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GameLook report / Last weekend, the annual TapTap game conference just ended.
As many as 42 products were released in a concentrated manner that night, which is the highest number in the past years; the content also highlights a richness: a large number of powerful new games announced the real machine screen, test and launch time. Among them, there are not only the exposure of blockbuster products from major manufacturers, but also the appearance of unique independent games.
Of course, the surprise “One More Thing” is indispensable in every major press conference. It is the turn of this TapTap conference, and it is a rather special product – the game creation tool “Spark Editor”.
As early as last year, GameLook had a brief report on the Spark Editor, which was still in early testing at that time, and found that several works developed using this editor had already been put on TapTap for testing.
At this press conference, Xindong officially introduced Spark Editor: a game production tool with visual Chinese language and low-code programming. It also provides a large number of prefabricated functions and rich art resources, as well as multiplayer confrontation support, and opens up TapTap The closed loop of release helps the game land quickly. In addition, it is the first public mention of adding AIGC function to help developers quickly generate art resources and copywriting.
It is officially announced that the Spark Editor, which has undergone 26 major version iterations since its release, is about to start the “Dawn Test”. And GameLook also found that not only the heartbeat, but domestic major companies including Tencent and Netease have successively deployed zero-threshold editors, and the UGC ecology that has stagnated in the past is ushering in earth-shaking evolution.
Lower the development threshold, facilitate the release of new games, and serve the TapTap ecosystem
It was mentioned at the TapTap game press conference: For traditional development pain points such as long development cycle, difficulty in team formation, and lack of art resources, Spark Editor can provide a simple and efficient full-process development experience without users needing to master complex programming thinking and development languages .
First of all, Spark Editor provides developers with a full Chinese environment, visual programming and dozens of prefabricated functions, making it easy to start making games. At present, there are rich free art resources built in, and more than 20 games have been successfully launched using these resources.
Secondly, the Spark Editor is not only used for single-player games, but also provides developers with servers and databases, enabling multiplayer online games at zero cost. Including cloud storage, IM, mall, points ranking, unconditionally provide developers with professional services and support. Afterwards, it also provides full-link services for developers, from server, database, design to development, to internal testing, public testing, and community operations. There is no need to worry about complicated operation and maintenance links. After the development is completed, it can be released on TapTap in a closed loop.
Since the beginning of this year, under the industry context of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, along with the rapid development of generative AI, more and more game companies have begun to focus on the application of AIGC in the development process. Similarly, AIGC is a great tool for small and medium-sized developers, and even ordinary users with zero foundation.
In this regard, Spark Editor has also added a multi-functional AI tool – TapTap AI in the editor can assist developers to quickly generate the art resources and copywriting they need. For example, it supports the selection of CG, cartoon, and hand-painted styles to create a unique visual style; or generate different styles of dialogues, tasks, items, and skill descriptions, such as the description style of soul games, the description style of Xianxia background, and Post-apocalyptic style of description…
Generally speaking, the main function of the editor is to help large DAU products develop UGC ecology, or as a development tool to motivate small and medium teams or independent developers to produce new games.
The uniqueness of Spark Editor is that TapTap itself has connected a large number of small and medium-sized developers, and the proportion of independent games in this conference is also not low. The only way for small and medium-sized teams to reduce costs and increase efficiency is to use editors in addition to AIGC. Xindong directly integrates AIGC into the Spark editor, obviously for the purpose of directly binding small and medium-sized teams. The fundamental reason is to serve the TapTap ecosystem.
As a media-oriented community, the premise of TapTap’s increased user activity is the continuous supply of new games. However, in the past few years, the total number of version numbers has been regulated and the cost of product development has remained high. The biggest problem facing the development of TapTap has become how to ensure the supply of new games.
In other words, the new game is a crucial part of TapTap. Increasing the production capacity of small and medium teams directly from the source is undoubtedly the direct reason for Xindong to launch the Spark Editor in person. Of course, the normalized and stable distribution of version numbers this year has also brought light to small and medium-sized teams. At this time, the Spark Editor, which can greatly increase the speed of research and development, will also become one of the best choices.
On the other hand, Spark Editor is also designed to serve Xindong self-developed products. Although only the UGC ecology of big DAU games has value, this does not prevent waiting for the opportunity in advance. Once a self-developed large DAU product appears later, Xindong can open up the UGC ecology as quickly as possible.
TapTap launches creative workshop, domestic giants get together to enter UGC
GameLook has already reported last year, such as the meat pigeon tower defense game “The Twentieth Circle”, the independent party game “Castle Party”, the survival RPG game “Unknown: Evolution”, the action casual game “Thunderbolt Flash”, iO+ Eat The chicken game “Nianli Chaos” and other products are all developed using the Spark editor, and the results are quite good.
At the TapTap game press conference, in the screen showing the features of the Spark Editor, the official directly announced several products developed based on the Spark Editor, all of which have already been launched. At the same time, the platform also provides the entrance of creative workshop games: Now enter TapTap, the home page recommendation will directly show the game “Created by Spark Editor”, and its related recommendations will also bring a large number of games created by Spark Editor.
For example, it took 1 person 4 months to develop, treasure hunting + action roguelike + RPG development “Yang Jian Biography: Sou Shan Conquering Demons”, once ranked first in the TapTap hot list for five consecutive days; it integrates card drawing, meat pigeons and strategy elements The tower defense game “Endless Corridor” was developed by a 2-person team for 4 months, and 240,000 people have experienced it on TapTap; the meat pigeon action grass mowing game “Unknown: Transformation 2” has been experienced by 130,000 people.
“Endless Corridor”
What is curious is whether there are certain necessary conditions for individual developers or small and medium-sized teams to use the Spark editor, such as accessing the TapTap closed-loop release of the Spark editor, but whether the game can only be released on a specific platform, and can it be released on other platforms? The platform release is not yet known. In addition, it is unknown whether the revenue share ratio will be similar to Epic’s 5% charge for Unreal developers.
· Other company trends: Tencent enters the market, Netease AII IN UGC
Under the wave of UGC in full swing, more and more domestic companies including Tencent and Netease are entering the market.
For example, Tencent announced the launch of the map editor “Tiangong” in “Honor of Kings”, which provides four major functions: hero design, scene construction, plot writing, and level creation. Developers can DIY gameplay; “PUBG Mobile” launched overseas creation The creator mode “World of Wonder”, and the creation mode “Oasis Qiyuan” similar to “Peace Elite” have already been launched.
In contrast, NetEase can be said to be the most “ruthless” company among the giants entering the market.
At the first anniversary celebration of “Egg Party”, the game producer Kwan announced that the game has achieved the achievement of adding more than one million new maps every week and more than ten million creators. With the success of the hit “Egg Boy Party”, NetEase is even more “All IN UGC” posture. Many of its products have released their own open ecological plans, encouraging players to build and create their own through the editor in the game. The maps and gameplay you want.
For example, “Ace Racing” has added the editor of the car park, allowing players to easily create imaginative tracks; “Werewolf Killing Official” also incorporates editing functions, allowing players to make self-made modules; “Epic” not only added an editor, but also used revenue sharing to encourage creators; “Mission Zero” also prepared UGC functions.
In addition, NetEase also launched a new next-generation game editor – “Y3 Editor”, which can be developed without programming foundation and has a massive resource library. At present, many map creators have achieved a stable monthly income of millions or even tens of millions.
It is worth mentioning that at this year’s GDC, a Singaporean company invested by NetEase unveiled a new UGC editor “CliCli” that is being tested overseas. The editor can simplify the development and distribution of 3D games, and truly realize “everyone can make 3D games”.
It is reported that CliCli has rich terrain and character models, a particle editor, and an ever-expanding asset library, which can help developers quickly complete visual creative design, game play settings, and realize one-click release of 3D products. At present, a medieval PvP card game “Game of Rollin” based on CliCli has been launched on Steam.
epilogue
For ordinary users, the emergence of editors that lower the development threshold is tantamount to accelerating the general trend of the rise of UGC. In the eyes of these creators, games are no longer regarded as simple entertainment tools, but as content carriers for players to express themselves. From the standpoint of small and medium-sized teams, the emergence of more and more multifunctional editors is of great significance for reducing development costs, improving the supply of new products, and achieving cost reduction and efficiency increase.
This means that under the hot trend of UGC, combined with TapTap’s own ecology, Xindong Xinghuo Editor has every chance to become a new starting point for TapTap.
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