Today (September 20th), the new work "New Moon Companion", independently developed by Candlepay Network, is officially scheduled to open the public beta on October 24 this year.

For this new product created by the Shenzhen team, the game top has always had a strong interest. In November last year, the author also met with the main creative team and talked about a lot of ingenuity in game design - at that time, this game had just started the second beta.

After the final tuning of the "Elephant Test" in June this year, "New Moon Companion" is finally going to meet the majority of players and face the cruel competition in the second game market.

The beautiful 2D art and the sufficiently differentiated urban supernatural theme make this game a great appeal. Looking at the product schedule for the last quarter of 2024, there seems to be no similar competitors until the end of October until the end of the year. It can be said that "Walking with the New Moon" not only avoided the fierce battle in the previous summer file, but also happened to enter a short window period for the second tour.

As the last "second tour of the lone seedling" in 2024, can "Walking with the New Moon" seize the opportunity to play a piece of the sky?

The second game is fierce: the battle for ecological niche

If last year's second-game market was a "big chaos", many small and medium-sized products lacking IP background fell on the battlefield silently. This year's second-game fierce battle has obviously entered a new stage: the new products that enter the game either have strong backgrounds or unique styles, and the products that can participate in the current user time sharing battle are basically not mediocre.

On the one hand, the demand of second-game players has been ground to a certain height by many products.

The art style, character portrayal, plot writing, and theme characteristics, which are the foundation of the second game, are all continuously iterated under repeated torture by well-informed players. Even the original theory that "the second game does not need to be played" is no longer valid in the past two years, and without a sufficiently dazzling gameplay framework and content production capacity, it will be difficult to harvest the long-term retention of players.

On the other hand, the dilemma of "product volume far exceeds user time" is further exacerbated.

In the final analysis, the second game, which is built on the core of the character's charm, is a category that requires long-term investment from players. No matter how much you reduce the burden on players in terms of gameplay, manufacturers need to open up the card pool and fill the content to make players reluctant to leave. This leads to the fact that if the player wants to enter a new pit, they must exit an old pit to a certain extent.

At this time, it may be whether the product has a long enough long board to occupy an ecological niche.

It may not have to be exhaustive, but the category of "love" such as Eryou very much needs the product to have the magic of being remembered in one or two dimensions. As long as there is such a smell of Daigo that is fascinating, and then the players are retained with sincere operations, the product can go on.

Judging from the results of several tests and related data, "Walking with the New Moon" clearly has the potential to build its own ecological niche.

During the third test period, the number of reservations for "Walking with the New Moon" on all platforms has exceeded 2 million. As of September 19, the number of appointments has risen to about 2.5 million. Judging from the ranking and rating performance of channels such as TapTap and Haoyou Kuaibang, this work is also at the forefront level and has attracted the attention of users.

So, why can players always pay attention to "New Moon Companion" in the second game to be launched?

The biggest advantage: enough vivid memory points

For me, the "vivid memory points" are perhaps the strengths that make this game stand out.

In the market environment where the second tour is crowded, this can be said to be the most valuable point. Although the well-informed gamers have become somewhat aesthetically tired of this category, "Walking with the New Moon" still brings a new angle of presentation.

For example, the game's outstanding art style.

Many players think that "Crescent Moon Companion" is the "art ceiling" in the existing 2D mobile game, and with the side-scrolling 2D performance that is polished enough to be delicate, it has the charm of Vanilla Society, a well-known word-of-mouth studio in Japan - in the 3D masterpiece wave, he insists on his trust in 2D expression.

You must know that the more in-depth plot presentation under the lens language of horizontal 2D not only tests the artistic level of the production team, but also tests their ability to tell a good story in a limited audio-visual dimension. This ability obviously still has a certain competitiveness in today's mainstream second-game circle.

Moreover, as a turn-based gameplay product, the art resources at the combat level of "New Moon Companion" can also be called "luxury".

In order to enhance the sense of presence, each character has a natural transition from a side-scrolling to a back-chasing perspective when fighting, coupled with the character's dynamic vertical painting and gorgeous ultimate, it is surprising that 2D games can also have so many entry angles. This "change of perspective", which is rare in similar products, remains distinctly recognizable even after many tests.

When I talked to the producer last year, I asked if the cost of art would skyrocket when such a design was updated in the future, and he admitted that he had to bite the bullet and do it. It seems that in order for the art presentation to be remembered by players in these years, it is not just about volume accuracy and vertical painting, but also to find new perspectives and breakthroughs like "Walking with the New Moon", in order to effectively form a selling point.

In addition, there is also the theme and plot of this work.

The plot can be said to be both a soul and a hidden danger for the second game. Excellent plot, setting, and character portrayal can make players fall in love with the entire IP completely. And once which version of the plot is not appetizing, it is the risk of directly withdrawing from the pit.

On the whole, the theme and plot of "Walking with the New Moon" are a plus.

Although the category of urban weird talk has been vigorously developed by many manufacturers in the past two years, the freshness is still there for most players, and "New Moon Companion" has added a very life-like "human fireworks" in addition to the so-called sci-fi and weird elements.

The streets in the game made me, who grew up in Guangdong, feel extra relatable

Compared with other second-game competitors full of fantasy elements, Nanting, the main stage of "Walking with the New Moon", can be described as a "city of people", and the plot also pays more attention to telling the story of "people".

For example, the "Scenery Outside the Frame" chapter focuses on father and son, shackles and reconciliation, the lion in "The Day of Great Awakening" is the embodiment of social life and thousand-year history itself, and it is about the reconciliation between people and lions, as well as a series of large and small plot lines such as the background story of the popular character "He Xiangyi" and the storyteller of spades, all of which are not superficial throwing settings, but portrayals with the goal of arousing the real resonance of players.

Even the supernatural elements of the game tend to "defamiliarize the familiar". For example, the refrigerator that gets along day and night has its own consciousness, the elephant slide wants to climb up, and the idiom-loving orange sprays orange juice on its own. This design concept of capturing common moments of life and then constructing weirdness instantly brings players closer to this fantasy world.

Judging from the feedback from the previous test, players generally eat this set. Even if you feel that the pace of the plot is slowing down, you will be attracted to watch by those whimsical settings.

All in all, "New Moon Companion" may not have the obvious "masterpiece temperament", but it's hard to ignore its highlights when you browse the new work schedule.

Whether it's a vivid side-scrolling exploration, a supernatural theme that focuses on pyrotechnics, or even a design that expands combat strategy through positioning, it can all show the clear ecological niche of this game - it's hard to say how big the audience is for, but as long as you're interested in any of the above keywords, "New Moon Companions" can provide a solid experience.

Enough to "listen to persuasion": understand the player to go far

Of course, all of the above is just a simple combing of the current market environment and the product advantages shown in the previous test of "New Moon Companion", whether this work can stand in the market after it is launched, and even open an unexpected situation in the fourth quarter of the lack of a new second game, we have to pay attention to the official operational hard power.

You must know that now second-game players will only focus more closely on the products they have entered the pit. The frequency of updates, the direction of updates, the optimization of experience, and the intensity of welfare distribution are all key points that will directly affect word-of-mouth. Therefore, whether there is a clear communication channel between the official and the player in the long-term operation, and whether it is enough to "listen to persuasion" has also become a criterion that users of the second game are more concerned about.

From this point of view, "New Moon Companion" deeply draws on the operational pain points of similar products, and establishes effective communication with users during the test period.

For example, from the first test to the third test, after each test, the production team will report the tuning plan to the players in the form of a program called "Morning Nanting".

During the third test, the game sent 5 production team newsletters in a row, covering the experience adjustment of all aspects of the game. Solutions were quickly given to the problems mentioned by players, such as the slow pace of the plot, the large burden of cultivation, and the difficulty in resource output, and the welfare distribution officials that players care about have not hidden and dared to deal with them head-on.

Obviously, "New Moon Companion" knows how to do the most effective communication with second-game players, and if this "persuasion" posture can continue to be maintained after the open beta, then relying on its quality, it is expected to attract and retain a group of core users for a long time.

Interestingly, when it comes to the advantages and disadvantages of the game and the sincerity of the official, players generally recognize and are happy to see subsequent version iterations. However, when it comes to market performance, users are quite worried and even a little pessimistic. As mentioned above, some players are not optimistic that they can fight their way out of the encirclement in this era of "Hundred Ghosts Night Walking" in "Crescent Moon Walking".

However, it should not be overlooked that players who have participated in the beta have generally shown considerable support for New Moon Companion. They believe that even if the turnover may not soar sharply in the early stage, there is still the potential for "booming". I guess this kind of blessing and encouragement is even more important for the game.

Because no matter how much we analyze it according to data and market trends, we can't deny that Eryou is sometimes an "unreasonable" category. It will thrive because of the love of players, and it will also lose heat due to some "distractions", and it can only be said that "New Moon Companion" has achieved the characteristic content that a new work of quality should have, and it is also ready to go on with players for a long time.

As for what kind of chapter this game can write in the second-game market, it will be a new story starting from the open beta.

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