It was a very failed game. The typical best choice for domestic game failure examples is blood lion. Advise you not to waste time.
The following post (the original article is the five years of domestic games, published on, author of the famous game topic editor Zhu Jiayin ):
As Long As gamers are older, they should remember the time-April 27, 1997.In early 1997, various major game media in China began to publish a colorful advertisement for "Blood Lion". Its cover was a Chinese soldier wearing a camouflage suit. Below are some of the thrilling words and several static images. I can guarantee that the blood of the vast majority of Chinese players has been stirred up by this game. For example, in my mind, the blood lion is definitely a game that surpasses "command & conquer" (which is written in advertising). The combat units in the game are all real proportions, soldiers can respond to your commands in different dialects. what's even more exciting is that this is a Chinese game designed to defend against foreign invasion. But when the game gets its hands, my excitement suddenly turns into disappointment. What kind of game is that? In the game, the civil room is not proportional to other objects. What 3D model is very poor? It is often seen that the tank head is changed to the tank base, that is, two tanks are stacked together ...... The movement of soldiers is even less, and pixel-level movement makes the movement of soldiers very slow ...... In the battle between the two countries, the soldiers walked leisurely, some were at close distance to accept the baptism of the enemy rather than fighting back, not even the basic defense AI. The control technology is also very poor, far from being real. The attacking routes of soldiers have no tracks, and soldiers have no so-called Smart State Solutions. For example, when a soldier is ordered to go to a certain place, 50% of the soldiers do not listen to the command. A group of soldiers are ordered to attack the enemy's soldiers, some of which are in the same way, some of which are waiting for a while, and others are lying on the ground to sleep, some are throwing grenades in the same place, while others are very diligent in doing warm-up activities in the circle ...... Only one soldier went close to the scene and threw a grenade ...... When you direct a tank to attack an object (such as an enemy tank), the tank is "smart" to attack the barracks, and the soldiers are often stopped because of obstacles in the middle, rather than bypassing the road, the enemy's AI is as low as its own, and the game cannot proceed. Wu Gang, manager of the fire culture marketing department, once wrote an article starting with: "Over the years, I have been impressed by two things: in order to buy "Blood Lion" at the first launch, a few college students from Hubei province made up money to buy one in Beijing. When I leave, I am sorry that the sales staff repeatedly told the student that we must call you to solve any problem. But until today, those students have not been on the phone or sent a letter, and I know they are really hurt. Yes, the sudden blow gives them a strong feeling of being cheated. I realized that we lost them, which is our greatest sorrow. Another thing is that I have read a letter like this. One person wrote a letter after the failure of "Blood Lion" to make it clear that he did not return the goods, even though he was very angry, he said that he even contributed to the Chinese software industry. However, he may not buy any more Chinese games in the future. He said he is sorry. " ............ The blood lion game brings a huge blow to the Chinese game industry. It hurts most consumers who buy power to support domestic games, what else is more sad than replacing defective products with sincere feelings? In the eyes of these people, they seem to be just a puppet and can be used at will. Since then, the relationship between domestic game producers and the gaming players has become subtle. Players have begun to trust production groups and even resist domestic game production groups. Conflicts arise. I often think that if Shang Yang's "Blood Lion" can be a little better, it will be a little bit, to make people play, then the current domestic game market may not be like this. However, after all, fantasy is an illusion. After all, reality is still a reality. The failure of "Blood Lion" adds a chain of hammers to the entire Chinese game industry. Many people think that Shang Yang is impetuous, but I believe that apart from being impetuous, Shang Yang will certainly have other difficulties. However, objectively speaking, I think Shang Yang's Market Department is the best market department in the Chinese gaming industry. "Blood Lion" is a shame for programmers, but it is a monument to Marketing Department staff. Still the above assumption, if this game is a little better, Shang Yang can definitely establish its position in the Chinese gaming industry by virtue of this game. But now, Shang Yang's name is just a memory for the gaming industry. =- =- =-= Wu Gang told the truth: The Story Behind "Blood Lion" and "Fire civilization" 2002-02-20 15:57:10
"Blood Lion" has always been a game that I cannot touch. It is undeniable that this is a poor quality bad game, but this game, however, created more than 40 thousand sets of amazing orders before its launch, at the time of listing, the products returned by the players were deducted. The sales volume of "Blood Lion" reached 10 thousand million sets, which is an amazing number now. However, in the buzz at the time, these scores were even more hateful. At the same time, the name of "Blood Lion" was not forgotten over time, when countless players mention Chinese games, they do not forget the damage caused by blood lion.
At the beginning of this year, a game editor called several friends to chat on QQ. At that time, a gentleman gave me a deep impression, his views on the game market and the game itself are so unique. After I met this gentleman through a friend, several names that have gradually become forgotten come out of my mind, blood lion, Shang Yang, Wu Gang ...... Later, I forgot how I made an appointment with Wu Gang. On a Saturday afternoon, a pot of tea was made on the first floor of the Yanshan Hotel. Our conversation started with the software he wrote in high school ...... Yu: I think your personal website 11rain.yeah.net once wrote a piece of software in your high school. Is it very early for you to get in touch with your computer? Is it the same as everyone else? At the beginning, I started the game too?
Wu: I have been in touch with computers for a long time and started from the game. But to be honest, I think it is an alternative to games. It was the first time in the first year of high school, because games often occupy the computer of the school, and senior students have been suffering from a "Head of the game". After being stimulated, they have now embarked on the right path. To be honest, I didn't like games very much at the time. I still prefer software development. From that year on, I wrote software for a very simple reason, that is, I liked to do something very much, then, when I was 18 years old, I won the China Software Industry Association's outstanding new product award with my own boywindows. The software you saw in my personal profile. This product has been selling well, and has been on the list of lianbang Tool Sales for many years. Yu: Well, when I compile a software program, it must be very convenient for future development? Is there such a convenient condition? But why did they give up their technical support to work in the market? After all, no matter whether you are in "Blood Lion" or "Fire civilization", we have not seen you participate in development.
Wu: in fact, at that time, the most direct convenience was to represent that the school did not have to take the test to participate in the competition, or that it could occupy the computer of the school. During that time, I used to go to various companies for fun when I had nothing to do. Many CEOs I met at that time. After that, I set up a company twice to develop software, but then I always ended with lack of understanding about society. After the second failure, I vowed: "I don't want to be a programmer who is not able to grasp myself. I want to access the market, I want to know my own destiny" Yu: Oh, it turns out to be like this? Just now you said that you often go to various companies to play. Why did you choose Shang Yang instead of other companies? As far as I know, Shang Yang was not very famous at the time.
Wu: in fact, it was a very accidental opportunity to enter Shang Yang. This was traced back to the fact that after I failed to create a company for the second time, I had nothing to worry about. I had some money left in my pocket and went around in the east and west, I often chat with friends in their company. One of my friends went to Shang Yang, a system integration company. At a visit, I decided to stay there. The general manager asked me to choose from two positions: programmer and market engineer. Due to my lack of market and enthusiasm for the market, I finally chose to work in the marketing department. Yu: According to your introduction, Shang Yang initially seemed to be an application software company? I am not very interested in playing games. Why did I decide to create the "Blood Lion", which is shocking to the whole world? In this case, have you played a certain role?
Wu: In the year of Shang Yang's marketing department, he worked well. At that time, the company was interested in setting up a subsidiary for Multimedia Electronic publications. Based on our past experiences, I was more suitable for this need. During my market research, I found that electronic publications were not an ideal investment point, but entertainment software had great business opportunities and I began to suggest the company set up a game software company. At first, we didn't consider what products we were doing, but some of the content caught our attention: At that time, a popular book "China can say no", and there was a stir-up in the Sino-Japanese Diaoyu Islands incident. According to the prompts, we set the game name as "Blood LION: Defending China", which is the subject matter of Chinese resistance to imperialist aggression. Yu: "Blood Lion" was originally like this. It was both unexpected and expected. In that context, is the news about the game stimulating the enthusiasm of the players?
Wu: Well, I have won an out-of-band announcement, and I have said that I do not like games very much, so it is inevitable that the game production is too simple, before development, I told my production team members: "It is very easy to make a game. How is it ...... "Then I made a military order to ensure that the product was successful within five months.
' Yu: in this case, did the development of "Blood Lion" encounter great difficulties, because as far as I know, it seems that "Blood Lion" has two jumps later.
Wu: Yes. After my production staff got involved in development, they said to me: "Wu Gang, isn't game manufacturing as simple as we think? "At this time, I realized the seriousness of the problem. Because of the low investment, I was eager to stop this product, but it was too late because the advertisement for" Blood Lion "had already been made, there are a large number of dealers who have paid the players' deposits. As soon as they hear that I want to stop this product, they cannot accept it. Some companies say, "blood lion has to do it now, he also needs to be made. At this time, my main program suddenly resigned, and his position was taken over by a new program. His claim time was limited, so there were so many bugs in the blood lion. It can be said that "Blood Lion" is a product we have done with a hard scalp. Yu: now we know the results of "Blood Lion". In fact, many people think that the only success of "Blood Lion" is the previous advertising, the overwhelming bombing at that time made many players remember him. So what do you think about this?
Wu: this is not true. Many people now think that the "Blood Lion" was being bombarded. Actually, it is not. If you are interested, you can count it carefully, I have published two covers in "software", one black and white advertisement page and four color pages before I went public, that's all. As for the current gun draft, there is no such cover. After the listing of "Blood Lion", "public software" was accused by many players. In fact, they were innocent because they did not publish any articles boasting about "Blood Lion, only listed notices and company interviews were posted, and the rest were our paid advertisements. Many people think that my market operation was successful. I think this is not the case. I was the general manager of the company and not a market manager. I have the responsibility to make market operation and development match, if the market is not in line with the actual situation, it is a complete failure in the market, and the formation of the contrast has caused Chinese players to be unable to heal for a few years. Yu: So where do you think is the success of "Blood Lion?
Wu: The blood lion failed. She failed, but she had some experience to learn from. 1. Schedule Selection: At that time, the Chinese market was catching up with the C & C craze, and the red alert failed to enter the Chinese market. At that time, Chinese players had a product out of stock, at this time, I took the opportunity to go to "Blood Lion.
2. Theme Selection: there were many incidents at that time, such as the Sino-Japanese Diaoyu Islands incident and the glorious sizlow incident in Tianjin, which greatly inspired players' patriotic enthusiasm.
3. Market grasp: At that time, the market cost was more than 0.18 million RMB. I chose a centralized strategy and did not distribute advertisements in a large area, but I had to make the market more promising, so I concentrated the money on a media set. In addition, the real-time positioning strategy of "Blood Lion" is also ideal, and the players' expectations are very good. However, due to the continuous improvement of the expected value, many unrealistic rumors have emerged. Before the listing of "Blood Lion, many players and even the media have given the word of praise and the expectation in their hearts to "Blood Lion". To some extent, it has also intensified the market's enthusiasm for "Blood Lion.
4. attach importance to channel construction: game players did not have any channel concept at the time. To do a good job in this channel, I established a simple distribution system, on the first layer, I chose four distributors with different identities and channel capabilities. They have an agency wholesaler and a retailer under the agency wholesaler. At each level, we have a detailed distributor sales instruction manual, which includes FAQs, the promotion methods, even the comments that the customer asks for a return, are included. In addition, to ensure a stable price system, we compress shipments to 70% of the order volume. So on the first day of listing, nearly 20000 sets in the market were empty and sold to users. Yu: I also went to the Haidian cinema launch on the day of "Blood Lion". The situation is indeed very popular. Many players bought this game, but when the players started to scold this game, are you feeling relieved?
Wu :( it is obvious that Wu Gang understands what I mean by mistake? I'm relieved when others scold me? Yu: No, I mean, do you start to take remedial measures later? What did you think of at the time?
Wu: you are not using the correct word. You should have expected it. After the game is listed, I know what to face later. After one week of listing, I published an announcement to inform all players that they can return the goods. At that time, there was a problem with the machine after a part of the 1056 images was carved at a CD factory in Hangzhou, I had to rush to Tianjin for the moment overnight, and the 1056 printing was cut off by the dealer without printing. This is what some players have seen before and after, and it is a shocking "disc ". After the player returned the goods, I looked at the front and back of all the bare disks, and secretly vowed that one day Shang Yang had restarted, and I must make these 1056 disks very valuable. In fact, when I was in "Fire civilization", I used the first batch of 1056 "Blood Lions" players to take the old "Blood Lions" CD-ROM for the "Fire civilization" game to reclaim these "Blood Lions" CDs, there should be about one or two hundred such disks on the market now. You can check them out. (If you want to make a fortune, go .) Yu: In a general production group or company, if we encounter a situation like "Blood Lion", then the final result seems to be a group of people. Does Shang Yang also encounter this situation?
Wu: No. At that time, I had been thinking about how to make Shang Yang raise the flag again. Everyone agreed with me and didn't want to bear such a result, so everyone left behind. And started to carry out a lot of training work and new technology accumulation for employees. Yu: So it seems that everyone's mind is not scattered yet? Do you still remember what impressed you a lot after the release of "Blood Lion?
Wu: I remember these two things. One thing was that one night, my pager suddenly sent a message, called by a friend and said, "Wu Gang, we believe that you will succeed ". The other is that after the sale of "Blood Lion", the chairman's family invited me to dinner with my girlfriend. At that time, I estimated that this was the last dinner and I was fully prepared, unexpectedly, he did not mention any products at the dinner table. At that time, to be honest, I was particularly uncomfortable. Yu: I once saw such a thing in a newspaper. A player said this: "Although" Blood Lion "can be returned, I will not return it for the development of Chinese games. "Do you know this?
Wu: Oh, I know the player you mentioned. customers who have been in contact with Shang Yang company have detailed file records, even if they just make a phone call. He was a player who used to support us very much. Before the "Blood Lion" market, we used several emails. He encouraged us constantly in the letter, when "Blood Lion" fails, he sent another letter saying that he would not return the goods, but he would not support us in the future. Later, he was not writing a letter (speaking of this, Wu Gang shook his head with regret. If the player was lucky enough to see this paragraph, please forgive Wu Gang !) Yu: in the post-production of "Blood Lion", the advertisement of "Fire civilization" has been published, saying that it has completed 40%. When "Blood Lion" fails, some players have also raised some doubts about the quality of the "Fire civilization". Are you under pressure?
Wu: indeed, it may be the pressure that brought the "Fire civilization" to many extremes. In fact, I am more like a gambler, after the failure of "Blood Lion", I tried to save my lost trust and reputation. For me, it was no longer simply the product development. I ignore the objective rules of many things. Although Games are an alternative industry, they must follow the basic business principles. Yu: when it comes to players' dissatisfaction with <fire civilization>, it is better to say that they are not satisfied with the game loading for a long time, many players complain that "Fire civilization" should not cooperate with intel. What piII command optimization should be carried out, and the game cannot run as a result? What do you think?
Wu: players cannot understand this issue. After the fail of the blood lion, everyone in Shang Yang hopes to work hard to make a game that is very attractive, and the development cycle and funding problems make us unable to ignore, because of the technical mistakes in the blood lion, I have gone from ignoring the technology to the other extreme that attaches great importance to the technology. In addition, from the perspective of investment, I will invest a lot of money into an advanced technology, hoping that after a product is developed, we can continue to use the developed technologies to make the second, third, or even fourth products. In my opinion, we can share the risks of new technology investment and improve the market competitiveness in the future. At the time of project income estimation, it was a low point in domestic games, and there was a burden of "blood Lion". Based on my experience, I think it is almost impossible to get back the cost from the retail market, it is impossible to create a sales myth like "Blood Lion", so I put the target customers on major international manufacturers and OEMs and almost gave up the retail market. What is the result? I think what the outside world sees is one-sided. We did not do 3D, nor did we cooperate with intel. After two years of summarization, the results of the "Fire civilization" seem to me to be due to the following reasons:
1. The product target definition is too high, which exceeds the height that our company staff can achieve. A large amount of money is spent on training personnel and new technologies. For example, when the company first started the "Fire civilization" project, the artist would use the 3dsmax software almost to zero, and the programmer had almost zero experience in realtime 3D development. My advice to other companies is: it is highly risky for the company to invest in new technologies. Internal members must be able to provide training and drive to other technical personnel, in addition, employees who master new technologies must maintain a certain proportion within the team.
2. the development team is not organized to adapt to the changes in the development cycle. In the early development process of "Fire civilization", in order to seize the time, according to the definition of development, art and programs are started simultaneously. Due to technical uncertainty, a large amount of work is wasted. The development teams of more than 30 people have made repeated adjustments, bringing the sentiment of members to the bottom. My advice to other companies is: full technical exploration is risky. In order to solve the problem that the company's product development cycle is too long, the personnel technology lags behind over time, establish a refined R & D team within the company to continuously explore new technologies and form an effective training mechanism in the company. These are the most lacking of domestic companies.
3. The biggest problem is the management problem. I am very young in terms of management. Is there a competent Project Development Manager in the company to manage more than 30 development teams, therefore, the project cannot be effectively coordinated. My advice to other companies is: focus on the experience of project management personnel!
4. The budget is out of control. In the development of new technology projects, there is no strong project budget system. In the development cycle of the last 30 months, the development has repeatedly failed, this increases the accumulation of development costs and makes it difficult to accumulate. Although revenue has generated more than 3 million records (Intel supports nearly $80 thousand, amd supports $30 thousand, the OEM market has received 8-9 million orders for a few 3D products that support pentiumiii. My advice to other companies is to establish a project development budget system. As a business behavior, this will be the key to success or failure. This is not in conflict with striving for a perfect game, it will be the benchmark for the entire project.
5. Poor communication and communication with investors are also the cause of the great fire civilization and even the failure of Shang Yang. This responsibility is mainly for me, I think there will still be many game developers who have the same problems as me. My suggestion: Investors must aim at benefits, and developers or managers have different purposes. Managers must abide by the promises to give investors an expected return, developers must abide by the commitments to make the expected products. Investors or others cannot be expected to understand what they are doing. Everything is done in compliance with the commitments of both parties.
Let's just say that you don't have any of the above problems. If the above problems can attract my necessary attention, even if "Fire civilization" is not a good game, but Shang Yang will become a good game development company sooner or later. I only look at the cause of the failure from the perspective of the general manager of the company, hoping to help everyone who is keen on game development. Yu: many players, including many critics, are wondering why Shang Yang used an instant in his "Fire civilization" instead of buying a fire. Why?
Wu: in fact, Shang Yang's acquisition was not accurate because the company's "Fire civilization" development team suffered one of the most serious development failures when I was preparing to buy the company, this has led to a major change in the company's personnel. After this change, we are somewhat overwhelmed. The investor's opinion is to sort out the internal structure. Therefore, after paying for the first fund, the acquisition was put on hold, later, due to the lack of experience in the market and the good relationship with Shang Yang in the past, Shang Yang comprehensively acted on the anti-fire products. It was almost impossible to allow the fire to complete the product of "Fire civilization" at that time, because as the first two companies to access 3D technology, the technical route and the types of products developed are completely different. The 3D RPG Game developed by Shang Yang is developed against the fire and the 3D Shooting Game is developed against the fire. From the perspective of pure workload, the game that Shang Yang wants to develop is simply a fantasy. At this time, the game circle is exited, and the technical routes of the development team instantly are similar to those of Shang Yang, as a result, Shang Yang's developers merged with the instant establishment of the "Fire civilization" development group. In terms of project management, Liu Gang, the manager of the project, and the crazy efforts of other people in the group, make the products that cannot be listed at all. Yu: Crazy effort! So I think there must be a lot of things that impressed you during this period, right? Can you tell me.
Wu: In the course of "Fire civilization", there are too many things worth remembering. After all, I have devoted my youth to her for nearly three years, I have benefited a lot from this hard and repetitive day. If you are most impressed, it should be in the first 5 seconds. On the day of the opening ceremony, we held an event in Beijing's best disco square. At the beginning, the first item was the Title CG of "Fire civilization". At that time, in order to cooperate, all the lights went off, when the light was slowly lit up after the CG was finished, I was amazed to find that Liu Gang, Liu Ye, Li Bo, and other main production personnel were sitting in the front row, my eyes were shining with tears. At that time, I began to understand that the five seconds were our grievance and compensation for all the pains. For me, it was 5 seconds after the end, and I tried my best to finish 5 seconds after the end of 3 years. In: five seconds of the result? So does this mean that you will leave Shang Yang Soon?
Wu: After the release of "Fire civilization", I left Shang Yang Company and the company I created myself, because I am very tired. In fact, I am confused now, when I was 24 years old, I wanted to leave the gaming industry for the time being and could not wait to solve my own problems. I hoped to learn from the industry where more people are concentrated and meet new friends, I hope to return again one day. Half a year later, when I saw a message about Shang Yang's withdrawal from the game industry on Sina, I was unable to suppress my grief. I even thought about buying back Shang Yang's game brand, you need to know that for many players, Shang Yang's brand is equal to "Blood Lion", but Shang Yang is my youth for me, and she is also infected with the brand of "Blood Lion, I may have no chance to recover her. Yu: Do you have anything to say to Chinese players now?
Wu: Sorry and sorry. Yu: So what are your regrets for so many years in Shang Yang?
Wu: Sorry, it's useless. if I really want to say something, I'm sorry that I didn't grasp the opportunity again and again. : The last question, will you go back to the game industry?
Wu: Wait for the opportunity. With the passage of time, Shang Yang has gradually been in the memory of players, and "Blood Lion" is gradually forgotten by players with the pace of history.
I often don't understand some things. For example, why is the sales volume of a masterpiece such as "the gate of Berlin" only the same as that of a three-stream product in China, the failure of "Blood Lion" is selling so well. It may be a very accidental situation, but there is an inevitable relationship between them. Maybe we can only explore this relationship by ourselves forever.
This is also a game rule. |
