What is false can be real or false at the same time. Why is the "visual dislocation" of "The World in Painting" so fascinating?

"Impetuous" has become a common psychological state among young people today. Therefore, in order to cater to this group of people, many game manufacturers have also shortened the production cycle of games, hoping to create them at a lower cost. Higher profits.

In the mobile game market, there are not a few such slightly rough games. So at this time, if there is a game that can be painstakingly polished and come into everyone's field of vision with a completely different appearance, it will definitely stir up waves with one stone.

As a result, a game called "Monument Valley" came out in 2014. With its unique visual dislocation gameplay, many players praised "It turns out that decryption can also be played to such a superb level." "After all, in this work, players will go through a series of dreamy operations to connect seemingly unrelated buildings together, allowing the protagonist "Ada" to reach the end. Such a strange gameplay, no matter in hand Whether it is a mobile game or a PC game, it is a unique experience. It is not surprising why countless people call "Monument Valley" a masterpiece.

As for what happened next, I guess I don’t need to say more. According to the laws of the market, a group of imitators will appear one after another, but they have never shaken the status of "Monument Valley", even with the "Monument Valley" released in 2017. "Monument Valley 2" only improved part of the gameplay. Although it has surpassed it, it is really difficult to achieve a second breakthrough.

The "World in Pictures" I want to talk about today was also born in 2017. This work relied on its excellent strength to win the GDC Best Mobile of the Year as soon as it was launched. The title of the game.

If we just look at the gameplay here, we will also find that "World in Pictures" uses a "dislocation effect" that is completely different from "Monument Valley", but in essence, they both use a wide-open effect. The method of imagination allows players to be in the game world, so below we will also analyze the game "Pictured World" in depth to learn more about "visual dislocation".

When we first talked about the concept of "visual dislocation", we didn't need to think about how complicated it was. Because in our real life, many people have begun to introduce this principle into photography.

For example, the common giant and a dwarf; and for example, eating the sun, eating a train, etc. are all classic visual misalignment photos. As for its principle, it is also very simple. It is mainly based on the "large near, small far" rule in perspective, placing two objects far and near in different positions, and then interlacing the two objects together through photography, thereby achieving "visual "dislocation" effect.

However, since the game "Monument Valley" focuses on multiple decryption, in addition to the "near big and far small", the game also adds the impossible "Penrose Triangle" and infinite The "Mobius strip" of reincarnation. Therefore, the core of "Monument Valley" is "architectural dislocation". Players will find that the road goes from existence to non-existence when rotating the building. It is this time and again "a village with dark flowers and bright flowers" that sets the overall tone of "Monument Valley" .

As for "The World in Pictures", it did not choose to use many "deception elements" to enrich the game. Friends who have played the game also know that the main expression of "visual dislocation" in this work is " Big near, small far.” The game makers used a lot of hand-drawn drawings, allowing us to see the magical effect of paintings within paintings, and paintings within paintings. In addition, some paintings can be linked together, so that the originally scattered puzzles are combined together and glow. A different kind of vitality.

Therefore, compared to "Monument Valley", the core of "The World in Painting" tends to be "spatial dislocation". Players have a certain amount of room for manipulation in each painting, whether it is a close shot or a distant view. When you connect the puzzles together through your own thinking, the "Oh my God" secretly uttered in your heart may be What the producers want to see most.

To put it simply, the biggest benefit of the integration of "visual dislocation" and games is that players can enjoy surprises at all times. In the current situation of severe homogenization of games, as long as the graphics or gameplay are If it can make players' eyes light up, it can easily be called a "masterpiece".

But it is not easy to achieve a brilliant result, because each "visual dislocation" puzzle contains countless ingenuity of the producer, and "World in Pictures" is even more in this way.

If players want to trace the origin of "The World in Pictures", then they have to push the time to 2012. In that era, mobile games had not yet ushered in a full-scale explosion, and the main way for people to play games was PC. Therefore, a "Pictured World" that uses a four-frame screen as an interactive decryption can be said to be a rarity, especially in When we first played, we saw the protagonist transfer from the pavilion to the sedan through the sliding animation frame, and after a series of zooming in and out, the surprise at that moment was indescribable.

Unfortunately, "The World in Pictures" was only a demo in 2012, and it was already 2017 when it was officially released.

In the past few years, producer Jason Roberts has almost single-handedly completed more than 5,000 drawings, a series of puzzles, and slightly mysterious stories. We can also see that when a person's ability is strong enough, from idea creation to immediate execution, the game can more intuitively reflect the producer's ideas, but the disadvantage is that this process is too long.

After the game was successfully released, Jason also said that because the development cycle was too long, the puzzles often became outdated or the ideas were not mature enough. Therefore, it has become normal to overturn some things that have been determined. If the publisher was not willing to step in to help in the later stage, then the game might have been delayed even longer.

Therefore, when we players get to the end of the game, whether it is because of increased experience or because they are really rushing to finish the work in the later stage, they will find that the puzzles begin to become simpler. If the players are skilled in the operation, they can even complete the level in more than an hour. This may also be regarded as Jason's final compromise with the market.

But players don’t have to worry here. Even if the game process is not long, “The World in Pictures” still fully narrates the story, and because Jason is a software engineer and has a very strong logical thinking, It ensures that the puzzles are sophisticated and interesting enough, injecting a powerful stimulant into the game.

So don’t worry. After several years of polishing, "The World in Painting" will have no less of the "visual dislocations" it deserves.

After we have finished talking about the impact of "visual dislocation" on the game market and producers, everyone should have a clearer concept of this type of gameplay.

But in fact, in the game "Pictured World", the "illusion illusion" effect is not only used for decryption. If we look deeper, we will find that it has penetrated into all aspects of the game, and this There are many ingenious ideas hidden in it, let’s take a look.

When it comes to the plot of "The World in Pictures", many people may be a little confused after completing the game. But in fact, to put it simply, the context of the game is very clear. It mainly tells the story of a little boy who saw a strange beast named Gorogoa and began to collect five kinds of fruits in an attempt to summon Gorogoa again.

In the subsequent process, the little boy did not need to make a big move. Under the player's control, he will easily obtain the fruits and meet Gorogoa again at the end, but the terrible thing is that this time the meeting is not satisfactory. Gorogoa inexplicably ignited anger, burned the five fruits, and caused the little The boy fell from the tower, and his beautiful longing suddenly became the most painful memory, and at the same time, the foreshadowing of the game all the way began to unfold.

It turns out that several of the characters we saw during the game are all the future appearances of the little boy. They respectively symbolize the five protagonists: "teenager, youth, prime, middle-aged, and old". period. So we will find that the little boy usually appears in photos and memories when decrypting, and this is all foreshadowing carefully laid by the producer. Through the gameplay of "visual dislocation", he allows us to freely travel between the past and the past. Reality shuttles back and forth.

As for these five fruits, they also indirectly represent the changes in the male protagonist's mind at various ages, from the red that begins to regain courage after falling from the tower, to the green that embraces hope for survival in the ruins. The yellow color represents the thirst for knowledge after the body recovers, the blue color represents the devout prayers when he fell into a trough in middle age, and the purple color represents the enlightenment in his later years, all symbolizing the redemption of the little boy's soul.

In the end, Gorogoa stopped being angry and completely accepted the elderly male protagonist. We can also see that it was too easy for the little boy to obtain the fruit at the beginning. He wanted to reach the sky in one step without experiencing the ups and downs of life. It was obviously too ridiculous, and this became the main reason for irritating Gorogoa.

Therefore, through the expression method of "visual dislocation", players can see two states of simplicity and difficulty, which also highlights the theme of the game "lifelong pursuit".

The illustrations of "Pictured World" are different from the high-definition CG used in most games on the market. Its pictures look closer to the style of children's picture books.

Perhaps it is because I have seen too many high-definition games, so when I first saw "The World in Pictures", I personally found it quite amazing. Especially between zooming in and out, there are many small details hidden behind basically every illustration.

For example, when we are preparing to collect the third blue fruit, we will repeatedly travel through some religious illustrations. Maybe for an ordinary game, the illustration background is just a simple background. It has a good-looking effect, but for "World in Painting", it is not that simple. Players only need to stretch it a little, and they will find that there is a unique cave under every mural and glass. Sometimes you even need to enter the murals to look for clues to successfully solve the puzzle.

Of course, the same routine also exists on the cover of a book, the wings of a moth, or even a can or a map. We can click on it to experience a deeper space.

At this time, in order to match the fantasy story and the "unique" details, game illustrations with classical aesthetics like "The World in Pictures" are obviously very suitable, which is also very consistent with its Chinese translation. The game features "the world in the painting, the painting, and the new world".

At this point, if "The World in Painting" only achieves the above two points, it will definitely not be able to successfully reach the top and become a masterpiece. So in the early stage of the game, through some puzzles, we can already see the highlight of this work, which is the linkage interaction.

Since "The World in Pictures" was inspired by comics, the game uses four-square grid elements. When there are two pictures that can be overlapped on the screen, they can be dragged together. Typical uses The method is to make the doors of the two pictures overlap, so the little boy can travel from the first picture to the second picture.

And the novelty is not just that. For example, at the beginning of the game, when we spliced ??together three seemingly unrelated illustrations of a crow, an apple branch and a blue pot, the crow It will fly up and let the apple fall into the basin smoothly. This should be regarded as the first small climax we can feel when we first play the game.

As for the future, there are many such operations, such as using your own hand speed to turn small rocks into meteorites and hit the glass cover that traps the moths. And let the hero walk in the desert and pull the top gear. All this, in addition to showing the magical effect of "visual dislocation", also reflects the producer's great imagination, making players hooked when they successfully solve the puzzle.

Rather than saying that "The World in Pictures" is an adventure decryption game, it is better to say that it tests the player's observation skills, because the visual experience it can bring to the player is unique. It also determines the biggest reason why "The World in Painting" can become the ninth art masterpiece.

Generally speaking, the visual dislocation of "World in Pictures" can be said to be used appropriately. Whether it is "shrinking illustrations" or "splicing linkage", it has become an unforgettable highlight for many players.

The only shortcoming may be that the game process is too short, and those players who have been looking forward to it since the demo will certainly be a little unfinished.

But from another perspective, in this fast-paced era, if you can continuously feel the visual impact within two hours, then this game has exerted its greatest value.

In particular, the game not only displays superb "visual dislocation" gameplay, but also provides exquisite illustrations and mysterious stories, which is the finishing touch to the game. It is not difficult to explain why " "The World in Painting" has a mysterious power that can make people fall deeply into it.

In the end, if I were to sum up "The World in Pictures", then I only have one sentence: "I hope that in the future, creative games will never die.

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