At the time, this old IP, which was significant to Supercell, once again stood in front of the stage.
Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “Game Grape” (ID: youxiputao) , author Andrew.
Supercell’s new game has been quietly tested again, but you may not think that they dominate the strategy type this time and made a game of elimination + management type.
Yesterday, Supercell’s new work “Hay Day Pop” was launched in low-key in app stores in Australia, New Zealand and Finland.
The conditions for elimination are quite loose, and the animation effect is also in place
As the name suggests, Hay Day Pop is a new work from Hay Day’s worldview. Just like the setting for “Royal War” from “Tribal Clash”.
“Cartoon Farm” was once the first game officially released by Supercell, a mobile game giant, and its first commercially successful product. Then Supercell started the development process of successive explosion models. At the same time, “Cartoon Farm” is also the only game in Supercell’s previously officially released products that does not focus on PVP and strategic confrontation.
Since “Cartoon Farm”, from “Tribal Clash” to “Wild Brawl”, Supercell has gone further and further along the road of adversarial strategy games. As recently as November last year, they also launched another new strategy, Rush Wars with RTS elements, but announced that they had given up after less than 3 months of short testing.
So, will the fate of “Hay Day Pop” be different this time when you start your own IP development sequel? Why is Supercell doing such a game?
“Hay Day Pop”: “Cartoon Farm” version of “Fantasy Garden”?
If you want to make a simple and rough characterization, “Hay Day Pop” (hereinafter referred to as Pop) is a bit like “Fantasy Garden” based on “Cartoon Farm”, a typical elimination + simulation management game.
Of course, “Pop” also has a strong Supercell brand.
The game screen is a familiar Supercell-style cartoon. The characters have a slightly exaggerated head-to-body ratio, and the scenery is not very true to the proportion. In particular, UI designs such as stars and medals, as well as the variations of the sounds of “噔 噔” sounds when the card passes, in the details, “Pop” tells the player very plainly “This is a supercell game”.
Like some similar games, the core gameplay of Pop is very concise: players need to eliminate various levels to obtain various resources such as gold coins and diamonds, and then build their own farm by eliminating the resources obtained from the levels.
In the elimination section, the level rules of Pop are not the most common match 3, but rather a more relaxed and somewhat similar setting-you can eliminate at least two identical color blocks.
Single level aims to eliminate all crop props (vegetables, fruits, eggs, etc.) as the goal. At the same time that adjacent color blocks are eliminated, all kinds of crops will be eliminated at the same time. Accumulate and eliminate slots faster, making it easier for players to get Samsung at checkout.
Similar to common elimination games, there will also be scope elimination items such as firecrackers and rockets in the level. At the same time, “Pop” also set a pay point here, players can add extra bonus items at the beginning.
Just like “Royal War” and “Tribal Clash” come from the same background settings, as the IP sequel to “Cartoon Farm”, some “Cartoon Farm” shadows can also be seen in “Pop”. The shape design of the building, the familiar chicks and scarecrow, these elements all have a sense of being in the same vein as the original.
After unlocking the second area, players can build henhouses and scarecrows. You will soon see the chick printed on the “Cartoon Farm” icon, as well as the novice wizard scarecrow. On your own farm.
From the previous level experience, “Pop” is likely to be aimed at the milder “elimination + management” direction.
Upgradable unlockable buildable projects are still quite many
Pop’s vertical screen design, loose elimination judgment, and small checkpoint volume in a single round are obviously trying to lower the entry threshold as much as possible. In the game, the farm can unlock many construction projects in the early stage. For players who love management and farming, the most important way to make the farm work is to eliminate the level of advancement.
This is also the main point of view for game payment. At the beginning of the tenth level, you will occasionally encounter the situation that the number of actions in the level is exhausted and the level is not cleared. Of course, you can try again and again after failing, but the winning streak set by “Pop” makes players who pay attention to the level of revenue have to consider the pass rate of each round, which in turn stimulates the consumption of extra “buy live” items.
“Cartoon Farm” is more than a farming game
“Pop” is derived from the IP of “Cartoon Farm”. “Cartoon Farm” is a special game for Supercell. It is not just a simulation operation. As mentioned earlier, this It is a product that allows Supercell to gain a preliminary foothold in the market.
In 2012, “Cartoon Farm” was officially launched. At that time, no one knew its developer, Supercell. This small team from Finland would have an impact on the mobile game industry. With the strong performance of this game. Supercell achieved a profit of $ 100 million in 2012.
Over the years, Cartoon Farm has topped the iOS bestseller list in 122 countries and entered the Top 10 iOS download list in 138 countries. After “Tribal Clash” is on track, “Cartoon Farm” is still protected.Maintaining income stability, it has remained in the top 10 of the best-selling lists in many countries for a long time. Until the first half of 2015, it was gradually overtaken by the “Island Islands” in developed regions such as Europe and the United States, and slowly retreated to the second line in the contribution to Supercell’s revenue.
“Cartoon Farm”, which was born at the beginning of mobile games, is also a pioneer of farming mobile games.
Yesterday, some game media also reported on the news of “Pop” ‘s shelves test. The arrival of the sequel also evoked many players’ memories. In Weibo comments, many players are remembering the time they spent in Cartoon Farm.
This product, which has both symbolic and substantive significance for Supercell, has been around for 8 years since it was first launched. In the moment that many people have forgotten, Supercell once again sacrificed this starting IP, maybe it has its own considerations.
Why does Supercell do a elimination + simulation operation?
For Supercell, the industry often has high-level expectations in a certain sense. Whenever news of a new game comes out, everyone usually hopes to see some innovative game designs. After all, “Tribal Conflict” and “Royal War” all open up the existence of a mobile game category.
But this time “Pop” is a gameplay mode that is quite mature, with multiple manufacturers and product-proven routines. Looks “not too Supercell”.
Especially under the premise that “Fantasy Garden”, “Fantasy Home” and “Fantastic Manor” have been in the Top 20 and Top 10 of the best-sellers in Europe and the United States for a long time, the competition in this segment has been quite fierce. Why does Supercell choose this category? And still use their own IP to develop derivative games.
First of all, it is not uncommon for Supercell’s new products to try out game models that have already been popular or have been verified by other manufacturers.
Perhaps the existence of several products in formal operation is so strong that it is difficult for us to remember those test products that were cut off shortly after being rushed online..
The “Smash Land” that was cut off gives people a feeling of “just try it”
For example, in 2014, Supercell once briefly launched a game called “Spooky Pop” like “Zhilong Mishou”, which was cancelled after half a year of testing because it did not meet expectations. More than two months later, another game “Smash Land” began testing. This time the game looks like a simplified and easy-to-use version of “Monster Pinball”. Of course, Smash Land was also suspended after a few months.
From a few test examples that entered the public eye, Supercell’s new products that mimic mature gameplay seem to have failed. It also makes people a little worried about the direction of Pop in the next few months.
Second, as a continuation of the Cartoon Farm IP, Pop may be a project that Supercell has been promoting long ago, rather than a new game that has only recently been launched.
When “Royal War” was first revealed, Supercell mentioned in an interview program that this game had actually been established shortly after “Tribal Clash” was launched, and they were exploring another possibility to tell the world . “Royal War” has been secretly developed within Supercell for many years, only officially released in 2016.
Lenovo’s “Cartoon Farm”, an earlier IP, “Pop” may have experienced a similar “big move” process. It’s just that the team didn’t think the time was right for the announcement, so the development team didn’t put the game on the market until 2020.
At the same time, we have already heard a lot of stories about the unique development culture of Supercell, such as the special architecture of “each team decides where the project is going, and the CEO says it doesn’t count.” Fantastic conventions for party celebrations and more.
The weakest CEO
But there are some less-known specific scenarios, such asIf, according to the traditional game company’s project mechanism, if the CEO has a normal right to speak, then “Islands of the Sea” and “Royal War” would not exist.
In an interview with IVP investors in January this year, Iikka Paananen mentioned some vivid details.
In an internal meeting that decided to leave Sea Island, nine team leaders, including him, expressed their desire to stop Sea Island, but the team leader of Sea Island insisted on the game. Existence value. He also mentioned that in the early days of the internal development of “Royal Wars”, he was not optimistic about the prototype of this game.
But it is because of the special team mechanics and culture that everyone is familiar with. Under the insistence of their respective development teams, these two games will become the backbone of Supercell in the future.
So, although “Pop” doesn’t look like an advanced and obviously innovative product this time, we can still see that under the team-led decision-making mechanism, this game of elimination + simulation management is in a few areas App store launches testing.
As mentioned earlier, it wouldn’t be a surprise if “Pop” was announced a few months later. It is nothing more than Supercell’s test of mature categories.
In addition, Supercell has also been under pressure from revenue growth in the past two years.
In 2018, due to declining revenue from Tribal Conflict and Royal Warfare, Supercell’s revenue fell 21% year-on-year to $ 1.6 billion. In 2019, due to the insufficient performance of the new tour “Wild Brawl”, Supercell’s revenue was $ 1.56 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%.
Although as a company with only about 300 people, such a result is enough to be proud of its leader, for Supercell itself, it still faces the challenge of gradually entering the final stage of old products and how to take over new products. Therefore, it is reasonable that more new games such as “Rush Wars” and “Hay Day Pop” have entered the stage of public testing in recent months.
At the beginning of last year, Iikka Paananen mentioned in an interview that Supercell is exploring non-PVP games, which is difficult for small-scale R & D companies.
Hay Day Pop in front of me is probably a practice of exploring new ideas. When SuWhen percell needed to further explore the non-PVP field, the old IP that was significant to it once again came to the stage.