We chatted with miHoYo before the launch of their biggest project, a difficult road to get the game they always wanted to make.
This September 28th, Genshin Impact is launched, the most ambitious project to date from the Chinese studio miHoYo. Founded in 2011, the small group of three students from Shanghai Jiaotong University got together with recent graduates to try to make what might seem impossible come true, immerse themselves in the digital entertainment sector to bring out their three great passions: anime, comics and video games. .
Genshin Impact is the result of eight years of experience, but there has been much before; including the title by which they are known internationally, Honkai Impact 3rd, which continues to be a mobile phenomenon in Asia. We have talked with its creators so they can tell us what is behind what aims to be one of the next phenomena of fantastic Action RPG within the free to play universe.
Genshin Impact
They already think about the future: “This is just the beginning”
Because to understand the title that concerns us today, it is necessary to mention the project started in 2014, when for that still small group of developers self-defined as otaku (hence their motto “Tech Otakus Save the World”) they launched to develop that acclaimed hack and slash with gacha elements that is Honkai Impact 3rd, which we already talked about when it was launched years ago on our YouTube channel.
Attractive to the eye, mechanics that knew how to adapt very well to the emerging trend of random content, charismatic characters and a gameplay that, even today, surprises on iOS and Android terminals. In August 2018, what seemed like a milestone arrived: the game had become the number one video game in downloads from the App Store in China, a particularly particular market where being in the Top-5 is really impressive.
From 3 to more than 400 people; from students to international company
That success translated into increased economic capital and, consequently, increased human capital as well. Adaptation to PC with international launch in 2019 and the launch of Tears of Themis on mobile devices were only the prelude to Genshin Impact, which now bursts not only on computers and smartphones, but also on PlayStation 4. There is a data that invites optimism in miHoYo: more than 5.3 million people signed up to download the game on its opening day, where it already ranks as one of the most downloaded and most viewed games on portals like Twitch.
“During the development process, which lasted more than three and a half years, more than 400 members participated in the production and launch of Genshin Impact,” says Xin Yang, a member of the miHoYo team in communication work. “As this is a long-term game, the official launch on September 28 is just the beginning. We will face pressure from game updates, so investment in staff for the project will only increase, not decrease. ” And this is how a title is born that, perhaps, we will continue talking about in a few years.
FreeGameTips: Since Genshin Impact is a free-to-play game based on a game-as-a-service model, how do you plan to keep it alive over time?
miHoYo: When the game officially launches, we will only have published 2 of the 7 main cities. Since Genshin Impact is a long-term video game as a live service, the remaining 5 major cities will be released soon. The game map will also continue to expand. First of all, we will optimize the game based on player feedback and suggestions. Our future plans include adding more characters and plots, creating a more social gameplay and achieving a more diverse game experience, as well as optimizing the most repetitive parts. As more game modes are added, new ways to get related items in the world will also be integrated, to extend the open world experience to as many aspects of the game as possible. We also want to add more dynamic mechanics to the domains to bring more freshness so that players can experience the excitement of each stage and the strategic importance of the team. Additionally, we are also considering customizing team appearances.
Apart from this, with the launch of Genshin Impact two of the seven main cities of Teyvat will see the light: Mondstadt and Liyue. We are now working on the third. As this is a long-running game, we will be adding much more content, including other cities and new territories, so … stay tuned!
Genshin Impact was announced last year 2019, but when did you really start its development?
Genshin Impact started development in 2017 and, as of today, three and a half years have already been passed. This is our first open world multiplatform game; our team is very young and does not have much experience. First of all, developing an open world video game is complicated, the level really exceeded our expectations. In the development of an open world, normally, altering a detail can affect the whole result and this requires a higher degree of coordination on the part of the whole team.
Second, producing a cross-platform game requires developers to put themselves in the perspective of each platform to reflect it in the production of the game and to ensure that it runs smoothly on PC, mobile devices and consoles; and also to take advantage of the characteristics of each hardware. So we first had to see how we can efficiently produce and manage a large number of cross-platform resources, and then think about how to optimize the hardware characteristics of each platform.
Furthermore, as a game that will be operational for the long term, the release of Genshin Impact on September 28 is just the beginning. We will continue to make adjustments based on player recommendations to update to a better version. In turn, we want to continue developing the main plot of the story, the complementary content, the adventure challenges in the world, the characters, etc. This is also why we need to continue to invest in study staff now and in the future.
Producing a game that players like and that continues to entertain them for a long time is going to be difficult, but the team’s passion and enthusiasm for Genshin Impact is our motivation to respond to all challenges.
Let’s talk about difficulties. What has been the most difficult when developing the game? For the first time, you are faced with a console architecture, how has it been to get along with the development on mobile devices, PC and traditional console?
As a platform created for video game development, PlayStation 4 has quite a clever hardware design and gives a lot of freedom for development, but it also has higher requirements for developers. Taking advantage of the PlayStation 4 features to optimize the game normally requires a lot of effort.
For example, one of the biggest hurdles we encountered in developing Genshin Impact for PS4 was optimizing its use of RAM. In PlayStation 4 Pro our game supports a higher resolution and has various rendering techniques applied. This can certainly provide a sharper image quality. However, different rendering techniques can also lead to several different resolutions and formats in each scene, which increases the storage space that everything takes up in RAM. Before optimizing memory, more than 1GB of storage was required to process the game; That is why we decided to develop a more convenient internal memory management system that would allow us to use that precious available space more effectively.
With the support of this internal memory management system, we managed to save almost 500 MB of RAM on the PlayStation 4 Pro and 200 MB of RAM on the standard PS4. This has allowed us to allocate more memory to other aspects and greatly improve the speed and overall performance of the game.
Can we expect any appreciable difference between the Genshin Impact gaming experience on mobile and console, considering there is cross-play?
We believe that each platform has its own characteristics and advantages. So, what we have to do is adjust the game according to the advantages of each of them, so that the players get a satisfactory experience regardless of where they play. Genshin Impact is a multiplatform game with simultaneous release and therefore the content of the game and the subsequent updates that we will provide to each platform are exactly the same.
There are people with doubts about what Genshin Impact really is and its model of rewards for the player. How much of Honkai Impact 3rd is in Genshin Impact?
Genshin Impact is a free-to-play video game, it is free to download and play. In the in-game store, players can purchase Genesis Crystals and item packs, or exchange the in-game currency, Protogemas. The Protogems are used to exchange them for the Gachapon items “Encounter of Destiny” and “Intertwined Destiny”. In the Gachapon system there are chances of getting rare weapons and characters. In addition, a “Gnostic Battle Pass” or a “Pearl Hymn Battle Pass” can be purchased from the in-game store, which allow you to upgrade and obtain many rewards.
As for whether Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact 3rd are related, we prefer to keep the suspense and hope that players will gradually discover the truth about Genshin Impact.
At launch there will be about 30 unlockable characters, how often do you plan to increase that number?
As Genshin Impact is a game-as-a-service, we will be programming more characters in the future, but we cannot specify the exact update frequency at this time.
Since we are talking about characters, can you explain to us how different they are from each other beyond the aesthetic? How does the elemental powers system work?
All the characters in “Genshin Impact” have been assigned a type of elemental power, which corresponds to Hydro, Pyro, Electro, or another of the seven types. When changing characters, a reaction can be achieved by the interaction of its elements, making the fighting style more varied and causing a greater degree of damage to enemies. And not only that, you can also interact with the environment, for example: if the Hydro element meets the Pyro element, it evaporates; if the Cryo element meets the Pyro element, it melts, etc. It can serve purposes like solving puzzles and exploring.
It is inevitable to think of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild when we see the huge open world of Genshin Impact. There were angry people, how have you managed this problem? Is it just an inspiration?
The video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a popular and respected product in the industry, and our developers have a lot of respect for it too.
Last year, in the letter to the players that we wrote from the team, we mentioned that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was one of our sources of inspiration at the beginning of the project. He inspired us to develop this open world action RPG, Genshin Impact. However, we have to mention that, after experiencing it for yourself, it is evident that Genshin Impact is completely different from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Genshin Impact has its own original characters and story, and a game mode where the essential is to play with various characters and use elemental reactions in battles. Therefore, we hope that after the release on September 28, all players will experience Genshin Impact for themselves to realize its uniqueness and have fun in the game.
Can you explain to us how cross-save and cross-play will work? Is there small print?
Yes. PC and mobile device users can share data through their miHoYo account: miHoYo Pass. Multiplayer can be used from PS4 with players on PC and mobile devices, but data cannot be shared. Also, at the moment we do not plan to share data from PlayStation 4 to PC and mobile devices. However, whatever platform they use, everyone can invite players from other platforms to play together in multiplayer.
