Crossover: 2014

Chapter 27 The Triumph of Minimalism

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

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

After Lin Hui's two games became popular.

They also followed the trend of games such as "Reopening Life" and "4096".

Although it is a follow-up work, they have also made the game screen more refined and developed more interesting gameplays based on the idea of ​​​​coming out of blue.

However, without exception, they all rushed to the street.

The flutter was miserable, not only failed to replicate Lin Hui's success, but also lost a lot of money.

The original project could not go on.

It's just developing a few small games. As for the landlord's family, don't they have any food left?
Yet it is.

Although it doesn't cost money to develop this kind of small game, but the game does not only need money for development.

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

The saddest thing is that they have invested a lot of real money in it, and have not heard any good market feedback.

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

Could it be that the core of Lin Hui's game was not reproduced?

A group 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 directly poach people and teams...)
……

Dong Jiaqi is also curious about this question.

She is the game editor of the iPlay League, a senior game forum in China.

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

But with in-depth understanding, especially after learning about the performance of this game abroad.

She had to pay attention to it.

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

The previous "Life Reopening Simulator" was nothing more than a dry and low-cost word game.

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

It's just a game of words to a game of numbers.

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 players focus on the gameplay itself.

It is minimalism that makes "2048" a classic.

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

Simple, simple, but not simple.

Dong Jiaqi realized in an instant!
At the beginning, Evans was like a diabetes collapse, and first wrote about the concept of minimalism and the development process of minimalist software.

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

Then I wrote that the difficulty of minimalist design lies in the trade-offs.

After that, I analyzed a wave of followers of "2048" because they deviated from the minimalist design style.

Soon, the number of words in a game review was about the same.

She began to conclude 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 of painting 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 can also be overwhelming...

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

……

……

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

Anyway, he thought about it for a long time, and he didn't think about what kind of new game to develop.

Flipped over the phone from later generations.

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

There is a reason for giving up.

Take "Snake Fight" as an example.

This game is very popular in later generations.

In later generations, when he was in college for a while, Lin Hui often saw some students playing this game while paddling.

The game is a bit retro despite its name.

But the content is quite innovative. As soon as it was launched, it quickly occupied No.1 in 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 the current Lin Hui.

It's not a software problem.

The code of this game is indeed much more troublesome than the two small games that Lin Hui made before.

But it's not particularly complicated.

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

The problem is with the hardware.

It may be because I am used to the large-screen mobile phones of later generations.

Anyway, it is hard for Lin Hui to imagine how players can operate this game on the 5s screen which is only four inches.

Software needs hardware coordination.

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

Even if it is to go online, at least it will wait until the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus such large-screen mobile phones go online.

In fact, the game Snake Fighting for Later Generations was only launched in June 2016.

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

……

Some chess and card games are less difficult to reproduce, and the platform compatibility is also strong.

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

It doesn't make sense for a card game to expect players to pay to download it, that's purely scolding.

Moreover, Lin Hui's game development this time is to create another high-quality APP.

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

It's not that there is any flaw in the production of this kind of APP.

Many chess and card games can also be regarded as well-made and have many players.

However, it is not an egg, and it still lives in the limbo of the app store.

It can only be said that this kind of software is not compatible with αpple.

The same is true in later generations. Card games still have a place on the game recommendation list, but board games are basically "recommended insulation".

In this case, not to mention being rated as a high-quality app, it is not an ordinary difficulty to win an editor's pick.

……

However, there are a few strategy mobile games that are not bad, easy to reproduce and easy to become popular.

But Lin Hui always feels that these games are completely different from the games he designed before.

Putting such a game together with "2048" and "Life Reopening Simulator" feels too fragmented.

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

It's easy to be misunderstood as being made for a different developer.

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

But it doesn't matter whether it's a guilty conscience or what, anyway, Lin Hui doesn't want outsiders to notice this sense of separation.

The design language is best to be in the same line as the previous two models.

……

Fortunately, Lin Hui was just brainstorming.

Otherwise, Party A who asked for such a wonderful thing may easily have a personal safety risk.

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

That being the case, simply put it on hold.

Anyway, there are more than 80 days left.

Maybe at some point, a flash of inspiration will suddenly appear, and suddenly there will be inspiration.

Maybe I can communicate with the player community another day, only players will understand what games they really need.

(End of this chapter)