Original author: Mable Jiang, Chief Revenue Officer of Find Satoshi Lab

Today, I spent three hours reading "Creativity and Rhythm," a famous book on game planning by Japanese game planner Hideki Kamiya. This book has had a deep impact on Gas Hero producer Johnny, and it introduces many frameworks and methodologies for forming creative and rhythmic game planning ideas.

I reflected on what these frameworks would look like on Gas Hero while reading, and combined with my observations and insights over the past six months, I made some notes.

1. Core Idea [Theme/Concept/System (Means+Path)]

The starting point of a game is often an idea, but in fact, there are very few ideas that can become the core idea. Often, a game cannot be fully supported due to insufficient core elements, and more supporting ideas are derived (all used to strengthen the core idea). Of course, the idea does not need to be a completely new idea. Usually, it is the result of combining some existing elements in a new way.

The original origin of Gas Hero, I have never asked Johnny what it is, maybe he doesn't even know himself (I'll sell the suspense and save it for a future podcast). I am often curious about the creative process of game planning and will ask the game planner from various angles whether they have already thought about the complex theoretical support such as xyz in the creative process.

He honestly told me that it's not like that. The process of truly reaching the core idea is more like a spider weaving a web, weaving here and there, and finally reaching a center. During this process, game planners will constantly ask themselves many questions and try to answer them. This process of slowly reaching the core from chaos is more like artistic creation rather than rational sorting. Many times, the logical thinking in the AMA afterwards is actually summarized afterwards (laughs).

So when there is no correct answer for the time being, I will try to organize it according to my understanding using Mr. Yoshize's framework.

Johnny was deeply influenced by Cairo. There was a game from Cairo that he once played, but he forgot the name. Even GPT couldn't figure it out. However, the core of the game was a bunch of settlements that could interact with each other. He thought it was a great social experiment, but unfortunately, the interactions were too limited (mostly cooperative), so the pace was slow and boring, and the social aspect didn't last long.

But this inspiration itself is actually the initial inspiration for building the core idea of Gas Hero, which determined that the theme of the game is: social. This step is similar to the gameplay of "shogi" inspiring "Dig Dug" in the book.

So how can we build sustainable social connections?

Every day, people live under the rules of society and engage in various behaviors, giving meaning to their existence. Therefore, in other words, as long as the assumption that "humans are social animals" holds true, if games can abstract the interactions in human society, they may be able to construct a good social field.

Therefore, I boldly further infer that the concept of the Gas Hero game, that is, "what should players play here?", is to "construct a virtual human society for everyone to continuously interact with."

However, this abstract statement ("constructing a virtual human society") may sound easy to say, but in reality, the core of human society is a complex system that requires the means and paths to filter out the best ways to serve the core concepts of the game and leave behind the most essential rules in order to preserve the essence of human interaction and eliminate noise as much as possible.

The key point in this concept is not "virtual human society", but "sustained dynamic interaction". Based on this, we delve into what exactly causes human sociability?

This question may not have a correct answer. Yuval Noah Harari said in "Sapiens" that since ancient times, Homo sapiens are the only creatures with the ability to tell stories and imagine, and can organize and mobilize large-scale actions beyond their own tribe (which had a maximum of about 150 people) by "creating hope".

Therefore, we have found an important auxiliary concept that supports the core concept - hope. Many mileage advancements in Gas Hero are accompanied by different types of hope, some are small surprises, and some are big goals. I always joke with everyone and say "regret is the driving force of human progress". Only by constantly generating new hopes can players continue to have the motivation to interact in it.

Another important auxiliary concept is bonds. What are bonds? In the same community, working together to achieve a goal is a bond. It's a bond when you almost became the PvP champion in the last cycle, and you promise to beat that opponent next time. It sounds similar to "hope," but here we mainly talk about the relationships between people in the game settings that arise from the game process. It could be the joy of working together to complete a guild challenge, or the hope of two respected opponents to meet again in the next PvP.

There may be some other auxiliary concepts, but I won't delve into them here (after all, I'm not a worm in the belly of a game planner!!!). I want to save some Easter eggs from the planner to share with everyone in the podcast.

After clarifying the overall core and auxiliary concepts of the game, the rest is about constantly filtering the means and paths that can better present these concepts as a whole. Some are additions, some are subtractions.

The tree-like world structure of Gas Hero is addition: it is a more complex setting than a simple flat world, but with this three-dimensional design, the concept of "hope" can be well developed; while automatic combat is subtraction, its role is to minimize the player's energy input in operation, and leave more experience points for interaction between people (sharing lucky/unlucky experiences of opening boxes and giving birth, and assigning their respective combat tasks).

All of these hopes, big and small, as well as the topics and interactions between people, revolve around various in-game assets. Due to the very low circulation wear on the blockchain, the possibilities for interaction between people in Gas Hero have become exceptionally rich.  

It is worth noting that Gas Hero, as a virtual society, must also consider the various problems that human society faces in the process of considering paths and means, such as economic inflation, bubbles, and even stagnation. Personally, I think the most amazing aspect of the game design's solution is the integration of the solution with the overall structure of the game: the fate of everyone from ordinary citizens to world elders is bound together through corresponding incentive structures, sharing hope and mutual bonds.

2. Rhythm 

There is a joke that I always find funny, which is that the game designer of this game really wants the pace of the game to be "five minutes a day" and "relaxing". This is also why I believe that the game in Cairo, which includes settlements and neighboring elements, may be the initial inspiration for Gas Hero, because Cairo's game has this style of being able to pick up and put down at any time, making people feel warm and comfortable.

Actually, the experience of Gas Hero is that you can only click a few times in the game every day ("Five Minutes a Day" achievement achieved?), whether it is "relaxing" is debatable, but it is definitely "addictive".

The energy consumption is indeed gone in an instant, but you still need to take a look at the hero combinations in the white paper, discuss strategies with others, remind your fellow clan members to quickly gather resources, and then check if there is anything worth buying in the auction house at this stage. Should you use it for yourself or go to the secondary market for arbitrage? Speaking of which, in-game assets as NFTs not only circulate within a closed system but also are influenced by many external factors, which brings additional rich curve changes to the gaming experience.

The core of these experiences lies in the game planner giving everyone a clear plan for what to do every day during an election cycle. The first two days are spent bidding at the auction house, the third day is spent challenging the settlement boss and the settlement leader, and the fourth day is spent giving birth to the first batch of babies... For players who want to become officials or challenge PvP, the pace is quite tight. Therefore, with a compact and orderly macro rhythm, simple operations can remove many player experiences that cause "tiredness" in daily life. The auction house brings stimulation every six hours, while in daily rhythm, giving birth, opening boxes, recasting weapons, upgrading pets, etc., are all smaller experiences that fluctuate in rhythm. The larger the time range corresponds to a more certain rhythm paragraph, while the daily rhythm changes have considerable unpredictability. The overall presentation is like Bach's three-part invention, with a regular overall pattern, and details that can always break the monotony with some surprises.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia