How popular was "Minecraft" in Chen Mo's previous life?

To put it simply, it is the most successful indie game in terms of popularity and business, and there is no one; It is the second-best-selling game in the world, with sales exceeding 100 million, second only to the old antique Tetris.

Considering that Minecraft was released in 2009, there were already a lot of really good PC and console games at that time, and it was a miracle to get that sales.

Moreover, the strength of "Minecraft" lies in the fact that it can go to the hall, the kitchen, the PC and console, the tablet and mobile phone, and all platforms can be ported smoothly.

There are also some stats that give a little bit of a hint of how popular the game is.

In 2014, Mojang Studios, which produced Minecraft, was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion.

Minecraft has 4.31 billion views on Youtube.

More than 10 million players signed up to join Minecraft during the beta period, making it the most popular beta game.

It is said that the Military Survey of the Corrupt Country created a topographic map of the entire British Isle in Minecraft, using 22 billion blocks.

Why is this game so magical that countless people are addicted to it?

To put it simply, because Minecraft greatly reduces the difficulty of making a three-dimensional object on the computer.

In fact, many people have the idea of "creating their own space/world", and when they are young, they can experience it through sandcastles, building blocks, paper molds, etc., and when they grow up, they enter various games to experience.

On the computer, there are many ways to create a virtual world, but traditional 3D design software has a very high learning cost, and most people do not have the patience to learn from scratch.

Minecraft, on the other hand, makes it easier for most people to create a 3D virtual world.

Just pile up the blocks and you're good to go.

You don't need materials, textures, rendering, terrain, foliage, particle effects, you don't need anything, you just have to pick the right block and pile it up.

The square blocks in Minecraft are unconventional, with a standard size of 1m*1m*1m, so players are not easily lost in the scale of the virtual world, and the finished product is more convincing.

And, Minecraft isn't just a world creator, it's also a game.

For Chen Mo, porting this game to the VR platform is a very challenging thing, and it is also very meaningful.

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After Chen Mo explained the concept setting draft, everyone began to seize the time to prepare for various tasks, especially the technology tree, art style and derivative gameplay mentioned by Chen Mo, which was enough for everyone to have a headache for a while.

After all, there are no games in this world for reference, how to make a game similar to building blocks? What does it look like? How should some details be designed?

This is something that everyone needs to think about.

As for Chen Mo himself, he returned to the second floor of the experience store and began to study the relevant rules for making VR games.

Phantom Editor supports the production of VR games, but the specific production method is different from PC and mobile games.

Chen Mo is now an A-level designer, and he is also an honorary member of the game committee, and his authority in the Phantom Editor is already very high, and he can open the corresponding section of the production of VR games.

When he became an A-level designer, Chen Mo had already browsed the relevant process of making VR games, and now he has confirmed it again.

Chen Mo has also experienced VR games represented by "Earth OL" before, to put it simply, the VR technology of this world allows players to directly input their consciousness into the game cabin and receive feedback signals.

The game pod replaces traditional input/output devices such as keyboards, mice, monitors, etc., and becomes a bridge between the player's consciousness and the virtual reality game world.

The game pod has the ability to parse the player's consciousness.

As a simple example, if the player wants to reach for a certain item in the game, then the game pod will interpret this consciousness, translate it into the actions of the characters in the game, and interact with the game world, and the final result is that the game character picks up the item.

In the same way, moving, climbing, jumping, attacking, shooting, and other actions are also achieved in this way.

Theoretically, the world's virtual reality technology can interpret any intention of the player, but whether it can be applied to the game depends on whether the designer has designed the corresponding rules.

To put it simply, in a game of cold weapon combat, the player can issue the consciousness of "I want to pull the trigger", but the game pod is parsed and transmitted to the game world, because the game world does not support the action, so the character in the game will remain motionless and will not react in any way.

When it comes to a specific VR game, what actions are supported, and what kind of operation methods are supported, these all depend on the designer's design.

For example, in the game, if you're a fighter with a gun, and you want to do the action of "stomping the gun under your feet", but the designer doesn't design it, then your character will be motionless.

It sounds strange, but after playing VR games for a long time, you will get used to this setting. (Just like when you're in a triple-A masterpiece, many times you can only do what the plot asks you to do.) ）

So, the more executable actions a designer has designed for the game, the more freedom the player has in the game, the more things they can do, and the more realistic the game will appear.

But in this way, the more load the game has, and the more energy the player needs to expend.

This is one of the reasons why VR platforms generally don't make RTS games.

There is no particular advantage in artistic expression.

The cost is huge.

The player needs to consume too much consciousness, resulting in easy fatigue and not being able to play for too long.

If there is an RTS game on the VR platform, the player's consciousness needs to select a certain unit and perform a certain operation, and in the process of infinite looping, they also have to constantly think about the combat strategy, and for the player, the mental power that needs to be consumed is multiplied.

The PC platform is different, and players also need to think about these things, but all the operations are done through the mouse and keyboard, and many of them are subconscious habitual actions, so they are not so tired.

Therefore, some VR games will also deliberately simplify the game operation to prevent the fatigue of the player's mind caused by overly complex operations, so as to achieve the purpose of prolonging the game time in disguise.

For example, in some VR games, all the player's "attacks" are punch attacks, and cannot determine the direction, angle, strength and other attributes of the punch, which is to simplify the game operation and reduce the burden on the player's spirit.

In addition, in terms of perception, VR games have the ability to comprehensively simulate the player's senses, including sight, hearing, smell, touch, and so on.

The in-game screen will be transmitted to the player in the form of visual signals, which is 124 degrees like a normal person's eyes overlapping the field of view, of which the attention area is about 25 degrees, which is consistent with reality.

Hearing and smell are transmitted to the player in the form of signals, which can fully simulate the sounds and smells of the real world.

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Once you understand the basics of VR game design, here are some basic principles of design.