To be honest, I counted carefully and found that I have been exposed to mobile games for about seventeen or eight years. From the "Metal Roar" that can be played all day on the Nokia N73, to the JAVA games that flourished on the Symbian system, and now to the 3D masterpieces supported by various engines, the form of mobile games is really earth-shaking. I recently tried this game called "Survival Geometry", and suddenly I had a wonderful feeling of "going back in time and seeing the future", and I wanted to chat with my old friends.
This game is set in the zombie apocalypse, and you are a weapons store manager. The gameplay is very pure: hire craftsmen to make equipment, send a team out to collect resources, and resell them to make the difference when prices fluctuate. There are no screen-filling recharge pop-ups, no forced social interaction, and even no stamina to slow down your progress. To be honest, this idea of "making the core loop solid" is considered a rare breed nowadays 🦄
Looking back ten years ago, mobile games still relied on single-player buyouts or "prop charges" to support their popularity. At that time, everyone was willing to pay a few dollars for a snake skin because it could be played for half a year. Later, capital poured in, and many people were tired of the bombardment of skin-changing games, card drawing, and fatigue. Now it's a bit interesting – Survival Geometry, a combination of light management + doomsday survival, just hits the balance point of “fragmented time + deep immersion”. When you are busy, you can put away the dishes in ten minutes, and when you are free, you can stare at the trading house and study the price trend for half an hour.
To be fair, this design is actually closer to the good genes of early mobile games: gameplay-driven rather than anxiety-driven. What's even more rare is that the game doesn't have any "guild battles" or "rankings" forced into it. All systems revolve around the weapon shop. Each craftsman you recruit has his or her own personality, and the weapons they create will affect the reactions of customers in the store. This kind of detail polishing, in today's fast-food environment where "you can finish your daily routine in three minutes online", really reminds people of the slow-burning days of playing "Cairo Game".
I know that many people think that mobile games are in decline, but looking at Survival Geometry and small teams like "Shanghai Orange Mo" where it is located, I feel that the industry is returning to rationality. Big companies are busy piling up materials for publicity and distribution, while small teams use lighter and more sincere methods to impress specific groups of people. This may be the trend in the future: not everyone needs an open world and dozens of hours of plot. Many people just need a "small world" where they can hang out with peace of mind and occasionally give small surprises.
Finally, let me say something personal. I am thirty years old, and I have very little time to calm down and play console games after get off work every day, but I always have to keep a game on my phone that can be opened at any time. Geometry of Survival is the kind of companion product that you can turn on in the middle of the night due to insomnia, look at the dilapidated cities and busy craftsmen on the screen, and suddenly feel "I don't seem that lonely after all." Maybe this is the reason why old players persist 🏚️🔧