Text: Mobile game, that little thing, sparrows.
Some time ago, the 2023 Excellent Game Selection Contest (Golden Feather Award) announced the list of winners of the "Best Original Online Game", and Youka Network's "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" was among them, once again making the industry pay attention to this low-key product that has been operating for more than ten years.
From the very beginning of mobile games and web games, to the launch of mobile terminals to expand the field of mobile games, Three Kingdoms OL connects players in a variety of different ways. For such an evergreen tree, time has not made it appear tired, but has lasted for a long time: it not only maintains a stable flow, but also attracts a large number of new players to enter and old players to return, ranking at the top of the best-selling list all year round, and the operation performance is long enough.
Maintaining this long-term line is no easy task. In the past operation, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" has done a lot of iterations in marketing and research and development. And I also observed that they explored many new forms of expression in shaping and restoring the historical figures and deeds of the Three Kingdoms.
It can be said that "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" has been marked with a distinct cultural imprint, acting as a medium for inheriting history and spreading culture inside and outside the game.
This may be the fundamental reason for the strong vitality of "Three Kingdoms OL": while grasping the core of traditional culture, it does not rest on its laurels, but constantly iterates itself according to player feedback and changes in the outside world, and maintains a forward momentum.
Today, the Three Kingdoms card game is still evolving. Especially in the latest activities, new generals, new ** and a series of linkages have been rolled out one after another, so that this evergreen tree has new vitality.
What are the highlights of the character creation of "Three Kingdoms Kill OL"?
Looking at the domestic game market, the popularity of the Three Kingdoms theme seems to have never cooled down. On the one hand, the historical scenes of competition provide a steady stream of material and inspiration for game developersOn the other hand, players are also fascinated by that era of heroes. However, as "content is king" has become an industry trend, it is difficult to impress players with the same homogeneous content, and today's players are more eager to dig deeper and innovate based on historical facts.
This is exactly the direction that "Three Kingdoms Kills OL" is cultivating - they do not simply follow conventional impressions, but pursue a realistic, objective and multi-angle interpretation of the characters, showing a systematic thinking of "both internal and external".
In the game, they extract important characteristics such as personality and resume by rooting in the background of the characters, presenting a more realistic, three-dimensional and vivid image of historical generals.
Take the latest launch of the game Mou Jiang Wei as an example, the historical Jiang Wei is dedicated to the Han, resourceful, and has made many northern expeditions to Cao Wei. In this period depicted by Mou Jiang Wei, he and Zhong confronted the Sword Pavilion, with the threat of Deng Ai's detour to Yinping in the front, and Liu Chan, who was unable to resist and surrendered, was facing a life-and-death decision.
Therefore, it can be seen that the design of the original painting with a difficult expression and difficult steps reflects Jiang Wei's determination to fight to the death at this timeBased on the title of "Tianshui Qilin", the unicorn mask on the character's face was designedThe shape of wearing Shu clothes and carrying the Han flag is in line with his great ambition to restore the Han family.
In addition to the original painting, the production team also further diverged thinking in voice design: "This is a salary, and the torch is also according to the Han Dynasty", "Knowing the destiny of heaven is not smooth, and doing the poor road and being strong" ......It is Jiang Wei's lifelong wish to burn himself to rejuvenate the Han, and his lines, whether they are words or sentences, or emotional expression, have left a deep impression on the hearts of players.
Not only that, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" this time plotted Jiang Wei's PV Qilin day by day, burning himself and rejuvenating the Han Dynasty, and also starting from Jiang Wei's ideal of revitalizing the great cause of the Han Dynasty, he deduced that he sacrificed his life and forgot to die, and carried the banner of Han to the end. On the basis of respecting history, it fully shows the perseverance and unyielding appearance and demeanor of this general, and creates a more vivid and three-dimensional character image.
Let's take the design of the general's skills as an example. In general cognition, there is only a partial weak correlation between game skills and character archetypes, and it serves more for gameplay and intensity balance. Let's look at Jiang Wei's skills in "Three Kingdoms Killing OL", named "Burning Yourself Day by Day, Striving for Hardship and Deception", respectively, focusing on Jiang Wei's life for a high-intensity connection.
Look at the effect of the skill, the day-by-day puzzle gameplay, winning means fighting to nourish the war, losing blood means that you have suffered losses but must continue to attack, corresponding to the Northern Expedition battlefield step by step;Use the skill judgment after burning yourself, choose one of the two in Distress and Deception, which is even more desperate and desperate.
In every game, Jiang Wei went from playing cards to being targeted by the enemy, and then to spelling, folding, losing physical strength, and deducting blood, and even then he may not be able to successfully turn the tables. portraying this military general from the perspective of the bureau is not only reasonable, but also allows players to have a more comprehensive understanding of Jiang Wei, and even sparks a lot of discussions.
This kind of evaluation and interpretation among players will also continue to enrich the characters themselves outside the game, forming a certain degree of topicality, so as to attract the attention of more Three Kingdoms lovers, and also illustrate the game's profound skills in character building.
On the other hand, outside the game, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" grasps the core proposition of culture and excavates new positioning in line with the traditional image of the characters, so as to better interpret the characters and spread culture.
Considering that Jiang Wei, who has been on the Northern Expedition for many times, embodies the spirit of perseverance and perseverance, the game is linked with shadow puppetry, which also has a tenacious texture, promoting traditional culture and attracting more players who love national style and ancient style to pay attention to culture and the game itself.
Mou Jiang Wei's shadow puppet play linkage ** is also a very careful design, the costume style integrates the shadow puppet art form, and the voice lines still carry Jiang Wei's weight forward, with a slightly bitter emotion - "Shadow puppet words are grandiose, the rise and fall of the ages, in a glass of turbid wine", on the basis of retaining the original temperament, a subtle and profound difference has been made.
For another example, at the same time as the launch of Mou Jiang Wei, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" also invited many well-known historical bloggers to tell the image of Jiang Wei in history, reach users from multiple channels, and convey the essence of culture in a way that is acceptable to young people today, so as to better spread culture.
It is through this series of linkage special activities that "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" caters to the needs of players with diversified and innovative forms of expression, so that each general has his own unique charm.
What they have done is not only to restore history, but also to sublimate the image, arouse the empathy and resonance of players, and it is also the key to the game's leading position for many years.
What kind of party is hidden behind the long-term operation?
Long-term operation itself is a great test for the mining of game content and the classicity of gameplay, and requires a variety of capabilities to cooperate with each other, such as game operation, content derivation, user reputation, etc. In the era of the recovery of traditional culture, how to combine with the current popular cultural and creative industries, intangible cultural heritage and other fields has become something that "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" has been thinking about. Looking back at the operation of "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" over the past years, I found that they have explored their own form of expression.
First, take traditional culture as the source of creation.
In addition to the intangible cultural heritage linkage of Mou Jiang Wei, similar activities have also been held by officials before, such as the linkage between Jie Zhaoyun and the Sichuan opera "Intercepting the River and Fighting the River".
The theme of the launch ** is based on the heroic story of Zhao Yun's "intercepting the river and capturing Adou", and the image of Zhao Yun with "Sichuan flavor" characteristics is shown through art forms such as Sichuan opera singing lyrics and figures, and the study of traditional culture is quite meticulous.
Whether it is at the technical level, or in terms of design concept and cultural heritage, the world Zhao Yun Sichuan Opera has been well received by most players, some players agree that its design is rigorous and exceeds expectations, and some players start a big show immediately after buying.
Another linkage with the Shu school guqin, the game is jointly with Dai Ru, the intangible inheritor of the Shu school guqin and a professor at Sichuan ** University, to release the cultural documentary "Shu Qin Yayun".
At the same time, the Guqin technique of the Shu School is used to integrate the guqin melody into the theme song of the Xinshi military general "Wu Amaranth", which is performed by the well-known ** person "Yang Lovely Ukule". The way of interpreting historical figures not only shows the new charm of guqin techniques and modern interpretation, but also a youthful expression.
Second, use the form of "rejuvenation" to present the content.
"Three Kingdoms Kill OL" cleverly uses brand appeal to cooperate with various influencers of the Three Kingdoms track on Station B and Douyin, and explores various ways to get out of the circle in addition to traditional communication. In addition to the above-mentioned "Yang Cute Ukelulu", there are also head up masters such as Anzhou Mu and Bohai Xiaoyi.
It is worth mentioning that the game is also unblocked in different sections of station B, inviting all kinds of creators who mainly focus on film and television editing of the Three Kingdoms to cooperate.
The relevant content of "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" can be seen in popular areas such as the ghost animal area, film and television editing area, life funny area, and humanities and history area, which conforms to the mainstream expression of young people, and they also successfully use more down-to-earth content to combine the Three Kingdoms Killing with the history and culture of the Three Kingdoms in an all-round and in-depth way.
Not only station B and Douyin, but also on ** platforms that also have a large number of young users, this combination is still widely used.
For example, the theme song "A Fire on the Red Cliff" launched by the new military general Mou Zhou Yu on the 10th anniversary of the 10th anniversary of "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" this year interprets the characters of the Three Kingdoms in the form of trendy **. The official invited to the B station UP master KBSHINYA to sing, and released it simultaneously on QQ** and NetEase Cloud, further expanding the scope of publicity.
Third, open up the connection between online and offline, so that the influence of products and even IP can reach users' life scenarios.
Specifically, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" once joined hands with the logistics service brand "Flash" to start cross-industry cooperation during the "Flash Festival", and designed the character Shen Zhangjiao with "flash" as the main concept, and also specially created a flash card craft card.
In addition, there is also a linkage with the Shanghai transportation card, the launch of the exclusive card face of the theme of Zhao Yun Sichuan Opera, and the launch ......of the theme document bag of Zhao Yun Sichuan Opera in Guangzhou and ShenzhenOn the one hand, these linkage methods, which take common items in life as the entry point of cultural creativity, truly conform to the trend of the younger generation and make the game closer to the life of playersOn the other hand, many cultural and creative products have collectible value in the eyes of young people, and the value of "Three Kingdoms Kills OL" can be transmitted and collected through cultural and creative products.
To sum up, the in-game image is full and profound, and the display space outside the game is sufficient, so the shaping technique of multi-dimensional packaging from the inside to the outside is the key to the accurate restoration of the characters of the Three Kingdoms in "Three Kingdoms Kill OL".
Further, it is to grasp the core proposition of culture, and through gamification packaging, game and cultural linkage, the sublimated life value is displayed, and the resonance and resonance with players are formed. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" can become an evergreen tree in the field of Three Kingdoms games.
Epilogue As mentioned at the beginning, it has been more than ten years since the birth of "Three Kingdoms Kill OL", and they have never stopped iterating on the gameplay level, and have been exploring a more diversified and younger form to present the familiar content of the Three Kingdoms. Internally, they have won the recognition of more and more young users by deeply cultivating content, actively seeking changes, and combining trends, and at the same time, they have also endowed the entire IP with a young cultural heritage and vigorous vitality
Externally, "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" takes cultural inheritance as the core, relying on the digital interpretation of the game and more and more intangible cultural heritage linkage and cultural crossover, so that the entire product reflects greater cultural value in depth and breadth, creates a positive brand image, and even allows the industry to see the new possibilities of Three Kingdoms-themed products.
Because of this, it can't help but make people look forward to what surprises can be presented in the future "Three Kingdoms Kill OL" and even the tour card. And it may also become the cultural memory of generations of young people.