Game development giant

Yes, Li Yuanhang thought of this "Candle Man", which is known as the light of domestic indie games.

At the 2013 Extreme Game Development Conference in the previous life, producer Gao Ming brought a six-member independent game studio "Creative Ideas" and created a human-shaped candle man as the protagonist with the theme of "10 seconds" The demo won the first place, and signed into the XBOX platform for a limited time after it went online in 2016.

During this period, "Candle Man" has repeatedly won international awards, reaching an unprecedented level of awards for domestic independent games. However, unlike the high reputation, sales have been sluggish.

Two years later, "Candle Man" finally came out of the monopoly. The publisher signed a contract for the mobile game, which was represented by Tencent Aurora Project, and successively landed on the PS4 and steam platforms, and then optimized and adjusted it before landing on the mobile terminal.

With wealthy publishers and agents, "Candle Man" finally skyrocketed, and immediately after the domestic AppStore went online, it ranked first on the paid game list. After landing in the overseas AppStore, it obtained AppStores in as many as 161 countries and regions. recommend.

The gameplay of "Candle Man" is very simple. There are only three operations: move, jump, and light up. The game's plot is mainly driven by the form of going through levels. The first few chapters can only be said to be quite satisfactory, or even a little boring.

Starting from leaving the ship, the candle talent began to show a magnificent fantasy world. After the seventh and eighth chapters, it is even more amazing. From the flower that blooms with the light, the duckweed that moves with the light, to the light. The golden road, the fantasy world in the mirror, both the brain and the picture are amazing.

Just like the official slogan: every frame is a wallpaper, every note is a song of nature, and every journey is a growth.

Li Yuanhang thought of the most exciting levels of "Candle Man", and was about to write it down immediately, but found that it was in a power outage state, even if it was to be recorded, he could only record it manually.

All the employees in the studio have left except Wang Xiuqin. Wang Xiuqin asked curiously: "Yuanhang, what were you thinking just now?"

Li Yuanhang said depressed: "I just thought of a good game idea, and I was about to write it down but found that the power went out. It's really unfortunate."

"A new game?" After experiencing two hot games, Wang Xiuqin looked forward to Li Yuanhang's creativity.

Li Yuanhang nodded, picked up a pen and a new notebook, and quickly recorded it when his memory was still clear.

When Wang Xiuqin saw that the sky was slowly getting dark at this time, he said, "I still have some candles in my house. I will bring them to light you." After speaking, he went home.

After a while, Wang Xiuqin took a few candles, a small USB lamp and a power bank. She lit the small USB lamp, and the room would be brighter in an instant.

When Wang Xiuqin saw Li Yuanhang burying his head in writing, she didn't bother him. After going home and making dinner, she brought him a portion for Li Yuanhang to eat and then left.

Li Yuanhang swiftly wrote in his notebook, and recorded all the plots, levels and settings of the game "Candle Man", because he is not a superpower, and the things in his memory may not be remembered anytime. Clear, if that's the case, then you really want to cry without tears.

After all, good memory is not as good as bad writing.

Li Yuanhang wrote with all his attention, forgetting the passage of time and forgetting that the food that Wang Xiuqin brought was already cold. I don't know how long it took before the power bank ran out and the small USB light went out.

Only then did he recover from that state of concentration. He took out his mobile phone to brighten the screen, found the candle and lighter that Wang Xiuqin had brought, and lit the candle.

Under the dim light, Li Yuanhang looked at the notebook that he had written twenty or thirty pages, already had the fuzzy outline of "Candle Man", the core gameplay had been established, and two or three well-designed levels were recorded.

Li Yuanhang still felt a little unfinished, so he began to write "Candle Man", what needs improvement.

Although the previous life "Candle Man" has been loved by many players, due to financial and technical reasons, this game has a lot of content that needs to be improved.

For example, the lack of elements such as operation and ease of use, many places in the game require precise operation, otherwise it will cause the death of the little candle.

However, the game is a fixed viewing angle, and sometimes the small candle is completely or partially blocked, which causes the player to be unable to grasp the direction of movement or the direction of jumping.

For another example, you can add a small candle to a face to make it more beautiful and cute, and show corresponding actions or expressions in different environments, so that it should be more comfortable to look at.

Or, in an environment where you can't speak except for the extra narration, you can pay more attention to the communication between the small candle and the surrounding things. Since the small candle can be anthropomorphic, why can't others?

Just like the spike ball is the enemy in the early stage of the game, and the back spike helps the little candle open the way. This process of changing from unfamiliar to familiar to helping each other, the emotions in it gradually change, and one expression can be expressed by one action.

One after another revision ideas were written in the notebook. When the candle burned out and went out, Li Yuanhang stopped writing and checked that it was almost midnight.

Feeling almost remembered, Li Yuanhang put his notebook away and walked out of the studio. After passing a barbecue stall on the way, he went to eat more than a dozen barbecues and a bottle of beer as a supper. After returning home, he was sleepy and lay in bed. Fell asleep.

On the next day, Li Yuanhang continued to perfect "Candle Man", and felt that the plan was half completed after it was almost done.

...

Time passed day by day, and soon came February, and there were about ten days left before the Chinese New Year.

The "Monument Valley" DLC "The Forgotten Coast" was also officially launched in China, and has won unanimous praise from players. Players who feel that the game content is too small have bought it. In just three days, half a million players bought this DLC.

At the same time, Kaixia Network has negotiated conditions with foreign publishers, and "Monument Valley" has also begun to be launched abroad.

"Monument Valley" had been a small hit during G3, but now it is now on sale, and it has naturally attracted many players to pay for it, and it has been highly praised.

Gamasutra, the most well-known game media abroad, even gave a full score and gave a "Ninth Art Masterpiece" evaluation, which made "Monument Valley" attract countless fans.

Therefore, as soon as "Monument Valley" was released, it quickly became the top of the paid game list on many platforms. It was in the limelight and the money was naturally not less. Even after layers of exploitation, Li Yuanhang could still get quite a lot.