The game genres with the most development potential in the next ten years

In May this year, I mentioned at the end of the article "The Year of Mobile Game IP Is True" that I was paying attention to text games and felt that they had a future, but I never went into detail.

Recently, after seeing some remarks denying the value of IP (especially online novel IP), the development of H5 games, the sudden popularity of a certain comic software, and the "Saving Widow Wang" made by the news guy, I thought I should talk in detail about my views on word games.

1. Popular Science

Popular science is still necessary because I believe that there are not many people in the industry who truly understand word games.

I haven't found a satisfactory definition of word play online, so I'll explain it myself:

There are two kinds of word games that I understand:

1. The game is presented in text format

Represented by "online text role-playing games", such as MUD games, ERPG, etc.

In the early days, text games were made because the technology did not support graphic programming. However, nowadays, text games are made because they are simple and flexible and can be easily mastered by amateurs.

In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon plays the MUD game with his AlienWare and praises it: "It runs on the world's most powerful graphics chip: imagination."

This evaluation is not an exaggeration at all if you understand the difference between movies and novels.

2. Games that focus on plot and not gameplay

Represented by "text adventure games", such as Japanese AVG, visual novels, etc.

Its presentation form can be text, comics, or even movies;

Therefore it can also be called interactive novel, interactive comics, interactive movies!

Some of these excellent games have been adapted into anime or even movies, such as "Steins;Gate" and "Silent Hill".

Relationships between word game related categories:

1. Online text role-playing

1. MUD

That is, a text online game.

Representative work: "Peking University Knight"

2. ERPG

Electronic Role Playing Game, online version of TRPG.

Players play a role on the online communication platform and interact with the game creator (game host) through text communication. (It can be understood that under certain rules, everyone is accompanying the OP to YY.)

Representative works: - (Because the threshold for game creation is low, there are many works. For details, you can go to Baidu Tieba to check, such as: Civilization and Conquest, Mount and Blade Text Game.)

2. Text Adventure Game (AVG)

1. Pure text adventure game (interactive novel)

The most original text adventure game, without illustrations, players read the text plot and make choices in the game, which affects the development of the plot and ultimately leads to different endings.

Representative work: Horror Hospital (This is the work of a 15-year-old girl. For more games, please go to "Baidu Post Bar: Survival Game Bar" to view.)

2. Japanese AVG

Based on the pure text adventure game, it adds exquisite CG pictures and moving sound effects, with excellent plot as the selling point.

1.1. Romance-themed text adventure games

Representative works: "Memories of Autumn", "Tokimeki Memories", "Never7", etc.

It can also be subdivided into:

1.1.1. Beautiful girl games (for men)

1.1.2 Otome games (for women)

1.1.3. BL games (for rotten girls)

1.2. Other types of text adventure games:

Representative works: "Steins;Gate", "Ace Attorney", "Silent Hill", "Ever17", etc.

3. Visual novels (audio novels)

It is slightly different from Japanese AVGs, mainly in that the text fills the entire screen, with images being secondary.

There aren't many gaming elements, and playing the game is very similar to reading a novel on a computer screen.

"Visual novel" is derived from "audio novel" and there is not much difference between them.

(As far as I know, it seems that because "audio novel" was registered as a trademark by CHUNSOFT, similar games released by other companies were renamed "visual novels.")

Representative works: "To Heart" and "Tsukihime".

Use animation or live-action footage to present game content.

The movie interacts with the player, plays corresponding content based on the player's choices, and ultimately leads to different endings.

Representative works: "Heavy Rain", "Dragon's Lair", "Space Ace", etc.

2. Viewpoint: Text games are the most promising game type in the next ten years

reason:

1. The game has a wide audience and a large potential user group

Through the above introduction, you can see that literary travel is very similar to other art forms such as novels, animation, film and television, but it also has some breakthroughs.

The breakthrough is that literary travel can interact with people, allowing people to enter the story, become the protagonist, and change something.

This is an experience that cannot be given by novels, animation, or movies.

Therefore, literary and gaming players can easily be converted from novel fans, anime fans, and film and television fans.

Novel themes: science fiction, romance, urban, fairy tales, mystery, suspense, history, military, fantasy, time travel, danmei, fan fiction, online games, horror...

Anime themes: passionate, school, adventure, comedy, GL, BL, magic, competition, mecha, science fiction, sports, romance, gods and demons, harem, mystery, fantasy, healing...

Movie genres: romance, drama, comedy, family, ethics, art, music, musical, animation, western, martial arts, costume, action, horror, thriller, adventure, crime, suspense, documentary, war, history, biography, sports, science fiction, magic, fantasy...

These themes can all be made into word games, and you don’t need to worry about the output.

3. The production threshold is low, the output is extremely high, and there is no shortage of high-quality products.

Not to mention the output of ERPG and pure text adventure games, the output of domestic AVG games alone is already in excess. Just go to Orange Light Games and you will know. I will talk about it in detail later.

4. The trend is promising

Let’s take a quick look at the Baidu mobile search trends for related keywords:

There are almost no developers in China making AVG games, and it seems that no one is optimistic about this market.

2. Agent:

At present, only Ailes has begun to try to act as an agent for Japanese AVG games, and it has only been recently. Its agent "Memories of Youth" has been launched in the App Store China and is on the paid list. In addition, if I’m not mistaken, “Heart-Stirring Memories: Midsummer Lightyears” is also produced by them.

However, it should be noted that the user demands of AVG games in the Chinese market are very different from those in the Japanese market. If you simply copy them, you will probably fail miserably.

3. UGC platform: Orange Light Games

I have been following Orange Light Games for some time, and it was because of it that I became interested in learning about text games.

Orange Light Games is a text game platform, which I think is very similar to Qidian Chinese Network, except that one is for text games and the other is for novels;

In addition to providing booths for authors, they also provided game production tools and original materials.

Don’t underestimate the creative ability of players. The masters really are among the people. Don’t forget that "Rain Blood" was originally the work of an "amateur player".

I specifically asked a friend who works at Orange Light Games for some information, for reference only:

It is revealed that the cumulative number of works of Orange Light Games exceeds 1.43 million, the number of authors exceeds 460,000, the cumulative number of players is nearly 10 million, and the number of daily active users is 210,000;

This year's UV and PV have increased 20 times year-on-year;

The male-female ratio of players is about 2:8;

The average age is relatively young, mostly between 12 and 26 years old;

The most popular genre is ancient-style otome games, followed by Japanese anime-style love games, and then adventure games with palace fighting themes (after the success of "Empresses in the Palace", "The Palace of Qing Dynasty" brought about a wave of original games with female palace fighting themes);

Representative works include: female time travel game "Crossing the Marriage Tribulation", palace fighting game "The Qing Palace Strategy", and male-oriented game "The Hidden Red Road";

There are currently 44 games on the App Store. You can see them by searching for "橙光游戏". The reviews are all good.

But, to be honest, I think Orange Light Games is not doing well enough. After so many years of development, they have not been able to help those who love game creation to make money.

They feel that what they do in terms of culture and sentiment is noble.

Little do people know that this is exactly why many truly passionate "producers" are forced to make a living and cannot concentrate on making good games.

They feel that AVG games are too niche, not well-known, and difficult to commercialize.

Little did people know that Qidian Chinese Network was first commercialized in 2003, when online novels were not yet popular culture.

The spread of culture and the enhancement of awareness are not enough just relying on people’s interest; they need to be driven by interests. As the saying goes, people will not go anywhere without benefits.

What Orange Light Games seems to be doing is just waiting for the development of culture and everyone's recognition, but it has not made any great efforts to promote it.

I personally believe that only by being an industry promoter can we have a relatively stable position in the future, and Orange Light Games is just a pioneer.

Although they are currently trying to commercialize, they seem to be moving slowly and unprofessionally;

Once a professional Internet company takes a fancy to this market and joins the competition, Orange Light will find it difficult to resist.

IV. The Future

1. Research and development:

Although judging from the strength of the text game making tools currently on the market, it is difficult for amateurs to make particularly sophisticated games with them;

But I am still optimistic about UGC creation, after all, the secret of literary travel is still in the plot;

Tools will become more and more advanced, technology will no longer be an obstacle, imagination is the core!

Imagination needs a booth. Perhaps Orange Light Games will become a primary booth, and when some authors emerge, they will be poached by professional development teams.

But this kind of primary booth is indispensable and is the most important link in the industrial chain;

When the production tools are advanced and smart enough, professional teams may no longer be meaningful, and this kind of platform may be everything.

Of course, this is only under "ideal conditions". In reality, we still need a professional development team to create high-quality products, and its producer must be a good writer.

2. IP

Literary games are the most suitable type of games to use novel, animation, film and television IPs, without a doubt.

Literary games are also the type of games that can generate the most IP, with a typical example being Silent Hill (adapted from an AVG game into a best-selling movie and novel);

There are also some good cultural and tourism IPs in China, such as "The Hidden Red Path", "The Shining Star Path of Counterattack", "The Time Travel of Marriage", etc.

There is no need for me to say much about the long-term value of a good IP.

3. H5

Many short stories are really suitable for being made into H5 games. I just played a game called "Holding Liu Jifen". It was very short and only took a few minutes to finish. It was like reading a short comic. This kind of game is very suitable to be put on mobile social platforms. If readers feel good about it, they will share it with you on WeChat Moments. Short stories may not require much profit, and it is worth it to get some attention. If it doesn't work, you can even insert an advertisement.

Of course, it is better to make a long literary game into an app, but some chapters can be made into H5 for promotion, allowing players to try it out, thereby directing traffic to the app.

4. Business model:

Free trial, paid chapter unlocking, player rewards, copyright sales, advertising insertion, VIP monthly subscription, game peripherals, and overseas markets. . . (The one from the starting point is very useful)

It is recommended not to go the paid download route, as this will discourage players from trying and spreading the game. Secondly, you won’t make much money, so it’s not worth it.

Please wait and see whether what Yan Peng said is reliable, whether it makes sense, and whether it can come true.