Time Travel: 2014

In fact, Lin Hui is not the only one who is curious about what game to develop...

Some small and medium-sized domestic game studios are also curious about the same question.

After Lin Hui’s two games became popular.

They also followed suit with games such as "Restart Life" and "4096".

Although it is a follow-up work, they have also made the game graphics more refined and developed more interesting gameplay based on the idea of ​​​​being better than others.

However, without exception, they all fell into the street.

The attack was quite miserable. Instead of replicating Lin Hui's success, he lost a lot of money.

The original projects can no longer be carried out.

It’s just a few small games developed. As for the landlord’s family, doesn’t he have any surplus food?

Yet this is indeed the case.

Although it doesn’t cost money at all to develop such a small game, games require money for more than just development.

Whether it is publicity or channels without a lot of real money invested, it is difficult to hear some echo in the market.

The saddest thing is that they invested a lot of real money and did not hear any good market feedback.

They couldn't figure it out, they obviously did it more exquisitely.

Could it be that he failed to reproduce the core of Lin Hui's game?

A number of small and medium-sized game studios began to think about what is the core of Lin Hui's game?

(Why aren’t big studios curious? Big studios usually choose to poach people and teams directly...)

…

Dong Jiaqi is also curious about this question.

She is the game editor of Play Alliance, a senior domestic game forum.

When she first saw some screenshots of "2048", at first glance, the style looked a bit like a strange calculator.

But as I learned more about it, especially after learning about the results of this game abroad.

She had to pay attention.

To be honest, Dong Jiaqi can't understand any games from the developer GRAY FOREST.

The previous "Life Restart Simulator" was just a boring and low-cost word game.

The current "2048" is still a boring and low-cost game.

It's just a change from a word game to a numbers game.

Why is the low-cost "2048" so popular?

No, low cost must be superficial.

The real essence of the game "2048" is the design language behind it-minimalism.

Think about the game "2048", isn't it because of the minimalist interface that makes players focus on the gameplay itself.

It is minimalism that makes "2048" a classic.

Minimalism coincides with traditional classics and pursues simplicity to the extreme. Simple and neat in terms of sense, elegant and delicate in taste and thought.

Simplify the complex, simple, but not simple.

Dong Jiaqi realized it in an instant!

At the beginning, I wrote about the concept of minimalism and the development process of minimalist software.

Then I wrote about how "2048" accurately captured the pulse of minimalism.

Then I wrote that the difficulty of minimalist design lies in choices.

Later, we analyzed a wave of "2048" followers who failed because they deviated from the minimalist design style.

Soon the number of words for a game review is almost reached.

She began to finish the article, and at the end of the text she boldly predicted that the next game of GRAY FOREST would be a small game.

A minimalist game that still has a simple style but pays attention to the operation itself.

And it is inferred that such a game not only has the advantage of low cost.

The gameplay will also make it difficult to control yourself...

After checking several times that there was no problem, Dong Jiaqi sent the game review again.

…

…

Lin Hui didn't know that someone had clearly arranged what game he would play next.

Anyway, he had been thinking about it for a long time and had no idea what kind of new game he would develop.

I flipped through the phone from later generations.

He also considered reprinting several games, but gave up without exception.

There is a reason why you gave up.

Take "Snake Fight" as an example.

This game was quite popular in later generations.

Later, when he was in college for a while, Lin Hui often saw some classmates playing this game while paddling.

Although the name of this game is a bit retro.

However, the content is quite innovative. As soon as it was launched, it quickly occupied the first place on the App Store free list and dominated the free list for nearly 70 days.

Although this game has the potential to be successful, it is obviously not suitable for Lin Hui now.

It's not a software problem.

The code for this game is indeed much more troublesome than the two mini-games Lin Hui made before.

But it can't be said to be particularly complicated.

It might take some time, but Lin Hui still only needs to do it by himself.

The problem is with the hardware.

Maybe it’s because I’m used to the large-screen mobile phones of later generations.

Anyway, Lin Hui had a hard time imagining how players could operate this game on a 5s screen that was only four inches.

Software requires hardware collaboration.

Without a hardware foundation, game software is doomed to fail no matter how successful it is.

Even if it is to be launched, at least it will have to wait until large-screen mobile phones such as iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus are launched.

In fact, the game Snake War was only launched in June 2016.

At that time, it was basically the era of large-screen mobile phones.

…

Some board and card games are relatively easy to reproduce and have strong platform compatibility.

But it is basically impossible for this kind of game to continue to have a buyout system.

It makes no sense for a card game to expect players to pay to download it. That's just scolding.

Moreover, Lin Hui’s goal in developing the game this time was to create a high-quality APP.

Chess and card software is basically a high-quality APP insulator.

It’s not that there are any flaws in the production of this type of APP.

Many board and card games are also beautifully crafted and have many players.

However, it still lives in the shadow of the app store.

It can only be said that this type of software is not compatible with αapple.

This is also true in later generations. Card games still have a place on the game recommendation list, but chess and card games are basically "recommended insulated" bodies.

In this case, let alone being rated as a high-quality APP, it is not an ordinary difficulty to win an editor's selection.

…

However, there are a few strategy mobile games that are pretty good, are easy to copy, and can easily become hits.

But Lin Hui always felt that these games were completely different from the games he designed before.

Putting this kind of game together with "2048" and "Life Restart Simulator" feels too separate.

If not deliberately telling the world that they are an author.

It can easily be mistaken as being made by a different developer.

Although in this world there are developers who often develop games with very different styles.

But whether it was because of a guilty conscience or not, Lin Hui didn't want outsiders to notice this feeling of separation.

The design language is best consistent with the previous two models.

…

Fortunately, Lin Hui was just brainstorming.

Otherwise, Party A, who has such strange requirements, may easily put his personal safety at risk.

After thinking about it, Lin Hui didn't have any suitable ideas.

In this case, let's just put it on hold for now.

Anyway, there are still more than eighty days left.

Maybe at some point a lightbulb will strike you, and you will suddenly be inspired.

Maybe we can communicate with the player community another day. Only players will understand what games they really need.