Chapter 137: Martial Arts Games vs. Immortal Hero Games
Chen Mo thought for a moment and said, "It's fine. They only started working on it a month or two earlier than us, so it's not like they're guaranteed to win first prize."
Lin Mao nodded. "That's true. After all, the judges on the Game Committee have pretty picky tastes. Unless a game is truly revolutionary, it's hard to get first prize."
Chen Mo looked thoughtful.
Lin Mao asked, "I'm planning to make a mobile game with an immortal hero theme. What about you?"
Chen Mo considered this. "I'm planning to go with a martial arts theme."
Lin Mao was taken aback. "Martial arts? That's a tough genre to crack!"
Chen Mo nodded. "I know. That's exactly why I want to do it."
Lin Mao said, "It's true that if you can pull off a martial arts game well, it would be truly unique and have a good shot at winning first prize. But it's incredibly difficult because it's hard to make this genre stand out. Even Zen Interactive has been working on it for a long time without much success."
Chen Mo replied, "I know. That's why I'm still thinking it over."
Lin Mao nodded. "Alright, keep it up! I believe in you! After all, you've already made 'Warcraft,' an RTS game that everyone in the country thought was impossible. If you have a solid idea and can execute a martial arts game well, first prize should be well within your reach."
Chen Mo nodded. "Yeah, you too. Let's both aim for a good ranking!"
...
After the meal, Chen Mo returned to the experience store and started mulling over the new game.
Game genres that incorporate traditional Chinese culture are relatively limited in scope. The most popular ones are only the immortal hero and martial arts themes.
In this parallel world, when people talk about Chinese-style games, the first thing that comes to mind for designers and players alike is the immortal hero genre. For example, the popular VR game "Legend of the Sword," is an immortal hero game.
The reason immortal hero games are so popular is that they can easily wrap the hot RPG combat system in an immortal hero skin. This makes the gameplay relatively mature and highly controllable, with little risk of going off the rails.
In Western fantasy RPGs, there are warriors, mages, and archers. They can engage in melee combat, use skills for ranged attacks, or ride griffins to fly. All of these can be perfectly replaced with immortal hero packaging.
In immortal hero games, players can fly on swords, use spells to attack enemies, and explore mystical mountains, caves, and other secret realms. This aligns very well with the gameplay of Western fantasy RPGs.
Especially in terms of the combat system, the spells in immortal hero games can be seamlessly adapted to the spell systems of Western fantasy RPGs without causing any sense of dissonance for players.
Thus, the popular immortal hero games on the market are essentially Western fantasy RPGs with a different skin. It's precisely because the immortal hero theme can be re-skinned using the core mechanics of Western fantasy games that it's so controllable, with a mature game system and no real risks.
So, why doesn't martial arts work?
The biggest issue is the combat system.
Immortal heroes exist in a high-magic world, while martial arts is a low-magic world.
In immortal hero games, you can fly on swords, slay demons and monsters, and summon thousands of swords with a wave of your hand. The presentation is very rich and fits the "skill-casting" combat style.
The combat in immortal hero games involves you unleashing a magical artifact to attack an enemy, dealing damage and adding extra effects. These can all be represented through skills and debuffs.
But martial arts is different. Traditional martial arts emphasizes countering moves with moves. The martial arts techniques here often come in sets. For example, the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms—if you break it down into eighteen skills, that's too many; if you make it a single skill, that's too few; and if you just turn it into a damage skill, it's hard to convey its unique characteristics and cultural depth.
Additionally, the martial arts world doesn't have as many demons and monsters, so the visual spectacle is much weaker. There won't be any oversized bosses; all enemies are humanoid creatures.
Going from immortal heroes to martial arts requires cutting out a lot of game content, and the cultural essence of martial arts itself is difficult to express through game mechanics.
So, for designers in this world, making a martial arts game is less appealing than making an immortal hero game.
In Chen Mo's previous life, there were plenty of martial arts games, but the problem was that most of them were just martial arts in name only, with the core gameplay still being the same as immortal hero games or Western fantasy RPGs.
For example, many game adaptations of the major works by Jin Yong and Gu Long were just cashing in on the IP, with no revolutionary gameplay innovations.
For instance, turning the Six Meridian Divine Sword into a ranged attack skill, the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms into a melee attack, the Northern Dark Divine Art into a mana drain, and the Wavy Micro Steps into an increased dodge chance...
These are all just forcibly fitting the combat system of Western fantasy RPGs. If you set aside the nostalgia factor of the original works, this kind of representation feels quite forced. If it's not done well, players won't necessarily buy it.
This world doesn't have Jin Yong or Gu Long. Of course, there are martial arts novels similar to Jin Yong's works, with internal energy and technique systems. The packaging of martial arts techniques is also similar, with non-original techniques like the Muscle-Bone Strengthening Classic, Tai Chi Fist, and Eight Trigram Palm being quite famous.
Relying on acquiring these IPs, or having Chen Mo copy a Jin Yong novel to create his own IP, is impossible, especially since he only has three months.
The martial arts IPs in this world are expensive and not nearly as popular as Jin Yong's novels. Even setting aside whether buying them would be a loss, the main issue is that they wouldn't be that useful. Otherwise, Zen Interactive and Imperial Dynasty Interactive would have bought them long ago.
Take Zen Interactive, for example. They've always insisted on making high-quality, Chinese-style games. It's not that they haven't tried to explore the potential of martial arts games, but after making a few that received lukewarm responses, they switched to the immortal hero theme.
Just forcibly making a martial arts game without innovating its core gameplay won't work either.
The judges aren't stupid. They can see at a glance if it's a game that's just selling mutton as dog meat. If a martial arts game can't embody the essence of martial arts, it's better not to make it at all.
What Chen Mo wants to make is a martial arts game that can truly reflect the essence of martial arts, a game with comprehensive gameplay innovations, not just a martial arts game with a different skin.
Since entering the industry, Chen Mo has already made quite a few games, including "Plants vs. Zombies" and "Warcraft," which brought both fame and fortune, "I'm MT," a cash-grab game, and "Lifeline," a text-based game.
But overall, most of them are based on classic foreign games from his previous life, and there hasn't been a single truly Chinese-style game.
Of course, this isn't because Chen Mo prefers foreign things over Chinese ones. In his previous life, the state of the game industry was just like that. There were few high-quality domestic games, and a large portion of them were pay-to-win games. There weren't many that could truly be showcased.
This wasn't Chen Mo's intention. He also hoped that Chinese games could go global and that domestic players could enjoy high-quality domestic games that align with traditional cultural values.
So, taking this opportunity, Chen Mo plans to make a single-player martial arts game, allowing domestic players to experience an authentic Chinese style.