How should an RPG engage players and what motivates them to keep playing?

The most intuitive and commonly used is of course the quest, especially the main quest in the list where the logo and color are different from the other quests, the side quests and collections may be blue, and the main quest is orange with emphasis. In oriental RPGs, Chinese or Japanese style often creates dramatic conflicts, or relies on the fate of the characters to create vivid and vivid main characters, so that players pay attention to them, full of desire to know their fate and story.

It could also be the level, equipment, stronger skill spells, richer combos, as the player's own projection in the game world, they are very eager for the protagonist to become stronger, can challenge higher level monsters, and gain respect in the attitude of other NPCs in the game world towards him. It's the need to get stronger. In this process, the designers followed the principle of allowing players to gain a combat experience from easy to difficult, and then by enhancing themselves, the originally more difficult battles were made easy, and after mastering the combat skills, they encountered more difficult battles.

Then there's curiosity. Curiosity is a great driving force for games, because it's in the blood of all of us, and it's all natural. There's nothing more natural than it that allows us to explore in the game.

Ye Shenxi did this in "Getaway".

Quests tend to turn the game into a tool to empty the list and then get rewards. The difficulty also needs to be matched with the appropriate numerical delivery, as well as the excellent quality of the combat system, there is something worth exploring for players. But Ye Shenxi made all the players and media who began to enter this game feel that the technical height of this game is not the point, although he has indeed reached the top level of similar games in many aspects. But he is driven by the curiosity of the players, and gives them a sense of accomplishment and fun when their curiosity is satisfied.

Just like Julio, they were born into a brutal battlefield, and they would have a desire to see other inhabited hubs, out of a desire to explore an open world.

In the darkness, when you see the fire burning in the distance, you will definitely have the desire to go and find out, which is the instinct of the light.

There are also a few battles encountered in the process, in fact, the monsters in the game are not all armed with metal weapons, more often, the monsters are strange beasts in ancient legends, and those deserters are also deliberately set up by the development team, the purpose is to make players notice the flames. And make them impressed by a certain system of the game.

As he approached the village, Julio had seen the stone walls of a cottage, the gate locked, and he couldn't get in. The village is located in a valley with cliffs on both sides, except for the exits on both sides.

Julio, like many other players, would naturally have the first instinct to find his way through the mountains in a sandbox game like this, without an air wall. Even if he saw a puzzle-like mechanism in the doorway. There are four candlesticks in the doorway, all of them extinguished, and there is a faint blue light, and this light hints are literally to say, "Get me, open the door for you." "Same.

He also picked up a torch at the door, and the game provides several shortcut equipment slots, and the placed weapons don't need to be changed in the item menu, and they can be quickly replaced directly through a button on the handle plus a joystick push. Julio replaced himself with a torch, but without the fire, he still couldn't light it.

At this time, a strong hint of the battle just now came to mind, and by the way, it should be a collision of metal objects.

The development team has been babysitted to this point.,The monsters that must be encountered on the way.,The inevitable sparks.,The torch is in front of you.,If you don't know how to solve this answer.,Then his IQ is basically goodbye to this game.。

The first puzzle that the players encountered was very simple, but it also foretold them that there would be more and more difficult puzzles waiting for them in the future, which was a war between the development team and the players, and it made them look forward to it.

Julio figured it out to himself, threw the torch and the same knife on the ground as he had just scavenged the loot he had just scavenged from the enemy, and slashed at the knife, sparks flew everywhere...... Naturally, the torches were lit. Then he picked up the torch and lit the four candlesticks at once, remembering the sound of the mechanism turning, and the door finally opened.

So he walked into the first village in the game.

In fact, he used a very technical, but also rather stupid solution...... Because the candlestick itself is also metal, he only needs to use a metal weapon to chop the candlestick to ignite it directly, without wasting so much effort.

Many of the puzzles in Getaway have more than one solution, and players can find a solution to their liking, as well as a sense of accomplishment from solving the puzzles.

After entering the village and talking to the villagers, Julio learned that this place has a name, called Zhuolu. As a true American young man, he didn't know exactly what the name meant, and what the previous war was. But that didn't stop him from learning from the conversations of the villagers what a terrible battle it was.

The two sides of the battle each united the tribes in this world, and slaughtered for many years, and finally broke out a catastrophe on the Zhuolu Plain.

The protagonist's name is Dragon Sparrow, not a human, but a demon clan, in this battle with his own leader attached to the command of Emperor Yan, and after fighting with the witches of the Jiuli clan in the Southern Wilderness, he finally won a tragic victory. It was indeed a tragic victory, and the whole clan was wiped out, and he was the only one left.

The villagers told the dragon bird that after the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor defeated the Chiyou tribe, the Wu tribes were scattered, some fled to the southern wilderness, and some fled to the northern underworld, and the Yellow Emperor had built a new city at the foot of the mountain, and more than 50 years had passed since that battle.

Julio always thought that he had just woken up from the war, but why did the villagers say that more than 50 years had passed? At present, the people's livelihood is stable, and the Central Plains Shenzhou is thriving after the catastrophe.

No wonder the corpses I saw on the battlefield before have been weathered, except that the earth is still blood-red, which is a fierce aura that has not dissipated for fifty years, and the corpses are all weathered, they are piles of dried corpses.

And what they met on the way was not deserters, but ordinary soldiers patrolling the mountains, so if so, why should they fight with themselves, not on the same side. Or maybe fifty years have passed, and no one recognizes him anymore.

Have you really been asleep for fifty years? I have been in a deep sleep for the past 50 years, and what happened outside?

In fact, this is not to blame Julio, here the herring network has given enough hints, the dragon bird is a kind of phoenix in Chinese legends, in the world view of "Getaway", the phoenix clan of the demon clan has six branches, red vermilion, cyan Qingluan, yellow bird, white bird, purple cormorant, and black dragon bird. Among them, the dragon finch is the most ferocious, and when it spreads its black wings as an adult, the sun, moon and stars will be covered by it.

And as a kind of phoenix, the dragon bird will naturally be reborn in Nirvana, and this rebirth is fifty years.

At least now Julio knows this, fifty years have passed, and he is not human.

He knew where he should go next, the Yellow Emperor had already built the imperial city, and then look for his own tribe, his tribe was a demon.

……

Julio left Sleeping Leaf Village, and of course he completed some side quests to enrich his supplies. There is also a temple on the edge of the village, and when the dragon bird walks in, he hears a female voice ringing in his ears, telling him to solve the puzzle and unlock his abilities.

There are a total of 33 such temples in the entire game, and the one in Sleeping Leaf Village is only one of them.

The 33 temple constellations correspond to the 28 constellations, the 3 of the three walls, the upper wall Taiwei wall, the middle wall purple wall and the lower wall Tianshi wall, plus the two main stars Sun and Moon, a total of 33 seats.

There are 223 main stars in the 28 constellations, and there are 140 main stars in Sanyuan, plus the sun and Taiyin, which correspond to a total of 365 stars in the sky.

Mianye Village is located in the mountains of Zhuolu Mountain, and Zhuolu is located in the Eastern Plain in the world of "Getaway", so the temple corresponds to the Antares of the Seven Nights of the Eastern Qinglong Star Palace.

The puzzles here also use fire, which is an enhancement of the player's early game skills, not difficult, in addition to the basic operation of the flame, it also tests the player's operation, and there is a turbulent underground river passing through the temple, and there are several protruding stones in the river, which will be submerged soon after stepping on it, so the player needs to have an accurate continuous jump ability, and there are certain requirements for direction and jump control.

However, it is still not difficult for Julio, who passed it once, and after passing this postgraduate examination, Dragon Sparrow has also improved his ability.

Antares symbolizes perseverance and hard work, so the dragon sparrow's stamina is enhanced, and he can run longer distances in a sprint.

Then he learned that such temples are scattered in many places in the land of Shenzhou, and through them, they can get some ability enhancements, which is the filling of this world by the game development team. A vast open world, if you can't fill it with the corresponding content, players can easily feel tired and bored as they run and shuttle through it. In addition to the abundance of side quests, one of the best ways to do this is to add a lot of mazes that will allow them to enhance their abilities, and after passing the test, they will be able to increase their abilities accordingly.

In addition to the values of blood volume and stamina, there are also some abilities that do not affect the awakening of the main line, such as light skills, several stages of atmosphere, and when you reach a higher level, you can let the dragon sparrow take off directly, and then soar over this land, with all the scenery in full view. Of course, this also requires enough endurance support, otherwise after the stamina is exhausted, it will fall directly and fall to death.

Or some advanced skills in battle, which can form more flashy combos, dealing higher damage to enemies and a greater range of damage.

These things are scattered throughout the world and are up to the player to explore.

Many times they want to go to point A to complete a character, but on the way they see another place, and there is something that attracts them, so they go to point B, complete the challenge, and get a reward, which is not only in-game, but also psychological. This includes completing puzzles, the sense of accomplishment gained by relying on intelligence, or the fact that a sign on the map is lit up again, and the completion of the game increases.

This is what Ye Shenxi wants, and the player has entered a virtuous circle because of this. Curiosity is stimulated, then explored, curiosity is satisfied, fun is gained, game experience and skill proficiency are accumulated, and then the next higher difficulty challenge and puzzle is ignited to the next step of curiosity.

It's hard to drive the player's exploration behavior in an open world, which is something that all open world RPGs have to face, not only the story will be affected, but also the experience of the whole game.

In other linear games, such as Tomb Raider such as New Year's Call or Uncharted series, because it is linear, the pace of the game has always been the way the game developers have set it, wave after wave of challenges, intricately designed levels and suspense, these rhythms are all controllable.

Therefore, these games can keep players in a long climax, that is, the most essential parts of the game, one by one, wave after wave, rhythmically presented to the players.

You can't do it in an open world, you can't control the player before challenging a boss, he wants to go to the bar big name, or on the way to save his comrades, and then run to chop wood and raise horses, facing the sea, spring flowers bloom.

All open-world sandbox games have to face such a dilemma. So Ye Shenxi's approach is like this, the promotion of the plot flow is only secondary, he puts a lot of interesting things into the player's own curiosity-driven exploration, and allows them to have fun in it and get rewards.

It's something we've been born with since birth, and this spontaneous act of exploration enriches the world, filling this huge world with more than just the dialogue of the NPCs in the side quests, and then running away, fighting monsters and challenging bosses, which of course are also in Getaway, but it's more than that.

……

Unbeknownst to Julio, the sky outside the window had shimmered.

He has already arrived in the Zhuolu Imperial City, and like the information that has been exposed before, it is a magnificent and outstanding capital. In this prosperous imperial city, people of various races, aliens and demons are all mixed together, and it is true that as the villagers of Mianye Village said, Shenzhou ushered in peace after that catastrophe.

However, Julio is puzzled by the fact that when talking to the NPC doors in the city, they have an abnormal attitude towards themselves, and they are a little surprised, even disgusted, and afraid.

He felt that something was wrong.

Sure enough, when he went to the imperial city to report his identity, he was arrested by the soldiers and put into a dark dungeon. He heard the soldiers guarding him chatting and said, "I really didn't expect that there would be remnants of the Ancient Demon Clan now. ”

He knew that the world was different from what he had imagined.

This is a great era of human religion, all things in heaven and earth are under the rule of the human race, and after the demon clan helped the two emperors of Yan and Huang to fight against the great witch tribes led by Chi You, they also ushered in the cleansing of their race.

Over the years, it has been difficult for people to see the ancient demon clan appear in the world again.

They were originally the gods in charge of the heavenly court, but since the fall of the ancestor Nuwa to make up for the heavenly body, and the fall of the various demon emperors and demon sages in another catastrophe called the "Lich War", the clansmen could only rely on the powerful force to survive, and after the battle of Zhuolu, the swords and guns were put into storage, the horses were put into Nanshan, and the rabbits and dogs were cooked.

This is no longer their time.

The prosperity outside was just an illusion for them.

The dragon bird found an exit in the dungeon and escaped from the Zhuolu Imperial City from the underground, embarking on another part of his journey of exile and finding his kindred.

This story, for them, is understood, is the exiled Jews. Stories from different cultural backgrounds need to be transformed, so that they can empathize with each other.

In fact, this is also what Ye Shenxi expected before.