This article is reproduced from Entertainment Capital
Last weekend, a casual game called "Synthetic Watermelon" became popular. The source of "Synthetic Watermelon" has been untestable. Some people noticed it from a hot search on Weibo, some from the Douban group, and others because they saw the anchor they usually follow playing.
The gameplay of "Synthetic Big Watermelon" is very simple. Randomly dropped fruits are synthesized. The ultimate goal is to synthesize as many watermelons as possible. Once the fruit piles up and hits the line during the process, the game is considered a failure, and the accumulated fruit is counted in the total score.
However, it is such a simple game that has received 196,000 discussions and 740 million readings on Weibo related super chats. Many young people have participated in sharing more or less in the circle of friends and WeChat groups. "Synthetic Watermelon" took only two days and became the first hot game in the beginning of 2021.
Surprisingly, this little game is not self-developed by Tencent, but comes from a company called Midou Technology. The mini-game platforms launched by Midou Technology, Biyi Interactive and Wei Umbrella mini-games, are full of cheap mini-games. According to the homepage of its official website, "Synthetic Watermelon" quickly accumulated more than 15 million players in two days, which is a surprising result for any game that no one knows about.
Whenever casual games are mentioned, the first game company that people think of is Tencent. On the WeChat platform, Tencent often uses some extremely simple gameplay to create new miracles. "WeChat Plane" and "Jump Jump" are the representatives. But this Midou Technology does not have the strong channel resources of Tencent, and it is not easy to achieve such results.
The popularity of "Synthetic Watermelon" once again proves the vitality of casual games in China. However, this popular casual game on the whole network is no longer a marketing after careful calculation. Why are people keen to play this game? On this topic, the Prophet of the Matrix of Entertainment Capital had a conversation with more than 20 players who had played "Synthetic Watermelon".
From sharing to fission, what is the mentality behind tap water?
By observing the topic fermentation of "Synthetic Watermelon", it is not difficult to find that from players' spontaneous sharing to fission to topic generation, "Synthetic Watermelon" has a complete WeChat dissemination link, and finally leverages the billion-level traffic on social media. , Reached a rapid spread.
The "Synthetic Watermelon" link circulated on the Internet is essentially a trial link on the Microumbrella game platform. Therefore, the game does not have an opening screen, and the mechanism of friend ranking and sharing on social media is even more difficult to talk about. Even so, players are still willing to share their scores and various situations encountered in the game on social platforms.
Observing the gameplay, the game mechanics of "Synthetic Watermelon" is basically 2048+ to eliminate music. The type of fruit it drops has a gradual curve. Most players who post scores on social networks can synthesize a complete watermelon, but how to synthesize a second watermelon is the difficulty of the entire game.
The greatest joy the game brings to players is the synthetic combo caused by the drop of a fruit. Since it is impossible to determine the specific drop position of the fruit, the refreshing feeling when forming a combo will be further improved.
This has contributed to user sharing to a certain extent: a mentality is because users can score super high, and sharing is for showing off. The other is that players encounter difficulties during the game and want to share their eagerness.
At the same time, the gameplay of "Synthetic Watermelon" is simple, the page is very simple, and it only needs a link to spread. This zero-threshold spread of easy sharing and no tutorials also allows the game to quickly fission.
With the expansion of the population brought about by the viral spread, more players have participated in the process of topic creation. Even in the "simplistic" small game "Synthetic Watermelon", players have discovered a different "evil way" gameplay.
For example, some players have found that playing with an iPad can make the fruit fall longer. When playing on the iPad, the player can also move the fruit to a certain point in the level, so that the drop location is more accurate. There are also many users actively exploring the position of the fruit falling switch that can be caused by flipping the screen, which helps to get high scores faster. These fancy "strategies" also allow more people to participate in discussion and re-creation.
Under "Synthetic Big Watermelon", players have made various emoticons for this game, most of which express the frustration of not being able to put two close fruits into one. The smallest unit of grapes has become this mood. The protagonist.
From sharing scores to social network fission and then to players' self-made stalks, the topic and word of mouth of "Synthetic Watermelon" has gradually increased.
At the end of the year, there is an urgent need for decompression, and the popularity of "fishing" makes casual games more popular
In fact, behind the crazy sharing of players is also the special emotional boost that is approaching the new year. The prophet Youbao chatted with 20 friends in the entertainment community and found that most of the users who have played "Synthetic Watermelon" have recently been working crazy overtime, and some people even had to work on Saturday. They hope to get some decompression tools, and the appearance of "Synthetic Watermelon" happens to fill this gap.
Many players stayed up until three in the middle of the night for "Synthetic Watermelon". Although they deviated from the original intention of depressing and killing the fragmented time, after alleviating the pressure of work, players will choose Crazy Amway "Synthetic Watermelon".
There are also friends who told the prophet Youbao that they also tried other mini-umbrella games, such as "Shaved Legs" and "The Perfect Match". They found that other mini games are also very "magic" and are very helpful for stress reduction.
On weekdays, the popularity of "Synthetic Watermelon" is unabated. Some players said that they were very tired at work, especially at the end of the year and they were unwilling to work. It is naturally impossible to play large-scale games. "Synthetic Watermelon" gives everyone a chance to "fish in".
Players’ feedback is not difficult to see that most of the “workers” are under great pressure near the Spring Festival, especially since many people have finished their work for a year and cannot return home due to the epidemic. A casual game like "Synthetic Watermelon" turned out to be a response to most people's desire to decompress and "fishing".
There is no archive and often freezes, what adjustments need to be made for the big watermelon?
Whenever this kind of casual game becomes popular, people will explore whether there is a precise marketing story behind it. When investigating the mini umbrella game, the author once had similar doubts. When you open the official website of Umbrella Games, it is not difficult to find that their HMTL5 mini games are more used for brand promotion and fan activities.
According to the information given by Umbrella Games, their mini games can be inserted into the activity page of the company. Put rewards in the game, fans can participate in the "try your luck" lottery with certain results; after winning the rewards, they can guide players to pay attention to WeChat official accounts or mobile website pages; at the same time, some games also support the placement of brands in the game page information.
With so many small game resources in hand, Midou Technology does not put eggs in a basket. Wei Umbrella Mini Game Platform and Biz Interactive are their mini game platforms. The play link in the mini game platform is the same as the experience game trial link on the main site.
From the above situation, it is not difficult to see that although Micro Umbrella Games has also launched a casual mini-game platform, the major players supporting their revenue are still cooperating with the brand's promotion. As of press time, no brand has been exposed. It can be basically confirmed that the popularity of "Synthetic Watermelon" has nothing to do with promotion cooperation.
Another proof of this conclusion comes from "502" in "Synthetic Watermelon". On Sunday, users of Douban Goose Group reported that the webpage of "Synthetic Watermelon" could not be opened for a while. The reason is not difficult to guess. The influx of more than tens of millions of users between two days caused the HMTL5 mini game "Synthetic Watermelon" to crash directly. If "Synthetic Watermelon" is really supported by a pusher, then the server crash will not exist. To this day, "Synthetic Big Watermelon" often suffers from lag.
Perhaps it is a coincidence that the case of "Synthetic Watermelon" is more interesting. Such a "simplistic" HMTL5 mini game can become a hot topic of discussion on the entire network without marketing promotion. The "magic" of the game itself and the integrity of the communication link play a decisive role.
In the process of communicating with players, many fans of "Synthetic Watermelon" said that they urgently need a smooth WeChat applet. When playing "Synthetic Watermelon" on mobile phones, there will still be various lags.
In fact, the WeChat Mini Game has its own WeChat Mini Program, but it is not available to WeChat users of the iOS version. After the game is completely popular, whether to allow more players to experience these mini games smoothly is also a difficult problem for Midou Technology, although their original business did not expect so many new users to enter.
Casual games have always been the most intimate type in the game field. It's not that "Synthetic Watermelon" completely went to the players, but the players accidentally discovered this "decompression tool". The ease of sharing, the "magic" of the gameplay, and the re-fermentation of the players' word-of-mouth form a complete communication link for "Synthetic Watermelon". The demand for casual games has always been there. Let us wait and see who the next "Synthetic Watermelon" is.