Pixel Gun 3D and it's community: Now vs Then
PG3D is 11 years old. It has an interesting history. The concept of Fps+Minecraft was unheard of, back when Alex Krasnov developed the game. The game was peaking at 100M players!
But after it's acquisition from Rilisoft to Cubic Games, it had a downfall. The developers were greedy, and the less popular PG3D got, the more greedy they were. Lots of people left the game. But then it was acquired by GDev (formerly Nexters). They made a lot of changes, some of them could be called controversial, but PG3D was becoming better. A few months later, it seemed like it wasn't gonna get better any time soon. But now, GDev is
listening to PG3D's players. All the lobbies are full of players. There is a ton of stuff to do. The cartoony concept and design of the game can be leaning towards funnier gameplay. Screaming when people have an awesome weapon, addressing them by their cool weapon's name, and screaming and trying to have your revenge on someone. PG3D currently has 170-200M downloads. Pixel Gun 3D is rising!
Source: Wix AI generated and edited
There is a lot to talk about, so let's dive deeeep into it!
Competitiveness and Multiplayer
History of Multiplayer
Pg3d has 1000+ guns. The developers add a ton of guns, resulting in an all always changing meta. There is always new stuff to talk about. Now, almost no gameplay changes have been updated to every match. Unless you count weapon effects (like ricochet or blindness) or private matches (that you need the password of). Maximum of 10 players (except for battle royale).
Gameplay
The weapon effects are rather exciting. Some are simply annoying, some are infuriating, some are actually effective and sometimes broken. Getting ricochet hits do bonus damage. Status effects can be fatal, even in the fast-paced nature of the game. They only do damage to your health, not caring about your armor. Poisoning does 6% damage to the health. Burning does 8% damage to health. Bleeding does 10% damage to health. When you shoot an enemy player, you have to shoot through their armor ( how fast you can do it depends on how good the enemy's armor is). Pets follow you and do damage and inflict status effects on your enemies. But they become more insignificant the higher leveled you get, become level advantages will become less of a thing.
My Thoughts #1
I've always been annoyed by PG3D's sheer amount of OP weapons. And the less big changes there are. However, it's always fun to do stuff like using advanced tactics (see:cowardly) and treat a 5 minute match like a full on war battle. ExxotikGaming and Pixel Ecko are great youtubers, though it's sad Exxotik only upload content of other mobile games.
Campaign and Story
History of Campaign and Story
The campaign is a nostalgic mess. It was dubbed "the lore behind of Pixel Gun World" It consists 5 worlds. Pixelated worlds in a rural/urban setting (9 levels), Block worlds in a bunch of different entirely blocky settings (6), Cross worlds in a more supernatural style and similar setting to block worlds (5), Virtual worlds in a futuristic setting (6). World 5 has been "coming soon" for at least 2 years. The campaign has a repeatedly alternating story for PG3D. In pixelated worlds, it seems to be an apocalypse. Then at the start of block worlds, a powerful dragon is blamed for the invasion. Then when you bring down the dragon, he says an evil bug is responsible for making everything cubic, and that's bad. Cube-ism! Cross worlds supports this. Virtual worlds says it's bad that a powerful thing called Cubic is forcing everyone to play his games (see:Multiplayer and minigames). A revolution, and a trapped-in-a-video-game scenario. It still has a nice reputation, but all hope for world 5 might be lost. RunningBack2 used to have a great "Mythbusters" series that sees a lot of easter eggs and references.
Mechanics+Unique Aspects
You progress to another world by getting 3 stars on all previous levels.What's surprising is that, after each level, a cutscene takes place with 4, sometimes 8, comic panels with a cartoonish art style and blocky characters, set in a way they are being thrown onto a table. Each level has 1 gem and 1 coin hidden. Useless if you're not a completionist. After clearing out all the enemies (varying, from 10-30 in pixelated worlds to 45-50 in virtual worlds), you have to face the boss. Some are a joke, some are just scary, some are a nightmare of both. In 8/9 levels in pixelated worlds, you get a extremely weak and outdated gun exclusive to campaign mode. 3 difficulties: Easy (best shot at beating the campaign), Medium (the way it should be), and Hard (bonkers impossible and a horror movie, I'm done). Virtual worlds makes you use 3-6 weapons as you progress. They are pretty much coded (e.g Antivirus, Disconnector), and have only every been available in the Gallery or Trader's van
My Thoughts #2
Everytime I even sense a mention of the lore in PG3D, I get goosebumps and a wave of nostalgia. The extraction gamemode for PG3D's tenth birthday was the best fun I ever had. But dude, virtual worlds was harder than the other 3 combined, x100000. Getting 3 stars was tedious and near-impossible. Watching Pixel Ecko's and Exxotikgaming's playthroughs were great memories. I think world 5 could be called "Paradox Worlds". There is an easter egg in the map "Temple of Elements". RunningBack2 had a video on this.
The Hidden Potential.......
Neglected Aspects
Campaign
Battle Royale
Raids
Clans
Minigames+Escort+Co-op Survival (who even remembers, and some how cares?)
Solution
As you see, PG3D has multiple ways to return it to it's former glory. It simply must be what it was 9-11 years ago, but more. Keep the concept. Keep the outline and basic distinguishing aspects. But expand it. Make it as cool as blocky can be (hope that doesn't sound victorian, yarr), as well as appealing. Genuine fun. Remember to keep their promises.
Ideas
Cut the weapon count to 400-500 so each weapon has more.
Give the weapons simple abilities, like the abilities of various Pokémon.
Modules are less expensive and enhance these abilities.
Armory is much bigger, and has more weapons.
Campaign continued, with much better rewards.
Clans have an inclusive system with interesting rewards.
In Battle royale, add chest and weapons rotation. Have at least 30 more available weapons.
Revamp Raids and add more lore behind them. Also 2 maps is not much, and energy module is without a map for Raids.
Remove all the copied minigames and maps
More maps in Flag capture, Point capture, and duels.
Who even remembers escort? More weapons of Common,Rare, and Epic rarity, less of legendary and mythical. Amount of weapons in each rarity sorted in how high each rarity is.
Legendary and Mythical weapons have hidden capabilities.
Or just remove the rarity system.
Economy is actually easier. Offers are too expensive.
Quality-life-changes like skip animation button or confirm purchase button. Options like remove particle effects and sound slider.
Proper anti-cheat.
Fair matchmaking.
Modules aren't so overpowered, and are just technical.
Note: Pixel Ecko has a few videos that I took inspiration from.
Notes
Yes, I plan to make this a series. It's gonna be something for the smaller fandoms especially. I'll update you on the upcoming section. Upload order:Design, Games, Guides, Hardware. Although my brother might have different ideas. Hardware will be all research, all annoying. And I know that I uploaded to guides before games.
Well, bye and have a fun time with your games as well as development!
Which game should be the subject of the next "Games" article should I and Reyan write first.
Minecraft
Pokemon
*I can change the order in the "Upcoming" section*
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