The other day, the world release of the Taichi Panda role-playing slasher by the Chinese company Snail Games took place. In this regard, we contacted the team and asked them a few questions.
To the questions App2Top.ru one of the creators of the game, Zhang Yu, answered.Hi!
To begin with, please tell us about the company.
Zhang Yu
Snail Games company was founded in 2000 in the beautiful city of Suzhou, in southern China.
The company is engaged in the research of 3D computer technologies, releasing client, browser and mobile games. The company also maintains its own film studio, which produces all the videos for the games.
For 15 years of its existence, the company has gained a good reputation in China in the field of computer games, which allowed it to enter the international market.
How long have you been engaged in mobile games?
Snail Games was the first company in China to start developing 3D computer games. For ten years since the company was founded, the focus has been on the research and development of large MMORPG games.
In 2013, the company started working on mobile games. At the moment, such games as “Tai Chi Panda” and Heroes of Gaia are launched. We are also continuing to develop new projects that we hope will change the perception of current mobile games.
Now the Chinese mobile games market is one of the largest in the world. Is it fair to say that Chinese games are currently expanding into Western markets?
Over the past two years, the Chinese mobile games market has significantly increased the growth of new products, thereby becoming one of the largest markets worldwide. More than 300 games are released in China every month. The output of new games is significantly increasing, so many reputable companies in the country have begun to gradually implement the release of their product abroad.
Do you think Western users are more loyal to the style of Asian games than Chinese players are to Western games?
The difference is not so great. At the moment, players are not too picky in choosing games from a particular manufacturer or country. For players, the quality and style of the game is primarily important.
Western players prefer casual games, while Chinese players adore the wuxia genre (an adventure genre of Chinese fantasy with a demonstration of martial arts). Along with the development of the world market, the players of Western and eastern countries are showing mutual interest in choosing a new one.
Tell us a little about “Tai Chi Panda”, what kind of project is this and what hopes does Snail Games have with it?
The development of the game began back in 2013. At that time, players began to have new requests. Instead of the usual 2D picture, everyone wanted to see games in 3D, they wanted to be able to play online with their friends in real time.
After analyzing the interests of the players, the growing interest in genres such as MMORPG and ARPG, Snail Games decided to combine it all together with the Chinese Wushu style. Wushu, as everyone knows, still remains a very popular and exotic style both for residents of China and for a number of Western countries.
Where was the project originally launched and what metrics were achieved?
Initially, the game appeared on the Chinese market. For a short period of time it was paid. By the way, on the first day of launch, the game got to the 3rd place in the cash top of the iPhone App Store and to the 8th place in the cash top of the iPad App Store.
But we quickly switched the game to a free-to-play basis. By March 4, 2015, the total number of downloads was 50 million.
The game first appeared on the foreign market in 2014 at the E3 exhibition, and in March 2015 the game entered the American and part of the European markets (more than 20 regions in total).
Taichi Panda can be safely attributed to the hack & slash genre. How popular are games of this genre in China in general?
Significant growth of mobile games in China occurred in 2013, but at that time the hack & slash genre was not so popular. At that time, first of all, card games and strategies were popular. Later, in 2014, the genre quickly became popular. So we can say that Snail Games grabbed luck by the tail at the right moment.
I see, thanks for the interview.