After many rounds of testing, "Seven Days in the World" finally announced its global release date on July 10 at the Summer Game Festival. At the same time, we were honored to be officially invited to interview the studio's planning teachers.
In this exclusive interview, the planning team shared with us the problems encountered during the development or internal testing of "Seven Days of the World" and their solutions, including: cross-platform issues, weapon balance, etc. We also help you summarize and organize it into articles to share with everyone.
About "Seven Days in the World"
Seven Days in the World is a supernatural open world survival game set in a bizarre post-apocalyptic world. Here, you will fight side by side with your friends, fight for survival resources, jointly build your home territory, and work together to defeat the terrifying aberrations, and gradually reveal the truth behind the fall of the world.
This game ranks 8th on the most popular wish list on the Steam platform, second only to "Black Myth: Wukong" among domestic games, and the number of global pre-orders has successfully exceeded the 10 million mark. On Steam's open world survival game recommendation list, "Seven Days in the World" topped the list and was rated as one of the most anticipated multiplayer games in 2024. According to the latest news, "Seven Days World" will participate in the Steam New Product Festival intensively, and we look forward to them achieving great results in advance at this event!
Exclusive interview content:
Two handles:"Seven Days in the World" cleverly combines the two elements of doomsday survival and supernatural ghost stories to create a game world that is both exciting and mysterious. Because the fusion of these two elements also makes it easier for players to play the game Enter the game world. I would like to ask what kind of inspiration prompted the combination of such a unique theme during the incubation stage of the game concept? When creating such a rich background story, what works of reality or fiction were the team inspired by?
plan:Supernatural stories have always been a favorite theme of our team. It is also a common interest of those born in the 80s, 90s and 00s when they were growing up. The inspiration of the game comes from the unique interpretation of the concept of "abnormality" - the abnormalities that really touch people's hearts are often hidden in daily life, allowing unusual things to show ordinary behaviors, or ordinary things to show extraordinary Traits.
For example, a bus, although it has undergone changes, still follows its commuting route day after day. The emotional impact of this contrast can easily arouse the resonance of players. Therefore, we decided to combine supernatural stories with the survival genre that we also love, and created the game "Seven Days in the World". When creating background stories, we are mainly inspired by film and television works, such as "Stranger Things" and "Annihilation".
Two handles:With the recent internal beta tests of the game, we can clearly see that the reputation and expectations of "Seven Days in the World" among players are rising significantly. It is obvious that the team's efforts are gradually being translated into positive responses from the market. So what do you think are the key factors or decisions within the team that played a decisive role in the market performance of "Seven Days of the World"? Which of these successful experiences are particularly worth sharing with other game developers? Especially in terms of the execution of cross-platform strategies, the efficient integration of community feedback, and the continuous innovation of game content, has "Seven Days in the World" explored an effective methodology?
plan:In addition to the high quality of the game, what we value more is the deep insight into and satisfaction of players' needs and fun. We are committed to deeply understanding player expectations and reflecting and validating them in our designs. Player needs are often basic and easy to understand, but the product's own goals sometimes conflict with those needs. In order to ensure that our iteration direction is consistent with player needs, we have adopted continuous online testing and high-frequency community interaction. Here are two simple examples:
1) Players long for a fair gaming environment and want to play with friends: This prompts us to avoid adopting a numerical payment model and strictly control the numerical differences between players to ensure that different types of players can freely enjoy the game;
2) Players want to reduce the "heaviness" of the game and experience the fun of the game easily: This requires us to reasonably regulate the rhythm of the game, introduce automated facilities and abnormal objects to assist players, and at the same time remove designs that have a sense of loss such as territory maintenance materials.
These designs are naturally developed around improving player experience.
Two handles:In today's game market, players' expectations for game experience are becoming increasingly comprehensive. They not only focus on rich content and innovation, but also pay more and more attention to the technical optimization and platform adaptability of games. "Seven Days World" has chosen a dual-platform strategy of landing on PC and mobile terminals at the same time, which undoubtedly increases the complexity of game optimization. May I ask what measures the team has taken to ensure that PC players can enjoy a high-quality immersive gaming experience, while also taking into account the convenience and smoothness of mobile players? What challenges did the team encounter in balancing the experience at both ends, and how did they overcome these challenges?
plan:Despite the many challenges, cross-platform play provides players with more flexible gaming options, which is extremely valuable to users, so we are committed to making it happen. From a macro perspective, we focus on two key points:
1) Sort out the differences: There are significant differences in operation methods and screen performance between PC, console and mobile devices, which directly affects the gaming experience. Therefore, we have comprehensively optimized and adapted the 3C experience, combat mechanism and interaction methods for players on different platforms.
2) Ensure consistency: While handling differentiation, we also focus on maintaining consistency in terms of art style, quality, and gameplay content. This requires us to follow unified standards in terms of art specifications and functional design. We use a pipelined R&D process internally, which is the basis for ensuring consistency.
Although this goal sounds simple, in fact providing a good gaming experience for players on multiple platforms, especially mobile devices, is an extremely technically complex project. We are constantly working hard and making progress to achieve this goal.
Two handles:In the closed beta version, we saw that equipment such as Great White Shark and Divergent Evolution were highly praised by players. May I ask, what core principles or concepts did the team follow when designing these firearms? In addition, considering players’ concerns about the performance of firearms, will the balance of firearms be adjusted based on player feedback in the future? If so, how will the team ensure that these adjustments meet player expectations while keeping the game fair and fun?
plan:Players who participated in the "Seven Days of the World" game test have undoubtedly noticed that the names and effects of each firearm are unique. As a non-numeric paid season-based game, we are committed to making every weapon show its unique value. Even lower-quality weapons can exert advantages and effects in specific combat situations. Therefore, during the design process, we first conceived the core combat experience of each weapon, what kind of differentiated fun it can bring to players, and what kind of combat environment it is most suitable for, and then concretized it into the design of a specific weapon. .
As for the balance of weapons, this is a problem that all games will encounter at all stages. We will continue to use online data to make adjustments and optimizations. The unique thing about "Seven Days of the World" is that as a season-based game, different scripts set different combat environments, which means that different weapons have the opportunity to shine in specific situations. In the official version, it will be easier to obtain weapons. Players can obtain their favorite weapons relatively easily, which will also help alleviate balance problems.
Two handles:During the closed beta phase, we noticed that after players reached level 50, they mainly participated in activities such as root battles and challenging high-level dungeons. However, as the season continues to stretch, players may become bored from participating in these activities repeatedly. I would like to ask, does the development team plan for rich post-game content in the future, aiming to continue to inject freshness and challenge into players who have reached the full level, thereby ensuring their enthusiasm and long-term participation in the game? If so, can you tell us more about how this new content will keep players interested and engaged?
plan:In terms of long-term game experience, our goal is to ensure that each season has enough playability and inspire players to continue playing across seasons, thereby providing players with a continuous sense of freshness. For the later content of a single season, we will further enrich the online version to ensure that players of different levels can find their own goals and pursuits at the end of the season. Regarding the cross-season game experience, we plan to launch different season scripts at a higher frequency to bring players new gameplay rules and content to maintain their interest and participation.
Two handles:The recent update mentioned important optimizations for novice scripts and large world exploration experience, which are obviously intended to further attract and retain new player groups. Please tell me, what specific changes have been made to reduce the learning curve for new players and improve their retention rate? What specific content do these optimization measures include, such as improvements to novice guidance, adjustments to game content, or simplification of interfaces and operations? In addition, how do these measures help new players adapt to the game environment faster and maintain their continued interest and engagement in the game?
plan:First, we focus on optimizing novice guidance and early game experience. One of the advantages of "Seven Days in the World" in the global SOC game market is that we are committed to lowering the usually high barrier to entry for this type of game. We are confident in this and believe that we can provide a more friendly novice experience, help players quickly feel the fun of the game, and establish their own game goals.
Secondly, social interaction between players is crucial to the retention of novice players. "Seven Days World" has more social designs. By promoting interaction and communication between players, experienced players can better guide new players, helping them integrate into the game faster and continue to participate.
Two handles:From the update log during the closed beta phase of "Seven Days World", we can see that the team attaches great importance to player feedback, which is evident from the frequent and detailed update log. We are very curious, among the valuable opinions put forward by many players, which specific suggestions have been adopted and implemented, and have had a significant positive impact on the game? Can you share a few typical cases? In addition, after the official public beta of the game, how does the team plan to establish and maintain an effective feedback mechanism to ensure that it can continue to collect and respond to players' opinions and suggestions?
plan:During the long-term testing process, we collected and adopted thousands of player suggestions, which touched almost every module of the game. Design and decision-making based on player feedback has become a routine method of R&D and operation of "Seven Days World". Some typical examples of changes based on player suggestions include:
Cancel the territory’s material maintenance consumption;
Open servers that do not contain any PVP content, and ensure that these servers have the same reward system as PVP servers;
Allow players' territorial buildings to be connected and jointly participate in the construction of the big world;
Add more giant monsters to enrich the game experience.
In order to collect everyone's feedback and suggestions more effectively, we have developed an independent player feedback platform. On this platform, each player suggestion will display its processing progress and planned responses, thereby breaking down the barriers between players and the development team and truly listening to the voices of users.
Two handles:Finally, let me talk about the future content updates of "Seven Days World". Can you provide some exclusive news to Erbian friends? What new maps, plot expansions or game modes can players expect in the new content? How will these new contents enrich players' gaming experience and keep the game fresh and attractive?
plan:Next, the season script we will reveal to you is a new area located in the north of the current map, which will present players with completely different survival challenges. Stay tuned!
We also want to remind everyone that the official announcement at the Summer Game Festival is that the global release date of "Seven Days in the World" will be July 10th. At the same time, the official also announced that the last test of this game will be conducted from June 11th to June 17th. For those who are interested in this, you may wish to add it to your wish list now so that you can experience the unique charm of this game online during the New Product Festival! Steam store address:Click me to jump to the Steam store page
