news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

Preface

Speaking of the "Minesweeper" game that comes with the Windows system, I believe that many people are like me, who played it over and over again in their childhood because of Internet disconnection or simple boredom.

Looking back at that time, facing the squares on the screen that looked like white chocolate blocks, I, as a young child, always clicked randomly and then triggered landmines and had to restart the game. Later, with the help of my elders, I figured out the gameplay and was soon attracted to other fun games. Since then, I have parted ways with this classic work with a single gameplay.

Unexpectedly, 20 years later in 2024, this game is popular again! The reason is that a team in China called Shenjiang Games has created a game called "Let's Sweep Mines" based on the most classic "Minesweeper" game, combined with multiplayer online gameplay. Although this game has just landed on Steam and is still in the state of providing trial demos, it has already become unstoppable on the Internet...

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change

As the saying goes, a single move affects the entire body. Although it is not technically difficult to convert the stand-alone "Minesweeper" game into an online work, the official's strength lies in having a bold idea.

First of all, they did not choose a three- or five-player online mode, but allowed up to a thousand people to play minesweeping online together! From "entering a minefield alone" to "a large engineering team", the game naturally has more fun of collaboration and provides a lot of room for fun.

For example, players can choose to work together with others to clear a minefield, or they can mess with players they don't know and attack where they need to be rescued to remove the mines first.

Not only that, the official also reduced the punishment measures to make "Let's Sweep Mines" a game with almost no sense of frustration. Even if the player accidentally touches a mine, he can wait for a few seconds and then restart the minesweeper. Any coordinates in the map are a vast minefield, and any place you enter is a new level. There is always a minefield waiting for you to explore.

In terms of customization, you can earn points and experience by choosing a safe grid or marking the correct location of a mine, and exchange them for unique logos and grid backgrounds. There are more than 100 decorations to choose from, and players can freely decorate their own interface and leave their own unique and coquettish movements in the minefield.

In addition, the game "Let's Minesweeper" does not require much operation. Whether you are slacking off at work or simply killing time when you have nothing to do, it can provide enough fun. You can start a few games online at any time. If you don't want to play anymore due to something, you can put it down at any time. There is no burden of quitting midway. The main feature is to make full use of fragmented time.

In fact, when it comes down to it, as a developer, Shenjiang Games has infinitely magnified the fun of the original "Minesweeper", and provided players with a 48 million grid map and a huge bomb maze with over 1 million mines. Whenever players and strangers clear a minefield together, the sense of accomplishment and excitement is really addictive, which can be said to have multiplied the fun of the game.

Are foreigners short-sighted?

The developers of Shenjiang Games have certainly promoted the fun of "Minesweeper" through their creative ideas, but if they only make changes to the gameplay rules, it seems that it is not enough to make "Let's Minesweeper" a hit game that shines overseas. In fact, foreign players are not all short-sighted and don't know what "Minesweeper" is. In fact, they are more attracted by the social attributes of the game.

You should know that in addition to the most basic "Thousands of People Online Minesweeping" gameplay, "Let's Minesweeper" also has a built-in chat function, through which players can exchange experiences with other players, and even send coordinates to let others come to help you overcome difficulties, or click on other people's coordinates to teleport over to assist each other in breaking through the levels.

In this way, "Let's Minesweeper" has transformed itself into a game that not only has the characteristics of low learning cost, low punishment measures, and the ability to play and abandon at will, but also has full social attributes.

Such games just hit the interests of young Japanese people. These players who focus on teamwork and social interaction were attracted to the game and spread the fun of "Let's Play Minesweeper" by word of mouth. Soon the game swept among young Japanese players like a virus. Even well-known Japanese game media such as Famitsu and 4gamer were alarmed, which shows the success of the game.

Perhaps, this kind of "blooming within the wall and fragrant outside the wall" thing was not expected by the members of Shenjiang Games, but it is precisely because they have a clear positioning of their own game, coupled with unique ideas, that this game has become so popular around the world today.

one question

In fact, when we look back, the reason why people no longer play "Minesweeper" is not because this game is not fun, but because there is a lack of a real reason to calm down and "click on the grids and use your brain". "Let's Minesweeper" uses this special way to bring everyone together, which also provides a worthy example for reference for those development teams who want to reproduce old games.

So, what do you think of the game "Let's Play Minesweeper"?