Source: 36 krypton
When we want to decompress, we are stressed by a super difficult game. Maybe it's time to think: Is my attention more valuable than advertising? writing ｜ Ali
edit ｜ DR
Source | New Weekly (ID: new-weekly ）
Cover Source ｜ Pixabay
"No one can pass the second level in this game."
In a word, let netizens jump into the same pit, even if they stumbled on "Sheep has a Sheep" more than a year ago.
As a master of time control, there are many small games "new pits" that can confuse people. Maybe it's Gao Fang's "Brick a Brick", maybe it's the cute "Fat Goose Gym", maybe it's the "Opening Nursery" for Xiaoxiaole to help children get into college, or maybe it's the recently popular "Catch Goose".
Similar to "A Sheep Gets a Sheep", players often need to gather the same items to eliminate them. The simple first level, the second level of hell difficulty, and the systematic ridicule after failure can always ignite a person's desire to win or lose.
However, the similarity is not enough. The "pit" in Catch the Goose is 3D, and many colorful objects of different sizes are piled in a pot. Players must be careful not to shake their hands when picking from it. What if there are no items in the interface that can make up a group of three? Then "shake the pan" - shake the phone vigorously until something is needed in the pan.
Different scenes in Catching the Goose. (Picture/Screenshot of the game "Catch the Goose" This "pot" is really good:
On social media, someone carefully collated the game introduction of Catch Goose, and soon won thousands of praises; Some people play until they can see the goose with their eyes closed. They dream of catching the goose; Some people published their own medical records, saying that they "caught a goose and got conjunctivitis" and "got tenosynovitis".
Along the road of "A Sheep Goes to a Sheep", new popular games emerge in endlessly. What's more surprising is that you think the popularity of "A Goat Has a Sheep" has passed. In fact, according to the weekly report of the game teahouse, it is still at the top of the popularity list of small leisure games.
Perhaps, the small game itself is not a new outlet, but as "Sheep has a Sheep" people gradually find the wealth code that provokes the players' desire to win or lose, this track is also welcoming more developers eager to try at a visible speed.
Who grabs the goose in the pot
If you want to talk about the applet game low, you can't say it too absolutely - after all, the audience of "A Goat" and "Catching a Goose" are not totally sunk, and many white-collar workers and college students who are addicted to it certainly don't think low.
What's low? It is not only 3A masterpiece that is called game.
Especially when you are in a hurry for "cultural strength", it is like drowning in water. A small game that can be played anytime and anywhere without downloading is often like a mouthful of fresh air at the right time. It is relaxing and decompressing. It can even provide a long lost desire to win or lose for migrant workers who have been employed.
Yes, "Catch the Goose" subtly adds some challenges to the simple way of playing.
For example, after completing the first level of "symbolic", the game will enter the second level of "hell difficulty", which is limited to 10 minutes. When there is no object to match, players need to sacrifice the "bumping pot" method or seek help from other props. In the words of netizens' guide, it is "put the mobile phone in the pose of taking a selfie, and swing the mobile phone back and forth", and click on the desired object while jerking.
The last time is still not enough? It's OK. You just need to see an advertisement to get more game duration, and then you can "hold the goose".
The player thinks that he has grasped the goose, but it is the game developer who really grasped the player. Obviously, they are familiar with human nature and know the routine of "slapping a sweet date" - when you can't find three identical items, you may find them by shaking your mobile phone, and then the pleasure of elimination will be further improved.
However, catching geese seems simple, but in fact, there are traps everywhere. Easy to touch by mistake, players will upgrade their devices and click accurately with tablets and capacitive pens. Seeing that there was not much left in the pot, more appeared after bumping the pot, which made people wonder how deep the bottom of the pot was. When you fail, Goose can also make fancy mockery, and many people will play again even though they know it is a provocation.
Catching the Goose is better than A Sheep Gets a Sheep, which also depends on the collection and playing method of limiting the number of games. When the player gets through the second level, the system will send a goose with beautiful design, but it does not encourage them to chase after the victory, instead, it shows that there is no game opportunity on that day. The player's sense of victory suddenly stops, and he is inevitably disappointed, always thinking about coming again the next day.
What's more, the geese that players can catch every day are even designed with different "daily limits". There are also many changes in the form of "pot", such as vegetables and fruits and iron pots, desserts and plates, commodities and supermarket shopping carts, and even barbecues, cultural games and other themes. Goose will also disguise as various items to hide in them. One player sighed: "I abandoned the tour and was cheated back by the limited vitality goose within a few days. People just can't refuse the limit."
In those days, "A Sheep Comes to a Sheep" fooled everyone with extreme difficulty, and was finally found that it might be a dead end at the beginning, and its reputation was backfired. But Catch the Goose learned a lesson wisely, and many players reported that as long as they passed the test once, they could pass it every day.
However, this method still needs to pay some price. Netizens took the initiative to study knowledge, summarized the ultimate strategy of "more sharing, more advertising, more props", and finally "bet on the next one, maybe we will catch".
Netizens showed their enthusiasm to study the introduction to Catch the Goose. (Picture/screenshot of social software) Players who have to share have made many social jokes. Someone accidentally sent it to the work group and found it the next morning. Some people send "Catch the Goose" to the official account of the postgraduate entrance examination, and the operator of the other party replies "Don't play, learn quickly". Someone brushed the post of "Catch the Goose and Catch the Conjunctivitis" and forwarded it to a friend, but the other party replied with the resurrection link of "Catch the Goose".
No way, sharing is always necessary. If you share with the same person every time, or click Cancel when you are pretending to share, the system will also prompt "Please share with more groups" and refuse to distribute props. Routines may not be popular, but they can make people pay action.
You can't cheat the system, Only the players themselves will be hooked.
And are you willing to share? It can only be said that the desire to win or lose, the sense of achievement, and the collection mania are all magic weapons to grasp people, which makes people know that it is a routine of social fission, and they are still happy to catch a goose.
Volunteer to watch advertisements and regret it sooner or later
People are "never tired" of watching advertisements - it seems that nothing is impossible in the world of small games as long as you have fun.
However, if you don't get enough happiness and find yourself spending a lot of time in vain, the biggest gain is to help others achieve the wealth myth, which makes you feel a little uncomfortable. For example, last year, it was said that the developer of "A Sheep Got a Sheep" was suspected of earning a suite, and many netizens who could not pass the test immediately broke the defense.
However, the huge demand will always bring a broad market. No matter whether the game is full or not, game developers can always make money as long as players are willing to spend time.
Watching advertisements to get props is a common way to play small games. (Picture/Screenshot of the game "Catch the Goose") In April this year, at the special session of the WeChat open class IAA games (also known as super casual games), the WeChat games team revealed that in the first quarter of 2024, the daily live users of small games increased by 20% year on year, The number of monthly active users of IAA small games reaches 500 million, and the total commercial volume of IAA small games in 2024 is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan - this is just the data of WeChat, while the market size of Tiaoyin small games in 2024 is expected to reach about 60 billion yuan.
The business model of IAA mini game is very simple. Just like its name, In App Advertising does not require users to pay for it, but relies on users to watch advertisements to gain revenue. In this way, players get the joy of the game and developers get the benefits of advertising, which seems to have the best of both worlds.
Because there is no version number, most of these small games can only rely on advertising for cash, and the current mode is also relatively simple, mainly to encourage users to look at advertising for game rewards. Recently, the linkage between Catching the Goose and Vigorous Forest in the game scene shows the commercial value of IAA mini games, which has been recognized by the market.
It is rare to directly request players to watch small games supported by advertisements, such as Catch the Goose. (Picture/Screenshot of the game "Catch the Goose") How much money can a popular game earn?
At the 2022 annual meeting of China's game industry, Zhang Jiaxu, the developer of The Goat, said that the initial investment cost of the game was 500000 yuan, and the revenue was earned only through advertising. By the beginning of 2023, the revenue had exceeded 100 million yuan. Another popular little game, "King of Salted Fish", relies on advertising and user recharge for mixed cash, and in October 2023, the total platform flow exceeded 400 million yuan.
With the current popularity of Catch the Goose, we can imagine that its income will not be less.
However, from the perspective of players, it is also possible to spend only half a minute watching advertisements. But in many cases, the advertisements they encounter include loans, vulgar novels and even marginal information, which is really not a good experience.
In contrast, it is a "normal" experience to encounter advertisements of another small game in a small game. The only thing you need to pay attention to is that if you can't help going in and playing for a few games, you may find the next small game when watching the advertisement, and be "tricked" at any time.
Some people even saw the pirated advertisement of "Catch the Goose" in the advertisement of "Catch the Goose", and claimed in the video that by downloading the app, 100 levels of "Catch the Goose" could be withdrawn thousands of yuan. This routine is not brilliant, but there will always be people who try it with a "just in case" mentality, and then when they have reached 100 levels, they will wait for the system prompt to queue up for audit, and the next temptation of "hitting 59 levels again will avoid audit withdrawal" - even if you have not been cheated and have paid a lot of time, you will know later that it is time to stop.
This is really low.
Someone saw the advertisement in Catch the Goose and was cheated by the pirated version of Catch the Goose. (Picture/screenshot of social software) In contrast, Catching the Goose, which only has the advertising time of "pulling", really gets more understanding. Even if some players complain online, they will encounter many "geese fans" who retort, "What's wrong with not allowing you to recharge and earn some advertising fees? Otherwise, people will develop games to generate electricity with love?"
Business is not power generation for love. The original intention of IAA games is to make money. To achieve the goal, it is natural to let users see more advertisements as better as possible.
To some extent, Catch the Goose is somewhat respectable for "making money standing up". After all, from ancient times to the present, from advertising soft articles, TV ads to video bloggers "just eating", it can make people willing to see the advertising routine, which has always been rare in the advertising communication industry.
The most important thing is how to always maintain "decency" in playability and commerciality. At least for the moment, after the popularity of Catch the Goose, it has not escaped the reputation of "ugly eating".
According to user feedback, the game level is becoming more and more difficult. Even after watching the advertisement, the props won't play a big role. "The developers have earned all the money, wasted all the time, and made us angry."
Finally, many people play games to relax their minds, but they return to the philosophy of "laying eggs or laying eggs": the purpose of players is to play games and the means is to watch advertisements, For developers, the goal is to let players see advertisements all the time, and the means are all good.
To put it bluntly, games, as a cultural carrier, are not suitable for being too desperate. If a game makes players understand this philosophical issue too clearly, it is not far away from players abandoning the game.
Of course, the track is full of legends of wealth, and a group of developers are still studying how to attract players. Even if we say goodbye to "A sheep" and "Catch a goose", the next one will come out soon.
Who can make money in the blue ocean of small games
In fact, for European and American players, small games with similar playing methods are no strangers. As early as 2013, a game called Flappy Bird became popular. It has the characteristics of simple and easy to play and cash in through advertising, and is considered to be the originator of IAA mini games. Since then, Facebook and Google have become the main battlefields of "super casual games" abroad.
In China, at the end of 2017, WeChat launched the small game function for the first time, and "Jump" was all the rage. In 2019, Tiao Yin also opened the applet function with the small game "Tiao Yin Qiu Qiu". Today, QQ, Alipay, Meituan and other apps can play small games, and even traditional game manufacturers have stepped down to get a piece of the cake, such as March 7 mutual entertainment, the perfect world, and so on.
Do you still remember "Jump" which was popular among friends on New Year's Day 2018? (Picture/Screenshot of Jump One Jump game) In February 2024, for the first time, the number of monthly users of WeChat games, which have only been developed for a few years, exceeded that of traditional app mobile games. Moreover, according to the data disclosed by Tencent and Diaoyin respectively, the overlap rate of paid users of small games and app games is very low.
This means that, Small games attract many users who don't play games at ordinary times. It is a track with full growth potential.
It is worth noting that this growth potential is not only "killing time", but also a large number of players for the small game "Krypton Gold". As early as 2019, some institutions studied the business chain of overseas small games, pointing out that about 20% of people will turn to IAP games with domestic purchase projects after playing IAA games. In other words, the wool will ultimately come from the sheep, and some people will sooner or later hand over their money, so that the game ecology can achieve sustainable development.
However, more and more developers have flocked to the small game track, and the blue ocean has become popular in a short time. Can everyone really make money? At least according to the current ecology, it is not difficult to infer that small games can only be realized through advertising, and they often advertise each other with the same kind. The income will inevitably achieve a dynamic balance, leading to the flow and income concentrated in the head of the money.
In the small game "Fat Goose Gym", players can recharge the blind box. (Picture/screenshot of the game "Fat Goose Gym") The customer acquisition cost of small games is also rising. In order to save costs, some poorly made games and their advertising content "wrong goods", and various skin swapping "plagiarism" games are the portrayal of the brutal growth of the market.
There is no doubt that people's demand for entertainment decompression will always exist, and there will always be people willing to watch advertisements in order to play a small game.
However, when we want to decompress, we are stressed by an extremely difficult game. Maybe it's time to think: Is my attention more valuable than advertising?
[1] A large number of game companies have broken through the 60 billion yuan market Mobile games 2024-05-10
[2] The annual revenue of super casual games is about 2.5 billion dollars, and the average super casual users watch 4.8 video advertisements Qianwang 2019-03-25
[3] Why would you be fooled if you watch a game that you can't order 100 times in your circle of friends Game Research Society 2022-09-15
