In recent years, by the normal changes in privacy, the global economic environment of marketing, SLG days are not very good, and this also affects a number of old star SLG manufacturers, which includes IGG.
Relying on a “Kingdom Era”, IGG jumped to become the earliest batch of domestic SLG overseas success, but it should be known that this is already a game that has been operating for more than 7 years, so after this product, IGG also began to look for a new explosive, for example, in the first half of this year, IGG launched two SLG Viking Rising and Doomsday and achieved good results! The first half of this year, for example, IGG launched two SLG Viking Rising and Doomsday and achieved good results.
However, SLG may not be the only way IGG seeks to break through, not long ago, in the IGG annual report meeting, IGG co-founder, COO Xu Yuan said: “three years ago IGG began to make preparations for the preparation of 30 to 40 games, and one by one research and development and promotion.”
And now with the passage of time, these new products that IGG has stockpiled have surfaced. GameLook recently discovered that, according to the Data.ai developer account, IGG has tested nine new games in the month of July. Not only that, these new games include both SLG, which IGG specializes in, as well as categories such as merging and placement, making the number and variety of new products staggering.
Considering that IGG is a manufacturer that emphasizes on R&D, it is still surprising to see so many new products at one time. As to whether there will be any external cooperation or agency products, it is not known for the time being, but it can be seen that IGG seems to have some new ideas for the future.
With diversified themes and categories, IGG is aiming at the medium-sized game and pan-user track.
In the past, SLG can be said to be the foundation of IGG, and now it is also an indispensable part of IGG. In the previous annual report meeting, Xu Yuan mentioned that IGG is releasing the “fourth-generation SLG”, which is a product that combines multiple gameplay elements of SLG, RTS, and RPG, and focuses on the sense of immersion and the exploration of large maps, for example, “Viking Rising”. For example, Viking Rising can be called a fourth-generation SLG.
In addition to the products that have already been launched, there are also new achievements in the SLG track, which IGG is the best at, and this time IGG has given the answer to this question, which is a cartoon-style animal-themed product.
SLG “Ant Civilization
Image Source: Sourced from the Internet
According to the official statement, Ant Civilization is a strategic multiplayer exploration game with tower defense elements, in which players need to train ant colonies through digging, evolving, exploring fields, and so on, and defend against enemy attacks through strategy.
The overall gameplay framework of Ant Civilization is actually very similar to COC, in which players need to explore the map to collect various resources and train various ant units. The tower defense gameplay should be the biggest feature of the game, the game players just need to click on the corresponding character cards, you can call these units on the map to launch attacks on the enemy.
Overseas players try it out
Strategy game Ant Origin
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It's worth mentioning that IGG seems to have two hands on the ant-themed strategy game, in addition to Ant Civilization, it also brought a product called Ant Origin.
In contrast, Ant Origin also incorporates the same tower defense gameplay, but the difference is that the art style of this game is more cartoonish and seems to use more LowPoly elements, while the scenes of this game also take place on land, which is more like the logic of a traditional SLG with soldiers fighting in all directions.
Merge x Carnival
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As one of the fastest-growing casual game categories in recent years, “Merge”, which has been repeatedly mentioned by GameLook, IGG has also made some layout. As you can see from the name and the promotional image on the game's Google Play page, Merge x Carnival is a cartoon-style merge game that focuses on food. The biggest difference between Merge x Carnival and traditional merge games is that Merge x Carnival seems to incorporate a lot of simulation elements, which requires players to constantly synthesize high-level ingredients on the map, unravel the mystery, and seemingly build a new game. The game requires the player to synthesize high-level ingredients on the map to clear the fog, and also seems to build and operate a small store.
Overseas players try it out
Placement game Chest Heroes: ldle RPG
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In addition to merging categories, placement games have also been a popular track in recent years, and IGG recently tested a placement game called Chest Heroes: ldle RPG. Simply put, this is a product that focuses on “opening treasure chests”, in which players will constantly obtain new treasure chests, which can be opened to a variety of equipment to enhance the player's ability, and when the player's combat power is improved, he can challenge new enemies to obtain new treasure chests, and so the cycle repeats itself.
Roguelike pop-up game Space Troopers
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In addition to placement and merging, IGG has also laid out in the field of Roguelike games that have become popular in recent years, such as Space Troopers, a Roguelike pop-up game similar to Vampire Survivor.
According to the official description, Space Troopers is a sophisticated sweeping game that puts the player in the role of a warrior who is about to save a civilization that is about to be devoured by alien mushrooms. What's rather unusual about this game is that the characters are all in a near-secondary style, and it seems to have opted for a squad combat mode in its gameplay, allowing players to carry multiple characters with different styles and abilities into the battlefield.
Roguelite casual action game Dream Traveler
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Another game “Dream Traveler”, according to the official statement, it is a casual action game with Roguelite elements, which adopts the mode of vertical operation, players only use one hand to control the direction of the character's movement, and in the process, the character will automatically launch an attack on the enemy.
Strategy game Clash of House
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Although it is also a strategy game, Clash of House is different from the above products which are more inclined to SLG, this product is somewhat similar to a court or historical development game.
According to the official introduction, the game players will mainly control the “territory” and “house” relationship, the game's goal is to expand their own leading their own country continues to grow, which the player needs to expand their own territory, or with neighboring countries to establish diplomatic relations, and also face their own subordinate conflicts. At the same time, the player has to face the challenges of their own subordinate conflicts.
Action Battle Royale game Canyon Watch
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Canyon Watch is one of IGG's new games in the July beta test, as it is a battle royale game that focuses on action gameplay, which is quite different from IGG's products in the past.
Judging from the testing so far, the game adopts a relatively realistic painting style, and features a variety of different weapons, each with different skills, allowing players to switch weapons at will and define their own fighting style.
Casual competitive game That's Not Vampire
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Similar to Canyon Watch, That's Not Vampire is a casual competitive game that, according to the official statement, combines elements of sneaking, action and shooting, etc. Players can control heroes with unique characteristics to participate in battles, and they will shoot automatically during the battles, and players need to utilize the heroes' Players need to utilize the hero's characteristics and terrain to win the game.
With 9 new games tested in a row, IGG's direction has changed again?
In the past, IGG has been known by the label of SLG maker, and its two new products released this year, Viking Rising and Doomsday, have achieved outstanding results.
However, although there are also SLG and action games in these nine games, it is not difficult to see that most of the games are significantly different from IGG's previous style, and they have all chosen a lighter, more casual path to the pan-user market.
For example, except for “Canyon Watch” and “Clash of House”, most of the games have chosen a bright cartoon style. From the category point of view, it is even more significant, placing, merging, Roguelike and so on are all hot tracks in the casual category.
If we have to categorize or label them, GameLook thinks they may be called “medium” and “medium volume” games, and these products are generally stylized in terms of subject matter to tap the potential of casual game segments.
Of course, from a business point of view, IGG may have thought and considered this path, after all, there are successful cases in the industry, the most typical is perhaps DotDot Interactive.
At the beginning of this year, GameLook has written several articles to analyze the company, and we can see that its main products such as “Fifi Adventure” (Family Farm Adventure), “Frozen City” (Frozen City) and so on are light and medium products, and then upgraded to the heavy after these foundations, which also has the success of the “Frost Apocalypse” (Whiteout Survival). Whiteout Survival) success.
Image Source: Sourced from the Internet
Only, compared to the two game companies, Dot is going from light to heavy, while IGG seems to be going in the opposite direction, as a veteran SLG maker heavy games are naturally out of the question, so it started to test the waters with these medium, medium volume products.
Admittedly, compared to the SLG track, which can no longer be rolled, there are a lot of opportunities and points worth exploring for medium and medium-volume games, such as a relatively loose market environment, and relatively low cost of buying volume, etc. However, the ARPU of casual games is also lower, so if you want to profit from it, you still have to look at the manufacturers to see if they can “teach” good product form and “teach” good product form and “teach” good product form. Therefore, to profit from this depends on whether the manufacturers can “tune” the product form and calculate whether the cost of buying volume can recover the cost.
In the final analysis, the opportunity certainly exists, depending on whether the manufacturers can seize, as for the IGG test of the nine games follow-up situation, who will become the IGG dug the new gold mine, perhaps we have to wait for the market's further examination.
