

In other words, Project Aurora does not just provide distribution services, it does not just provide exclusive traffic pool resources, but more importantly, it allows the development team to obtain guidance on game distribution and even production. These guides will accompany the game through the long testing period and finally meet the players, just like "My Knight". In this sense, the Aurora Project is like the masked master in "City Linking". Di Yun only needed 3 moves from him to defeat many of Wan Zhenshan's disciples.

"My Knight" is in open beta today (January 21). The above three players, as well as thousands of other players, have entered this familiar yet unfamiliar martial arts world to start their new legend. Although their goals are all kinds of strange, they can always be summed up in one sentence, that is, in this free world, become heroes, become famous, and even become invincible in the world!

I think everyone who reads martial arts novels and plays martial arts games has had this kind of dream in their hearts.

Of course, having said that, there are many kinds of invincibility. There are the invincibles who learn the art of war with the dragon-slaying sword, the invincibles who get the martial arts from the Yitian sword, and the invincibles who get the big secret on the handle of the Yuanyang sword, the "benevolent man is invincible". Which one are you pursuing?

Maybe "My Knight" will tell you, but just like those novels you have read, you need to find it yourself. After experiencing loss and choice, after working hard, being happy and realizing again and again, you will will find your answer.

The new version of "My Knight" will be released for public beta on January 21