Recently, the domestic real-life love video game "Finished! I’m Surrounded by Beautiful Women (hereinafter referred to as "Die") went out of the circle, grabbing the best-selling list in China area of Steam for several days.
According to the data of the little black box, the number of online players in the 24-hour peak of "Die" exceeded 65,000, and Steam rated it as "particularly favorable". Why can such a game with simple production and short process be a great success? What pain points does it capture for players?
Is real-life interaction+game a new game mode? What is the difference between the creation of such games and traditional games? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
The popularity of this live-action interactive game has catalyzed the new trend of short play+game. The secondary market has heard the news and many concept stocks have ushered in a round of rise. What impact has the success of "Die" brought to the game, short play and even the AI industry? Can this wave of live-action interactive games last?
In this issue of Titania Hot Review, Ma Xiao, the reliable editor-in-chief of Eryuan, Coboo Liang, the founder of Caiyin Society, and, the financial manager, are invited. I am surrounded by beautiful women. Producer Yang Sheng talked about the topic "Die! "Reaching the top of the Steam hot list, can real-life interaction arouse a new wave of the game industry?" Discussed, and the following is a collection of some viewpoints.
Why can such a game with simple production and short process be a great success? What pain points does it capture for players?
Ma Xiao, editor-in-chief of Reliable Second Element, said that this is not just a pain point, but more like a harvest for male players. The producer said that 90% of the players in the game are men, which reflects the value of male players. Although the Steam platform is not a domestic platform, many popular games, such as goose and duck killing, are unknown and even attract non-hardcore female players. Although the Steam platform has a threshold, it is not as convenient as mobile games, but the game can be online for up to 60 thousand people, which has reached the level of GTA and big escort. Therefore, the consumption power of male players can not be ignored. They can bring fire games and create peak values and sales, which proves their value.
Coboo Liang, the founder of Caiyin Society and the manager of Hujing Finance, said that this game feels like a 100-level challenge game popular in college, which can stimulate people’s desire to challenge. Just like the popular game "A sheep has a sheep" at the end of last year, this phenomenon is a kind of communication phenomenon. Economics points out that the worse the economic situation, the more developed the game industry, which is related to the explosion of games. In addition, this game is simple and easy to play, unlike World of Warcraft, which requires teamwork, players can experience it independently and compare scores with others.
"finished! Yang Sheng, producer of "I am surrounded by beautiful women", said that players increasingly want to participate in story decision-making, and games that affect the story line are becoming an entertainment trend. Players can choose idols, story trends, game endings, and even experience self-designed emotions within three hours. This game is only a harbinger of the interactive era, and there will be more such games in the future. This is not just a men’s market, but women will also participate. I have received many feedbacks from women who will play with their boyfriends. Therefore, there may be a new trend in the future: people prefer to spend 40 yuan at home to enjoy a three-hour story of their own, rather than spend 80 yuan on movie tickets to see the ending set by others.
Is real-life interaction+game a new game mode? What is the difference between the creation of such games and traditional games? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Coboo Liang, the founder of Caiyinshe and the financial manager, said that with the development of technology, there will be a new trend every few years. Nowadays, VR games and live-action interactive games are very popular in shopping malls, and people need to queue up for experience. Previously, I communicated with the founding team of the original god. They designed different styles of illustrations to let players experience the characters in the game. As for the real-life interactive game, it has great potential in the future return on investment. The data shows that in 2022, the revenue of console games accounted for 39%. Although the proportion of mobile games was as high as 81% in previous years, and the console games were somewhat backward, this year, due to the release of Warcraft in the national service, a large number of console gamers were released, and they may be willing to try other types of games, especially those driven by new technologies and new ideas.
Ma Xiao, editor-in-chief of Reliable Second Element, said that real-life interactive games are nothing new. In the past few years, there have been many products that meet this label, such as Invisible Guardian and Detroit. If we take each link apart, short plays and Galgame or AVG games have a long history and a stable ecology. Many game companies even have special production lines to shoot real people. Role-playing games, such as playing kim kardashian’s life experience, also persist overseas. Therefore, this is nothing new, but every link makes people feel that they can try, which may be the reason why everyone studies it.
Different from traditional games, real-life interactive games cost less. Whether it is MMO or secondary game, to attract players’ attention, at least a big world or an open world is needed, and the team behind it also needs hundreds of people, and the research and development expenses are often hundreds of millions. And this game costs only 5 million, which may incite 20 million income, and the number of teams is much smaller than hundreds. In the current competitive market environment, this low-cost, high-income model is very attractive.
The advantage of this game is that it is in a superior niche between movies and games. Compared with large-scale games, it costs much less and is less risky for many bosses. Compared with expensive film and television dramas, the cost is lower. Compared with Galgame or short play, it has higher experience and quality, and has certain advantages in judging and script.
"finished! Yang Sheng, the producer of "I am surrounded by beautiful women", said that real-life drainage actually applies the mature techniques of the film industry and the film and television industry to new industries. Startups in the game industry often have no reference tutorials in the development process, while the film industry has many tutorials for reference. Therefore, it can be considered that the film industry can empower the game industry.
When developing a project, divide the budget of each link according to the total budget, and then push back the creation. This way is different from the way some games are made. They may insist on completing something emotional by the producers or sponsors, but in order to ensure the playability of the game, it is necessary to compress the budget of each link and make things more compact.
Real-life drainage may only be regarded as a medium or above-average product in the industry, but other products have run amazing data overseas. These are the products that really make money. Real-life drainage can let people see the live broadcast, and it is a money-making work made above the water, which everyone can see.
In the future, digital people, digital assets and artificial intelligence technologies will progress, and a large number of interactive games driven by digital people will appear. The actors in these games have higher cooperation, wider business endorsements, and their personalities can be set at will without rest. The options may no longer be limited to three or four, and the dialogue level may be as high as six or seven layers with the help of AI. What I see now is only a harbinger of great changes in the future.
Different options about interactive games will inevitably have multi-ending branches, how to shape the branch endings and how to predict the player’s choice.
"finished! Yang Sheng, the producer of I am Surrounded by Beauty, said that Nolan’s works, whether Inception or westworld, have always emphasized human free will. We also try our best to embody this point in game design, especially in time control. For example, the game won’t ask players if they want to eat soybean milk fritters at night, but ask them if they want to eat steamed stuffed buns or soybean milk fritters at 8: 00 in the morning, which is more in line with real life and better reflects the players’ free will.
The timeline and story trigger time of the game are carefully designed, and the first-person shooting method is adopted, so that players have a stronger sense of involvement. What really touches players is not exquisite design, but their own emotional choices. The game only provides choices, and players use their emotions to impress themselves.
About "finished! What is the impact of the success of the game, short play and even the AI industry?
Coboo Liang, the founder of Caiyinshe and the financial manager, said that new opportunities are the most important influence. The game industry has a history of more than 20 years, from the earliest word games to games with pictures, such as Stone Age and Magic Baby, which have driven the birth of a large number of game companies. However, in recent years, the mobile game market has been monopolized by some big companies, which has limited the output of high-quality content, which is unfavorable to the development of the industry and has also led to a large number of low-quality games.
Through different inputs and technologies, new changes may be brought, which may be what the capital market really wants to see. For the capital market, how to tell a good story and provide new ideas is the biggest way to generate new benefits. The popularity of the game is related to the design. For example, World of Warcraft has attracted players for more than ten years.
However, this also brings problems, and a large team is needed to write the story, which may be a problem to be considered in the future. It is necessary to guide the development of the story and provide players with free imagination. How to tell stories better determines how far this road can go.
Ma Xiao, editor-in-chief of Reliable Eryuan, said that the direct impact is the stock market. For example, when a friend was trading stocks, he saw the fiery concept of short play and considered investing in enterprises with online text and IP ecology. This kind of influence is actually quite crazy.
From the perspective of individual developers and teams, AI can help make games and improve the final presentation results. For example, individual independent game producers can use AI to improve the workflow, such as making NPC, automatic dialogue, modeling, etc., thus saving time. For small teams or individual developers, if you want to play games, AI may be helpful.
Like the second dimension and the open world, before The Original God came out, people didn’t think that the second dimension was a fiery industry or concept. However, "The Original God" can earn 20 billion yuan a year, which immediately became a slogan. Therefore, there may be many companies, including games, short plays and movies, which will launch more interactive game products. This may be like the open world and the second element, and a batch of products may come out soon, but the quality of the actual products may need to be tested by the market and players.
"finished! Yang Sheng, the producer of I am surrounded by beautiful women, agreed with Teacher Liang’s point of view, especially the reaction of the stock market. Previously, there were various types of enterprises, mainly game companies. They were concerned about how to copy the model, ensure the quality, seize the new market and form new barriers. Film and television companies are more concerned about the theme, whether gamification can bring them new increments, and whether they can bring some difficult themes into the game form in a lighter and more flexible way.
They began to think about whether they can turn film and television works into games with one click, or make the games realistic and drive fans through star artists. Although the two types of companies have different considerations, they both think that this is an incremental market, and the market is still there. Everyone has seen this opportunity.
There may be more types, such as thriller, suspense detective, female emotional orientation and other new types, which may make more themes flood in and make the market bigger. Interactive games are different because they cultivate users’ habits. Once this idea is opened, it may be difficult to go back.
"Wan Mei" is more like a warlords for everyone to see, an example, showing that there is still a big market in the future, but it is far from being explored in the end.
As a representative of one-line narration, whether movie dramas will have more impacts in the future.
"finished! Yang Sheng, the producer of "I am surrounded by beautiful women", said that the technology and game media have responded positively to this matter recently, while the film and television media are still watching because they still think it is a game. However, as early as college, I have seen movies with multiple endings, such as Phantom 1408 and Butterfly Effect, and even need to buy a special DVD to see all the endings. Some directors and screenwriters in the film industry are also trying to create different endings of the same story, which are hidden in DVD menus or buttons, like eggs.
The film industry has been trying to show the possibility of parallel worlds, and people are also exploring whether it can show the possibility of parallelism in a linear narrative. New interactive works need time. There may be some shoddy works around the Spring Festival, but before next year’s summer file, there may be a number of more exquisite and interactive works, which will educate the market again.
It is worth looking forward to that people may choose to create stories with their families at home through small programs or software, instead of gambling to the cinema. This is not just a software, it may be Netflix’s works, knowledgeable person’s works, or other things, it may not be a game, but it is a kind of participation.
Can the enthusiasm of this wave of live-action interactive games last?
Ma Xiao, editor-in-chief of Reliable Second Element, said that this problem is difficult to define, because we must first determine what is a real-life interactive game. If "The Invisible Guardian" was the initial point of the real-life interactive game, then four years have passed now. This period of time can be said to be lasting, or it can be said that there is a period of silence in the middle. Many film and television companies have launched interactive dramas, and many live-action interactive games have also been on Steam, but they have not met expectations.
Many game companies may think that this is not just hiring people to shoot? Film and television companies may think that this is not to turn the script into a game? But in fact, it is not easy to cross the border. For example, some video companies have hired film and television writers to make live-action interactive games, but found that the works of these famous brands or successful screenwriters are completely unusable. The game industry has also tried to find some screenwriters in the field of film and television, but found that there are acclimatized situations in the process of output.
More products may enter this track in the future, and the competition will become fierce. The key lies in whether the successful experience can be transformed into higher production capacity at lower cost, or whether the quality advantage of shoddy products can be maintained and the cost can be controlled. Whether we can continue to succeed depends on what products will come out in the future.
It remains to be seen whether this tuyere will last or will be silent again.
Coboo Liang, the founder of Caiyin Society and the manager of Hujing Finance, said that the intervention of capital may promote the development of an industry, but it may also cause harm to it. For example, in bike-sharing, there were only mobike and OFO at first, but with the influx of capital, the industry competition was fierce, and finally both companies were forced to sell. The current market leaders are some big companies, such as Meituan and Didi.
The intervention of capital may lead to the situation that "bad money drives out good money". For example, some developers may not have strong production ability, but they are good at attracting capital and may get more financing, while those developers who focus on game production may not be able to make better games because they don’t get enough financing.
In this tuyere, it is necessary to use capital instruments carefully. Although capital can promote the rapid development of the industry, it may also have a devastating impact on the industry. Especially for listed companies, they may use this concept to promote the stock price, but for real industry people, it doesn’t make any sense.
"finished! Yang Sheng, producer of I’m Surrounded by Beautiful Women, said that well-known screenwriters may encounter difficulties when entering the game industry, because the production habits of film and television and game industries are different. For example, film writers are used to creating reasonable and unexpected endings, but in interactive games, this is only one of the three possible endings. Screenwriters may be confused about the other two endings, because this is not their way of writing.
The assets of film and television companies include many well-known screenwriters, but they need to be trained and polished to enter the game field. This is not only the task of gamers, but also the task of film and television people. It is very difficult to find a way to make masters willing to participate and produce high-quality content.
Game companies face the same problem. They claim that they lack high-quality content and hope to find excellent screenwriters to create together. This is a good direction, because it is no longer just to make products under the world view of big companies, but to create their own interactive world.
However, like bike-sharing, although everyone’s ideas are good, there may be all kinds of confusion in the user link, which is uncontrollable. After everyone wants to enter this field, it is expected that there will be regulatory constraints first to guide the development of these projects. Then, after regulatory adjustment and careful consideration, writers and game companies may bring real innovation.
Titanium Hot Review is a hot event observation column launched by titanium media, which mainly invites media people and industry practitioners who have unique insights and in-depth observations on the development of different industries and different business models to comprehensively show the impact and significance of the event through multi-angle interpretation.
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