Many tabletop game designers thought that tabletop games were easy, and didn't need any new player guides. Since most players have played in real life before, there was no way they wouldn't know the rules.
But this view was wrong.
Tabletop games from different countries had different playstyles. Take Mahjong for example, there were different types of tiles. Different regions had different rules for Mahjong. If a player only played international Mahjong, they would want to play Blood Mahjong, but without a new player guide, they wouldn't know what to do. Trying to figure it out on their own would be a pain in the ass.
There was even a group of players in real life who didn't have the chance to play tabletop games. They couldn't even play Landlord well. However, they wanted to improve their skill, so they wouldn't drag them down when they played. These people came to tabletop games hoping to get some new player guides.
In Feng Yu's previous life, Tencent Tabletop was very detailed in this area. Basically, when a newbie enters the game, as long as they understand a little bit of the rules, they can continue playing smoothly. Moreover, as they continue to play cards and complete missions, they will receive a lot of rewards.
Chen Mo had even made a Chinese mobile card game like I Am MT. This level of DPS was child's play, it wasn't difficult at all.
The second aspect was the arena.
Arenas were designed for poker games, as poker games were very suitable for arenas. Some people would even play in arenas instead of the main hall tables.
Arenas were where everyone paid a sign-up fee, and the system would tally the sign-up fee, giving everyone the same amount of chips. Players would be randomly assigned to different tables, and people would be continuously eliminated. Only the first or the top few would be able to win the prize pool.
Arenas were similar to survival games. On one hand, players were required to be stable, as the game would be over if they weren't stable. The ultimate goal was to get into the money ring. On the other hand, players were required to be good at taking advantage of opportunities, using good cards to increase their chips, and whittle down their opponents' chips.
Just like the main hall tables, players would often lose large amounts of chips due to a moment of recklessness. But in arenas, players would at most lose one ticket, and if they lasted until the end, they could earn ten times the amount.
Therefore, many players preferred arenas. Although they might lose more in arenas (buying tickets many times but never getting into the money ring), the players didn't feel that much of a loss.
In his previous life, games like Dou Dizhu and Mahjong also had tournament arenas. However, tournament arenas were very common, so it should be more popular.
There was no poker in this world, so the development of tournament arenas was lagging behind. Chen Mo had perfected the rules of tournament arenas, which would become one of the main attractions of Thunderbolt Tabletop.
There was also Thunderbolt Gaming Platform. Currently, Chen Mo had five games: Flappybird, Plants vs Zombies, I Am MT, Lifeline, and Thunderbolt Tabletop (Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, Thunderbolt Poker).
Most of them were mobile games, while Plants vs Zombies and Thunderbolt Tabletop were both on mobile and PC.
The Thunderbolt Gaming Platform was Chen Mo's main platform. On the computer gaming platform, there would be regular discounts and promotions for the game. You could share the status of your friends in the game, check the results of each game, and so on.
Of course, these functions didn't need to be completed in one go. They could be added slowly. The size of the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform on the computer was around 10m. Of course, it could be increased to 100m in the future. However, it was better to be smaller in the early stages to prevent players from being unhappy.
The Thunderbolt Gaming Platform on mobile was even smaller. It only existed as an app store, so it had to be kept at around 5m. Even if more functions were added in the future, it couldn't be bigger than 15m.
…
On Monday, Zheng Hongxi officially started working.
After some thought, Chen Mo decided to let Zheng Hongxi work on the computer in the experience store for now. Considering that there would be more and more players in the future, Chen Mo wondered if he should consider moving to a bigger experience store or studio when he made more money.
Of course, it was still too early to think about this. Although Chen Mo had the money now, it wasn't worth it.
In the past two days, Su Jinyu had more or less completed the basic structure of Lifeline. Since it was an interactive fiction game, the rules were very simple, and the interface was just a chat window, making it very quick.
Chen Mo said to Zheng Hongxi, "This is an interactive fiction game. The main focus of these games is to sell the story. All you need to do is follow the background and plan out the options to enrich the story."
Zheng Hongxi was shocked when he saw Chen Mo's design draft.
"That simple? Is the entire game presented in the form of chatting? "Zheng Hongxi asked.
Chen Mo nodded, "Yup. So whether the players buy it depends on the story. "
Zheng Hongxi said, "… That's a bit stressful. Is it really okay to take on such an important task on the first day?"
Chen Mo replied, "It's not an important task. Think about writing your own World of Azeroth, or even official novels."
Zheng Hongxi replied, "Then … I'll try my best."
Chen Mo patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry, don't worry. You'll have to rewrite it if you don't write it well. "
Su Jinyu complained, "That's not comforting at all, manager!"
After handing Lifeline over to Su Jinyu and Zheng Hongxi, Chen Mo went back to the second floor to work on tabletop games.
…
Three days later, Zheng Hongxi showed Chen Mo the first draft of Lifeline's story.
The first draft of the story laid out a framework, including how many branches and endings there were, how many options there were for each step, and what outcomes each option would lead to.
This first draft was drawn with a flowchart. Every step of the plot was a brief outline, and it was very short.
Chen Mo took a quick look at Zheng Hongxi's draft. There were more than seventy steps in the story and four endings.
"Hmm … not bad," said Chen Mo, "But you'll have to rewrite it."
Zheng Hongxi was speechless.
Chen Mo explained, "First of all, the story should have a gradient. Your current plan has a messy timeline. In this game, the time inside and outside of the game is the same. If the character has to wait eight hours for the player, that would be eight hours in real time. This time is to create a sense of realism for the player.
"And you obviously didn't notice this when you were planning the story. You didn't realize how time affects the pace of the story.
"Secondly, the story should be more intense in the early, middle, and late stages. In fact, it should be more intense, especially in the escape stage. It shouldn't be so flat. Perhaps you could add a bit of horror, like … mutated aliens.
"Also, the content isn't rich enough. You'll need to double the number of choices to more than one hundred and twenty steps. You'll need to increase the number of endings as well. There's a ninety percent chance that the ending will be a failure, so the player will need to be careful. Some of the key steps have to be done correctly to achieve a happy ending.
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