Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Fortunately, when the Summer Spark event was finalized, Arknights also made event plans.

Therefore, during this long hiatus, the content was replenished very promptly.

From the player's perspective, the players of Arknights in this world are also very lucky, because under normal circumstances, according to Spark's update logic.

The next major version should be released in October.

But now, because of the summer sparks.

Arknights also received an update two weeks after the game's launch.

The main content of this update is, of course, still Summer Spark.

In addition to the regular swimsuit skins.

Most importantly, there's the integrated strategy gameplay themed around the Mysterious Island.

"Hey, this mode is really addictive! I think it's even more fun than progressing through the story. I'll send you an invitation, can you click it for me? I want to get an item."

The message arrived on Zhou Shenlin's WeChat shortly after he finished speaking.

It's a link, but you can't open it directly with WeChat; you need to copy it to an external browser.

Yes... Penguin has started blocking Spark from using its communication tools.

"Let me see if your mode is fun."

Zhou Shenlin also plays Arknights.

But he didn't really like tower defense games, and after playing through the story for a while, he put it aside.

So even though my roommate recommended it.

He simply clicked on the link.

Then I started looking at my roommate's phone screen.

~~~

Integration strategy.

Originally, it was a roguelike mode that Arknights launched in August 2020 in its previous version.

Many Arknights players in later generations jokingly referred to the game as a "roguelike starter," which is also related to this mode.

In fact, in Lin Li's view...

Adding a roguelike mode to the game is a very smart move.

On the one hand, the roguelike mode can exist semi-independently from the rest of the game.

It can also, to some extent, address the lack of a robust mechanism resulting from the pay-to-win model in games.

It allows players to enjoy the game without affecting their ability to spend money on in-game purchases.

It is both compromise and wisdom.

In 21, StarCraft Railway made roguelike mode a permanent feature.

23 years later, Back to the Future and Mingchao have basically made the Rogue mode a standard feature.

However, there are differences among different types of pigeons.

The Roguelike game Back to the Future was criticized by players for being too long, too drawn out, and not exciting enough.

The pigeons from Mingchao are highly praised.

Starry Sky Railway integrates roguelike characters into the training system, allowing players to farm relics.

but.

While pigeons are a good food, they shouldn't be overemphasized.

Because pigeons have an inherent disadvantage.

That's the most fun part, definitely the first time you beat the game.

After this phase, the novelty for players will quickly wear off.

However, for developers, the roguelike games they painstakingly update are lost because players consume them too quickly, thus losing the retention they desire.

As a result, many games have tied the output of roguelike mode to game items.

The goal is to encourage players to repeatedly farm through the rewards.

Thus, a fun mode, once the novelty wears off, becomes a burden for players.

Chapter 470 A Win-Win Situation

Every time the rewards refresh, I play a few rounds, collect all the rewards, and then leave it aside.

Therefore, Lin Li did not adopt a permanent approach to the method of adding roguelike characters to service-based games.

It's an event-limited event.

Just like the Arknights Summer Spark event "Mysterious Island".

There are two advantages to using limited-time events.

One is that the roguelike mode is different in each event, which keeps things fresh for players.

The saying goes, "What you can't have always seems more alluring."

Even if players get tired of a particular version of Roguelike, once the event ends and they can no longer farm it, they will look forward to the next Roguelike mode after a while.

Secondly, it's because each event inherently involves releasing resources to attract player activity.

Since we're going to release resources anyway.

Instead of assigning it to boring activities or tasks.

It would be better to put it in this roguelike mode, which would not only attract players online, but also make players feel that Spark is very generous.

Take this Spark Summer event as an example.

This time, the reward for clearing the stage in Arknights is a swimsuit skin.

In addition, throughout the "Mysterious Island" mode, players can obtain jade by completing different endings, achieving different completion times, or even accomplishing different achievements.

In addition, there are skin discount coupons corresponding to different stages.

These benefits that were originally intended for players have been repackaged by Spark using this model, with the addition of some sign-in rewards and daily event tasks.

The game's sense of activity immediately increased, and the abundant rewards made players eagerly anticipate this roguelike mode from the very beginning of the event's announcement.

After seeing the rewards, players immediately jumped right in.

In addition, the slightly optimized Roguelike mode of Arknights, developed by Spark, is of very high quality and quickly absorbed all the incoming traffic.

Originally, they joined the "integrated strategy" simply for the reward, but now they are all saying that it's addictive, truly addictive.

~~~

The FGO event is a mini Holy Grail War centered around a mysterious island.

The event in Azur Lane is a nautical chess game.

The Girls' Frontline event is the 1.85 version update and a celebratory event.

The Arknights event is the first roguelike mode.

The Seven-Day Capital naturally also ushered in new events.

The Summer Spark themed event in the entire Seven Days City is divided into two sections.

One is a swimsuit storyline.

The other option is to separate the new combat system from the original Seven Days City and create a large-map online defense and monster-hunting mode centered around the combat system.

It supports up to 10 players online.

Players are born on an island and face a constant stream of monsters crawling up from the sea. They level up by fighting monsters and choosing different skills.

Overall, it's still a swipe-swipe-swipe mode.

However, in this mode, the skills that players can obtain by leveling up are all extremely ridiculous.

What weapon has its attack range increased by 100% and its attacks are accompanied by lightning and fire?

In short, do whatever makes you feel good.

The points earned from defeating monsters can be exchanged for event items, and there is also a small chance of obtaining equipment while defeating monsters.

In general.

This online event by Spark Games brought players a lot of surprises.

Unlike most second-generation games, Spark did not...

The summer special offers are hyped up to be exaggerated, but they're really just a short story segment with some swimsuit skins designed to trick people into spending money.

All of this update.

It can be said that it has all the gameplay options, the fun factor, and the perks.

of course.

To boost revenue, Xinghuo has added a significant amount of paid content in this update.

Swimsuit skins, interactive furniture, gameplay skins, various event packs, double rewards upon reset, and some new gameplay modes, such as the Azur Lane naval chess mode, the Arknights integrated strategy mode, and the Seven Days City island defense mode, all require the characters used to be characters that the player already owns.

This attracts players to acquire more characters.

Even so, due to gameplay updates and the fact that monetization is mainly focused on emotional and cosmetic purchases, the game still has a long way to go.

As a result, these pay-to-win features have not only not been criticized by players, but have also provided players who have enjoyed the game with another outlet for their frustrations.

Moreover, it's not just Spark Games that's doing the Summer Spark themed event.

In fact.

Starting early this morning, the entire Xinghuo platform launched its Summer Xinghuo Mega Sale.

The Spark platform and the manufacturers distributed a large number of site-wide discount coupons, each bearing half of the cost.

Login players receive a ¥10 discount card for every ¥20 spent. They can also participate in various activities, such as purchasing single-player games, completing star card collections, and accumulating playtime.

You can also enter a lucky draw to win coupons with a maximum discount of 100 yuan off purchases of 200 yuan or more.

For Xinghuo, this was a costly marketing campaign undertaken to boost sales.

To know.

The discount coupons offered by Spark are quite different from those frequently issued by EPIC in its previous life.

EPIC's discounts can only be used to purchase games.

The discount coupon from Xinghuo can be used to recharge your game account.

For example, everyone has a coupon for 10 yuan off when you spend 20 yuan.

You can rush into Battlefront Girls, Honkai Impact 3, Girl Cafe Gun, or even the remastered version of JX3 by Seasun Games.

Of course, only those logging into the joint server with a Spark account can enjoy this benefit.

but no matter.

These coupons, which are essentially equivalent to a 50% discount, can be combined with in-game benefits from game developers, making it incredibly cost-effective.

Therefore, many players received the coupons.

Without hesitation, we charged straight in.

So why is it said that this event was extremely costly for Spark?

Because once players use the coupons in games other than Spark.

That spark will incur costs.

Take a player who uses a coupon offering a 10% discount on purchases of 20 RMB or more to recharge in Honkai Impact 3rd as an example.

This 10 yuan coupon.

It's divided into two parts. The 5 yuan subsidy from miHoYo is essentially a cost that comes from the consumer, not a cost at all.

The 5 yuan subsidy from Spark is real money going to miHoYo.