What should be a popular game
I re-publish one-year-old material. Previously, I was forced to hide at the request of the company I worked for at that moment. The material is outdated to a greater extent, given the development of the market and Hearthstone itself, but you can still read.
Continuing the series of articles on game design, let's talk about what is now gaining the greatest popularity in the entertainment industry, namely in the video game industry.
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The most illustrative example of recent times is undoubtedly the Collecting Card Game - Hearthstone. We can say that before its release, there were no truly massively popular card games on the PC. Yes, there is Magic the Gathering and other attempts to occupy this niche, but their attempts turned out to be several times less successful than those of Blizzard.
What made this game so popular? The so-called scheme "Easy to learn, hard to master" (the most correct translation is easy to start playing, it is difficult to reach heights). Those. First of all, any player can set himself this game and he will be met by a colorful tutorial, with interesting characters (familiar to many in the Warcraft universe), voice acting and scripts. After completing the tutorial, the game for the most part lets the player float freely, but this is enough to capture the hearts of the players.
This game is easy to start to “understand” at that level, so that it becomes interesting for you not only to play, but also to look at it. It has changed a lot in the world of streamers, because everyone can start streaming this game, and most importantly, everyone can watch it! It's so easy to figure out what's happening on the field and what each unit performs. For this, each map has been modified and improved dozens of times during the development process in order to make it simple and understandable in the final version.
Sometimes, for the sake of simplicity, it is required to sacrifice the depth of gameplay, but this is a worthwhile sacrifice, if thanks to this, the players will not run out of your game headlong, not understanding what is happening and why this card has SO MANY CONDITIONS to use!
If you take as an example such games as League of Legends, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, which are also very popular, they are strikingly different. You have to go a long way to begin to understand what is going on in principle: what to buy for your hero and what spells to use in case of games of the MOBA genre or what units to build, and who is effective against whom in the case of strategy.
So in Heartstone, the player does not feel inferior, not understanding all the secrets and subtleties of the game, when in the above games it is often so. In the hearthstone, no one punishes you for defeat, you do not even have statistics of victories to defeats, there is only statistics of victories. Thanks to these psychological elements, the game tries to give the player only positive emotions.
Without knowing which cards fit in with each other, without knowing the vulnerabilities and benefits of other classes, the player will not feel hurt, as when he first opened the store in the gameplay of League of Legends. In Hearthstone, the player on the contrary will experience a positive experience when he discovers these secrets for himself.
It is in positive emotions, in the ease of entering the game and having a pleasant time in it that the success of modern games lies. At the same time, one should not forget about the “hard to master” part. The game should keep in itself all the subtleties mentioned above, the player must all the time open up new opportunities, new knowledge. Not for nothing, some players confidently sit on the top lines of the legendary rating, while playing the same decks as the rest. They know something that others do not know.
It is this balance of the threshold of entry into the game and the ideal is achieved.
On the approach from Blizzard - Heroes of the Storm, which probably will be able to make the same revolution in the MOBA genre, because they promise that in their game matches will last no more than 20 minutes, and the main problem of games of this genre is the duration of one match. Want to play during lunch at work or in the evening at home before going to bed? No one can guarantee that one game will not last 60-80 minutes, and it is not worth expecting that it will end faster than in 30-40.
Short sessions are one of the main trends that modern online games should follow if they want to reach the maximum audience. In modern people every year decreases the time of "focus", which they are willing to devote to a particular product. If 50 years ago, people read a book for hours to get acquainted with it, then thanks to television, a computer, and mostly mobile platforms, this time is reduced.
New people who have never played games at all or have played as far as, thanks to the latest trends, begin to play everything that has a low entry threshold. That is why, after playing a mobile game, most users leave it without even having completed the tutorial. After all, they have not paid anything. Did you show anything interesting while the person was standing in the queue? You have lost a player, because there are so many other games of similar content.
The same simplification happens with another Blizzard project. Yes, yes, World of Warcraft, who just did not write about it. It is worth remembering what happened with the game during the classic Vova and Burning Crusade, when a player had to perform a huge chain of tasks that he had to perform in a group in order to just get into the dungeon.
Want to play wow now? Please wait for the next addon and your character will be the 90th instantly! After all, we don’t have time to play so long to reach it ourselves. Yes, someone will say that this is for those people who already have a level 90 character. I think a large portion of new players will come into the game. Those who postponed this decision all the time because it is too difficult to catch up with the others. Now, clicking the fingers, the player will feel on an equal footing with those who have played this game all his life. After all, each addon levels all previous "physical" achievements.
Finally, let's talk a bit about mobile games. After all, they became pioneers in this area, trying to simplify everything that is possible, but at the same time, without losing gaming interest. We will miss the games that earn huge sums in the Asian markets, to say nothing of Puzzle & Dragons, which is the only one among all mobile games that has earned $ 1,000,000,000.
As for the American market, as in principle, and Canadian, European and Australian, there is a very similar mentality of people and these markets require a different approach to themselves.
First of all, nice graphics, because the game should like you. Pleasant - does not mean quality with an abundance of polygons and textures with high resolution. It is necessary that the player was pleased to look at what he sees and that the graphics reflect his expectations:
• Clash of Clans, Boom Beach - a unique and interesting character design.
• Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga - colorful levels, colors and "characters"
• Game of war, Kingdoms of Camelot - graphics designed in the style that strategy lovers expect
• Deer Hunter 2014 - simple graphics with low quality textures, but with a very nice picture.
The list is endless, but after the player has become familiar with the visual style of the game, the gameplay comes into play. The first step is the Tutorial, which should not remind you of yourself. His role will smoothly bring the player to the moment when he is not lost in the game, but will repeat the learned actions and discover small new possibilities for himself.
At the same time, it should last as short as possible. The players do not like it when they are all the time pushing up with advice on where to click. The main thing here is never to bring down on the player an infinite amount of content and opportunities, the player must always understand what is happening around him, control the situation. But at the same time the game should not be monotonous.
There is a good example of the game - Gameloft's Rival Knights. The game was very enjoyable in terms of graphics with perfect player immersion in both PvE and PvP, as well as good monetization. But due to the lack of content and the monotony of gameplay, its ratings began to fall very quickly after only a few weeks after the release.
More on this in the following articles, but for now ask questions and share opinions.
Continuing the series of articles on game design, let's talk about what is now gaining the greatest popularity in the entertainment industry, namely in the video game industry.
')
The most illustrative example of recent times is undoubtedly the Collecting Card Game - Hearthstone. We can say that before its release, there were no truly massively popular card games on the PC. Yes, there is Magic the Gathering and other attempts to occupy this niche, but their attempts turned out to be several times less successful than those of Blizzard.
What made this game so popular? The so-called scheme "Easy to learn, hard to master" (the most correct translation is easy to start playing, it is difficult to reach heights). Those. First of all, any player can set himself this game and he will be met by a colorful tutorial, with interesting characters (familiar to many in the Warcraft universe), voice acting and scripts. After completing the tutorial, the game for the most part lets the player float freely, but this is enough to capture the hearts of the players.
This game is easy to start to “understand” at that level, so that it becomes interesting for you not only to play, but also to look at it. It has changed a lot in the world of streamers, because everyone can start streaming this game, and most importantly, everyone can watch it! It's so easy to figure out what's happening on the field and what each unit performs. For this, each map has been modified and improved dozens of times during the development process in order to make it simple and understandable in the final version.
Sometimes, for the sake of simplicity, it is required to sacrifice the depth of gameplay, but this is a worthwhile sacrifice, if thanks to this, the players will not run out of your game headlong, not understanding what is happening and why this card has SO MANY CONDITIONS to use!
If you take as an example such games as League of Legends, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, which are also very popular, they are strikingly different. You have to go a long way to begin to understand what is going on in principle: what to buy for your hero and what spells to use in case of games of the MOBA genre or what units to build, and who is effective against whom in the case of strategy.
So in Heartstone, the player does not feel inferior, not understanding all the secrets and subtleties of the game, when in the above games it is often so. In the hearthstone, no one punishes you for defeat, you do not even have statistics of victories to defeats, there is only statistics of victories. Thanks to these psychological elements, the game tries to give the player only positive emotions.
Without knowing which cards fit in with each other, without knowing the vulnerabilities and benefits of other classes, the player will not feel hurt, as when he first opened the store in the gameplay of League of Legends. In Hearthstone, the player on the contrary will experience a positive experience when he discovers these secrets for himself.
It is in positive emotions, in the ease of entering the game and having a pleasant time in it that the success of modern games lies. At the same time, one should not forget about the “hard to master” part. The game should keep in itself all the subtleties mentioned above, the player must all the time open up new opportunities, new knowledge. Not for nothing, some players confidently sit on the top lines of the legendary rating, while playing the same decks as the rest. They know something that others do not know.
It is this balance of the threshold of entry into the game and the ideal is achieved.
On the approach from Blizzard - Heroes of the Storm, which probably will be able to make the same revolution in the MOBA genre, because they promise that in their game matches will last no more than 20 minutes, and the main problem of games of this genre is the duration of one match. Want to play during lunch at work or in the evening at home before going to bed? No one can guarantee that one game will not last 60-80 minutes, and it is not worth expecting that it will end faster than in 30-40.
Short sessions are one of the main trends that modern online games should follow if they want to reach the maximum audience. In modern people every year decreases the time of "focus", which they are willing to devote to a particular product. If 50 years ago, people read a book for hours to get acquainted with it, then thanks to television, a computer, and mostly mobile platforms, this time is reduced.
New people who have never played games at all or have played as far as, thanks to the latest trends, begin to play everything that has a low entry threshold. That is why, after playing a mobile game, most users leave it without even having completed the tutorial. After all, they have not paid anything. Did you show anything interesting while the person was standing in the queue? You have lost a player, because there are so many other games of similar content.
The same simplification happens with another Blizzard project. Yes, yes, World of Warcraft, who just did not write about it. It is worth remembering what happened with the game during the classic Vova and Burning Crusade, when a player had to perform a huge chain of tasks that he had to perform in a group in order to just get into the dungeon.
Want to play wow now? Please wait for the next addon and your character will be the 90th instantly! After all, we don’t have time to play so long to reach it ourselves. Yes, someone will say that this is for those people who already have a level 90 character. I think a large portion of new players will come into the game. Those who postponed this decision all the time because it is too difficult to catch up with the others. Now, clicking the fingers, the player will feel on an equal footing with those who have played this game all his life. After all, each addon levels all previous "physical" achievements.
Finally, let's talk a bit about mobile games. After all, they became pioneers in this area, trying to simplify everything that is possible, but at the same time, without losing gaming interest. We will miss the games that earn huge sums in the Asian markets, to say nothing of Puzzle & Dragons, which is the only one among all mobile games that has earned $ 1,000,000,000.
As for the American market, as in principle, and Canadian, European and Australian, there is a very similar mentality of people and these markets require a different approach to themselves.
First of all, nice graphics, because the game should like you. Pleasant - does not mean quality with an abundance of polygons and textures with high resolution. It is necessary that the player was pleased to look at what he sees and that the graphics reflect his expectations:
• Clash of Clans, Boom Beach - a unique and interesting character design.
• Candy Crush Saga, Farm Heroes Saga - colorful levels, colors and "characters"
• Game of war, Kingdoms of Camelot - graphics designed in the style that strategy lovers expect
• Deer Hunter 2014 - simple graphics with low quality textures, but with a very nice picture.
The list is endless, but after the player has become familiar with the visual style of the game, the gameplay comes into play. The first step is the Tutorial, which should not remind you of yourself. His role will smoothly bring the player to the moment when he is not lost in the game, but will repeat the learned actions and discover small new possibilities for himself.
At the same time, it should last as short as possible. The players do not like it when they are all the time pushing up with advice on where to click. The main thing here is never to bring down on the player an infinite amount of content and opportunities, the player must always understand what is happening around him, control the situation. But at the same time the game should not be monotonous.
There is a good example of the game - Gameloft's Rival Knights. The game was very enjoyable in terms of graphics with perfect player immersion in both PvE and PvP, as well as good monetization. But due to the lack of content and the monotony of gameplay, its ratings began to fall very quickly after only a few weeks after the release.
More on this in the following articles, but for now ask questions and share opinions.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/228815/
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