Text | Yu Shenglin
Editor|Li Guoguo
Recently, another domestic independent game has become popular. It is "Yixian Pai" developed by Mori Studio. The game was launched and tested on Steam at the same time, and the highest number of people online once exceeded 10,000.
This article is a series of articles in the Game Daily [Conversation with Producers]. If you are interested in this column and are willing to share your game production process, you are welcome to join the VIP group of the Game Daily Research Institute or contact Xiaoban ().
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The auto-chess experience of "Yixian Pai" and "Golden Shovel War" are very similar. The 8 players will encounter a large number of cards during the game. They need to reasonably match the cards and assemble a powerful deck to defeat them. other opponents. At the same time, some psychological game elements are also incorporated into the game. Players need to pre-read their opponents and calculate and adjust the card sequence to gain a winning rate advantage.
The experience is relatively good for newcomers, but as an old player who has been involved in Dota Auto Chess since the days of Dota, Game Daily Yuyu has basically mastered the game's excessive skills and the four mainstream lineups after playing about 15 games.
Is the game too easy? How will this problem be solved in the future? With these questions, Yu Yu found noAsh, the producer of "Yixian Pai", and chatted with him about the design ideas of this product that interested Yu Yu very much.
It has been two years of development and the art has been redone three times.
Yuyu: Thank you for accepting the interview with Game Daily. Let me briefly introduce myself first.
noAsh: I am noAsh, the producer of "Yixianpai". I have been living in Hangzhou since I was a child. Mainly responsible for the gameplay content design, combat logic script, music and sound effects control, and testing of "Yixianpai".
Yu Yu: How did you first get into gaming?
noAsh: It first started when I was in college on the cc98 forum on campus. Some seniors set up a web game server for zju battle royale on the intranet. At that time, I had always been interested in game production, so I contacted my senior to work on production and maintenance. Later, when my senior was busy graduating, I taught myself the PHP language, designed content on my own and maintained and updated several major versions. At that time, there were more than 100 people online. I feel very happy when I see everyone in the QQ group chatting about game content, and some people have discovered the Easter eggs I buried.
My major and gaming are completely different, but I still love gaming. Later, I chose my current team "Mori Studio" for internship, and I have been working there since graduation.
Yu Yu: What other games did you make during this period?
noAsh: Participated in the map design of "Endless Winter" during my internship. Later, he was responsible for BOSS and gameplay design in "Star Arena".
Yu Yu: How did you come up with the game "Yixianpai"?
noAsh: I have always loved card games. The card games on the market at that time were mainly divided into multiplayer confrontation or party-oriented board games, single-player DBG and CCG focusing on 1V1. I hope to break out of the existing framework and create a new card game. So I put forward preliminary ideas by combining the matching and confrontation mechanism of Auto Chess and the card grouping mechanism of DBG. Everyone in the team thought it was worth a try, so they spent 2 weeks doing a DEMO test. Everyone had a great time trying out the DEMO, and some colleagues even wanted to continue playing it after get off work, so the project was successfully approved.
Yuyu: How long did the game take to develop? How many people are on the team currently?
noAsh: The game has been in development for about 2 years so far. Our team currently has 9 people, but everyone has other projects to participate in at the same time, so I started to make the DEMO by myself, and later a programmer was added to help me implement the online network part of the code. Later, after the core gameplay was determined, 3 artists and 1 programmer were added one after another to start formal development.
Yuyu: Are there any interesting stories during the game development process?
noAsh: We will open a game every day at noon for testing. Then there was a programmer colleague who always drew the chance card, and was jokingly called cheating by dealing cards to himself.
Also, colleagues who are eliminated early will always come up behind the person who is still fighting, point fingers, and act like a dog-headed military advisor. Then sometimes people who are still playing get confused because of the various opinions of the people behind them, and then they make mistakes and are taken away. Everyone likes to see this.
Yuyu: What major problems did you encounter during the game development process? How are these problems solved?
noAsh: It’s mainly a matter of art style. We redid the art style three times. The process of overturning the old art was very painful, and several months of art work may have been wasted. But there is no other way but to spend a lot of time exploring slowly.
Some people played the game for more than 100 hours in the closed beta after deleting files.
Yuyu: How was the test going?
noAsh: This test greatly exceeded our expectations. Originally, I just wanted to test it on a small scale, but as a result, a large number of players poured in, causing the server to be completely unable to support it. The first few days were really hard for programmers, working overtime overnight to expand the server and fix network bugs.
Yuyu: What do you think is the main reason why the test results were higher than expected?
noAsh: A major broadcaster has broadcast our game out of interest. Then the live program was also very effective and spread.
Yu Yu: After this test becomes popular, will it have any impact on the development of subsequent games?
noAsh: Seeing that so many people like our game gives our team more confidence and motivation to continue development and strive to present the full version to everyone as soon as possible. In addition, the amount of game data played by players in one day has exceeded the amount of data we play in one year. Enough data makes balance adjustments easier.
Yu Yu: After the combination genres in the game are explored, players will inevitably become bored. Have you considered how to solve this problem?
noAsh: There are currently very few combination genres open to the trial version, and there are still two competitive genres that have not been fully developed. The addition of new characters, new sub-professions, new sects, and new cards in the official version will increase the complexity and usable genre index of the entire game, making it less likely to be figured out so quickly. There is currently so little content that allows players to play for so long, and some players have even played for more than 100 hours without rewards (this time it is a closed beta test), which surprises me.
And due to the addition of card sequence game-oriented elements, even if you figure out all the routines, it will not become a game purely about luck, just like mahjong and poker. Although luck is very important, players who are good at calculation and gaming It's always easier to win than regular players.
Besides, there is always a time when you get tired of playing games. I personally like to play a variety of different games and experience the exquisite designs of different games, instead of just playing one game for a long time. In fact, it is the same as traveling. Who would be so bored that he only travels to the same place? As long as my games allow players to have a happy experience and leave good memories, that's enough.
Yu Yu: I want to eat chicken. Do you have any recommendations for a stronger lineup?
noAsh: There is no strongest genre at the moment. The most people play the low-segment Yunjian, and the most people play the high-segment Naoqin. Yunjian is relatively simple and does not require much thinking. Naoqin has a lot of thinking and needs to play games with her opponents. However, the winning rates of these genres are all within the normal range, and the winning rates of several genres with few players are also not low.
The version number will be released on Steam first before I can wait for it.
Yu Yu: Are you considering when the game will be launched later?
noAsh: The main thing is to look at the version number. I have been waiting for a year. It would be best if I can wait. If I really can’t wait for the version number, I will have to go to Steam first. I hope that the number can be published as soon as possible.
Yu Yu: What do you think is the most difficult part of developing a game you like?
noAsh: Because the development time is too long, it is easy to become numb to your own game, and even start to get tired of this game that you have completely figured out. At this time, you will start to feel very confused. The best way is to let more players who have never been exposed to this game try it to provide themselves with confidence or suggestions for improvement.
Yu Yu: Having been in the industry for so many years, I have encountered many pitfalls in the process of developing games. Do you have any advice for newcomers who are just entering the industry?
noAsh: Practice more and make a few games yourself. There are many convenient game engines that you can learn by yourself. Don't blindly dream, and don't be obsessed with writing a few document settings to think that your ideas are great. Many things can only be understood through practice, and only by actually playing games can you know whether this industry is suitable for you. In addition, I would like to say something that I was very moved by after reading it: the first 10 games you make are often garbage, so finish them as soon as possible. Only after you have enough experience can you find a path that suits you.
Yu Yu: During our interviews with Game Daily, we often met some producers who started making games in college or even high school. In your opinion, if you want to enter the game industry in the future, which majors are better to study?
noAsh: Professionalism really doesn’t matter, the key is the love for games. Nintendo will even deliberately recruit professional people who have nothing to do with games, because games are always for others to play. One more person with a different major will look at the game from a different perspective. In school, we only develop the ability to learn knowledge. After officially entering the industry, you have to learn all practical knowledge from scratch, and you need to rely on your love for games to teach yourself. However, to go deeper, you still need sufficient professional skills. Computers, art design, music, mathematical modeling, etc. will all be of great help to the quality of the game.
Yu Yu: Is there anything else you want to add at the end?
noAsh: Advertise yourself. You can also try the Yi Xian Pai Demo for free before June 27, 2022. If you are interested, you can try it out on Steam and add a wish list to the official version of "Yixian Pai"!
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