腾讯 TiMi 工作室与 Capcom 合作打造《Monster Hunter Outlanders》手游的开发心得

The development director for the new mobile title, which launches today, explains TiMi's working relationship with Capcom and what's changed in the transition to mobile devices

Today marks the release of Monster Hunter Outlanders, a mobile version of Capcom's long-running franchise that has been created by Tencent's TiMi Studio Group.

Previously, Niantic brought Monster Hunter to mobile with Monster Hunter Now, but whereas that title was an AR game along similar lines to Niantic's Pokémon Go, TiMi's Monster Hunter Outlanders aims to distil the "full-fat" Monster Hunter experience onto a mobile device. (Interestingly, TiMi has competition from Capcom itself on this front, following the recent surprise announcement that the console game Monster Hunter Rise has now been brought to mobile via Netflix.)

GamesIndustry.biz spoke with Bryan Li, the development director for Monster Hunter Outlanders, about the changes needed to make Capcom's game sing on mobile devices, as well as TiMi's working relationship with Capcom.

What problems did you have trying to translate the game to mobile?

At the very beginning of the project, the team spent a lot of time identifying what could be the sweet balance between maintaining a very truthful and authentic Monster Hunter experience, and yet at the same time make sure it feels very visceral and very native to mobile devices.

Luckily, the majority of my team members have been long-term, loyal fans of the entire franchise, so they know every single element of the entire brand. A lot of those great symbolic elements are carried on and preserved in Monster Hunter Outlanders: those familiar monsters, those familiar weapons, the touch and feel, the impact.

But at the same time, only replicating a similar kind of Monster Hunter experience was not going to be good enough, so the team took a lot of effort in fine tuning, especially with the controls. This is why the team came up with two solutions, with the Classic Mode more favoured towards relatively experienced mobile action game users, while the simplified Adventure Mode is tailored towards players who are less experienced with the franchise.

Besides the control tweaks and adaptation to mobile devices, the team also took a lot of extra miles thinking about what additional innovation we can bring to the game, hence you will see there's a full new main storyline. On top of that, having an interesting world-touring experience is not only about how big your map is, it's really about having enough fun elements to populate the world.

It seems you've really expanded on that last point, adding more activities that you wouldn't normally get in the main game.

Exactly. Our level designers spend hours fine-tuning those golden paths for the player to make sure that whenever they have a major quest objective, they're able to use a very fluent way to get there, while at the same time there are also interesting and wonderful opportunities alongside those golden paths. People can always expect something new, something rewarding along their way. On top of that, the team spent a lot of effort on the crafting system, and although we don't have a riding system, there are different gadgets like zip lines and ballistas to enrich the navigation experience.

With mobile, playtimes tend to be much shorter than on PC and console, how have you accommodated that?

Shortening the gameplay session duration is the natural choice: the difficulty is finding the sweet spot. The team did a lot of iteration on that. We are good at proposing different kinds of hypotheses, but we might not be able to hit the spot on the first try, and that's why we always, always conduct several rounds of playtest sessions and live test sessions. We invite the players to evaluate our hypothesis together with us.

Did you take any lessons from Niantic's mobile title Monster Hunter Now?

Well, to be honest with you, we don't really have too much direct communication with Niantic, but since we are all part of the Capcom Monster Hunter ecosystem, we do have a lot of publishing-related knowledge sharings about what people are actually expecting from Monster Hunter mobile games, and what people don't like that much in terms of making a mobile version of Monster Hunter. So we exchanged those key know-hows and best practices with our counterpart from the Capcom side.

How closely do you work with Capcom, and what does that relationship look like?

Although our major areas of expertise are slightly different from each other, some of the guiding principles and philosophies are quite common in nature. For example, both of our companies really value player feedback, so it's very natural for us to have this kind of conversation with our counterpart from Capcom. We carefully listen to the players' feedback and take on their valuable input.

On Capcom's side, they know the franchise in and out, and we are lucky to have the opportunity to learn from them how you define your core combat mechanism, and how to make a believable creature for the Monster Hunter universe. On Tencent's side, we have a relatively richer experience of long-term free-to-play live service items, so we share with our counterparts not only what we are doing and the planning for the initial release, but also our approach in terms of the longer-term post-launch roadmap.

In a way, Capcom has entrusted you with its crown jewels.

Exactly. It's a blessing for us to be able to work on the project.

How did you earn that trust? How did you convince them to let you work on Monster Hunter?

Capcom is a company that welcomes a lot of different new and innovative ideas to further enrich the overall ecosystem of the brand, while on the Tencent side, we are very eager to learn from the real veterans of the industry. As I mentioned, a lot of our team members are diehard fans of the franchise, and a small team from our side took the opportunity to pitch in front of Capcom, which triggered the collaboration.

In terms of building up the relationship, it's really about two things. First, we speak and collaborate in very professional terms. On top of that, it's really about taking time to build up your relationship. You won't really have the honeymoon sessions at the very beginning. It takes time. You basically accumulate the success stories one by one. And at the moment, we are able to have this kind of strategic relationship where we are able to openly discuss any kind of topic and really trust each other.

What does the process look like? Are you left completely to your own devices, or is Capcom giving you direction every step of the way? Or is it somewhere in between?

We have a lot of regular conversations with our counterparts from the Capcom side. We exchange different kinds of design ideas, different kinds of intentions to validate those ideas, and make sure that we are able to reach a mutual agreement. They are the IP owners, so whatever kind of innovative idea we have, it is really a way of respect to make sure that we actually pitch the idea in front of them. So far, I would say the Capcom side is very collaborative and supportive, and they encourage us to bring a lot of different, innovative ideas.

It sounds like you're proposing the ideas rather than Capcom saying 'You should do this'.

Exactly.

Obviously the mainstream games are premium titles, so I wonder what kind of monetisation system you're using for Monster Hunter Outlanders?

That's the billion-dollar question, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of players will be eager to know that. Being a free-to-play mobile game, without spending a single penny, people will be able to enjoy all the storylines, all the core game modules, and all the key function systems without any kind of problems.

Our monetisation will only be captured in three major categories. The first one is basically the avenue for you to acquire new adventures, but it doesn't mean those new adventures will be more powerful than other adventures. It's just merely offering additional hunting styles for players to really tailor their hunting experience as they wish.

Secondly, we offer a vast amount of customization and vanity item opportunities. Once again, we have zero intention to sell power through those customizations, it's merely an avenue for the players to show their own self-expression. And thirdly, it's really about time saving and convenience, because we want the players to have the freedom to choose how they want to invest their time and enjoy the game as they wish.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.