Author: Liu Xiaojie
After "Goose and a Sheep", another small game "goose goose duck" ("Goose and Duck Kill") has become a frequent visitor to the recent hot search list.
This is a party game similar to Werewolf, produced by a small foreign team Gaggle Studios, it can support 4-16 players to play together online.
Like many popular mini-games, "Goose and Duck Kill" is popularized by the anchor, but how long it will be popular is still a question.
Game analyst Zhang Shule told China Business News that "Goose and Duck Kill" is a small casual game, and the key to its life cycle is to see whether the gameplay experience has a new "sense of chance encounter" and obtain more possibilities through social games.
Some players believe that casual games like "Goose and Duck Kill" are not very competitive, they are mainly for socializing with friends, there are not many points to dig deeper, and the life cycle is at most a few months.
Unlike many large-scale games with many story lines and strong playability, the life cycle will be longer.
Chinese players flock to Goose and Duck Kill
On January 2, #鹿鸡杀# topped the hot search list due to the influx of players causing the server to crash. On the evening of January 3, the game server crashed again, and a large number of players could not log in to the game normally. , #鹿鸡杀# once again topped the list, and as of press time, the topic of #鹿鸡杀# has exceeded 400 million views.
Several game server crashes are mainly due to the large number of Chinese players joining.
Earlier, Herbert, a member of the game development team, posted that the game server reached capacity, with 100,000 more players than expected.
Later, in a statement, it thanked Chinese players and responded to the recent server crash.
Herbert said that the team was "flattered" by the love of Chinese players for the game. The team underestimated the pressure on the server caused by the influx of players into the game. I worked day and night during the time, hoping to solve problems such as login and game disconnection as soon as possible.”
Zhang Shule told China Business News that party games have their own unique game flavors, such as "Crazy Rabbit" that can be aggregated offline, and "Goose and Duck Killing" that can "kill online werewolves". The taste of social games is not difficult to become popular, but it is more difficult to get out of the circle.
""Goose and Duck Killing" is out of the circle in the Chinese market, perhaps more because Chinese players of the Z generation have certain habits after being incubated in board games, and have a strong interest in a differentiated experience with a different taste." Zhang Shule said.
Statistics from Steamdb show that in late December 2022, the peak number of online players in "Goose and Duck Kill" exceeded 180,000, and on the evening of January 3, the number of online players in the game had exceeded 470,000, comparable to "Apex Heroes" and "PUBG" etc. A lot of game masterpieces rank among the Top 15 online players on Steam.
The rich settings and social effects of the game "Goose and Duck Kill" are one of the reasons for its out-of-the-box.
The game background of "Goose and Duck Kill" is that a group of big geese are building spaceships and preparing to go to space, but ducks and other birds are mixed in. According to different camps, players need to work together with their "self" to complete a series of tasks. So as to win the victory for their own camp.
Although the game setting is similar to Werewolf Killing and the previous multiplayer online game "Space Werewolf Killing", "Goose and Duck Killing" is not a simple copy. Based on the classic mode of Werewolf Killing, the game has more than 30 kinds of games In addition to the good guy (goose) and the bad guy (duck), the occupations have joined the third-party spoiler camp, such as "dull bird" and "pelican". The gameplay is far beyond the werewolf killing.
Three-party camps, different job settings, and up to 16 players can join each game at the same time, which makes the game of "Goose and Duck Kill" more game-like, and the game process is often full of unexpected emergencies Situation, the anchor's live broadcast is also very dramatic, many clips of "funny famous scenes" have been put on platforms such as Station B, and the most clips have received more than 660,000 views, which once again boosted the popularity of "Goose and Duck Kill".
Game anchor "bring goods" became popular
In fact, "Goose and Duck Kill" is not a new game. The game was launched as early as October 21, but it has been unknown until the end of 2022, when it suddenly became popular and ushered in a large number of Chinese players.
There are many factors for the explosion of "Goose and Duck" this time, but the main reason is the "bringing goods" of domestic game anchors, as well as the secondary creation and dissemination of some live clips.
On Steam, some domestic players commented that this game is currently very popular in China, and many people entered it after watching other anchors such as APEX and Douyu Da Sima make it popular.
Game anchors "carrying goods" are not new in the game industry. Casual games such as "Space Werewolf" ("Among Us"), "Jelly Bean: Ultimate Knockout" and "Animal Party" are all popularized by anchors.
Some players told China Business News that these casual games are highly interactive, and the live broadcast can have a better program effect, so they can often bring goods successfully.
The game anchor bringing goods itself is a major marketing model in the game industry. Zhang Shule said that the starting point of the live broadcast industry was the game anchor. , The global popularity of eating chicken games.
For "Goose and Duck Kill", the "bringing goods" of the popular anchor this time is indispensable.
In December 2022, the development team Gaggle Studios, in order to thank the anchor for "bringing goods", issued an announcement stating that it will launch the exclusive skin of "Goose and Duck Kill" for Xiao Tuantuan, Da Sima, and PDD. Sales are not open.
After Da Sima and other top anchors brought "Goose and Duck Kill" out of the circle, almost most of the anchors have been playing "Goose and Duck Kill" in the past month, including dota2, Hearthstone, League of Legends, kpl and other anchor circles. It set off an upsurge in killing geese and ducks.
#鹿鸭杀组成KPL团建# has also been on the hot search recently, and the KPL players formed their own goose and duck kills to open the black game, and the effect of the program is full.
In addition, the explosion of "Goose and Duck" is also inseparable from its business model.
The earlier multiplayer online werewolf killing game "Space Werewolf Killing" adopted a buyout system, but "Goose and Duck Killing" is different, using a free + in-app purchase model, and its low threshold can attract more players to try the water .
The main payment point for in-app purchases in "Goose and Duck Kill" is the sale of skins and decorations, which will not affect the player's game experience.
It is worth mentioning that although Simplified Chinese is supported, this product does not have a national server. Domestic players also need the help of an accelerator if they want to play freely. This also makes the server stability of "Goose and Duck Kill" a big problem. With the recent increase in the number of players, repeated crashes have also affected the experience of many domestic players.
The party game is a multiplayer online mode that requires strong server support. As a small team, Gaggle Studios, after the explosion, with the influx of players, how to continue to operate and maintain the game and ensure the player experience is the team's challenge Big problem.
At the same time, like many popular small games before, how long "Goose and Duck Kill" can be popular is still a question.
There have been many werewolf killing games that have been popular in the past two years, such as "Space Werewolf", which exploded at the end of 2020. The number of global monthly active users once reached 1 billion, but the popularity began to decline precipitously after three months.
Casual games often don’t have many gameplays that can be tapped. Will “Goose and Duck Kill” be forgotten after a short burst of popularity like most games?
Zhang Shule said that the key to the life cycle of "Goose and Duck Kill" is to see whether the gameplay experience has a sense of new encounters in the game, constantly unlocking or upgrading new functions, and maintaining the freshness, which tests the team's innovation and operational capabilities.