Chapter 204 The final plan for the mini steering wheel!
Thursday, February 13.
??Nitiantian Game Experience Store.
The decoration team is very efficient and has already started construction work.
Gu Fan basically gave Xiao Mingyu the direct responsibility for matters related to the experience store. He just roughly selected the location, thought about the decoration plan, and then found a store, signed a long-term lease contract, and found a reliable decoration company. A series of tasks were all handled by Xiao Mingyu.
The decoration team this time was generally quite reliable. The designer was amazed by the decoration plan proposed by Gu Fan and gave some suggestions from a professional perspective.
?As a result, the decoration work of the experience store soon started in full swing.
?Gu Fan deliberately selected a variety of environmentally friendly materials, striving to complete the decoration in more than two months, and try his best to catch up with the release of new games and the official opening.
After finishing his work, Gu Fan went to a nearby cafe and met with the person in charge of Zhitong handle.
“Mr. Gu, right? Hello! My name is Lu Haocheng, and I’m here to talk to you about the product design plan today.
“This is the design plan I made temporarily before, please take a look.”
??The joint-branded controller is nothing more than a permutation and combination.
The co-branded controller of "Ascension" will mainly adopt the Xianxia style, while "Road Rage Simulator" will adopt the racing game style.
?Gu Fan looked at it briefly, without commenting, then picked up the "miniature handle steering wheel" plan and looked at it.
??Gu Fan sighed silently. Obviously, the other person''s thinking was not broad enough, and he needed to give him a little inspiration and tips.
?This is the highlight.
Of course, there are other models, such as the "Breeze" series, which are mainly cheap, compact and lightweight, and the "Explorer" series, which are mainly used to test the waters by applying some niche and unpopular new technologies.
Just after reading the design plan, Gu Fan shook his head slightly.
“If you switch to metal material, it will also be difficult to reach 30 yuan, and metal will have many problems, such as feel, joystick rebound, etc., which is not very reliable!
“I can only make a simple optimization for this small toy currently on the market.”
“You wrote in the requirement that the selling price of this thing must be more than 100 yuan!
At present, Zhitong controllers mainly have three best-selling products, and the naming methods are relatively simple and crude, namely Fengshen, Vulcan, and Thor. The prices are getting higher and higher.
?Lu Haocheng seemed to have been mentally prepared for this. He said a little embarrassedly: "Mr. Gu, I know that this plan may not meet your requirements.
Choose a game from Nitian Games, adopt its design style, and then select a specific product from the main products of Zhitong Controller, then change the case and sell it at a slightly higher price.
??If the market feedback of a certain new technology is good, it will be considered to be applied to the "Thor" series. If the cost of this new technology is reduced, then it will be considered to be transferred to the "Vulcan" or "Wind God" series.
?Gu Fan took it and looked at it. The first thing was the design of the joint-branded handle.
?This design is relatively simple, with only two or three pages in total. It is basically a direct reskin.
Considering that players who buy this kind of commemorative edition controller are basically not short of money, most of them just choose the highest grade.
Among them, Leishen is the flagship product of Zhitong controller, which basically has all the new technologies and new gameplay of Zhitong.
“But...it’s such a small thing with a very simple structure. If it were made of plastic, the cost would probably be less than five yuan.
As for the co-branded games, of course they are "Ascend" and "Road Rage Simulator".
? Lu Haosheng directly chose the latest "Thor" series controller. The specific model is "Thor 3S". The original price was 499 yuan, but the joint version increased by 20 yuan to 519 yuan.
?Lu Haocheng handed several printed design plans to Gu Fan.
“Mr. Lu, please be more open-minded. How can such a mediocre product design stand out in today’s fiercely competitive market?
"The co-branded controller of "Ascension" can be used directly with Thor 3S, but "Road Rage Simulator" cannot. This does not reflect the characteristics of this game at all, and it does not link with our new product "Micro Controller Steering Wheel". This Definitely not!
“Mr. Lu, the price of 100 yuan is not high. As long as you open your mind, you may even feel that the money is not enough.
“Who said we must use this crude structure? Who said we can only control the direction by connecting a handle? Can’t we send signals directly to the handle?
“And, what is the must-have function of a steering wheel? It’s force feedback!
“Can’t you think of a way to add this function to the mini steering wheel?
“Just in time, I found that your company has already had a good product, which is this: the “Explorer 4” detachable modular handle.”
?Lu Haocheng was a little surprised. He originally thought that this "100-yuan gadget" was a random item, but now it seems that it was definitely not a random item. He was prepared!
It seems that Mr. Gu already has a clearer plan in mind?
But what exactly is the plan?
Of course Lu Haocheng is familiar with the Explorer 4 controller. It is a detachable modular controller. The four button functional areas on the controller are the left and right joysticks, cross keys and ABXY keys. These four Functional areas can be disassembled and replaced at will.
From this, many weird layouts can be created, such as the "PS-like layout" with the left and right joysticks at the bottom, or the "anti-human layout" with both the left and right joysticks at the top. You can even take off the right joystick and replace it with another one. Four cross keys.
In short, the playability is very high.
Of course, this kind of detachable module is not the first of Zhitong controllers. Some other controller manufacturers have also made similar products. However, this controller of Zhitong Company is relatively high in completion, and the related ones are full of imagination. There are also many accessories.
For example, there is an accessory that replaces the left joystick with a round wheel-shaped rotatable knob, which allows players to use it to turn when playing racing games.
It’s just that this accessory didn’t sell very well and is now close to being discontinued.
Could it be that the miniature steering wheel that Mr. Gu wanted was because he had spotted the detachable modular handle of "Explorer 4" and wanted to make it a matching accessory? Mr. Gu said that this miniature steering wheel can send signals directly to the handle. Isn’t this what accessories mean?
Lu Haocheng couldn''t help but suddenly realized: "Oh! I understand, Mr. Gu, you mean to directly remove the left joystick and install this accessory! In this way, it is no longer necessary to pull the left joystick through a mechanical structure. Instead of sending steering wheel turn information directly to the controller?
“After all, the joystick is different from the steering wheel. There is a dead zone, and the sensitivity will be much different. Therefore, the original crude solution can only be said to be barely usable. In fact, it is not necessarily easier to use than using the handle directly.
“But this new solution is really equivalent to a miniature steering wheel! It can achieve very precise control!”
?The train of thought opened up instantly, and Lu Haocheng continued to think along this train of thought.
“Mr. Gu, what else do you need? By the way, it needs to be a standard steering wheel with vibration and force feedback...
“Vibration is easy to say. At present, the handles all vibrate. It’s just like updating the vibration mode like the steering wheel and upgrading the vibration module to achieve different vibration methods.
“But force feedback may be a bit difficult. The force feedback of the steering wheel is completed through the base. There is a direct drive motor, but where does the motor come from for the handle...
“Wait a minute, Mr. Gu, you don’t want to install a small motor in this accessory, do you?”
?Gu Fan looked at him without comment: "What do you think?"
?Lu Haocheng couldn''t help but take a breath, he understood!
? No wonder the price of this gadget is so high. Obviously, if you want to make it seriously, it’s really not cheap!
Why is it necessary to give strong feedback?
Because you use a steering wheel to play racing games, force feedback is just necessary. If you don’t have this thing, you can’t play it at all.
The most basic thing is to straighten the steering wheel.
After completing the turn, release the steering wheel slightly and let it return to the straight line naturally. This is a driving habit that many people have in real life. This is very important for the driver to grasp the current body posture.
??Without this function, the driver would feel uncomfortable and unable to determine whether the car body is traveling in a straight line through the feel of the steering wheel at this time.
And if you want to master some high-end skills, such as drifting, then force feedback is even more necessary.
Because during the drifting process, the driver will release the steering wheel, quickly turn the steering wheel and find the right time to hold it again. The whole process is smooth and smooth. Without force feedback, this action would be impossible to complete.
Why is the steering wheel always on the base? From gear transmission to belt + gear transmission to direct drive, the steering wheel has always been pursuing greater and greater force feedback intensity. If the force feedback of a direct drive steering wheel is adjusted to the maximum, it may even injure the player''s arm.
The current micro steering wheels made of plastic are only directly connected to the left joystick through a mechanical structure. Although the left joystick itself has a certain centering force, this force is not strong to begin with, and when it is transmitted to the steering wheel through the connecting piece, it is almost non-existent.
So, it has no soul.
?Lu Haocheng took out his notebook and drew a simple sketch on it.
“Mr. Gu, is this what you mean?
"Based on the controller of "Explorer 4", first move the cross key to the upper left and move the left joystick to the bottom. Then remove both the left and right joysticks and install this miniature steering wheel .
“In this way, there is no need to worry about the collision between the mini steering wheel and the joystick.
“A small motor is installed on the micro steering wheel. It is basically located directly below the handle and is directly connected to the handle through a buckle structure. It drives the steering wheel to achieve force feedback.
“Since players only use two thumbs to control the steering wheel, the motor does not need to be large, but as long as it provides strong feedback, it is enough to greatly improve the player’s experience!
"Is it right?"
??Gu Fan nodded slightly: "Yeah, almost. But one more thing is the shape of this steering wheel. Is there any room for improvement?"
??Lu Haocheng thought for a while: "You mean...you can add two more finger positions?"
At present, this steering wheel is basically a structure of "one large circle with two small circles". The big circle is the body of the steering wheel, and the two small circles are located at the 3 o''clock and 9 o''clock directions of the steering wheel, corresponding to the player''s two thumbs.
These two small circles are a slightly concave, flat structure similar to a rocker cap, which is to facilitate the player''s control.
After all, the real steering wheel is held by the player with the whole hand, while the micro steering wheel only uses fingers. If this structure is not made, it will easily slip.
?This is also the mainstream design of the crude miniature steering wheels currently on the market.
But when Gu Fan reminded Lu Haocheng, he instantly realized one thing, that is, this structure still had some flaws.
Because this means that players can only play a quarter of a circle at most.
At best, the player can only turn his thumb to the 12 o''clock or 6 o''clock position, but then he cannot continue to turn it because his fingers are not long enough.
But in driving games, a quarter turn is definitely not enough. Even the top F1 cars basically need to turn half a turn.
Therefore, to take into account the player''s operation of turning the steering wheel half a turn, it is necessary to add two thumb pressable areas at 12 o''clock and 6 o''clock. In this way, the player can first turn the steering wheel half a turn with his right thumb. Then use your left thumb to rotate half a turn.
You can even swap the relays repeatedly with your two thumbs and turn them as much as you want.
Finally, release the steering wheel and let it return to the straight position through force feedback.
??Gu Fan was very satisfied with Lu Haocheng''s understanding: "Well, very good, Mr. Lu, your current design plan can finally satisfy Party A!"
?Lu Haocheng was stunned for a moment. Is this my plan? Isn’t this what you, the Party A, did by guiding me step by step...
(End of this chapter)