Almighty Video Game Designer #Chapter 31 - Read Almighty Video Game Designer Chapter 31 Online - All Page - Novel Next
Chapter 31: Chapter 30: Special Promotional Tactics
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
The experience store opened its doors early the next day.
Soon after the doors were opened, Jia Peng brought over some friends.
"Good morning, manager. Are you releasing your game today?" asked Jia Peng.
Chen Mo nodded, "Yeah, why did you guys come over so early?"
Jia Peng answered, "Isn't Plants vs Zombies being released? Since we don't have classes today, we're here to cheer you on."
Chen Mo said, "Sure! Welcome! Come in and take a seat. How many levels have you beaten in endless mode?"
Jia Peng quickly replied, "Eighty-four levels. Manager, is endless mode actually endless? Is there an upper limit?"
Chen Mo replied, "Only eighty-four? The real game starts beyond level one hundred, I'll tell you straight up."
Jia Peng was speechless, "What the-? Are you crazy? I'm feeling like I'm losing my footing at level eighty-four. It's a struggle just to get through another level.
The other guys also joined in nodding, "Yeah! It starts at level one hundred? Are you playing the same game as we are?"
Chen Mo smiled and said no more.
Four days had passed, and Jia Peng and his friends would be the first batch of players, completing all of adventure mode. The adventure mode wasn't meant to be hard, Chen Mo set it to be same as the original version. As long as you were of average IQ, you should be able to beat it, given some time.
Wen Lingwei and Jia Peng thought that the game ended after beating adventure mode, as if it was a puzzle game, finally managing to beat it after playing it obsessively for three or four days. The game content was already quite rich for a puzzle game.
In the end, they found out that the game had an endless mode!
After trying it out, it had opened them up to a whole new world. As the difficulty of the levels increased slowly but surely, they realized that what they thought was a good grasp of the game was completely naivete.
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So far, Wen Lingwei was at the top of the leaderboards with ninety-three levels. The others were around sixty to eighty, with a clear feeling of hopelessness.
These players thought that their strategy in adventure mode was strong, but as they entered endless mode, the same strategy would be blown to pieces. It was like playing a whole new game.
Therefore, they came to Chen Mo's experience store often to play the game and to share their experiences. They also wanted to get some tips from Chen Mo for the best, most advanced strategy, and to continue grinding their rankings on the leaderboards.
Jia Peng and his buddies turned on the computers that they were so familiar with and continued playing through endless mode after launching the game and logging in.
"Manager, when is your game going to go live?" Jia Peng asked.
Chen Mo replied, "Probably around twelve."
Jia Peng nodded and replied, "Alright, when the time comes we'll be the first to download and give you a five star rating."
The time the game was released didn't matter for new games, but the nearest hour was usually chosen to make the statistics easier to track.
Statistics during the twenty-four hours after the game went live were the most important, most notably the downloads and ratings as both of them directly influenced the rankings and promotions on the official app store.
Whenever Emperor Dynasty Entertainment or Zen Entertainment would release, they would hype up the game in advance to draw in large numbers of players on release, taking the top spot of the new recommended games with no problems.
Chen Mo didn't have that much money to promote his game, but he had other plans.
At 10 am, Chen Mo already released his game into the store, and the adspace in Flappybird contained an ad for Plants vs Zombies. Clicking on the ad would redirect the player to the app store download page for Plants vs Zombies.
How many players did Flappybird currently have? Chen Mo didn't know the number, but it wasn't small. Most of the players of Flappybird would be casual gamers, so using it to promote Plants vs Zombies was definitely a good idea.
Chen Mo didn't expect Flappybird to rake in any money for the moment, as it was free to download, instead expecting it put his name out to as many people as possible, and convert them into Plants vs Zombies players.
Other than that, Chen Mo also had the video game media in mind.
Theoretically, he was just a D-grade video game designer, nobody would care if he released a game.
The video game media had power, but who would give their time to a nobody D-grade video game designer?
However, Chen Mo wasn't a nobody, and already had his name out there.
He was the winner of the video game designing competition, who also happened to have a conflict with Shi Huazhe, both incidents known on video game media.
Chen Mo posted on Weibo:
Flappybird is now on the appstore for free (free forever!). My new game Plants vs Zombies will be out at 12pm, on both PC and mobile. Let's see if we can break a hundred thousand downloads in the first month.
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@Shihuazhe, @Videogame Info Network, , @Wechat Gaming Channel, @Hengyou Video Games Channel...
Chen Mo tagged dozens of video game media companies and included the loading screen of Plants vs Zombies (the one with plants on the left and zombies on the right) as a promotional poster.
——
Within ten minutes, the video game media was all over it!
The managers of the official Weibo accounts were all drawn out by the smell of a new tagline.
"Chen Mo? Wasn't that the champion of the video game designing competition? The creator of Flappybird?"
"He's about to release his new game? It's only been three or so months! Isn't that too fast? And he wants us to witness it together? Does he really think his game is gonna break a hundred thousand sales in the first month?"
"Three months in development is way too short. That time includes testing and adjusting the game! Could it be just another mini-game like Flappybird?"
"A game like Flappybird cannot be done again. If he makes something similar, he's just looking to fail."
"It's called Plants vs Zombies; it seems that the content of the game is quite rich, but it is still a casual game."
"Shi Huazhe previously stated that Chen Mo's first game would never surpass a hundred thousand downloads in the first month, and this guy wants us to witness it with him. He's not afraid at all, this guy's got guts!"
"Hurry up and repost! Track all the stats of Plants vs Zombies after it's released!"
—
The video game media got the smell of a new tagline and started reposting one after another.
Of course they knew what Chen Mo was trying to do. He was trying to make himself a focus and promote his new game for free!
However, the video game media was willing to be used, as they also needed a hot topic like this to operate!
Moreover, even if the video game media didn't take the bait, the slow expansion of information on Weibo would mean that the game would slowly pick up in popularity either way.
Following the reposts of the video game media, more and more gamers caught wind of this information.
Chen Mo's first proper game, Plants vs Zombies, was about to be released!
Many of them were just watching, but the post did attract the attention of the spectators.
The cartoony art style of the plants and zombies quickly made a deep impression in the minds of the gamers. Many of them were already looking forward to finding out how plants were supposed to battle zombies!
Moreover, the video game media paid attention to the numbers Plants vs Zombies would be cranking out, paying even closer attention to the number of sales in the first month.
If it did reach a hundred thousand, for ten RMB each, it meant one million gross and about five hundred thousand RMB net. That would be an incredible number!
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Chapter 32: Chapter 31: Explosive Release!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Shi Huazhe wasn't stupid and knew that Chen Mo had many weird and wonderful ideas up his sleeves. It was entirely possible that Chen Mo could make something that would attract the attention of many people, driving up the sales quickly. Therefore, in order to try and keep what remained of his dignity, Shi Huazhe didn't dare lowball his estimate.
But, what if he really made it to a hundred thousand?
There wasn't an inch of Shi Huazhe that wanted to believe that. In his view, the success of Flappybird was completely accidental, as all of Chen Mo's skills were utterly terrible. Surely he was not able to get lucky like that again and again in the future?
——
12 PM...
Plants vs Zombies was released into the market on time. The players that had been waiting for it were all racing to download the game.
PC players were few and far between in this world, making it an unexplored territory. Therefore, Chen Mo chose to focus on the mobile players.
Despite having the game on the PC market as well, Chen Mo didn't expect it to get close to the top there.
Chen Mo set the price at 10 RMB.
The app store had set the pricing on games, ranging from free, one RMB, ten RMB, twenty RMB, fifty RMB, or above fifty RMB.
As the official app store in this world mainly catered to users inside China, there wasn't a problem with currency exchange, so there was no need for 6 RMB or other odd numbers like that.
Chen Mo could've made it free or just one RMB, which would make it much easier to increase the number of downloads, but he felt that he was losing out on too much by doing that.
Plants vs Zombies wasn't suited for in-game ads, and Chen Mo didn't want it to affect the experience of the players, either.
If he sold it at one RMB, two hundred thousand copies would only result in a hundred thousand RMB net, which wasn't even enough for him to make ten draws!
Therefore, ten RMB was quite an approachable price. Of course, this didn't mean Chen Mo was running a charity, he was just going for low price at high volume.
Plants vs Zombies was expected to be popular among all ages. Primary or high school students with not much money, or even the older generation, were part of Chen Mo's target market. Making it cheap enough to fork out money without much hesitation was part of Chen Mo's plan.
——
Jia Peng and his friends inside the experience store had already downloaded it, and gave it a five star rating.
"Manager, we've downloaded the game and gave it a five star review!" said Jia Peng.
Chen Mo said, "Thanks! I'll give you all a free cup of milk tea for your trouble."
"Thanks, manager!" Jia Peng and his friends were very happy.
Jia Peng said, "Senior Wen and the others will come over during the afternoon, as they have class during the morning."
Another guy said, "That's great, we can watch the game completely destroy the new games list together."
Jia Peng said, "Of course! It will surely dominate the leaderboards, it's so fun! We'll be the witnesses here!"
——
Many others also had their eye on the sales of Plants vs Zombies.
On the official app store, the statistics for games were updated hourly, the games leaderboards were updated every three hours, and recommended spaces were updated every twenty-four hours.
Many gamers were downloading the game.
Some of them were brought over from the ads on Flappybird, others came from Chen Mo's Weibo, and some of them just liked the idea behind the game.
However, many players were still observing from the sidelines, waiting for the hour to pass and check the reviews before deciding if they should buy it.
——
At 1 PM, the statistics for Plants vs Zombies were finally updated!
Jia Peng rubbed his eyes. "Wow, did they misplace the decimal point and made it seem ten times more than it should be? That number's unreal!"
Plants vs Zombies had received 887 downloads, with a score of 9.7/10 after an hour.
Despite not being too familiar with the video game industry, the students knew the significance of those numbers.
Adventures of the Storm Rider was considered doing quite well with four hundred downloads in twenty-four hours, but Plants vs Zombies managed eight hundred and eight-seven in an hour!
Just looking at the twenty-four hour downloads, this wasn't just a popular game, but an extremely popular game, and made in only a few months at that!
Chen Mo was quite calm. Although these numbers were better than he had thought, it was still within the realms of his consideration.
Flappybird would be continually driving players to Plants vs Zombies, and the video game media had basically promoted Chen Mo's game for free, with more than a thousand reposts on Chen Mo's post. As a result, the people that had seen the game might be in the hundred thousands, all of which were potential players.
Plants vs Zombies wasn't on any leaderboards or promotional places, only because they hadn't been updated yet. With numbers like that, Plants vs Zombies would without a doubt kill the new games leaderboard.
——
As the topic gained traction, the downloads of Plants vs Zombies kept increasing.
1,333 downloads at 2 PM.
1,914 downloads at 3 PM.
It seemed like the downloads were increasing by five hundred every hour, with no sign of slowing down.
At a speed like that, including the late night slow down and the increased traffic from eight to ten PM, Plants vs Zombies might break ten thousand in twenty-four hours!
Ten thousand copies on the first day?
That was crazy!
Moreover, the ratings were ranging between 9.1 to 9.4, and never dipping below 9. This meant that the players rated the game very highly, and would more than likely maintain this in the future.
Jia Peng was shocked, and exclaimed, "Look at the new games leaderboard!"
First place on the new mobile games leaderboard was now Plants vs Zombies!
"Yeesh, isn't that too fast? Being on the leaderboard just after one cycle, that's insanely good!" Jia Peng couldn't believe it either.
The new games leaderboard wasn't impossible to climb. Companies like Emperor Dynasty Entertainment or Zen Entertainment could easily reach the top of the leaderboard right after release by advertising and hyping up the game.
However, Chen Mo hadn't spent a single cent on advertising Plants vs Zombies! Reaching the top of the new games leaderboards one hour after release, that was the stuff of fairy tales!
On the new games leaderboard, Adventures of the Storm Rider was in third place, while Plants vs Zombies was at the top in first place.
After receiving a recommended space, Adventures of the Storm Rider had been gaining momentum. But it stood no chance against Plants vs Zombies.
If Adventures of the Storm Rider had a standing start, Plants vs Zombies had a shooting start. How can you compare when the number of players are of different magnitudes?
The video games media was also shocked. They also thought that Plants vs Zombies had a high chance of going viral, and becoming the biggest dark horse of the month!
Although the statistics at the twenty-four hour mark were more significant for extrapolation, the three hour numbers for Plants vs Zombies were extremely good, even beating some works from large companies!
The explosiveness of Plants vs Zombies caused some minor panic within the video game media, but this was all within Chen Mo's calculations.
Climbing to the top of the new games leaderboard? That wasn't even a small goal for Chen Mo...
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Chapter 33: Chapter 32 – Small Tricks for Endless Mode
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
During the afternoon, Wen Lingwei and Chang Xiuya brought a few of their own friends to the store.
The store that was normally half-full was now quite lively. Some of them went to the computers while others sat on the massage chairs to play on their phone, but they all were playing Plants vs Zombies.
Wen Lingwei and Chang Xiuya came to the front of the bar and asked, "I heard the game went online today. How did it go?"
Jia Peng said, "Too well. Just take a look; it reached the top of the new games leaderboards in the first leaderboards update, completely destroying the other games!"
Chang Xiuya said, "Wow! The manager's so good!"
Wen Lingwei clicked her tongue, "Yo yo yo! That's good luck if I've ever seen it. So, is the game going viral?"
Chen Mo replied, "For now, not necessarily. It depends on the next round of recommendations, and there's also the statistics that happen after that..."
Wen Lingwei shot a glance at Chen Mo and said, "Can you speak like a normal person?"
Chen Mo replied, "Yup, it's going viral."
Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya both let out a snicker and barely held back their laughter.
Wen Lingwei said, "Alright, since it's going viral, there's no need to keep looking at the app store. It doesn't make you seem confident."
Chen Mo said, " I'll just check out the player discussions, I have nothing else to do for now anyways."
Wen Lingwei pointed at her screen and demanded, "Teach me how to go beyond level one hundred on endless mode."
Chen Mo was speechless.
Jia Peng cried out, "Senior, you can't do that, that's cheating!"
Chang Xiuya was also protesting, "Yeah, you're already in first place anyways!"
Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes and said, "You guys don't know jack. This game is about to get a bunch of players. It's just a matter of time! In two days, some genius-level player is going to surpass me in endless mode. I'm just preparing for the inevitable, understand?"
Another guy who stood beside Jia Peng poked him and whispered, "Are you stupid? Any secrets that the manager gives to Senior Wen will be passed down to us eventually."
Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya were stunned and realized, "Oh, yeah!"
"Manager, secret to beating the levels, please!"
The students in the experience store banded together soon after, urging Chen Mo to leak some tips for getting through Endless Mode.
Wen Lingwe waved her hand to present the crowd, "Do you see this, manager? This is what the people want."
Chen Mo was speechless. "If this is what the people want, you must be the dictator..."
Wen Lingwei said, "Hurry up! I came all the way here to support you today, can't you just give us a hint?"
Chen Mo said, "If I remember correctly, it takes less than ten minutes for you guys to get here from the University..."
Chang Xiuya said, "Yeah, manager. We are basically your most loyal fans, can't you give us a tiny edge over the others?"
Everyone started joining in...
Taking turns to voice their support...
Pestering...
Chen Mo had nothing to say. He didn't want to give out any strategies, as a big part of puzzle games like these was finding out your own solution. He could spoil it, but wouldn't that ruin it? It would also inhibit the exploration processes of the others.
However, if he doesn't let out anything today, these people likely wouldn't give up.
"Alright, I'll demonstrate the hint. It'll depend on you guys as to how much you can get out of it,"
Chen Mo said as he turned on his laptop.
"Yay! It worked!" Chang Xiuya quickly moved closer to Chen Mo. The others dropped their games and surrounded the bar table, wanting to find out what Chen Mo was about to show.
Was there a strategy that was able to clear endless mode infinitely? Or as Chen Mo said, the real game started beyond level one hundred! What strategy would be used to get past the hundredth level?
Soon after, the bar table was completely surrounded.
Wen Lingwei let out a cough, and two of the guys gave her some space seemingly naturally.
"Alright, let's start," said Wen Lingwei.
Chen Mo rolled his eyes. Was it you or me who is the owner?
Ten or so people had their eyes wide, staring at Chen Mo's screen.
Chen Mo launched Plants vs Zombies and then launched another program window, typing in some code, and changed a number to 2012.
The audience were curious about what had happened.
"Manager, what are you doing right now?"
"Uhh... cheating?"
"Manager, you're the designer. Is that still cheating? That's just changing the game."
"Bullshit! You can't do that, manager!"...
A few of the guys protested.
Wen Lingwei snapped coldly, "Stop talking, the manager was just adjusting the level."
The audience looked closer. It appeared that Chen Mo had entered the two thousand and twelfth level in endless mode.
"What the? Two thousand and twelve? Are you crazy, manager? How difficult is that?"
"I was already struggling at eighty-something, and you're gonna start from two thousand and twelve?"
"If you beat this level is the record going to be two thousand and twelve?"
"I think your 'if' is a bit hard to achieve!"
"Is this actually playable? Are you sure you didn't make it too difficult?"
"Is the manager that guy? Sigh, it seems like he is that guy."
The corner of Chen Mo's mouth started twitching. After entering endless mode, he placed a bunch of plants using the game engine.
If it was a normal playthrough, this step would be done in the previous levels. However, Chen Mo didn't have the time, so he did it using the game engine.
Chen Mo was on the pool level, placing four Cob Cannons in the pool, four Twin Sunflowers, and six Gloom Shrooms.
From left to right, the first row had Winter-melon, Gloom Shroom, two Winter-melons, Cob Cannon, Spikeweed. The second row had an Umbrella Lead, Gloom Shroom, Winter-melon, Umbrella leaf, Cob Cannon, Spikeweed.
The top and bottom lanes of the pool were reflected, and any plants that could fit a Pumpkin had one.
The others whispered amongst themselves.
"This strategy by the manager seems quite comprehensive. It feels like something is about to go down."
"Indeed, the positioning of the Umbrella Leafs and Gloom Shroom seem quite intentional."
"However, aren't there too many Cob Cannons?" There's one, two, three, four... eight of them!"
"It is quite a lot. I don't think the Cob Cannon is that great. I think it's too squishy, and you can't put it in a Pumpkin; it's gone after a few nibbles from the zombies."
"But this layout that the manager has... there's no way the zombies can get to it, right?"
"Shhh... Stop talking, let's watch. It's about to start!"
Chen Mo gave himself three thousand suns and started picking his plants.
Ice-shroom, Cherry Bomb, Mimic Cherry Bomb, Doom-shroom, Chilly Pepper, Squash, Pumpkin, Puff-shroom, Sun-shroom, and Coffee Bean.
The others were trying hard to memorize it, and a few of the girls even brought out their notebooks.
"I think I understand what the manager is trying to do. Start with plants that do higher damage and keep them into the later levels, only bringing one-time use explosive-type plants.
"That's a plan alright."
"But... this feels extremely risky!"
Moreover, why would you mimic the Cherry Bomb, but not the Ice-shroom or Doom-shroom? As one reduces speed and the other does huge damage, those two should make better choices?"
"Don't know, let's see how the manager plays this."
Everyone in the store was holding their breath as they looked forward to seeing how Chen Mo would play it out.
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Chapter 34: Chapter 33: Level Beaten!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo hit the Start button and planted an Ice-shroom in the second row.
Just a few seconds later, accompanied by the creepy sound effects, a huge wave of zombies appeared!
It was really a wave of zombies, there were so many of them it was impossible to count. It was difficult to tell what types of zombies were there, as the only thing identifiable was the red eyes of the Gargantuar, tightly stacked as it stomped forwards.
Dancing Zombies, Pole-vaulting Zombies, and Football Zombies could sometimes be identified between the Gargantuars. The Zombies with their vaulting poles in their hands looked like knights charging into battle, the people watching could barely contain their shock.
The red-eyed Gargantuars tossed their Imps one after another, and soon after eight Imps landed beside the Gloom-shrooms. That wasn't the end of it; the imps kept getting hurled towards the plants in a constant stream, all of them chewing away at the Winter-melon.
The Gloom-shrooms started shooting crazily, and the flurry of Winter-melon shots at the zombies never slowed down, either.
Chen Mo was quite calm, directing Cobs and other explosive plants towards the hoards of zombies, turning the waves of zombies into ash. Every so often, Chen Mo placed some Puff-shrooms and Sun-shroom down to slow down the zombies slightly .
Under the constant waves of explosives, the hoards of zombies fell. Before Wen Lingwei and the others could make out what the zombies looked like, they were turned into ashes and coins on the ground.
Moreover, Chen Mo had good control over the tempo of firing the Cob Cannons as he predicted the positions of the zombies and always provided support to wherever it was needed.
Jia Peng's eyes and mouth were wide open at this performance. Chang Xiuya had her hands over her mouth, and even Wen Lingwei was staring.
You can actually play like this?!
How could a puzzle game feel like it requires higher APM than your average strategy game?
Under the constant bombing by Chen Mo, it felt like the Zombies couldn't do anything in retaliation. Anything that walked onto the screen would die without resistance.
"I now know how insane the Cob Cannon is."
"I knew that it was strong, but how is he able to protect so many of them?"
"I think... that this strategy is amazing! Reacting to all different types of zombies perfectly, interesting!"
The audience were starting to get tense from the action.
As the game continued, the assault from the zombies never stopped, but their speed was slowed down significantly. Under Chen Mo's methodical bombings, they died quickly.
Even as a huge wave of zombies arrived, Chen Mo had managed to not lose any plants!
"It's coming, a huge wave of zombies are approaching! I think the manager will be able to hold!"
"Oh my, there's so many of them!"
After the warning from the game, a huge wave of zombies approached. Hordes of Imps flew towards the plants, and the Gargantuars moved forwards, withstanding the retaliating firepower.
It was all under Chen Mo's control, maintaining the tempo from Cob Cannons and Bombs; it was hard to take in, there was so much going on.
Jia Peng couldn't understand what was going on at all. He wanted to follow Chen Mo's cursor, but there was too much going on on the screen, so it was impossible for him to remember all the operations Chen Mo was executing.
The others all had their attention on the screen, too. They knew that Chen Mo being able to beat so many levels wasn't just because of the strategy, but execution and technique, too!
They basically had the statergy down, but there was still the technique that was lacking.
After a minute of exciting battle, the last red-eyed Gargantuar fell. Chen Mo's plants were basically at full health, his Bombs were essentially off cooldown, and he hadn't spent too many suns, either.
"Wow, he beat the level!"
"Two thousand and twelfth level, man! He actually beat it! Oh my heavens!"
Everyone there was shocked. How did he do it? Was beating level two thousand actually possible?
Moreover, it felt like Chen Mo had everything under control and didn't over exert himself. It was probable that he still had more in him to continue on.
However, judging by Chen Mo's face, he didn't want to continue playing.
"Manager, do one more!"
"Yeah, manager, please explain the main points of the technique!"
"Manager, how did you decide on shooting the Cob Cannon, where do you shoot it?"
"When's the best time to use the Doom-shrooms and Ice-shrooms?"
Everyone surrounding Chen Mo was talking one after another, all with questions about his technique.
Chen Mo smiled, and closed his laptop.
"Like I said, I'm only doing that once. How much you guys get from it depends on you." Chen Mo didn't say anything else, but had a smile on his face, just like an otherworldly expert.
Jia Peng protested, "What? Manager, you can't just leave it at that. You're just cliffhanging!"
Chang Xiuya added, "Manager, just do it once more!"
Wen Lingwei said coldly, "Explain it properly, or I'll leave a bad review for this game on the app store!"
The others joined in, "Yeah, bad reviews!"
They were all trying to outshine each other.
Every single one around Chen Mo wanted him to explain the technique behind it, but Chen Mo wasn't going to give in, refusing to break.
Endless mode was probably enough to entertain these people for a few years. During this time, the most enjoyable process would be trying to find the best strategy. If Chen Mo gave away all his theories, it would undoubtedly shorten that searching process, which would end up cutting down on the fun they would have.
Therefore, he chose to do it once and only once, and not explain it any further.
A few of the students saw that Chen Mo was set on his decision and quietly left the bar table, heading back to their seats, ready to try out Chen Mo's strategy themselves.
Soon after, the others gave up one after another, leaving to try it out for themselves while it was still in memory.
Before Wen Lingwei left, she rolled her eyes at Chen Mo and said, "Hmph, stingy!"
The corner of Chen Mo's mouth was twitching, but he kept it under control. It was the game and the players. Yep!
Soon after, Wen Lingwei and the others were battling in Endless Mode trying out Chen Mo's strategy.
The strategy wasn't hard to memorize. As Wen Lingwei and Jia Peng were quite smart, they got it right after playing around with it a bit. They cross-verified and got most of the way there.
The first levels were needed to set up the strategy, putting down all the required plants before eventually swapping out for Bombs in the later levels.
However, that wasn't a challenge for Wen Lingwei and the others, and they got there very quickly.
The original Plants vs Zombies had basically been figured out by a few super fans. Chen Mo chose the more common 3C eight Cob Cannon[1] build with four sunflowers. It was a more balanced strategy, and didn't have a problem with level 4000, or beyond.
Normally the more Cob Cannons you had, the more firepower you had. However, Cob Cannons were very fragile, and if they were accidentally destroyed, they would leave an empty space behind for a long time. This could easily lead into a feedback loop, eventually costing the player the game!
T/L Note: [1] 3C is the author of the strategy.
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Chapter 35: Chapter 34: Recommended on the Front Page!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
On the extreme end, it was possible to have twenty-two or more Cob Cannons. Chen Mo didn't want to show that one, as it was quite easy to fail. It wouldn't look good if he failed during the demonstration.
Moreover, every single one of the Cob Cannons needed to be managed properly, it wasn't as simple as firing it everywhere. It required a certain knowledge of how the zombies appeared and firing ahead of time.
Furthermore, it wasn't the only strategy. In reality, there was so much to learn in terms of strategy that you could have twenty to thirty pages posts on Baidu Sticky Notes, many of which were difficult to think up. For example, only using up half the map, or arranging the plants in the shape of an arrow, a heart shape or even strategies without using Cob Cannons. There were also extremely difficult-to-master strategies that used twenty-two or more Cob Cannons...
Chen Mo understood the theory behind them, but if he had to perform them himself, there was no way he could pull them off without some practice, especially since firing the Cob Cannons and placing bombs was extremely technical. Some players in his previous life even went as far as making up mnemonics to memorize the strategy.
Other than that, there were many other small tricks, such as freezing the water in the pool level during specific times to stop zombies from spawning from the pool.
There were many other small tricks like this, though Chen Mo didn't plan to reveal any of them, letting the players find out themselves.
The passion of Wen Lingwei and the others was reignited once again, trying to figure out Chen Mo's strategy.
"Hey, interesting. I finished placing down the plants!"
"How is it, is it good?"
"It's good! Feels much stronger than my previous strategy!"
"Be careful and protect the Cob Cannon."
Everyone had their heads deep in trying to figure out Endless Mode, and had tossed the game release to the back of their minds.
-I thought they said they were here to cheer me on?-
Chen Mo was speechless. He went back to the app store and focused on the statistics for Plants vs Zombies.
—
From the afternoon through the evening was the golden time for video game downloads. Every hour when the statistics were updated, the rate of increase for the downloads increased, from five hundred downloads per hour, to eight hundred downloads per hour!
While Plants vs Zombies convincingly held the first place on the new games leaderboards, it also started making progress on the other leaderboards.
Puzzle games, strategy games, casual games... Plants vs Zombies started to show itself in the other leaderboards, and even reached the top five hundred paid games!
It hadn't been twenty-four hours yet. It was crazy to be able to achieve results like this.
At the same time, the topic of Plants vs Zombies started gaining momentum, and Chen Mo's Weibo post was gaining more and more reposts.
All the large video game media were downloading Plants vs Zombies in order to introduce the game in their articles.
Some video game designers that had caught wind of the game were shocked, downloading the game in order to find out why the game was such a popular topic.
Right now, everyone was waiting for the statistics at the twenty four mark for Plants vs Zombies!
Currently Plants vs Zombies had a score of 9.2, maintaining its high rating. The vast majority of player discussions were positive.
"Very innovative puzzle game!"
"This game is very rich in content. There's still more to come after playing for a few hours, very much worth my money."
"Thumbs up for the music and graphics!"
"I initially thought that the theme of plants and zombies didn't match, but turned out to work quite well together."
"I downloaded the game during noon, and have been playing for a few hours. I just can't stop playing!"
"I thought a game made in three months would be quite crude, but this is the complete opposite. This game is highly refined, and the creativity is out of this world!"
"I'm a professional hater, but I can't find anything to complain about. Am I about to lose my job?"
"I'll tell you what to do, comment above: These zombies aren't scary at all! :P"
"Is there anyone else who came here from Weibo, and feels sorry for Mr. Shi Huazhe?"
"Hehe, who would feel sorry for that washed-up designer? Relying on his old fame every single day, criticizing everything that comes across him. Then what, do the games he makes even compare to Plants vs Zombies?"
Chen Mo was filled with pleasure after looking through the player discussions.
There were also some bad reviews or some opinions. However, when Chen Mo took a look, they were only empty arguments. Perhaps they were hired or just hating for the fun of it.
Chen Mo didn't mind, as this small minority didn't affect the rating for Plants vs Zombies. Before they could leave a bad review, they had to whip out money and buy the game anyways.
-After they pay, they can say whatever they want. If I get mad, I lose.-
Chen Mo had a great mentality, it was impossible for him to get mad over a few haters.
Chen Mo was also filled with hope. He wanted to see how Plants vs Zombies which was so popular in his previous world, would fare in the parallel world!
——
The next day, at 12 PM...
There was only Jia Peng and a few of his friends. Wen Lingwei and the others stayed in the store until 8 PM when it closed. They probably played a bunch more when they got back to the dorms on their phones and ended up not showing up today at noon.
Jia Peng yawned and said, "Manager, I tried out your strategy the whole night yesterday: it doesn't work! Why do I keep running out of Cob Cannons?!"
Chen Mo only replied with a smile.
Jia Peng said, "...Manager if you keep doing that, I'll hit someone. How come you can beat level 2000 easily, but I can only get up to 109?"
Chen Mo rolled his eyes and replied, "You beat twenty-odd levels in one night and you still aren't satisfied?"
Jia Peng gave it some thought, and it seemed like that was true, then he should continue to investigate...
—
Chen Mo went to the app store to check out the statistics for Plants vs Zombies.
So far, many companies had their articles done, the only thing missing were the statistics.
At 12 PM sharp, the statistics were updated!
Plants vs Zombies: 23,187 downloads, 9.1 rating!
It broke twenty thousand in twenty-four hours!
According to Chen Mo's estimates, it would break ten thousand in twenty-four hours, but Chen Mo wasn't too optimistic about it breaking twenty thousand. How when Chen Mo looked at it this morning, it had already surpassed twenty thousand, and at 12 PM, it was around twenty-three thousand.
This meant that Plants vs Zombies had received another wave of downloads during the night!
Furthermore, Plants vs Zombies had entered the top 10 for puzzle games, strategy games, casual games, and so on. It even managed to reach the top 100 paid games!
The promotional spaces were even crazier, as the official game store gave Plants vs Zombies a spot on the front page, under "Must Play Today!"
There were four main promotional spaces on the front page. The best was for classic games, which would be recommended on a rolling banner alongside five other games.
The next was the "Hot Today" recommendations. They would receive a larger icon, which featured ten games.
The one after that was the "Must Play Today", which also had the larger icons, but would be provided for ten to twenty games.
The worst of them was "Specials Today", with about thirty recommended games.
However, the worst front page recommendations were better than anything after the second page.
Being able to receive a "Must Play Today" recommendation meant that Plants vs Zombies was already doing quite well. It could be said that very few games are able to receive this recommendation only one day after its release. This meant that the score given by the system to Plants vs Zombies was very high!
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Chapter 36: Chapter 35: The Game's Gone Viral!
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Even the video game media companies were shocked by the numberd. This included a lot of people who didn't get a good night's sleep.
Why? Trying to finish the script, of course!
The first day's sales went from a thousand, to five thousand, and ten thousand, then twenty thousand. The script couldn't be the same when the numbers were that different!
The media thought that the first day of sales would be around eight to ten thousand, as they thought Plants vs Zombies was a casual puzzle game, which always had a smaller audience. It would gain a lot of players in the first few hours from Weibo, and after the hype died down the sales would also follow.
In the end, the numbers completely surpassed their expectations!
Not only did it not slow down, but it kept increasing, and broke twenty thousand in twenty-four hours!
Some had known that they were going to witness this go down in history.
At noon, when the twenty-four hour statistics for Plants vs Zombies were released, the media started uploading their articles.
"The biggest underdog today: Plants vs Zombies!"
"Breaking twenty thousand downloads in the first day, destroying the new games leaderboard"
"Gamers say: I can't stop!"
"Industry professionals predict: Likely to enter the puzzle games leaderboard!"
"Game reviews: Rich content, new playstyle, otherworldly creativity!"
"Can you believe this? Flappybird and Plants vs Zombies had the same designer!"
"Breaking a hundred thousand in the first month? Shi Huazhe has no comment."
The consensus of the video game media was very positive. The numbers that Plants vs Zombies produced were too good overall, and there wasn't much to nitpick in the terms of quality either. Even the haters found it difficult to find things to hate on.
Under bombardment from the video game media, Plants vs Zombies was getting more and more well known. In addition to the promoted space on the official app store, it was likely that Plants vs Zombies would receive another wave of explosive growth!
Noticing the hype around Chen Mo's game, many "caring" players put down everything they had on hand to check out Shi Huazhe's Weibo, but it turned out that he had deleted his reply to Chen Mo.
Before today he liked criticizing everything, but ever since Plants vs Zombies became popular, he hadn't posted anything yet.
The 'caring' internet citizens weren't satisfied. He was the one to say confidently that Chen Mo's first game wouldn't be able to break a hundred thousand sales in the first month. Did he still think that now?
Forget about a hundred thousand; after breaking twenty thousand on the first day, this game would be heading for five hundred thousand in the first month!
"Mr Shi Huazhe, say something."
"It's fine, Plants vs Zombies only had twenty thousand downloads in the first day, it's possible that it won't hit a hundred thousand in the first month. You still have a chance, sir."
"Sir, don't give up your treatment!"
"I have to say, it was a smart move for him to not say anything when asked what he was going to eat. That was smart of him."
"So, you don't plan to show yourself anytime soon?"
The spectators around Plants vs Zombies were all commenting on Shi Huazhe's Weibo trying to start something. A few of the sarcastic comments were pushed to the top with hundreds of likes.
Shi Huazhe didn't post anything, because he knew what would happen if he did. The best thing he could do was to not do anything. However, this didn't mean he hadn't been looking at Weibo. With so many people making fun of him, sure he was angry, but there was nothing he could do since Plants vs Zombies had performed very well. Coming out and criticizing it wouldn't do much.
With these sales and popularity, going against the flow would surely bring many haters. While Shi Huazhe was mad, he wouldn't come out now to be murdered on the internet.
"How is this kid so lucky? How can everything he makes get so popular? Next time, there's no way he'll be able to maintain this next time!"
Shi Huazhe was set on not commenting. After others made fun of him and did not get any reactions, they decided to let this matter slide.
Things got popular quickly and died down quickly on social media. These users were just trying to band together, and when they saw that nothing could be started, they left it alone.
However, Plants vs Zombies was getting quite popular, and the sales kept increasing.
——
Zao Zihao and Lin Mao both congratulated Chen Mo over the phone.
"Not bad, I heard you murdered the new games leaderboard. I think you must've raked in quite a bit of money. Hurry up, I'm still waiting for my pay to win game," said Zao Zihao.
Chen Mo laughed and said, "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten."
Lin Mao called in to congratulate Shi Huazhe, "That's pretty good, Chen Mo. I thought that your game would get quite popular, with a chance of going viral. I didn't think it'd be this popular. That's amazing!"
Chen Mo said, "Your game is also doing pretty well, seeing as you're second on the new games leaderboard."
Lin Mao said, "Sigh, it doesn't even come close to your Plants vs Zombies. I've been playing it for the past two days. It's actually pretty well done in all aspects, in particular how much playtime there is! I think this game is going to start a puzzle game trend."
Chen Mo replied, "So be it, I'm not making a puzzle game for my next one."
Lin Mao was shocked, "Huh? What are you trying to do? This game is going to go viral, why not make a Plants vs Zombies 2 while it's still hot?"
Chen Mo said, "Nah, I'm fine. I'm not planning on making my next game a puzzle game."
Lin Mao didn't understand, "Why? It makes you money and fame! You're good at it too, why not do it?"
Chen Mo said, "It's hard to explain, but I just don't see too much potential in these types of games. Alright, I have to go. Let's meet up some time."
——
It wasn't just Lin Mao who thought that puzzle games were about to be popular. So did the video game media!
It was hard to say how popular Plants vs Zombies was, but from what was going on now, it was possible for it to top the puzzle games leaderboard, possibly making ripples in the paid games leaderboard too!
Moreover, the game had been able to maintain a score of around 9.3, and a portion of that must have come from downvotes by competitors. However, their efforts were proven useless, as the reviews had never fallen below nine. It was evident that this game was extremely popular!
The number of players who requested a refund were also few and far between.
As long as you had a short playtime and had a good reason for the refund, the app store would provide one.
However there were extremely few players who requested refunds, meaning that they recognized the game and planned to play it long into the future!
In the eyes of the video game media and video game designers, Chen Mo's first game was stable, well done, had gone far, was already quite popular, and was certainly quite influential.
Puzzle games were always quite popular, but there weren't many that could take it to the extreme. Puzzle games naturally had a large player base, as they catered to both the young and old. Therefore if it got popular, it would surely go viral.
Moreover the entry requirements for puzzle games weren't high, even a C or D-grade video game designer could make one. The only thing required was innovation!
Not one of the designers in this world felt that they lacked creativity. Therefore, some designers and video game media were trying to figure out which direction this would end up in.
Would Plants vs Zombies be a fire starter, reigniting the entire puzzle game market? Would a golden age for puzzle games arrive soon?
It could only be judged by numbers in the future.
However, nobody knew that the creator of the game, Chen Mo, didn't plan to continue making puzzle games...
At least for now!
Chapter 37: Chapter 36 – Leading the Surge in Casual Games
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Under the watching eyes of the entire gaming industry, the statistics of Plants vs Zombies continued to increase.
First twenty-four hours, 23,187! First three days, 77,409; first week, 122,375; first thirty days, 514,580!
Over that first month, the video game media and video game designers were shocked time and time again. Normally a game would grow in the first week and slowly decrease. Plants vs Zombies had a stable number of downloads even through the fourth week!
Five hundred thousand sales in the first month! What did that mean? Chen Mo had earned more than two million RMB from this game in just one month!
This number was insane for someone fresh to the industry, so much so that Plants vs Zombies had set off a craze in the video game industry!
The players were spreading like a virus, the sales numbers kept on increasing!
Many players formed their own communities to try and figure out strategies for Plants vs Zombies, in particular the endless mode, as the leaderboards shifted day to day.
The video game media had new articles every day, with different industry professionals analyzing the success of Plants vs Zombies.
Many game designers were discussioning the very same topic, even in major discussion forums and the Illusion Game Engine discussions.
How did Plants vs Zombies become so popular?
Can its success be replicated? Can it be used as a reference?
The level design, combat system, code, tutorial, art, music and some other details of Plants vs Zombies were studied again and again, becoming a benchmark for other puzzle games.
——
An A-grade Zen Entertainment designer released a long Weibo post, detailing what made Plants vs Zombies so successful. They also mentioned that the puzzle game industry was about to have its renaissance.
In his Weibo post, he said: To be honest, I quite admire Chen Mo, the creator of Plants vs Zombies. As a new video game designer, he has provided us video game designers who overlook casual games with an important lesson.
We always think that casual games are a small matter, and only C and D-grade video game designers use them to hone their skills. Because casual puzzle games like these were never able to have extended playtimes or strongly engage with the players, the players would grow tired of them, resulting in huge losses.
Many of these so-called puzzle games don't have many puzzling elements to them. They are usually child's play, and far off from the larger puzzle games.
However, Plants vs Zombies has overturned that traditional view. Who said puzzle games couldn't be complicated? Who said puzzle games couldn't have extended playtimes? Two of the biggest problems that were holding back puzzle games were solved by Plants vs Zombies!
Obviously, it wasn't the type of game that was the problem; it was our thinking that was limited!
Not only that, Plants vs Zombies showed us that there is a huge market for casual puzzle games. These games aren't niche, but can cover the entire market!
Moreover, Chen Mo has taught an important lesson to all C and D-grade video game designers: even if you have lower resource limits or worse skills, it doesn't matter. Doesn't everyone claim they are full of innovation? If you really are innovative, go ahead and make a casual game like Plants vs Zombies; it will allow you to reach the peak as a videogame designer!
As for Chen Mo, I think he has shown his prowess in puzzle games. As long as he can keep this going and make another two or three puzzle games at the same level as Plants vs Zombies, I can guarantee that he will become not just one of the best, but the best video game designer in China!
——
Industry professionals, video game media, player discussion... all of their evaluations were positive. There was nothing like what had happened with Flappybird last time, where a video game designer or game reviewer came out and pointed their finger at Plants vs Zombies and said it was bad.
Once in a while there would be a hate message, but they would be drowned out by the fans.
Chen Mo knew that he made the right choice, for both fame and fortune. After Plants vs Zombies topped the casual puzzle games chart, Chen Mo was now the word on the street.
——
In a month's time, Chen Mo had ninety thousand followers on Weibo, demonstrating the popularity of the game.
However, Chen Mo knew that Plants vs Zombies still had greater potential.
In his previous life, Plants vs Zombies had reached three hundred thousand sales in the first nine days, breaking several records, and had actually taken the world by storm.
Chen Mo had already managed to recreate at least ninety percent of Plants vs Zombies up, but had only received five hundred thousand sales. Evidently there was still a gap between it and the original.
Chen Mo gave the matter some thought.
First was advertising. Chen Mo hadn't done any advertising. The video game media reposts did give him some attention, but it was worlds away from the advertising the big companies were able to do. Plants vs Zombies basically started off on the wrong foot compared to them.
Second was the market problem. Plants vs Zombies was only released in China. If he was able to release it outside of China, the sales should be higher.
However, Chen Mo was satisfied with his performance so far. Although Plants vs Zombies did have the ability to enter the international market, Chen Mo didn't want to invest too much time and effort into it.
In Chen Mo's view, the overseas market was unexplored territory. Were the tastes of the overseas market the same in this parallel world? That required a lot of time and effort to experiment with.
Chen Mo didn't want to consider the overseas market for now, so he didn't put too much effort into it. Chen Mo was quite happy with the fact that Plants vs Zombies was able to achieve results like it had. He didn't expect the game to break the sky.
If just considering the starting steps, Chen Mo had forged a perfect start as a videogame designer. What he could achieve next depended on what he wanted to do!
——
10 AM...
Chen Mo sat at the bar table letting out yawns left and right.
He had been out drinking with Lin Mao and Zhao Zihao till 11 PM, and was suffering the effects of that.
Since Chen Mo and Lin Mao had great success with their games, a celebration was required. Therefore Chen Mo decided to let himself enjoy some alcohol this time.
Adventure of the Storm Rider received seventy thousand downloads in the first month. Although it didn't come close to Plants vs Zombies, it was top three on the new games leaderboards, raking in about eight hundred thousand RMB for Lin Mao.
Lin Mao was quite happy with that achievement, as most new video game designers couldn't even hope to achieve results like that.
Of course, Lin Mao was head over heels with results that Plants vs Zombies had achieved. Within his admiration was happiness for Chen Mo.
During the past few days, Wen Lingwei and Jia Peng didn't come to the experience store every day like they had before. After playing it for a month, their passion for Plants vs Zombies had slowly died down.
More and more strategies were being released to the public, and more and more were being discovered, but the passion for the game would die down over time.
Wen Lingwei and the others were urging Chen Mo to release a sequel, or even a new game.
Chen Mo knew in his heart that Plants vs Zombies had a really long lifetime. Some people might be able to play it for one or two years, but for the majority, they'd get sick of it after a month or two.
Of course, for a standalone game, it didn't matter that the gamers were sick of it. What was important was that the game was sold and money was earned. All that was left to do was to release the next game.
Chen Mo was ready to move his focus to his next game, but before that, he wanted to give Plants vs Zombies an update!
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Chapter 38: Chapter 37 – Visiting Neighbor
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo was looking through the player discussions and forum hot posts for Plants vs Zombies.
If a new version was released, it would depend on what the players wanted or liked. If he released a version that didn't cater to the players' desires, it would be meaningless.
Chen Mo then noticed a woman at the door. She had a ponytail, was wearing jeans, and was dressed pretty neatly overall.
"Zhuo Yao?" Chen Mo managed to recall her name. She was the owner of Fates Internet Cafe, who had come over just after Chen Mo had opened his experience store.
Zhuo Yao was shocked when she looked around the first floor of the experience store. "Wow, I haven't been around for a month, and your experience store is much livelier than when I was here last! I remember it was completely empty last time!"
Chen Mo replied stiffly, "Of course! It's not possible to have opened for a month and not have a single person in your internet cafe, right?"
Zhuo Yao answered, "You can't really compare; is your experience store really the same as an internet cafe? Seems like you're doing quite well for yourself, there's so many players here."
Chen Mo poured her a glass of water while she sat down on the sofa.
"You said you'd be here some other day. Turns out that some other day was a month later!" Chen Mo jested.
"(Sigh) Stop mentioning it. There was so much to do at the internet cafe, so I couldn't leave," said Zhuo Yao. "Moreover, I've been addicted to this game as of late."
Chen Mo asked, "Addicted to a game?"
Zhuo Yao nodded, "Yeah, it's that Plants vs Zombies that became really popular recently. Haven't you played it? You're a videogame designer, there's no way you don't pay attention to the new games leaderboard."
Chen Mo said, "Uhh... I've played it."
Zhuo Yao said happily, "I knew it. So what level are you up to for endless mode? I'm up to 97, I'll pass 100 soon!"
Chen Mo didn't reply.
Zhuo Yao noticed that Chen Mo was being a bit weird, she assumed that he was embarrassed about his score and consoled him, "It's alright, I'll teach you. My strategy is great, guaranteed to cruise through the first fifty levels."
Chen Mo pointed at a far away computer at a girl playing the game, "She's already at level 174."
"Huh?!" Zhuo Yao was shocked. What was the meaning of that?
She stood up to get a better look of the girl. She seemed like a good kid, probably a student from the nearby university. How could she be better than herself, who's been playing throughout the nights?
-Hold on!-
When Zhuo Yao walked into the store, she hadn't paid any attention to what people were playing. But she noticed something when she looked at the screens.
Was everyone here playing Plants vs Zombies?
-This is an experience store, and experience stores usually only contain games that belong to the designer. Does that mean...-
Zhuo Yao looked at Chen Mo, "Could it be... you're the designer of Plants vs Zombies?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, that's right."
Zhuo Yao stood there for three seconds and finally realized the implications. "I'm gonna faint! That game was your creation? I was wondering why the logo on the game's loading screen was so familiar? Turns out I saw it on the door of your store!"
Chen Mo was speechless. "I think there should be a limit of how forgetful someone can be. Your internet cafe is nearby, and you can't even remember my logo?"
Zhuo Yao was a bit embarrassed, and said after coughing, "About that... You know that we who open internet cafes rarely leave them... Yeah."
Chen Mo nodded, playing along, "Yep, true."
Zhuo Yao couldn't hold back her laughter, "What do you mean, true? Whatever, I won't argue with you. Teach me the secrets to Plants vs Zombies now!"
Chen Mo was speechless, "Why are you all like this, asking me for secret techniques every time you see me. There are many posts on the forums, go find one there!"
Zhuo Yao rolled her eyes, "Stingy."
Chen Mo was once again speechless.
-How can everything be tied back to me being stingy? This has nothing to do with me stingy, but you being lazy!-
Zhuo Yao said, "Sigh, but honestly, I didn't think a new video game designer like you could make a game like that. Unfortunately, mobile games don't do too much for my internet cafe."
Chen Mo said, "Don't worry, I'll make more standalone games in the future. Also, I forgot to ask, is your internet cafe mainly for PC or VR games?"
Zhuo Yao replied, "PC. I thought about changing to VR, but the capital is too big, and I don't have that much in terms of funds. Right now PC-centric internet cafes are in an awkward spot, I've been struggling for a while now about this matter."
Chen Mo said, "Yeah, I know. I think the main thing is that PC games are being pressured by VR games, putting them in a difficult situation."
"Exactly," Zhuo Yao felt helpless. "VR internet cafes will be the thing of the future, PC internet cafes will probably slowly fall out of favor."
Chen Mo shook his head, "That might not be the case."
Zhuo Yao was shocked. "Why?"
Chen Mo said, "It's simple! The reason PC internet cafes are struggling is because there haven't been any popular games on PC released recently. What if there was a super popular game that was able to put pressure on VR games?"
Zhuo Yao murmured, "That's... not likely..."
Chen Mo said, "There isn't one now doesn't mean that there won't be one in the future. Before Plants vs Zombies was released, who would've thought that the puzzle game market was so big?"
Zhuo Yao replied after three seconds of thought, "So, are you just praising yourself?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep!"
Zhuo Yao was speechless.
Chen Mo said, "That's the truth! I think you can continue your PC internet cafe. The future isn't as grim as you think..."
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Chapter 39: Chapter 38: Hiring
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
In his previous life, MOBA dominated the PC and mobile market; other genres didn't even come close. In Chen Mo's mind, MOBA's dominance would continue for at least five to ten years.
(Trans Note: MOBA = Multiplayer Online Battle Arena format, i.e. League of Legends, DotA, etc.)
As for what game would take the place of MOBA, and be the king for the next ten years? Nobody knew.
If someone did have the answer, he'd start making it now!
This was only true in the previous world, but what about in the parallel world, where gaming design concepts were undeveloped?
Although the parallel world had VR games, Chen Mo didn't think that the VR games had better playability than MOBAs.
On the PC front, the genres that were being pressured the most were adventure and FPS games, followed by strategy and management games. Genres like casual and mobile games weren't affected by VR games at all.
Chen Mo thought that MOBAs, as a genre that had never surfaced in the parallel world, had huge potential, not unlike his previous world.
That was why he hypothesized that PC games would never die off, and PC internet cafes would never go extinct.
Of course, he wouldn't go and try and explain this concept to others, much less reveal any game concepts.
Zuo Yao studied the arrangement in the experience store and asked, "I just thought of something. Are you the only one in the experience store?"
Chen Mo was shocked, "What do you mean, just me? Aren't there other players here?"
Zuo Yao explained, "I mean that in an internet cafe, there's someone responsible for technical issues, and one for the cashier. Is it just you here? Are you able to manage it?"
Chen Mo said, "Oh, that's what you meant. I'm able to manage. The checking in onto the machines is self service. The daily maintenance and cleaning are done by professionals. There really isn't much that I need to do."
Zuo Yao said, "But you still need to keep an eye on the first floor right? Isn't your office on the second floor?"
Chen Mo was shocked; he really had overlooked that problem.
Now that the experience store was open for business from ten to eight, Chen Mo had to stay on the first floor. However, his office was on the second floor.
That meant that Chen Mo had to be the receptionist!
Zuo Yao said, "I think that you should hire someone to work at the front. In the end, you're now a famous video game designer, surely you don't have to be so personal with the players?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yeah, you do have a point..."
Zuo Yao stood up, "Alright, I need to head back. Come visit me next time. Since we are neighbors, let's visit one another more often."
"No problem!" Chen Mo stood up and showed her the door.
——
After sending Zuo Yao away, Chen Mo started to brainstorm about the receptionist problem.
Plants vs Zombies was now making stable income. And Chen Mo wasn't short on money like before either. It was entirely possible for him to pay for one other person.
However was concerned Chen Mo was other than the receptionist, was there anyone else that he needed to hire?
Many video game designers have an assistant. For example when A or S-grade designers are designing larger VR games, it's unreasonable to complete it with one or two people, a whole team would be required.
Chen Mo was now also decently well-known. If he wanted to hire an assistant, it was likely that many designers that hadn't entered the industry would be willing to work without pay.
However, Chen Mo was a bit hesitant.
This world wasn't the same as his previous one. The previous world relied on strength; the more talents the company had, the better the company would grow. Popular games required coordinating research, distribution, and marketing. Creativity wasn't the be-all and end-all for video games.
It wasn't the same in this parallel world, where creativity was everything. Chen Mo didn't doubt that, either. If a A-grade video game designer caught wind of the idea of a MOBA, they'd be able to create something with striking resemblance to a MOBA in a year's time.
Chen Mo's Thunderbolt entertainment wasn't as big and mighty as something like Emperor Dynasty Entertainment or Zen Entertainment, so creativity was all he had, and something he could not afford to lose.
He now had a Pandora's Box in his hand. Once the box was opened, it would drastically change the video game industry. When that happened, the other companies would surely do something in retaliation.
What if the change came early? That wouldn't be good news for him!
Therefore, there was a certain risk to hiring an assistant. Chen Mo's way of thinking would surely affect the assistant's after working for him long-term. Once the assistant figured something out and started their own company, it would be the same as Chen Mo raising his own competitor.
Chen Mo was quite conflicted!
However, he decided on hiring an assistant in the end.
He would be making larger games in the future, and there was no way he could do that alone. This step would have to be taken sooner or later.
Of course, this assistant must be chosen to his requirements. He'd rather not hire one than hire the wrong one.
—
After getting something in mind, Chen Mo went to his computer and put in a long Weibo post.
Hiring: Video game experience store receptionist, female, good-looking, good working attitude, with basic knowledge of the video game industry.
Hiring: Video game designer assistant, male or female, must have sufficient knowledge of the video game industry, professional, good working attitude.
Applicants must provide the following: 1. Resume, 2. Thoughts on Plants vs Zombies 3. Thoughts on any other mobile game on the market, 4. Thoughts on the future of the video game industry.
Please send the above details to my inbox, successful applicants are required to go through an interview.
After proof-reading the post, he sent it out.
Chen Mo now had around a hundred thousand fans on Weibo. Most of them were fans of Plants vs Zombies, or industry professionals who liked the game. Most of them were shocked after seeing the post, and reposted it.
This is a good opportunity, reposted.
I'd love to go, but I'm still in school, reposted.
Surely there's something to gather from the designer of Plants vs Zombies! reposted.
I wanna join! I'll be writing my thoughts on the games then.
Soon after, Chen Mo received plenty of interest after his Weibo post was reposted countless times.
Of course, many of them wanted to be his assistant, and there were barely any receptionist applicants.
It was difficult to enter the industry, even in the parallel world. Many wanted to join the industry, but couldn't make it themselves or didn't have enough talent; this was their only choice.
As Chen Mo was now decently popular, the people who wanted to work under him were plentiful.
In the eyes of many, Chen Mo was an extremely talented video game designer whose first game had gone viral. They would surely learn a lot if they had a chance to work under him!
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Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Plants vs Zombies Version Plans
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo decided to wait until night time before checking the applications. He decided to focus on planning the next update for Plants vs Zombies.
In his previous life, Plants vs Zombies had a sequel. Although it made a decent amount of money, the player reviews left a lot to be desired compared to the first game.
That was why Chen Mo didn't want to make Plants vs Zombies 2. If he wanted to make money and get hated on by fans, why not make some Pay to Win game? Just so the name of Plants vs Zombies wouldn't be tarnished.
This upcoming update will probably be the first and last update for the game, therefore Chen Mo wanted to please the fans, allowing the players to invent their own playstyles, which would allow fans to play the game well into the future.
As Chen Mo was about to start developing a new game, he didn't have the time or energy to maintain the game in the future.
After giving it some thought, Chen Mo narrowed it down to a couple features.
First, in terms of content, add developer tools. Anyone could use the developer tools to test out anything in the game.
They could make adjustments to the plants, zombies, the environment, and the maps. They could also upload resources to make new types of plants and zombies, and they could use the existing artwork to make new maps, levels, and playstyles.
These mods could be released, browsed, and installed by players. The players could rate and review the mods. There would be an algorithm to rank the mods according to downloads, rating and playtime, recommending mods to players periodically.
Second, add networking and social capabilities to allow players to communicate better within the game.
Plants vs Zombies had simple connectivity and leaderboard functions when it was released, but this was only enough to satisfy the bragging needs of the players, leaving behind the deeper social interactions.
Through the new social capabilities, players could add each other as friends or join communities. Friends or players belonging to the same community could watch other players, upload their own playthroughs, and recommend mods.
Third, make a multiplayer mode.
In theory, with the developer tools, multiplayer was only a matter of time. Chen Mo was just trying to accelerate it.
Chen Mo only had two simple game modes in his plan for now.
First was multiplayer co-op, each player controlling three to five lanes, supporting two to five players at a time. This meant that there would be twenty-five lanes, and the player would be able to scroll up and check the status of other players.
Every player would have their individual suns, and they could help other players plant and defend against zombies together.
Under multiplayer mode, when a player died they could be revived by other players using a special plant, and players could coordinate and plant some special plants together.
The second mode would be versus mode, it could be 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3. Every player could get suns or moons; suns for plants, moons for zombies.
Zombies had to be generated slightly faster than plants.
Players would have to defend their own lawns or use zombies to attack the other play's lawn. Whenever a player lost, they wouldn't be able to revive.
The reason for having two different resources, suns and moons, was to prevent certain players from dragging the game out by only making plants.
If one controlled plants and the other controlled zombies, it would be very difficult to balance, which is why Chen Mo didn't do so.
Chen Mo wasn't sure if multiplayer modes like these would be successful, but he was optimistic. Because the game followed the original playstyle, any changes he made would be beneficial, so it wouldn't be detrimental to the main game.
Of course, it wouldn't matter if it didn't work out, as there would be mods made by the community.
Chen Mo estimated it would take two weeks. This was a generous estimate, as the main game only took one month.
——
By the time night fell, Chen Mo had basically finished the design document.
After closing the doors, Chen Mo went back to the second floor, checked his inbox, and went through the applications.
Most of the applications were for the assistant position, only four were for the front desk.
Chen Mo wasn't too happy when he looked through the applications for the front desk. One of them had barely any knowledge of games, another had no experience with Plants vs Zombies, and the other two didn't put much effort into the thoughts on the game.
Of course, the main issue was their looks, which Chen Mo didn't find too attractive.
Chen Mo wasn't part of the good looks club, nor did he have any ulterior motives when hiring for the front desk. But after all, it was a well-paid job, so Chen Mo had many choices and didn't need to compromise.
He was only thinking about the players. A sweet receptionist would improve the mood of the players who came to the store, so it would be better if he chose someone good looking.
Or at least someone cute...
Chen Mo continued looking through the applications for the assistant role.
There were many resumes, and Chen Mo only needed one assistant at this point. Therefore whenever he found someone that didn't match his requirements, he would delete them.
He wasn't considering older people at this moment.
Older people tended to be more conservative, weren't active enough, weren't as creative, and didn't have as much potential. Moreover, it would be awkward if his assistant was older than he was.
He wasn't considering employment experience, either.
The ones that had worked at other companies would have had certain ideas imprinted into their design process and thinking. As Chen Mo's ideas were completely different from other companies, trying to convert them to the same wavelength would take time and effort.
He didn't consider those who played games all day and had nothing better to do, either.
Playing and designing games were completely different things. Playing games required reaction time, controls, and game knowledge, whereas designing games required logical thinking, attention to detail, a solid working ethic, and some inspiration.
It was difficult for someone who was just a gamer to get a job in game design.
—
After that, he started looking at the thoughts on games that had been submitted.
The thoughts reflected the knowledge one had of games. Chen Mo couldn't hire someone who contradicted his philosophy on games.
For the thoughts on Plants vs Zombies, Chen Mo just wanted to know how much the applicant understood about the game. As long as they mentioned two to three points about creativity, playstyle, system, levels, or code, they would be considered passing.
As for the thoughts on other games, Chen Mo wanted to see what types of games they liked. They'd be considered to pass if they picked a game that was relatively successful and went over why the game was good.
The thoughts on the future of video games was a supplementary question. He wasn't going to consider them if their judgement was too far off, as those people would be too dense to absorb anything.
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Almighty Video Game Designer #Chapter 41 - Read Almighty Video Game Designer Chapter 41 Online - All Page - Novel Next
Chapter 41: Chapter 40: Interview
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
With all his requirements gathered, the person Chen Mo was looking for was like so:
Young and had potential.
Well rounded skills and was competent enough to assist.
Had basic knowledge on games.
Dependable and trustworthy.
Chen Mo looked through all the resumes according to his requirements.
In the end, the results were disappointing. There wasn't a single one that matched his requirements.
Of course, Chen Mo already had this outcome in mind, as he was very rigorous in his screening process. It was only the first day, so he didn't need to rush.
—
Three days later...
At 10 AM, the experience store was open for business as usual. Chen Mo was at the bar on his laptop writing the design document for the next update for Plants vs Zombies.
The process went smoothly, as the new implementations were simple and based on the existing framework; the requirements were also concrete.
The foundations were almost finished, all that was left was including the details in the design document and actually executing it.
Chen Mo had received many resumes over the past three days, and had even done five interviews. In the end none of them matched his requirements, and he wasn't able to find an assistant or a receptionist.
The few who came had some shortcomings; some of them weren't smart enough, others were too smart for their own good. None of them matched Chen Mo's expectations.
As there was a difference between looking at the resume and interviewing, everything they did or said reflected on their nature.
Chen Mo wasn't going to consider anyone that didn't meet his expectations. He wasn't going to compromise.
—
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"Hello, I'm here for an interview?"
Chen Mo looked up and saw a woman at the door, around twenty-three years old. She had short hair and neat bangs, and was quite cute, with a genuine smile on her face, making her quite attractive.
"Oh, hi, come in." Chen Mo got up and grabbed the copy of her resume that he had printed off earlier.
Chen Mo led her into the meeting room and poured her a cup of water.
Su Jinyu, twenty-three years old, fourth-year student at a renowned art school in the Imperial Capital, received copious numbers of awards in school that could barely fit on her resume.
Chen Mo could tell that she wasn't strong-willed and assertive like Wen Lingwei, but more kind and courteous. The awards she had received on the resume were tough work that nobody else wanted to do.
It also meant that she wasn't the type to do everything in her self-interest, but the hardworking type who would do anything.
His impression of her was good so far!
"I've looked through your resume and have a basic understanding of your achievements. I just want to get to know you more, so just treat it like we are chatting, and just relax."
Su Jinyu nodded, "Mm!"
Chen Mo felt that perhaps he was the one who was worried. Su Jinyu didn't show any sign of nervousness. She likely had been in many situations like this in school, or perhaps she was born that way.
"You said on your CV that you're happy being the assistant or working at the front desk, why?"
Su Jinyu replied, "Ah, I think if I'm not fit to be the assistant, I was happy to work at the front desk. I would probably still learn something at the front desk."
This was an honest, hardworking response. Chen Mo could tell that Su Jinyu didn't hold herself too highly, probably because she had previously failed at being a videogame designer.
"Since you're pursuing an art degree, why not go into the art industry? Why do you want to become a video game designer? I've seen your artwork, they're all very high quality. You shouldn't have a problem becoming an artist," Chen Mo inquired.
Su Jinyu answered, "Umm... I think that I can utilize my art skills by being a videogame designer too, but I also think that a videogame designer has even more creative freedom."
Chen Mo said, "You've tried making a game, but didn't receive the video game designer certifications. Do you feel that you lack talent?"
Su Jinyu replied, "About that, maybe I do lack talent, but I won't give up!"
Chen Mo nodded and asked the next question, "What do you think is the most important attribute a video game designer should have?"
Su Jinyu knotted her brow. Through her expression you could tell that she needed some time to think through the vague question.
"Umm, I think that a video game designer should stand by what they believe."
Chen Mo was shocked. "What they believe?"
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Su Jinyu explained, "Ah, I don't mean religious beliefs. I meant that video game designers should follow their heart and connect emotionally with the players, bringing them happiness and inspiring them."
Chen Mo gave it some thought and asked another question, "If you could make a game that didn't have a good reputation, but made a lot of money, would do you make it?"
Su Jinyu was confused, "How would it make money if it's reputation wasn't good?"
Chen Mo said, "Hypothetically."
Su Jinyu said after thinking for a few moments, "Umm... I don't know. All I could say is that if I don't think the game is good, no matter how much money it makes, I wouldn't make it."
Chen Mo continued to fire questions at her, "What if I made a game like that?"
Su Jinyu was shocked, "Huh? You're the designer of Plants vs Zombies. If you could make something like that, why would you care about money at the cost of reputation?"
Chen Mo said, "To be honest, there's a big chance that I'll release a game that makes good money, but wouldn't stand so well publically. If you can't take that, it'll mean we won't be working together."
Su Jinyu scowled, showing her internal struggle with this decision.
After some thought, Su Jinyu replied, "I don't think I'll be able to change your view. To be honest, I really like Plants vs Zombies. I think whoever invents a game like that must be a genius designer. I'm sure I'll learn a lot by being your assistant.
"I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I've tried being a videogame designer before, but failed. So I thought that I should start as an assistant and learn from there.
"How about this: I'll work the front desk, but give me some assistant-level jobs from time to time. If there's a game I don't like, I won't participate."
Su Jinyu had quite a sincere attitude, not giving up her views or trying to change Chen Mo's.
If she was the assistant, Su Jinyu would have to follow Chen Mo's every command. If there was a game she didn't like, she'd have to do that, too. That was what was expected from a video game designer's assistant.
Therefore, Su Jinyu wanted to work at the front desk and be a part-time assistant, which was quite a nice compromise.
Chen Mo gave the idea some thought.
Su Jinyu was the best candidate Chen Mo had so far. Her most prominent feature was her passion for video games. Furthermore, she was filled with infectious positive energy. It would be very nice to work alongside someone like her.
However, their ideology wasn't entirely on the same wavelength, which worried Chen Mo.
It was evident that Su Jinyu was someone who wanted to make her money standing up, whereas Chen Mo didn't agree.
The competition in the video game industry was fierce. In front of Chen Mo were titans like Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Zen Entertainment, and countless other smaller companies, all with their eyes on him. In order to win in an environment like this, it wasn't enough to just rely on recreating good games from his previous life.
Chen Mo wanted to make large games, which would require a lot of money. Therefore, his only goal now was to make money, and giving up parts of his reputation for it wasn't a problem.
This would create many conflicts between him and Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo gave it some thought and said, "How about this. Before you graduate you can work at the front desk and be my assistant part-time. If there's anything you aren't happy with, you can leave whenever you want. If you're willing to stay after you graduate, we can make it official via a contract. How's that?"
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Chapter 42: Chapter 41: The Cute New Arrival
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Su Jinyu nodded in agreement, "Yep, that's fine!"
Chen Mo said, "Alright, I'll just need some more details about the employment. First, the work time! Every day, from 10 AM to 8 PM. Try to be present on weekends. If you need some time off, try and have them on Monday or Tuesday."
Su Jinyu agreed.
"As for the pay, working during weekends and holidays will be considered overtime working out to about eight thousand RMB a month, transferred within the first five days of the month. However, you only get eight days of leave a month."
Su Jinyu was shocked, "Huh? So much?"
Normally companies would try and keep the pay of interns as low as possible. In the Imperial Capital, even a student from a notable university would only receive around five thousand RMB a month.
The pay might be higher for an industry that required plenty of overtime, but it wouldn't exceed seven thousand.
Only after passing the orientation and becoming a full-time employee could one hope to get above eight thousand RMB, possibly into the tens of thousands. Su Jinyu thought she would receive five thousand a month in salary, so Chen Mo's offer was beyond her expectations.
Chen Mo said, "If you're unhappy, reducing it isn't a problem."
Su Jinyu left out a stifled laugh, "I'm perfectly happy with it."
Chen Mo never liked the idea of bargaining for pay. It was always a showdown between HR and the applicant. I want fifteen thousand, you want ten, settling at twelve. It reminded him of the old ladies at the market haggling, completely unnecessary and was disrespectful to the talent.
Chen Mo felt that spending two to three more thousand RMB a month wasn't a big deal when compared to the ten thousand RMB per spin. Moreover, he felt that Su Jinyu deserved that amount of money.
Chen Mo continued, "Now, regarding overtime."
Su Jinyu quickly interjected, "Overtime isn't a problem, I'm still at the stage of learning and gathering experience. If there's a need to work through the night..."
Chen Mo said, "Oh? You're mistaken. I was about to say that there's no need for overtime. 10 AM to 8 PM every day, there will be no overtime."
"Huh?" Su Jinyu was shocked as the situation was completely outside her expectations.
In his previous world, working overtime was completely normalized in the video game industry, and there wasn't extra pay either. In the parallel world, although it wasn't required, working overtime was still quite common.
The majority of the video game designers in the parallel world were workaholics. They were always more well-rounded, as they had to do all parts of a game. Therefore the main designer was always the busiest, completely destroying their sleep schedule in the process, which is why most of them chose to stay in their offices.
Su Jinyu thought that Chen Mo was also like that and was prepared to work overtime often, but it turned out Chen Mo didn't work overtime?
Chen Mo said, "Companies that need their employees to work overtime frequently can only be one of two typesL understaffed, or have poor working efficiency of employees. This company is neither of those."
Su Jinyu nodded, "Mm!" Although a bit confused, she felt compelled to agree.
Chen Mo said, "You probably already know most of the things you need to know about working at the front desk. There normally won't be too many customers, so you can do whatever you want during downtime, be it playing games or watching videos online. I will provide you with some assistant-level work from time to time, so just make sure you finish them on time."
Su Jinyu said, "Alright, no problem!"
Chen Mo said, "Alright, you can go back for today and prepare yourself for your first day tomorrow."
Su Jinyu nodded, "Alright, nice meeting you!"
—
After shaking hands because it felt necessary, Su Jinyu left with a huge smile on her face.
Su Jinyu was very happy with the job. Being able to learn with an amazing video game designer, way above average pay, not too much work, and no overtime either!
The only negative was that there was seemingly some difference in their ideology. But it wasn't a problem. Even if the designer of Plants vs Zombies wanted to ruin their reputation for money, how bad could it really get?
—
10 AM the next day...
Chen Mo opened the doors ten minutes early, but Su Jinyu was already standing there waiting.
"Good morning!" Su Jinyu greeted him.
Chen Mo said, "You don't need to come so early in the future. It's fine by me if you're five to ten minutes late."
Su Jinyu said, "I can't do that, I've always been punctual."
As the doors had just opened, there weren't any customers inside.
The laptop and drawing tablet that Chen Mo had ordered had also arrived, both of which were quite high-end, completely able to satisfy any design requirements as of now.
"Go ahead and install any software you need on the laptop. I'll send you a design document later during the afternoon, please look through and refine it."
Su Jinyu nodded, "Mm, alright."
—
After telling her some other things she needed to do, Chen Mo went back to the second floor. As Su Jinyu was already at the bar counter, there wasn't a need for him to be there.
Su Jinyu downloaded some commonly used software onto her laptop. As the files weren't big and the internet speed was good, downloading them didn't take much time.
Su Jinyu was quite pumped on her first day of work.
She got up and walked around the first floor.
As the maintenance and cleaning were done by professionals, everything was very neat. The screens, keyboards, and mice were all clean, and the seats were arranged neatly.
Meeting room, bar table, snacks rack, sofa... Su Jinyu walked around the entire first floor, getting the impression that Chen Mo's experience store wasn't the same as the others she had seen before. It gave away a relaxing vibe.
Perhaps it was the orientation of things.
Su Jinyu sat down at the bar table.
A dark-skinned, skinny man walked into the store around five past ten.
"Hello, welcome!" Su Jinyu greeted him politely.
Jia Peng was shocked with his eyes and mouth wide open. He stepped backwards outside and took a look at the sign.
-Thunderbolt Gaming experience store, it's right!-
Jia Peng looked at the interior of the store. Yep, nothing has changed, other than the manager was now a cute girl.
-D-did he become a woman?!-
"Uhh...are you..." Jia Peng questioned hesitantly.
Su Jinyu said, "I'm Su Jinyu, the new receptionist."
"Oh!" Jia Peng finally understood. "Hello! Where's the owner?"
Su Jinyu replied, "He's on the second floor, is there something you need from him?"
Jia Peng waved dismissively, "No, it's fine. Uhh, I'm just here to play games for a while, it's fine."
Jia Peng swiped his ID and sat down at a computer, taking a peek at Su Jinyu.
He was having some internal thoughts. Tsk, I haven't been here for two days and there's a new receptionist now. It's a cute girl, too. That's big news.
Jia Peng took out his phone and sent a message to his group.
Something big has happened! The manager hired a cute girl to work the front desk!
Soon, there were countless replies.
Huh? Really? She wasn't there when I went yesterday!
I think the manager was hiring the past few days and even had a few interviews.
He found a new hire? Is it really a cute girl? How cute is she?
I don't buy it! Pics or it never happened!
Yeah, send a picture!
Is she as cute as senior Xiuya?
Jia Peng was speechless, replying: Come have a look yourselves!
Wen Lingwei: Don't let the cute girl leave, I'll be right there!
The group had exploded. Instead of developing games, why did the manager think of evil tactics like this? Did he intentionally hire a cute girl to draw us in because we haven't been there recently?
That's just too much!
This type of behavior? Pathetic!
But... it was a good choice!
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Chapter 43: Chapter 42: Very Good, but Rewrite It
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
After only ten minutes, a huge group of people came into the store, one after another. Wen Lingwei was the first to arrive, and her eyes set on Su Jinyu, who was sitting at the bar table.
"The new receptionist?" Wen Lingwei said as she leaned on the bar table.
Su Jinyu nodded, "Yup, I'm Su Jinyu, nice to meet you."
Wen Lingwei said, "Wen Lingwei. Don't worry, I'll protect you. If the boss bullies you, tell me and I'll sort it out with him."
The others behind Wen Lingwei also took the opportunity to cop a look of Su Jinyu as they swiped their ID's.
It really was a cute girl!
She wasn't the type that would shock you at first sight, but one that you wouldn't mind staring at. There was an active aura underneath all the cuteness, enticing a few of the guys.
"Uhh, senior..." a guy said to Wen Lingwei, wanting to join in the conversation.
Wen Lingwei gave him a cold stare, "Back off."
"Alright..." the guy hesitantly retreated.
Jia Peng was speechless. "Damn, had I known this would happen, I never would've told you guys!"
—
Wen Lingwei, Chang Xiuya and a few other girls surrounded Su Jinyu and started chatting.
A few of the guys only dared look from afar as they didn't dare to join in.
"Damn, how could the senior do this to us!"
"Yeah, the cute girl belongs to all of us!"
"I object!"
Of course, they could only say that under their breath. They wouldn't dare speak out against Wen Lingwei.
—
"Geez, why are you guys all here."
Chen Mo was speechless when he saw what was going on after he came down from the second floor.
In the midst of working on the design document for Plants vs Zombies, he had heard a lot of chatter coming from the first floor. When he got down, there were ten or so people. It had been over a week since there were many people at his store.
Wen Lingwei looked at Chen Mo and asked, "Manager, can I buy this cute girl from you?"
The corner of Chen Mo's lips twitched. "Employees are not for sale."
"Stingy!"
Chen Mo was speechless. -Please, human trafficking is illegal!- "If you guys want to get to know each other, chat when she's off work. Don't bother her while she's working," he said.
Wen Lingwei shot back, "What's her job?"
Chen Mo replied, "Uhh, greeting customers at the front desk?"
Wen Lingwei asked slowly, "Isn't she greeting customers now? I'm the customer."
Chen Mo was once again speechless. -Good point, there's nothing I can say!-
Su Jinyu laughed, "Maybe you guys should let me work. I can feel your love, but it is still working hours after all.
"How about we start an experience store group?" suggested Jia Peng.
Chang Xiuya was shocked, "Experience store group?"
Jia Peng nodded, "Yeah, we can add the regulars of the experience store into the group, including the manager and the cute girl."
Chen Mo said, "Friendly reminder, pay some respect to her. She's in her fourth year, so she's a senior to all of you."
Wen Lingwei said, "And you're trying to say?"
Chen Mo said, "Alright then, pretend I didn't say anything."
Evidently this group of people were way more interested in Su Jinyu than Chen Mo or his games!
—
Soon after, the experience store group was created. Jia Peng added everyone into the group and gave Chen Mo, Wen Lingwei, and Su Jinyu moderator roles.
Of course, this was also an easy way to get the contact number of the girl...
Although Chen Mo felt a bit left out, he was still relieved because Su Jinyu was so popular, meaning that his definition of beauty was quite normal.
After making sure nobody, especially Wen Lingwei, would kidnap his new receptionist, Chen Mo retreated upstairs.
The foundations of the design document for Plants vs Zombies were already there. After giving it some thought, Chen Mo decided to hand over interconnectivity and multiplayer features to Su Jinyu, and do the developer tools himself.
The interconnectivity and multiplayer features were definitive and the requirements were also clear cut, so Chen Mo wanted to use this opportunity to test out her design skills.
—
At noon, Chen Mo temporarily closed the experience store as he took Su Jinyu, Wen Lingwei, and the others to a nearby restaurant for lunch, not only to celebrate the huge sales made by Plants vs Zombies, but also as a welcoming meal for Su Jinyu.
As these people were the earliest players at the experience store, they had become quite good friends with Chen Mo as they watched the success of Plants vs Zombies together.
—
As the afternoon came, Chen Mo sent the design document to Su Jinyu.
"I sent you the whole design document folder; just refine these two design documents and send it to me when you're done.
"This is the design document for the upcoming update for Plants vs Zombies. The main point of it is to allow players to better communicate with one another in game and allow them to meet other Plants vs Zombies fans in the community.
"I've already finished the basics of multiplayer, so read through it and refine it a bit.
"I don't have any requests for the design document, so just do it your way, with emphasis on 'your way'. Try to make changes and not stick to my design too much. I'll need a first draft in three days, is that alright?"
Su Jinyu nodded confidently, "Alright, not a problem!"
Chen Mo thought about giving her a few more words of advice, but after considering that it might restrict her train of thought, he decided against it.
Different people often had different views on game design. Restricting someone's thoughts might result in a botched result.
As for Chen Mo, he needed to finish the developer tools for Plants vs Zombies, allowing players to make their own mods.
As his workload had been cut in half all of a sudden, he wasn't quite used to it.
—
Three days later, Su Jinyu sent her first draft of the design document to Chen Mo.
"Mm... not bad."
As Chen Mo looked through the design document Su Jinyu submitted, he didn't seem all that happy, despite saying it was alright.
At the same time, Su Jinyu nervously twiddled her thumbs.
Although she had written design documents before, it was for very simple mini-games. It wasn't surprising that she was nervous, as this was a design document for Plants vs Zombies.
Even since Plants vs Zombies had risen to the top of the casual puzzle game charts, it had gathered a large user base. Su Jinyu wouldn't be able to live it down if the players weren't happy about the changes she made.
It didn't take long for Chen Mo to look through her design document.
"The logic is very clear and all the details have been covered. There aren't any major mistakes, either. You have quite a good grasp on the basics," said Chen Mo.
Su Jinyu blinked and said, "Tha-thank you."
"But, you'll need to rewrite it." Chen Mo smiled.
"Huh?" Su Jinyu was dumbfounded. -The logic and the details were fine, why do I need to rewrite it?- "What even!"
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Chapter 44: Chapter 43 – New Update
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo explained, "What I meant was that your thoughts are very conservative. There were basically no new points added in the two design documents, all you did was expand on what I had."
"Uhh..." Su Jinyu was confused. Chen Mo did emphasise on doing it her way when he handed the design document over to her, but she didn't think too much of it.
In most cases, video game designer assistants usually performed repetitive tasks. Moreover, most video game designers did not like their assistants making any changes, no matter how small.
Therefore Su Jinyu chose to just expand on what Chen Mo had already done, without adding anything to it.
But that was the exact opposite of what he requested. Chen Mo wanted her to add her own thoughts to it.
Chen Mo said, "Don't worry, I'll give you another three days. Remember, I want to see your thoughts."
Su Jinyu nodded eagerly, "Okay!"
—
As Su Jinyu returned to the first floor, she continued to pick her brain for ideas.
After she left, Chen Mo took another look at the design document.
Her basic skill at writing design documents was solid, and the logic wasn't bad, either; the biggest problem was the lack of inspiration. As of now, Su Jinyu was only capable of executing; she was still quite a ways away from being a proper video game designer.
Persistent, hardworking, well rounded, but lacked inspiration. That was Chen Mo's current assessment of Su Jinyu.
Maybe she always lacked her own ideas, or perhaps it was part of her character.
Chen Mo could treat Su Jinyu as an assistant, only involving her in execution, but she wouldn't be able to grow much in such an environment.
Chen Mo wanted to stimulate her, as she was hardworking, but unable to see the bigger picture. That way, he could train her to become a more well-rounded video game designer in the next few months, which would save Chen Mo some work in the long run.
—
Su Jinyu had been wringing her brain, trying to make adjustments to the design document.
Although the second draft looked better, it still wasn't good enough.
The third draft had a few good ideas.
Chen Mo finally gave the nod after the fourth draft.
"Mm, although it's not exactly up to par, you've passed," Chen Mo smiled.
Su Jinyu was pleasantly surprised, "Really? That's great!"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, well done, you can get some rest now. I'll make some more adjustments tonight, and I'll send it to you tomorrow when I'm done."
"Alright, thanks for working so hard, boss!" Su Jinyu left work filled with happiness. The four design documents took her almost two weeks to complete before reaching Chen Mo's standard.
Chen Mo was looking for some focal points in the design document. Even if the design document got a pass from him, without focal points, the players wouldn't be happy about it.
He could tell that the ideas she had in the fourth design document used up all her brain juices. Even if she was given more time, there probably wouldn't be a better version.
Moreover, this had been dragged on for quite a while. Chen Mo planned to finish it in two weeks, and it was now beyond that. If it was dragged on any longer, it would affect the progress of the next game, so Chen Mo didn't want to spend too much time waiting.
Chen Mo went to his computer and opened his design document.
In reality, when Su Jinyu was writing the design document again and again, Chen Mo was also writing his own copy. In order to not affect her thoughts, Chen Mo decided not to tell her.
When compared against one another, Su Jinyu's design document was hard to look at. From the UI to the overall functionality, it was clear whose was better.
Chen Mo added the parts from his design document accordingly into Su Jinyu's version, adding annotations explaining his intentions.
As for the other points that didn't make a huge difference, Chen Mo left them as they were.
Chen Mo finally managed to finish after working for the majority of the night. After doing some final adjustments and checking it, Chen Mo was happy with the end product.
As the update for Plants vs Zombies was still based on the same framework, there wasn't a need to generate a new project in the video game engine; it could be done just by making modifications to the existing project.
—
The experience store opened on time early the next day.
Chen Mo yawned and said to Su Jinyu, "I've sent you the design document that I edited. Just add the features accordingly, using the game engine."
"Alright," Su Jinyu nodded.
Chen Mo went back upstairs to catch up on sleep, as he was still tired.
Su Jinyu turned on her laptop and saw how many changes Chen Mo made.
"... he changed so much!"
Su Jinyu was shocked. Not only was the design document twice the size, but looking through the details, seventy percent of it had been modified.
However, Chen Mo didn't delete Su Jinyu's suggestions from before, but inserted the modifications along with some notes.
"A-amazing..." Su Jinyu looked through all of the changes. The UI had all been changed, the features also had a lot of modifications...
As Su Jinyu added them into the game engine while looking through the design document, she couldn't help but feel that her design document was a sham.
"The boss is amazing; how could he make so many changes in one night? That kind of work efficiency is scary!"
Su Jinyu's respect for Chen Mo increased after this.
In reality, Chen Mo already had it done beforehand...
—
After a week, the update for Plants vs Zombies was finally done!
Chen Mo installed it onto the computers in the experience store before anything else, so that Wen Lingwei, Jia Peng, and the others could playtest it for a few days, and let him fix any errors that were present.
When Chen Mo felt that there weren't any more problems, it was submitted onto the official market.
Soon, the players for Plants vs Zombies were downloading one after another when they realized there was now a new 40MB update.
"Hmm? There's a new update for Plants vs Zombies?!"
"Giving updates for a standalone game, how nice!"
"Insane. What's being added in this new update? Is there going to be new plants or zombies?"
"Hey take a look at the description. They've added developer tools and a versus mode!"
"What the? Is that true? I'll go take a look!"
The players were downloading the update as soon as they could. The player discussion forums for Plants vs Zombies also earned it a lot of attention as they were discussing the completely unexpected update.
In the parallel world, standalone games like this usually wouldn't receive updates, as the players wouldn't pay twice, and the game designers didn't want to do something for free, either.
Video game designers in this world hadn't figured out DLC yet!
(Editor Note: DLC = Downloadable Content, first done on large scale for MMO's by Asheron's Call)
Moreover, Plants vs Zombies had been released for just under two months. Although it was still quite popular, the first bunch of players were already sick of the game, despite the continual influx of new players.
Weren't they a little bit too enthusiastic for the new update?
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Chapter 45: Chapter 44 – A Knockoff has Appeared
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Inside the experience store...
Wen Lingwei and Chang Xiuya were battling against Jia Peng and another guy.
"Senior, could you set up a Wallnut here for me?" Chang Xiuya asked.
"How many zombies do you have saved up? Put them over here on my side, let's try and get Xiuya's Cob Cannon," Jia Peng said to his friend.
Chang Xiuya panicked, "Hey, Jia Peng, you can't do that!"
Wen Lingwei remained calm. "Don't worry, I still have two loaded Cob Cannons."
Chang Xiuya screamed all of a sudden, "Ahh!! Jia Peng, why aren't you following your plan? Didn't you say you were going to get my Cob Cannon? Why did you take my Sunflower?"
With Wen Lingwei and the others playing PvP mode, and neither side willing to give up, the experience store was very lively.
Using the developer tools, Su Jinyu was designing new plants and zombies. Of course, she was mainly doing the graphics. Her drawing skills were much better than Chen Mo; she had already drawn three new plants.
The plants she designed had a Chinese theme, namely the Wheat Gatling Gun, Sweet Potato Mine, and Bamboo Wall.
More and more players started playing the game after discovering the social capabilities in the newest update.
Plants vs Zombies had gathered more than eight hundred thousand players in the two months since its release. So far more than half the users were active players, and many of them were starting their own communities in game, resulting in thousands of communities. Many of the communities were small friendship circles where the members were friends or classmates, in order to check on one another's progress.
Some of the bigger fans of Plants vs Zombies had taken a great liking to the developer tools and were trying to make their own mods, in particular the people who were already interested in game design.
So far there were dozens of mods, although most of them were just changes to some of the numbers, such as unlimited sun or increased plant firing speed. Although there were many players, the average playtime for the mods were quite short.
Chen Mo wasn't worried. As the number of mods increased, some higher quality mods were bound to appear as they got filtered by the fans and the algorithm.
The multiplayer had also become a hot topic among the players. Within the communities of Plants vs Zombies, many of the players were sharing their experiences and discussing their strategies. There was even a group of three who managed twenty wins in a row, drawing the interests of many in the community.
The consensus on the other forums about the new update was also quite positive, potentially starting another wave of interest in the game.
"I looked through the developer tools today; this kit is amazing! I'm able to make adjustments to anything I want. Seems like the designer wants us to make anything we want! Now we'll just have to wait for some god-tier modder to develop a beautiful original mod!"
"I thought I already explored everything the game has to offer, it seems that I was too naive... If the new mods keep coming, I might be able to play this for the rest of my life..."
"Respect to the designer. There's nobody else who is making a standalone casual game like this!"
"However, releasing the developer tools means that anyone can look through the numbers of the game. The designer sure is daring!"
"Right? Unlike the other companies that try and keep everything a secret, deathly afraid of someone copying them."
"Yeah, I'm now a fan just based on this developer tool!"
Chen Mo was quite relieved after looking through the player discussions.
He felt that an update receiving praise like this was good enough. As this update significantly lengthened the game's playtime, it was quite likely that Plants vs Zombies would continue to be at the top of the casual puzzle game charts for the next few months.
Out of nowhere, a panic-stricken Su Jinyu said, "Boss, this isn't good!"
"Hmm?" Chen Mo raised his head, "What's wrong?"
Su Jinyu showed him her phone, "Look, this game... copied us!"
Chen Mo took the phone from her hands.
There was some random game from the market, and from the introduction screen you could see that the playstyle was very similar to Plants vs Zombies, five lanes on the left, enemies on the right.
However the artstyle of the game was completely different to Plants vs Zombies. The game was called Lunar Defense. The plot of the game was that the player would put down various high-tech weapons on the moon to defend against an alien insect race.
Although the weapons seemed completely different from the plants, their usage was very similar to the plants in Plants vs Zombies.
For example, the Peashooter was now a Machinegun Turret, Spikeweed was now Electromagnetic Trap, the Sunflower was now a Supply Station, the Cob Cannon was now a Nuclear Missile Launcher.
The looks of the Zombies were also overhauled, changed into various types of aliens. They were all ugly insectoids of various sizes with different methods of attacking, but most of the attacks were reminiscent of zombies.
"What's wrong?" Jia Peng joined in the conversation.
Su Jinyu said, "Look at this! This Lunar Defense game is copying us!"
"What? How can they do that!?"
The others in the store went on their phones and found the game on the market.
Indeed, it didn't take much for the others to recognize that the game was copying Plants vs Zombies. Although they changed the textures, music, and UI, the playstyle was completely identical to Plants vs Zombies.
"I'm gonna give it a bad review!" Jia Peng said angrily.
The others joined in, "Yeah, bad reviews! I'll ask the others in the community to do the same!"
Chen Mo didn't say anything, instead choosing to look at the statistics for the game.
It was released two days ago for free. The rating was extremely low at 2.3, most of the player reviews were one star.
Evidently the players of Plants vs Zombies felt offended by the plagiarism.
The game chose to profit via ads, every time the player beat a level a banner ad would pop up.
Also, there was an ingame currency that could be bought using real money. The player could use that to buy energy supplies (sun in Plants vs Zombies), or up to three revives when they died
The publisher was Sky's Limit Entertainment, designed by some unknown C-grade video game designer.
Sky's Limit Entertainment was barely second class, located at the faraway Magic City. They had also released a few fairly average mobile games before this, none of which did particularly well.
The reviews of the company were quite bad, but because they weren't well known, not many knew about their evil deeds.
Chen Mo only realized what type of company this was after looking at their previous games.
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Chapter 46: Chapter 45 – This Game Won't Get Famous
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Su Jinyu said, "Boss, shouldn't we be suing this company?"
Jia Peng nodded, "Yeah, manager! Send a legal letter!"
Chen Mo shook his head, "There's no need."
Su Jinyu was shocked, "Why? Maybe we should contact a lawyer before you make that decision."
Chen Mo said, "Infringement on things like game rules are very hard to prosecute. In order for it to be a valid lawsuit, it has to have a similar art style, and the design documents for the rules must be extremely similar. If we can't be certain that they plagiarized either of those points, it is an impossible lawsuit.
"Therefore, even if we send them a letter, they would probably just treat it as garbage and toss it away."
Su Jinyu said unhappily, "But this game is way too similar to Plants vs Zombies, anyone with eyes will be able to tell!"
Chen Mo said calmly, "But that isn't enough for them to be convicted."
Su Jinyu was still angry, but there was nothing she could say.
In truth, when Chen Mo was transmigrated into the parallel world, he had already done some research on the video game industry, in particular plagiarism regarding video games. He even looked up some cases on the matter.
It was similar to his previous world. There were two main categories protected by the copyright laws. One was artwork, music, and textual content, the other was the rules of the game, equivalent to the code for a game in the previous world.
These were the two points that would be easy to convict someone of plagiarism on. As soon as there was concrete evidence, the success rate of convictions was extremely high.
Coincidentally, it was very difficult to tell if someone plagiarized the playstyle of the game.
In his previous world, a famous tabletop game called Legends of the Three Kingdoms tried to sue Battle of the Three Kingdoms [1] on the basis that they were being plagiarized.
However, Battle of the Three Kingdoms argued that everything that the designer did, including the direction of the designs, design framework, and the details of the designs that were thought to be related, but were not protected under copyright laws.
From a pure game rules perspective, Battle of the Three Kingdoms argued that Legends of the Three Kingdoms was based on an Italian card game called Bang!, and tried to countersue.
In the end, the case ended and was settled out of court.
There were many more examples like this in his previous world, as referencing and plagiarism was pervasive in the video game industry. Other than a handful of cases with sufficient evidence, most of the plagiarism charges don't amount to anything.
Of course, it wasn't because the law didn't cover them, but because the line between plagiarism and referencing was very blurry.
Even the popular Monument Valley from his previous life had been suspected of plagiarizing ("referencing") Echochrome. [1]
Of course, reference could also be called plagiarism, or in better words, a "descendant", or "honoring".
It was the same in the parallel world. Although most people wanted to support the original and had a better concept of plagiarism, it was equally easy to plagiarize, hard to defend, took a long time for the case to be settled, and it was very difficult to gather evidence. The huge time and money spent were always significantly higher than the gains from the settlement.
Therefore, there were also plenty of examples in the parallel world of plagiarism cases that didn't amount to anything.
Chen Mo skimmed over the contents of Lunar Defense; the artstyle and music were completely redone, with no trace of Plants vs Zombies.
As for the rules, although it was very similar to Plants vs Zombies, it was clear that the designer redid the whole design document themselves, intentionally changing some points to mitigate the risk of a lawsuit.
It could only be said that Sky's Limit Entertainment was probably a repeat offender and knew where the line was, hitting it right on the boundary. Chen Mo knew that if he started a lawsuit, although public opinion was on his side, he wouldn't be able to get anything out of it.
However, this didn't mean there wasn't anything Chen Mo could. This was already in Chen Mo's calculations!
—
Chen Mo downloaded Lunar Defense and went through two levels.
"Don't worry, this game won't get famous," said Chen Mo.
"Huh? Why?" asked Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo handed over the phone to Su Jinyu and said, "You'll know after you try it out."
"Can't get famous? Are you sure?" Wen Lingwei questioned.
Chang Xiuya also nodded, "Yeah, manager. The graphics of the games are quite good. Moreover, it's free."
Chen Mo said firmly, "I'm sure, it won't get anywhere."
Jia Peng said after a few moments, "Then should we still give it bad reviews?"
Chen Mo laughed and said, "Sure, you do you."
As Chen Mo finished, he turned around and retreated upstairs.
"Boss, don't leave yet! You haven't told us why the game isn't going to be popular!" said Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo turned around and said, "I still need to plan out the next game. As for why the game isn't going to be popular, you're a videogame designer now! You should be able to tell."
Chen Mo left. Su Jinyu pouted, unsatisfied, and started playing Lunar Defense. She was quite curious how Chen Mo was so sure that Lunar Defense wasn't going to be popular.
The others were also equally curious.
Jia Peng wasn't convinced. "The manager looks super confident. How can he be so sure the game isn't going to be popular?"
Weng Lingwei said, "Maybe it's the rating. Take a look, everyone is trying to boycott the game. Even if the game was free, who's going to play a game with terrible reviews like this?"
Another guy said, "I think it's because of its profit method. The manager must've considered why he didn't want to use ads as a profit method when he was developing the game.
Jia Peng said hesitantly, "Then... are we still going to give it bad reviews?"
Wen Lingwei said, "Of course! Come, let's all give it bad reviews, we'll uninstall it once we're done!"
Su Jinyu felt that the others made sense, but still felt that Chen Mo had other reasons.
—
Su Jinyu decided to try out Lunar Defense.
First level, the game instructs the player to put down a Supply Station and install a Machinegun Turret to attack the incoming aliens.
Second level, there were new aliens, and a new type of defense equipment was unlocked.
Third level had the same unlocking playstyle.
Su Jinyu wanted to uninstall the game before she even got to the third level.
As it was very similar to Plants vs Zombies, Su Jinyu felt that she was playing a second run of Plants vs Zombies. Much of the content she was already familiar with, so Lunar Defense was dragging her through it with tutorials.
"Weird. The game is so similar to Plants vs Zombies, and the quality of the game seems alright. Why don't I want to continue playing...?" Su Jinyu couldn't help but ponder.
TL Note [1: Two video games popular in China.
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Chapter 47: Chapter 46 – Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's Game
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo looked up the recently published games on the market and what the bigger video game companies were testing when he got back upstairs.
The majority of the larger companies would have their unreleased games in their experience stores. As long as they were finished, even if they hadn't been released on the market, there would be rumors floating around.
Chen Mo managed to find a playtest video on Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's new game, called Guardian of the Holy Spring.
-Hmm? Emperor Dynasty Entertainment has joined in? I should probably pay attention to this as it was released by Entertainment Dynasty Entertainment.-
Chen Mo played the video, investigating the game more deeply.
—
As a new innovative game became popular, a wave of similarly-styled games would obviously follow suit.
Plants vs Zombies had been trendy for two months; if there were other video game designers who wanted to make a knockoff, two months would be more than enough.
Chen Mo was prepared for such an event, but didn't think it would come so soon.
Plants vs Zombies could be viewed as a descendant of Tower Defense games, but it's popularity had surpassed most such games, likely because it required more strategic planning.
It wasn't a difficult task for the video game designers in this world to identify why Plants vs Zombies was so popular. Any C-grade video game designer would be able to replicate it as long as they didn't care about the opinions of others.
Lunar Defense was a game like that, a game with terrible reviews. An unknown video game designer was able to replicate it in two months.
The thought process of Lunar Defense was clear; utilizing the fact that it was free, it would pick up any players that didn't get into Plants vs Zombies and sell ads to make a profit.
They targeted the players that didn't want to spend money on the game, or the ones who were already bored of Plants vs Zombies.
However, Chen Mo didn't care, as he knew that their thought process was bound to fail!
There were three main reasons.
First, because the video game designers lacked skill, they were afraid to make any changes to the rules of Plants vs Zombies, just in case they removed any of the focal points. That mindset resulted in them essentially making a carbon copy.
It meant that most of the Plants vs Zombies players wouldn't play through it. If it were the same as the original, why not play the original?
Moreover, the first few levels on Lunar Defense had tutorials. This would greatly affect the players who were already bored of Plants vs Zombies, as they didn't have the patience to sit through the tutorial again.
Second, games like this weren't suited to be free!
No matter if it was ads or top-up service, it didn't look good in the eyes of the players. Compared to Plants vs Zombies, the only thing Lunar Defense would get would be bad reviews.
Third, the playstyle, mechanics and level design of Plants vs Zombies worked very well with the artwork. If the artwork were changed, it would make the game feel disjointed.
This resulted in many players not liking the Lunar Defense, but they were unable to pinpoint why they didn't like it. Because they changed plants into defense systems and zombies into aliens, it affected the mindsets of the players, which greatly affected their mood when they played the game.
Therefore, Chen Mo didn't bat an eye at Lunar Defense. The game was doomed from the start, and would only be flooded by the bad reviews from the players. It might not even be able to recover their costs!
It was a classic example of failing at cheating!
After Sky's Limit Entertainment with Lunar Defense, several other smaller companies came out with Plants vs Zombies knockoffs. However, Chen Mo could tell at first glance that their quality was even worse than Lunar Defense and they would end up being laughingstocks, so there was no need to be alarmed.
The only thing that bothered Chen Mo was Guardian of the Holy Spring, developed by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
The designer was Qiu Bin, a B-grade video game designer working under Emperor Dynasty Entertainment. They had a few successful games before this one.
From the video, Guardian of the Holy Spring had many similar features to Plants vs Zombies, but calling plagiarism might be too much, as many points only seemed similar on the surface.
Guardian of the Holy Spring didn't have five straight lanes in Plants vs Zombies, but had hills and valleys, and what seemed like a fence.
The players needed to place different defense mechanisms around the Holy Spring, such as magic wards, crystal towers, dragon's nests, and army camps, in order to defend against the demons.
Guardian of the Holy Spring had also made an effort to differentiate itself from Plants vs Zombies in areas such as the abilities of the troops, level difficulty, and playstyle. There were only a handful of features that overlapped with Plants vs Zombies.
If someone said that Guardian of the Holy Spring copied Plants vs Zombies, there would probably be a large number of fans defending it.
Being able to copy something only in essence, but not looks, was the highest form of copying.
Moreover, with so many things changed, it might be a stretch to call it copying, as the core of combat was also changed.
But it was obvious that the game took inspiration from Plants vs Zombies, and the source of entertainment from the game was similar to Plants vs Zombies.
Chen Mo predicted that this game's achievements certainly wouldn't be bad. With the promotions done by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, it wouldn't be surprising if it managed to beat Plants vs Zombies.
That was the power of having different channels.
However, the game was still in the early stages of testing. According to Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, it was about three months away from release.
The reason it needed so much time to develop was because it needed to include a lot of extra content. They probably had considered that the players might think they were copying Plants vs Zombies, and took the precaution to add different playstyles and content to dampen that feeling.
This was an indication for Chen Mo that he needed to pick up his pace.
Although this 'copying' incident wasn't a threat to Chen Mo, it proved one thing: the video game industry in the parallel world was the same as his previous world, keen and shameless! Maybe even better in some aspects!
Even though Plants vs Zombies had only been online for two months, many companies had managed to create their own bootlegs, much faster than companies in his previous world.
Just as Sky's Limit Entertainment's Lunar Defense managed to find a new niche by making it free, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was able to use its huge user base, 'referencing' Plants vs Zombies and claiming it as their own.
It was evident that the video game companies weren't just sitting ducks, but hungry wolves that didn't have access to great ideas.
As soon as they found these ideas, all the advantages Chen Mo had would be taken away!
He knew that this was the time to make the next game!
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Chapter 48: Chapter 47 – Spin Ten, Again and Again
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo had already shortlisted a few games for his next release, but he hadn't decided on which one.
There were plenty of games that could be considered classics from the previous world, but not all of them would do well in this world.
Chen Mo could continue down the path of high quality indie games as the speculators were predicting, but Chen Mo knew that it wasn't the best path.
The reason was simple: how many Plants vs Zombies were there in the previous world?
The video game designers in this world thought that Plants vs Zombies would bring a new wave of casual games, but Chen Mo knew that the success of Plants vs Zombies could not be replicated, and games like that could not be produced in large quantities.
Moreover, Chen Mo had gained plenty in both fame and money, and will now be able to test the limits of the players in this world!
If Chen Mo only relied on the high quality games from his previous world, it would be highly unlikely that he could ever hope to reach the same level of titans like Emperor Dynasty Entertainment or Zen Entertainment.
Right now, Chen Mo only had one goal in mind: make money and top-up!
A new wave of players were brought into Plants vs Zombies after the new update was released, reaching nine hundred thousand downloads. It was only a matter of time before he reached one million.
The income from the app store came monthly, therefore Chen Mo had only received the money for five hundred thousand copies. After the market's cut and tax, he had about 2.8 million RMB.
Normally people would be spending that money on cars and houses, and perhaps rubbing it in the faces of the people born with silver spoons who looked down on others.
However, Chen Mo didn't have that in mind at all.
Buying properties? The experience store was quite cozy.
Buying cars? Oh, Chen Mo didn't even have his license. Moreover, you'd need to register your license plate if you bought a car. And to register the license plate, you'd need an account...
Whatever, don't think about things like this.
After giving it some thought Chen Mo decided to top-up 2.7 million RMB into his bracelet as it was close to the end of the month, meaning that the money from the app store would be transferred soon. This left a hundred thousand and change to spare.
If nothing went wrong for the next month, 2.5 million RMB would be transferred into his account. However he wouldn't be able to spend that money on spins, but would save it for something else.
"Alright, make me stronger by topping up!"
Chen Mo did his before-spin ritual, washing his face and hands. He then used the Lucky Capsule he received from his last draw.
Lucky Capsule: Drastically increase luck. Lasts for ten minutes.
Chen Mo didn't feel any different, but he might've imagined a "my luck just got better" kind of feeling.
Without further delay, Chen Mo started drawing, as the effect only lasts for ten minutes.
Chen Mo felt like a tycoon when looking at his twenty-seven-million points.
"How can I keep the wonderful feeling of topping up and drawing prizes to myself? I must let the others experience this in my next game."
With such a "noble" idea in mind, Chen Mo tapped on the Spin Ten button repeatedly.
Twenty-seven-million points was enough for twenty-seven Spin Tens. He didn't show any hesitation, as he had to finish drawing in the next ten minutes. Suppressing his curiosity for the prizes he drew, he focused on spending all his points on spinning.
Clack, clack...
As the wheel spun, new equipment was being drawn. Chen Mo didn't care, and continued tapping with his eyes closed.
However long the wheel spun didn't matter, but Chen Mo finally opened his eyes when the wheel stopped spinning.
He took a look at the time. -Wow, this whole process took five minutes.-
Chen Mo felt that a teenage girl at a mall with no concept of money, filled with hurt and happiness.
"Let's see what we drew..." Chen Mo nervously looked at the equipment menu on the virtual screen.
Designer Skill Books: 135
Special Skill Books: 81
Special Equipment: 54
After consuming a few coding books, Chen Mo's coding skills were now alright and his sense for code was now sharper.
He noticed something when looking at the number of skill books. "Hmm? This number..."
Without using the Lucky Capsule, the Designer Skill Books, Special Skill Books, and Special Equipment were approximately in the ratio of 7: 2: 1. That was what he had gathered from the previous ten Spins.
Of course, this time luck was on his side. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be surprising if he got 9: 0: 1.
After he used the Lucky Capsule, they showed up in a ratio of 5: 3: 2. The rewards he got from draws during the effect of the Lucky Capsule were much better!
Of course, the Lucky Capsule didn't infinitely increase his luck and present him with Special Equipment every single draw. It seemed 5: 3: 2 was the best ratio he could get.
Moreover, when the Lucky Capsule was in effect, you could even draw another Lucky Capsule. Clearly it was something that the system had in mind.
"Not bad, this Lucky Capsule was pretty worth it!"
Chen Mo was quite satisfied. If he drew anything less than what he did this time, it would've been quite wasteful of the Lucky Capsule!
—
Next was checking the description of the Equipment.
Designer Skill Books, 135 in total. Of those, forty-seven were coding books, thirty-nine were level design books, and twenty-two were system books.
Special Skill Books, 81 in total.
Original Art Books, 34; every book gave 1.
3D Art, 33; every book gave 1.
Music and Audio Effects, 10; every book gave 1.
Storyboard Skill Book, 4. The first book gave 10, every subsequent book gave 1.
Special Equipment, 54 in total. 47 were Memory Playback Potions, 1 Anger Interferer, 6 Super Accelerators.
"Hmm?" Chen Mo rubbed his eyes, thinking he misread.
There was something out of place among the Special Skill Books: the Storyboarding[2] Skill Book.
-What is this even?-
Chen Mo had a vague idea of what a storyboard was. It referred to drawings that would represent the structure of a movie or animation, before it was shot or drawn. It would detail each shot, specifying the cinematic techniques, duration, dialogue, etc.
Chen Mo was surprised, as he didn't expect to draw something like that.
However he thought it through quite quickly. As it was categorized with the Special Skill Books, he wouldn't be surprised if he drew a book on martial arts!
"Mm, it's actually quite useful. I should be able to use it when making CG![1]" Chen Mo said, comforting himself.
Chen Mo had also noticed that every Special Skill Book, such as Original Art or Music, if they were abilities that had not been unlocked yet, the first book always gave 10, with any subsequent ones giving 1.
There was also the Special Equipment. Chen Mo drew two new ones this time: Anger Interferencer, and Super Accelerator!
TL Note:
[1] Computer graphics
[2] I've used storyboarding before to refer to plot writing, but this time they decided to add a proper storyboarding skill (like the actual act of drawing storyboards), I'll refer to the former as plot writing in the future.
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Chapter 49: Chapter 48 – Why is There an Argument?
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Anger Interferer: used against someone other than the user. After activation, the target will enter a state of anger, having a higher chance of making bad choices. Lasted for fifteen minutes.
Super Accelerator: affects the user. Upon activation, work efficiency is increased to triple normal, lasts for eight hours. After use, the user will need to sleep for ten hours to relieve fatigue. Should be used at most once every three days, otherwise there might be consequences!
"Super Accelerator? Not bad. I could probably use it when I'm behind on work. But what use does this Anger Interferer have? Can I make someone beat me up by making them angry, then extort them for money?...
"Whatever, I'll save it for now..."
Chen Mo didn't have any current need for these special items, but drawing a bunch of Memory Playback Potions was a lifesaver. He wouldn't need to strain himself like he did last time in the future.
He didn't want to bother with the Designer Skill Books, and consumed them one after another.
After consuming them, Chen Mo estimated that his coding and level design skills that were quite weak before were now around seventy, and his system skills were probably around ninety.
His plot writing skills were even higher, and probably almost maxed!
Of course, these numbers were Chen Mo's assessment of himself, there weren't any concrete numbers.
—
As he consumed his last Plot Writing book, there was a pop-up on the screen! The system detects that your Plot Writing skills are maxed out. Would you like to enter the next level?
Chen Mo was shocked. -What is this?-
He clicked on the confirm button. Another pop up appeared: Entered the second level, now ready.
There was another line of small print at the bottom: Maxing out the first level of Plot Writing means that you still need to satisfy the needs of plot writing in games. Please continue to work hard!
Chen Mo read over the sentence three times and finally got a vague idea of what it meant.
"I think the one responsible for the writing in the system must've been drunk..." he muttered.
This sentence actually meant that Chen Mo's Story Writing skills were full for the first level, which was only enough for the plots of simpler games.
For example, Chen Mo might want to make a visual novel. If he already had the vocabulary and the script, he could better fill in the dialogue between characters, and set the scenes better. However, it would be impossible if he wanted to write out the story for a classic game!
The second level of Plot Writing focused on that point.
Chen Mo put his hand to his forehead. "It seems that I was quite naive. The road is much longer than I thought. To think that I believed I could max out all my Stats with ten million RMB..."
—
After regaining his composure, Chen Mo consumed the rest of the Special Skill Books.
Chen Mo's Original Art, 3D Art, and Music and Sound Effects States had now been raised considerably.
As soon as he was done, another pop-up appeared on the virtual screen.
The system detects that you have entered the second level for one or more Stats. You can now view your actual abilities.
Chen Mo was shocked. "Hmm? Did I unlock new functionalities?"
Chen Mo's various Stats now appeared on the virtual screen. Previously, these Stats weren't visible, so Chen Mo had to guess what they were. Now he finally had access to the actual numbers!
Systems: 93
Coding: 72
Level Design: 71
Plot Writing: 100 (Entered Level 2)
Original Art: 53
3D Art: 35
Animation: 10
Music and Audio Effects: 20
Storyboarding: 13
These numbers were Chen Mo's true abilities, including what Chen Mo learned in his previous life, and the growth from the books he had consumed from the bracelet.
The stats from the Game Engine on Chen Mo were as so:
Chen Mo: Videogame Designer (C-grade)
Creativity: 49
Systems: 30
Coding: 48
Level Designer: 53
Plot Writing: 15
Original Art: 36
3D Art: 1
Monthly Resources Quota: 0/1.6GB
These stats were analyzed by the video game engine, which meant the skills that Chen Mo had shown from his work so far.
After releasing Plants vs Zombies, Chen Mo's ratings had increased. His Creativity, Coding, and Level Design had all been increased substantially!
Moreover, following the explosive growth of Plants vs Zombies, Chen Mo had been upgraded to a C-grade video game designer.
As for the monthly quota, it was something that didn't matter anymore to him, as he now scorned the free resources included. However, they were still alright as placeholders.
Chen Mo felt quite relaxed after spending so much money on his top-ups.
Chen Mo now had many choices for his next game, even some Chinese Pay To Win games were now on the list.
However, when there were so many choices it became a burden. Chen Mo couldn't make up his mind that late at night, so he decided to take a rest.
—
At 8:30 AM the second day, Chen Mo was woken up by the ringing of his phone.
As Chen Mo opened his heavy eyelids, he saw that the phone call was from Su Jinyu.
"Hello? What's up? Do you need some leave?" asked Chen Mo.
Su Jinyu said in a worried voice, "No, not at all. You should go online right now. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment are making a game called Guardian of the Holy Spring, and it seems like they copied Plants vs Zombies!"
Chen Mo shuffled around in bed into a more comfortable position, "Yep, I know. Wasn't there a playtest video released two days ago? I saw it yesterday."
Su Jinyu said, "Not just that, the Weibo of the designer of Guardian of the Holy Spring is being attacked by our players. Many fans of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment retaliated, bringing you into the mix! You probably should check your Weibo now."
"Huh?" Chen Mo finally sat up. -How could something like that happen?-
Chen Mo washed himself and went on his computer.
Indeed, his Weibo had been attacked by the fans of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment. He had a few thousand comments under his newest Weibo, with two people in particular having a heated argument.
Chen Mo spent a good twenty minutes trying to understand the gist of the situation.
It had all started from the video Chen Mo saw yesterday.
A player secretly recorded that video when he was playing in the Emperor Dynasty experience store and uploaded it to the internet.
The video had been out for three days, and was discovered by a few diehard fans of Plants vs Zombies. As they had a strong sense of righteousness, they went straight to Qiu Bin, the designer of Guardian of the Holy Spring's Weibo, and started going at him with some intense wording.
"Hehe, how could Emperor Dynasty Entertainment miss out on following trends and copying games. Dogs will continue to eat shit."
"Sure enough, a Plants vs Zombies bootleg was released in no time. I'm impressed by the work efficiency of Your Highness."
"Plagiarizing dog. A B-grade video game designer nonetheless. He really is focused on making money in exchange for his dignity!"
These comments received a lot of responses, and gained popularity soon after.
Qiu Bin didn't say anything, but as a B-grade videogame designer and one who was working within Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, he had a huge amount of fans behind him, with plenty of brain-dead fans.
Upon seeing that Qiu Bin was being attacked, they retaliated without hesitation!
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Chapter 50: Chapter 49 – Emperor Dynasty Entertainment? So What?
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
"Where did this drama queen come from? Don't talk smack if you haven't played it. It's so obvious that it's two different games. Who's your copying Plants vs Zombies*?*
"You should see an optometrist, even your perspective on the world is not normal. How is this plagiarism?"
"Hah, it's plagiarism when the playstyle has a tiny bit in common? Then wouldn't Plants vs Zombies be copying Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's Fantasy Tower Defense*? They are both tower defense games, after all."*
"What's good about a rabid dog biting others? Did your owner make you a promise?"
"What level is Emperor Dynasty Entertainment on? What level are the developers of your Plants vs Zombies*? Emperor Dynasty Entertainment copying you? You're just trying to leech of Emperor Dynasty's popularity!"*
"Hehe, sure Plants vs Zombies is a good game, but you can't be so illogical about this. Can nobody else make a game of a similar genre?"
Soon, the arguments between the two of them got more and more intense. People were gathering others from their community to fight for their side, and it became a war between two sides.
The arguments got more and more intense as the two of them argued throughout the night. When dawn came along, Chen Mo was dragged into it.
Both sides were really into it. Many fans of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment who had lost their sense of logic were also insulting Chen Mo. His Weibo had plenty of comments now!
"A few hundred people looking for trouble in a few hours. I refuse to believe there wasn't someone behind them. So who's that scheming dog?"
"Brother, just focus on designing games, stop trying to make everything you do viral."
"Stop trying to create all this drama about you. You've only made one game, so you better pay your seniors more respect, understood?"
"Brother, you should probably say something soon. You still have time to distance yourself from the others. If you keep your mouth shut, you don't have anyone to blame for being in the crossfire."
Chen Mo scowled. -What does this mean? Why can you call my players idiots?-
Before this, Chen Mo was quite open to this type of copying, as he had seen this many times in his previous life. Furthermore, Chen Mo wasn't a special snowflake, and was already mentally prepared.
-Being targeted? That was nothing. But there are guys taking advantage of the situation and insulting my players! How can I continue holding back?
-Just because I've been nice, doesn't mean I'm not going to do anything!-
Chen Mo sent out a Weibo: I didn't want to pay attention to this, and you guys thought you could just walk all over me? The video game designers haven't said anything, so what are you guys arguing about? @Qiu Bin, say something!
The discussions underneath the post exploded as soon as it was sent.
The players of Plants vs Zombies were all quite tired after fighting throughout the night, so most of them didn't have a good night's sleep. This Weibo was undoubtedly a stimulant for his fans.
If the players had been fighting hard for Plants vs Zombies, but the designer just wanted to settle things the peaceful way, how disappointing would that be? Luckily Chen Mo wasn't a sissy. So what if it's Emperor Dynasty Entertainment?
The fans of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment were also shocked; hot-headed people like him still existed?
They even forgot to retaliate immediately!
—
The Weibo was all over the place as soon as it was posted. Many video game industry professionals were starting to notice.
Within an hour, Chen Mo received DMs from other video game designers, one of whom was from Qiu Hengyang: Emperor Dynasty Entertainment is the biggest channel and the biggest developer. There's no point trying to go head to head against them. Delete the Weibo and give it a rest, no need to be so stubborn.
It was very clear what Qiu Hengyang meant.
Why would he explicitly mention that Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was the biggest channel? In the video game industry, channels like these held the most power! Even if your game was terrible, as long as the channels are willing to promote your game, you would probably still make money. Even if your game was good and the channels had you boycotted, you would only be able to have your game on the official app store, and might only get a tenth of the sales possible.
Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was the biggest gaming platform in China; what kind of video game designer would want to offend them?
Therefore, Qiu Hengyang's reminder only meant well.
Chen Mo replied: Can I ask you something? You're not brothers with that Qiu Bin guy, right?
Qiu Hengyang answered: Nonsense! We just happen to have the same last name!
Chen Mo replied: That's great, now just watch how I'll get at him.
Qiu Hengyang responded: ... Maybe you have your own plans, but I still have to say, keep calm!
The other DMs were similar in spirit, advising Chen Mo to not be so stubborn and go head to head with Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
Of course, there were plenty others in Chen Mo's DMs attacking him, but Chen Mo had filtered all of it out of his vision.
—
Another half an hour passed, Qiu Bin's Weibo was still the same.
Maybe he was still asleep? That was impossible; even if he wasn't awake, someone must've called him.
It was clear that by not saying anything, Qiu Bin didn't want to respond.
In reality, everyone in the industry could tell that Guardian of the Holy Spring took inspiration from Plants vs Zombies. But this kind of referencing wasn't even close to plagiarizing. He would probably get some flak, which would be quite normal.
However, if Qiu Bin came out and said that he wasn't copying, he would just become a laughingstock.
Therefore, the best move was to not say anything and keep quiet until all this was over so he could sell his game and make money.
It was fine as long as it didn't affect the sales. So what if the players were attacking him? Qiu Bin and Emperor Dynasty Entertainment weren't losing anything!
"Tsk, you're quite good at playing dead."
If it was some newbie on the receiving end, they probably would've cracked. But evidently Qiu Bin had experience under his belt and was quite composed.
"Don't be like that, if you don't say anything, how can I lead you into my trap?"
Chen Mo was going to seize this opportunity, baiting Qiu Bin into having an argument, and leading Emperor Dynasty Entertainment into his trap as well, paving the way for the next games. However, Qiu Bin didn't take the bait, and kept it all under control.
It would be easier to mess with someone with a simple mind, like Shi Huazhe, but Qiu Bin and Emperor Dynasty Entertainment wouldn't be manipulated that easily. Furthermore, they were on completely different levels than Chen Mo. Even if they wanted to start something, it wouldn't look good.
"I have to try and make him say something."
Chen Mo wasn't saying it because he could; he was taking the opportunity to get what he wanted through a "friendly bet with good intentions".
If Qiu Bin didn't want to say anything, there was nothing Chen Mo could do.
Chen Mo took out the Anger Interferer from his bracelet and used it on Qiu Bin.
"Come on, play along with me and say something."
Anger Interferer consumed.
Chen Mo still hadn't receivef a reply from Qiu Bin after one minute.
"Did it fail? Impossible. Maybe I just lack firepower."
Chen Mo sent another Weibo: @Qiu Bin. Brother, you're from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, you can't just admit defeat.
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Almighty Video Game Designer #Chapter 51 - Read Almighty Video Game Designer Chapter 51 Online - All Page - Novel Next
Chapter 51: Chapter 50: High Stakes
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Everyone was shocked when Chen Mo sent that Weibo.
What was he trying to do? Was he seriously going for the chase? This Chen Mo fellow wasn't leaving himself any room to retreat!
It's rare to see someone like him who was always looking for a fight. Moreover, his opponent was Emperor Dynasty Entertainment!
The supporters of Qiu Bin started quitting the battle.
-We are here arguing with the players of Plants vs Zombies, and Qiu Bin isn't going to say anything?-*
-Look at Chen Mo, he's tried to draw blood twice!-
This was like a war in the olden times with two sides. On one side, the general was talking smack, saying anything that he wanted. But the general of the other side didn't even dare respond?
That would surely reduce morale!
The disappointed fans stopped arguing and went to Chen Mo's DMs.
"Hey, could you say something, Mr Qiu Bin!"
"Mr Qiu Bin, he said he was copying you. Attacking him!"
"Mr. Qiu Bin, you can't just stay silent at times like this. This really hurts us, your long time supporters."
"Could it be that Guardian of the Holy Spring did copy Plants vs Zombies?"
—
Qiu Bin finally cracked.
He planned to turn off Weibo, out of sight, out of mind, after all. But an unexplained anger came from inside him, and he couldn't resist the urge to go back on Weibo.
As soon as he turned it on, all the messages that he missed came at him at once. Chen Mo's Weibo in particular made him extremely angry.
-What are you trying to say? You think you're a big deal now? You may be in the right, but you should know your place! You're quite brave to be challenging someone from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment!
-Alright, I'm going all out today!-
Qiu Bin's hands were trembling from anger, and he sent a Weibo in reply: I don't have time to fight with some nobody videogame designer like you, as I'm quite busy. Though your efforts at finding trouble are quite admirable, if I didn't know who you were I would've thought you were some hotshot in the industry. I heard your game did pretty well, five hundred thousand sales in the first month, right? And you're quite cocky because of it, right? If I got five hundred thousand sales in the first month I would be too ashamed to talk to the others in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
His fans were happy when this extensive yet classy Weibo was sent.
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He was right! Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was the biggest channel with copious amounts of users. Five hundred thousand sales in the first month wasn't much for Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
"Nice one Mr Qiu Bin!"
"A heavy hit! Keep going at him!"
His supporters were leaving comments under his Weibo in support.
Chen Mo laughed, as what Qiu Bin said was quite classy.
Qiu Bin avoided the topic of copying and went straight to his identity to threaten Chen Mo. Although what he said about sales was a bit stretched, Chen Mo couldn't say anything in retaliation.
However, Chen Mo didn't mind, as his plan wasn't to argue with him. He just wanted him to reply!
From Chen Mo's perspective, Qiu Bin wasn't his rival, but just a stepping stone in his plans!
However he still had to play out the rival part, so Qiu Bin would take the bait.
Chen Mo replied: I don't think there's a point to arguing. How about this? Since you're quite confident, let's make a bet!
The spectators were shocked. What, again?
Many of the people involved remembered the bet between Chen Mo and Shi Huazhe. He said confidently that Chen Mo's first game would never reach a hundred thousand. The result of that was that he hadn't been on Weibo for more than a month.
Qiu Bin was also shocked, but he couldn't back off now, and replied: What are we betting on?
Chen Mo responded: Aren't you confident in your game? How about this, I'll make a game too, and we'll release it at the same time. Are you on?
Qiu Bin was confused. What did he mean?
Number of sales in the first month? : Qiu Bin asked.
Chen Mo replied: No, profit from the first month.
Qiu Bin was surprised by Chen Mo's answer and thought he misread it.
-First month's profit? Isn't that a death sentence?- In reality, it didn't matter if it was sales or profit, Qiu Bin wasn't afraid. He had Emperor Dynasty Entertainment behind him!*
As long as Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was willing to promote Guardian of the Holy Spring, sales and profit would always be a respectable number.
As for Chen Mo? It was fine if he wanted to bet using Plants vs Zombies, but competing using a new game?
Did he actually think that he was a video game-making genius, where everything he made went viral?
Qiu Bin snickered.-It seems like the success of Plants vs Zombies has warped Chen Mo's perspective.-
It was very easy to fail in the industry. However, after borrowing inspiration from Plants vs Zombies, adding his own twist to it, plus strong amounts of advertising... Even if the game wasn't going viral, the results would still be decent!
-What can Chen Mo's new game do? Unless he also has his own new ideas, but how can he guarantee his success every time?-
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Qiu Bin felt that there was no way he could lose.
Qiu Bin replied: First month's profit? Sure, if you're down to lose, I'm down to play. What are the stakes?
Chen Mo said: If you lose, you'll promote my game on the Promoted This Month section on Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's front page for a month, for free.
Qiu Bin scowled.
Promoted This Month was the best space for promotion on the Emperor Dynasty Entertainment channel, they never gave the space to games from other channels. It was a spot reserved for a few A and S-grade video game designers within Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
Moreover, a whole month?
Qiu Bin answered: I don't have that kind of power.
Chen Mo replied: I know you don't have that power, but you're still a B-grade video game designer. You must know someone who does inside Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, right? Try to make it happen, I believe in you.
If Qiu Bin begged Lin Chaoxu, the Chairman of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment himself, he might be able to get that spot. But he wouldn't have any dignity left.
If he lost a bet against a C-grade video game designer and a promotional space belonging to Emperor Dynasty Entertainment? How could he bring himself to ask for that space from his higher-ups?
Qiu Bin was about to explode from all the pent-up anger. Chen Mo was too confident, did he not treat Qiu Bin as a threat at all?
Qiu Bin didn't believe he could lose!
He didn't believe in otherworldly forces, either. -How could Chen Mo attack me like that? How could he be so confident?-
Qiu Bin replied: Alright, if I lose, I'll get you that promoted space! What if you lose? Can you give me a promoted space?
Chen Mo gave it some thought. If the bet wasn't big enough, Qiu Bin wouldn't accept it, but he didn't have anything that would be comparable to the promoted space of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
Chen Mo quickly replied: If I lose, I'll spend time outside the Emperor Dynasty Entertainment building crossdressed!
This shocked all the spectators.
Wow, these guys sure know how to make it entertaining!
In the end, you're still a videogame designer, can't you have some integrity?
Qiu Bin decided to accept: Alright! I'll be waiting for you in four month's time!
Chen Mo replied swiftly: No problem, get the promotional spot ready!
—
After Chen Mo sent that Weibo, he checked his watch: his fifteen minutes had just ran out.
-Me losing? Don't be silly!-
Why did Chen Mo want to anger him and start a bet? To prove himself? No!
Chen Mo didn't mind others copying him, much less tearing each other up because of it. He didn't see anything meaningful in that.
What he was really after was the promotional space, and the publicity it would bring his game from the attention it got.
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Chapter 52: Chapter 51: New Game Decided
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
As Qiu Bin slowly calmed down, he was surprised at what he had posted on his Weibo.
"I was being too impulsive. What's wrong with me today? Why couldn't I just keep it in?"
Qiu Bin's regret was settling in, but what was done had been done. Promises were made, Weibos were posted. There were tens of thousands of fans as witnesses, so it was too late to take it back.
The news would probably be written into articles and posted by various video game media companies. When the time came, the whole video game industry might have their eyes on this incident, and it might gain even more traction after that.
"Geez, that wasn't smart!" Qiu Bin had never been the hot-headed type. If he was still full of zeal at thirty-something, why would he make a game like Guardian of the Holy Spring?
He knew better than anyone else that his game took inspiration from Plants vs Zombies in many ways. If he had been thinking clearly from the start to end, he wouldn't have responded to Chen Mo.
The main problem was that if this incident did gain traction, even though Chen Mo did have a stake in this matter, he was benefiting from this no matter what!
It was a similar situation between Chen Mo and Shi Huazhe, bringing a lot of attention to Plants vs Zombies. The fight this time was much fiercer than the last, it was practically promoting Chen Mo's next game!
Qiu Bin had always been timid and cautious, so this matter caused him some distress.
-Why was Chen Mo so confident? Was he that certain?-
Out of nowhere, Qiu Bin's mobile phone rang. It was from Lin Chaoxu, the Chairman of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment!
Qiu Bin was shocked; how did this matter reach his boss so quickly?!
Qiu Bin carefully picked up his phone. "Hello. Mr. Lin. About the bet between me and Chen Mo, I..."
Qiu Bin wanted to explain himself, but Lin Chaoxu interrupted him in the middle of his sentence. "You did well on that," said Lin Chaoxu.
Qiu Bin was shocked, "Sorry?"
Lin Chaoxu laughed, "This Chen Mo guy planned this quite extensively. I don't think it was because he was trying to prove something, but he was trying to borrow some of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's fame to promote his own game. However, won't an argument like this promote Guardian of the Holy Spring, too?
"Make your game as good as possible before April, add some more features if you can! Emperor Dynasty Entertainment will promote your game when the time comes!
"Your response to Chen Mo was very firm, not dropping any of the company's face. I was actually quite worried that you wouldn't respond, because you are usually quite meek. Remember, only we, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, bully others. Nobody ever bullies us! If anyone isn't happy, we will destroy them!"
His speech had gotten Qiu Bin's heart racing, and he replied, "Understood, Mr Lin!"
Lin Chaoxu replied, "Mm, give it your all. Don't worry about the aftermath. You're a part of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, and we never lose. Understood?"
Qiu Bin, his emotions filled to the brim, replied, "Yes, Mr Lin!"
Upon hanging up, Qiu Bin's worries turned into happiness. Not only did Lin Chaoxu not hound him for making bets without permission, but actually praised him. What did this say about the situation?
Lin Chaoxu's attitude was clear. First, so what if the game was copied, that didn't matter! Using the sheer power that Emperor Dynasty Entertainment possessed, they could do anything they wanted. Everyone else had to bend over, even if they weren't happy. As a videogame designer at Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, you could never back down from situations like this!
Second, Chen Mo wanted to use this opportunity for publicity, but Guardian of the Holy Spring could also seize this opportunity to raise the game. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment could support him and lift the game to the skies, allowing them to benefit from it as well!
As for the bet, it can only be said that Chen Mo had lost his marbles. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was the biggest channel in China. If they wanted to promote Guardian of the Holy Spring, what could Chen Mo do to counter that?
Chen Mo had no chance of winning this bet!
After some thinking, Qiu Bin turned his worries into a reason to celebrate. He was happy that something came over him and made him take the bet.
Qiu Bin made up his mind, "Alright, I'm not going anywhere for the next four months, and I will spend all that time on Guardian of the Holy Spring. There's no way that Chen Mo can beat me with all that support from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment behind me!"
—
On the other side of the bet, Chen Mo had received multiple phone calls.
Lin Mao, Zhao zihao, Su Jinyu all called asking why Chen Mo had lost his cool. The bet was so one-sided that he basically wrote his own death sentence!
Chen Mo however, was very calm.
The experience store opened as usual, and Su Jinyu was already waiting at the doors.
"Boss, you've been too rash! I didn't know that you were someone so hot-headed!" Su Jinyu exclaimed in worry.
Chen Mo opened his arms. "Geez, didn't we go through this on the phone? I wasn't being rash, I was prepared for that!"
Su Jinyu said, "What have you prepared to go head to head with Emperor Dynasty Entertainment?"
Chen Mo replied without a total lack of concern, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you."
"@#%*%*(*%!!!" was Su Jiny's response.
Chen Mo tossed her a can of coffee, "Alright. It's no big deal. We start developing the game today. If there isn't anything important, don't take leaves for the next four developmental months."
Su Jinyu was happily surprised, "Really? Do you have the draft for your next game done?"
Chen Mo shook his head, "No, I haven't written down a single word."
Su Jinyu facepalmed. "Boss, can you act more reasonably?"
Chen Mo replied, "Alright, don't panic. I'll give you your tasks tomorrow."
"Alright," Su Jinyu sat down at the bar table reluctantly, "Make it quick, boss! We only have four months!"
"I know, I know." Chen Mo said, waving his hand as he retreated back to the second floor.
"Who knows if he can actually manage," Su Jinyu muttered under her breath, "It's crazy someone as undependable as him was the designer of Plants vs Zombies..."
—
Back in his office, Chen Mo wasn't rushing to start his design document, but instead chose to launch a drawing app.
As Chen Mo's art skills were decent now, after half an hour of sketching and adjusting, a classic character from his previous life appeared on his computer screen.
It was a silly-looking minotaur.
It looked quite cute with it's massive head and tiny limbs. It had two massive eyes, and thick eyebrows. It was quite serious in expression, yet dumb and cute. It had tiny ears and horns, and a massive nose ring on its trapezoidal face.
This was a cute drawing of a minotaur, yet it didn't feel childish.
Chen Mo looked at the drawing, thinking it was missing something. After some thinking, he added three dots underneath its eyes.
"Yep, that's about right," Chen Mo nodded.
This silly cow was a classic character from his previous life called MT!
That's right, Chen Mo's next game was a card game that had been popular nationwide, called I Am MT.
In his previous world, I Am MT would've been outdated and most people would've already been sick of it. However, in the parallel world, the gamers didn't yet know the genre called "Chinese card games".
Chen Mo was sure of the plan Qiu Bin and Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had.
The play style and inspiration for Guardian of the Holy Spring was based on Plants vs Zombies, therefore Chen Mo had a certain expectation of the profitability of the game.
Even if Guardian of the Holy Spring was more content rich than Plants vs Zombies and had better promotion, the bet was still based on profit, and that type of game wouldn't be suitable for top-ups.
If Emperor Dynasty Entertainment did decide to change the profit method, Chen Mo would only win by a larger margin.
It was only based on this pointer that Chen Mo could bet as confidently as he did.
In regards to profit-making, standalone games like that were some distance away from Chinese mobile games. This wasn't a problem of the quality; it all had to do with how they profited.
That's right, even if Plants vs Zombies was higher quality, with even better detail, it could never dream of surpassing I Am MT in terms of profit!
Quite often, the video game industry was just that unreasonable!
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Chapter 53: Chapter 52 The Soul of Card Games
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
In his previous life, Plants vs Zombies swept the globe, earning millions of US dollars in just nine days, breaking many records.
If it were sold at three USD per copy and it made 1.5 million in sales, it would rake in 4.5 million USD in sales, or about 27 million RMB.
On the other hand, what was the monthly profit for I Am MT?
In 2013, when the Chinese mobile games market was in its early years of development, I Am MT made fifty-five million RMB!
Plants vs Zombies relied on the global market. I Am MT only utilized the Chinese market!
Plants vs Zombies was a standalone game relying on sales, the number of sales would inevitably decrease over time. On the other hand, I Am MT was a free game. Even after operating for three to your years, it's profitability never decreases, and even continued pushing updates.
The success of Plants vs Zombies could not be replicated, but I Am MT's profit model could be reproduced again and again!
When the two were compared, the profitability of Chinese card games was obvious.
I Am MT showed the Chinese card game genre to the world, and made a path for Chinese developers. As the benchmark for card games, I Am MT was copied many times, and similar games still showed up four years after its release.
I Am MT was well worthy of the title of "The Original People's Card Game", and held the top spot at the app store for a long time before Soul Hunters made revolutionary changes to the genre
Chen Mo wanted to utilize the same profit model as other Chinese games, and I Am MT was the first step. Its features were very suitable for what Chen Mo was currently looking for.
The first feature was that it was easy to make! Most of the art for I Am MT was on character cards. Coding, level design, playstyle, and original art weren't problems for Chen Mo now.
Its playstyle was quite simple, and the rules are also clear. As long as the art was of acceptable quality, the actual development time wasn't too long, maybe two to three months at most.
The second feature was that it was appropriate. I Am MT didn't rely on the other Chinese games, which relied on inciting negative emotions to force players to spend money. It was in fact the exact opposite. The game treated free players extremely well, giving out a lot of free runes, especially during the holiday season.
Moreover, the game didn't have highly strategic PVP or group PVP aspects, therefore free players would feel less frustration.
Chen Mo had to consider the threshold for players in the parallel world. If he started with heavy firepower, the players might not be able to take the frustration. He might end up being on the receiving end of angry fans, damaging his name in the process, and when that happened, he might have to crossdress.
From that perspective, I Am MT was a decent game for testing the limits of the players!
The third feature was that it was easy to promote!
Chen Mo had given this point a lot of thought.
What was the core of card games? It wasn't playstyle, but IP, intellectual property!
IP was a buzzword in the Chinese video game industry. Many video game developers would throw money at protecting their IP, many video game designers wouldn't shut up about IP. It would come up more often than eating.
Why was IP so important, and why is it worth so much money?
In card games, IP decided the card's worth. If you had Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and I had Hawks and Zoro[1, the two games would obviously have completely different player bases, and the price that the players were willing to pay for a legendary card would also be different.
Three Kingdoms were essentially the worst IP, because everyone was familiar with it. There were many companies who made games using that theme.
In his previous world, Naruto, One Piece, Fate[2, or Jin Yong's[3] works were the most popular IPs. As long as you got those IPs, making money was easy by changing the art on some existing game.
A card game without an IP was a card game without a soul. Yes, it was that extreme! If you wanted to make a card game, you needed to have an IP!
Chen Mo had considered how to solve the IP problem when he decided on making a card game.
His first thought was to buy a larger IP in the parallel world, but he gave up soon after learning the prices.
The people in this world had better knowledge of intellectual rights and preferred to support the originals, therefore the prices for IP were also higher. In his previous world, a popular IP would be in the realm of seven digits, but it would only be higher in this world.
Of course, not all IPs were that expensive. For example, popular but non-mainstream novels, or anime IPs could be acquired for a few hundred thousand. However, seeing that their success would be limited, Chen Mo decided against it.
You always get what you pay for when buying IP. Paying for a less popular IP would be a waste of money.
Chen Mo was now stuck in the situation where he didn't want the cheap IPs, but couldn't afford the expensive ones. Even if he could afford them, he wasn't about to spend that much money!
Therefore, Chen Mo decided to make his own IP, and I Am MT would be the most suitable IP.
Of course, Chen Mo had other choices, such as redrawing One Piece or Naruto, or rewriting The Legend of the Condor Heroes, or Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?[4]
-That might be a bit too much...-
Novels and anime required a long time to gain popularity. Moreover, with Chen Mo's current art skills, he couldn't hope to reach the likes of One Piece or Naruto. If he managed to draw a chapter a week, who knew how long it would take to reach a reasonable level of popularity.
Although novels were slightly faster, they weren't suitable for going straight from writing to game. They usually went through a movie, animated series, and then finally developed into a game. Novels that were made straight into a game were few and far between.
That was because the character of novels relied on the reader's imagination, and the characters in the games were concrete. The process of going from imagination to being concrete required the characters being slowly set into the minds of the readers, ensuring that the IP would take off.
After going through many different choices, I Am MT was the easiest to recreate, and what Chen Mo thought was the best choice.
The animation industry in this world was doing quite well. As long as Chen Mo provided an animation company with character designs, story, and scenes, the quality of the product probably wouldn't be too far from the original in the previous world.
After all, I Am MT was created by a couple fans of animated series turned games, meaning that it was low cost.
I Am MT was very popular. It's first episode received more than thirty million views on iQiyi[5, and was sometimes even referred to as a cultural phenomenon, becoming part of the memories for WoW[6] players and animation fans alike.
Therefore, it was entirely possible to make this into a super popular IP, which would allow Chen Mo's game to start off flying!
Of course, there were also risks involved...
The biggest problem was that part of I Am MT's success relied to some extent on the story and large user base for World of Warcraft. There wasn't a game called World of Warcraft in this world, so the audience might not understand some parts of it.
For example, what did MT mean? What was the Main Tank's job? Why does MT have that job? What features do people with the same job have? Why was he the main character?
These things didn't need to be explained to World of Warcraft players, but could the audience in the parallel world understand the references to World of Warcraft in I Am MT?
Taking a step back, if they didn't understand it, would it affect how popular the animated series got?
TL Notes:
[1] Character from One Piece, an anime
[2] Fate is a video game series by Type-Moon
[3] Jin Yong is a famous Chinese novelist
[4] Wuxia (Chinese martial arts novels) by Jin Yong
[5] iQiYi is a Chinese video streaming platform
[6] World of Warcraft
Chapter 54: Chapter 53: Card Original Artwork
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
After some thought, Chen Mo decided to stay optimistic on the parallel world players' understanding and acceptance of I Am MT.
From what he had seen in his previous life, I Am MT started off being popular among the World of Warcraft community, but soon spread to the younger generation, who didn't play World of Warcraft.
I Am MT's humorous style, cute artwork, and rich uninterrupted story allowed them to detach themselves from World of Warcraft, becoming a completely independant story.
In his previous life, there were many players who didn't play World of Warcraft who liked I Am MT; there were even instances where players got into World of Warcraft because of I Am MT.
Of course, Chen Mo wouldn't release I Am MT unaltered. He planned to make some small changes to it to slowly introduce the players in this world to the world of I Am MT.
—
After finishing a sketch of MT, Chen Mo went on to sketch the other characters, such as Shaman, Hunter, and Rogue.
Chen Mo had a deeper impression of these characters, and was therefore able to draw them pretty decently from memory. However, the other, more unique side-characters were more challenging for him.
"This is kinda slow. Right, maybe it's time to use the equipment."
Chen Mo used the Super Accelerator from his bracelet. This drastically increased his work efficiency, making it very suitable for times like this.
Chen Mo followed that up with a Memory Playback Potion in order to remember details on the characters.
As Chen Mo managed to draw more special equipment this time, he could afford to use it more deliberately. He had to finish the sketches as soon as possible in order, to not hinder future progress.
As his memories cleared up, Chen Mo went straight to his memory of the mobile game, disregarding the content of the animations.
—
In his previous life, I Am MT managed to gather over one thousand cards with unique art throughout the years and numerous updates, of which four hundred and twenty-five were playable characters, the others being monster cards.
Of course, there were many repeats. The five star and five star character cards only had different borders, with no changes made to the artwork.
The cards for main characters, such as MT, had up to eleven different types of artwork for four star, four star, five star, five star, five star3, six star (three forms), and seven stars (three forms).
Chen Mo didn't need that many different levels as of right now. He planned to have up to five star 3 (max) in the first version, releasing the others in future versions. That way, each character card only needed three different pieces of artwork: four star (blue rarity), five star (purple rarity), and five star 3 max (purple rarity).
Reducing the number of levels also meant that the number of monsters could also be decreased, meaning the number of cards Chen Mo needed to draw was below one thousand.
Chen Mo needed to draw classic artwork for these characters from Horde: MT, Shaman, Rogue, Hunter, Druid, Caster, Warlock, Priest, Beauty, Thief, Barrel Bull, and Blood Elf Mage [1].
From Alliance, he needed Lady, Tyran, Brick, Meddy, The President, Huntress, Elder Sister, Cannon Lady, the Holy Rider's Pentad, the Fireball Gods Pentad, Sunken Fish, Fallen Goose, Waning Moon, and Shy Flower.
Other than that, there was Nosuke Shinsuke, and Winter, who showed up later.
The first version would have thirty-six playable characters. There would be around two hundred cards for monsters, but these weren't a priority, and could be done later.
363,200, summing to 308, was the number of cards after Chen Mo's filtering.
—
Chen Mo's drawing speed dramatically increased after using the Super Accelerator. With triple the work efficiency, one drawing took ten minutes, so the classic artwork for the thirty-six characters was condensed down to six hours.
It was unreasonable for Chen Mo to work for six hours straight without rest. With periodic breaks, Chen Mo finished the sketches by 6 PM.
These were only rough sketches. There was still a bunch of work that needed to be done, such as adding details, color, editing, and post-processing. However, Chen Mo didn't plan to do those himself, as he would be worn too thin.
—
After stretching, Chen Mo sent the sketches to Su Jinyu and went downstairs.
"Hmm? Why are you guys all here?"
Chen Mo noticed that there were quite a few people downstairs. Wen Lingwei, Jia Peng, and Chang Xiuya were all present.
Su Jinyu stood up and said, "Boss, you finally decided to come down."
Wen Lingwei added, "I thought you made a bet on impulse, and didn't want to come down because you were shy, as you realized you couldn't win."
Chen Mo snorted, "Do I look like that kind of person?"
Chang Xiuya asked in a worried tone, "Manager... How's your new game going? If you happen to lose..."
Wen Lingwei said, "If you wanna go on the run, I do know a guy..."
Chen Mo rolled his eyes and said, "Hold up! What are you guys thinking? Don't worry, I already have plants for the new game. Goldfish [2, go ahead and extract the file I sent you."
Su Jinyu protested, "I'm Jinyu, not Goldfish! Both syllables have the meaning of gems!"
Wen Lingwei said, "Huh, that name is quite alright. I'll call you Goldfish from now on, too!"
Su Jinyu was speechless.
Upon extracting the file, everyone was shocked to discover that there were thirty-odd character sketches. Although they weren't colored, the outlines were good enough to leave a deep impression.
Su Jinyu asked, "Boss, are these the character drawings for the new game? Are we making a cute game?"
Chen Mo replied, "Yep, I should have the overall rules and mechanics of the game within a week, the first step was to finish the sketches for the characters."
Su Jinyu looked through each of the drawings with the others.
"This is a... cow? It was a nose ring, too. It's pretty cute. Why is the first drawing a cow? A cow humanoid? A cow head with a human body?"
"MT? What kind of name is this?"
"The second drawing is also a cow. Umm... it's a female cow too, called Shaman; it does look quite silly [3]."
"This weird green-skinned square headed weirdo, it probably isn't a human type race right? It's called Rogue... it does have a blank look. Can someone as dense-looking as this guy be a rogue[4]?"
"All the characters are quite weirdly shaped, although all of them are quite adorable. But is there really no problem with these weirdly-shaped characters?"
"Oh, finally a normal human, Lady. Hmm? She looks like the main character, why is she so far back?"
"Elder Sister? President? Umm... it seems like the ones at the back are all humanoids?"
"What do you mean humanoids, they are just humans!"
"What does Alliance and Horde mean? Why is the Horde at the bottom, and Alliance on top? Are those factions?"
With everyone looking at the sketches, the room was filled with discussion.
TL Note:
[1] Most of the names of the characters are puns, either based on the English word, or puns related to the class.
[2] The Chinese pronunciation of goldfish is Jin1 Yu2; her name is actually pronounced Jin3 Yu2.
[3] Its name is a play on words, based on English pronunciation of shaman and the word "silly" in Chinese.
[4] Direct translation of the Chinese name would be Dense (slow in the brain) Rogue.
Half of the translations I used are from the incomplete (and likely unmaintained) Fandom page; there was an English release of the game, but there doesn't seem to be much about it, so half the names are possibly official, the other half will be made up by me. – Cold Taco
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Chapter 55: Chapter 54: Making Money from the Manager in any way Possible!
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
The consensus on the characters so far was cute and noticeable features, but they weren't sure how these characters related to one another...
Chen Mo felt that it'd be weirder if they were able to tell the relationship of the characters outside of the show.
Chen Mo asked, "Goldfish, how long will it take for you to finish off the drawings, including filling in details, and color? It doesn't need to be too detailed; they will have to be the same size as my sketches."
Su Jinyu gave it some thought. "Umm, these character cards aren't all that complicated. Four to five days should probably be enough."
Chen Mo shook his head, "Three days."
"Huh?" Su Jinyu was a bit conflicted. "I could also do it in three days, but the quality might be lower."
Chen Mo said, "Don't worry, these cards will still end up on the phone. It's fine if it's slightly worse, as we can improve it later; we can keep it simple for now."
Su Jinyu awkwardly nodded, "Alright, I'll try my best."
Wen Lingwei said, "If it's just filling in details and colouring, I could do that, too."
Chen Mo was shocked. "Are you sure? These are the actual resources for the game; they should at least be good enough that the players don't have anything to nitpick about."
Jia Peng reminded him, "Manger, senior over here is a top art student. She normally does art commissions too."
Chen Mo finally understood. Right, Wen Lingwei, Jia Peng, and the others are all in the school's Publicity Department. They usually needed to make posters and exhibition boards; could they become the president and vice president of the department if they didn't have drawing or image processing skills?"
"Sure, it'd save me a lot of time if you drew too," said Chen Mo.
Wen Lingwei said with an evil smile, "Then how much are you going to pay me? I usually charge five thousand per drawing, and that's the special price."
Chen Mo murmured, "... I couldn't tell you were a pro."
Prices would vary greatly between different artists for drawings like art for cards. Some would charge a thousand, others would charge ten thousand. Of course, the price could still go higher than that.
Obviously you'd get what you pay for for things like this. There would of course be a difference in terms of composition, lighting and color for an average artist compared to a better artist.
Someone like Wen Lingwei, who charged five thousand per card, which happened to be the special price,was a price only a decent artist could charge.
Chen Mo said, "Wouldn't you usually have to do the design, composition, and finding out the requirements? I already have the sketches and the drawings are way smaller than what you usually do. All you have to do is refine and color it. Can you settle for two thousand?"
Wen Lingwei replied, "Selfish!"
Chen Mo was speechless.
Wen Lingwei said, "Alright, I'll do it out of pity. Two thousand per drawing, three days each. However, don't complain that it's going too slow if it's just me and Goldfish working on this.
Chen Mo looked at Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya, "If you guys want to draw, I'm fine with that too..."
Jia Peng waved his hand dismissively, "We aren't nearly as good as senior, I might be able to help you with the normal monsters, but don't give us any of the main characters."
Chen Mo nodded, "That's fine, there's a few monster cards later, so I could probably send you guys some of those. I'll pay you guys the same."
Jia Peng once again waved his hand dismissively,. "Don't worry, money isn't that important, you can pay as you see fit."
Chen Mo distributed the cards.
—
Su Jinyu and Wen Lingwei's drawing abilities were both very good, and they could take on the drawing of the main characters all by themselves. Moreover, it was easier for Chen Mo to communicate with them, so Chen Mo gave them the most important main character cards to work on.
Chen Mo assigned a few drawings to the other students who were also able to draw the monster cards.
Based on the speed of three days per card, Wen Lingwei and Su Jinyu would take fifty-four days to finish thirty-six of the main character cards. Moreover it was only part of the cards, out of the three hundred cards that were required!
This was completely different from Plants vs Zombies, as many of the zombie assets could be reused, and most of the plants were quite easy to draw, too. For card games however, each card was basically its own entity. If it didn't look good, the players wouldn't want to fork out money, therefore it was a point Chen Mo didn't want to compromise on.
Therefore, in order to shorten this time, Chen Mo had to outsource the drawings.
Chen Mo asked Wen Lingwei and Su Jinyu, "Do you guys know any art outsourcing companies? Something a bit more dependable."
Wen Lingwei did some thinking and replied, "I know one. I have a few friends that are artists there, its quality is quite decent."
Chen Mo nodded," Sure, just send their contacts to me. Also, do you guys know any animation companies?"
Wen Lingwei and Su Jinyu both shook their heads. "I do know of a few, but don't know anyone personally."
Chen Mo replied, "Alright, just finish the few main character cards I picked out from before for now."
Chen Mo started back upstairs.
Su Jinyu said, "Wait up, manager. What type of game is the next one going to be? Do we really need this much artwork for cards?"
Chen Mo answered, "Don't worry, you'll find out in a few days!"
—
When he got back to the second floor, Chen Mo started feeling tired; it was probably the side-effects of the Super Accelerator.
Based on the contacts Wen Lingwei provided, Chen Mo found the manager for the art outsourcing company and communicated his specifications.
Chen Mo gave them the sketches, which would save a bunch of money on the design and drafting stages, and would also save on time.
In the end, they agreed on a price of twenty-two hundred per main character card, six hundred per monster card.
As the requirements for the monster cards weren't as strict, they were reduced by a significant amount.
Using these numbers, Chen Mo would have to spend about 3632200, 200600 = 357,600, three hundred thousand-plus RMB.
Of course, there were some monsters that could be reused after being reskinned, but it was probably not possible to reduce it below three hundred thousand.
Although it wasn't cheap, Chen Mo felt alright spending that money, as it couldn't be reduced any further. He felt quite happy to be able to finish the entire deck with five hundred thousand RMB.
Chen Mo assigned the more important cards, like MT, Shaman, Rogue, Hunter, Lady, President, and Elder Sister to Wen Lingwei and Su Jinyu. Based on three days per card, it would take about a month to finish all of it.
Su Jinyu also needed to be involved with the game design process, so Chen Mo couldn't allow her to just focus on drawing cards.
Other than that, Chen Mo also assigned some of the monster cards to Jia Peng and the others, and paid them at market rates.
The other cards were left in the hands of the outsourcing company. It didn't matter who did them, as long as all the cards were done within two months!
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Chapter 56: Chapter 55: Animations are so Expensive
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Solving the problem of card art was only the first step.
Chen Mo decided to deal with other visual resources, such as UI, background, and card special effects later. If possible he wanted to outsource it, otherwise he'd just have to do it himself.
There was still a more serious problem: finding a dependable animation company!
Replicating I Am MT shouldn't be a problem for the animation companies in this world. However, Chen Mo wanted to make it higher quality, at least up to the level of the last few seasons of I Am MT, and it would be even better if it was able to surpass the quality of Warrior VS Dragon [1].
After all, this animated series was essentially promoting the game. If he gave up the effects of promoting in order to save money, he would be neglecting the essentials!
Chen Mo didn't know anyone at any animation companies, either. After giving it some thought, he decided to give Zhao Zihao a call.
After all, Zhao Zihao owned a video game workshop, and would frequently socialize with others in the video game industry. It wouldn't be hard for him to find a dependable animation company.
During the call, Chen Mo briefly went over his specifications, and Zhao Zihao got him a contact for an animation company in no time.
This Dazzling Aurora Studio was fairly well known in the industry, and had a few decent animations, therefore the company was probably a good choice.
Chen Mo went over his requirements briefly and arranged a meeting with a person in charge tomorrow in his experience store.
—
By the time the discussions were done, Chen Mo could barely keep his eyes open.
"This Super Accelerator is quite something..."
Chen Mo went to bed after woefully cleaning himself up.
—
Morning the next day...
Chen Mo had slept for a full ten hours, and still felt quite stiff.
No wonder they warned against using it multiple times in short succession; you might actually die from it!
-Wake up, washing and rinsing, open the doors.-
Wen Lingwei joined Su Jinyu, arriving at 10 AM sharp every day. She brought her own drawing tablet and laptop, colouring the characters down on the first floor of the experience store.
During the afternoon, the person in charge from Dazzling Aurora Studio arrived, and Chen Mo invited him to his office on the second floor.
The man was called Guo Feng. He looked about forty, and very kind, although he was starting to go bald.
Chen Mo didn't go through the normal welcoming of guests, and went straight to the point, detailing his requirements.
"Here's what's going on. I want to make an animated series. There will be ten episodes in the first season, ten minutes for each episode. There will be a song for both the opening and the closing of each episode.
"I will provide the characters, scenes, story, dialogue, and shots. All you guys need to do is execute it according to my specifications.
"I was wondering how much this would cost."
Guo Feng gave it some thought and asked, "Do you plan to pay for everything out of your own pocket?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yes."
Guo Feng said, "Personally, I'd give you this advice. Animations are a huge investment. If it doesn't get popular, it's entirely possible that you won't even break even. You want to make your own characters, set your own scenes and settings... this makes it even higher risk.
"Of course, if you're willing to pay, we'll do it regardless. It's just my advice to you."
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, thanks for your advice, but I already know what I'm getting myself into, so just give the price to me straight."
Guo Feng nodded, "Alright. Right now the normal price in the industry for a twenty-four minute long animated series episode would cost around five hundred thousand, or about twenty thousand per minute. Of course, this is the highest quality service, including design, shots, and story writing."
Chen Mo tried to calm down and said, "Umm... let me think about that."
What was referred to as "highest quality" was basically the same quality as animes in his previous life. As long as it was a big production, had good video quality, dubs, sound effects, and background music, it would all be the highest quality.
However this price was slightly more than Chen Mo wanted. Based on twenty thousand RMB per minute, a ten-minute episode would be two hundred thousand. A season had ten episodes, meaning a season would set him back two million!
It was hard to tell how much I Am MT's cost was in his previous life, but it definitely wasn't that much, and was probably a lot lower than that.
In this previous life, Locojoy only spent three million to acquire the rights to I Am MT. Evidently that amount of money was a big sum to the production team at the time.
Guo Feng added, "Of course, the price varies according to the production quality. If you're willing to settle for lower quality, the price can be reduced.
"Of course, it would still be according to your specifications."
Chen Mo asked, "Is there a difference between 2D and 3D?"
Guo Feng explained, "There is a difference, but not a big one. Our 2D animations are actually converted from 3D ones, meaning we are using 3D techniques to create the effects of 2D. If it's purely hand-drawn 2D, the price might be up to ninety thousand per minute. There's barely anyone doing it that way nowadays.
"Hand-drawn 2D animations require too many artists. The previous 2D animations could probably be classified as labor-intensive, and most of the money would be spent on the artists. Currently, as the technology for converting 3D into 2D is quite mature, it allows us to cut down on a lot of manpower, therefore actually reducing the cost in the process."
Chen Mo nodded. The parallel world wasn't quite the same as his previous world. The wonders of technology...
Chen Mo thought for a few moments.
-Is two million for a season expensive?-
Judging on the profitability of I Am MT, it wasn't. If I Am MT was just as successful as in his previous life, it would only take one month to make the money for ten seasons!
Moreover, I Am MT didn't have as large a starting audience as the previous world. If the quality wasn't good enough and the IP didn't gain momentum, it would mean big losses for Chen Mo.
Losing money wasn't a big problem, but he was currently in a wager!
Therefore Chen Mo didn't dare save any money on the animations. It didn't matter if it was expensive, as long as the quality was there.
Chen Mo said in a serious tone, "Alright, I've made up my mind. Just do it at the highest quality. However, providing the character design and story should cut down the cost right?"
Guo Feng nodded, "Of course! Without the investments relating to story, character design, scenes and so on, it will slightly reduce the cost, though not by a lot. Maybe like ten percent."
Chen Mo couldn't help but put his palm on his forehead. The savings were really minimal. However, after some thought, he was still saving two hundred thousand cold hard cash!
Guo Feng added, "However, if you provide the scripts and character designers, you will need to work closely with our crew, in particular so the settings and shots are decided on time, and try to reduce the number of times you make changes in order to not hinder progress."
Chen Mo nodded. "Alright. How about this: a week from now, at the end of the month, I'll provide the character design, story, and scenes, then we'll make the contracts."
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Chapter 57: Chapter 56: Mobile Game Planning
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
After escorting Guo Feng out of the experience store, Chen Mo retreated into his office once again.
So far Chen Mo hadn't made any progress on the design document. However, he was not worried, as the ruleset for a mobile card game was extremely simple. Only the combat system, coding, and level designs were a little bit more troublesome.
He prioritized finishing the scripts and storyboards for the animated series.
It was only through the popularity from the series that the mobile game was able to make money, therefore the series had to be live much earlier than the game itself, as it would take time for the series to gain momentum.
The game would spend four months in development, which Chen Mo had planned out.
First week: finish everything related to the animated series, such as character design, scene concept drawings, script, and storyboards, and organize the production of it.
It would likely take a week to finish an episode, each being ten minutes long.
As each episode was about half the duration of other animations, Chen Mo was worried that it wasn't going to attract enough viewers, therefore he decided to release the first three episodes together, meaning they would be released a month into the plan.
After that, there would be an episode released a week, and the first season would be wrapped up in three months. It would be decided when the time came if the second season would be continued seamlessly.
As the animated series was produced, the game would also be under development. However that schedule was a bit more lenient, as adjustments would need to be made on the code.
If everything happened accordingly, the art for the cards and the other graphical resources should go pretty smoothly.
Chen Mo was aiming to finish the game in three months, leaving the rest of the time for testing and adjustments.
In short, the first step was still to work out everything for the animated series in a week.
Chen Mo would be taking up the role of an artist for the next couple days, jotting down notes on scripts and scenes while under the effects of the Memory Playback Potion.
Other than that, Chen Mo had also drawn concept art for the settings of the scene, as references for the production.
Chen Mo didn't plan to use the Super Accelerator, as he still felt bad from the side effects the last time he used it.
—
A week later...
Guo Feng made another trip to the experience store. This time Chen Mo was able to show him the finished scripts, shots, and storyboard.
Guo Feng gave it a quick flip through, and was shocked to see that what Chen Mo had provided was very complete and up to par. He was able to get the gist of the story just from the storyboard!
Moreover, the character design was very new and fresh, and apparently the main character was a cow!
"Umm..." Guo Feng scratched his chin. He initially thought that this was just fooling around like a rich person, and Chen Mo was just doing it for the fun of it. But after looking through the storyboard and the script, although it wasn't perfect, the story was a good idea and had great potential!
If this was a personal project of their studio, Guo Feng would assign their best resources to it!
Moreover, the script and storyboard provided by Chen Mo were extremely detailed! There were even remarks on the design intent for some of the dialogue, and areas that needed to be paid attention to during dubbing.
What Guo Feng didn't know was that Chen Mo had already made a few minor changes to the original script and removed a few of the more obscure gags, which would help the audience in this world better understand its contents.
As Chen Mo had his first level of plot writing skills maxed out, making changes like that were quite simple.
"If you have any professional thoughts on the script of the storyboard, feel free to mention it to me. It's not entirely concrete."
Guo Feng noded, "Alright, we'll let you know if we have any better ideas. However, I'm quite surprised at how well done the script is. In my opinion this series definitely has the potential to gain some popularity.
Chen Mo snickered to himself. -Some popularity? You're underestimating this animated series!-
However, this was normal. In his previous life, even though I Am MT was praised when it came out, who would've thought it would get that popular?
There were many who thought that whoever made the decision to buy the rights to I Am MT with three million RMB was nuts.
Looking back, a huge number of people underestimated the potential for the animation and the game.
Chen Mo was initially worried that Chen Mo's scripts and storyboard would be unorthodox, but his doubts were cleared upon seeing the script.
—
The negotiation went pretty smoothly, and both parties decided to sign contracts at the start of next month, then officially start work.
Zhao Zihao also assigned one of the employees from his law department to come over and take a look at Chen Mo's contact. After making sure it was alright, Chen Mo signed the contact and paid them.
Plants vs Zombies managed to rake in 2.6 million RMB in the second month. 1.8 million of that was spent on the production of the animated series, the rest would be spent paying for the artwork for the cards and other graphical resources.
—
With matters related to the animated series settled, all Chen Mo could do was to wait and see what the results would be.
Next, Chen Mo had to start planning the rules for the mobile game.
The early stages of I Am MT the video game, its playstyle and various systems were quite simple. However, after subsequent updates, its functionalities continued to grow, and even became bloated.
Chen Mo didn't plan to migrate everything over from that system. As updating mobile games and adding new playstyles was a last resort, many times developers were forced into adding on in order to make the game feel fresh. It was a ploy to ensure that the playerbase didn't trickle away as the players got bored.
Chen Mo had to cut out some extra parts of the game in the early stages. If he started off with too much, it might make it difficult for players to start!
—
After brainstorming the final state of the game, Chen Mo started working on the foundation for the design document.
This design document included the main interface, basic combat system, card growth system, dungeon plans, special combat, account types (level, title, strength, etc.), shop and VIP perks, friends, guilds, backpack, chatting, mail, daily content, and other related content.
With the aid of Memory Playback Potions, the foundations for the design document were done in no time at all. They didn't need much consideration, as these systems were the standards for other subsequent Chinese mobile games with similar playstyles, and was a mature design that had withstood many tests.
Chen Mo had to focus on two different aspects: the card growth and combat system, and the level design and balance of the cards.
Chen Mo was going to leave some parts of the design document for functionalities to Su Jinyu, but he decided against it, as functions like these would be completely new to her. If he left it to her, he'd likely have to spend a bunch of time correcting and rewriting it, which was a huge waste of time.
Moreover, it would be very difficult to explain the design concept of the game to her. He'd rather use that time for Su Jinyu to produce more artwork for the characters.
He'd let her enter it into the game engine once he was done, though.
After he finished working on the foundations, he took a ten minute rest, and then went on to work on the most important combat system document.
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Chapter 58: Chapter 57: Secret Technique to Profiting from Card Games
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Were Chinese card games fun?
The ansswer differed from person to person, as everyone had different tastes.
Many said that card games were crude, monotonous, and repetitive, all of which are true.
But... they were quite profitable!
Being profitable meant the players approved of it.
Why did players approve of it? Because they thought it was fun!
This was a very weird phenomena, as players complained while forking money out of their pockets.
Why were card games so profitable? Which part of the game made it fun?
This was an open-ended question. If Chen Mo were to write a thesis on the core of card games, it would probably be tens of thousands of words long.
In simpler words, the pleasure of playing card games came from three distinct areas.
First was the collecting and level-up cards. This was built on the players' recognition of the character cards.
There was a certain company who made a One Piece-themed I Am MT bootleg. A certain rich person spent a few thousand RMB without question just to draw a Hawk-Eyes card!
There was another nameless Three Kingdoms card game that was still in beta, and another certain rich person added five thousand RMB into his account in anger just so he could draw Zuge Liang. It turned out the game didn't even have Zuge Liang yet!
The company ended up working overtime to add Zuge Liang into the game!
Similarly in I Am MT, many players would be grinding dungeons daily, collecting purple card shards, or spending heaps of money "Drawing Ten", all just to get the cards they wanted!
The video game designer would balance the cards' abilities to match the scenes in the series (or according to the popularity of the character), all just to train the players to recognize the character cards.
With the recognition of players, the cards would become more valuable, which in turn incentivized the players to spend money.
Once the value of a card had been established, it would be differentiated from the other cards. The desire of the players to collect and level up cards would also be satisfied, and they would feel that the money was well spent.
Therefore the key in making a card game profitable was to establish a value system that was recognized by the players. This made it possible to constantly sell the players new cards, just like they were collecting stamps.
After a player got the card they wanted, in order to make it stronger, they would continue to level it up, or improve its abilities. Everytime the card was leveled, it let the players feel like they were growing, which would make it feel like money well spent.
This was also part of the aforementioned "numerical stimulus".
This was the most important source of joy for card games. This was a very mature, and very repeated model, which is why the mobile card game market was so saturated.
The second core attraction was figuring out the lineups and crafting your own strategies.
The combat system of card games might seem monotonous, but it was actually quite rich. In I Am MT, each card had three attacks: a normal attack, a special attack, and passive attacks. The character creation system was based on the combat system of World of Warcraft, with different characters having different abilities.
There would be several types of AoE spells, such as blizzard types (attacked the whole screen), whirlwind types (three cells in the row in front) and piercing attacks (two cells in front).
There was also physical and magical damage, as well as single and multi-targeted spells.
Healing had the same idea, with single and multi-targeted healing.
Other than that, there was also damage reduction, resurrection, damage over time, and many other combat abilities. If you could think of it, there was some way to integrate that into the card game combat system.
This was all in addition to card positioning, order, effectiveness, and weaknesses, party leader abilities, and other complicated mechanics, which greatly increased the playability of the card game combat system.
Of course, this combat system was no match for a standalone game, but it was more than enough for mobile gamers!
This combat system could be displayed all over the world again, just by reskinning the combat system for animes like One Piece or Naruto, or Wuxia Novels.
These combat systems had a cyclic balancing system. For example, single target healing beat burst damage, burst damage beats group healing, group healing beats AoE damage, etc. It would take the players a large amount of time testing and sharing their experiences with others to be able to find the best group of five cards among dozens of cards.
The rare cards were under strict control, requiring the player to spend time or money. Testing out each and every card in combat was a huge investment!
This process would also be fun and fulfilling to the player. Therefore if the combat system and card growth system in a card game were a perfect match for one another, it would result in a combat system that never grew old, allowing the players to play it for years and years without getting bored.
The third feature was marketing strategy and numerical stimulus.
These all covered a broad area, such as operational activities (seven-day logins, check-ins, growth bonuses), daily bonuses (free diamonds, free combat bonuses, online rewards, etc.), early bonuses, etc...
Of course, these weren't just for card games, but were standards for every Chinese mobile game. It was also popular among other genres, such as strategy games or FPS games.
However, the absolute first source of it had to be early browser games, popularized by mobile card games, which finally spread to all Chinese mobile games.
Of course, this "Ivan Pavlov"[1] style of numerical stimulus have been greatly criticized by many gamers. In the end, it was only criticism, and there wasn't a single mobile gaming company who didn't dare not do the same.
Why? Because it was simple, yet effective. Once it was removed, the statistics for the game and its profits would drop.
This was the effect of "numerical simulation"!
First, the game must be free, attracting as many players into the game as possible. Some of these players may not plan to spend money, but that didn't matter.
After the start, there would be a very detailed tutorial, allowing the players to experience what the game had to offer as soon as possible. At the same time, the game would be extremely easy and allow the player to steamroll through it.
This was the same theory behind ebooks: providing the first sections for free, experience it first, pay later. If the user wasn't happy, no payments would be received.
However, this could not be maintained for a long time, probably three days to a week, and the player had to experience some difficulties after that.
In games like these, paying players and free players were naturally on different levels. In order to make the players spend money, barriers had to be introduced.
The aforementioned barriers would be introducing them to difficulties and guiding them to spending money to make themselves stronger, and then moving forward on harder levels.
This would result in another problem: if a player didn't want to spend money and they were met with a barrier, what would happen? They would probably give up on the game!
How do you keep these players? Simple, just give them help!
TL Note: [1] Ivan Pavlov is a psychologist known for his work in classical conditioning
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Chapter 59: Chapter 58: An Abnormal Design Document!
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
What was interesting was that the less a player wanted to spend on a game, the more they cared about the free resources the game gave!
-You can't make any progress? Don't worry, I'll give you some diamonds. Just log in today, and I'll give you a hundred diamonds. After you beat N number of levels, I'll give you another five hundred, and when you get to level thirty, I'll give...-
These players would attempt to convert the resources into actual currency.
You wanna give up? That means you're losing money every day!
At that point, a large portion of players would continue playing just because of the potential money lost.
Many people would think that the players would only do that if they were poor. If they were wealthy, they wouldn't be enticed by small amounts of money like that.
That was completely wrong!
The willingness of a player to spend money only had to do with their personality, and a large amount of players cared about their earnings in games.
Chen Mo had seen wealthy people like that first hand in his previous life. They could've spent hundreds of thousands in the game, but they still cared about the few hundred daily bonus diamonds.
When these players were only playing the game because of the free resources the game provided, they had subconsciously accepted that it was pay to win, and the relationship between the in-game equipment, diamonds, and real currency.
After that, this batch of players who didn't want to spend any money might turn into spending players when a promotional period came.
From the first top-up, to monthly membership, to lifetime membership, to the first large top-up, they would start to spend more and more money.
It wasn't a problem if they didn't convert immediately, and even if certain players insisted on never spending money, at least they could play alongside paying players, which would also be good for the game.
The company also welcomed those players who don't spend a single cent. If you can't support financially, morally works too!
Of course, the third type of joy was built on the previous two. The player must recognize the game and its contents before they were willing to become a slave to Ivan Pavlov's methods and spend money on virtual cards and winning virtual battles.
—
Planning the foundation of the game took Chen Mo two days. Afterwards, he started working on the document for the rules. Including the refinements, the whole process took a week.
This was similar to the amount of time Plants vs Zombies took. Although Chinese mobile card games might seem simple, they had a lot of minute details, which took a lot of time.
Of course, he had also been working on the original artwork for the cards at the same time. There were a large number of cards, but Chen Mo didn't need to finish them all at once. He would just work alongside the art company, so it wouldn't take up too much of his time.
Other than that, Chen Mo had also spent some time checking on the progress for the art and animation production. Guo Feng would be sending the first episode of the series to Chen Mo by the coming weekend.
—
After finishing all the design documents, Chen Mo asked Su Jinyu to enter everything into the video game engine to produce the starting product for I Am MT.
Su Jinyu and Wen Lingwei had finished four drawings each. Chen Mo could tell that their artistic skills were quite good, as the details were comparable to the originals.
Of course, some details weren't exactly the same with the ones from his previous life, but that didn't matter, as minute details like that didn't play a big part.
Su Jinyu downloaded the design document sent over by Chen Mo.
Chen Mo said, "All the design documents are there, all that's left are the numbers and level design, as well as the attributes of cards and the overall construction. Enter the rules into the game engine for now; we can add the rest at a later time."
Su Jinyu was shocked, "All the design documents? You finished it in a week?!"
Of course she was surprised, it took her two weeks to finish the two features Chen Mo assigned her for the update for Plants vs Zombies, but he managed to write out the design document for a game in a week!
This work efficiency was superhuman!
Chen Mo continued blandly, "Take a look at the design document and ask me if there's anything you don't understand. I'll be working on the numbers and level design."
—
After giving her another few pointers, Chen Mo retreated back to his office.
Su Jinyu was very curious as she opened Chen Mo's design document. What type of game would he be using for such an important wager?
Chen Mo had previously ordered some cards to be drawn and had contacted an animation company. What was he planning? What did an animation company have to do with game production?
So far, Su Jinyu had no clue what Chen Mo was planning to do.
Wen Lingwei, Jia Peng, and the others gathered around to take a look.
Wen Lingwei leaned onto the bar table and said, "I'm actually quite curious as to what the manager has planned for his next game."
Jia Peng said, "Ahem, senior, do you really understand what the design document is saying?"
Wen Lingwei gave him a cold glance, "So what if I don't understand? Goldfish, explain it to me."
Su Jinyu was speechless...
—
They went through one design document after another.
UI.
Basic combat.
Daily quests...
Su Jinyu's uncertainty didn't decrease at all during this process. In reality, it actually went up.
After closing the last design document, Su Jinyu was completely confused.
"That's it? That's all? Isn't that a bit too simple? The contents of this game don't even come close to Plants vs Zombies!" Su Jinyu exclaimed.
Wen Lingwei scowled, "What's wrong? Can you explain what the game looks like?"
Jia Peng wiped his sweat off his forehead, "Although I don't really understand what's going on, but... I feel that the design document doesn't have much in it. Isn't the content on the lower side?"
Su Jinyu opened the design document for combat and looked through the combat rules again.
On the vertical mobile screen, the player and the enemy will take up six tiles each (might be slightly different on boss rounds), attacking in order...
Su Jinyu read over the combat rules again.
"Yeah, that's it! Isn't this too simple? This doesn't compare to Plants vs Zombies!"
Su Jinyu couldn't believe her eyes, and found it hard to believe that Chen Mo would give her such a lacking design document.
Plants vs Zombies was a real-time game, but the new game somehow devolved back into turn-based!
Furthermore, combat could be summarized as a bunch of cards fighting. Other than moving around the cards, the player didn't need to perform any other actions!
Such a simple game...
Su Jinyu couldn't imagine what the combat would look like, but felt like she needed to unsee it. A bunch of cards brawling? Could the idea be any dumber?
Moreover, what is this VIP system?
V12 required five million runes?
The exchange rate was one RMB for ten runes, that meant that V12 required fifty thousand RMB?!
Five zero zero zero zero RMB!
Su Jinyu didn't understand what the meaning of that was; who would spend fifty thousand RMB in a game?
How many nice meals could you afford with that amount of money?!
How many articles of clothing?!
How many movies?!
How many gadgets?!
How could there be anyone who would be willing to spend fifty thousand RMB on a game like this?!
Moreover, look at the VIP privileges!
Increase the limit of daily purchases, improve leadership, increase the number of times you can play in various game modes! There was even a VIP gift package!
And what was this top-up bonus, why would there be cards in the top-up bonus? Topping-up twenty thousand runes for an exclusive Elder Sister card!
Two thousand RMB, that was just robbery!
Su Jinyu only had one thought in her mind looking through the design documents: WTF?
"Manager, although you're betting on income, but... this ploy to make money is too obvious!
"No... I must ask him and find out what's going on!"
Su Jinyu went upstairs.
Jia Peng looked at Wen Lingwei, and she looked back at him.
"What do we do, senior?" asked Jia Peng.
Wen Lingwei replied, "Who knows? Let's just pretend nothing happened and go back to our own lives. Don't meddle with something if you don't know it's full extent, let Goldfish do the arguing with the manager."
Jia Peng was speechless.
How can you be so content with this?!
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Chapter 60: Chapter 59: The First Episode of the Animated Series
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Su Jinyu was working hard at the front desk of the experience store.
Jia Peng and Chang Xiuya were whispering to one another, mouth to ear.
"I heard that Senior Jinyu went to see the manager upon seeing the design document. What happened next?" asked Chang Xiuya.
Jia Peng shook his head, "No clue, the two of them talked for about an hour, then senior Xiuya came downstairs and followed his instructions on starting a new project in the game engine."
Chang Xiuya whispered, "She didn't say anything?"
Jia Peng shook his head again, "Nothing."
Xiuya questioned, "Does that mean she agrees with the ideas of the manager? She accepts the game?"
Jia Peng said hesitantly, "I don't think so. I think her attitude is more like 'put aside our differences and work together'."
Chang Xiuya was a bit worried, "Now what?"
Jia Peng said, "What can we do? We on the sideline probably shouldn't poke our noses into this. The manager must have his own ideas, we'll probably mess things up if we interfere."
Chang Xiuya nodded, "True, we should probably just continue drawing the monster cards."
The atmosphere was a bit thick in the experience store, mostly because nobody had high hopes for this new I Am MT game. Based on the available rules and playstyles, it seemed quite baffling.
-There have never been any game like this previously, is it going to work?-
—
"Hello, is this the Thunderbolt Gaming experience store?"
Su Jinyu was shocked. When she raised her head, she realized it was someone from the delivery service trying to make sure they got the right address.
Su Jinyu stood up, "Yes, do we have a delivery? You can hand it to me."
The delivery person walked in holding a box, "There's a Mr. Chen Mo who ordered a projector. Please open the box and check it. If there's no problems I'll help install it."
A projector?
Su Jinyu was shocked. Why did Chen Mo order a projector?
Chen Mo was already downstairs, "Go ahead and open it up. You can install the projector on the ceiling here, and install the screen on that wall."
—
The delivery guy was quite dextrous, and finished the whole unboxing and installing process in half an hour.
"Please turn it on and test it out," the delivery guy said as he wiped off his sweat.
The projector was connected to Su Jinyu's computer. Chen Mo closed the blinds in the experience store and adjusted the image.
It was pretty good.
"Yep, that's fine. If there's any problems I'll contact the sales department," Chen Mo confirmed.
"Cool beans!" The delivery guy packed up his stuff and took the garbage with him as he left.
Jia Peng was shocked, and asked, "Manager, you bought a projector? What are you going to use it for?"
Chen Mo said to Su Jinyu, "Play the video I sent you."
"Video?" Su Jinyu looked at her computer screen. Indeed, Chen Mo had sent her a ten-minute video file, titled "I Am MT Season 1 Episode 1".
Upon playing the video, it started showing on the projector screen.
Chen Mo told them, "You guys have been working hard, let's watch a little movie to take the edge off."
Everyone was curious. Was this the animated series Chen Mo had been working so hard on?
Everything from the character development to the scripts of this animated series were done by Chen Mo, nobody else knew anything about it. They thought it would take a long time to produce, so how was the first episode finished so quickly?
The logos for Thunderbolt Entertainment and Dazzling Aurora Studio disappeared after a few moments on the projector screen.
The opening scene was a magnificent long shot, and a narrator began to give the background of the world.
"On the endless plains of Azeroth, there are many different races. Their survival, growth, and war gave birth to this glorious civilization.
"It has been many years since the Alliance and the Horde started fighting side by side, in order to defend against the invasion of the Burning Legion. Although that war managed to save Azeroth, the fragile agreement between the Horde and the Alliance has long since disappeared.
"Today, the thundering war drums sound again, with the humans leading the Alliance, and the Orcs leading the Horde, they face one another yet again...
"Our story starts from the guild of the Tauren..."
Many scenes passed by, There was magnificent Stormwind City, the highly guarded Orgrimmar, the serene Darnassus... Different races and different landscapes, the entirety of Azeroth was fully revealed in those few moments.
The last shot was a pan, focusing on a silly-looking Tauren.
Weng Lingwei and Su Jinyu were sitting together, both of them shocked.
The quality of the animation was quite high!
It was produced by Dazzling Aurora Studio, after all. The animations, sound effects, narration, and some of the smaller details were all done quite well, easily conveying the intent of the creator through the product.
The manager probably spent quite a bit of money...
Moreover, the narration and scenes from the start had fully drawn their attention.
Although it was just a few lines, every side of the animated world was revealed. It seemed to be a Western fantasy world. There were many classical races from Western fantasy worlds, such as orcs and dwarves, and there were also some classic scenes from it.
Moreover, the animation made the world seem very rich, and it could be easily felt through the narration.
The whole world was called Azeroth, with at least seven or eight different races. There was unity and war between different races. So far there were two different factions: one was the Alliance led by Humans, and the other was the Horde led by the Orcs. They were enemies at war.
"This world seems quite big. However, it's still too early to tell what the story is like," observed Wen Lingwei.
Everyone had their eyes glued to the screen after seeing the opening scene.
—
That was what Chen Mo was trying to achieve.
Why was Chen Mo so confident with I Am MT? It was because the world was based on World of Warcraft, and there was no question about the cultural impact of World of Warcraft!
Even without World of Warcraft, its world and story were still top notch!
It was just like before the Harry Potter craze. How many people in China understood and liked witch culture? Many of them knew nothing about it, but it didn't affect the popularity of Harry Potter.
Things that were classic stayed classic no matter where they went. They remained a classic even if the method of conveying them was different.
On the surface, Chen Mo was trying to recreate I Am MT. In reality, he was trying to recreate the combination of I Am MT and World of Warcraft, using the story of I Am MT, and the setting of World of Warcraft to recreate I Am MT to its fullest.
Just like this opening scene had done, the setting of the story was organically conveyed to the audience through the narration and the scenes, teaching them about the setting of Azeroth and the different races.
Chen Mo was akin to a dual-wielding warrior with Titan's Grip, wielding I Am MT on the left, and World of Warcraft on the right!
The audience in this world didn't understand World of Warcraft? Not a problem! Using his fully maxed out Level One story-writing skills, Chen Mo could weave the setting of World of Warcraft into I Am MT, slowly feeding the information to the audience.
Of course, if he had the ability to do so, he would bring even more of the gaming culture from his previous world into this one. But making an animation like this was already at Chen Mo's limit, so he couldn't make a massive game like World of Warcraft, nor did he have the money to make a blockbuster movie.
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