These days, Jester is always considering a problem when he is developing games.

This question is very sharp. In the future, this is a problem that both game enthusiasts, players, and game designers are considering.

Of course, more players are considering more.

That is, are you playing a game that you find fun or will you play a so-called "very popular" game?

It seems that this question is a bit contradictory. Will the "very popular" game be a game that is not fun? If it is not fun, how can it be "very popular"? Since there are so many players to play, it means that he is really fun.

This question actually involves the question of what is fun.

This is something very personal.

Everyone has different definitions of fun, just like everyone has different definitions of delicious food, Europeans like to eat stinky cheese, but they may not like to eat stinky tofu, and domestic people are the same. Domestic people like to eat animal offal, and Europeans and Americans may think this thing is very disgusting...

There are many such examples, that is, people in every place are completely different for taste, and even specifically for everyone. For example, Xiao Ming likes to eat spicy food, while Xiao Wang hates to eat spicy food.

The evaluation of whether a game is fun is very similar to this kind of "flavor". Everyone has different criteria for judging "flavor".

This game and your taste, you think this game is really fun, but this game doesn't match your taste, then you will think this game is not fun? No game can match anyone's taste. The gameplay of the "Super Horse" series beats other games around the world, but there are also a large number of people who don't think this game of jumping and eating mushrooms is fun.

"Diablo 2" has created a new gameplay for arpg and laid a model for the development of mtrpg. However, this kind of gameplay that can be bounced cannot be loved by everyone.

Then even if it is a great masterpiece like "Fallout: New Vegas", many people disagree with him.

Not to mention gta5, Jester himself didn't like this game at the beginning.

Some people will dislike these popular games, let alone those games with fewer niche players? But these games also have their supporters. Isn’t they fun because they are not popular enough?

“The targeting of the game.”

After thinking about it, Jester still added such a note to the question in his mind. If there is no such note, the so-called fun games or very popular games are a false proposition that does not have the value of discussion.

Especially for designers.

When designing games, designers naturally have to design a game fun. Whether it is fun or not is a personal experience. In the final analysis, it is a psychological feeling. This can be analyzed and discussed using psychological concepts and methods. This is also the same reason why outstanding game designers are all masters of psychology.

The designer who can't figure out the players' minds is not possible.

Moreover, take Mars Entertainment as an example. The prerequisite for being a designer is that you must be an avid game enthusiast. This is not a reference condition, but a necessary condition.

When designing games, they will definitely refer to them based on their own ideas, and sometimes these references can even play a decisive role.

After the target positioning of a game is determined, the game is developed around this positioning. For example, if I want to develop an At game game, then what I need to consider is the likes of at game enthusiasts, rather than considering the preferences of RPG game enthusiasts. If I want to design a PS game, what I need to consider is the likes of PS game enthusiasts. Instead of considering the preferences of a ~ vg game enthusiasts.

This is based on the analysis of the designer's design game.

The gameplay should be prepared for the target group, and the player, that is, your target group, cannot like your gameplay. There are too many uncertain factors and too high risks in doing so. In short, the chance of failure is too high.

When Jester thought of this, he couldn't help but think of the game "Heroes of the Storm". This game is simply a collection of failed games. Analyzing why this game fails can help many designers avoid many detours when designing games, just like analyzing the improvement of the original version of Diablo 3 to the expansion pack "Scimitar of Souls" that allows a game designer to learn a lot.

However, the difference between the two games is very big.

The game "Diablo 3" is no matter how bad the original review is, it is compared to "Diablo 2". In essence, this game is not that bad, and at least one week experience is unparalleled. But in fact, this game only made a fatal mistake in two aspects. The first point is to make a mistake in how to "brush". The ultimate reason for this mistake is that there are major mistakes in the design of the equipment.

The second point is that the equipment is far less efficient than the auction house, which completely destroys the game experience. Players are here to play games, not the equipment they have worked hard to brush. When they go to the auction house, they can buy it better with just a little money. So why do I continue to brush equipment?

And what is the core gameplay of Darkness?

Isn't it just to use equipment?

However, when the design team designed the game, the core of the gameplay was not changed, that is, this is a "brushing" game. Their changes in Ros only did two things. The first thing was to change how players could brush it, and the second thing was to destroy the auction house.

The biggest difference between the original version of Dark 2 and Dark 3 is that Dark 2 can make players feel very strong by brushing equipment. Then they pursue the strongest, while the original version of Dark 3 cannot do this.

So, in Ros, what they do is to make players strong again by brushing, and then pursue stronger.

However, this change is a bit too much because it makes players feel that they are too strong, so strong that they feel that it is a waste of time to continue brushing. This is why a group of locusts always come to brush at the beginning of the season, and then retreat like locusts after a week to a month. As for how to change it, it is very simple. That is to restore the rune language system of Dark 2.

Although this is just a variant of equipment, it is really an incredible and attractive thing.

The current fast food brushing method is equivalent to the km of Dark 2. It can allow players to get a work outfit, and then the Rune Word is the kind of thing that can make players full of interest and make themselves stronger.

But unfortunately, Blizzard is unlikely to reinstall Rune Words.

Although players all over the world don’t understand why Rune Word is so perfect, so wonderful, and with such a strong sense of identity, they will not only not adopt, but they can’t design a stronger than this, needless to say, stronger than this. It is really intriguing to compare things that don’t even have. Is it so difficult to admit that you are not as good as your predecessors?

Isn’t Ros’s transformation proved this? You are indeed not as many as your predecessors.

Of course, by analyzing the improvement process of "Dark 3", we can analyze the gains and losses of many design teams in the design process, which are really classic changes like textbooks, and the design team of Diablo 3 is really excellent.

However, there is a key here, that is, there is no difference in the essential gameplay between "Dark 3" and "Dark 2".

But the game "Heroes of the Storm" is completely different. He is different. Jester has thought about it before, that is, his target group and the gameplay he designed are extremely different from the Diabloog 3, so there is no such concern. Because what they are doing is a diablolike game, and the player group is extremely clear.

And what about the game "Heroes of the Storm"?

What is his target positioning? He is a player of the tower push game. These players spent ten years completing the design and gameplay of this type of game. These gameplays were not completed by any game company or designer alone. Although he adopted many settings in A, even though he had the personal spark of wisdom from Ice Frog and many other designers.

But at the end of the day, this is a mature gaming system formed by the ideas of countless players.

The goal of the game "Heroes of Storm" is these players, who are used to this mature game system. However, when the target group has been determined, Heroes of Storm completely did not consider what game mode these players like when designing the game. Instead, he slapped his head and came up with something he thought was very 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The result is self-evident.

Since you are disdainful of what players like, players will also disdain what you think.

But it needs to be noted here. It does not mean that the things that Blizzard has come up with very l are not worth mentioning at all. It can only be said that this is a very good idea, but this idea appeared too late. When the player's game mode has formed a fixed standard, it is too difficult and difficult to change it.

If this game appears five years ago, or even three years ago.

The situation may not be so embarrassing.

So what is the most fundamental disadvantage of this game? That is, the design team forced itself to think that this is a game that only five people can play, and all their designs are designed around this idea, and completely ignore it. Although the game is conducted in a team of five people, the participants in the game are based on one player. This game infinitely weakens the individual's role and infinitely enhances the role of the team.

If players who completely change the game like this, if they don’t consider other things, will they succeed?

There is no doubt that this is successful. It is fun to play this game according to the designer's gameplay. Just look at the "Heroes of the Storm" competition, you will know that two excellent and unified teams are very intense and very good-looking when playing the game, but the problem is that players do not recognize this game mode.

Compared with this disadvantage, the so-called matching and disconnection of the line are simply worthless.

That's why Jester thought that this game was simply a collection of failed games, because from the beginning, the design team was stubborn and voluntarily, and was unwilling to listen to what kind of game they thought the target group wanted to play, and whether it was the kind of game they wanted to play, especially after beta testing, and after getting so much dissatisfaction feedback, he still "think I was right" the disgusting face.

This is simply a typical example that all design teams should take as a warning.

After the initial evil reviews of "Dark 3", how did the team deal with it? First of all, the legendary character of Blizzard, Robert Pardo, who is the director of "Dark 3", suddenly resigned, and then Jaylen, the main designer of "Dark 3", was transferred to the team.

And what about "Heroes of the Storm"?

The bald brother is still the director of the game. He still promotes his concept at the Carnival press conference and makes some minor changes. He is unwilling to look directly at the most core problem of this game either makes this game look great for a single player, or completely abandons a single player and completely turn to the team.

The first is to completely deny their design concepts, which is of course impossible. The second is to make the design team unwilling, because it means that they have irreconcilable mistakes in the initial design, and they will not.

It is foreseeable that this game will not be reborn in the ashes for at least a short period of time.

Because he didn't have the courage to start over from scratch as the Diablo 3 design team, to be honest, if it were Blizzard more than ten years ago, "Heroes of the Storm" would have been remade.

Such a game is enough to educate many designers not to repeat the same mistakes as a textbook.
Chapter completed!