Text | Yu Shenglin
TCG is the abbreviation of the exchange card game, and it has a history of nearly 30 years since its earliest board game development.
The first TCG was launched in 1993, which is the well-known board game “Magic Card”. It became popular as soon as it was released, and it also made the company behind it Wizards step by step to the top spot in the industry.
Later, in 1996, Pokémon, which was popular in Japan, also launched its own TCG. In 1999, Cinema, the card game “Yu Gambler”, which is most familiar to domestic players, was officially released.
Then BabaylanThese cards quickly occupied the convenience stores of major, middle and primary schools in China and became the absolute dominant people’s spare time. Game Daily Yu Yu’s family still has hundreds of cards that he won when he was a child. Of course, most students did not know the specific gameplay of TCG, but at that time there were already many full card stores in first-tier cities in China for everyone to play these board games.
Brand stores in Beijing in 2005/Photo source: Wuxia Amon
Although offline board games are very popular, there are few TCG online games at home and abroad.
In 2001, “Legend of Blood” was just introduced to China, and online games ushered in a blowout development in 2002. In that wilderness era of the domestic online game Babaylan, Wu Xia Amon, who had just graduated from university, designed the first TCG online game in China, “Interactive Martial Arts”, which opened up his own fate with TCG.
“Interactive Martial Arts” press conference
Shortly after Wu Xia Amon’s first game was launched, he had the idea of resigning and starting a business. Although he had no money or qualifications, he had no qualifications for this type of game, but with his love and motivation for this type of game, he plunged into the “no return” of game entrepreneurship. That year he was 26 years old.
More year, after experiencingAfter dozens of failed investments, Wu Xia Amon, who was heavily in debt, finally couldn’t stand it and found a class to go to Suzhou Games Snail to serve as the main planner of “Mecha Century”.
More than two months later, Wu Xia Amon finally found an opportunity, got an investment of 1 million yuan, and began to develop his second TCG “Xiaoyaoyou”. At that time, Wu Xia Amon never expected that he would not even see the first game he designed.
“Xiaoyaoyou”
On the eve of the game’s launch, investors felt that the game had been completed and no longer needed Wu Xia Amon, so they set up a new company, and all the employees and computers were pulled away, leaving only the poor Wu Xia Amon and his main program friends. However, “Xiaoyaoyou”, which lost the producer and main program, was down for a long time on the public beta day, and various vicious bugs frequently appeared and disappeared soon.
Later, Wu Xia Amon, who was unwilling to give up, worked with his friends in the main process and made a brand new TCG “Eight Immortals Online”, which was officially launched in 2008. As a result, the new game was cheated by the distribution company as soon as it was launched. Not only did the distribution company not give it a share, but it also copied a web game “Ten Thousand Demons” out. “The King of Ten Thousand Demons” made micro-innovations based on “The Eight Immortals”, but because of the inaccurate copying, the numerical system was not stuck and it soon became cold.
After that, “Eight Immortals Online” experienced several twists and turns, and finally operated it in Wu Xia Amon like a private server to Komiks in 2012, until it was bought out by a Shenzhen company.
“Eight Immortals Online”
This game is Wu Xia Amon’s favorite game. Wu Xia Amon himself is doing the planning, art, and websites. There are no restrictions on the content, so you can do whatever you want.
In 2013, the popular Blizzard Hearthstone began testing.
Furthermore, among the games in this category, “The Five ElementsKomiks” which was launched in 2017 is considered a representative work.
Yuyu: Why is it named Wuxia A Meng?
Wu Xia Amon: In 2002, I took it when I was doing “Interactive Martial Arts”. I like martial arts very much. I have read a lot of martial arts novels. I once wanted to change the online name to “Martial Arts Dream”, but I felt a little stingy, so I used the homonym of “Martial Arts Dream” to “Wu Xia Amon”.
Yuyu: How was “The Five Elements Master” born?
Wu Xia Amon: After selling “Eight Immortals Online”, I started my business again in 2012 and was fortunate to make millions of dollars from other games. At this time, I was facing the problem of project establishment. Based on my interest in CCG and my feelings for “Eight Immortals Online”, we finally used all the money to make a CCG “Five Elements Master”, whose combat rules are inherited from “Eight Immortals OnlineCinema“.
The Five Elements Master can be said to be the continuation of life in “Eight Immortals Online”. In “The Five Elements Master”, I designed an achievement commemorative card called “Tumbler” to commemorate the years when I was pushed around but didn’t want to fall down. Haha, it’s pretentious, manual dog head~
Yuyu: After “The Five Elements Master” is launched, will any player compare it with “Heartstone”?
Wu Xia Amon: After the game was launched, it was recommended by TapTap for the first time and had a high score of 9.4. However, many players saw that it was a card game, and they scolded us for not playing it for a while, and they gave us a bad review, which led to a continuous decline in ratings… Later, due to the recognition of quality, the scores rebounded all the way. Now there are more than one million downloads on TapTap, and they still retain a high score of 9.0.
In fact, the rules of “The Five Elements Master” are inherited from “Eight Immortals Online” launched in 2008. How could it copy “Heartstone” launched in 2013? When Hearthstone first came out, many old “Eight Immortals” players came to me and joked that Hearthstone was plagiarizing us.
Yuyu: How is “The Five Elements Master” doing in terms of balance?
Wu Xia Amon: The balance of “Five Elements Master” can be explained by listing some data:
In the duel between experts, there are nearly 20 sets of winning rates exceeding 50% and usage rates every month.If you have more than 1% of the playing style (the different sects and five elements combinations are different, the playing style is different). This number is far more than its CCG.
In addition, the winning rate of routines with the highest winning rate is lower than 54%, which is also far lower than other CCGs.
Yuyu: I have been persisting for 20 years, why are I so obsessed with card games?
Wu Xia Amon: I like to play games with high strategic nature, and card battle games are very strategic and never tired of playing them.
Yuyu: Which game do you think you have made the best? Why?
Wu Xia Amon: The best one is the latest Komiks “Devil’s Secret Realm”. “The Five Elements Master” is also a real son, but its artistic performance has always been a pain for us and has been discounted…
“The Five Elements Master”
Yuyu: Are there any interesting news during the game development process?
Wu Xia Amon: There are quite a lot of interesting things, so I will say Cinema‘s early years:
In 2005, in order to write a good financing business plan, I went to the brand store for inspection. There are dozens of card stores that mainly sell Magic Cards in Beijing, and there are also board game venues. When I took the second photo, it attracted the attention of the store owner and asked me about my purpose, and I honestly told me. He knew that I was not a customer, so he limited me to leave within 30 seconds and stayed wherever I was cool… Years have passed, and occasionally I remembered the embarrassing look at me back then.
Yuyu: What major problems did Babaylan encounter during the game development process?
Wu Xia Amon: The biggest problem is the choice of art style. It must not only meet the characteristics of the subject matter, but also cater to the preferences of the majority of players, but also take into account the development costs, development cycles, and subsequent maintenance difficulties… There are too many restrictions.
Yuyu: How many people are there in the team at present? What new game are you doing?
Wu Xia Amon: There are currently more than 20 R&D personnel, and they are still working on an independent game Cinema‘s play “The Silent Cricket”.
Yuyu: What do you think are the good and bad aspects of “The Five Elements Master”? Where is the “Devil’s Secret Realm”? Komiks
Wu Xia Amon: The advantage of “The Five Elements Master” is that its gameplay is high enough, and its disadvantage lies in its visual performance. In other words, the advantage lies in its gameplay and numerical design, and the disadvantage lies in its art design (art performance is not only a design problem, but also a commitment. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaThe capital is very important. A company made a CCG two years ago, and the cost of the opening animation exceeds the entire R&D cost of “Five Elements Master”. The advantages of “Devil’s Secret Realm” are the same as those of “Five Elements Master”, which is still planning the design of gameplay and numerical values, while the disadvantage is that it is difficult to add pvp.
《Demon Secret Realm》
Yu Yu: Summarize your years of entrepreneurial career. Do you feel it is hard?
Wu Xia Amon: I don’t feel it. Although I have experienced many setbacks, I may be optimistic by nature. I have never felt any frustrations, and I may have been used to it.
Yu Yu: Will I want to make some more novel card strategy games in the future?
Wu Xia Amon: If I have a strong IP, I will make another TCG or CCG.
Yu Yu: Do I have any suggestions for newcomers who have just entered the industry?
Wu Xia Amon:
Wu Xia Amon: If I have a strong IP, I will make another TCG or CCG.
Yu Yu: Do I have any suggestions for newcomers who have just entered the industry?
Wu Xia href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksAmon: If you want to do programs and art, it will be easy to change careers in the future.
If you want to do planning, you need to ask first whether you love game design and whether you have the talent in this area.
Yuyu: During the interview with the Game Daily, we often met some producers who started playing games on their own in colleges and even high schools. As the college entrance examination is approaching, do you think BabaylanIf you want to enter the industry and make games in the future, which majors are better to study?
Wu Xia Amon: First of all, it depends on which job you want to do. If you are doing programs or art, you will naturally choose a related major; if you are trying to do planning, then the major is not that important. What is important is that you must play more games in college. If you must choose a professional direction for game planning, you can give priority to majors related to programming. Game planning does not require programming, but if you know how to program, some sub-jobs can do more things.