Tsum Tsum Stadium

Like regular Tsum Tsum, but competing with 49 other players!

Plenty of new features with this game, it uses the same base mechanics as the original Tsum Tsum game, but this time adding a competitive edge. Innovative incorporation of Battle Royal without the need to hurt anyone else. 50 players are gathered for each round, players are then ranked by overall score at the end of a fixed time. Players can now use 2 Tsums instead of 1, and everyone has their own customizable avatar, how cool is that!

Art style represents a performance in a stadium, with lots of colorful bright lights with heavy use of blue. Shapes are rounded, with a little pop up effect, resembling the shape of the Tsums themselves. Information is displayed clearly, and every round feels very rewarding even if the player didn’t win.

Developer: LINE | Publisher: LINE | Platform: Mobile

第九所 (Ninth District?)

Going through the 60s trying to get to Mars

Interesting sandbox survival management game set in the early 60s when China was going through Cultural Revolution. The location is in a remote dessert with enough space for multiple factories and workers to build their way to Space. The game brings the player through the Cultural Revolution from the start with the Great Leap Forward (1958) focusing on industrialization. The player will then slowly go through the phases of revolution until ultimately they build a rocket. (I haven’t gotten that far yet.)

The game starts out with a book, therefore it makes sense to think of this as a diary, journaling the past, therefore the art style is worn and vintage looking. The details on every piece of paper are the most interesting part, all very simple and elegant. The art style suits the time period, whereby there was nothing too high tech, and everything was written in pen and paper. Big patches of color, NPCs have no faces, probably to represent Chinese culture of not standing out.

Developer: Netease | Publisher: Netease | Platform: iOS(China Only)

Tour of Neverland

Kinda like Harvest Moon, but on the phone!

Cute little mobile game that got me hooked for a while until progression got really boring. Has all the mechanics one can think of when it comes to a country life game: farming, fishing, rearing animals, bug catching, mining, and of course making friends with NPCs. The most interesting mechanic would be the energy system, whereby there are 2 bars: 1 for expendable energy that you can use now, and stored energy which will convert into expendable energy every few minutes. In order to gain energy, the character has to eat, which fills up both bars depending on the type of food consumed. Players have the option to purchase a digestion potion which instantly turns stored energy into expendable energy. Other monetization aspects include dressing up your character with gear that can help boost daily activities, buying supplies / resources to upgrade the farm, food items that restore energy.

Art style is cartoon-ish, cute, using highly saturated and bright colors to bring out a cheerful, upbeat mood. Icons are colorful, and shapes are all round, giving a friendly, approachable feel to the interface. The panels are slightly more muted compared to the HUD, with brown and cream as the main colors. UX wise, functions are compartmentalized properly, information is clear, and use of icons are appropriate. Overall use of simple gradients, no textures.

Developer: 上海锐战网络科技有限公司 | Publisher: Mars Game (HongKong) Network Technology Co., Ltd.

Genshin Impact

Impressions from the first few hours of Genshin Impact (China Server).

Before the game was released, many folks were comparing this game to Zelda, BOTW (and gathering a lot of hate). Personally speaking, after playing just a little bit of both, the thing that is most similar would be the art style, but that’s about it. A lot of mechanics are much, much simpler in Genshin (cooking doesn’t require experimenting, your equipment doesn’t break, dungeons are straightfoward just to name a few). The most obvious difference would be the characters (since Genshin relies on gacha to survive), each character has their own specialty element and weapon; with a total of 7 unique elements.

When I first went into the game, my initially thought was that the UI is clearly oversized for a big screen, but all for good reason knowing that it easily ports to mobile devices. I tried it out by sending these screenshots to my phone and it looks perfectly normal on the screen of the phone.

Overall, the UI is leaning towards simple, but what makes it aesthetically pleasing would be the effects applied in the game. For example, screens like the Character Properties screen would look dull as a screenshot, but with the constantly shifting particles in game, make it look like a very nice starry background. The transitions in-between are quick yet detailed, adding even more polish to the game. The characters are also aptly animated with idle animations and random movements, never a static moment in the game.

Whatever I write is only applicable to how much I’ve experienced so far, probably might change as I play more :)

Developer: miHoYo | Publisher: miHoYo | Engine: Unity