Let me talk about the conclusion first. I initially thought that "The Mystery of Dream Paper" was a purely relaxing Huarong Dao reskin, but after actually playing it for two hours, I found that the competitive potential of this thing may have been seriously underestimated.
The core mechanism is very simple, just move the wooden blocks to clear a path for the skylark. But if you think about it carefully, isn't this just the standard "shortest path planning in a restricted space"? It is essentially the same thing as resource allocation and route selection in traditional e-sports. Moreover, the length and arrangement of the wooden blocks in each level are fixed, which means that the solution is reproducible and optimizable. If there is reproducibility, there is room for racing. If there is room for optimization, there is meaning for the existence of rankings.
Personally, I think the most competitive aspect of this game is the dual game of "upper limit of steps" and "lower limit of time". If you want to play faster, you may have to take a few more detours; if you want to save steps, the operating rhythm must be slowed down. How to find a balance between the two is actually very similar to the trade-off between "clearance speed" and "support efficiency" in KPL. It's all a mental struggle.
Let's talk about the skin system. Although it is a cosmetic function on the surface, if visual interference or dynamic backgrounds in different scenes can be added in the future, it will have a huge impact on players' ability to read the game. At that time, what experts will strive for is anti-interference ability and anticipatory movement. This is not just casual puzzle solving, but also has the flavor of a speedrunning PK competition.
In addition, this game has a natural advantage: a single game is short. It can last from tens of seconds to two or three minutes, perfectly adapting to the current fragmented e-sports rhythm. If real-time asynchronous battles can be added in the future, such as who can unlock and escape first, or set up obstacles for each other, I even think it can be included in some community competitions.
Of course, the current version does not have rankings and ladders, and the gameplay is also single-player. But if developers really want to go in the competitive direction, the foundation is sufficient - low threshold and high upper limit, clear rules, and the upper limit of operation is all decided in the mind. Anyway, I have saved the screenshots of the limit number of steps in each level. When I open the challenge to friends in the future, I will definitely invite others to compare who is the real "extrication commander". 🐦
If you have played it, please tell me which level is the most brain-burning. I personally got stuck on the pictures of the diagonal wooden blocks at the third level, and my mentality almost collapsed. But I feel that this kind of "brain collapse" moment is the most attractive part of an e-sports project. 🧠