TapTap8.6 on the first day! “The Walnut Diary” redefines the development game with “a sense of companionship”

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[GameLook special manuscript, please indicate the source for reprinting]

GameLook report/Tencent Games released today on all platforms, “The Walnut Diary” is a product developed by Giant Network, adapted from a virtual idol, and equipped with a strong fan filter. The gameplay protects the liver and experiences healing. In GameLook’s impression, works like “doujin” are usually two extremes. Either the radio waves are too strange to everyone, or the world is shocking and shocking the industry. “The Walnut Diary” is not of any kind.

“Cute” and then gone.

This is the producer of “Walnut Diary” and his first impression of the heroine “Nanase Walnut”. It was this first impression that was so ordinary that it couldn’t be more ordinary that brought a group of people together and made a game in more than 2 years.

When the game is about to go live, fans who like it will be excited to talk incoherently on TapTap. For passers-by, it also possesses a peculiar charm, which makes people find it unavoidable to approach and immerse themselves in it. In the eyes of the production and distribution team, Walnut’s biggest advantage comes from her ordinary and ordinary: a close friend who is full of vitality around you, ready to take precautions and tell your heartfelt feelings.

As a “Buddha-based” product, the popularity and reputation of “The Walnut Diary” is not at all Buddhist. At station B, “The Walnut Diary” attracted more than 200,000 reservations, with a score of 8.0. Players on TapTap have a more obvious preference for “The Walnut Diary”, with 450,000 reservations and 510,000 followers. After multiple tests, the score is still stable at 9. Points or more. After the launch of a large number of players, the game score still maintained a high score of 8.6.

On the first day of launch, “Walnut Diary” was recommended by Apple Today, which has a high gold content, and successfully reached the top of the App Store free list, which shows that players have recognized it. This is closely related to the surprise experience that the product itself brings to users, the continuous incubation of IP operations during the release process, and the in-depth interaction of players.

The virtual is the data, the real is the emotion

In October 2018, Giant obtained the global agency rights for all categories of menhera chan, the well-known “emoji girl” under JOYNET. Subsequently, menhera had her own Chinese name “七義胡桃”. After entering the virtual idol field with “Nanase Walnut”, the giant teamed up with Tencent to also simultaneously launch a derivative game project. After dormant for 2 years, this casual mobile game “The Walnut Diary”, developed by Giant and released by Tencent, finally ushered in the full platform launch on April 16.

Walnut is virtual, players can realize this reality without reminding, but this does not prevent people from gaining a sense of companionship: “It only takes a little time every day, and you can also gain a sense of companionship.”

As a mobile game derived from a virtual idol, “The Walnut Diary” was rated as “not highly playable”, and the development team “Emoji Girl Production Committee” does not shy away from this. However, “The Walnut Diary” has designed a large number of daily plots and holiday events, including tapping, face-to-face chat, booing cold and warm, reminding to eat and sleep, SMS messages and other interactions, all around a core goal-a sense of companionship.


The graffiti is really ordinary, but it is also very cute

This kind of company is not limited to the player and the walnut, but also exists between the player and the operating team.

For a long time before the product went online, the official conducted continuous and intensive user communication, and continued to use love to create content for “Walnut” with fans, and series such as “Walnut Broken Thoughts” and “Hundred Rabbits Know” appeared. The communication column strengthens the walnut personality. At the same time, the latest game development information is continuously delivered to players, so that users can experience the common growth of products. This has also attracted more players to pay attention and love to “Walnut”, forming a large-scale and characteristic walnut support club. The sense of companionship and mutual development extends to products and players, and also forms a deep bond between the game and core users. .

Regarding “accompaniment” as the core competitiveness, not to mention unprecedented, but it is indeed Buddhist. To be an analogy, the experience given by “The Walnut Diary” is the same as that of the smashing “Traveling Frog”-the time setting in the game is synchronized with reality, so that there are tiny but not negligible cracks in the dimension wall; prepare a daily lunch Backpacks such as masks and masks help Walnut travel. Different lunch boxes will affect the destination and travel time, as well as the commemorative photos brought back. Players can give gifts and customize a set of exclusive living environment for Walnut, but players can never predict the next one. What will she do in seconds.

In the game, Walnut has a high degree of freedom of AI, even high enough to make some players suspect that the game has bugs: “Walnut does not wear the retro-style black dress I pulled out every time, even if I put it in the closet, she still chooses other clothes. “

The combination of non-betrayal, certain presence, and uncontrollable contradictions is actually the safe haven that people have been looking forward to in the fast-paced, high-pressure society today-a pure and equal intimate relationship.

Some people regard Walnut as a daughter, and some people regard Walnut as a sister… Either way, the companionship between the player and Walnut runs through.

Nurturing each other, players are also part of the landscape

Many people think that although they are high school students, Walnut’s mind seems to be younger. For example, he can come up with a trick to “drink Coke to lose weight”. Therefore, walnuts are not selling cute, but by nature.

Cuteness, innocence, curiosity about things, and unconstrained imagination are all part of Walnut’s character. “The Walnut Diary” also faithfully restores Walnut’s character. In the game, although walnut is “free”, it also has strong plasticity.

As the time spent with both parties increases, the walnut will gradually be affected by the player’s behavior, work and rest, and change for it to become a unique and exclusive walnut. For example, the work and rest of the walnut in the game will cooperate with the player and become the person who knows the player best.

When the player interacts with Walnut to a certain level, not only will the bond between the two parties be upgraded, but also more functions and gameplay will be unlocked, leaving more special memories. Including Walnut’s letters to players, daily records, and cute and funny emoticons, these hidden easter eggs are also a series of unexpected little luck.

And the development team hopes to achieve personalized development functions: players like to feed snacks, there will be a fat house walnut; when the player buys a set of sports equipment when decorating the furniture, the walnut may gradually become a sportsman. Although it is still in the imaginary stage, the development tone of growing together with players has been set.


There are also players who have cultivated walnuts into all-rounders

Therefore, in the understanding of GameLook, the core competence of “The Walnut Diary” is in addition to “a sense of companionship”, in fact there is “development”. After all, although there is no shortage of wife fans, “old mothers” and “old fathers” are definitely not a few among walnut fans.

This “cultivation” is not another “cultivation”. In the past, “cultivation” in various games is not so much cultivation, but more “collection”. Players are trained to exchange time and money for gorgeous card faces. Excitement comes from passive adrenaline rather than active Dopamine.

In the era of high-quality goods, today with the general content anxiety in the game industry, “The Walnut Diary” boldly gives the gameplay “weight loss”. The right to choose how to spend a period of time in the game is really returned to the players. Such a degree of freedom may have been More than a large number of MMOs advertised as heaven and earth. This has also helped Tencent Games to make another success in the exploration of new categories.

“Walnut Diary” allows the player’s companionship behavior to return to the concept of companionship itself without deliberately taking certain actions in response to tasks and achievement requirements. All plots, interactions and business models are designed around “love”. This kind of accompaniment behavior, which comes from the player’s inner initiative, and everyone is different, truly establishes the exclusive emotional bond between the player and the walnut.

In the game, walnut is like a piece of white paper, which can grow into what the player expects. At the same time, walnut is like a mirror, faithfully reflecting the player’s true emotional needs, taking care of daily life, discussing dressing, checking in for travel…Whether the player is “developing” walnut, is it not “developing” himself and pursuing himself The look of an ideal life.

It is not UGC, but to let the player become a part of the game and the landscape. The ingenuity is worth admiring.

Normal, the closest distance to “me”

The reason why Walnut is so “special” in the eyes of fans and players is that Walnut is a virtual idol, but she is also anti-idol.

The Japanese idol industry is highly developed and has always been good at artificially creating auras to attract users to worship and chase. From real idols such as Arashi and AKB48 to virtual idols such as Hatsune and Kizuna Ai, the Japanese idol industry has always been at the forefront of the world.

In Japan, where idol culture is highly developed and templated, walnut has been doing the opposite since its birth. At the end of 2017, the walnut prototype-a set of memes called menhera chan was born. There was no marketing, no promotion, only word of mouth, and menhera chan’s influence quickly spread all over the world.

Baby fat faces, high school students with no special talents, and black sweaters that don’t show up all the year round. Except for the absolute realm of the second dimension, it’s hard to say, where is the walnut so special?

But perhaps, what people want is not special.

In theory, idols are all showing good things, making fans yearn for, and at the same time inspiring people to make progress and get as close to idols as possible. But in the Internet age, digital age, and information explosion age, all stimuli are oversaturated. Under the bombardment of a large amount of extraordinary content, people have long been desensitized to external beauty and coolness, and they are pursuing touches that are close at hand. And real.

In the “low desire” social environment where self-deprecating workers has become a buzzword, it is recognized that the standard of happiness is no longer to achieve great achievements, but to have a shelter from the wind and rain, normal commute, weekends, and someone to accompany you. To sum up a thousand words, it is just two ordinary words.


Troubles are also common

If longing is to understand the most distant feelings, then ordinary is obviously the closest distance to everyone. According to GameLook, “Walnut Diary” still satisfies players’ yearning for beauty, but unlike regular idols, ordinary but cute walnuts do not put too much pressure on players and set a goal for players to chase. Together with the players, move towards a common future.

The appearance and popularity of walnuts actually represent modern people’s desire to heal the soul and return to the spirit of the self. The popularity of “The Walnut Diary” is a wonderful accident, but it is more of a destiny that has already been written.

This Article is curated from Source and we only provide the English version of the Story.

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