Text/Lin Zhi

On August 19, the self-developed mobile game "Rock Kingdom: World" by Tencent Rubik's Cube Studio Group started its first technical light test.

"Rock Kingdom" is the Rubik's own IP, the web game has been in operation for 14 years, with more than 300 million registered players, which is the childhood memory of many people. Therefore, every time the mobile game project releases PV, it will be on Weibo hot search.

"Rock Kingdom: World" has been done for four years, and it seems that he wants to quietly hold back a big move. But it also made players wait too long, and many people looked forward to it, and even lost a little confidence.

During this period, in the eyes of many practitioners, Tencent seems to be standing on the cusp again, because "Phantom Beast Palu" is on fire, and the classic gameplay of elf capture, which has been repeatedly verified and popular for decades, is out of the circle again. Therefore, many people will also be curious about how "Rock Kingdom: World" will iterate the gameplay framework from a 2D web game to a 3D open-world mobile game, and take such a big step, or will it sew some Palu's gameplay.

But the approach of "Rock Kingdom: World" seems to be different from everyone's conjecture. After testing it with your hands, you will find that this is definitely not a Palu like, and the core is still the elf that "Rock Kingdom" itself is best at. And in its design, you can also see some of the challenges that the category faces, as well as unmet needs.

01

A big world that is both familiar and unfamiliar

Once you're in the game, you might not be surprised by the opening content. For example, as soon as you come up, you can see a classic picture: an owl guides you to choose the three houses.

The main story line of the game is very simple, and in a word, it can be summed up as "Little Locke's School Story". At the beginning of the game, in order to launch the ship and go to the magic school, the player needs to capture the ghost elves to solve the puzzle. After falling into the cave halfway, he had to catch a winter feather finch and leave the snowy mountain with a fly.

At the same time, players will also need to fill their elven backpacks and fight the grass researchers to prove that they have the ability to take charge of themselves.

From this beginner's guide, you can see the general core framework of "Locke": exploring new areas, participating in battles, collecting and raising elves...... During this period, a continuous cycle is formed through continuous feedback and progress. At the same time as this paragraph, "Rock Kingdom: World" also showed some of its more daring designs.

The first is the open-world design. In addition to the towns in the plains, there are also some mountains and lakes on the maps that are currently open in the closed beta. In different regions, players will encounter elves and various resources that are exclusive to their own region.

Swipe left and right to view

Although this is the first closed beta, Rock Kingdom: World already shows a fairly large and complete elven world. Just like the page games of the past, the regions in the game have a variety of different geographical features and regional differences. But in a 3D game, this amount of content can grow exponentially. Moreover, the current map content is only in the closed beta stage, and there may be new adjustments and surprises in the future map opening plan.

"Rock Kingdom: World" is a map for this closed beta

Map of the Locke Kingdom page tour

Secondly, the combat in Rock Kingdom: World is still turn-based, but it's not all turn-based.

Overall, the core of the combat in the game is still a turn-based gameplay with a certain degree of strategy, but it also has a lot of innovations compared to the web game.

For example, the practice of the page game is similar to the close wheel battle, and the winning condition is that all the elves of the opponent are knocked down; And Rock Kingdom: World adds a new concept of mana: in most cases, both sides have three mana. When an elf is defeated, it loses a little mana, and when it runs out of mana, the battle is lost.

This makes the game much faster than the battle, while also adding some tactical elements. For example, changing elves frequently during battle, although it can avoid being defeated quickly under unfavorable conditions, it also means that you will eat the disadvantage of being behind.

For example, the game has added "Field Phase". Depending on the weather and scene, the elves will trigger friendly or resistant reactions, which in turn will create buffs or debuffs.

Like a small unicorn with a light attribute that likes daytime, it will increase its speed by 10% during daytime battles; Land-type Mineral Worms like rocky environments and hate grassy environments, and their speed is reduced by 5% when fighting on grass. Therefore, players also need to consider the linkage between the elves and the environment when fighting.

The turn-based part is clear, so why isn't it exactly turn-based? Because outside of the elves, the players themselves will also participate in the battle. When fighting a normal elf, a direct attack of star magic will stun you. You can take this opportunity to directly subdue the elves, or gain a first-mover advantage in battle.

This gives the game a lot of different combat scenarios. For example, when fighting large bosses, players need to use star magic to break the shield first, and then use elves to fight. The faster the shield breaks, the longer the stun will take for the boss to enter battle. During this time, players will be teleported to a safe location if they are injured.

In addition, in the area of elf cultivation, "Rock Kingdom: World" has obviously spent a lot of thought. Some of them are classic designs, while others are supposed to be their own ingenuity.

For example, each elf has its own unique personality, talent, and intimacy with the player, and these development factors will also have an impact on the battle. This is still a relatively common design in many elf capture and cultivation systems.

But the design of the elf's "obedient level" makes many players a little nervous. Because of the lack of obedience levels, elves may be lazy or rebellious in battle. Newly captured high-level elves, sometimes even suddenly disappear in battle, mischievously run out to play......

Overall, "Rock Kingdom: World" may make you both familiar and unfamiliar - the mobile game retains the familiar elves and NPCs that players are familiar with, and still emphasizes the sense of companionship, but there are great changes in the form and logic of world exploration, and the iteration of the combat mode seems to be to adapt to this larger and more open world.

02

The goal is to be the ultimate elf drive

If it is just a simple open map, with some elves in different regions, then the open world of "Rock Kingdom: World" must be mediocre. Of course, the Rubik's Cube can't do that. So this time, their core goal is to build a big world driven by elves. For this core, the investment of the project team is not small, and it can even be said that it has almost achieved the ultimate in the same type.

Where is this extreme? First of all, it is reflected in the content design of the elves' art, dubbing, and movements.

After crossing from 2D to 3D painting style, the project team made some adjustments in line with the current aesthetics. The elves have softer colors and more delicate lines.

But the elves are still recognizable. For players back then, they quickly recognized some of the classic elves and felt familiar and familiar.

It is worth mentioning that because many of the members of the project team of the mobile game are the original members of the web game, they also have a lot of affection for elves. The official once shared a detail, when the art colleague makes the elf, there will be a planner and program colleague on the side to request, "Be sure to design the one I like!" ”

In terms of action and voice acting, the amount of engineering in "Rock Kingdom: World" is really a bit extravagant - there are as many as 25 actions for each elf, and there are three main parts: actions to express emotions, combat actions and exclusive movements.

Polybious elves and elves with special habits also have their own movements, such as burrowing rats, swimming fish, upside-down insects in trees, crawling snakes, etc.

The voice acting is also in line with the elf qualities, making the game quite rich in audio-visual experience. For example, Meow Meow has become larger after upgrading, and its voice has obviously changed its voice.

Putting these specific considerations aside, many elves are "cute" at first glance. When players explore freely, they can have the desire to capture when they see sprites, which is the success of the overall design.

Secondly, the extreme is also reflected in the relationship between elves and content ecology.

In natural scenes, almost all elves have their own logic and personality for their actions. For example, the flying elves have a special orbital algorithm, and the ghostly elves appear in the night and will be invisible, and the elves that are in the dark must follow closely before they can be caught.

When seeing a player, some elves will prefer to charge and fight, while others will be more shy. Wild elves sometimes trigger random interactions with each other, allowing players to watch from the sidelines.

In the town scene, the elves are also closely related to the lives of humans. For example, there will be different forms of duck Jiji on the streets, and some of them are even customers who bargain with black-hearted vendors. Players will also come across a little girl who wants to have a meowth as a family helper, and further on, there are elves watching stalls on the streets. The whole world has been made into an elf-friendly ecology.

If you look at the dynamics of a genie alone, you may not feel very special. But once all the elves have logic, their actions work together to build a more vivid and believable elven world.

Third, this extreme is also reflected in the deep combination of elves and exploration gameplay.

When it comes to the open world, some exploration abilities may already be standard. But Rock Kingdom: World doesn't directly give players a complex set of abilities, but instead chooses to combine the entire exploration process with the elves' abilities.

For example, the world is so big, how do players move between complex terrains? Naturally, it is necessary to choose different spirits for different terrains to help you move conveniently. In this aspect alone, "Rock Kingdom: World" has made a very rich split.

Most of the elves such as horses, rabbits, and cats can be ridden, and some can also speed up. Bird and insect spirits may have the ability to fly. The beginner process requires you to catch the Winter Feather Sparrow in order to leave the snowy mountain, and players will quickly understand the logic of exploring the world with the help of elves. This design is similar to the "Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" to get a paraglider and leave the newbie village, which reinforces the player's understanding of the z-axis from the start.

In addition, Duck Jiji can swim in the water, and the Mineral Crystal Worm can climb vertically on mountain cliffs. These designs make it more interesting for players to explore the larger world, and also enhance the bond between players and elves.

For example, there are so many types of resources in the big world, and flowers and plants can be directly picked by players, what about other resources? In the same way, ask the elves for help. Some of the larger elves can directly hit minerals and trees to obtain minerals, fruits and other resources.

Even when it comes to tracking and solving puzzles, there are elves in the game. Players can use the Elven Vision to darken the environment and highlight special items and plants. In the mission of tracking the man in black, it is necessary to rely on the elf ability to check the traces of the man in black.

Gennies also play an integral role in solving puzzles. Treasure chests with special attributes need to be opened with spirits of specific attributes, ancient stone statues need to be interacted with with ghost spirits, and so on.

Not only that, but frequent interactions will also cause the elves to actively seek caresses from the player, such as touching their heads. Players can even choose a name for the elf after they get their approval. This design makes the elves not only a tool, but also a companion to the player.

Such a set of rich gameplay and content framework makes Genie the absolute competitiveness of "Rock Kingdom: World", and also gives it a unique texture that rarely appears in similar products.

03

Challenges and solutions

Once you have a basic understanding of the gameplay of Locke Kingdom: World, you'll find that it's really not Paru-like - it's hard for you to imagine that little Locke would catch elves for jobs.

Recently, at Gamescom Cologne, Zhang Hanjin (Enzo), president of the Rubik's Cube Studio Group, also chatted with Grape Jun about this product and related categories.

According to Enzo, Palu is very different from Rock Kingdom: World because Palu is not a pet hunt game at all, but a SOC. SOC is similar to the process of system problem solving and player problem solving, and the core is to solve the problem of resource shortage. However, once this puzzle is solved, the game's appeal plummets. "Phantom Beast Palu" only uses elves and contrasting behaviors to achieve the effect of absorption, but in terms of gameplay, collecting more pets is not the goal, but a means of survival and construction.

So, although they were advised to follow suit, they never considered it, because in his opinion the two were not at all the same.

But on the other hand, Palu's survival construction is actually a strong grip. So what is the solution to "Rock Kingdom: World"?

Enzo believes that the core of pet hunting must be collecting, and the core fun of players is stamp collecting and the pursuit of rarity. There are many types of gameplay in different pet hunting games, both turn-based and real-time, but the essence of collecting remains the same.

This understanding also largely determines the form of their products.

For Rock Kingdom: World, the mechanics of combat, exploration, and large worlds are really an extension of the collecting experience.

First of all, all kinds of elf battles are actually preparing for further collection. The PvE experience in the game actually leads players to constantly expand their collection of elves, so combat becomes a necessary step to acquire rarer and more powerful elves. And the motivation for PvP battles is not just to win, but also to show off the rare elves you have.

Secondly, the player's exploration of the world will inevitably be accompanied by the collection of elves. "Rock Kingdom: World" does not directly give players a complex set of abilities, but chooses to split the entire exploration logic and combine it with the characteristics of the elves. Players must constantly collect and nurture new sprites in order to explore the world more deeply.

Third, if the technical conditions allow, it is actually a matter of course that the game of catching pets has expanded into a big world. "If a player wants to catch a pet, do they want to catch it in their room, or do they want to be in the bigger picture? I think people must want to go to a bigger place and catch more pets. The more pets you have, the bigger the map to carry them. When it's big enough, we call it a big world."

In fact, Enzo said, the knowledge of the essence of a thing is the most important, and all the elements of productivity can be built apart from this thing.

With collection as the core, all the remaining gameplay content is an extension of it. This may sound pure, but it's not simple.

At best, the core experience will stand out in this way, and the Cube studio has a lot of advantages in this continuous production of sprites. They built the pipeline and process of PCG industrialization early, accumulated a wealth of elf images and design methodologies at the art level, and since the birth of the IP, "Rock Kingdom" has a complete world view and multi-dimensional content support.

But this is not without its drawbacks. Although the game of catching pets is popular, there is no final gameplay framework on mobile. And the big world is also a completely new field for the Rubik's Cube, without much experience. As a result, game production will be slow. Enzo also said that it is indeed slow, because of the prudence of self-developed IP, and the reason for the tilt of resources.

In terms of results so far, Rock Kingdom: World looks pretty good, but it has to be said that it still faces quite a few challenges. There are a few questions we can try to ask:

Genie Drive is fun, but is it big enough to support this open world? Will the game remain fresh as players unlock more sprites? And now the open world also has some liver problems, in the case of slightly complex battles and dense exploration and puzzle laying, how does "Rock Kingdom: World" balance the intensity of the game?

Of course, these questions are still difficult to conclusive. This game was established in 2021, and it has only been tested for the first time, and it is only a small-scale test of the iOS system, and there is still a lot of time to polish.

How to integrate the sprite drive into the overall game design, so that the wider world becomes an extension of the collecting experience, is probably the next major proposition of Rock Kingdom: World.

Obviously, this is a different path. But if the Rubik's Cube can occupy this unique ecological niche, the attempt will be well worth it.

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