Almighty Game Designer Chapter 871: Linear game or open world?

In the first half of this year, it was not just the Assassin’s Creed series that shined in the global game market.

Of course, "Assassin's Creed: Origins" and "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" are undoubtedly one of the best games released in the same period, but it does not mean that they can completely crush other games in the same period.

It can only be said that the "Assassin's Creed" series has become an iconic game IP with its moving plot, sophisticated historical background, rich cultural heritage and unique combat system, but it has not achieved it in all aspects. Perfection.

Because of this, TGN gave "Assassin's Creed" a score of 9.3, which is the best work.

Before the release of "Assassin's Creed", a VR game named "Traveler" scored 8.8 points, and half a month after the release of "Assassin's Creed: Revelations", a VR game named " "The Lost Fleet" game turned out, and also got a high score of 9.3 points on TGN.

The powerful appearance of this game seems to be announcing to the world: the era of Serente? It's still far!

Indeed, the popularity of Thunder Interactive Entertainment and Chen Mo in the past two years has been too high, especially the appearance of a series of classic IPs has made many foreign manufacturers feel a little breathless. Players are even more emotional. changed".

However, the game industry is not a zero-sum game after all. When everyone can make a good game, even if you make a profit, I will also earn it. You will not slap me because your game is 0.1 points higher than me.

As long as you really make games with your heart and adapt to market needs, every game designer will reap success. It's nothing more than a matter of sooner or later, more or less.

"The Lost Fleet" is an FPS game with a sci-fi background. It tells the story of a small interstellar fleet that has lost contact with the mothership due to an accident and has to experience adventures in a sinister universe.

In this process, players will experience the warmth of humanity in desperate situations and the cruelty of the laws of the universe, experience scenes of treacherous universe adventures, battle with terrifying cosmic creatures, and experience the loneliness of infinite wandering in the universe, and finally return When they arrived on Earth, many players were like wanderers returning home from wandering for many years, bursting into tears.

In terms of influence and topicality, this game is not as good as "Assassin's Creed", but it is obviously a good work in terms of artistry and gameplay, so it also received a high score of 9.3.

Moreover, due to the popularity of this game, the sales of the same name have also been rising, and the shooting of the film of the same name is also in preparation.

For the players, "The Lost Fleet" creates a very real cosmic environment (or it seems very real, after all, the current technology is not enough to support humans in cosmic voyages), leaving mankind endlessly wandering alone in the universe And despair is vividly reflected, and there are passionate spaceship piloting and gunfighting scenes in the middle. From all aspects, this work is not praised at 9.3 points.

However, everyone's discussion of "The Lost Fleet" is not limited to the game itself, but has expanded to larger areas.

For example...the development direction of the game industry.

This situation occurs mainly because the two well-rated works in the first half of the year, "Traveler" and "Lost Fleet", are linear.

In other words, these two games have abandoned the concept of open world and have taken the path of "game filmization".

As for why... I have to start with Chen Mo's "Uncharted Sea" last year.

Before "Uncharted", the world's mainstream VR game masterpieces were basically working towards the open world, and even many people felt that not being an open world would be lagging behind the times.

The reason is very simple. The open world approach has an immediate effect on prolonging the game time of players, and at the same time it can make your game appear "rich in content" and "overpriced".

In fact, many open world games are not necessarily better than linear, and many open world games that are not well done are often in vain. For example, adding a large number of collectible elements to the game map, repeated gameplay, high-level items with strict numerical control, and so on.

In this open world, players will actually feel boring after playing for a while. It's nothing more than running the map, it's nothing more than brushing.

But I have to say that the effect is really immediate. Players like to collect achievements and trophies. Although this kind of numerical stimulation is simple and crude, it is very effective.

Therefore, many major international game companies are addicted to the concept of the open world and cannot extricate themselves.

However, the appearance of Uncharted Sea changed this. Through sophisticated process design, high-performance art effects, meticulously crafted game scripts and other factors, "Uncharted Seas" as a linear, successfully conquered a large number of players ~ IndoMTL.com ~ can be said to be a second Most of the open world games of the same period have been dropped.

The appearance of "The Last of America" ​​has played a role in fueling the flames. Obviously, the most suitable way for a game like "The Last of America" ​​is to do linearity. If it is an open world, it will ruin this game. classic.

"The Last of Us" won the best game of the year and many designers began to reflect, is it necessarily good to open the world?

And "Traveler" and "The Lost Fleet" are a result of this reflection. Many designers no longer believe in the concept of open world blindly, but switch to linear, using beautiful stories and sophisticated rhythm control to firmly grasp the hearts of players.

I have to say that the open world is good, but uncontrollable. On the other hand, linearity, as long as there is a good script and the game's commercial focus is polished, it is almost certain to create a well-rated game.

Leave aside whether it sells well or not, the ratings of game media will certainly not be bad.

If the score is not bad, publicize it well, and then appropriately cater to market tastes, and sales will not be bad.

"Traveler" and "The Lost Fleet" are works that came into being under such an opportunity, and the facts have also proved that the linearity is indeed good.

This has caused many designers and players to have discussions. The core question is: Is the current level of technology not enough to make the open world the best? Is linearity the better choice at this stage?

Of course, there are some good open world games in the parallel world, but compared to the total number of open world games, they are still a few. In other words, parallel world games are classics as long as they are done well, but most games are not well done.

On the contrary, strict processes and clear rules have become a very good option. 8) For more wonderful novels, welcome to everyone's reading academy