Good and Evil Cop: King of Thieves

Let’s start with the fact that the publishing editor Alexander Semenov and journalist Irina Smirnova bet on the book ”Steal like an artist” Austin Kleon, will King of Thieves get into the box office Top 20 in the Russian App Store in the games category by the end of February. Based on this dispute, we decided to share our opinions about the game in a written format.

Alexander: Since I didn’t like the game, let me start with the unconditional good in the project, with graphics. So: the graphics in the game are excellent. The school is recognized Voinova, which can now be seen only in the projects of three studios: ZeptoLab, Playfo and Alis Games. In this particular case, the artists of the Moscow studio managed to come up with and implement a cartoon picture that is perfectly read by a wide casual audience and is not perceived unambiguously as a child’s.

Ira: I can’t disagree, the graphics are really good. It was possible to avoid the gaudiness that many projects in casual style sin, but they did not hit the other extreme, earthy tones and “dirty” colors in the game at a minimum. And the main character is also charming! And, I’m not afraid of this word, it’s quite a trend: if Am-nyam and the hero of Monument valley had children, they would look exactly like this:

Alexander: Let’s move on to the “bad”. Here’s the story: at the very first acquaintance with the game, I witnessed a contradiction, some dichotomy. Visually, as already mentioned, the game is an honest casual. At the same time, the gameplay was perceived by me as hardcore. It required some effort. Moreover, both physical and mental at the same time. This is not a lazy swipe in the runner or an attempt to calculate the resources needed to buy warriors, but a constant, let’s say, tension. You must, including on your own mistakes, understand how “it works”, how to pass this or that dungeon. By the way, Ilya Tumenko wrote about this very well:

“The gameplay is not in traps, but in level design, which forces you to “solve” the level, select the algorithm and timing of the passage. It is about this that King of Thives is made. Enemy dungeons are not a stupid pile of traps, but a hidden sequence that must be solved and restored in your mind before passing.”

Ilya Tumenko

Having already got used to it, I understand that such a perception of it (complexity for me) was, first of all, due to the fact that King of Thieves is a unique game in terms of root gameplay. And as is the case with most projects with a new gameplay – it takes some time to “acclimatize”. In other words, I didn’t like the project, it was perceived as difficult, hardcore due to the fact that it turned out to be “new”. But in the end, I am ready to shift this problem with perception from my neck to the neck of the tutorial.

How did you get acquainted with the project, quickly “entered”?

Ira: In mobile games, I’m usually one hundred percent “casual.” Match-3, farms, simulators, that’s it. The gameplay is more difficult than the last levels of Cut the Rope causes longing and disgust. Flappy Bird almost cost me my smartphone at the time.

There was no rejection with King of Thieves. The point here for me, too, is in the tutorial: the entry threshold seemed very low to me. First, they offer tasks that even a lazy Candy Crush lover can easily cope with. Then they are imperceptibly complicated. You can no longer rob a neighbor from a raid, you have to think about a strategy, learn to evaluate dungeons and correlate them with your capabilities.

At this stage, the habits of a casual player would force you to quit the game, but … you’ve already spent an hour or two on rampant robbery, lived in a dungeon, got enemies and friends. It’s a pity to throw!

Here we need to say a few words about user retention. It is clear that the authors of the KoT did not invent a bicycle. Once you quit the game, they start attacking you. One after another, messages come: Squidwart attacked you!, Joposhik6666 attacked you! If you enter the game at this moment, you will be offered revenge and rob those who robbed you. The same techniques are used by Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, then everywhere. But for some reason, this causes an emotional reaction (for me personally) and a burning desire to take revenge only in KoT. Maybe the fact is that “the thief stole the thief’s hat,” and the attitude to the stolen, and not the treasures extracted by an honest grind, is more reverent.

Alexander: I noted an important moment, but it’s really not an invention. That is, you perceive both him and, for example, the PvP/single screen as old acquaintances.

Plus, I was surprised that the tutorial passed without roughness for you. When I first met him, I could not understand in any way that I was required not to swipe taps, but only taps.

Ira: I think the casuals’ instincts prompted. In any incomprehensible situation – tap!

Alexander: By the way, I was upset during construction (and I added this to the cons) by the inability to draw levels myself and place obstacles as my heart desires. That is, you need to buy packs all the time, and a feint for those who do not like to build: for hard currency without any need to pass the level, the player gets the most difficult set of obstacles, placed “according to the mind”.

Ira: It also upset me at first. Then the competitive moment turned on: to get the necessary gold faster than the neighbors in the league!

Alexander: Returning to the “dichotomy”. Even if you write off the need to get used to the gameplay, the casual-hardcore contradiction for me is not removed. The fact is that the project is rigidly monetized. It is clear that when we talk about casual games, many of them (the same King products) often cannot pass without investments. But there everything is often quite simple for the end user. There are two variables – hard currency and energy. For the first we buy the second and boosters. The energy is replenished over time. Everything, in principle, is simple

Right there, the keys act as energy, which, attention, do not give guaranteed access to the gameplay. Spheres act as the usual crystals. And there is also a soft currency used to upgrade traps and four additional currencies for improving the game character.

Just imagine the root audience of casual projects: these are women over 35 years old. And now a similar variety is piling on them.

Ira: I’m still far from a true audience. And yet, on behalf of the casuals, I can say that our love for hardcore is greatly underestimated.

Now I will say a controversial thing, but as for me – casual games have now come to hardcore from some edge.

I will explain my thought. What does a hardcore game require from a player? In my opinion, these are: strenuous efforts, attentiveness, accuracy. Subtle calculation and/or quick reaction.

So I think that to pass a three-star match-3 without buying extra lives, without spending all the hearts – requires at a certain stage exactly the same strenuous efforts, attentiveness and accuracy.

The pleasure of passing the boss in Dark Souls and the pleasure of passing the super-frozen level in Candy Crush – without any delay! – they are comparable for me. In particular, due to the fact that there and there I assess the efforts expended as significant.

At the same time, there is a subtle point here. As soon as the level gives you the feeling that you will never pass it – the game immediately flies into the basket (and the smartphone into the wall, hello, Flappy Bird!). KoT manages to maintain the illusion that there are no impassable dungeons. I think it’s because you know that the creator of the puzzle had to go through it himself (twice!) to save it.

ALEXANDER: By mentioning Dark Souls, you automatically signed yourself up as hardcore, casual people don’t know such a word.

Ira: I made a reservation: I’m a casual player only in mobile games. Not in the console!

Alexander: I’m afraid that now, if we try to figure out whether a hardcore player can be casual, we’ll get into a conversation “on another topic”. It’s just an attitude to games, not a skill.

Ira: No, no, no! I played My Little Pony! And in Hay Day! This is the stigma of a casual for life, consider it! No Dark Souls can kill it.

Alexander.Oh. Back to our…. thieves. The third point that confuses me within the framework of the dichotomy is the PvP orientation of the game. We all know perfectly well that in midcore and hardcore games, this is a money driven component. But as soon as we return to the fact that the game looks casual-oriented, the question immediately comes to mind: did I really praise the game for the graphics at the beginning? Maybe it was worth doing a project with “blood”?

Ira: It would have repelled me. If the hero is cute, then I don’t want to see how his guts wind up on a saw – even if the animation is mimic. Although, considering how popular the same Dumb Ways to Die is – maybe it wouldn’t hurt the game.

Alexander: Dumb Ways to Die is still such a healthy reference in itself to fans of Adult Swim, which a few years ago was a niche. In general, there is a funny moment here. Yesterday, when I was analyzing the ZeptoLab project in more or less detail for myself, I came to the conclusion that it is very verified, very, as they say, “done wisely”, it’s nice to disassemble it, you understand what, how, why. And starting from all this, the growth of the game in the same box office top can be explained, but at the same time, the first impression – “the developers have overreached me” – does not leave me.

Ira: And I, on the contrary, was pleased to see what a tricky mechanics in the project. That is, as a player, it was just interesting for me to play. And as a person who knows a little about the industrial “kitchen”, I stopped every now and then to mentally praise the developers. It’s nice to look at a cleverly made project that does not consider the player to be a vegetable at all.

ALEXANDER: In general, the person who plays Dark Souls liked the “King of Thieves”. Okay, let’s wrap it up…

By the way, dear readers, a discussion about the relationship to the game has broken out here, and I suggest we slowly move it here.

Game art from Nikita Bulatov’s portfolio was used in the design of the material.