Text | Yu Shenglin
TCG is the abbreviation of the Komiks card game. It has a history of nearly 30 years since its earliest board game development.
The first TCG was launched in 1993, which is the well-known board game “Magic” that became popular as soon as it was released, and it also made the company behind it Wizards step by step to the top spot in the industry.
Later, in 1996, Pokémon, which was popular in Japan, also launched its own TCG. In 1999, the card game “Yu-Gi-Gi” that domestic players are most familiar with was officially released.
Then these cards quickly occupied the convenience stores of major, middle and primary schools in China and became the absolute dominant of everyone’s spare time. Game Daily Yu Yu’s family still has hundreds of cards that he won when he was a child. Of course, most students did not know the specific gameplay of TCG, but at that time there were already many full card stores in first-tier cities in China for everyone to play these board games.
KomiksThe brand store in Beijing in 2005/Photo source: Wu Xia’aBabaylanMeng
Although Cinema offline board games are very popular, there are few TCG online games at home and abroad.
In 2001, “Legend of Hot Blood” was just introduced to China, and online games ushered in a blowout exhibition in 2002. In that wilderness era of domestic online games, Wu Xia Amon, who had just graduated from university, designed the first TCG online game in China, “Interactive Martial Arts”, which opened up his own fate with TCG.
“Interactive Martial Arts” press conference
Shortly after Wuxia Amon’s first game was launchedBabaylan, and he gave birth to the idea of quitting his job and starting a business. Although he had no money or qualifications, he became 26 years old with his love and enthusiasm for this type of game.
For more than a year, after dozens of failed investment investment, Wu Xia Amon, who was heavily in debt, finally couldn’t stand it and found a class to go to Suzhou Game Snail to serve as the main planner of “Mecha Century”.
More than two months later, Wu Xia Amon finally found an opportunity, got a 1 million investment, and began to develop his second TCG “Xiaoyaoyou”. At that time, Wu Xia Amon never expected that he would not even see the first one of the carefully designed games.
“Xiaoyaoyou”
On the eve of the game’s launch, the investor felt that the game had been completed and no longer needed Wu Xia Amon, so he set up a new company, and all the employees and computers were taken away, leaving only the poor Wu Xia Amon and his main program friends. However, “Xiaoyaoyou”, which lost the producer and main program, was down for a long time on the public beta day, and various vicious bugs frequently appeared and disappeared soon.
Later, Wu Xia Amon, who was unwilling to give up, worked with his friends in the main process and made a brand new TCG “Eight Immortals Online”, which was officially launched in 2008. As a result, the new game was cheated by the distribution company as soon as it was launched. The company not only did not share the money, but also copied a web game “Ten Thousand Demons” out of it. “The King of Ten Thousand Demons” made micro-innovations based on “The Eight Immortals”, but because of the inaccurate copying, the numerical system was not stuck and it soon became cold.
After that, “Eight Immortals Online” experienced several twists and turns, and finally operated it in Wuxia Amen’s hands like a private server until 2012, until it was bought out by a Shenzhen company.
The Eight Immortals Online
This Cinema game is Wu Xia Amon’s favorite game. Wu Xia Amon himself is doing the planning, art, and websites. There are no restrictions on the content, so he can do whatever he wants.
In 2013, the popular Blizzard “Heartstone” began testing.
In the future, among the games in this category, “Five Elements Master” launched in 2017 is considered a masterpiece. Babaylan
Yu Yu: Why is it named Wu Xia Amon?
Wu Xia Amon: In 2002, I like martial arts very much. I have read a lot of martial arts novels. I once wanted to change the online name to “Martial Arts Dream”, but I felt a little stingy, so I used the homonym of “Martial Arts Dream” to “Wu Xia Amon”.
Yu Yu: How was “Five Elements Master” born?
Wu Xia Amon: After I sold “Eight Immortals Online”, I started my business again in 2012. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan was lucky enough to make millions from other games, and was facing the problem of project establishment. Based on my interest in CCG and my feelings for “Eight Immortals Online”, we finally used all the money to do it. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema A CCG “Five Elements Master”, whose combat rules are inherited from “Eight Immortals Online”.
“Five Elements Master” can be said to be the continuation of the life of “Eight Immortals Online”. In “Five Elements Master”, I designed an achievement commemorative card called “Tupper”, to commemorate the years when I was pushed around but didn’t want to fall down. Haha, I’m pretentious, manual dog head~
Yu Yu: After “Five Elements Master” was launched, is there any player who compared it with “Heartstone”?
Wu Xia Amon: After the game was launched, it was recommended by TapTap for the first time and had a high score of 9.4. However, many players saw it as a battle card game, and they scolded us for copying Hearthstone without playing it, and they gave us a bad review, which caused the score to continue to fall… Later, because Komiks‘s quality has been recognized and its ratings have been rising. Now there are more than one million downloads on TapTap, and it is still guaranteed to be Cinema has a high score of 9.0.
In fact, the rules of “Five Elements Master” were inherited from “Eight Immortals Online” launched in 2008. How could it copy “Heartstone” launched in 2013? When “Heartstone” first came out, many old “Eight Immortals” players came to me and joked that “Heartstone” was plagiarizing us.
Yu Yu: How is “Five Elements Master” doing in terms of balance?
Wu Xia Amon: The balance of “Five Elements Master” can Cinema lists some data to illustrate:
In the duel between experts, there are nearly 20 sets of plays with a winning rate of more than 50% and a usage rate of more than 1% each month (the different sects and the five elements combinations are different). This number is far more than other CCGs.
In addition, the routine with the highest winning rate is lower than 54%, which is also far lower than other CCGs.
Yu Yu: I have persisted for 20 years, why is it so Komiksobsessed with card games?
Wuxia Amon: I like to play highly strategic games, and card battle games are very strategic and never tired of playing.
Yuyu: Which game do you think you have made the best? Why? Cinema
Wuxia Amon: The best one is the latest “Devil’s Secret Realm”. “Five Elements Master” is also a son, but its artistic performance has always been our pain and has been discounted…
“Five Elements Master”
Yu Yu: Are there any interesting news during the game development process?
Wu Xia Amon: There are quite a lot of interesting things, let’s talk about the early years:
In 2005, in order to write a good financing business plan, I went to the card store to inspect. There are dozens of card stores that mainly sell Magic Cards, and there are board game venues. When I took the second photo, it attracted the attention of the store owner and asked me about my purpose. I honestly told me. He knew that I was not a customer, so he limited me to leave within 30 seconds and stayed wherever I was cool… Years have passed, and occasionally I remembered the embarrassing look at me.
Yu Yu: What are the major problems encountered during the game development process? Cinema
Wu Xia Amon: The biggest problem Cinema is the choice of art style. It must not only meet the characteristics of the subject matter, but also cater to the preferences of the majority of players, but also take into account the development costs, development cycles, and subsequent maintenance difficulties… There are too many restrictions.
Yu Yu: How many people are there in the current team? What are the new games you are doing?
Wu Xia Amon: There are currently more than 20 R&D personnel, and they are still making an independent game “Silent Cricket”.
Yu Yu: What do you think are the good and bad aspects of “CinemaFive Elements Master”? href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan? Where is “Demon Secret Realm”?
Wu Xia Amon: The advantage of “The Five Elements Master” is that its gameplay is high enough, and its disadvantage lies in its visual performance. In other words, the advantage lies in its gameplay and numerical design, and the disadvantage lies in its art design (art performance is not only a design issue, but also has a lot to do with the investment. A company made a CCG two years ago, and the cost of its opening animation exceeds the entire R&D cost of “The Five Elements Master”).
The advantages of “The Five Elements Master” are the same as those of “The Five Elements Master”, which is still planning the design of gameplay and numerical, and the disadvantage is that it is difficult to add pvp.
“Devil’s Secret Realm”
Yu Yu: Summarize your years of entrepreneurial career. Do you feel it is hard?
Wu Xia Amon: I don’t feel it. Although I have experienced a lot of setbacks, maybe I am optimistic by nature. I have never felt it. I have never felt any frustrations, or I may be used to it.
KomiksYuyu: Will you want to make some more novel card strategy games in the future?
Wuxia Amon: If you have a strong IP, you will make another TCG or CCG.
Yuyu: Do you have any suggestions for newcomers who have just entered the industry?
Wuxia Amon: If you want to do programs and art, it will be easy to change careers in the future.
Wuxia Amon: If you want to do planning, you need to ask first whether you love game design and whether you have the talent in this area.
Yuyu: During the interview with our Game Daily, we often encountered some universities and even high schools and started doing games by ourselves.The producer of the drama is approaching the college entrance examination. What majors do you think if you want to enter the industry and play games in the future, what majors do you think are better to study?
Wu Xia Amon: First of all, it depends on which job you want to do. If you are doing programs or art, you will naturally choose a related major; if you are trying to do planning, then the major is not that important. What is important is that you must play more games in college. If you must choose a professional direction for game planning, you can give priority to majors related to programming. Game planning does not require programming, but if you know how to program, some sub-jobs can do more things.