Text/Qiuqiu

Recently, "Rising Tide" announced that version 1.4 went directly to version 2.0, and announced a large number of new content in the version preview, so that many players called it "the biggest and most shocking preview".

In the opinion of Grape King, there are two shocking things about "Singing Tide" this time:

One is that they have completed a large number of optimizations and content increments that seem to be difficult, and even break through the "technical bottom".

This includes the overall packaging of the "Dawn Tower", the land of sound bones, eight special areas, more than 25 new sound bones that can be used by players, soaring system, transformation gameplay, puzzle gameplay, as well as the protagonist gender switching in details, portable synthesis table, resource integration, burden reduction optimization...... Many of these have upended our past perception of games, or the pain points of the experience that everyone has been looking forward to optimizing for a long time.

Therefore, after the preview ended, the emotions that many players had suppressed for a long time finally broke out, and there was an illusion of universal celebration:

This change in wind direction is also the second shocking place.

Different from the complex public opinion situation during the game's open beta, before and after the announcement of version 2.0, we can basically not see the negative content output of players' emotions, and everyone is more of a recognition and appreciation of the game's updated content and official attitude, as well as some meme content and optimization suggestions...... It can be seen that "Singing Tide" has got rid of a lot of the burden of public opinion in the past and formed a relatively healthy player ecology.

Shocking content updates, word-of-mouth reversal of wind reviews...... Obviously, "Singing Tide" is not suddenly getting better, and the changes in the game content and ecology have been hidden in each of their update iterations.

A few days ago, Grape Jun tried out "Singing Tide" 2.0 offline, and briefly chatted with Kuro producer Li Songlun about their past challenges and expectations for the new version (there is a dialogue at the end of the article).

01

A truly open world?

Combined with the forward-looking content and the offline trial experience of Grape King, "Singing Tide" 2.0 can be said to break the previous open world design.

Friends who follow "Singing Tide" may know that the overall quality of this game was very high when it was first open beta, but there are also many things that need to be optimized under closer inspection.

For example, the exploration puzzle gameplay is not interesting enough, the plot performance is relatively dry, and the advantages of the sound skeleton (pet) gameplay have not yet been developed...... Although it has a certain competitiveness, it is still close to a truly alive and self-consistent open world.

Li Songlun also said, "Some players will think that our production capacity from version 1.2 to version 1.4 does not seem to be particularly sufficient, which is related to the "explosive" idea we practice - we have focused a lot of R&D capacity on the new major version of 2.0. ”

Now, with the gradual launch of 2.0-related content, the past R&D accumulation of "Singing Tide" has also been completed. The game's open-world design has undergone a massive overhaul – a more immersive experience with a stronger regional character.

Immersion is arguably the most important experience in the open world, and in this area, version 2.0 of the game has made a lot of upgrades.

For example, the story logic is more self-consistent:

The player goes to the Rina Tide Tower, the Land of Sound Bones, to solve the problem of sleepiness of his friend Abu (Sound Bones), and to help the shorekeepers investigate the anomalies of the new country; Riding a boat is the protagonist's need to not want to consume the energy transmission of the shore guards, and the need to stealthily infiltrate the investigation; Meet the Fool Troupe, it is the protagonist whose boat is overturned by a monster and is rescued by them passing by - even why the monster is manic has laid the groundwork ......

Another example is that there are always hooks that attract the player's interest:

The carnival that reopened in Laguna after 10 years, the wreckage of a sudden out-of-control rebellion, the rich Motari family coffers, the mysterious congregation, and the old lord...... The four-hour main story just gives people a general understanding of the new country's scene features, unique gameplay, background conflicts and main characters, which is enough to dive headlong into the immersive and complete story chapter.

Suddenly out of control

In the words of players, it's an experience that's hard to fast-forward.

Regional characteristics are also easy to understand.

Like visual spectacle. In the main story, the elevator of the congregation church rises, and the protagonist walks through the cave hidden in the back to look at the Rina Tide Tower, and will see the romantic and dreamy water realm, the cold and dark dragon's nest, and the treasure trove of Motari full of science fiction in the air.

According to the official preview, the Li Na Xi Tower is built from eight characteristic areas - it can be said that Mingchao 2.0 is not building a spectacle, but building a country on a spectacle.

Part of the spectacle

In addition, the city-state of the Tower of Rinaz also has a strong sense of Venice on the water. The city's waterways extend in all directions, and you can see marine city features such as fishtails, coral shells, and fountains everywhere, as well as Western-style architectural designs such as churches, bell towers, arches, and glass paintings...... If you take a tour, you can feel the strong Italian flavor.

Moreover, the Rina Tide Tower is also the "Land of Sound and Bones". "Singing Tide" designs it as a social form in which sound bones penetrate into human life, such as the sound skeleton that bakes the pizza, the actors of the Fool Troupe are the sound skeleton, and the boat that the player rides on is the sound skeleton...... Even on the streets, you can see sound wreckage street lamps and bathtub dogs.

Part of the sound remains

Li Songlun also said, "We have always believed that the space and potential of the sound skeleton gameplay is very large, which is the core feature of "Singing Tide". In version 2.0, our goal is to bring players some new feelings in terms of game ecology and skill types, including new attempts in terms of human ecology, performance length, skill mechanics, etc. ”

To be honest, this unique social aspect may seem abrupt, but it complements the regional characteristics of the Lena Xi Tower: novel and fun enough...... When this feeling is properly transmitted to the player, they will also accept this grotesque but self-consistent social system.

Exploding bathtub dog advertisement

02

A design that will make players feel good

The new version of Ringing Tides is not only about the big world, but also about the way we explore it.

"Singing Tide" has been strengthening the player's mobility and exploration efficiency, and the new version retains the original game's exploration abilities such as running without consuming physical strength, running vertically against the wall, and gliding with hook locks, etc., and additionally opens up maneuver designs such as soaring, boating, and accelerating cat's claws.

In the scene of the Li Na Tide Tower, you can quickly reach the destination with height difference by soaring and taking off, or you can use the high sky to lift off the sound wreckage and quickly transfer to experience the fun of "flying";

Soar and "ride" the celestial messengers

At the same time, we can also ride a sound gondola through various waters, and even climb directly against the current to climb the waterfall, or invite other characters to take a boat ride together and enjoy the scenery;

In some scenarios, there are also mechanisms to speed up cat's paw balls and ragdoll bears to transform into jumps, which can be used by players to get more convenient and diverse ways to move.

In addition to exploration, the game's puzzle gameplay also ushered in a more "scene-based" episode.

For example, when players are exploring, they will encounter a faded environment, and when they complete the gameplay of changing the color within the limited number of moves, the faded scene will come back to life - this kind of gameplay can additionally make us feel the positive feedback of the audio-visual experience and the sense of accomplishment that "the world has changed because of my efforts".

This kind of design actually runs through "Singing Tide", and Li Songlun calls it "duty", one of which is to "create a "Solaris reborn as a drifter". ”

And the most surprising thing about the new version is the significant innovation of the performance.

In version 2.0, you will find that there are almost no multi-person panoramic dialogues in the plot, and the characters will cut almost once in each dialogue, showing the reactions and demeanors of other characters through storyboards, giving players a more diverse story experience.

In addition to the richer lens language and character demeanor, the number of real-time calculation animations has also been significantly increased in the new version:

Characters appear in animation, scene transfers rely on animation, and battle performances rely on animation...... Even the third act of the main story is packaged by the production team as a continuous stage play: as the celebration begins and the actors announce the curtain, the protagonist and other characters start a showdown with the villain in and out of the play, and finally protect Laguna at the end of the stage play.

Compared to the animation, the game is not inferior in terms of soundtrack.

When the protagonist stepped on the Lai Na Tide Tower, the first thing that touched me was the passionate musical changes; When the protagonist travels to areas such as Laguna, the Misty Water Realm, and the Tomb of Lamentations, he will also feel a unique auditory experience - players who have not entered the 2.0 version can also feel the game's emphasis on dubbing and soundtracks from the theme song sung in the four languages of the version PV.

Now, "Singing Tide" is really "Singing Tide".

In the end, with the blessing of animation and music performances, our game experience in "Singing Tide" is no longer a dry running to fight monsters and standing piles to dialogue, but really as drifters, participating in a hearty story, and intuitively enjoying the special preferential treatment and sufficient content provided by the game for our players, rather than card pool characters.

I think that's the kind of design that really makes players happy.

03

Changes in the thinking of the version

In fact, many players are more concerned about the visible progress of each version of "Singing Tide" than the final form presented by the new version.

Li Songlun said, "The results of the open beta of "Singing Tide" are a comprehensive reflection of the team's ability at that time, and it must be fair and reasonable. As long as we don't have unrealistic expectations, the state of the team is easy to adjust, restless, and frustrated...... It's all temporary. ”

However, during the open beta of "Singing Tide", it did suffer from huge challenges at the level of products and public opinion.

Li Songlun said that at that time, they were full of only three things. "Work overtime to complete the final sprint of version 1.1 with higher requirements, and at the same time squeeze out time to continue to solve online problems, and conduct a large number of reviews of the 1.0 public beta version to summarize and refine experience."

Thanks to their efforts, version 1.1 has become the first round of headwinds in "Singing Tide":

The self-consistent big world design of Xiaoshan, and the amazing character performances of Jinxi and Changli, can be said to have corrected the word-of-mouth trend of "Singing Tide" and brought the game back on the right track of healthy development;

Version 1.1 name scene

The production team of the follow-up version continues to make efforts, and the Black Coast version can be said to return to the sci-fi content shaping that Kuro is good at:

The contradictions between the shorekeepers and the Titis system, and the past entanglements between Tsubaki and the protagonist, have all been interpreted at a higher level with the upgrading of the game's character design and plot performance, which also prompted "Ming Tide" to return to the top 5 of the best-selling list and the top of the overseas best-selling list.

The narrative design that impressed the grape king

This is not only the result of the team's investment of more costs, but also represents the maturity of their product design ideas.

In the past, the main feature of "Singing Tide" was high-speed combat + open world + sound remains, so how to combine the three to form a self-consistent experience loop has always been the goal pursued by the production team.

In previous versions of the game, we can also see their attempts to coordinate these three modules:

For example, let the sound skeleton take on more exploration capabilities, as a bridge to combine high-speed combat and open world; Another example is to improve the mobility of exploration, so that the open world exploration can also be "high-speed", giving players a unified game experience.

You can explore the wreckage of the road

In version 2.0, the production team seems to no longer be entangled in frameworks such as limiting exploration capabilities, linear storytelling, gradually unlocking maps, and traditional decryption to find treasure chests, overturning the tables of previous open-world designs - who said that open world must be experienced slowly?

Singing Tide intends to try a new open-world experience.

On the one hand, it gives players the ability to "hurry up".

You will find that the Lai Na Xi Tower does not need to unlock the waypoint or open the map, and most of the exploration, puzzle solving, collection, tasks, dungeons and other content of the large map are gathered in the map guide, so that players can more easily check the progress and complete the corresponding content.

An exploration system that integrates various treasure chests, gameplay, and quests

While the burden of the open world experience is reduced, the mobility and convenience of the player experience are also improved. Just like the aforementioned design to improve mobility such as flying, boating, and cat's paw ball acceleration, as well as convenient designs such as portable synthesis table, dungeon event teleportation, and treasure chest exploration.

The purpose of similar adjustments should be to sort out and integrate the open-world experience and reduce the burden on the player experience.

On the other hand, the POI (Point of Interest) instead of negative feedback is used to get players to voluntarily "slow down".

For example, the Rinazion Tower has many visual wonders with different characteristics, and as landmarks in the scene, they will attract a group of players who like to explore;

Swipe left and right to view

The newly added gameplay of inviting characters to ride together in the game may also allow many people to enjoy the scenery with their favorite characters;

Or a salted fish like me, who will make the character sit in the bathtub dog all day, or stay near the cloud sea fairy and watch her cute appearance in the changing weather......

Not restricting players and giving players more choices may be the biggest charm of the open world.

This kind of thinking is also the design direction of many open world products at present.

Due to the immaturity of technology and production capacity in the past, many products need to limit the speed of content consumption by players to maintain a long-term term. However, with the improvement of technology and production capacity, open world games seem to be generally developing in the direction of "newer exploration forms, newer exploration areas, and higher mobility" to maintain a fresh experience for players.

It's just that this time, "Singing Tide" is much more radical.

04

Is this strategy right?

To be honest, I was a little worried about the radical design of Singing Tide before the trial.

Because of the integration and burden reduction, it seems to be completely contradictory to the characteristics of the open world: if you make such a large world, but integrate the world resources in the form of a list, should players explore freely by themselves, or should they play according to "automatic pathfinding"? Will the meaning of the open world be diminished as a result?

In this regard, Li Songlun said that the implementation standard of optimized design is "quality", not "quantity". "If a player only has 3 minutes a day to play Rising Tides, then we need to make sure that the 3-minute experience is of high quality."

After figuring out the design ideas of the production team, I think the above problems may be too worried for me. The "openness" of the open world not only refers to the openness of content and scenes, but also the openness of the way players experience it.

To put it simply, Ringing Tides gives players a light experience, but it doesn't mean that everyone has to play according to "auto-pathfinding" - fast and free are not a substitute for each other, and players can explore the world the way they like.

For example, you can run slowly, drive a motorcycle with a sound skeleton, sprint with a cat's paw ball, and fly with the soaring function...... There's nothing wrong with teleporting directly, and freedom of choice is the greatest charm of the open world.

Therefore, for players, the new direction of the open world design of "Singing Tide" can free many people from traditional processes such as daily tasks, running maps, and fighting monsters, and have more time to explore new and interesting content, and the overall benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

It's like Li Songlun said, "Whether the drifter goes to a variety of new areas or returns to the place where the story began in the future, we hope that through these designs, they can still feel that this world, this planet, will be different because of their arrival." ”

For the production team, the iteration of "Singing Tide" conforms to market trends and user demands on the one hand - these designs can better help the product stabilize the long-term and win word of mouth; On the other hand, it can highlight more features of the game and force the product to continue to improve - when the game no longer limits players with traditional routines, you must retain them with newer and more innovative content.

Let the summons wear weapons, and "Singing Tide" is also unique......

Of course, this is not without a price.

While everyone lamented that "Singing Tide" 2.0 was full, many people were worried about Kuluo's creativity and content production capacity.

Li Songlun also said, "For a large-scale content game like "Singing Tide", as long as we always have new ideas that need to be continuously implemented, the production capacity will always be insufficient subjectively - so we want to use the limited production capacity to focus on making content that can bring surprises to players." ”

But this "surprise" is really a bit big.

After all, version 2.0 can be said to have reached a certain limit of open-world design: shocking visual spectacle, expansion of land, sea and air dimensions, a huge number of new sound skeletons and bosses, and animated performances covering almost all the story...... Seriously, just by imagining, it's hard for us to predict how "Singing Tide" will continue to break through and make content that will continue to attract players in the future.

But that's still a headache for the production team.

At least for now, the user ecology, market performance, and iterative innovation of each version of "Singing Tide" mean that this product has gradually tried out a design idea that is different from the previous open world, and found the answer to "how to make a long-term open world service game" in Li Songlun's mouth.

Although there will be twists and turns in the process, at least there are many players who see that the product is getting better with their support.

This kind of emotional value of accompanying growth may be the key to the continuous counterattack of "Singing Tide" until the long run.

05

Dialogue QA

Grape: How is the state of the "Singing Tide" team now?

Li Songlun: Through the official public beta of "Singing Tide" and the upcoming 2.0 version of the "actual combat", the "Singing Tide" team has begun to have a consensus and a real sense of how to do the "right" experience.

The team is now gradually able to see a little further. In addition to securing the present, we are beginning to have the ability to really plan for the long term. From the initial lack of confidence in their own content, to now I have a firm belief in creating high-quality content with heart.

Grape Jun: Looking back at the open beta of "Singing Tide" so far, how do you feel?

Li Songlun: I mainly understand the importance of doing my duty.

What is the duty:

First, the further shaping of the game world and world view, creating a "Solaris reborn because of the Drifter"; second, continue to create characters that make players "scream" and be liked by players; Third, continuous optimization allows players to experience a better system experience. Fourth, continue to pursue a more satisfying script and plot experience for players; Fifth, continue to make map designs that surprise players; Sixth, continue to introduce new ways to play with fun and gameplay.

As we continued to do this, we really felt the positive feedback and recognition from the players, and this feedback was also clearly reflected in all aspects of the game's data. This also gave us the confidence to slowly find the answer to "how to make a long-term open-world service game".

Of course, the industry is changing fast, and user requirements are changing all the time. So on this basis, it is more important for us to maintain the ability to think and adjust agilely.

Grape: What was the state of the team during the open beta of the game? How did you get adjusted?

Li Songlun: First of all, I think the team background of "Singing Tide" is very, very pragmatic, and the results of the open beta of "Singing Tide" are a comprehensive embodiment of the team's ability at that time, and it must be fair and reasonable. As long as we don't have unrealistic expectations, then I think the state of the team is actually easy to adjust, even if there is anxiety, restlessness, and loss, it is temporary.

Secondly, we need to focus on a few issues immediately after the open beta phase:

First, be patient and continue to solve online problems; Second, a large part of the manpower had to carry higher requirements to complete the final sprint of version 1.1, and third, a lot of internal reviews based on the 1.0 public beta version to summarize and refine the experience.

I think that when people come together, and when they see that their output is improving and user feedback is improving, the team is naturally in good shape.

Grape Jun: How do you plan the rhythm of the version after the open beta? What was the expectation at the time?

Li Songlun: From our internal point of view, the rhythm of the version of "Singing Tide" is mainly two key words: "growth" and "explosiveness".

"Growth" is to keep improving in the long-term operation, including performance, localization, script interpretation, combat gameplay, etc., as long as the designer's skills have been improving, and the game product itself has been improving, users will naturally experience better and better content - we have a strong emphasis on the meaning and value of progress internally.

"Explosive" is to concentrate on big things, and long-term service games are very much in need of some "explosive" versions every six months or so.

Therefore, from version 1.2 to 1.4 of "Singing Tide", some players will feel that our production capacity does not seem to be particularly sufficient, which has something to do with the fact that we have just started to practice this idea - we have focused a lot of R&D capacity on the new major version of 2.0.

But this does not mean that our current configuration method is the best and most appropriate, we are still making more scientific optimization according to the actual situation of each version, but the general policy will not change for the time being.

Grape King: What is the theme of the version of "Singing Tide" 2.0? What kind of results do you want to achieve?

Li Songlun: First of all, we definitely hope to give players some new and unexpected content through a large-scale version like version 2.0.

For example, new companions in new regions and backgrounds, new sound skeletons, new map gameplay, new exploration and movement mechanics, and more, including the new movement mechanics of soaring and gondola that we have already shown players in the preview.

We want players to further understand that Singing Tide is actually a huge game, and its gameplay can be very diverse. More importantly, let everyone feel our determination to continue to produce surprising and fresh content.

Grape King: The sound skeleton gameplay of 2.0 gives people the impression that they will be attached to Pokémon or Palu, what do you think of the important gameplay of sound skeletons? Is there a new way to play with the sound of bones in the future?

Li Songlun: We have always believed that the space and potential of the sound skeleton gameplay is very large, which is the core feature of "Singing Tide".

In version 2.0, our goal is to bring some new feelings to players in terms of game ecology and skill types. As a result, you'll see the integration of the Sound Skeleton into the Habitat of the Tower, as well as some new Sound Skeleton skill mechanics.

In addition, we have a larger sound-related gameplay in the design, and we hope to do something new with this new gameplay, which will also help us in our longer-term planning.

Grape Jun: How does the "Rising Tide" team grasp user expectations and production capacity issues now?

Li Songlun: First of all, I think that "Singing Tide" has not yet reached the best state in the industry in terms of experience design, at least it is not a benchmark at present.

In this case, it's hard to talk about player expectations, because it's not something we can decide right now. Under this premise, the students in each module have a determination to achieve the benchmark, and it is precisely because of such a state that the "Singing Tide" project can continue to improve, and players will also feel that we are a game with strong growth, which has become an expectation.

Therefore, no matter what stage "Singing Tide" goes to in the future, it will definitely maintain continuous growth, whether it grows fast or slowly, it is our expectation.

As for production capacity, for a large-scale content game like "Singing Tide", as long as we always have new ideas that need to be continuously implemented, the "production capacity" will always be insufficient subjectively.

So from my point of view, how to use our current limited production capacity to focus on content that can bring surprises to players is more important. We always feel that if there are few things, users may not abandon you, but if things are not good, users will definitely abandon you.

Grape Gentleman: Rising Tide is probably the "most convenient" open-world game at the moment, don't you worry that this will deviate from the product positioning?

Li Songlun: When we think about whether we want to do a design and whether an optimization should be implemented, the core idea is: if a player only has 3 minutes a day to play "Singing Tide", then we need to ensure that the 3-minute experience is of high quality.

As for the long run, one of the core ideas that "Singing Tide" hopes to convey to players is actually "Solaris reborn from the Wanderer".

In the future, the Wanderers will go to various new areas of Solaris, or return to the place where the story of Solaris began in the future, and they can still feel that this world, this planet, will be different because of their arrival.

And our various gameplay methods will also be based on this premise to consider how to make and launch more reasonably, and one of our current goals is to make the player's experience in "Singing Tide" every day of the game high-quality.

Grape Jun: Looking back at "Singing Tide" and the project team, what do you want to say?

Li Songlun: First of all, the team has taught me a lot, and because of the collaboration with everyone, I also know how to make a good game and publish a good game, and I really learned a lot in the process.

Secondly, I hope that through the optimization of the company's various systems in the future, everyone can continue to feel the joy of making games in a more conducive environment for creation.

I'm actually a big believer that as long as we can keep doing it, and do it long enough, we can go far, far on the road of making games - I need to get the team to want to go with the Cullo games for long enough.

Kulo producer Li Songlun

Grape Jun: What is the longer-term direction of "Singing Tide"?

Li Songlun: To be "the world's best long-term operation open-world action game".

Grape Jun: What do you think of the current two-dimensional market?

Li Songlun: I can really feel that everyone in the industry is competing and improving with each other every day, which is actually a very happy thing for players in this era.

But at the same time, for our team, which is fortunate enough to participate in this industry and compete and compete with everyone, we have also received the most rigorous training, and I think such an environment can cultivate a better team and game industry capabilities in the industry.

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