Why do people on the best-selling list of the new dark horses seem familiar?

The game market has developed to this day, and various types and styles of game products have emerged one after another, and the preferences of players are also going further and further in the direction of diversification. But more than ten years ago, when the mobile game just sprouted, the game choices of players were very limited, but there are still some products that can cross the gap between regions and ages, which has become a common game memory for everyone.

The more classic ones include ‘Angry Birds’. This game is a casual game created by the 12-person team Rovio. Once it was launched in 2009, it has exploded in the world with its simple casual ejection gameplay, and has long-term success in more than 60 countries and regions around the world. OS at the top of the OS list, the cumulative downloads of a series of products exceeded 5 billion times in 2022, and it was even rated as ‘the world’s first real mainstream successful mobile game’ by the American ‘Newsweek’.

More than ten years have passed, and now everyone’s attention to this game and its sequels has faded a lot. But a new game that has become popular recently, but the teahouse has seen a little shadow of this classic game, that is, the small game ‘Explosion Guard’ released by the spacecraft information.

According to the statistics of the gravity engine, since it was first listed on the list on April 5, ‘Explosion Guard’ has soared in the ranking of Douyin mini-games, and it has been firmly in the top 10 and best-selling top 20 of Douyin for a week.

‘Explosive Guard’ Douyin mini-game list ranking, image source: Gravity Engine

You may still remember that in ‘Angry Birds’, players only need to drag the slingshot to launch different types of birds, and finally crash the pig’s fortress and destroy all the piglets to clear the level.

The core gameplay of ‘Explosion Guard’ is very similar to it, but it has changed the past stand-alone game to a more exciting PVP form. Before the start of each game, the player will use the system to match to obtain an opponent with a similar combat power. On both sides, turn-based attack, swipe the screen to control the character to fire ammo, and finally destroy all the enemy characters, or destroy the opponent’s castle to achieve the success of the battle.

Like ‘Angry Birds’, ‘Explosion Guard’ also designed a variety of hero characters, and the projectiles of different heroes are also different, and the hit rate is also different. For example, the red ‘Destroyer’ can fire a large bomb, causing ultra-high range damage; the skull ‘reconnaissance’ can fire 15 small bombs Type bombs hit more areas with one shot; the mysterious ‘crow’ can fire 2 crows, and it will cause a certain range of explosions after landing.

As the game progresses, players will gradually unlock more different characters. Before the start of the game, players can choose and match from the existing hero library, and they can also assign specific positions in the castle to these characters according to their own tactical ideas, and complete the offensive and defensive layout in advance.

After the battle starts, the player only needs to choose flexibly according to the battle situation, and use the character skills to quickly suppress the opponent and win the game. For example, teahouses like to use scouts to destroy enemy castles on a large scale, confirm each position of each hero, and then use other strong output characters to be accurate. Destroy each hero; or aim at the castle all the way, storm the base of the castle with explosion or penetrating heroes, and win directly through the destruction of the castle.

It should be noted that in this process, the system will also randomly appear various up and down buffs, such as the number of ammunition ‘+4’, ‘explosive’, ‘meteor strike’, etc., as long as the player hits the buff, he can also get additional output bonuses.

In addition to the character matching and buff bonus, the game venue also has a certain randomness, and the rugged ground will directly affect the position and shooting angle of both parties. , in the battle, players can move the chariot slightly according to the combat situation to adjust their position, so as to occupy a more favorable output point.

Scene location, random buff, enemy camp matching, formation arrangement, offensive and defensive strategy and other rich changes, which means that this game has a huge strategic space, and can create a more complex real-time strategy play.

However, the developers only clicked until the above factors changed to ensure that players experience the immersion and richness of the game, and at the same time, they still retain the brisk game rhythm, and control the average time of a single game within a few minutes. Once the player has not determined the winner after exceeding the fixed round, the system will automatically settle, and give the outcome of the outcome according to the remaining blood volume of both sides.

Thanks to the choice of the core gameplay and the rhythm of the game, ‘Explosion Guard’ has successfully achieved both leisure experience and a sense of competition. Familiar core gameplay, so that players can quickly understand the rules of the game and quickly get a tense battle experience; short game time and simple game The operation method of the play will not bring too much game pressure to players, and casual players can quickly join the game and start a battle anytime, anywhere.

It is worth noting that although the game’s combat gameplay adopts the design of PVP, the growth of numerical values is still the key to driving the game process. Those who really determine the upper limit of the player’s strength and the results of the battle situation are still the development system outside the game.

However, the out-of-office development system of the game is also very simple, mainly around three main parts: heroes, castles and chariots.

Among them, the hero is the core development element of this game. After the player wins the trophy through battle, the player can not only improve the player’s rank, but also promote the progress of the game’s arena. Once the progress breaks through a new stage, the player can get more new hero characters. The collected hero fragments can also upgrade the heroes to further enhance the hero’s health, damage, explosion range and other basic attributes.

At the same time, players can also use other resources such as gold coins and wood to send corresponding construction workers to upgrade the main body of the castle to improve our defense capabilities. It takes a certain amount of time to upgrade the castle, and players can also use diamonds to improve the level and efficiency of construction workers.

In addition, core resources such as diamonds can also be modified and upgraded to the movement, offense and defense of chariots and other system components. After the mobile parts are upgraded, the movement speed, fuel upper limit and energy of the entire chariot will be improved, which can drive the castle to move more flexibly on the battlefield; The addition and upgrade of offensive components allows us to add an additional output support in addition to the hero’s skills; the defense barrier can passively absorb damage and protect the castle.

The above development elements form the growth link of the core of the game. For free players, battle-win resources-upgrade camp and equipment-combat form the most core game cycle.

For paid players, paying will further accelerate their game progress. In this game, players can not only obtain core growth resources such as diamonds, gold coins, and wood through krypton gold, but also directly purchase and unlock more powerful hero characters to quickly complete the breakthrough of combat power. When the combat power value is quickly raised, players can not only easily win the game, but also experience the cool feeling of numerical crushing.

It is based on this point that this game has soared in the best-selling list, and it is still firmly in the top 20 of Douyin’s best-selling list.

In general, in the in-app purchase mini-games market, which is currently filled with SLG and ‘meat pigeons’, the gameplay of ‘Explosion Guard’ is quite innovative. It uses the classic ‘Angry Birds’-style shooting gameplay as the battle, and the card development is used as a payment point. While ensuring the low threshold of the game and the fast pace of confrontation, it reserves enough space and strategy depth for players to operate.

Easy and interesting combination of gameplay, coupled with a random matching mechanism, there are often various unexpected reversals in the game, which can bring good program effects. Therefore, many players just share their own game process, and they can also get good playback and likes. Thanks to this, the game continues to rank in the top 10 of Douyin’s ‘Game Publisher Plan’ game task short video list and live broadcast list, Up to now, the game’s Douyin topic playback volume has exceeded the 100 million mark, which has brought a considerable user increment to the game.

Source: Douyin Game Publisher Program

But in general, the gameplay of the game is still relatively simple. Except for the core battle gameplay, there are no other sub-playing methods, and no more social friend matching mechanism has been added. In the late stage of the game, players are likely to have aesthetic fatigue due to a single gameplay, which will inevitably have a certain impact on the long-term retention and activity of users.

But for now, the game has won a place in the crowded small game market with its outstanding market performance. It proves that the classic old gameplay can also be transformed through innovation and adaptation, and a strong market vitality can be re-emerged, which also provides more innovative ideas for other small game manufacturers. We are also looking forward to seeing more classic gameplays in the market in the future and rejuvenating its vitality.