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” that 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, the card game “Yu-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-Gi-
Then these cards quickly occupied the convenience stores of major, middle and primary schools in China and became the absolute dominant of everyone’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, “Hot-bloodedBabaylanLegend” was just introduced to China, and online games ushered in a blowout development in 2002. In that wild era of domestic online games, 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 relied on his love and motivation for such games to plunge into the “no return” of the game industry. That year he was 26 years old.
For more than a year, after dozens of failed investment investment, Wu Xia Amon, who was heavily in debt, finally couldn’t stand it and found a class to go to Suzhou Game Snail to serve as the main planner of “Mecha Century”.
More than two months later, Wu XiaCinemaAmeng finally found an opportunity and got an investment of 1 million yuan. Cinema began to develop his second TCG “Xiaoyaoyou”. At that time, Wu Xia Ameng never expected that he had never seen the carefully designed game.
“Xiaoyaoyou”
On the eve of the game’s launch, investors felt that the game had been completed and no longer needed Amon, so they set up a new company, and all the employees and computers were pulled away, leaving only the poor and poor WuBabaylanAmonAmon and his main program friends. However, they lost href=”https://comicmov.com/”>CinemaThe public beta of “Xiaoyaoyou” by the producer and main program was down for a long time. Various vicious bugs appeared frequently and disappeared soon after.
Later, Wu Xia Amon, who was unwilling to accept it, 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. The distribution company not only did not share the share, but also copied a web game “Ten Thousand Demon King” himself. “Ten Thousand Demon King” made micro-innovations based on “Eight Immortals”, but because of the inaccurate copying, the numerical system was not tightened, and Komiks was almost cold.
After that, “Eight Immortals Online” was Komiks After several twists and turns, he finally operated like a private server in Wuxia Amon until 2012, until he was bought out by a Shenzhen company.
“Eight Immortals OnlinKomikse”
This game is Wu Xia Amon’s favorite game. Wu Xia Amon is doing the planning, art and websites himself. There are no restrictions on the content, so you can do whatever you want.
In 2013, the popular Blizzard Hearthstone began testing.
Furthermore, in the game category of Cinema, “The Five Elements Master”, which was launched in 2017, is considered a representative work.
Yuyu: Why is it named Wuxia Amon?
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”, and the combat rules are inherited from “Eight Immortals Online”.
The Five Elements Master can be said to be the continuation of life in “The Eight Immortals onlBabaylanine”. In “The Five Elements Master”, I designed an achievement commemorative card called “Tumbler” to commemorate the years when they were pushed around but didn’t want to fall. 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 Cinema, it had a high score of 9.4 when it was recommended by TapTap for the first time. However, many players saw that it was a game of card games against each other. They scolded us for Hearthstone without playing it, and a bad review was made, which led to a continuous decline in the score… 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” were inherited from 2008How could the “Eight Immortals Online” released in 2013 copy “Heartstone” launched in 2013? When Hearthstone first came out, many old “Eight Immortals” players came to me and joked that Hearthstone was copying us.
Yu Yu: How is “The Five Elements Master” doing in terms of balance?
Wu Xia Amon: The balance of “The Five Elements Master” can be explained in some data: In the duel between experts, Cinema has nearly 20 sets of playing methods with a winning rate of more than 50% and a usage rate of more than 1% every month (the sect and the five elements combination are different, so the playing methods are different). This number is much higher than other CCGs.
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 “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, let’s talk about the early years: In 2005, I wrote a business plan for financing for Cinema, and I went to the brand store to inspect it. There are dozens of card stores in Beijing that mainly sell Wizards, and there are board game venues. CinemaWhen I took the second photo, it attracted the attention of the store owner and asked me about my purpose, and I honestly said. 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 are the bigger ones you encountered during the game development process? BabaylanProblem?
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 “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 it has high gameplay enough, and its disadvantage lies in its visual performance. In other words, the advantage lies in the gameplay and numerical design, and the disadvantage lies in the art design (art performance is not only a design issue, but also has a lot to do with the investment. A company made a CCG two years ago, and the cost of its opening animation exceeds the entire R&D cost of “Five Elements Master”).
The advantages of “DemonKomiks‘s Secret Realm” are the same as those of “Five Elements Master”, and the disadvantage is that it is difficult to add PVP.
“Devil’s Secret Realm”
Yuyu: Summarize your years of entrepreneurial career. Do you feel it is hard?
Wu Xia Amon: I didn’t feel the pain. Although I have experienced a lot of setbacks, maybe I am optimistic by nature and have never felt any frustration. Maybe I am used to it.
Yuyu: Will you want to make some more novel card strategy games in the future? Babaylan
Wu Xia Amon: If you have a strong IP, you will make another TCG or CCG.
Yuyu: Do you have any suggestions for newcomers who have just entered the industry?
Wu Xia Amon: If you want to do programs and art, it will be easy to change careers in the future.
If you want to plan, you need to first ask whether you love game design very much and whether you have the talent in this area.
Yuyu: During the interview with Game Daily, we often encountered some universities and even high schools that we started doing games by ourselves.The producer of the drama is approaching the college entrance examination. What majors do you think if you want to enter the industry and play games in the future, what majors do you think 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.