Game-Time Report/Whenever we talk about playful games, “legendary manufacturer” is always the biggest label that cannot be avoided. But over the past year, the company has repeatedly refreshed outside perceptions. Not only do they have solid legendary games, but playful games that don’t want to be defined are becoming more and more changeable and “playable”.
In August last year, Tanwan Games launched a non-legendary landmark product “National Jianghu” on the occasion of its eighth anniversary. After its launch, it topped the iOS free list. The successful transformation attracted industry attention. Now, after its listing, Tanwan Games has come up with a non-“Big Brother game” and shifted its focus from the old IP to the “Douluo Dalu” IP that is loved by young people, taking another big step in category expansion.
On January 31st, an open world team battle MMO developed by Shanghai Lingblade and co-published by Tanwan Games and China Mobile Games was dual-licensed by China Literature’s “Douluo Dalu” novel and Tencent Video’s “Douluo Dalu” animation. The mobile game “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” is released on all platforms. On that day, it directly topped the iOS free list and the TapTap popular list. It became another IP masterpiece after Tanwan Games was launched. It also marked that the company has entered a new stage of development that is more mature and more diversified.
Ten billion-scale super nationally-created IP, greedy for game play and cracking the hardest bones
When we break down domestic original IPs, “Douluo Dalu”, which spans ACGN’s multiple fields, must be the one with the most outstanding results.
As a super IP with nearly 16 years of development, “Douluo Dalu”, which was born from online literature, has now launched derivative products in different forms such as animations, comics, games, TV series, audio novels, etc., successfully covering users of multiple age groups. It has gained countless fans, especially among young people.
Thanks to the launch of animation and live-action film and television dramas, the IP of “Douluo Dalu” began to heat up rapidly around 2021. In the past two years, it has repeatedly topped the comprehensive list of IP value in the “Xinhua·Cultural Industry IP Index Report” published by Xinhua News Agency, and its commercial value has been widely recognized by the outside world.
The game field has also begun to accelerate the launch of products, and IP-adapted products are booming. According to information from the official website of the State Press and Publication Administration, since 2011, a total of 15 “Douluo Dalu”-related adapted games have received version numbers. Two years ago, the copyright owner China Literature directly announced that the cumulative revenue of games adapted from Douluo IP has exceeded 10 billion.
Not only is it making a lot of money domestically, but as online articles and animations reach a small climax in overseas markets, the influence of IP further radiates overseas. Many “Douluo Dalu” IP games have even overcome obstacles in overseas markets such as Singapore and Malaysia and achieved considerable profits.
It must be pointed out that as the influence of the “Douluo Dalu” IP on the game market continues to rise, it has also invisibly raised the threshold for IP adaptation. Previously, there were even three games with the same IP appearing on the market at once, but in the long run, the number of Douluo IP products that really stay in the market and among players is by no means large.
In contrast, Tanwan Games has always been good at operating super IP adaptation products, from legendary IP to “Hot Blood Jianghu” IP.
“Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” has undergone many tests before. While the official took suggestions from players, it continued to improve product quality. For example, in the ultimate test, the game’s new users across all channels reached 150,000+, and the average next-day retention reached 50%. Not only the data performance is eye-catching, but it has also won wide recognition from internal beta players.
Relying on the snowball effect of good word-of-mouth during the test period, the number of reservations for the game across the entire network exceeded 6 million before its launch, making it the top 1 most popular reservation through multiple channels. Now, “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” has broken through at its first release, and it has used solid data and players’ voices to prove that they have successfully cracked this hardest bone.
Break out of templated IP mobile games and create a Douluo MMO that everyone can enjoy
In the past two years, the mobile game “Douluo Dalu” has appeared intensively, and this IP has begun to accelerate towards the direction of a “new year product” game. There are also inevitable shortcomings of this type of game: there is a lot of homogeneity problem in new products. Game-Time found that the gamification innovation of this IP is relatively conservative, and most products are limited to the card RPG track, making it difficult to further spread the charm of the IP.
As the development team said, under the premise that IP products are emerging one after another, but it is difficult to come up with new ideas, what is really important is: “On the one hand, let Douluo fans play a fun MMO, and on the other hand, how to let more game players and MMO Players feel the charm of Douluo.”
To put it more bluntly, they want to make an MMORPG adapted from the “Douluo Dalu” IP that anyone can enjoy.
Of course, satisfying fans is always the first test faced by IP products. “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” attaches great importance to highly restoring the core experience of the IP, deeply binding the original work in all aspects from music, plot to gameplay, while adding new content that is more suitable for most users.
In terms of plot, there are both classic plots such as “Tang San Xiao Wu’s Love in a Sea of Flowers” from the original work, as well as original stories in which players personally participate as “Shrek’s Eighth Monster”. Even passersby players can experience the charm of the IP without any barriers. In terms of gameplay, unlike other IP products, the game breaks out of the restrictions of turn-based cards and adopts the slogan of “open world team battle MMO” in an attempt to embrace a larger scale of users.
The game adds MMO’s iconic 3V3, 10v10 multiplayer PvP, and multiplayer world BOSS gameplay, which already meets the experience needs of the vast majority of MMO players. At the same time, the settings of the core team battle gameplay are highly consistent with the “friendship, group portrait, unity” and other settings in the Douluo IP. To meet the needs of different types of players, it is also easier for Douluo IP and MMO to collide to create new sparks.
Of course, on the basis of the original setting and detailed content, a 3D open world is the best place for Douluo World. But it wasn’t until the appearance of “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” that fans’ dreams were truly realized.
The game has designed a vast map of 1000m*1000m, and achieved free-running map, which includes various interactive contents such as treasure chests, mechanisms, and puzzle tasks. It is not only to build the Douluo world in the eyes of core players, but also to ride on the Japanese MMO trend through high-degree of freedom exploration content, so as to cover a larger scale of users.
For the same consideration, the game further extends to more casual gameplay, including fishing and gathering, mining and cooking, free trading, etc. Even based on IP settings, it was the first to launch the free-dropping and free-trading gameplay of soul bones. On the one hand, diversified gameplay makes the experience fuller and richer, getting rid of the repetition and monotony of MMO; on the other hand, rich content that fits the IP core also helps to cultivate players’ sense of immersion.
In the longer term, compared to traditional MMOs that blindly pursue numerical growth, or similar products that simply stitch together IP elements, “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” perfectly combines the fun of MMO team battles with the charm of IP. At the same time, it innovatively adds fragmented and interesting life gameplay, so that everyone can truly enjoy it. Not only does it promote outstanding first-run results, but it also has huge potential for long-term operations early on.
Innovative marketing strategies work again, winning applause from enemies on all sides
Finding spokespersons that match the same game has always been Tanwan Games’ best marketing strategy. It has been proven by the market many times in the past, and now it has once again helped “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” successfully break through online.
On the day of its launch, with the monster cospaly show, the passionate team battles of the top anchor team, and the eye-catching landmark large screen, the game successfully set off another wave of craze online and offline. It is worth mentioning that in addition to intensive publicity and campaigning, “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy” also invited powerful actor Yu Hewei to play Yu Xiaogang and serve as the new spokesperson for the game.
As the protagonist Tang San’s teacher, Yu Xiaogang is actually one of the characters who has been with readers the longest. In the original work, Yu Xiaogang, who devoted himself to the theoretical research of Wuhun, wasted the entire first half of his life because of the invalidation of Wuhun. It wasn’t until he met Tang San many years later and followed him to Shrek Academy that he finally untied his knot and successfully broke through to level 30.
On the other hand, spokesperson Yu Hewei had a period of being an unknown part-timer when he was young. He only became known after the broadcast of “Mansion Gate 2”. In recent years, thanks to his famous “Disco” scene on major short video platforms and his line “Keep playing music, then dance”, he has appeared in popular works such as “The Age of Awakening” and has become an “uncle” in the eyes of the public. Top-notch”.
As “uncles” who are full of affinity and loved by the audience in reality, Yu Hewei and Yu Xiaogang have a natural fit in temperament. Moreover, both of them have also experienced ups and downs, and they both reached new heights in life and career after reaching middle age. Therefore, as the spokesperson, Yu Hewei can also inject a vivid image into “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy”, promote the game into the perspective of general users, and provide strong support for it to stand out in the fierce market competition.
From game content production, multiple testing and polishing, to all aspects of creative marketing, it is not difficult to see the full support of this popular nationally created IP from many parties. A series of measures not only improve the quality of the game, but also establish a strong brand image in the market, helping the product to stand out among similar competing products.
With over 6 million reservations across the entire network, it debuted at the top of the free list… “Douluo Dalu: Shrek Academy”, which has won more and more flowers and applause from the market and players before and after its launch, once again verified Tanwan Games’ popular IP adaptation ideas and In terms of marketing methodology, the outside world is increasingly looking forward to the company’s subsequent larger-scale attempts.
