We recently attended an event to learn more about the wondrous world of Genshin Impact's Miliastra Wonderland, where we found out about just how large the platform has grown since launch, and were filled in on some exciting upcoming additions. Before I get ahead of myself, for those of you who live under a rock, Miliastra Wonderland is a user-generated content (UGC) sandbox mode within Genshin Impact that lets your imagination run wild.
If you tuned into Pocket Tactics last week, you may have seen that we had the pleasure of interviewing IWinToLose about the platform. Well, now we're back speaking with Buttermochi, so you can learn more about how to start creating with Miliastra Wonderland and what the hardest part of development is.
Pocket Tactics: What drew you to Miliastra Wonderland?
Buttermochi: I am a pretty big fan of Genshin Impact. Before Miliastra Wonderland came out, I would catch up with new content that Genshin Impact released, followed by helping random people in co-op mode whenever I didn't have much else to do. I figured Miliastra Wonderland would be something else I could do during downtime in the main game since I enjoy multiplayer.
I did consider making games (which I ended up doing) since it's permanent compared to previous events, such as Divine Ingenuity. It's cool having a place to create any ideas that pop into my head using the Genshin Impact assets that I have grown so familiar with over these past five years.
Is game development something that you've taken to since the release of Miliastra Wonderland, or have you dabbled in it before?
So, I took a game development class in middle school, but that was such a long time ago that I remember basically nothing. That class used Unity, but I still consider myself to have essentially 'no' experience, so I can't comment on how it compares to other platforms.
Would you say Miliastra Wonderland's development tools are beginner-friendly/a good platform for aspiring game devs to practice and develop their skills? If so, why/why not?
I think the Miliastra Wonderland development tools are mostly beginner-friendly, but can definitely be improved to make the experience better. They provide typical resources that you might find in development spaces, such as documentation and tutorials in what they call the "Craftspeople Academy". They also provided a simple stage tutorial video along with downloadable stages, which can be helpful for beginners, but I'm the kind of person who jumps in and gets lost… So I didn't completely follow those tutorials. Even then, I was able to make my stages mostly from playing around with the editor, reading their documentation/written tutorials, and asking a few questions in various places, such as Miliastra Wonderland Discords.
The documentation doesn't cover everything, but overall, it does a decent job of saying what nodes in their node graph system do. This system is essentially a bunch of nodes like loops, branches, math, and many other operations you might see when programming, but in a premade block (node) format. I will say that I have development experience, so it was easy for me to understand their node graph system and generally how everything works. A person with no experience in that field may find it challenging at first since there are so many concepts to learn.
As for whether it's a good place for aspiring game devs to practice and develop their skills, that's highly dependent on where they are in their career and what companies they're at. I'm not in the game dev industry, so I don't know exactly what they do, but I would assume they use a lot more code over node graphs so they can fine-tune performance and other things. So if someone is a student/early in their career, it might be a good place to learn general development topics and project planning.
Have you developed any new skills or learnt anything about game and stage development through Miliastra Wonderland?
I definitely learned a lot of things about game development through Miliastra Wonderland. Players are the people consuming your game, and they're hard to predict. They will do whatever is in their power to skip tutorials or break your game. And while I might complain about that, I'm not exactly innocent myself… For tutorials, it's definitely better to have a visual or short tutorial over a massive block of text that nobody wants to read.
I think a lot of the popular games in Miliastra Wonderland are fairly simple or classic games that a lot of people are familiar with/grew up with. As for bugs, you basically have to assume that whatever you want the player to do, they will do the complete opposite. Obviously, it's hard to account for every possible scenario, so updates will have to be made constantly to address whatever new bugs are found.
As for stage design, I realized I'm not the greatest, but it's definitely a good thing to practice with every stage. I even started working on some projects with a graphic designer I met through Miliastra Wonderland, so hopefully the map quality on those stages will show! But you don't have to be perfect or good at everything. People have different strengths and weaknesses, which is why working in a team can be super helpful and fun.
Where did the inspiration come from for Kirara's Delivery Service and Elemental Dodge Ball?
Elemental Dodge Ball is the first game I made. I wanted to have PvP (I might have a dark history of burning/electrocuting people in Teyvat), and dodgeball seemed like a fairly simple game to make as my first stage. It's been a while, but I think being an Amber main had me wanting the game to use aiming, which is why it's dodgeball. This was also during the time when all text was locked behind people playing your game enough. Dodgeball is something a lot of people have played, and the title says exactly what the game is, so I didn't need to rely on in-game instructions. I also enjoyed playing dodgeball at school, so this was a fun throwback as I got to pelt my amazing tester with balls.
Kirara's Delivery Service is my second game. As a Kirara main, I wanted to dedicate a game to her. The game is about delivering mail to Genshin Impact characters' houses, since she works for Komaniya Express, which is a delivery company. I thought it would be a good way to learn monster spawning/management and a bunch of other things. I think I was slightly ambitious and expected players to do what I planned for them to do. It was expected that they start from zero knowledge, so they could slowly learn where everyone lives and where the various areas are. But I had various mechanisms that would cause monsters to spawn everywhere if they ran through everyone's yard, making the game quite hard. I will say it is quite entertaining seeing a player getting chased by like 20 enemies.
Do you have any upcoming stages in the works?
Dodoco Defenders is a fairly recent release as of writing this. This game is inspired by Space Invaders, as can be seen by enemies following various paths in waves. This was a game I made based on what I had seen from my previous games and to experiment with enemy combat/pathing. I wanted to make a game that has randomness so the player doesn't know what to expect, but also simple to play, so it's easy to get into.
Anvil Drop is my fourth game and was also released by the time of writing this. It was inspired by some random Minecraft minigame I played where anvils fall from the sky, and you have to be the last to survive by dodging them. I like to incorporate Genshin Impact elements/concepts, as can be seen from my other games. For this game, I ended up adding seven elemental anvils that have various effects on players and the map, so it is always changing.
Teyvat Codenames will probably be "my" 5th or 6th game and will be released soon, if not already. It will be released on my friend's account with me as the lead developer and them as the lead stage designer. This game is inspired by the board game Codenames, which essentially involves giving clues to connect as many cards that belong to your team but not the other. This is a really fun game, so I wanted to make a Teyvat version. It will most likely be launched with three decks. The normal Teyvat deck, which is mostly Teyvat-themed words that people should hopefully recognize, a Genshin Impact character deck with just character names, and a Genshin Impact monster deck. When writing that monster deck, I realized how crazy some of the names are, and you will definitely need Google around for it.
A customer service simulator is in the planning stage, so I don't know much about it yet. This might actually end up being two projects where one is a story, and one is a minigame. My friend in the service industry wanted this, so we'll see what the concept ends up being…
I have a lot more games that I'm interested in making! But it'll definitely come down to how much time I end up having, and if people already make them by the time I get to them.
What is the easiest thing about creating stages in Miliastra Wonderland?
I think one of the easiest things about making stages in Miliastra Wonderland is that a lot of assets are provided. They have base characters, enemies, objects, and game-related things like skills and animations. Just having all these assets makes it a lot easier to create something since you don't have to figure them out from scratch, as it can get pretty complicated. I'm definitely excited for them to release more enemies, nodes, objects, and more customizability.
What is the hardest thing about creating stages in Miliastra Wonderland?
I think the hardest thing about creating in Miliastra Wonderland is considering what the player has available to them. Things like player controls and disconnects/lag. Genshin Impact is pretty cool in how it is available on multiple platforms and can work decently on most devices. But this can cause slow loading times or super awkward controls. Players disconnecting or lagging out can break games sometimes, while super awkward controls can make people not want to play the game. There are definitely workarounds, but you have to get creative with them. Also, physics, since I suck at that subject… but I'll eventually use it in a game someday!
If you could add one aspect of Miliastra Wonderland to the main game, what would it be?
Not going to lie, voice chat might be kind of cool, but it would definitely be a double-edged sword depending on how it's used and moderated. But other than that, having parties of up to eight or more in Teyvat would be super fun, since four sometimes feels limiting. I think that is also one thing that drew me into Miliastra Wonderland. Being able to play with a lot of people at once is so much fun, and I would love to do that in Teyvat as well.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out making stages in Miliastra Wonderland?
There's a lot of advice that can be given to someone starting out. First, read the official documentation. For the most part, it will tell you what something does. If it doesn't answer your question, there are always help groups that you can ask for help. That goes into my next suggestion: don't be afraid to ask for help! I tend to ask questions in official Miliastra Wonderland Discord groups and have resolved multiple issues through it. There are so many knowledgeable people in those groups who are willing to help people.
Next, test frequently! It's the worst when you implement like ten different things, and then something is either broken or logic is not doing what you intended. If you test frequently, it will be easier to trace the issue down instead of looking through every node graph you have or having to undo hours of work due to editor limitations. Along with testing, make sure to learn how to use the logger. It is a powerful tool that tells you exactly what is happening when and in what order. This has saved me so many times when I have no clue why something is happening all of a sudden, or I need to figure out what a node does.
Next, development will be a very slow start. There will be so much to learn, like programming, graphic design (thumbnail/images), stage design, and getting people to actually play. It is quite hard to get a game out there. The only reason Elemental Dodge Ball had decent popularity was because I spammed invites to people to join my party so I could show them that game… To those who might have gotten them from me, I apologize, but I really appreciate those of you who tried out my game and who I've continued to play with!
Finally, have fun and make stuff you enjoy! All of my projects definitely have tough parts to them, but I enjoyed the experience of making them and the joy they brought to my players!
Pocket Tactics: I'd like to thank Buttermochi for speaking with us, and hope that you learnt a little about creating with Miliastra Wonderland!