Komiks Text | Yu Shenglin
TCG is the abbreviation of the exchange card game, which has a history of nearly 30 years since its earliest board game.
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 TCCinemaG. 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.
Brand stores in Beijing in 2005/Photo source: Wuxia Amon
Although offline board games are very popular, there are few TCG online games at home and abroad.
2KomiksIn 2001, “Legend of Hot Blood” was just introduced to China, and online games ushered in a blowout development in 2002. In that wilderness of domestic online games, Wu, who had just graduated from college, designed the first TCG online game “Interactive Martial Arts”, which opened up his own fate with TCG.
“Interactive Martial Arts” press conference
Shortly after Wu Xia Amon’s first game was launched, he had the idea of resigning and starting a business. Although he had no money or qualifications, he relied on his love and motivation for such games and plunged into the “no return” of game entrepreneurship. That year he was 26Babaylan years old.
After more than a year, after dozens of failed investments, Wu Xia Amon, who was heavily in debt, finally couldn’t stand it and went to Suzhou Game Snail to serve as the main planner of “Mecha Century”.
After more than two months, Wu Xia Amon finally found an opportunity, got a million investment, and began to develop his second TCG Cinema‘s “Xiaoyaoyou”. At that time, Wu Xia Amon never expected that he had carefully designed the game of Babaylan, but he didn’t even see the first one.
“Xiaoyaoyou”
On the eve of the game’s launch, investors felt that the game had been completed and no longer needed Wuxia Amon.Babaylan established a new company, and all the employees and computers were taken away, leaving only the poor Wuxia Amon and his main program friends. However, the public beta of “Xiaoyaoyou” that lost the producer and main program href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Cinema was down for a long time, and various vicious bugs appeared frequently. Not long after, Babaylan disappeared.
Later, Wu Xia Amon, who was unwilling to accept it, and together with his friends from the main process, the two of them made a brand new TCG “Eight Immortals Online”, 20Komiks officially launched in 2008. As a result, the new game was cheated by the distribution company as soon as it was launched. Not only did the distribution company not share the money, the distribution company also copied a web game “Ten Thousand Demons” itself. “Ten Thousand Demons” made micro-innovations based on “Eight Immortals”, but because it was not copied thoroughly, the numerical system was not tightened and it soon became cold.
After that “EightKomiksXian Online” experienced several twists and turns, and finally operated in Wuxia Amon like a private server until 2012, until it was bought out by a Shenzhen company.
“Eight Immortals Online”
This game is Wu Xia Amon’s favorite gameKomiks drama, planning, art, and websites are all done by Wu Xia Amon himself, and 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.
Yu Yu: Why is it named Wu Xia Amon?
Wu Xia Amon: In 2002, I was taken when I was doing “Interactive Martial Arts”. I like martial arts very much, and I have read a lot of martial arts novels. I once wanted to change the online name to “Martial Arts Dream”, but I felt that Babaylan felt a little stingy, so he used the homonym of “Martial Arts Dream” to mock him.
Yu Yu: How was “Five Elements TeacherBabaylan” was born?
Wu Xia Amon: After selling “Eight Immortals Online”, I started my business again in 2012 and was lucky enough to make millions from other games. At this time, I was facing the problem of project establishment. Based on my interest in CCG and my feelings for “Eight Immortals Online”, we finally put these href=”https://comicmov.com/”>BabaylanThe money is used to make a CCG “Five Elements Master”, and its combat rules are inherited from “Eight Immortals Online”.
The Five Elements Master” can be said to be the continuation of life of “Eight Immortals Online”. In “Five Elements Master”, I designed an achievement commemorative card called “Tumbler”, 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, has any players compared it with “Heartstone”?
Wu Xia Amon: After the game is launched, the first Babaylan was recommended by TapTap for a high score of 9.4. However, many players saw that it was a card game, and they would scold us for Hearthstone without playing it, and they would use it backhand.The negative reviews led to the continuous decline in the score… Later, due to the recognition of quality, the scores have been rising all the way. Now there are more than one million downloads on TapTap, and the high score of 9.0 is still retained.
In fact, the rules of “The Five Elements Master” are inherited from “Eight Immortals Online” launched in 2008. How could it copy “Heartstone” launched in 2013? When Hearthstone first came out, many old “Eight Immortals” players came to me and joked that Hearthstone was plagiarizing us.
Yu Yu: How is “The Five Elements Master” doing in terms of balance?
Wu Xia Amon: The balance of “The Five Elements Master” can be explained in some data: In the duel between experts, Cinema has nearly 20 sets of playing styles with a winning rate of more than 50% and a usage rate of more than 1% every month (the different sects and five elements combinations are the same). This number is much higher than other CCGs.
In addition, the winning rate of routines with the highest winning rate is lower than 54%, which is also far lower than other CCGs.
Yuyu: I have been persisting for 20 years, why are I so obsessed with card games?
Wu Xia Amon: I like to play games with high strategic nature, and card battle games are very strategic and never tired of playing them.
Yuyu: Which game do you think you have made the best? Why?
Wu Xia Amon: The best one is the latest “Devil’s Secret Realm”. “The Five Elements Master” is also a real son, but its artistic performance has always been a pain for us and has been discounted…
“The Five Elements Master”
Yuyu: 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 brand store to inspect it. There are dozens of card stores that mainly sell Magic Cards in Beijing, and there are also board game venues. When I took the second photo, it attracted the attention of the store owner and asked me about my purpose, and 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 back then.
Yuyu: What are the major problems you encountered during the game development process?
Wu Xia Amon: The biggest problem 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.
Yuyu: How many people are there in the team at present? What new game are you doing?
Wu Xia Amon: CurrentlyThere are more than 20 R&D personnel, and they are still working on an independent game “Silent Cricket”.
Yuyu: What do you think are the good and bad aspects of “The Five Elements Master”? Where is the “Devil’s 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. Komiks Or, the advantage lies in the design of gameplay and numerical values, and the disadvantage lies in the design of art (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 the opening of Komiks is more than the entire R&D cost of “Five Elements Master”).
The advantages of “Devil’s Secret Realm” are the same as those of “Five Elements Master”, which is still the planning of gameplay and numerical design, while the disadvantage is that it is difficult to add PVP.
“Devil’s Secret Realm”
YuCinemaYu: Summarize your years of entrepreneurial career. Do you feel it is hard?
Wu Xia Amon: I don’t feel the pain. Although I have experienced a lot of frustration, I may be optimistic by nature and have never felt any frustration, or I may be used to it.
Yuyu: Will you want to make some more novel card strategy games in the future?
Wu Xia 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?
Wu Xia Amon: If you want to do programs and art, it will be easy to change careers in the future.
If you want to plan, you need to first ask whether you love game design very much and whether you have the talent in this area.
Yuyu: During the interview with Game Daily, we often met some producers who started playing games in colleges and even high schools. Cinema is approaching the college entrance examination. Do you think if you want to enter the industry and play games in the future, which majors do you think are better to study? Cinema
BabaylanWu 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 the relevant major; if you are trying to do it Komiks planning, 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-professionals can do more things.