After the release of the full version, the number of online games has increased significantly.
According to the steamchart, the highest online number of Raft was originally 1w, and even reached the peak of 10W, which was nearly 10 times higher than before, and also set a new record for the online number of games.
As a survival game, Raft stands out among many similar games because of its unique world outlook and gameplay.
I remember watching "The Fantasy Drifting of Youth School". The scene of Youth School fighting wits with tigers on the boat gave me a sense of urgency. In Raft, the player's experience is the same as that in Pi's fantasy drifting. In the endless ocean, besides the scarce materials around you, there is also a shark eyeing you at the bottom of the sea.
Back to the starting point
However, the endless material in the ocean gives you hope for survival. You can use claws to collect all kinds of sundries in the ocean, such as boards, palm leaves, plastics, etc. And use these items to build various tools to meet the basic survival needs.
After all the food and clothing are solved, you can slowly expand and establish your own home by building houses, farming and breeding. Over time, when you customize your own raft by collecting all kinds of materials, you can also get a sense of happiness of slowly expanding your home.
It can be said that Raft has built a very limited scope of existence, which makes players need to continuously collect, make and operate their own homes. This exciting but slow game experience is also the reason why many people are fascinated by Raft.
Interestingly, just like constantly improving your home in the game, Raft itself has a process of continuous development and improvement. And I also want to take this opportunity to talk to you about its transformation in the past six years.
Perhaps you didn't expect that Raft has a completely different development experience from other games-at first, it was actually just a course project for three college students.
Entrepreneurial project trio-Andre, Allen and Sammy (from left to right)
The original raft is a game made by three Swedish students in Uppsala University in order to complete the course project of "designing a game and putting it on the market". After completing this course, three college students put the prototype on itch.io (a platform focusing on independent games) to provide free downloads and demonstrations for players.
Unexpectedly, within a week after the game was released, Raft became the most popular game in itch.io, with the download volume exceeding 10w.
Yiqi raft
Perhaps the birth of Raft is just a brainwave of three college students, but judging from the response of public platforms, this idea definitely has potential. The follow-up of the game received a lot of positive feedback and positive comments, which was absolutely "crazy" for the three young game producers.
And this also made them have an idea that is "crazier" for them: Since this project is so successful, should we continue to play this game? From now on, this "crazy" idea is indeed correct and successful.
Subsequently, three young producers founded Redbeet interactive, which really gave foot producers more confidence and gave them the motivation to continue to work hard for this game.
No matter from the studio name or logo design, it is very "raft"
Since then, the producers have focused on developing games, and raft has developed from the monotonous mode of picking up materials with hooks and claws to the mode of making and building tools, which greatly increases the playability of the games.
The original version of Raft
Rafts in the later stage of development
It is worth mentioning that on May 23, 20 18, Raft, which was developed in Itch.io for two years, officially landed on the steam platform and began testing. At the same time, the game also joined the multiplayer game for the first time in the preemptive experience version.
The multiplayer mode of the game is very interesting.
Raft lived up to expectations and received a lot of responses after its release. At one time, it was at the forefront of the steam hot sale list, and the number of online users reached nearly 2w, which was already a very good result for the games made by an independent game studio.
However, after the raft gave extreme survival the pleasure, its boring side gradually emerged.
After all, few people can choose to stay in the ocean all their lives, stay on a narrow raft for a long time, and miss the days of exploring the jungle in other games like 1900 in Legend.
So, after the release of the version of steam, raft also launched several big island updates. In large islands, players can finally cut down trees and dig materials without claws like other games. Besides sharks, we can see more creatures. In addition to hostile creatures, after an update, sheep, donkeys and other animals, which means that we can start breeding activities in the game.
In the process of continuous updating and repair, Raft's daily necessities are gradually enriched, and players can customize their own homes.
Design of competitors in raft architectural design competition
However, even if it enriches the playability of survival, some players still feel a little boring after repeated construction. At this time, the production team made a very clever decision-began to increase the plot of the story.
20 19 12, the first chapter of the game is launched. After the update, players can use the information given by radar to go to the radio tower that used to be the nuclear reactor test site. In this chapter, players can finally get in touch with other civilized cities besides themselves.
Record the progress of the task through a notebook
In June 2020, the second chapter of the game was launched. Obviously, compared with the first chapter, the puzzle solving mechanism in the game has become more diverse and interesting, and players need to connect the clues collected all the way to reach the final launch tower.
Just last month, the game also updated the third and final chapter. In this chapter, three new destinations are added to the game for players to explore. Compared with the previous two chapters, this chapter can be discussed on a larger scale. In the plot, each location has a special battle plot and secret type, which can also highlight the gameplay of RPG games.
Two of them-the tower of silence and the snowy area.
At the same time, in this update, a large number of enemies and items have also been added. As a game played by a small studio, Raft can make the game so perfect in the end, which is a perfect ending.
New titanium arrows, swords, axes and hooks
Looking back on the whole development process of Raft, it is not difficult to find that it is a transformation in renewal. It has a very "small" starting point, just like the game only survived on a half raft at first, but in the process of updating, its gameplay is gradually improved, and it can gradually explore the bigger world such as islands and even cities, and more gameplay.
When you think about it, it also witnessed the transformation of the production team from the side. From a novice producer with only three people at the beginning, he is now able to make huge cities and islands and make complete plot lines. It can be said that in these six years, the game and production team have grown together.
Now, "Raft" has finally arrived in Utopia smoothly. It is really worth looking forward to whether the interactive team of Red Beet will go from here and bring better games to players.