Almighty Game Designer

How's the domestic card game going?

This is an insightful question, and different players have different flavors.

It is true that many people's sick card games are rough and indiscriminate, monotonous and repetitive.

But it just makes money.

Earning money means being recognized by the player.

Why does the player approve? Because the player thought it was fun.

This is a strange phenomenon, where players scold it and pay for it.

Why do card games make money? Where the hell is it?

This is a fairly broad proposition, and if Chen Qiao were to write a paper specifically on the core of the card game, he could probably write tens of thousands of words.

Simply put, the fun of domestic card games comes mainly from three aspects.

The first is the fun of collecting cards and cultivating them.

This is based on the player's recognition of the card character.

Once a hand tour company made a first generation card with the theme "King of the Pirates" (completely skinned "My name is MT"), and a Tu Hao Jin game didn't say anything about going straight to a few thousand yuan, just to get a hawkeye Mihawk.

There is also an unknown trinity card game, still in the testing stage, a Tu Hao Jin game didn't say anything about anger rush 5,000, just to smoke a Zhuge Liang, as a result of the game there is no Zhuge Liang the Wu General.

Finally, the game company worked overtime urgently and made Zhuge Liang.

Like "My Name is MT," many players brush their copies everyday, saving purple card fragments, or trenching a thousand gold fields to get the cards they want.

Game designers also deliberately adjust their card skills and capabilities to match the plot (or fine-tune it based on the character's popularity), all to foster player acceptance of the card character.

Only by building up this sense of identity will the card become valuable and the player will pay for it.

And once the value system of this card is established, it means that there is a difference between the different cards, and the player's desire to collect and cultivate is satisfied, and he feels that the money is worth it.

So the key to profitability in card games is to create a system of card-value that allows players to identify with each other, like a philatelic collection, and constantly sell new cards to players.

And once the player gets the card he wants, in order to make it stronger, he will continue to recharge the money to upgrade it, upgrade the stars, upgrade his skills, and so on. Every upgrade of the card makes the player feel grown and makes him feel that the money is free.

This is one expression of the “numerical stimulus” that has been mentioned before.

This is the core pleasure of all cards, it is a very mature and reusable model, which is why cardholder games in previous life are so prevalent.

The second is the pleasure of figuring out a battle strategy independently and matching the formation.

The card game's battle system seems monotonous, but it's actually quite rich. In "My Name is MT", each card has three abilities: ordinary attack, skill attack, and passive. In character design, the battle system of Warcraft World serves as a blueprint, and the skills of each character vary.

It is also a range damage skill with different types of storm (full-screen attack), tornado (three units in the front row), lightning chain (three random units), penetrating projectile (two units in the vertical row), etc.

Skill injuries are divided into spells, physics, and monomers and groups.

Therapeutic skills are the same, with single milk and a group of milk.

In addition to this, there are a variety of battle abilities such as injury reduction, rebirth, sustained injury, and basically every skill you can think of can be forced into the card's battle system.

Combined with complex factors such as card position, order of play, attribute restraint, team leader skills, etc., the battle system of card games is greatly enhanced.

Of course, this battle system is simply not comparable to outbound travel, but it is enough for the players.

This battle system can cover most of the worldview perfectly by changing the packaging, such as pirates, animations like fire shadows, or martial arts novels.

There is a circular restraint relationship between the various battle abilities, such as single milk second kill, second milk kill, group milk range damage, etc. Players really want to find the best five cards to go with out of dozens of cards, and it takes a very long time to try and share experiences over and over again.

Because the acquisition of rare cards is strictly controlled, either by spending money or by spending time, it takes a lot of investment to test the actual combat power of each card.

The process is also fun and fulfilling for the player. So the card game battle system fits perfectly with the card cultivation system, as a classic battle system that lasts forever, enough to keep the player from playing for 3-5 years.

The third is marketing strategy, numerical stimulus.

This is a very broad content, such as operating activities (7-day login, check-in, growth fund, etc.), daily benefits (maintenance of diamond delivery, physical delivery, online delivery rewards, etc.), prior numerical structure...

Of course, this content is not just exclusive to card games, which is basically standard for all domestic hand games, but is also widely available in other game types such as SLG (strategy games) and FPS (shooting games).

The earliest origins, however, should be sprouting on page tours, thriving on card games, and eventually becoming popular with all domestic games.

Of course, this “Pavlov” type of numerical stimulus is sprayed with impeccable skin by countless players and game critics, but it is sprayed back, and hardly any hand sports company dares not do it.

Why? Because it's simple and effective, once it's removed, game data and revenue will fall markedly.

This is how the "numerical stimulus” system works.

First of all, the game must be free and attract as many players as possible to the game, who may not have any intention of spending money at all, it's okay to come in first.

Once in, there will be a very detailed novice guide that will allow the player to experience the core fun and play of the game as quickly as possible, without making any numerical difficulties and allowing the player to travel all the way.

This is the same thing as the first 300,000 words of the web for free, experience front-end, pay back-end. Experience before paying, not satisfied with the charge.

However, this cannot last too long, a week long and three days short, and the player is bound to experience some setbacks.

In such games, recharge players and non-recharge players are naturally unequal, and card points must be set in order for the player to pay.

The so-called card point is to jam the players, frustrate them, get the players to recharge for battle power, and continue to challenge higher levels.

But this raises the question, what if a player who doesn't want to spend money encounters a card point? He has a good chance of giving up this game and stopping playing.

How can these players stay? Easy, money delivery.