For a long time, Chinese people have had very complicated feelings about video games, and their reviews have been mixed. However, in recent years, with the emergence of functional games and popular science games, the public's reputation for games is gradually reversed. A few days ago, Mr. Gyro noticed a studio on TapTap that focuses on the development of popular science games: MuccyGames. Its titles "Miracle Doctor", which is based on European medieval medicine, "The Blessing of Social Animals", which tells the story of the entrepreneurship of an Internet company, and "Famous Painting Exhibition", which is based on the art appreciation of world famous paintings, all scored more than 9 points on TapTap and Haoyou Kuaibao In addition, the performance of "Young Song Ci", which shows the style of ancient Chinese forensic medicine, is also quite eye-catching. Recently, the demo of "Exhibition of Famous Paintings" has been released on Steam, and another "Miracle Doctor" that has received millions of downloads on TapTap will also be launched in the near future. After experiencing the two games, I had a chat with Lapin, the product director of Muxi Studio. After in-depth communication, we can find that through the combination of knowledge and gameplay, this studio specializing in popular science games has already made a breakthrough in this game. Find a different path on the road.
Use gameplay and stories to let players "eat in" knowledge. In 2021, Liu Xiaoyu, Zhao Longxi, and Lapin established Muxi Studio in Chengdu, planning to produce games using self-developed tools. Now that we have a studio, what can we do? After much thought, the three of them decided to focus on popular science games that are suitable for killing time after studying and working. On the one hand, popular science games allow players to acquire knowledge and increase their knowledge without wasting time; on the other hand, players can also get some fun and excitement to relieve stress. After determining the category, how to convey knowledge points to players through popular science games has become a hurdle in front of everyone. Their solution is not to add too many knowledge points into the game, just the right amount; but at the same time, these details must be absorbed by players as subtly as possible and become part of their knowledge framework. Take "Exhibition of Famous Paintings" as an example. There are two key knowledge points that the game wants to convey: one is to allow players to take a serious look at these classic arts, and the other is to allow players to patiently read the text beside the paintings. Specific to the design, "Famous Painting Exhibition" condenses the characteristics of the painter and the painting school into a number of keywords - every time the player draws a new card, he needs to label the painting such as "religion", "family", "character" and "child" " and other tags. The labels range from thick to thin and come in a variety of types, and some paintings have specific descriptions.
The reason why so much effort is put into designing the label is to establish a relationship between the label and the painting. Lapin explained that the painter Van Gogh had a very distinctive personal painting style, and he usually used yellow and blue colors (such as "Starry Sky" and "Sunflowers" and other famous paintings handed down from generation to generation), so players would have trouble labeling Van Gogh as "yellow and blue". It may have a corresponding impression. Maybe in the future when you see oil paintings mainly colored with yellow and blue pigments, you will subconsciously think of Van Gogh. In this way, popular science games also play a corresponding role.
Van Gogh's "Crows on a Wheatfield" also takes Impressionism as an example. Before its birth, oil paintings were mainly based on indoor scenes and character sketches. It was not until the emergence of Impressionism that this stereotype was broken. For example, Monet, the representative of this painting school, "Sunrise·Impression", "Haystack" and "Water Lilies" are all outdoor themes, with great emphasis on seasonal light. Therefore, in "Exhibition of Famous Paintings", Impressionism is naturally labeled as "outdoor", and players can easily make "connections" between the three points of the painter, the painting and the text description.
According to different seasons, weather, and light, Monet painted hundreds of "Water Lilies" and more. After labeling famous paintings, he used puzzles (multiple choice questions) and match-3 gameplay (that is, to select the most suitable paintings for visitors). ) and "debate" with the museum director, "Famous Painting Exhibition" further deepens the player's impression of the paintings.
"Integrate knowledge points into gameplay and run them throughout the story." This kind of design idea can be seen in all games of Muxi Studio. For example, the gameplay of "Miracle Doctor" mainly revolves around three knowledge points: amputation, bloodletting and dispensing medicine. In the early stage, players need to prepare medicines to balance the patient's body fluids based on the four-humor theory believed in in the Western Middle Ages; in the later stage, Western medicine has entered a new stage, and treatment needs to be based on the symptoms of the disease. Through these changes in medical methods in the early, middle and later stages, players can feel that the original "old Western medicine" was as outdated as European "old Western medicine", and the medical concepts of different eras are also slightly different.
"The Blessings of Social Animals" shows players the true side of company bosses through the perspective of entrepreneurs in the Internet industry. "We want players to know that managing a company is far from simple as the general public imagines, and the boss cannot be summarized by just a 'capitalist.'" Lapin believes that a company is a chaotic body composed of many people and many things. , the boss is actually not as hateful and mercenary as the "beating workers" imagine. Muxi Studio wants to convey these perceptions to players, and at the same time, it will also add some workplace knowledge into the game to provide some workplace science to young people who are new to society.
Making a popular science game is like being a "cyber teacher". The world doesn't want profound knowledge to be shelved, and Muxi Studio doesn't want to see players regard famous paintings as snow. In Lapin’s view, the science popularization done by Mu Xi Studio is not particularly advanced professional knowledge, nor does it have to instill some big principles into players. “We actually want to tell players some little anecdotes and add some to their daily lives. Small talk in the game - just like watching the knowledge-based UP master. It would be best if the players can become interested in a certain field because of our works and study it in depth; even if the players are not interested, it is good to enrich their experience. "So when working on "Famous Paintings Exhibition", the project team first tried to make the overall style and story tone of the game as relaxed as possible. For example, the protagonist's journey of appreciating famous paintings is made into a journey to challenge art museums and gain approval from the curators, and meet artists and art lovers with different ideas along the way - just like in "Pokémon".
Then, some gossip or popular language is added to it, using modern expressions to deconstruct the artist and his story. Whenever a painter is introduced, "Famous Painting Exhibition" usually chooses to start with details of his life or a love story. "It's a bit like how people usually browse Weibo to read celebrity gossip. We also want to tell players through this form that painters are also Ordinary people also have to eat and sleep, have emotions, and have emotional entanglements." Lapin believes that these life-like lenses can shorten the distance between art masters and players, making players feel close to the artist.
The emotions and subjective opinions infused by the creators also make popular science games essentially different from functional games. Popular science games are more vital and better at providing solutions after asking questions, allowing players to release their emotions and acquire knowledge at the same time. Its unique content output path is like a professor telling students the knowledge in his mind in easy-to-understand language. However, in order to produce this seemingly simple knowledge, the studio has paid a huge learning cost. Lapin told me that Mu Xi Studio will set aside one and a half to two months for pure research on all projects. During this time, they screened and summarized the most interesting and valuable knowledge by reading books, watching documentaries, checking papers, and talking to practitioners, and then incorporated it into the game. After more than a year, the office of the studio was filled with books, which were placed on the floor if they could not be placed on the table. In order to test professional knowledge, the studio also specially opened a CNKI super membership.
In addition, Zhao Longxi is also responsible for knowledge research. Lapin said, "He reads all kinds of books all year round, including durian farming, whaling, mafia... there are books on all fields. When he sees interesting knowledge points, he writes them down as a reserve." Up to now, Mu Xi Studio has been established I have a library of over 100 themes. Whenever I want to start a new project, I go to the library to pick from it. However, the relatively unique research and development model has also brought a lot of troubles to Muxi Studio. Especially in terms of planning and recruitment, some people don’t know what popular science games are, some don’t know how to make popular science games, and some are uncertain about the prospects of developing this category. In fact, their questions also represent the industry’s curiosity and confusion about this emerging track. Human curiosity is the basis for popular science games. The audience is still expanding. The production team must learn the knowledge of each product from scratch... You must be very curious, can popular science games have a place in the future game market? When I mentioned that the sales of some popular science games on Steam were not ideal, Lapin also admitted that she did have such concerns. After all, there are very few developers in this category and there is not much data to refer to, but she is still concerned about it. We are optimistic about the development prospects of popular science games. Lapin believes that under the influence of the general environment, the spiritual culture of contemporary people has become increasingly empty, and enriching personal spiritual culture is what most people today pursue. And as all walks of life are involved, people's desire to improve themselves will become stronger. Moreover, human beings are born with a thirst for knowledge and curiosity, and are always interested in novel things. This also means that popular science games themselves have a certain appeal. Although the number of players of popular science games cannot be determined at present, Lapin believes that at least the audience size will not be too small. "The fact that "The Miracle Doctor" can reach millions of downloads is enough to show this." In addition, every popular science game with different themes will have a specific audience group - such as "Famous Painting Exhibition". In addition to art lovers and practitioners, casual players are also the audience group of the game.
Taking this into consideration, in order to make the game reach as wide an audience as possible, Muxi Studio will also set the learning threshold for the game lower and control the length of the game within a relatively reasonable range. "For example, you start playing after you get home from get off work and finish it the night before going to bed. Although it is not a long time, it is enough to leave an impression on the game and knowledge." But while remaining optimistic, Lapin also pointed out that popular science games The development of science and technology will be a slow process. On the one hand, popular science games themselves are difficult to make, and on the other hand, the cost of game development is not directly proportional to the commercialization results. "Exhibition of Famous Paintings" is Mu Xi Studio's first commercial project. Lapin said that popular science games are generally stand-alone games and the process is short. Since commercial elements such as advertising and krypton gold that are popular in the market will break the immersion of the game, they are not suitable for this category. The most suitable monetization model is still limited to the buyout system. From the overall market point of view, popular science games are still a blue ocean, and there are very few products on the market for reference. Therefore, the prospects of this track still need to be explored by Muxi Studio. Fortunately, the rapid development of electronic technology has brought considerable dividends to popular science games. Nowadays, the education industry and digital devices are inseparable. In a sense, popular science games can be regarded as the replacement of interest classes or popular science readings. Players can learn about a culture or a certain field of knowledge in popular science games, or through Games help people discover and cultivate interests and hobbies. The form of entertaining and entertaining is not limited to children, but will be an effective learning method for people of all ages.
However, I still have doubts about one thing: there are many obstacles, what is the driving force that supports them going down? Lapin told me that Mu Xi Studio’s biggest wish at the moment is to make money back; in the future, they hope to build Mu Xi into a more recognizable brand. When players see Muccy, they will know that this is the company that makes science games. room. To this end, the team has been improving its production capabilities and establishing a product matrix. Now Muxi Studio can produce 4 to 6 games a year. They want to prove that making popular science games is not an ideal and unprofitable career. This seemingly niche category is also worth paying for. Conclusion In the early years, I worked in the system, and later led the production of Muxi development tools at Orange Light. Now I have started to make popular science games. Along the way, Lapin always believes that people should do things that can achieve self-achievement in their lives. , and then you can openly tell others a few years later: "Look, I made this game." Similar footprints are also subtly engraved in the works of Mu Xi Studio. The story of "Famous Painting Exhibition" begins in Shenzhen Dafen Oil Painting Village - those who know a little about Dafen Village may know that this urban village was known as the "No. 1 Oil Painting Village in China". In its heyday, the world's oil painting 70% come from China, and 80% of Chinese oil paintings come from Dafen Village, with an annual output of 5 million oil paintings. But Lapin told me that before the "Famous Painting Exhibition" project was established, the project team did not know about Dafen Village. When she learned about the past and present of Dafen Village and learned that it was this humble place that supplied so many high-quality and low-priced oil paintings to the world every year, she was deeply impressed by "this great thing" that Dafen Village was doing.
Lapin feels that Mu Xi Studio and Dafen’s folk oil painters actually achieve the same goal by different paths. “We use more entertaining methods to put knowledge into games and pass it on to more people; and they use their own efforts to bring the world to the world. Famous paintings have been brought to thousands of households, allowing everyone to enjoy art and beauty, which is a very admirable thing.”
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