In a cafe not far from the chinajoy venue, I met four members of pearl abyss, the development company of this Korean online game, including Kim Jae-hee, the project director of "Black Desert". The four of them,
, all joined the team during the initial stages of "Black Desert". At that time, Pearl Abyss had only a dozen people in total, and they could all be said to be the backbone of the company in terms of seniority.
But what is surprising is that the main creators all look quite young - this mainly refers to the mental outlook. As the interview location was chosen in a unique cave cafe, the four team members were all wearing printed clothing. The T-shirts with the company logo look quite loose, and it is hard to imagine that behind them is a world-class product with more than 55 million registered players and a revenue of 2 billion euros.
From right to left are "Black Desert" art director Oh Yoon-jae, director Kim Jae-hee,
art action director Kim Sang-young, and visual arts director Kim Dong-kyun
Kim Jae-hee said this may be because Pearl Abyss is a company that allows employees to "maintain "Brain Activity" company encourages everyone to generate new ideas and implement them themselves, so that everyone can always maintain a young mentality, and also makes "Black Desert" still a game that looks full of freshness and vitality.
Now, this game will finally officially launch the national server and usher in a new starting point.
1
When "Black Desert" came out and achieved great success, one of the most talked about points in the industry was that Pearl Abyss, as a newly established game company, made a " Host 3a" level online games, and leveraged more than 300 million US dollars in revenue in a short period of time, which can be called a model of "using small to make big".
This is not some mathematical magic. Listening to the behind-the-scenes stories told by several creative members, it is easy to understand why this team can do this.
Most of the founding members of "Black Desert" come from different professional backgrounds, some are studying fashion design, and some are engaged in art sculpture. Before joining Pearl Abyss to become the director of the Black Desert project, Kim Jae-hee worked in the game industry for 8 years. media reporter, during which he was invited by Pearl Abyss founder Kim Dae-il many times to work with him on producing "Black Desert".
But the other party didn’t actually tell him what he wanted him to do. He only said, “You come first, you’re the right one!”
When Kim Jae-hee hesitated for a long time and finally decided to join Pearl Abyss, the first thing he received was But his task was to design and create monsters - which obviously had nothing to do with his previous work. Fortunately, Jin Zaixi found this job novel and interesting, and he enjoyed doing it... Later he learned that this was only within the company. Part of the training for new employees, so that everyone can understand all aspects of game production.
Even after becoming the director, Kim Jae-hee still felt that he had not actually accomplished anything specifically - he just conveyed the idea of "what kind of content we want" to his colleagues around him. It didn't take long for the content he wanted to be available. will be handed to him.
This is of course just modesty, but the autonomy of the creative team is obviously one of the factors that contributed to the success of "Black Desert".
At that time, Kim Jae Hee only mentioned to Director Oh Yoon on Friday, "I want a beautiful and sexy female character that players will probably like." Director Oh agreed and said, "We will do it on the weekend."
Two days later, Director Oh submitted the draft of the Black Rider character he designed based on the theme of "Black Rose", which was then further refined and improved by Director Jin Dongqin, who was in charge of visual arts. With the joint efforts of the two, , Black Knight has become a character that is both cool, sexy and dashingly handsome. At the same time, he also accurately conveys the medieval fantasy background of the game, which is the starting point that attracts many players to this game.
The Dark Knight, who can be called the signature character of "Black Desert"
More often, when Kim Jae Hee finds colleagues in charge of related departments and says that he wants to optimize and improve the art design or action model of a certain character, the answer he gets is often It's "already done".
Converting the design draft into such an operable character in the game is naturally a complicated process.
This kind of efficient communication is obviously a major reason why the game can reduce the production cost, and it is also something that many teams are envious of; with this At the same time, being able to "spend money wisely" is another secret to the rise of pearl abyss.
During the development stage of "Black Desert", the motion capture system was still considered an advanced technology in the industry. For Pearl Abyss, who had more than a dozen people crowded into an office at that time, it was very difficult to buy a motion capture system for himself. It cost a lot of money, but in the end the company gritted its teeth and purchased one.
Because there is no longer any extra space in the office for the use of motion capture equipment, the early motion capture of "Black Desert" was actually carried out in the underground garage of the company's office building. Passers-by would often pass by with surprised expressions. Vision - There may not be another game company that uses motion capture that works in such a miserable environment.
At the beginning, pearl abyss could only make space in the office to do motion capture.
The game’s art action director Jin Sang-young also mentioned that when someone passed by at first, everyone would always stop what they were doing in embarrassment, but later You can almost ignore the eyes of passers-by.
also has its own motion capture system, so the team can freely record any content they deem necessary. Including recently, games have begun to use motion capture for real-life animals to add more vivid movements to pets and mounts in the game. The "actor dogs" hired are competition-level dogs that have won rankings and are paid a lot of money per hour. For example, alpacas have already used some motion capture.
The vivid shapes and postures are undoubtedly one of the reasons why players are willing to tame mounts in the game.
From the perspective of subsequent development, it is indeed a very necessary decision to purchase your own motion capture system. With the self-developed engine, it has achieved excellent results The development efficiency and performance effects have created advantages for Pearl Abyss as a new team in this regard, making "Black Desert" still have unique action performance in the field of online games.
Pearl Abyss, which had only one office back then and had to borrow an underground garage as a motion capture room, now has a motion capture center covering an area of more than 100 square meters.
Now pearl abyss's motion capture center
2
When domestic old players who are familiar with the development process of "Black Desert" introduce this game to newcomers, they often say with a bit of joking: "This is 'Korean Genshin Impact '." ——Even the main creators of Pearl Abyss have heard of this.
On the one hand, the two are somewhat similar in terms of game types. They both focus on packaging a seamless open world with all kinds of features. And just as "Genshin Impact" has largely broken everyone's imagination about the screen performance and content carrying of mobile games, "Black" "Desert" was also presented to everyone as a "next-generation online game" at the time. Compared with previous MMORPGs, it had considerable innovations in terms of visual experience and gameplay.
Especially after logging into the host, the influence of "Black Desert" further spread rapidly around the world. This development path also coincides with the global growth achieved by "Genshin Impact" through PS4.
At that time, it was still a consensus that "the picture quality and operating feel of online games are inferior to those of stand-alone games". This was not entirely a sign of contempt, but that online games were limited by the network environment and business model, and it was inevitable to make some improvements in the above aspects. sacrifice.
But "Black Desert" targets the 3A console masterpieces of the same period in all aspects - delicate high-definition modeling, a vast world, and real-time action combat experience. On this basis, it also has multi-player social interaction and rich Life content, intense pvp and guild battles.
This completely surpassed the previous concept of online games, and finally attracted a large number of users who originally only played stand-alone RPGs on consoles, completing the "circle expansion".
On the other hand, as mentioned above, "Black Desert" is pearl abyss's first project, but in the Korean market, where the competitive environment for online games is extremely fierce, it has broken out from the crowd of established game companies and rushed into the market. Going global and becoming a new star that attracts attention is quite similar to MiHoYo, which suddenly emerged with "Genshin Impact" a few years ago.
The office building where pearl abyss is currently located
Director Kim Jae-hee said that although he was not very familiar with the specifics of "Genshin Impact" and MiHoYo, he also believed that the two did have some commonalities in the general direction, and he also went one step further and believed that This commonality actually does not come from a single company, but from some changes in the environment.
He gave an example of what he saw on chinajoy: the characters played by cosplayers at the exhibition were quite rich and diverse, which reflected that modern players would pay more attention to their own preferences, rather than swarming in like the early days of the Internet. Play popular games, and people are more willing to express this personality rather than conform to the crowd.
The cosplayers who tried out "Black Desert" at CJ
This situation is also very similar to what happened in South Korea 10 years ago. South Korea's largest game exhibition G-star every year was also during this period. From then on, local online games Mainly exhibitors, it began to attract more overseas exhibitors and media, transforming into a global game exhibition.
In this environment, whether it is "Black Desert" or "Genshin Impact", large-scale games with more open and diverse content and gameplay elements will easily gain more recognition.
From this point of view, the experience of the national server of "Black Desert" has been a bit tortuous, and it is finally going online in the mainland, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Looking at it now, "Black Desert" still has the top light and shadow effects in the online game industry
Director Kim Jae-hee has attended five CJs. On the one hand, he has witnessed these changes in the Chinese player group, and at the same time, he has also felt many collisions between Chinese and Korean cultures. .
He mentioned that he likes "The Legend of Heaven and the Dragon Slayer" very much, especially the new version of the TV series in 2019; and this time when he came to China, he also heard about the well-known young female stars Zhao Lusi and Dilraba in China, who are also fans of the Three Kingdoms overseas. For the first time, I learned that Zhao Yun’s popularity as a general among Chinese people is no less than Master Guan; and many members of Pearl Abyss are also paying attention to and looking forward to " Black Myth: Wukong "... These new information will become The source of inspiration in their game creation is also one of the secrets why "Black Desert" can still maintain a fashionable feel in its operation to this day.
The tenth professional character of the game, "Plum Blossom", is obviously derived from the intersection of cultures of East Asian countries.
But when I heard that the popularity and influence of Jin Yong's dramas have declined in China, especially among the younger generation of audiences, At that time, Director Kim Jae Hee said openly: This kind of thing is normal, but pop culture is a circle. As long as it is truly good content, there will always be a day when it will be recognized again as the times change.
Correspondingly, Kim Jae-hee also mentioned that today's Pearl Abyss and "Black Desert" also hope to maintain the original intention of the year. Even if the company becomes larger and the offices change, the only difference is that you can turn around from the past. Discussions with concerned colleagues turned into climbing two flights of stairs to find each other’s offices.
It seems that the current pearl abyss still maintains that kind of efficient communication. For example, when I asked, "Whether the horse mounts in the game were also produced using motion capture," Kim Sang-young, the director in charge of the game's art movements, replied After saying "It didn't happen at the time," he turned around and said to Director Kim Jae Hee, "So it's time to update it," and then recorded the matter.
"Horse Taming" is a very distinctive and representative gameplay system in "Black Desert"
In the opinion of several main creators, ""Black Desert" is "Black Desert"", and they want to become a game that is outstanding in all aspects. A self-contained, "fun no matter how you play" game is the essence of Black Desert.
3
In fact, even looking at it today, there are still many gameplay designs in "Black Desert" that look quite novel and even radical.
For example, in the game, there are great restrictions on private transactions between players (individual transactions are not even allowed at first). All outputs obtained by players, whether through combat or life skills such as gathering and hunting, basically have to be obtained through NPCs change hands and are priced uniformly before they flow into the trading market, forming an extremely self-consistent economic system.
This has largely prevented the formation of a studio ecosystem, but accordingly, players can only obtain resources through the content designed in the game, and cannot use real-life elements to shake the in-game experience. In other words, this can also be regarded as a kind of screening for players. Probably only players who are truly willing to live in "Black Desert" as another world can persist in playing it for a long time.
However, the stable operation of "Black Desert" in the past ten years has proved that the scale of this type of players is not small, and they have a strong stickiness that is much higher than the general mmorpg audience. Director Kim Jae-hee mentioned that there are even a group of people in the game who are 60 years old. Loyal players above.
This stickiness largely comes from the life gameplay system in the game.
For example, a considerable number of domestic player groups are quite addicted to "taming horses" in the game, which includes selecting and capturing wild horses of different types and attributes, taming them, arranging breeding, and then trading with others... quite a few Players play "Black Desert" every day for no other reason than to be horse dealers.
Horse training guide has always been a popular content in the player community.
The fun in it is actually easy to understand. It is impossible to provide such complicated horse training or other simulated management systems in ordinary online games. However, in such specialized games In business games, players often can only play alone or trade with other similar players. They are unable to experience being a player with professional skills and being respected by others in an environment where most people are happy to fight like in "Black Desert". Dear "Malaysian businessman".
According to Director Kim Jae Hee, they did not expect to make the horse training system so complicated at first. They just followed the idea that "the world map is too big, so everyone needs a horse as a mount, so why not let everyone catch and play by themselves." Since there are horses to be caught, there should be horses to be raised, and horses to be raised, there should be breeding of ponies..." This kind of realistic logic has been achieved unknowingly, and the basis for all this is also mentioned above. The working atmosphere of "there is no need to assign specific tasks to each employee during the development stage, everyone will take action first".
There is also a fishing system in the game. In the early days of the game, it was even called the "fishing desert" in Korea. Many players did not participate because of the utilitarian rewards in the game, but fished wherever they wanted. Instead, the development team will provide additional rewards to those fishing players.
For example, there is a player in the foreign server who only fishes in the game, and chooses to fish at the seaside where experience points are less rewarded. He has been fishing for nearly ten years. In the end, the development team specially designed a boss that will appear because of sea fishing. This player indeed became the first person in the entire server to summon this boss.
The world boss that needs to be summoned through sea fishing in the game-the heart of the ocean, Bell
Kim Jae-hee also mentioned that there are many players who have met in "Black Desert" and got married in real life. This may also be because this game can Provides a unique sense of reality.
During the epidemic, a newlywed couple in the Czech Republic was unable to hold their wedding in real life, so they chose to hold it in "Black Desert" instead. As a result, it developed into a wedding that included official participation and players from all over the world came to celebrate. The "Wedding of the Century".
Conclusion
In short, "Black Desert" is indeed a very special online game, and its unique features vary from person to person.
In fact, the national server of the game has recently launched its first beta test. Judging from the current world channel, most of the active speakers are old players who have returned from foreign servers. They also mentioned the reason why they may consider giving up the game that they have been operating for many years. Foreign server accounts come back to play the Chinese server because this game can bring a lot of sense of belonging. I believe that if you play in an environment with more compatriots, you will have a better experience.
pearl abyss and Tencent, which is responsible for the operation of the national server, have of course made a lot of preparations for this, including that the national server will no longer need to purchase tickets like the foreign server, and will be updated at a faster speed to allow the national server to catch up with the foreign server. The version progress allows players to experience the latest and most complete game content. At the same time, clothing styles and even characters that are more suitable for Chinese culture are being designed...
Compared with the high-profile promotions carried out in cj, "Black Desert" this time There is a relatively simple booth. But I believe that as director Kim Jae-hee said, this does not mean that this project is not taken seriously, but that as a mature game, "Black Desert" no longer needs so much external publicity, and everything it wants to convey has been In the game.
The "Black Desert" booth at cj this time
