About a month ago, I happened to swipe a video on station B, titled "Second Game Copywriting Planning in Game Signature, Implementation of Responsibility, Who Approves and Who Ops".
The content of the video is basically as mentioned in the title, and the author proposes to let the copy of the second game be signed in the game. Judging from the hot comments on hundreds of likes in the comment area (considering that the video has less than 5,000 views so far, the gold content of hundreds of likes is self-evident), this proposal has obviously been recognized by many passers-by.
Maybe the specific rules of signature, the details still need to be discussed, such as how to put an end to interns "being signed" such a kind of comical operation, but at least from the general direction, "signature" can not only allow copywriters to harvest the right of authorship that they should have, but also alleviate the situation of second-game players who have been suffering from copywriting for a long time, and if it can be implemented, it is also a progress in the industry.
However, the UP who made this video is probably not clear, and what he is looking forward to has already been tried - the two-dimensional ARPG game "Black Beacon" has been generously displayed in the version tested in January this year. It's just that at the time, not many people cared about this, so much so that it didn't seem to be mentioned in the game's publicity.
However, in the recent rhythm of the second game circle being brought up by the copywriting wave after wave, it is hard for me not to think of this game that may be a whim, or it may be deliberate, and the second game copywriting has been signed early......
Where does the copywriting come from?
Objectively speaking, copywriting/writing bylines are not the norm in the gaming industry. Unlike screenwriters in the film and television industry, who are often on an equal footing (at least on the surface) of the crew, except for IP adaptations, which may have direct "séance" from the original author, the copywriters of most games are often only employees of the development team, and the game is a collective creation by default, and the IP belongs to the game company, so the "authorship right" of the copywriter is basically a topic that will not be taken seriously by the industry.
However, "Black Beacon" is so maverick that it does it.
Of course, the reason why "Black Beacon" can be generously signed by screenwriters and copywriters is largely because they are confident in the "status of the rivers and lakes" of signed screenwriters and copywriters - the two signed screenwriters/copywriters who can be contacted at the earliest in the beta version, "Rijing" and "Teng Ye", the former is a game copywriter with mature works and high reviews in the second game circle, and the latter is the winner of the "Best Short Story Award" at the 32nd China Science Fiction Galaxy Awards.
Inviting well-known authors to work on the plot and recruiting big bulls in the industry to join in the development is not a new thing in the circle, and it is generally properly mentioned when it is advertised, at least in the field of the second game, so formally showing the copywriting signature in the cover of the plot chapter, "Black Beacon" is definitely the first to eat crabs.
This approach is undoubtedly a double-edged sword - the plot is recognized, and the signatories are naturally touted from all walks of life, and once the plot collapses and there are major mistakes in the copywriting, then, the player's anger will not be like other second games can only vent to the game, but there will be a considerable part of the firepower accurately smashed into the signed copy.
But it is obvious that "Black Beacon" dares to do this, and it has its own confidence.
Although it is not clear how much Teng Ye, as a screenwriter, has contributed to the shaping of the game's worldview background and important plots, and the proportion of work of Rijing, an old acquaintance in the second game circle who signed both the screenwriter and the copywriter, is specific, but from the final result, "Black Beacon" has created a convincing world where advanced technology and backward civilization are constantly colliding, and the plot has indeed attracted players who participated in the test to look forward to the subsequent chapters.
Even the middle reviews expressed full expectations for the plot, let alone praise
What kind of world does the black beacon create?
It seems that everyone who has experienced the plot of "Black Beacon" has a different opinion - the only thing they have in common is the recognition of the quality of the plot and copywriting, and the curiosity about the unfolding of the subsequent story.
In order to avoid spoilers, I will not introduce the plot flow in detail here, but only talk about my intuitive feelings about the shaping of the world view and the presentation of the plot of "Black Beacon" during the experience.
The first is a core proposition that runs throughout, or rather haunts the story experience, - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is no different from magic".
This is what the famous science fiction writer Arthur Charles Clarke wrote in his masterpiece "Space Odyssey 2001", and it is also a sentence that inspired today's "tech maniac" Elon Musk. And this sentence is embodied in "Black Beacon", which is like a key that opens the door to imagination.
The golden copper ball "Sun God", which was worshiped by the ancients and engraved with ancient texts, is a nuclear fusion reactor; The "pyramids", which are regularly arranged and have a geometric beauty, are actually the calculation units of supercomputers; The basic language of computers, binary, was regarded by medieval religion as an obscure and implicit providence...... These scenes that many science fiction fans have imagined are portrayed, depicted, and shaped in "Black Beacon". And the game also provides beautiful illustrations or cutscenes at these key plot points to make this interesting sense of dislocation even more convincing.
Under the careful choreography of the plot, the boundary between technology and miracles gradually blurred
Of course, you may have noticed the sun god, the pyramids, the Middle Ages...... These keywords are put together, but don't worry about it being a hodgepodge of stories. To put it simply, this is a story with a narrative style similar to that of Creed, where different time and space are cleverly linked together by the plot and gradually unfolded as the story progresses.
Not only that, but there are also a lot of easter eggs in the story of "Black Beacon" that make people laugh: "cause and effect reversal" similar to "Oedipus King", "Bookshelf Message" in "Interstellar" and so on. What impresses me the most is that the mysterious high-dimensional space in the plot exhaustively enumerates all the knowledge of human beings in ancient and modern times, but it only has the opposite effect - in the face of the vast amount of information, human beings who lack effective retrieval methods cannot find the correct answer at all, which is also like a tribute to Liu's classic work "Poetry Cloud".
Because of his insatiable thirst for knowledge, he explores the "Road of No Return" in the body of a mortal
- This kind of sci-fi tone is quite emotional
The specific plot is better left to everyone to experience in the game. All I can say here is that even if the game doesn't fall into your eye in other aspects, its plot is at least worth beating with one hand.
In addition to the plot, the combat and long-term operation are also quite highlighted
Aside from the plot, what else is there about Black Beacon that attracts people to play? I believe that this is also a question that will arise in the hearts of many players who are attracted by the plot in the future before they get started.
Since the time is relatively long ago from the January test, considering that the game should have had a lot of tuning and version iterations, the content of the past version does not represent the current state of the game, so here is to focus on some dimensions that will not be easily changed with the version.
The first is the action combat part, which is the most important part of the ARPG gameplay experience.
Black Beacon not only has a distinctive combat skill mechanic designed for each character, so that players who like ACT combat can not only "mow the grass", but also fully explore how to use the mechanic to achieve more efficient combo to deal tons of damage, or stumble upon the wonderful use of a skill outside of combat during gameplay - for example, some dash skills can be used to cross terrain, which can make life a lot less detours (the good news is that I learned it, the bad news is that I learned it after watching other people's videos after the test).
In addition, it has to be mentioned that "Black Beacon" should be designed and produced as a top-down ARPG if there is no accident, and the game's fast-paced and highly mobile combat style is indeed more compatible with such a classic perspective, but considering the needs of compatible with different player groups today, the game still intimately provides a cross-shoulder perspective that can be turned freely, so that players who love a sense of substitution and want to observe the details of the character's actions up close can be fully satisfied.
It can not only control the overall situation from a bird's eye view, but also zoom in to enhance the sense of substitution for the over-the-shoulder perspective
Then there is the card drawing and cultivation that must be talked about in the second tour.
Objectively speaking, the gacha and development experience of the January beta version is flawed, but its flaws only exist on the numerical side - in other words, all problems can be solved by planning to fill in the form and change the form.
As can be seen from a certain version update note at that time, for these contents that are directly related to the core experience of players, "Black Beacon" has achieved "change as you say" - the low shipment rate of the card pool? The number of shipments increased from 71 to 41; The novice pool has few resources, and the characters drawn are not satisfied? Then add directional choices to the novice pool, and advance the progress of obtaining the resources of the novice pool, and the character weapons will not be mixed in the pool, so as to ensure that players can get their favorite characters in the first chapter of the main story...... All of this, many of which were changed in the past after a few years of twisting and turning, and even the part that remained unchanged from beginning to end, showed a posture of listening carefully to the player's voice and "everything is good to discuss" here in the "Black Beacon" research and development team.
Gacha mechanics can all be modified based on player feedback, but what else can't be improved?
Century Tiancheng's "first" two-dimensional attempt
On June 28, Century Tiancheng announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with Mingyang Technology, the developer of "Black Beacon". This also means that Century Tiancheng will become the operator of "Black Beacon".
Seeing this, many people must have the same idea as I did at the beginning: Century Tiancheng, why don't you run your CSOL, "Running Kart", and running to Ho Ho Eryou? These two tours are about to be killed from the Red Sea to the Sea of Blood, don't you make them?
But after careful consideration, I really have a little bit of anticipation, looking forward to this century Tiancheng driving a go-kart with zombies, and come to the second tour to stir up the situation in the troubled waters.
On the one hand, although the core personnel of Mingguang Technology, which developed "Black Beacon", have worked in many major game companies, deeply participated in many well-known mobile games, and also demonstrated its solid development skills on the "Black Beacon" project, as an emerging team, if it wants to take care of both R&D and operation work, it will undoubtedly face many challenges in terms of manpower, time cost and management efficiency. can directly "sell" to those well-known industry giants, and often drown in its boundless product line, or even be used to "raise Gu".
Therefore, a partner who is not small, but not too large, and has rich operational experience and distribution resources, can solve practical difficulties for the future operation of "Black Beacon", is undoubtedly the most suitable - under this premise, Century Tiancheng is undoubtedly an ideal choice.
Some players may wonder if Century Tiancheng has enough experience in the operation of the second game? But if you count from before the word "second game" was born, as early as 19 years ago in 2005, when the two-dimensional game was still in its infancy, Century Tiancheng began to operate "Rocky" - this two-dimensional style masterpiece with a good status.
In the field of two-dimensional action games, Century Tiancheng also has "The Sealder", which was open beta in 2015 and has been in operation for more than eight years.
In short, there is no doubt that "Black Beacon" wants to appear as a "dark horse" in the second game circle in 2024, and its excellent quality in world view, plot and art performance shown in its past tests has also been supported by many evaluation videos. And the player-oriented, capable development team Ming Day, and Century Tiancheng, a new entrant in the second game track, such a wonderful combination of research and operation, also gave "Black Beacon" enough imagination.