Jiu Xiao
Officially launched on April 15th. The special offer is 58yuan
Stay tuned for more follow-up process development log
The official selling price of JIUXIAO is 68 yuan.
The long journey of JIUXIAO——from a novel to an online video game
When the news came out, a large number of players expressed their excitement in the comments and said that they were looking forward to the day when it is released. On the other hand, the development team was concerned that it will not be easy for players to accept, as the game they are about to develop may not be as "traditional" as usual.
And that’s how it started.
(the picture that Gong Changjun posted on Weibo with the news of “XUANXIAO”)
The beginning of this project
The opportunity to start the project
“Jiu Xiao Ben Yun Lu” was released in July 2017. It is the first novel about demon and immortal written by Gong Changjun. At that time, it could sell it to a development team of mobile games for a good price, while turning a novel into a PC game could be a difficult task.
But turning into a mobile game was never an option for Gong Changjun, all he wanted to do was a PC game. A game based on a virtual world called “JIUXIAO”.
Then he started looking for someone willing to develop the game with him.
At that time Liang Xia was re-planning his career. He has been familiar with everything from graphics technology to game programming as he has worked in the game industry for many years. But none of the projects he has worked on can really satisfy himself.
By chance, Liang Xia had a chance to meet with Gong Changjun and had a long conversation about their views on the game. After that, they have decided to develop a PC game of JIUXIAO. Liang Xia has become one of the producers of JIUXIAO since then.
Thus, JIUXIAO began a long journey of development.
Synopsis of the story
At the beginning of the development, Gong Changjun put forward the idea to the Impermanence Studio that the game needs to be different from the traditional concept. Therefore, breaking through the tradition, seeking for creative ideas, and to have their style, has become the main development idea of the game.
(the dark-fairy concept set at the early stage)
After reading the novel, the development team felt that it is unlikely to insert new plots to a complete story. They came up with an idea and decided to start with the world view of the novel, to create a gloomy dark fairy story. In the world of Jiuxiao, there is a "Calamity" to destroy the immortal who has a certain power in the world. It is because “God” wants to control the power of the immortal and ensures the balance of the world. Under the circumstance, a team “HuanShen” was born, a group of people who saw their friends and relatives killed by the “God”. They want to fight against fate, instead of defending themselves when the “Calamity” comes. And it has become a mysterious group because of its "illegitimacy". “HuanShen” is the key to the story of the game, and it is also the origin of the name "Jiu Xiao Huan Shen JI”.
(the concept of Huan Shen)
Game type selection
Players' expectations have put great pressure on impermanence studio. However, for a start-up team with a limited budget, it was not easy to create a traditional large-scale RPG game. The way to tell a complete story in a limited storyline was the main goal of the development team when choosing the type of game. Quite a few members of the team have been playing different types of games for more than 10 years. And they found that action-adventure games usually tell a better story, “The Last of Us” is one of the successful examples. This gave them the answer to choose the type of game.
The action-adventure games gave the direction of development to Impermanence Studio. But they found that the process is not that simple. It took a long time for them to consider the plot of the story and the psychological state of the characters.
Based on the previous successful games, the Impermanence Studio believes that the key to complete a high-quality action-adventure game is "immersion".
This means the plot and the stages of the story need to be compatible. They want to use a variety of stimuli to arouse the player's emotions. Fear, joy, grief, fury, everything is elaborately designed to provide the player with a great experience. The factors that need to be considered are much more complex than completing a single system of gameplay. The way to adjust the balance of gameplay and plot has become one of the important challenges throughout the research and development process.
To be continued,
Stay tuned for the next chapter
Detailed information about JIUXIAO video
This time we released 3 major characters on the video
- Member of “Ying” from Wuchang men —— Bu Yao
- Member of “Youzi” from Wuchang men —— Mo YanHan
- Leader of “Ying” from Wuchang men —— Jing Luo
There may be a confusion about “Ying” and “Youzi”, and let’s take a look here.
Wuchang men is the northern faction of JIUXIAO, and “Ying”, “Youzi” belong to Wuchang men. “Ying” is responsible for the assassination. "Youzi" is responsible for intelligence investigation. In the game, Bu Yao and Mo Yanhan have a common mission and will fight together. This mission is given by the Wuchang men to prevent the monster in the northern of Jiuxiao from breaking out. And the change that happens in the mission is the highlight of the story.
The identity and behavior of Jing Luo in the video is very confusing. As a leader of “Ying” and Bu Yao's superior. However, she provoked and had a fight with the protagonist. It can be roughly guessed from the lines that Bu Yao is under the control of some evil force and has stood on the opposite side of Wuchang men. As for Jing Luo’s actual plan, the player can only find out the answer in JIUXIAO.
The information of the mysterious man appearing at the end of the video has no frontal feature will disclose in the future. It can only be known that this character is also one of the main roles and even more impressive.
Let's stop there and talk about the fights in the game.
We have shown the analytic video of the combat system before. But this time we can see something different in the video. For instance, Jing Luo’s shooting skill with high-heeled shoes on, and the fight of mecha boss. These are the two exciting battles in the game with certain difficulty.
The combat features of Jing Luo are quick movement, dodging, and a long-range throwing skill in the floating state. However, the protagonist's freezing skill works against it, and it may obtain considerable output time when used in battle. Everyone may be more concerned about how Jing Luo's shooting skill can be triggered, or what effect it has on the protagonist. The triggering method is also very simple. Stand still and don't move. Jing Luo may give you a shot if she is in a good mood. But it's going to be very painful, so watch out.
The giant mechanical boss is even more shocking. Although the boss is huge and can't move well, it can only attack with two hands, but a large number of accurate attacks are enough to hit the players.
Impermanence Studio invited the famous musicians Luo Jiyi and Feng Mingxuan to compose music for the game. Two of the soundtracks in the video were written by them. It is a combination of country and electronic style.
We invited Gemiuste from Beijing to dub for JIUXIAO, and got the voiceover of 60,000 words and the most satisfying voice for each character. We appreciate all the works of the dubbers. This video only revealed the lines of 4 characters, as for the rest of characters’ performance, you can only be experienced in the game.
Last but not least, the game will be officially launched on April 15th, Thank you for your support.
JiuXiao will be officially launched on April 15
JIUXIAO is an action and adventure online video game, developed by the senior game developer Impermanence Studio. It is published by a new studio called NAZAR studios. This video shows multiple battles of the game, as well as many puzzle solving elements. Players will follow the leads to the northern continent of Jiuxiao and fall into an ancient conspiracy to begin a journey and to fight against fate.
For the first time several major characters are revealed on the video, including the main character Bu Yao, the female character Mo Yanhan and Jing Luo. In the video, Mo Yanhan as a partner of protagonist to unlock the puzzles and fight together.
Another female character Jing Luo appeared even more stunning, the video shows a battle against the protagonist, which gives a close-up shot. The official claimed that the difficulty of this battle, and it can be regarded as a special show for players.
The mysterious man appearing at the end of the video has no frontal feature, and the official will release more information about the character in the follow-up. It can be known that this character can also travel with the protagonist as a partner, but the identity and plot are left for everyone to explore together.
The storyline of the game will begin with the mission of the northern faction of Jiuxiao— “Wuchang men” to prevent the monster from breaking out. The leading role Bu Yao’s team is wanted by the faction due to some changes. Under the influence of some evil force, the protagonist gradually fell into the ancient conspiracy, but approached the final truth step by step. It is difficult to speculate more deeply about the plot from the character lines exposed in the video. But it is certain that Jing Luo tried to inspire some uncontrollable evil force on the protagonist through provocation. While the mysterious man at the end has to race against time to prevent the protagonist from entering the trap by mistake.
It can be seen from the video that JIUXIAO uses the instant combat system and presents a high-speed combat experience. The protagonist character can not only use two weapons to attack, but also to defend and counterattack.
In addition, the protagonist has the ability to freeze and execute monsters. The freeze effect is also effective against the human challenger. There are many execution ways, different execution performances for different monsters. The video ends with the appearance of a giant mecha boss, and officials said the visual impact of the way he appears indicates that a great sense of tension in the battle.
The game will be officially released on April 15th, add to the wishlist to receive the latest information about the game.