In May 2017, "Rebirth Cell" (also translated dead cells) opened the first test on Steam.7 years have passed, and it is still one of the best horizontal action games on Steam.
Like many amazing dark horse games, there are also many stories worth telling about its birth and behind -the -scenes.Recently, Youyan also introduced a official setting of "Rebirth Cell" & amp; Creative Set: "Heart of Rebirth Cell".
In addition to the many art settings of the game, it also records many behind-the-scenes stories before and after the release of the game-how does it follow from it fromA gambling of the members of the workers cooperatives grew into one of the most famous independent games.
The production company Motion Twin behind "Rebirth Cell" is a worker cooperative.This is not a metaphor. In France, the cooperative system is a normal company form.
All members are both bosses and employees. They will not have a salary gap because of qualifications. They will hold shares, all branches of income, and of course they will share risks.
From the perspective of the company, the cooperative system is a double-edged sword.
The system that is flat to the ultimate, so that good creativity will not be ignored because of the small words;The high requirements of recruiting people also make it difficult to improve production capacity.
Before making "Rebirth Cell", Motion Twin has always been a small company (although it is now), always focusing on the development of Flash page games.Their most well -known work "My Brute" may be unknown in the ears of domestic players, but I believe many people have played with "Q Pet Fighting" inspired by it.
Motion Twin during the page game period has always developed tepidly. When gradually ending in the Flash era, he also tried transformation mobile game developmentEssenceOne of the founders Sebastian Benal was struggling with this. He said that they needed one -third of the time to make the game, and two -thirds of the time were used to allow the game to adapt to "free play"Mode.The game needs to design a complex economic system to retain the players, "once it falls from the top of the list, it is over."
It was also during this period. They developed an unpublished multiplayer defense game "Hordes Zero".
The gameplay of this game is strange. Players must cooperate with each other to set up the arrow tower to resist the enemys attack, but also ensure that they finally eat chicken in the cooperation.Even the inside of the team called the early stage of this project "a complete farce."
MOTION TWIN is not satisfied with this game prototype. After taking it in the Cologne game exhibition, it decided to suspend the project and changed it to that we are familiar withName, "Rebirth Cell".
In "Hordes Zero", we can actually see the art style inherited in "Rebirth Cell".
The unique gameplay of the reborn self -gaming is both cooperative and internal gameplay, Motion Twins designer Thomas WayerDrawing inspiration and trying to build a "after the collapse of civilization, people have to fight for the smallest resources".
After deciding to use pixel art style, Waser quickly built a dark world that was illuminated by only a few rays of light.Prefer the outline of items or monsters with black and white, and then to debug their effects under different light and shadow, and use the same material to produce a completely different atmosphere, thereby enhancing the players sense of substitution.
But the Motion Twin at this time is the same as the game background of the game, only leftThe cost of making the last game is always facing the ending of the separation.At this time, they received the feedback with the appearance of "Hordes Zero" at the exhibition. The advice from players and colleagues made them realize what it was in some gameplay.
So, this group of developers who do not have the experience of commercial stand -alone game experience at all, decided to delete all the many many person elements in the game, leaving only them "aheadOne -third of the time "made of" reborn cells "into a pure single game.
This is why in the early version of the game, we can see a large number of anti-type weapons such as catcher, arrow tower, laser tower and other tower
Steve Philby, who was still the person in charge of the Motion TWIN marketing, did not agree with this idea at the beginning, because this was undoubtedly a gambling with the fate of the studio.
If it was done (the goal they set at the time were to sell 20,000 to 30,000 sets), they could successfully transition to the next game; but if it was not completed, Motion Twin would likeEnd.But in the end, he agreed with everyones votes and fully joined the publicity work of "Rebirth Cell".
Like the path of their games in the past, the marketing of "Rebirth Cell" is actually not too much. In simple terms, it is to give the anchor a living code.When the peers around him were also concerned about this approach, the quality of "Rebirth Cell" was fermented by the rapid and excellent game quality. Under the acceleration of the anchor display, sales ushered in a skyrocketing volume.
We also know.
"Rebirth Cell" defeated games such as "Devil May Cry 5" and "Locke 11" and won the best action game of 2018 TGA.In the end, it broke through the tens of millions of mark and became the most successful independent game in France in recent years.
In Motion Twin, a cooperative with the concept of communism and co -prosperity, they made "Rebirth Cell" together.Only many years later, they have gone their own.
founder Sebastian Benal, leaving the team to become a personal developer Deepnight; Steve who once opposed the project was opposed to the project.· Philby, set up a new company EVIL Empire, took over all the follow -up work of "Rebirth Cell"; designer Thomas Wayer stayed in Motion Twin, and just came up with the new work "Wind Well".
What is the heart of rebirth cells?Perhaps these members of the former Motion Twin who parted ways will now give a completely different answer.But the consistent answer they once gave will always exist in the game "Rebirth Cell".
The simplified Chinese version of "The Heart of Rebirth Cell" we introduced will be launched on November 5th.More detailed development stories and more exquisite settings can be found in this book.Friends who are interested in this book can go to our treasure shop.
