Falling the products launched by Tencent in the past two years, "The Battle of the Golden Shovel" may be one of the most unexpected mobile games. From the perspective of the category market, it is obviously not catching up. Many people can't imagine it. In 2021, you can see a self-propelled chess player online. But what was even more unexpected was that "The Battle of Golden Shovel" really exploded.
Officially established in 2019. After less than two years of research and development, this mobile game quickly topped the free list and top 3 best-selling list.
A year later, many people think that the performance of "The Battle of Golden Shovel" will be as weak as other auto chess players. But in fact, they are the top ten bestsellers every month. In addition, Tencent’s Q2 financial report released in August mentioned that the ranking of "Golden Shovel Battle" has reached the fourth place in the total usage time of all games on the Internet.
In our opinion, the most critical factor in the success of "Golden Shovel Battle" may be that under the premise of the support of a large IP, it can also launch larger game updates while changing seasons. Just like the new season mechanics, such as Hex technology, upgrades of various chess pieces and equipment, and double kills.
From the perspective of official decision makers, how did "The Battle of Golden Shovel" come from the "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" in the auto-chess chess? How will they view the situation and future development of auto-chess after doing this project? Recently, we interviewed Su Panhui, the publisher of "The Battle of Golden Shovel", and Ye Jing, the project leader.
The following is the sorted interview content:
Q: What is the initial position of "The Battle of the Golden Shovel"? Why do you still dare to play chess games when the auto-chess craze has faded?
A: The core positioning of this product was controversial at the time, because many people thought that playing chess was "cold" and it was recognized that it was difficult to make money. Even if we see the success of "Genting Game", we will be worried about the choice of some 5-15-minute mobile games - in one game, there may be more than 2,000 models on the market; but if we really want to play a 40-minute mobile game, are we dead?
But we believe that the positioning of hard-core deep strategy still has advantages in the market. For example, when users become more mature, they can still stay for a long time. Unlike action games or MOBAs, users will have a decrease in reaction as they grow older and lose their original accumulated advantages. For users, as long as they find that they can still grow, they will not lose it. This slow loss growth model is ideal. It was also because we clearly felt that the entire game market was hard-core, especially the users in first- and second-tier cities were already extremely mature, and users would gradually keep up in the future.
Question: What is the relationship between "Golden Shovel Battle" and "League of Legends Genting Game Mode"? Su Hui's core gameplay of "Golden Shovel Battle" is authorized from "League of Legends Genting Game Mode", inheriting IP, season update main line and other content and all advantages; at the same time, it also makes some differentiated designs for Chinese players, such as double seasons. But it is not a "Genting Game" mobile game, but a strong localized licensed product for the Chinese market.
Such a project allows R&D; prioritizes the experience of our Chinese users, and is not dragged down by some cultural conflicts or differences, which will affect R&D; d-cycle allows our products to "lightly fit and respond agilely", which is more suitable for the Chinese market.
Q: What adjustments have you made that are different from those of Genting’s games?
A: Because of the difference between mobile operations and PC, we have made a lot of detailed adjustments that are more suitable for mobile user experience. For example, when using the Astral Dragon Bond in "Golden Shovel Battle", you can directly see the refresh time of the magic ball on the UI; for example, the equipment dropped in the game can be directly synthesized in the equipment bar to reduce the complexity of touch screen operations.
Q: How will "Golden Shovel Battle" be developed and verified in the competition?
A: There will be internal competition in game design. Different designers will design better solutions. Prototyping and market verification will be put into practice, with the ultimate goal of making sustainable long-term gameplay.
In addition, we will incubate games that players like from the community.As in the past, everyone likes to watch anchors revolve around a random hero to upgrade to Samsung as soon as possible, and then there will be a three-star battle. Many anchors are very happy about this and feel that they are also participants in content design.
Question: What do you think of the new gameplay? How to keep playing games?
Answer: Updates are the key to the game for ten or twenty years. Just like " League of Legends ", it is completely different from ten years ago. Continuously refreshing the season system is to solve the problem of players losing their desire and motivation to learn until the end. Of course, under the premise of limited resources, if you want to be more competitive, you must make decisive choices and give up unimportant content.
For example, we have invested very low in novices' tutorials and invested a lot of user education in the community. By building an ecosystem, use live broadcast platforms, short videos, WeChat official accounts or self-media strategy articles to educate users, and further promote user education. The squeezed resources can be left to content such as double seasons. ——This can provide players with a second option when the design level fluctuates in the new season, so as not to be lost directly.
