DESCRIPTION
About the Game: Asura is an ARPG developed and published by Tencent Games.The game is based on one of the most famous novel in China– Journey to the West,where the player earns the mark of main character, Monkey King. “Asura” launched in July,2016 and once ranked No.2 in App store best sale list (ranked no.1 in most-downloaded list).
About the Team: The project team is composed of nearly 150 people, and the production cycle is as long as 2 years.
My Tasks
I am responsible for the design of the core system and the narration of story plots.Below I will take “Beginners’ guide and “Story line and Plot” as examples for detailed description.As for the “character growth system”, because the overall structure is too large, I’ll just take parts of the content for a brief introduction.
P. S. I participated in the nearly 3-year long R&D period of this game, and then watched it go online on 6 July, 2016. I left this project in the middle of 2018 and then participated in the R&D process of another game (currently, this game is still under confidential development). During this period, I experienced its brilliance, ups and downs… Now I have to witness its ending —— On 31 December, 2019, “Asura” will officially be offline. I have a complex feeling of both familiar and strange, it is the first business project that I ever participated in my work, I’m grateful for it made me grow, and I will always miss the days I spent with it.
Video
Content
- 1. Beginners’ Guide
In my design, I strictly followed the tutoring principle which is from easy to difficult and step by step, so that the players can gradually get familiar with the game. What’s more,
I also combined the guide with the plot in order to make the players feel more involved.
Firstly, I designed the character ‘Zixia’ to help game players ‘learn efficiently’ about the game.This character guides the players immerse themselves into the game stories, which emotionally satisfies them as well.
Gradually I find that players are not motivated by this way to study the game in further,so I add the intriguing prompt ‘bonus’ into the framework, reminding them constantly that better rewards will be given after clearance, thus they will be more powerful in the game.Players are more willing to continue their study about the game due to this sense of purpose and the ‘flow experience’, which is a virtuous circle.
This framework of novice guide is highly praised after the game is released, and more importantly, it is a mode which suits most games. I shared it with my colleagues on my company curriculum and won their positive feedback. This experience of designing the novice guide teaches me the significance of trial and error when designing other system, and a constantly upgraded design method will lead to my own style of design experience.
1.1 Example
Battle Tortures—Teach the players how to use the “floating” skill to attack enemies.
2. STORYTELLING AND PLOT
The plot of 《Asura》is originated from 《Wukong Biography》, a very popular novel in China. It is a prequel about Wukong written by a famous Chinese writer Jin Hezai , and the story timeline is before his pilgrimage to the west.
Although the novel is very popular, its structure tends to be like a prose as a whole. How to adapt a prose to meet the requirements of mobile games, to keep the spiritual core of the story as well as to fit the short and fast reading habit on mobile games, has become the main challenge for me to rewrite the story.
Below is my design concept.
Monkey King: the protagonist of 《Pilgrimage to the West》,one of the four classical Chinese Masterpieces.
VIDEO
The trailer we made according to the plot —— the main spirit is “rebellion”, Monkey King exposes the truth of the celestial bureaucracy.
2.1 The intelligent use of words and expressions
In the description of the extra chapter, it is worth mentioning that I used the antithesis sentence of ancient Chinese poetry as the chapter description. This made every description at the beginning of the chapters concise and informative, and it has also reflected my profound narrative skills.
For example, in the second chapter , there is a sentence “生来本是波中物，脱去原流变化凶。” It means the characters that the players will encounter in this chapter “was just a small fish in the water, which evolved into a fierce monster after leaving the original river area”. To use the expression of poetry will make the game more interesting and cultural.
interpreted in English, I only translated the second line of these sentences as example.
3. Character Growth System
The growth system is at the core of the game mechanic covering a range of different contents, I am responsible for most parts of the design.
3.1“Yuan Shen” system (for leveling up)
Players need level up different kinds of gems to get more “yuan shen”, corresponding to different sets of skills.The design concept originates from Dadaism philosophy.
3.2 Puppet (for leveling up)
Players can purchase puppets to get experience value and related power. The design is inspired by a black magic in Chinese folklore. It is said some people can manipulate a kind of puppet to achieve immortality.
