Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had a few decent games this year, but overall they didn't have the right to be voted Game of the Year.
Most people in the industry had high hopes for Grand Tang Dynasty, as Trichiliocosm was an MMORPG after all. For the sake of profit and player retention, some gameplay had to be sacrificed, which would naturally cause it to lose points.
On the other hand, Grand Tang Dynasty was a standalone game with a strong Chinese flavor. Other than the lack of content, it didn't have any obvious shortcomings.
However, after Overwatch appeared out of nowhere, the "Game of the Year" award became a mystery.
Many video game designers realized that Overwatch had the right to compete for this award!
Although it was a competitive game, where the main fun came from player versus player, it had two obvious features that would most likely impress the judges.
First was the setting of the world and the rich character designs of the heroes. The futuristic setting, the coexistence of humans and machines, heroes with various superpowers … The entire setting was very artistic and would definitely be very popular.
Second was the innovation of the gameplay. Although there had been "skill-based FPS games" before, there had never been a complete system. The designers were more afraid that this mode would affect the core fun and game balance of FPS games. Therefore, they were very careful when it came to making it, unlike Overwatch which was bold and decisive.
From the feedback of the players, Overwatch had a good balance between traditional FPS gameplay and MOBA gameplay, which was very important.
Ideas weren't worth much, it was turning ideas into products that were worth it.
The process of turning ideas into products was filled with a lot of details, and any one of these details could cause the final product to be completely different from what was expected.
Therefore, the fact that Overwatch was able to execute the concept of a "skill-based FPS" was already an amazing feat in and of itself.
In addition, the main problem that Overwatch faced in terms of awards was that the content was not rich enough. Simply put, the game didn't have a story, there weren't many scenes, and there wasn't any open world content.
However, these three points weren't fatal, as Overwatch had other content to make up for them.
There wasn't a story, but there was a backstory, and there were a lot of Easter eggs in the maps. The backstories of all the heroes were integrated into one. In terms of story, Overwatch just didn't use traditional methods to tell the players, but the story wasn't weak at all.
There weren't many scenes, but they all had their own characteristics. King's Road, Flower Village, Lijiang Tower, Hollywood, and so on. Every map in Overwatch had a completely different architectural style, and they were all innovative. Not only did they display the cultural characteristics of each country, but they also combined it with a sense of technology. The design itself was also a bonus.
Without open-world content, the game's content would not be rich enough. This could not be solved. However, Overwatch was a free VR game that was innovative to mainstream FPS gameplay, and the response from the players was very good. Would this be some kind of bonus point? No one knew.
Although many designers still felt that Grand Tang was the most suitable game to win the award, they had to admit that Overwatch was very competitive.
All of this could only be revealed at the final award ceremony!
…
Many designers were chatting in the Big Boss Designer Group.
"I'm already at the venue. Is everyone here?"
"He's still staying at home even though he's a loser. He's envious of the big shots who can attend the annual awards ceremony …"
"I'm also envious …"
"Old Qiu, have you arrived? Also, where's the group leader? "
"Let's gather in the hall!"
"Hmm, I see Chen Mo!"
The group was filled with independent video game designers. A few of them were regulars at the annual video game awards, such as Li Feng who made Wings of the Astral Soul, Zhou Haibin who made Dream Journey, Zhu Fanglin who made Terra Nova, etc.
These people usually chatted in the group, and it was hard for them to get together from all over the world. Now that it was an important occasion like this, it was time to get together and get to know each other.
After all, these independent video game designers were relatively isolated, and didn't have much to do with the designers from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Zen Entertainment. They basically didn't compete with each other, so they had a good relationship with each other.
Of course, there were many designers in the group who weren't qualified to attend the awards ceremony, so they could only be envious.
As soon as Chen Mo walked into the hall, he heard someone calling him.
"Chen Mo! Over here! "
Turning around, it was Li Feng, the designer of Wings of the Astral Soul, who had been very active in the group.
There were already four or five people gathered around Li Feng, and they all greeted Chen Mo when he walked over.
Chen Mo knew everyone there, as he often chatted with them in the group. Moreover, they were all famous video game designers, so Chen Mo had seen their pictures and information.
Soon, Qiu Hengyang and Zhang Xiaokong arrived.
These were all old friends from the group, but they hadn't seen each other in real life for a long time, so they were quite excited.
Zhang Xiaokong said, "Alright, let's not block the way, let's go in. Speaking of which, are we going to the talk or the conference? "
Li Feng said, "Either is fine, it's up to you guys. By the way, is Chen Mo giving a talk this year? "
Chen Mo was a bit speechless, "Don't keep calling me Chen Mo, it's too embarrassing."
Li Feng laughed, "Haha, I'm used to it."
Chen Mo said, "I don't have a talk, maybe it's because the games I made this year were a bit controversial, and the Game Committee was afraid of getting into trouble."
Qiu Hengyang understood, "That's true, look at Digging Up and Outlast. Those two torture games, especially Outlast, probably caused quite a bit of controversy within the Game Committee. Qiao Hua didn't reprimand you?"
Chen Mo laughed, "Why would he reprimand me? If it wasn't for Qiao Hua and Chairman Zhang's approval, would my horror games even pass the review? "
Qiu Hengyang laughed, "That's true."
Zhang Xiaokong said, "Huh? That can't be right? Why didn't you mention Chen Mo's two blockbuster games this year? "
Qiu Hengyang said, "Are you talking about League of Legends and Overwatch? Overwatch was only released a few days ago, so they didn't have time to arrange for it. League of Legends is quite successful, but it's a PC release, so it's not well received. Moreover, the Game Committee's attitude towards eSports is a bit ambiguous, but it's still controversial, so they won't be very supportive. "
Li Feng nodded, "Yeah. Esports has always been considered a grey area. The clubs and studios were vague about it. The Game Committee didn't encourage it, but they didn't prohibit it either. They're probably still observing. "
Chen Mo laughed, "It's a good thing that I don't have to talk about it myself, I'm too lazy to talk about it."
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