Text/Wang Dan

Today, Lingxi Interactive Entertainment (hereinafter referred to as Lingxi)'s immersive plot card mobile game "Like a Kite" was in open beta, and on the first day, it rushed to the top 6 of the best-selling games in iOS countries. After the game opened for pre-download yesterday, it has already quickly topped the iOS free list.

On the day of the open beta, the game was on the hot search list of major platforms. There are 21 hot search topics that Grape Jun has swiped on Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin alone.

There are too many hot searches, so I won't put them all away, only show the part

It is not difficult to see from the publicity operation that Lingxi attaches great importance to "Like a Kite". It may be said that this is their most eye-catching and influential new product this year:

Approaching the launch, Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town, Shanghai Xujiahui and other subway stations have become the "pain station" of "Like a Kite", and Guangzhou Ali Center has also turned into a "pain building", as well as 8 city big screens, Yangzhou cultural and tourism linkage, and the game has even climbed the Oriental Pearl, the Bund Tower, and the Canton Tower, attracting many players to go offline to check in;

After opening the pre-download yesterday, Lingxi's other brothers and sisters' games all posted to the little sister of "Like a Kite" to celebrate...... It's no wonder that some netizens commented, saying that "Like a Kite" is really big this time.

Swipe left and right to view

In fact, it's not just the developers (Lingxi) and players who are waiting for "Like a Kite", many practitioners around me are also continuing to pay attention to this product, wondering how it will impact the industry. On the one hand, we talked about it in a previous article, this game is too unique, and at present, domestic women are going to the two mainstream big heads of otome and dressing, but "Like a Kite" is not on either side, which is quite unconventional; On the other hand, this game has not yet been launched, and it has been frequently searched, and the reservations opened in early August have exceeded 15 million on the official website in less than two months, which is enough to see how much attention the market has to "Like a Kite".

A new game that cannot be found to be a benchmark in the domestic mainstream head female-oriented products, but it has this kind of popularity. Seeing this situation, many people may think of it with me: women are going to be rewritten in the competitive landscape?

With doubts, not long ago, Grape Jun found Beibei (senior game evaluation analyst) and Forest (game copywriter), who have been playing and paying attention to female-oriented games for a long time, and chatted about whether "Like a Kite", which challenges the mainstream domestic female-oriented order, is a reckless attempt, or will it become a node that impacts and changes the direction of the track.

01

How unusual is Lingxi this time?

Before that, we need to figure out from the perspective of a practitioner why this product can't find a benchmark. In the eyes of Beibei and Forest, "Like a Kite" is indeed a unique and partial existence in the current domestic women-oriented field.

First, the subject matter was unexpected.

The world view of "Like a Kite" is set as an overhead ancient world where heroes compete for deer. Products with ancient style as the main tone are not common in domestic women's head-oriented games.

What's more, the player in "Like a Kite" is not a newcomer in the workplace who climbs up from scratch, but the powerful King of Guangling as soon as he appears, which is also rare in female-oriented products - the player is in charge of the embroidery building (intelligence organization) and can send many spies on hand; Many of the characters who appear in the plot, including individual male protagonists whose status itself is not low, have to be called "Your Highness" when they see players, which highlights the status of King Guangling.

Arranging such an identity for players also means that the story plot unfolding under the world view of "Like a Kite" is more special.

In fact, the official PV released by the game before,Between the lines, it reveals a different narrative trend:"Right", "responsibility", "people's hearts", "the world" and other keywords, "reliable people... There is no such thing in this world", "the world is tormented, all living beings are suffering", "old friends cannibalize", "war, blood, betrayal", "purgatory on earth" and other words flashed around King Guangling, all implying that what players have to face is not a peaceful life, but an era of chaos and unpredictable life and death.

"The embroidery building will always be there. Is that right? The voice of the last interrogation in the PV also indicates the unusual theme of the game:

It is not a story about the player's promotion and salary increase to the peak of his career, nor is it to depict the sweet crystallization of love, but to tell how the player can maintain his power and keep Guangling in the context of the pull of all forces, in the context of no one can trust and trust.

As repeatedly emphasized in the official release of "Like a Kite", "Killing intent and love are waiting for His Highness to weave it by hand." ”

The strange thing about this is that an ancient background theme that makes people feel that "the person I can fully trust seems to be the only one I am" is too rare in the domestic women-oriented track, and even seems to deviate from everyone's traditional understanding of women's preferences.

Beibei said that in the past, most women-oriented products would choose a relatively stable and prosperous background in the main tone. Even if it is an ancient style, everyone generally chooses to refer to the prosperous times such as the Tang Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. She explained that this may be due to the traditional impression that most women will pursue a stable life, and the subject matter related to power intrigue and power struggle, at first glance, will make people think that it is something that only men are interested in.

Lin Lin also believes that the plot of "Like a Kite", the real point worth paying attention to is the true portrayal of the rise of the heroes and the struggle for power - Lingxi did not deliberately create a painting style where everyone is civilized and polite, that is unrealistic, in the case of human life is difficult to protect, the order of etiquette and music has long collapsed, and the cruel law of the jungle is indeed the most appropriate scenario.

Second, the story of "Like a Kite" focuses not only on the player and the male protagonist, but also on the group narrative.

The early announcement of the game also emphasizes this point openly and secretly: the most obvious thing is that when you click on the official social media account of "Like a Kite", you will find that they have sent a lot of spy files;

For another example, in the exclusive call of the appointment, there is not only the voice of the male protagonist, but also other secret agents talking in the background sound, it doesn't feel like the male protagonist is waiting for the player alone, but there is a group of people waiting for the player;

The player's second creation video, source Xiaohongshu

Two days ago, "Like a Kite" also specially sent a spy PV, which shows how much the official attaches importance to the secret agent.

Because of the different design of the common "main line tells the story of the male protagonist, and the card drawing also draws the male protagonist's card face", although the main line of "Like a Kite" focuses on the player and the male protagonist, the card drawing is the secret agent of the embroidery building. As a sword in the hands of King Guangling, these spies are all ruthless characters. For example, A cicada is beautiful, but she is also outstanding; Another example is Wen Chou, whose combat style is unsparing......

Of course, these agents don't just equal numerical combat power, each of them has an in-depth, detailed life and story.

And there are different relationship stories between the agent and the player, the male protagonist, and other secret agents. Some of the information is hidden in the roster of agents, and some fragmented plots are interspersed with the main story and event stories. This makes the relationship between the characters in "Like a Kite" complicated, but it can also more truly reflect the joys and sorrows of the group portrait in the context of the competition for hegemony.

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Because of this, Beibei feels that "Like a Kite" is very different from the B game we talk about in the traditional sense, and it is more appropriate to say that it is a female-oriented card game with love elements. Because in Game B, players draw cards to collect the male protagonists they push, but the purpose of the players of "Like Kites" may be understood from the perspective of card players: maybe to collect all the cards; Maybe it's for stats, skills; Maybe it's just that I like spies and want to see their stories.

At the same time, both Beibei and Forest emphasized that this kind of domestic female-oriented card game was not absent before, but the popularity can reach the level of "Like a Kite", which is almost zero. The difference is that the content-oriented experience of "Like a Kite" is actually driven by two lines: the story that extends from the secret agent, and the main story and love gameplay, the emotions and intrigues between the male protagonist and the player are alternately attracting players back and forth.

The key is that the depth and volume of the content on both sides of this double line, "Like a Kite" is quite flat, and neither side has fallen - judging from the discussion of the content of "Like a Kite" by online players, the content of the secret agent group portrait is attractive, and it does not lose the relationship between the male and female protagonists in the traditional impression.

Third, the depth of its strategy is far beyond the acceptable level of women's perception in everyone's mind.

In the past, most female-oriented games, the levels were relatively simple, and the combination of "attribute restraint + intuitive numerical ratio size" was the most common, which did not require players to have too many complex operations and did not require too much strategic thinking. Its characteristics can be summed up in one sentence: do not use levels to make it difficult for players, and do not expect to use levels to attract players.

But "Like a Kite" didn't do that. Its secret agents have the design of professions, skills, captain skills, talents, life charts, combination skills, etc., and players need to consider more factors all of a sudden. This also greatly increases the countermeasures of the "Like a Kite" level, as well as the variability of the situation - when encountering a level that cannot be beaten, the player changes the deck lineup, or even just changes the position order of the secret agent, and may just pass the level.

In order to fight attribute restraint, trigger a cicada's combo

I manually adjusted the order of the attacks

Beibei added that because some of the skills of the secret agent in "Like a Kite" are triggered by probability and conditions, its levels sometimes bring the experience of "gambling on the face".

Spy Lu Su's skills and basic attacks have a probability of triggering persuasion

Directly let the enemy flee and win without a fight

However, this kind of countermeasure and the changeability of the situation of "gambling face" do not seem to dissuade players, but instead make many people experience the fun of decking cards. Forest said that there are many players around him who have studied and discussed the strategy of the "Like Kite" deck at high intensity. She thinks this phenomenon is very interesting, after all, when I used to play female-oriented games, everyone gathered together to talk about content, but I didn't expect that there were so many people talking about card decks here in "Like Kites".

From rare subject matter to group narrative and strategic depth that break through conventional understanding...... Lingxi can be said to have failed to play cards according to the routine this time. Judging from the results, they did make a product that could not be benchmarked and meal replacement.

02

Truly unexpected,

It's the player's reaction

Then the question is, how many players can accept such a maverick product?

Hearing me ask, Beibei laughed directly: "Look at the reservation speed of "Like a Kite", 3 million a day, 6 million in three weeks, and 10 million in a month...... This speed, not to mention women, is very fast. This is long beyond acceptance, so you might as well ask how hot it is. ”

The forest reminded me that the popularity of women-oriented products is not only reflected in the regular data such as the best-selling list and the number of reservations, but another criterion that can be judged is the popularity of the second creation of the same person. She recalled that she went to the CPSP Comic Con before, and found that there were a lot of fanfic booths related to "Like a Kite" at the scene, which was larger than the area of many B games; Online, the relevant emojis and memes of King Guangling, the male protagonist, and the secret agent of "Like a Kite" can also be easily swiped.

On the one hand, this shows that the group portrait narrative of "Like a Kite" provides players with more space for secondary creation; On the other hand, so many people are willing to set up stalls and make memes, which confirms its popularity and influence in the player community.

Beibei added that the influence of "Like a Kite" is not only in the female circle, but also has captured many pan-users.

One of the reasons is that the Live2D art of "Like a Kite" can impress the viewer at the first time, and it can catch people visually in the first place.

Volume art is not an uncommon operation, but the live2D of "Like a Kite" has indeed rolled up to an unexpected level, and even refreshed everyone's understanding of the upper limit of 2D to a certain extent. What they do is not mechanical, repetitive limb movements, but silky and smooth micro-expressions and small movements. Fu Rong (one of the male protagonists), who is typical of being out of the circle and causing heated discussions, rolls his eyes and rolls his eyes, which is obviously not 3D, but he brings people to life.

Second, the special theme plot of "Like a Kite" also broke the circle to attract some new users who do not play female.

Beibei himself has been in contact with players who only pay attention to "Like Kites" and have never been interested in female-oriented games before, probably because the art style or plot of most of the previous products just didn't suit their appetite. In other words, the maverick "Like a Kite" has become the first female-oriented product that this part of players can accept and are willing to try.

At this point, it occurred to me that perhaps I had mistaken the point of discussing "Like a Kite" from the beginning: when looking at this product, many people may come to the conclusion that "this game is unique"; But in fact, focusing on the market, you will find that it is the players themselves who really break the stereotype and jump out of the mainstream conventional route.

Beibei and Forest also believe that "Like a Kite" actually sends a signal to the industry, which breaks many practitioners' understanding of the portrait of women to users. The theme of troubled times that seems to be unpleasing to female players, and the depth of strategy that seems to dissuade female players, are finally accepted.

This shows that female gamers are not as picky about the gameplay as we imagined, and their acceptance of the theme is far higher than we expected. Stereotypical words like "female players can't accept fighting and brain-burning" really can't talk nonsense in the future.

Many seemingly unusual publicity operations in "Like a Kite" actually emphasize this point: don't use traditional concepts to limit the image of women.

For example, in the case of all kinds of peripherals and linkages, many people may think that "Like a Kite" will give priority to commercial linkage such as milk tea, after all, this kind of activity is easy to break the circle and easy to absorb, but the first thing they officially announced was the cultural and tourism linkage with Yangzhou. This choice may also show from the side that the team of "Like Kites" has its own understanding of women's preferences - drinking milk tea is just a daily life, and it is not the only hobby for women. In the eyes of "Like a Kite", which has a strong ancient flavor, allowing players to understand the Guangling of the Han Dynasty through the game may be a higher priority than commercial linkage.

For another example, "Like a Kite" and Sina News jointly launched the #See Her Power# topic collection activity, which is also emphasizing the power of women as the main body in disguise and guiding players to experience the diversity of women's existence.

The image of the so-called female user is never single. Women's demands to players are also not limited to otome and costume change, and they are not simply framed with a few words.

03

Do we really get the idea of female gamers?

And the player group that breaks the traditional user portrait means new opportunities for the industry.

First of all, "Like a Kite" could become the beginning of a new wave and become an object for other development teams to follow. Beibei believes that just such a high heat at the beginning has already allowed many peers to see the opportunity, and it is expected that there will be manufacturers to follow up and launch female-oriented card games.

Secondly, "Like a Kite" confirms that players' acceptance of gameplay and themes, especially the depth of strategy, is not low. This allows more manufacturers to dare to do it freely, instead of limiting themselves to the idea that "female players can't accept too difficult gameplay, they can only accept peaceful and sweet stories".

Finally, "Like a Kite" broke the circle to attract pan-users, and even grabbed some new players who did not play female-oriented games before, which shows in disguise that there is still room for female-oriented tracks - the market is not saturated, but the demands of some players have not been discovered.

In Beibei's view: "The female track has not reached the ceiling, far from it, because the number of female players is actually very large. "In the past, when otome and dress-up occupied the head of domestic women, some people may think that these two sub-categories can cover the demands of the vast majority of female players; After the emergence of several female-oriented hits, everyone thought that they had figured out the acceptance and preference of female-oriented players for the theme and gameplay......

But now, it seems, this is not the case. The industry's previous understanding of female gamers may not be comprehensive. Refresh the practitioners' perception of user portraits, and let everyone realize that they can actually jump out of the original mainstream order, I think, this is the impact that "Like a Kite" brings to the track.

Moreover, the current "Like a Kite" is only in the beginning stage. After that, will Lingxi have new ideas, and will there be unexpected operations in this new game? This may be the next place to pay attention to in the industry.

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