Recently, a WeChat mini-game called "Sheep and Sheep" has become popular all over the Internet.

Due to the fire, the server crashed 3 times in 2 days, and the official began to urgently recruit back-end server development.

　　The first game screen of "Sheep and Sheep"

　　"Actually, the game is very simple. You can click to eliminate the three identical patterns. If you can't get the three patterns, put them in the seven candidate slots at the bottom. If all seven slots are full, the game It failed." said Xiao Wang, who was reluctant to put down his mobile phone from 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

　　The second game screen of "Sheep is a sheep"

　　The reason for the popularity of this small game is not how novel the gameplay is, but the extremely difficult customs clearance.

　　The first level of the game is actually a tutorial on how to play, but when the player reaches the second level, the difficulty increases linearly.

According to the official introduction, "Sheep for a Sheep" is a super-difficult mini-game to clear the level, with a clearance rate of less than 0.1%.

　　Many game lovers said bluntly: "After playing the game for so many years, I haven't encountered a situation where I can't even pass the second level of the game." Some people joked: "The first level feels like it is insulting my IQ, the second level. It feels like it's still insulting my IQ."

How did "sheep get a sheep" addictive to players?

　　The popularity of WeChat mini-games is not an exception. In 2017, the launch of the WeChat mini-program was also popular for a while.

According to QuestMobile data, as of March 2018, “Diao Yijing” has accumulated 390 million players, creating a “first” for WeChat mini-games.

　　At the same time, the gameplay of "sheep and sheep" has taken shape very early.

Whether it is the earliest arcade Chinese dragon, or the elimination games such as mahjong matching that appeared later, all have similar game cores.

　　Tang Yu, a mobile game entrepreneur, head of Kaitian Creation Group and Kaitian Boutique Studio, analyzed in an interview with Guoshi Express that although "sheep and sheep" have similarities with other elimination games, they are more Most of them use the psychological characteristics of players to become more and more courageous, and the powerful social attribute blessing to open up the blue ocean market, bringing "viral" spread.

　　In Tang Yu's view, there are three reasons for the popularity of "a sheep and a sheep":

　　——Accumulate the player's sense of frustration, make the player more frustrated and brave, and improve the sense of achievement in customs clearance.

Before, there was no small game in China that could really make users feel such a strong sense of frustration, thus amplifying the excitement step by step.

"Sheep for a sheep" is the first.

　　Compared with the game products of major manufacturers such as Nintendo and Ubisoft, I have to admit that the game experience of "sheep and sheep" is not as good as the former.

But why is it so popular?

　　Tang Yu believes that "Sheep for a Sheep" draws on the user psychology of well-known games such as "Wolf" and "Dark Soul", increases the difficulty of "Boss", accumulates players' frustration, and makes players more courageous.

At the same time, users are encouraged to continue trial and error in the game, leaving enough suspense, and always giving users a psychological hint that they can successfully pass the level.

　　- Powerful offline social competition mechanism.

When users are playing games, most players have a competitive mentality of "getting ahead" and "being the boss". "Sheep leads a sheep" successfully captured the psychology of these users and divides the user population by province.

　　In the game start interface, there is a front page of "The Strongest King" displayed.

As of press time on the morning of the 17th, the "Shandong Sheep Team" occupies the top spot in the flock. Since the front-end page of "The Strongest King" is divided by province, some players from the same province have specially established some WeChat groups to play games.

Not only does it stimulate social competition among users in different provinces, but users who pass the game will also feel the "virtual honor" obtained from the social field.

　　——The level has strong thinking.

Tang Yu believes that the rhythm control of sharing and watching videos is particularly good.

Disrupting the bricks, sorting out the fields to be selected, and undoing the bricks, each game can only share or watch the video once, and after the "slot is full" in the field to be selected, there is also a function of reviving by sharing or watching the video.

　　Most players who are stuck in the second level will think when playing the game: "If I make a mistake in this step, should I consider using props, sharing or watching videos to make up for the mistakes in the game." In the process of continuous trial and error It will naturally increase the user's stickiness to the game.

　　How long can the popularity of "sheep get a sheep" last?

　　Behind the popularity of "sheep is a sheep" also attracted scolding.

Some game reviewers thought the game was "plagiarism" and "just luck".

What's more, "the sheep is a sheep" has ruined the Chinese game.

　　The relevant person in charge of the company that developed the game "Sheep and Sheep" denied the plagiarism.

The person in charge said that the game "Sheep and Sheep" uses the most basic gameplay. If the "connecting into three" gameplay is plagiarized, then there are too many games like this.

　　A screenshot circulated on the Internet shows that the revenue of the "Sheep's Goat" applet reached more than 4.68 million yuan on September 14, and this month's revenue was as high as more than 25.65 million yuan.

Subsequently, Ma Huateng commented on the relevant circle of friends: It was verified that it was forged for PS.

　　How long can the "sheep get a sheep" that has experienced news such as "server crash", "plagiarism" and "alarm Ma Huateng"?

　　Some Zhihu commenters believe that "Sheep and Sheep" is currently a successful game, and the essential reason is luck + routine blessing, but there is no guarantee that the combination of hot searches + difficult mini-games + location-based rankings will continue. success.

　　From the perspective of the user side, it is difficult to continue to promote the click of advertisements by increasing the difficulty. After a while, it is difficult to continue to spend time on small games.

The advantage of mini games is that they are simple. Even if more peripheral content is added, it is still unknown whether users can continue to be retained.

　　Zhihu commentator "Mr. Krypton" also introduced that in recent years, some games on the STEAM platform are also designed with the original intention of "bringing pain to players", such as "Jump King" or "digging for improvement", but these The levels of the game are still passable.

"Sheep and Sheep" really made a level that was almost impossible to pass mechanically.

In a sense, this is a violation of some basic principles of game design.

　　"There may be many imitators in the future. There may also be more people who follow this line of thinking and change to another gameplay prototype." "Mr. Krypton" said bluntly.

　　Tang Yu also believes: "The viral spread of 'sheep and a sheep' between social media has successfully brought most people into the pit. But the game itself lacks core competitiveness, and it wants to continue just by increasing the difficulty of the game. It is unrealistic to be popular. Today's 'sheep is a sheep' is popular all over the network, and other game companies can follow suit tomorrow and launch 'a pig's a pig' and 'a cow's a cow' at any time, how to retain users at that time? "