How AFK Journey goals to make anime into a world artwork model

I haven’t interviewed realized something about Chinese language recreation builders shortly and so I took a while for a dialogue with Xiaodong Tian, chief product officer of Lilith Video games and Farlight Video games. I wished to see how the group approached making a world recreation.

He joined Lilith Video games in 2013 because the 66th worker of the corporate. He’s been the producer of AFK Journey, AFK Enviornment, and Soul Hunter. And his firm simply unveiled the Tune of Strife replace for the sport,

Headquartered in Singapore, Farlight Video games is a newly established recreation publishing firm and the worldwide publishing model of Lilith Video games, a developer based mostly in Shanghai, China. In 2022, the corporate printed Dislyte below the Farlight Video games model, and it has since been obtainable in additional than 200 nations with over 1.2 million downloads inside the first week of launch. AFK Journey was launched in March 2024.

The brand new Tune of Strife replace shall be obtainable for AFK Journey servers which have been energetic for 42 days. To unlock this and all future seasons, gamers want to succeed in Resonance Stage 240, clear all AFK Phases, and full the hunt “The Last Leg”. As soon as they’ve gained entry to the content material, gamers can choose up the principle quest in Holistone.

AFK Journey is now obtainable free of charge on Home windows PCs through the official web site and on iOS and Android gadgets through the Apple App Retailer and Google Play. I talk to Tian through a written Q&A by way of a translator. Right here’ s an edited transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: This looks like a really large venture. How many individuals work on this recreation?

Xiaodong Tian: Presently, there are about 190 full-time staff devoted to the venture group. Moreover, many different departments inside the firm are supporting our improvement and publishing efforts.

Our group was impressed to create AFK Journey after a selected assembly with gamers of the earlier recreation within the sequence, AFK Enviornment. A participant expressed confusion, saying that they felt misplaced and didn’t perceive why they had been growing their heroes or continuously progressing by way of ranges. They felt aimless within the late recreation, questioning the aim of frequently getting stronger and pushing by way of levels.
This sentiment actually struck us. We determined then and there that we wished to convey the world of Esperia to life with compelling storylines to inspire gamers, and provide wealthy character backgrounds to provide the sport a deeper that means. We wished to infuse Esperia with actual vitality and create a really dynamic IP. That’s once we determined to start out this venture.

GamesBeat: If you consider the viewers for this recreation, how do you describe them?

Tian: The frequent traits of our gamers may embody a ardour for RPGs, a choice for the fantasy journey style, an curiosity in accumulating distinctive heroes with various personalities, and a penchant for strategic and tactical gameplay.

By way of the sorts of gameplay these gamers hunt down, we purpose to be as various as attainable, as a result of the gameplay providing in AFK Journey in comparison with AFK Enviornment is rather more different. There’s wealthy RPG storytelling, open-world exploration parts, social options, and extra strategic informal aggressive mechanisms. We need to welcome completely different gamers as a result of we consider the world of Esperia shouldn’t be monotonous and boring; gamers can uncover their very own distinctive experiences and pleasure within the recreation.
Moreover, we carried out varied designs so as to guarantee these completely different gameplay choices don’t battle with one another. For instance, within the Honor Duel mode, we take away the influence of stats and particular person development, contemplating the necessity for equity in informal competitors. This allows gamers who get pleasure from competitors to expertise the enjoyable, and permits the heroes of Esperia to reveal their strategic variety in a good setting.

GamesBeat: The place are a lot of the followers by way of geographic areas?

Tian: We’ve found by way of knowledge and conversations with gamers that we really have a world viewers for our titles, and that is very true for AFK Journey. This variety is intentional as effectively, as we would like our firm and merchandise to service a world viewers. Lilith Video games began in 2013 in Shanghai, rising steadily over time as we launched new prodcuts. A number of years in the past we established Farlight Video games as the worldwide publishing arm for all Lilith Video games titles. In the end we would like our firms to reflect the wants of our gamers, guaranteeing that we’re serving all our followers throughout the globe.

GamesBeat: How do you describe the artwork model?

Tian: The artwork model may be very distinctive. We’ve been attempting to provide it a reputation, and internally we frequently consult with it because the “Magical Storybook” model.

Our artwork director and artwork group place nice emphasis on the consistency between the gameplay expertise and the visible results. We wish the visible model to convey a way of informality and leisure, identical to the gameplay. The artwork group has achieved lots of detailed design and sharpening, from character design to UI interplay, and after round three years of repeatedly listening to participant suggestions and observing knowledge, we lastly achieved the distinctive model we had been after.

Our artists are avid players themselves, and their private experiences assist them combine our artwork model and visible particulars with AFK Journey’s gameplay, in order that they complement one another. Every part finally serves the participant’s expertise, and what’s applicable for the gamers is what’s greatest. For instance, the preliminary design of the sport’s maze featured a fancy transition impact that seemed cool however made the method too tedious. We simplified it to reinforce the participant’s precise expertise.

Moreover, our artwork model has repeatedly developed by way of fixed updates and optimizations. The sport went by way of greater than half a yr of updates earlier than its official launch. We saved refining it based mostly on participant suggestions and knowledge. Even the ultimate model earlier than launch underwent vital modifications. This iterative course of will proceed as we try for excellence. With the discharge of latest updates and characters, we consider there’s at all times room for enchancment.

GamesBeat: How do you retain the standard excessive for this recreation? What decisions does that result in by way of updates and improvement?

Tian: First, we give attention to the consistency of the sport. This contains the coherence of characters and scenes, the way in which gamers work together with the world, and the stability between stats and visuals. We worth group communication and collaboration. It’s not nearly easy division of labor; we encourage everybody to work collectively. Our artwork and writing groups get entangled early within the character design and world setting, and our UI/UX group participates in performance discussions from the beginning. We promote collaboration by way of communication, guaranteeing that everybody understands the design intentions. This helps each group member contribute to every function from their skilled perspective, guaranteeing that each character and have within the recreation feels cohesive and unified.

Particulars are additionally essential, our group places lots of effort into refining particulars. Each group member strives so as to add extra particulars to the sport inside their capability. The vivid world of Esperia is constructed on quite a few small issues. For instance, within the character show interface, heroes from completely different factions have corresponding climate results to make them really feel extra built-in into the background. Moreover, our scene design takes under consideration the constraints of a vertical display, which may make top-down views really feel cramped. To deal with this, we included a “rolling log” impact to keep up the distinct top-down perspective whereas offering a way of smoothness. This ensures that gamers don’t really feel constrained when exploring the huge world for prolonged durations. We additionally spent lots of time tuning the tech behind the sport, corresponding to iterating the useful resource loading mechanisms over a dozen variations to make sure a easy participant expertise.

I additionally attribute our high quality to the worth we placed on participant suggestions. We encourage our builders to have interaction with the group and take heed to gamers’ voices. We maintain common weekly group conferences and have devoted employees to gather and arrange participant opinions and ideas from varied channels. We periodically contain core venture designers in discussions on high-interest subjects raised by gamers. As a long-term service-oriented recreation, co-creating the sport with gamers is a key philosophy for us. Lilith Video games has a tradition of constructing mates with gamers, that means builders should not simply recreation managers who design based mostly solely on their concepts. As a substitute, we’re carefully related with gamers, collaborating to construct the sport collectively. We rigorously analyze participant ache factors and translate them into revolutionary designs that meet the wants of nearly all of gamers.

We’re devoted to being a long-term reside service recreation, aiming to make it simply as thrilling ten years from now. Maintaining the sport contemporary and interesting, so gamers at all times have one thing new to discover, is crucial for us. We’ve designed a singular seasonal replace mechanism, releasing new maps, tales, and characters at a gentle tempo. That is complemented by cross-server gameplay, stat resets, and environmental modifications, guaranteeing gamers at all times have one thing new to get pleasure from. In future seasons, we are going to proceed to enhance our craft and design, experiment with new recreation modes, and maintain the options gamers love whereas phasing out those who aren’t as effectively obtained. By means of this in depth updates, we hope the sport will turn into much more participating over time.

As for the social options, we additionally purpose to attenuate the influence of the stat variations amongst gamers. For example, in Enviornment mode, we use a baseline degree to compress the hole between gamers’ AFK progress, tools ranges, and different main stat methods. This ensures that victories within the Enviornment may be achieved by way of technique changes and expertise somewhat than stat superiority.

For platforms, we try to accommodate each cellular and PC customers. We wish each PC and cellular gamers to benefit from the world of Esperia. Whereas guaranteeing a easy gaming expertise on cellular gadgets, now we have additionally invested efforts into optimizing the horizontal display model for the PC.

Presently within the gaming business, many video games are shifting to suit into the metaverse. We hope that the world of Esperia may also develop on this course—inclusive, wealthy, and various—permitting as many gamers as attainable to expertise its magnificence.

GamesBeat: How are you going to make it extra interesting to the West?

Tian: I consider that what attracts Western gamers isn’t one thing totally Western. If one thing is already very acquainted, it’s unlikely to deeply captivate a participant. Nevertheless, if one thing is 70% acquainted however has 30% novelty, the mix of familiarity and suprise makes it extra interesting. From the early levels of growing AFK Enviornment, we based mostly it on a Western fantasy worldview and cartoon model. Then, we added our personal interpretations and improvements, regularly discovering a stability the place Western gamers really feel each familiarity and novelty.

In reality, this strategy may be very interesting to gamers across the globe. Everybody can discover one thing acquainted and one thing new within the recreation, which is the impact we need to obtain.

GamesBeat: What do you contemplate to be an important options within the Tune of Strife and future updates?

Tian: As talked about earlier, the seasonal replace is a revolutionary experiment for a conventional card RPG’s updating tempo. Past simply an replace, it introduces an entire new season with new maps, tales, characters, and enemies. There are new seasonal targets for improvement and assortment, in addition to cross-server gameplay. Gamers can meet new mates and rivals, embarking on a very completely different journey every season. Personally, I’m most excited concerning the new maps and tales. They reveal extra concerning the characters’ fates and storylines, assist me perceive the heroes’ motivations, and fulfill my need to embrace braveness and energy. We purpose to create a vibrant, imaginative world in Esperia by way of these dynamic and energetic seasons.

Moreover, throughout every four-month season, we are going to repeatedly launch new tales, actions, and gameplay, which gamers can stay up for all through the season.

Whereas we’re happy with the content material at the moment obtainable, we usually contemplate this to be very early on within the recreation’s long-term improvement. What gamers see now’s simply the tip of the iceberg of our creativeness – the Esperia we envison is way richer, so we hope to surpise and delight gamers in future seasons as effectively.