Chapter 1452 The Triple Layout of "Ghost General 2"!

Seeing this, Yu Fei felt a bit lost.

"Ghost General 2" has a grand layout? Is it a puzzle even more difficult than "Real Estate Agent Simulator" and "Safe and Civilized Driving"?

He didn't think so?

Yu Fei himself was the lead designer, participating in the entire design process of "Ghost General 2" from start to finish, and he had a clear understanding of the game's current data.

Why compare it with "Real Estate Agent Simulator" and "Safe and Civilized Driving"?

Those two games had a huge impact on reality, one breaking through the traditional intermediary industry, and the other triggering a reform of the driving school system.

What made "Ghost General 2" so special? Not to mention anything else, its sales couldn't compare to those two games!

With confusion, Yu Fei continued reading.

…

"Ghost General 2' is a fighting game."

"And fighting games have long been declining, a game type that is about to become outdated. It's not unfair to say it's niche."

"Since it's a niche game, the player base is inherently small. To invest heavily in its development, isn't that clearly going to lose money?"

"This is a fact that all players know. How could the game designer not know? That's impossible."

"So, the only explanation is that the designer knows it's a niche game, but for some reason, still invests heavily, willing to risk losing everything."

"Everything that seems unreasonable on the surface must have its deep-seated motives behind it."

"If this were a large fighting game company with many classic IPs in hand, then this move could still be explained by 'inertia' and 'persistence'."

"The problem is that Tenda Games has never had any fighting game development experience. The first fighting game directly goes all-in: among the three game studios, the most elite development team was used; 'Ghost General,' a well-known IP that Tenda relied on during its early stages, was used; and huge sums of money were invested in research and development."

"Considering that the lead designer, Yu Fei, is not a particularly powerful designer, then behind all of this, it must be President Pei who overruled all objections and directly promoted it!"

"In this way, the deep-seated motives behind President Pei's actions are worth exploring."

"Many people say that the sales of 'Ghost General 2' seem average?"

"If you think so, then I can only say that you're thinking too small, your perspective is too narrow."

"Who gave you the illusion that President Pei considers sales as the only dimension to measure a game?"

"In terms of making money, how many games can make more money than GoG and 'Sea Fortress' now? Other big companies may not make pay-to-win games because they don't know how to, but Tenda doesn't know how? Tenda knows how to do everything, but still insists on releasing games like 'Game Producer', 'Struggle', and 'Mission and Choice'."

"Therefore, the appearance of 'Ghost General 2' must also have a deeper meaning! That is the grand layout of the entire Tenda game empire!"

"That is: maintaining game diversity, exploring game boundaries, and influencing the overall game environment!"

"President Pei definitely knows these things, but the designers most likely don't. Next, let me analyze them for you one by one!"

…

Yu Fei blinked, his expression a little bewildered.

He had to admit, Teacher Qiao was right.

He, the designer, really didn't know about this so-called grand layout!

Of course, it was hard to say whether other veteran designers in the Tenda game department knew about it.

Perhaps this kind of thing is a tacit understanding within the Tenda game department? After all, the entire Tenda, from top to bottom, values practical work and doesn't brag. "Grand layout" is not the kind of topic that would be brought up at any Tenda department meeting.

But just because it's not said doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

A company without a layout cannot go far, and a company that only talks about the layout but doesn't do practical work also cannot go far.

And Tenda, precisely under the leadership of President Pei, has formed a unique atmosphere: having a grand layout, but never talking about it.

Yu Fei continued reading.

…

"Layout one: Maintaining game diversity."

"This is actually very easy to understand. Everyone knows that we humans have to protect endangered animals and protect the diversity of the natural environment."

"Many people may wonder, what is the meaning of this? Many endangered animals will never interact with the lives of normal people. So what if they go extinct? So many animals have already gone extinct, and it hasn't had any impact on our lives, has it?"

"We humans protect endangered animals in order to maintain biodiversity."

"Maybe we can't see how significant and decisive it is right now, but at least protecting biodiversity leaves us with one more possibility for the future. Otherwise, when a large number of species go extinct and only exist in museums, what if they become useful in the future? Will we be able to regret it in time?"

"Keeping them now may not be useful, but if they're gone now, what if we need them in the future?"

"And the same is true in the game field."

"Has everyone realized that games are becoming more and more homogenized now? This phenomenon is not obvious on other platforms, but on mobile game platforms, basically a limited three or four types of games have completely devoured all the players on the platform."

"This is like a species invasion in nature. When a certain species is too strong and has no natural enemies, the survival environment of other animals will be devastatingly hit until the entire forest is occupied by the dominant species."

"In the game field, some games are naturally short, fast, and easy to stimulate people's sensory pleasure, generating stronger stickiness through anxiety, hatred, and greed. These games expand quickly, have huge advantages in competition, and can bring more generous profits to game vendors."

"Of course, I'm not criticizing any particular game type. What players like to play is their own choice."

"But the problem is, if all the game manufacturers go to make this kind of game, what about other types of games? What about players who like other game types? Maybe in the past you had more than a dozen different game types to choose from, but as you play, you'll find that there are only three or four game types left to choose from."

"Even further down the line, you may have no choice at all, because even those few game types only have some differences in gameplay mechanics. The internal pay-to-win system and the liver-damaging system for retaining users have also become seriously homogenized."

"If a game genre disappears, then it can no longer develop or evolve, which means that the fire is completely extinguished."

"Maybe in the short term, it seems like a species extinction, and it doesn't seem to have a big impact on our lives; but in the long run, it's an irreversible loss. Maybe it can play a big role in the future if it survives? No one can predict this."

"Therefore, the reason why Tenda Games continues to invest heavily and use the best teams in the industry to develop these relatively unpopular niche games is to awaken the general players' attention to this game genre, so that it will not be completely extinct in a specific environment, leaving a spark for game diversification."

"This is a thankless task, and most companies are unwilling to do it. And there are no major fighting game companies in China. If Tenda doesn't do it, then the Chinese game circle may permanently lose this genre of game."

"So this is the first point, maintaining game diversity."

"Layout two: Exploring game boundaries."

"Tenda is not only trying to inherit a small niche game genre, but also to dig deeper into this declining game genre on the basis of its predecessors, and find new design answers for the new era!"

"This is reflected in 'Mission and Choice': Tenda, through clever design, allows players who don't like real-time strategy games to enjoy the game, allowing the game to successfully break the circle."

"The same is true for 'Ghost General 2'. On the one hand, it perfectly replicates the feel and combat mechanics of fighting games, retaining the most essential content, so that fighting game experts feel that this is an authentic fighting game, without serious deviations; on the other hand, it has changed the niche attributes of fighting games to a certain extent, allowing the general public to get started better, so that it has the potential to break the circle!"

"How exactly does 'Ghost General 2' achieve this? Mainly from three aspects."

"First, the carefully designed PVE combat system and levels."

"The more discouraging aspect of fighting games in the past is that the entry threshold is high and the fun is weak. Although traditional fighting games are also divided into PVE and PVP parts, the numerical design of the PVE part is relatively conservative, so it is difficult to bring players an excellent experience."

"Because the values are conservative and the attributes of players and monsters are similar, it is difficult to adjust the difficulty: if the monster AI is too weak, then the player can easily pass the level without any challenge; but if the monster AI is too strong, it will bring huge difficulties and a strong sense of frustration to the player."

"For traditional fighting games, PVP is the real core fun, but the problem is that PVP is more difficult to balance and more discouraging for novices. Without thousands of hours of training, it is impossible to experience the real fun of fighting games."

"Therefore, 'Ghost General 2' has made drastic improvements to this point. The most obvious example is that the PVE aspect introduces the design concept of 'Turn Back is the Shore', strengthening the enemy's attributes and weakening the enemy's AI, focusing on testing the player's basic operations."

"In this way, the difficulty value can be maintained at a relatively reasonable level. Players can feel the challenge and suffer a little, but they are not too frustrated, and they can see their growth and progress every time."

"In addition, the mowing of small monsters, horizontal movement, and ingenious level design make the PVE part of 'Ghost General 2' full of fun, allowing a player who has never been exposed to fighting games to get started quickly."

"In other words, the PVE part is a novice tutorial, a guide to the core fun PVP part. Other fighting games have not done this well, but 'Ghost General 2' has done it!"